2 minutes ago, ProDee said:

Gawn was the better ruckman and Goldstein the better follower.

Agree.

Seems he's already developed a great synergy around the ground at ball ups and throw ins with his mids. They're creative.

Goldstein started well and a couple of frees helped Goldstein kick 2-3 goals. One from a 50m after an infringement. One free to the left of screen 25m out wasn't there at all. 

Gawn was colossal after qtr time. Pushing forward and clunking one or two is a great option up forward for us. I was rapt to see him do that. He dropped one which would have been huge.

I just hope his body holds up. He certainly has great strength now.

Another comment about yesterdays game is that I felt that the first quarter when Nth got a jump on us was almost as much about the fact that we set our defense up as we might normally do, but the first few goals were fired in from 50 or beyond, and I don't know if our zone was set up quite right. By the time we corrected things, we were 4-5 goals down and they already had momentum. 

In some ways I think it highlights also how well we did in the second quarter because North should have been aware of the impact of the wind, and yet we managed to put 9 past them before the half finished.

Another comment about yesterdays game is that I felt that the first quarter when Nth got a jump on us was almost as much about the fact that we set our defense up as we might normally do, but the first few goals were fired in from 50 or beyond, and I don't know if our zone was set up quite right. By the time we corrected things, we were 4-5 goals down and they already had momentum. 

In some ways I think it highlights also how well we did in the second quarter because North should have been aware of the impact of the wind, and yet we managed to put 9 past them before the half finished.

Also in relation to the North game which we lost we must move on.

The last thing that should be said is that "if we play like that losing team of last week", this week, it will be enough. It is never enough .We must improve.

To win we must improve every aspect, every game every week. Close losses do not count for anything.  

22 hours ago, doc roet said:

I am just waiting for the time when its not a nail biter,

If we play like that next week,albeit for the first Q my fingers might grow back,

I'll bet Buckleys shivering in his boots right now

I know Buckley is deluded, but why would he be concerned that MFC could put two decent games together in succession?

Agonising to think we almost should be 3 and 0. 

On the upside, surely this is the best start we've had to a season percentage wise for a long time.

Gawn has shown how important the ruck is so moving on we lost Mitch King to what looks like an ACL. No Spencer so does Max king get rookie upgraded? Are we still a little short in some key areas?

20 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

First Quarter killed us. 8 Goals to nil

takes a lot of energy to even the scores or edge in front

WHY DO WE ALWAYS START SO BADLY??

I still worry about our Captain and i know people on here will hammer me, but he gets silenced too easily...

 

while im gutted we lost after feeling confident  it showed we have it , some simple mistakes crap umpiring and a tiny bit of luck right at the end would have changed the whole thing . i am impressed but pizzed off 

20 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

First Quarter killed us. 8 Goals to nil

takes a lot of energy to even the scores or edge in front

WHY DO WE ALWAYS START SO BADLY??

I still worry about our Captain and i know people on here will hammer me, but he gets silenced too easily...

 

 oh bummer i must have been listening to a different game ???? i thought we kicked 2 in Q 1  ????

The only bad start we had was not winning the coin toss. 

Yes we usually have bad starts, this wasn't one of them. 

We were even or winning hit outs, clearances and contested possessions. 

They had a [censored] gale, it's that simple. 

Any team in the country would've had a "bad" start kicking to our end in the first. 

 

There's more of an argument for a bad last quarter. 

9 minutes ago, Deestroy All said:

The only bad start we had was not winning the coin toss. 

Yes we usually have bad starts, this wasn't one of them. 

We were even or winning hit outs, clearances and contested possessions. 

They had a [censored] gale, it's that simple. 

Any team in the country would've had a "bad" start kicking to our end in the first. 

 

There's more of an argument for a bad last quarter. 

The last quarter wasn't bad - we went from being behind to being in  front and then lost by less than a goal.  It was only bad if we still had a howling gale, but reports say the wind dropped from half-time on.  Anyone who was there know how true that was?

12 minutes ago, Deestroy All said:

The only bad start we had was not winning the coin toss. 

Yes we usually have bad starts, this wasn't one of them. 

We were even or winning hit outs, clearances and contested possessions. 

They had a [censored] gale, it's that simple. 

Any team in the country would've had a "bad" start kicking to our end in the first. 

 

There's more of an argument for a bad last quarter. 

You got to have a plan B if you lose the toss, for 20 minutes we ran around with no system at all

they were 7 goals before we got close to scoring. Yes there was a strong wind, we were far to loose on them. Yes the Umps were bad

but not 7 Goals to zip bad

The MFC always starts badly (Round 1 aside)

it is a problem that needs to be fixed, then we could win 10 in a row...

I just watched the game again and we wuz robbed!

seriously I counted four goals to North from very iffy free kicks in the forward fifty.

Not to mention clear marks that weren't paid to us.

All the scribes were hailing the game as one of the best of the year so far.....pity the umpires didn't join the party.

6 hours ago, dees189227 said:

I flew down for the game yesterday. It's a beautiful ground and was a perfect day.

