MFC Intraclub - 17th February, 2012

[PaulRB 6,435]

Blease sounds like he's doing well.

[The Chazz 4,077]

Sounds like Clark is killing them.

[olisik 4,060]

Havn't heard anything about Trengove , Sylvia, Rivers or Taggart yet

[The Great One 99 125]

Anyone know some of the interesting match ups. Who is playing on Clark?

[The Chazz 4,077]

Off topic, but seems everyone is in this thread - see Le Cras is out for the season? Big loss.

[olisik 4,060]

sounds like Tynan is doing a really good job. i think the kid was a real good pickup

[Sir Why You Little 37,342]

About a thousand according to Burgan. Stynes is there if that's who you mean. Also Lyon.

Thanks Bing...Jimmy would be stoked. G Lyon there on his own time!! See he does care....

Lecras out could cost Wet Coke a tilt.... i rate him most highly.

[Deetective Sgt. Taggert 389]

Anyone know some of the interesting match ups. Who is playing on Clark?

Sounds like they are rotating the matchup frequently. Davis was on Clark at one point so was Frawley. Not sure about Sellar

[stranga 328]

A few mentions of Tynan doing good things. Supercoach smokey?

[H_T 3,049]

Off topic, but seems everyone is in this thread - see Le Cras is out for the season? Big loss.

Yes. Maybe Leon Davis would have been a handy top up for the Eagles afterall.

[Steamin Demon 401]

Anyone know some of the interesting match ups. Who is playing on Clark?

Frawley started on Clark

[McQueen 17,867]

Yes. Maybe Leon Davis would have been a handy top up for the Eagles afterall.

LeCras wasn't a backman.

[olisik 4,060]

Does any1 have a list who isnt playing in this game?

Quite a few players i havnt heard anything from like Gysberts, Jurrah, Trengove, Sylvia, Rivers ect

[Whispering_Jack 31,296]

Just got home and I still haven't been able to work out what I made of this hybrid between a training run, circle work and a practice match. No scoreboard, player lists or numbers on the players' backs made it a little confusing but I managed to work out that the club is going to benefit from having a target up forward in Mitch Clark and we can expect big strides from Sam Blease, Jeremy Howe, Tom McDonald and Dan Nicholson. Without numbers it was hard to work out who the new blokes were so I guess we have to wait until the half real stuff starts with the NAB Cup next week.

[rjay 25,349]

Does any1 have a list who isnt playing in this game?

Quite a few players i havnt heard anything from like Gysberts, Jurrah, Trengove, Sylvia, Rivers ect

None of those guys played also Strauss, Taggart, Tapscott, McKenzie, Spencer, missed along with a couple of others I can't remember off the top.

[rpfc 28,966]

I managed to work out that the club is going to benefit from having a target up forward in Mitch Clark.

That's all I wanted to hear you say, WJ...

[Jesse Christ 2,884]

Great to hear about Clark dominating the forward line! How was he body on body? Does it look like he will combine well with Watts/Howe/Jurrah etc? How many goals did he kick?

Should I put Nicholson in my supercoach team? He will still be cheap I guess. Can't wait for the real stuff, this off season has been exceptionally long!!!

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

Hard to take a lot out of the game in terms of individual performances, but the big thing to note was a lot of long kicking to forwards in the forward line. A lot of posters on here will be disappointed to hear this.

[Jesse Christ 2,884]

I wouldn't take too much stock in tactics used in a hybrid training/intra club match Clint

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

I wouldn't take too much stock in tactics used in a hybrid training/intra club match Clint

I would take a lot more out of tactics than individual performances. This radical long kicking strategy has also been prominent at training sessions and was no doubt a clear instruction.

[danboyle99 2]

Went along for the first 6/8.

No Sylvia, Trengove, Tapscott or McKenzie among others. Davey played I would think less than half of the game and didn't do much.

Clark and Watts worked well together I thought, they would both be around the contest and often Jack would either body Clark's opponent (generally Frawely) out of the contest or held his own man away front he contest and allow Clark to go up for a clean jump or have a 1 on 1. He is a seriously good mark of the football.

Watts is super quick and makes great decisions with the football. His spot up to Troy Davis? I think in the forward line under pressure on the left was one of the standouts of the day.

Jamar was destroying Fitzy in the ruck, just too big and strong for him. Garland did some good marks and defence and Grimes likewise.

Thought Martin was very good up forward, competed in the air and was good on the ground and snagged a few goals. Looks promising if we can fit him, Watts and Clark and Jurrah rotating through as well.

