5 hours ago, Gorgoroth said:

With the CBA, more are going to put off, or they will get a deal like Sidebottom did.

What happened with Steele?

Even with Internet I seem to out of the loop up here.

 

He frustrates the bejesus out of me as well, but realistically he's still developing. The mistakes he makes are not unexpected from a player his age (add the amount of pressure he's been under playing in a shizen team). How many KPDs have as much experience as he does at his age?

He'll stay, and end up a regular All Australian.

I reckon he's in our top 10, possibly top 5 most important players. We can't afford to lose him, and at this stage I'm confident we won't.

4 hours ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

What happened with Steele?

Even with Internet I seem to out of the loop up here.

 

It was something like four years 2.75mil. Or 700k a year which he isn't going to get much better if he wants to stay at the pies.

 

5 hours ago, FireInTheBelly said:

He frustrates the bejesus out of me as well, but realistically he's still developing. The mistakes he makes are not unexpected from a player his age (add the amount of pressure he's been under playing in a shizen team). How many KPDs have as much experience as he does at his age?

He'll stay, and end up a regular All Australian.

By mistakes are you talking about when he decides he wants to go for a run with the ball? He should never be in that position to begin with, before Salem we've lacked creative players that can use the footy coming of half back. We would continually get bogged down in our defensive 50. I'd like to think with this attacking game plan and personnel changes there would be less need for him to try this. If he spoils the ball or takes an intercept mark there should be someone close at hand to help clean up.

10 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Start grooming Frost in the backline. While McDonald is a good defender every thing else he does frustrates the hell out of me and yesterday was no different.

Going off your player report (which I enjoyed reading) how was Garland and different? As a 1 on 1 defender he's bloody good, as I mentioned in my above post he shouldn't find himself needing/thinking about going for those runs anymore. 

Just like Hogan, I'm not worried about the Tom McDonald's desire to at the club.

He'll re-sign. And he's an extremely important player for this club. Plainly.

 

9 hours ago, McQueen said:

Off to Freo as well?

Nope - WC...across the Swan.

For those of you who think we can afford to lose him you obviously know nothing about football.

1 hour ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

By mistakes are you talking about when he decides he wants to go for a run with the ball? He should never be in that position to begin with, before Salem we've lacked creative players that can use the footy coming of half back. We would continually get bogged down in our defensive 50. I'd like to think with this attacking game plan and personnel changes there would be less need for him to try this. If he spoils the ball or takes an intercept mark there should be someone close at hand to help clean up.

Not entirely disagreeing with your post, as I agree we lack creativity out of our backline and Salem is a pivotal part to working through this especially this year, but to suggest that Tom Mcdonald should not continue on one of his strengths in his game is borderline ridiculous. Whilst sometimes he bites off more than he can chew and his disposal is not of the ilk that Salems is, his ability to break the lines is far superior to most that we have in the side and will no doubt be continually encouraged by coaches to continue on with this. With a more attacking game plan, I believe it makes much more sense that he will be encouraged to take the game on, use his speed and running capacity to break the lines whilst being encouraged to take the best option.
 

In terms of the article, no real quotes or anything of substance, they just picked an important player and made something related to Jesse Hogan. Typical journalism

Less worried about McDonald, but not too worried about either of them.

17 minutes ago, Mad_Melbourne said:

Not entirely disagreeing with your post, as I agree we lack creativity out of our backline and Salem is a pivotal part to working through this especially this year, but to suggest that Tom Mcdonald should not continue on one of his strengths in his game is borderline ridiculous. Whilst sometimes he bites off more than he can chew and his disposal is not of the ilk that Salems is, his ability to break the lines is far superior to most that we have in the side and will no doubt be continually encouraged by coaches to continue on with this. With a more attacking game plan, I believe it makes much more sense that he will be encouraged to take the game on, use his speed and running capacity to break the lines whilst being encouraged to take the best option.
 

In terms of the article, no real quotes or anything of substance, they just picked an important player and made something related to Jesse Hogan. Typical journalism

In Frost's GWS highlights he also went for the occasional run, I don't mind it and i haven't suggested it shouldn't be encouraged if the opportunity presents itself but it shouldn't be our first option unless we get caught out on the oppositions fast break.

4 minutes ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

In Frost's GWS highlights he also went for the occasional run, I don't mind it and i haven't suggested it shouldn't be encouraged if the opportunity presents itself but it shouldn't be our first option unless we get caught out on the oppositions fast break.