Not sure you'll be replacing Jane Bunn as the Ch 7 weathergirl anytime soon - 60 knot breeze doesn't align with my view of perfect! 

5 hours ago, Akum said:

Thought Roos said something really interesting in his presser:

"I think what I’ve learned for this team is we have to be really educational and solution-based. We’re still a very, very young team.

"You can rev-up older teams and they flick a switch a bit, but our young guys want solutions. They want to know why are we up, why are we down, why are we playing well, why are we playing poorly, so that’s something the coaching group have made a big focus of." (quoted from the AFL website)

In contrast to last week, really liked the coaching this week, seemed to get the right balance between defence & attack.*  Perhaps coach & team are just connecting a bit better.

It's interesting too that the team seems to be able to improve their performance more effectively by being able to work out what they're doing wrong, rather than by revving them up. They need to figure it out, rather than to be revved up - in other words, just pushing them to try harder when they can't figure out where they're going wrong & how they need to fix it just isn't going to work.

* The one quibble I have this week is not having a hard tag on Harvey. But on the other hand, perhaps a zone defence rather than man-on-man means that we rebound better & get more goals as a result, so it has a better nett effect.

Harvey gets us every time. Another option, not sure if viable though. With Jones being tagged out of the game do you just tell him to follow Harvey everywhere? He doesn't have the pace, but around stoppages it may have closed down his space a fair bit. If we're not going to get the possession value out of Jones he may as well be used to negate one of theirs. They'd obviously work out that's a match up in North's favour (speed) so they might drop the tag. Keep switching it up. Don't know, thinking out loud.

34 minutes ago, small but forward said:

Not sure you'll be replacing Jane Bunn as the Ch 7 weathergirl anytime soon - 60 knot breeze doesn't align with my view of perfect! 

Haha if that's not comment of the thread....

1 hour ago, Deestroy All said:

The only bad start we had was not winning the coin toss. 

Yes we usually have bad starts, this wasn't one of them. 

We were even or winning hit outs, clearances and contested possessions. 

They had a [censored] gale, it's that simple. 

Any team in the country would've had a "bad" start kicking to our end in the first. 

 

There's more of an argument for a bad last quarter. 

A strong wind doesn't stop the players being manic at the contest. They were far more ferocious around the ball in the second quarter - there was a slow start, though not as bad as we're used to.

21 hours ago, ding said:

Wont happen.  Pies by 5 Goals.

What is your tip?

My tip is you're a bees dick away from admittance to a psych ward.

2 hours ago, BarnDee said:

while im gutted we lost after feeling confident  it showed we have it , some simple mistakes crap umpiring and a tiny bit of luck right at the end would have changed the whole thing . i am impressed but pizzed off 

Yes, umpiring was infuriating. Yes, luck at the end could have changed the result.

But the biggest factor was our mistakes. Destiny was in our own hands. We can all think of 2 or 3 passages, or more, where we could have done better either in attack or defence. Not just in the last.

So good to see we can do it. A bit tighter, a bit more experience in being in a winnable position -- who knows.

And even better -- fighting back from 7 goals down. Was a time when we would have packed up for the day, wind or no wind.

And even better again -- going 3 goals down in the last and less than 10 mins to go. Could have put cue in the rack. "Brave loss. Pats on the back all round." But we fought back again!

Danger game this week. Every game for us is a danger game one way or another. I don't want the team to think, well we showed em. We showed the world we can play good footy. Now we can ease off again.

If they try that sh!t then we'll all really be pizzed off.

Yesterday was the benchmark in effort. Skills may come and go from week to week, but the baseline is the effort shown yesterday.

Goldstein runs forward a heap, I'm not sure his defenders would always appreciate it. But that's the game plan and he gets rucks caught napping. Gawny let him go once. Frost another - where he ran in to the point post which should've been a point - and he got those free kicks/50's. 

I'd love to see Gawny learn how to run forward without interfering with the forwards space. Goldy does that well. Drifts in from the fat side pretty nicely without clogging it.

So Chris Scott and Nathan Buckley both just said on 360 that the umpires are doing a great job this year..

[censored] delusional idiots.

On 10/04/2016 at 4:08 PM, Rod Grinter Riot Squad said:

Unbelievable game, pity we had an extra 3 opponents, especially when they went forward.

 

some costly errors by U.S., but hold your heads up boys, expect that sort of effort every week

Of course they'd say that. The umpires are always in Collingwood's pocket and Geelong has the home crowd advantage on their side.

21 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

So Chris Scott and Nathan Buckley both just said on 360 that the umpires are doing a great job this year..

[censored] delusional idiots.

Two genuine gimps.

23 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

So Chris Scott and Nathan Buckley both just said on 360 that the umpires are doing a great job this year..

[censored] delusional idiots.

That's the way to get lots of 'frees' next match.

Wasn't entirely sure where to put this, but did anyone just see Healy on On The Couch? There is something happening with Healy, who has traditionally shat all over us, but this season in particular, he seems to be showing a clear Melbourne bias. He's excited for us. Very strange, but welcome.