Jones was killing the clearances, Howe was playing well and Blease got a heap of the ball and used his speed to find space. Will be important this year.

Will give a bigger report later.

[Its Time for Another 4,305]

Hard to take a lot out of the game in terms of individual performances, but the big thing to note was a lot of long kicking to forwards in the forward line. A lot of posters on here will be disappointed to hear this.

I'm not. It will be a relief to finally see them not stuffing around and stuffing up with the short stuff and we now have multiple tall targets and good crumbers such as Davey to warrant long kicks into the Forward line. If that doesn't work then there are multiple targets at half forward to have a Plan B to pass it in.

[OPETH 0]

Didn't go down the centre corridor ONCE in 8 quarters

[RalphiusMaximus 6,110]

Didn't go down the centre corridor ONCE in 8 quarters

We have a version of the Collingwood gameplan. The corridor is no mans land this year. I saw quite a few guys running into the middle and calling for it and they were ignored every time.

Some quick thoughts on the match:

As has been said, it was really hard to identify a lot of the new faces without numbers. There was a chunky blonde guy playing on Watts for a while who had a decent bit of speed. Could have been Davis, but I really don't know.

Sellar was better than I expected from the training reports. He has some pretty decent pace and agility for a guy his size. Made a very nice play right at the start calling for the ball on the boundary, running around two players and delivering. He's got a great build too. I can see him getting some game time this year.

Clark was a big presence in the forward 50. The gameplan seems to call for a long ball to around the 20-30m mark and the forward to bring the ball to ground. We saw a lot of this play where the forward was outnumbered and concentrated on getting a hand on and making the contest. Looks like we're going to need some good crumbers.

We also seem to have a sert play to use the pace of Watts. A few times he pushed up to the wing and the 50 cleared behind him. They ran a quick transition out of defence and bombed the ball into the space for him to chase, burning his opponent and running into the 50. Someone has already mentioned the pinpoint left foot pass he made off one of these plays. He should have had a goal off another, but his man made an unbelievable smother after Watts had run around him from the pocket.

Aside from those plays, I actually thought Watts could have been a lot better. He often ran to the wrong places, failed to shepard and ran past contests looking for the easy ball. I was expecting more from him. There was also an odd moment towards the end of the match when he seemed about to lay a tackle and then let the man go. It could have been a trick of the angle, but to me it looked like he had the guy dead to rights and then chose not to hit him. I really don't have an explaination for why.

Blease will be a starter this year going on today's game. He used his pace to create space, kicked a ripping goal from the HFF and made a blistering run through the middle. He had a real impact today.

While Fitzpatrick was soundly beaten in the ruck, I was surprised at how well he competed. He rucked the entire game against Jamar and managed to make a decent contest most of the time. He also took a nice contested mark in the forward line and slotted it.

Morton actually gave a really good account of himself today. He didn't shy away from the contested balls andmade some very nice plays. On one occasion we saw him look for the inside pass, rememer that he's not allowed to do it anymore, overposess the ball and then dodge two tacklers to get clear and give off down the line. I also have him down for at least one contested mark right in front of my seat. All in all he was much better than I expected. I think the new coaches agree with him.

Jones was devestating in combination with Jamar. He was constantly getting first use of the ball and racking up the clearances. He's another player who is going to do well with the new coaches and gameplan. Don't be surprised to see him in Sheehan's top 50 this year.

Bartram continues to build his reputation for tough plays. He got absolutely nailed flying for a mark in front of Stef. I'm not entirely sure he should have been given a 50m penalty, but it all works out because he missed the goal with his usual kicking style. If he were a better kick he would be one of the best hard nuts in the league.

There were a number of good plays by unfamiliar faces as well. I don't know who the strongly built blond midfielder was, but he did really well, was vocal and made some great plays, particularly towards the end of the match. Heard Josh called out quite a bit, so he was involved. I think I saw Kel Lawrence score a good crumbing goal at the far end of the ground. Not sure on that one.

One player was helped from the ground with what looked like an ankle, but I have no idea who he was.

Overall we saw some good signs, but of course it was against people who were all working from the same playbook, so the results are a little skewed. Still, I think it was a positive day for us. Looking forward to next week in Brisbane.

[red&blue for ever 14]

Went along today. Left feeling much better then 2 years ago. Up till the 8/8 there was no kicking backwards. The aim seem to be to move the ball forwards as fast as possible. The game was a bit messy but that is to be expected when both sides know the game plan. Lost of talking and telling players to move into positions. Bring on the real games.