Yeh I guess what you are saying is that he shouldnt do it, unless he is in a situation where he should do it?

Salem breaks his lines with kicking, T-Mac will break them with running.

We should be playing best option football and alot of the time T-Mac taking a run is the best option at the time, but he then runs himself into trouble, as per.

13 hours ago, DemonOX said:

No point worrying about shitz u can't control. 

 

Is McDonald going to the dogs?

13 hours ago, Wiseblood said:

Or his brother, for that matter.

Of all the people knocking someone's disposal, so far this year you have told me Grimes and Garland are locks for rd 1 team. Isnt this half the problem? If I was Tmac with ball in hand and all I had was Grimes and Garland either side I'd be going for a run too. Ideally your whole side has elite disposal but we know that isn't realistic. The three players out of 22 that a team can cut some slack to with regards to disposal are fb, chb and your ruckman. If your two key defenders are beating their opponents more often than not and your ruckman if giving your mids first use of the footy then they have largely done their job. You keep citing experience as to why those two should get a game and lack of experience as to why others shouldn't. How do you get experience? Admittedly I didn't watch the game due to work commitments but reading a number of posts there was a common theme. It was the same old stuff from Garland and Grimes whilst Oliver, Wagner and Harmes did some good things and showed some promise. Oscar may not have starred but he is only 19 at stands at 196cm and is obviously viewed as a long term prospect. Also in the 2nd half when someone needed to stand up I kept reading names like Viney and VB, not Garland and Grimes and all of their so called experience that you continually reference. 

Grimes 98 games

Garland 135 games

 

Tmac 82 games 

Omac 2 games

Tmac is in the side first and foremost for his ability to stop the oppositions key forward, a job he is bloody good at, anything  other than that is a bonus. If we have elite users of the footy across half back there is less of a need for the big blokes to take a run. Then I think it was the rd 1 thread you thought Grimes would/should play there because of his experience and the loss of Melksham. I would of thought with Tmac/Dunn/Jetta/Salem already there that we could afford to try a young player on the other flank, a player who can kick the bloody thing to our advantage. Wagner is a mature age recruit at 21 turning 22 this year. Wouldn't you rather take the risk in the hope of unearthing another talent than persist with what has already failed us repeatedly in the past?

 

 

22 minutes ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

Of all the people knocking someone's disposal, so far this year you have told me Grimes and Garland are locks for rd 1 team. Isnt this half the problem? If I was Tmac with ball in hand and all I had was Grimes and Garland either side I'd be going for a run too. Ideally your whole side has elite disposal but we know that isn't realistic. The three players out of 22 that a team can cut some slack to with regards to disposal are fb, chb and your ruckman. If your two key defenders are beating their opponents more often than not and your ruckman if giving your mids first use of the footy then they have largely done their job. You keep citing experience as to why those two should get a game and lack of experience as to why others shouldn't. How do you get experience? Admittedly I didn't watch the game due to work commitments but reading a number of posts there was a common theme. It was the same old stuff from Garland and Grimes whilst Oliver, Wagner and Harmes did some good things and showed some promise. Oscar may not have starred but he is only 19 at stands at 196cm and is obviously viewed as a long term prospect. Also in the 2nd half when someone needed to stand up I kept reading names like Viney and VB, not Garland and Grimes and all of their so called experience that you continually reference. 

Grimes 98 games

Garland 135 games

 

Tmac 82 games 

Omac 2 games

Tmac is in the side first and foremost for his ability to stop the oppositions key forward, a job he is bloody good at, anything  other than that is a bonus. If we have elite users of the footy across half back there is less of a need for the big blokes to take a run. Then I think it was the rd 1 thread you thought Grimes would/should play there because of his experience and the loss of Melksham. I would of thought with Tmac/Dunn/Jetta/Salem already there that we could afford to try a young player on the other flank, a player who can kick the bloody thing to our advantage. Wagner is a mature age recruit at 21 turning 22 this year. Wouldn't you rather take the risk in the hope of unearthing another talent than persist with what has already failed us repeatedly in the past?

 

 

You've lost the plot.  I wasn't making any sort of point at all, it was just an off hand comment in reply to dazzle's post.  Stop taking yourself so seriously.

