For a few fleeting moments I felt an effervescent emotional release when Todd Viney moved Col Garland to the forward line in the third quarter. We were desperate for something different and he tried it. For four bl.....dy years Dean refused to try something like this ( except for our Richmond tanking effort but which resulted in us overtaking them...a real slip up). How often me and my mates yelled for him to try something different. For the short experiment I sat up taller in my seat feeling some emotional release and excitement that it really was possible to approach the game differently. Well we didn't quite get over the line, but at least I walked away from the ground wondering what other adventurous or innovative moves our new temporary coach has up his sleave. I'll certainly be there next week with a little more anticipation.

What do you mean? There have been plenty of adventurous moves in the last couple of years.

Watts to the half-back line and Jurrah to the half-back line to start!

And don't forget Davey to the half-back line, or Green who was tried out on the half-back line.

And so forth.

Personally, I see Garland as high quality defender and not expendable from that role in anything but short bursts to mix things up.

But I certainly appreciate the fresh feeling from seeing any piece of positive tactical movement going on.

what it lead to was jack watts on shane edwards, which was a real loss for us, but i dont mind the idea of garland pushing forward

The lack of a strong key position forward has been an issue at the MFC for years and has been constantly swept under the carpet since Dean Bailey became coach and David Neitz was forced to retire soon after.

This controversy has been well documented on Demonland from time to time over the past years and was ignored by the coach who developed a style of play which made the key positions redundant.

One of the things I'm going to enjoy watching for under a new coaching regime will be a change of approach to our forward set up, the lack of which has IMO caused to the collapse of the team in the last half of 2011.

It just went to prove how dysfunctional our forward line is.

Not refreshing.

I agree OP, it was excellent to see. We were getting crushed, so they put Garland forward, put Sylvia in the middle with Moloney (bit of extra size at the clearances after Barter spent a lot of time there in the 1st half). They then moved Davey to half back, away from the Houli matchup, which was killing us. Attitude was the main reason for our resurgence, but these things helped. Often Bailey would try something different, but it was always at the start of games, never to react to what was happening in games.

Did someone say Lyon was in the coaches box on Sunday? If so, that makes a lot of sense.

Hope they try some more new things again over the next two weeks.

I'm all for giving something new a go, I remember Neita one of our best full forwards starting out in the back line.

Must be careful though could be misconstrude as "tanking"!

Edited August 23, 201113 yr by waikikkamukau

I'm pretty sure Cam Schwab last year mentioned the possibility of moving Garland forward in the future so it wasn't really a fresh idea.

But still I'm enough happy to see some experimentation to try to beat Richmond this time...shame it failed both times to achieve the desired outcome. Luckily McMahon saved us the first time

Edited August 24, 201113 yr by Ascobar

He was probably our best player other than Col in that first half.....off half back. So lets move the player in our backline, who's probably having the most impact..forward in the 3rd quarter guys...what you reckon??? Let me think about that for 1 second.....ummm....NO!

Personally Col doesn't have the physicality/bod nor the experience or kicking accuracy in front of goals that i'm aware of, to play a forward role at this point. I prefer him down back (on the right match up) anyday.

To me, all this move showed me was how desperate we were given our forward situation atm. Add to this the woeful manner in which we deliver the ball to our forwards and/or attempt to run the ball into the 50 in many cases. A pretty inept forward line generally, when up against anyone other than the bottom 4 or 5 (ie., clubs below us or at or about the same standard as us).

Our general inaccuracy hasn't helped our cause either (Sunday's first 3 quarters...mostly the 3rd... one of the few positive exceptions).

Been a killer for us for much of the year and a huge deemoraliser for the team as a whole i reckon.

What twaddle some of this is, so Dean Bailey never tried anything, how about putting Jack Watts in the back half, trying Rohan Bail in the tagging/run with role, moving Davey around tryinig to find the right fit for him.....the coach is gone now, so he was rubbish let's kick him now.

As for the big gorilla parked in the goal square, haven't we moved away from that, just be patient, we are quietly building Jack Watts and maybe this weekend we may finally see Jack Fitzpatrick, who at 200cm may satisfy the height wanters...he has been injury hit a bit...then there is Lucas Cook

He was probably our best player other than Col in that first half.....off half back. So lets move the player in our backline, who's probably having the most impact..forward in the 3rd quarter guys...what you reckon??? Let me think about that for 1 second.....ummm....NO!

Personally Col doesn't have the physicality/bod nor the experience or kicking accuracy in front of goals that i'm aware of, to play a forward role at this point. I prefer him down back (on the right match up) anyday.

To me, all this move showed me was how desperate we were given our forward situation atm. Add to this the woeful manner in which we deliver the ball to our forwards and/or attempt to run the ball into the 50 in many cases. A pretty inept forward line generally, when up against anyone other than the bottom 4 or 5 (ie., clubs below us or at or about the same standard as us).

Our general inaccuracy hasn't helped our cause either (Sunday's first 3 quarters...mostly the 3rd... one of the few positive exceptions).

Been a killer for us for much of the year and a huge deemoraliser for the team as a whole i reckon.

Maybe they were experimenting,,, for this week, to see how our defence would go without one of our regular talls there, and also to see how our attack would be with another tall?

Garland was recruited as a forward and DB said he intended to play him there...

Never happened.

Revisionist rubbish.

What a waste of a thread.

The lack of a strong key position forward has been an issue at the MFC for years and has been constantly swept under the carpet since Dean Bailey became coach and David Neitz was forced to retire soon after.

This controversy has been well documented on Demonland from time to time over the past years and was ignored by the coach who developed a style of play which made the key positions redundant.

One of the things I'm going to enjoy watching for under a new coaching regime will be a change of approach to our forward set up, the lack of which has IMO caused to the collapse of the team in the last half of 2011.

The first paragraph is rubbish. It hasn't been swept under the carpet at all.

MFC have been active seeking taller forward players...Watts, Martin, Cook, McDonald, Fitzy and Gawn. The issue is with rebuilding a side is that KPF takes time to develop. The other option is you go into the market and trade for one. MFC tried that with David Hale but was unsuccessful. Hardly under the carpet And you arent linking Bailey's appointment with forcing Neitz to retire. I trust not. Neitz was finished during 2007 and his body was showing the wear and tear. He was useless in 2008.

The fact that this "controversy" has been documented often on D'land does not give credence to the charade. Our forward set up has been a problem since 2008. The biggest issue is the 3rd world midfield set up. Solve that and you are big step to making the forward line more productive and dangerous

The biggest issue is the 3rd world midfield set up. Solve that and you are big step to making the forward line more productive and dangerous

Agree. Along with our leadership void.