3 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

You've lost the plot.  I wasn't making any sort of point at all, it was just an off hand comment in reply to dazzle's post.  Stop taking yourself so seriously.

My move to Sydney five years ago coincided with me losing the plot. Hope to be returning to Melbourne next year.

I think with blokes like McDonald, you've got to hope that they'll eventually close the gap between those best and worst attributes. He has some really strong qualities to his game that could make him an elite defender. But his kicking, decision making and awareness seem to constantly undo all of his good work.

He needs to keep it simple and he needs to handball or kick to that first option far more often than he does. In fact he just needs to handball more often than he does. One creative handball to a player in space instead of taking so [censored] long to spot up a target with his kick.

 

Preference: Stay (years of development put into him, devil you know and all that)

Think: he'll stay

Care factor: extremely low (I know he's important, but, as with others, he annoys me)

1 hour ago, stevethemanjordan said:

I think with blokes like McDonald, you've got to hope that they'll eventually close the gap between those best and worst attributes. He has some really strong qualities to his game that could make him an elite defender. But his kicking, decision making and awareness seem to constantly undo all of his good work.

He needs to keep it simple and he needs to handball or kick to that first option far more often than he does. In fact he just needs to handball more often than he does. One creative handball to a player in space instead of taking so [censored] long to spot up a target with his kick.

 

Gee......This McDonald bloke.......Was he the same bloke people were raving about after his 1st half of the season when he beat some of the great full forwards of the comp.     The same bloke that was pencilled in for the AA side?.....The 24 year old who has played 82 games was in season 2015:

4th in disposals

3rd in kicks

1st for marks taken

5th in contested possessions

4th in uncontested possessions

1st in intercept marks

3rd in the Best and fairest.

 The reason he looks undecided is he had no one to kick to when he went for those runs, there was no spread.

Yep he got towelled up a few times but so did a lot of our players.

Some posters just baffle me.

According to champion data he also had more goals kicked on him in the last fifteen rounds last year than any other key defender in the league. 

Is still a very key signing. And I have no doubts he will.

Edit spelling

6 minutes ago, angrydee said:

According to champion data he also had more goals kicked on him in the last fifteen rounds last year than any other key defender in the league. 

Is still a very key signing. And I have no doubts he will.

Edit spelling

Largely due to us having one of the weakest and most shallow midfields in the past decade meaning almost every entry is fast and under little to no pressure, the reason he is so highly rated is that he has not only held his own but won key battles under that sort of heat, when we are a top 4 side TMAC is going to be seen as the best defender going around.

It's not just what he does with the ball that annoys me but his defending just isn't that good. It's plateaued, which I think is on Jade Rawlings (and Tom).

I really want to see more aerial dominance in his game. 

By that I mean strong marking when the situation is right and strong definitive punching of the ball when it's called for. Too often he runs in to contests with his first extended instead of making a strong leap and punch of the ball. Garland is the same. 

And he flies for marks when the situation calls for a safe punch. Robbie Gray got a goal on the weekend where he tried to mark instead of just clearing the ball with a strong punch. I'm not sure he can punch with his left fist either, which might be injury related. 

I can handle a few stuff ups with the ball in hand if he's owning CHB as he was in the first half of the year last year when he was like a wall. 

Let us see - haven't see e weekend game yet - how he goes when he has capable runners around him, NB Salem, and players down the ground who are prepared to run to offer options.  

How much of his indecision / getting caught / poor disposal under pressure is a result of lack of support and options.

Not too fussed by his not signing yet.  

2 hours ago, Bossdog said:

Gee......This McDonald bloke.......Was he the same bloke people were raving about after his 1st half of the season when he beat some of the great full forwards of the comp.     The same bloke that was pencilled in for the AA side?.....The 24 year old who has played 82 games was in season 2015:

4th in disposals

3rd in kicks

1st for marks taken

5th in contested possessions

4th in uncontested possessions

1st in intercept marks

3rd in the Best and fairest.

 The reason he looks undecided is he had no one to kick to when he went for those runs, there was no spread.

Yep he got towelled up a few times but so did a lot of our players.

Some posters just baffle me.

Haha. 

Honestly, a post made with a balanced view of a player on our list is rebuttled with nonsense like this.

Some posters are completely incapable of hearing, identifying and voicing any sort of criticism toward any one of our players. And there seem to be more than I thought on here.

It's astounding.