Winning ugly is ok. Not worth champagne, but the job was done. 

Get the boys home and rehydrate them. Ridiculous to play in that humidity. 

48 hours up there will be a disadvantage, but i watched the dogs game. 

Shut JJ and Bont out of the game Goody

This week has 7 days. We will need every hour to recover

Run the sums... assuming we beat Dogs and Suns, and lose to Swans and WC... Then we'll basically need to beat two of the other games... Cats, Crows and GWS to make the finals.

According to my predictor we'll be playing GWS in the last round to decide 8th and 9th, and our percentage won't help us as they already have a draw.

Was a solid win, showing where we're at today, but we've learned nothing really about where we'll end up this year.

26 minutes ago, Basher said:

 

I feel Hogan plays from  behind too much . His first  quarter was OK ,apart from missing shots at goal. However second and third quarter he I was playing from behind. He needs to lead more as do most of our forwards . Our forward line I see far too stagnant and movement into the forward line too slow. Sure we are getting it inside 50 a lot but with poor conversion results. ANB and Garlett should have had more influence tonight. Stretch was a lot better tonight ,laid a couple of good tackles and showed glimpses of speed.

Agree 100% - Hogan rarely takes front position & it is extremely frustrating. 

 

At the the other end of the ground, we looked much better with Frost in the side. I mentioned this in another thread but Frost's solid return made me angrier about the arrogance of selecting Petty when he clearly wasn't ready. 

Our forward line structure is a mess, one passage of play summed it up:

Viney won a centre clearance, was streaming forward with no one around him, looked up and had no one to kick it to so he had to handball to Spargo.

It was a shocking handball, but that’s irrelevant because imagine not having forward options to kick to after the forwards have had a centre bounce to set up properly. 

 

Apologies if this has been mentioned already but did anyone catch the replay of this?

Match review officer Michael Christian will monitor the down the ground replay closely on Monday after Jesse Hogan's jumper punch on Lachie Neale behind play in the first term. It left Neale gasping for air

34 minutes ago, Basher said:

 

I feel Hogan plays from  behind too much . His first  quarter was OK ,apart from missing shots at goal. However second and third quarter he I was playing from behind. He needs to lead more as do most of our forwards . Our forward line I see far too stagnant and movement into the forward line too slow. Sure we are getting it inside 50 a lot but with poor conversion results. ANB and Garlett should have had more influence tonight. Stretch was a lot better tonight ,laid a couple of good tackles and showed glimpses of speed.

Our forwards are most lead-up style players but we are forever sitting it on their heads hoping someone will take a screamer.

A big problem is they start too far up the ground, they should be in the goal square leading out to mark 30 metres out, instead they have to just stand 30 metres out and watch opposition defenders pick off the high ball.

2 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

Apologies if this has been mentioned already but did anyone catch the replay of this?

Match review officer Michael Christian will monitor the down the ground replay closely on Monday after Jesse Hogan's jumper punch on Lachie Neale behind play in the first term. It left Neale gasping for air

Christian is a [censored].

 

that a comment has been made from him (if it has) says so much

4 minutes ago, Rod Grinter Riot Squad said:

Christian is a [censored].

 

that a comment has been made from him (if it has) says so much

Not sure. It’s part of the 5 talking points article on the MFC website. 

Edited July 7, 20186 yr by Dee Zephyr

1 hour ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Footscray played half a game tonight. Their 2nd half was awful

Dogs by 17 next week !

4 minutes ago, puntkick said:

Dogs by 17 next week !

That would be a sad result on what i saw tonight. The Dogs started really well, but after Halftime, they were smashed by Whorethorn, but then the whoreks do know how to pass the ball around the ground  

 

Edited July 7, 20186 yr by Sir Why You Little

Did anyone else notice Joel Smith playing full forward for a lot of the second half?

How did that happen?

12 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

That would be a sad result on what i saw tonight. The Dogs started really well, but after Halftime, they were smashed by Whorethorn, but then the whoreks do know how to pass the ball around the ground  

 

Murphey's Law !

1 hour ago, timbo said:

Yes he's the only one or yes he's right?

He's the only one. Chunk is not a super star but his disposal and kicking into the 50 is pretty bloody good.

Week in week out he's a solid contributor that never goes missing. 

2 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

True

 

but we aren't.

Better effort, still need to work on delivery i50.  But faster breaks with a faster team will help on a dry deck.

 

49 minutes ago, deegirl said:

Agree 100% - Hogan rarely takes front position & it is extremely frustrating. 

 

At the the other end of the ground, we looked much better with Frost in the side. I mentioned this in another thread but Frost's solid return made me angrier about the arrogance of selecting Petty when he clearly wasn't ready. 

Yeah. Not sold on his work rate and second efforts.

Our forward line sucks not just on the way it comes in but also how easily it comes back out.

38 minutes ago, The Swimming Dee said:

Did anyone else notice Joel Smith playing full forward for a lot of the second half?

How did that happen?

Sent forward after getting a knock according to Goody post match

Not sure if anyone else here has played footy in the tropics? 

It's truly horrible if you're not accustomed to it. And it's not like wet weather footy where you're bent down with a heavy ball and you adjust to that type of wetness. The ball moves at pace and slips right through the hands when you think you've done everything right. On top of that, it feels like you can't ever get in enough oxygen. 

I know it's not the wet-season, but that's the slipperiest I can recall it for one of our matches up there. Never mind the comparative humidity figures or Uncle Bitters rolling around in the dry grass - the proof was there in the vision and the post-match comments. 

Oliver, Salem and Fritsch were simply outstanding in their control of the ball tonight. Stretch was clean too. 

2 hours ago, olisik said:

Good win however am I the only one who cringes when Jones is near/has the ball in hand? His disposals are terrible, either A. Bomb it or B. Hospital handpass it 2m away or C. fumbles with his own team mates

Uh oh. I agree with O. Jones is nearing the end. His disposal and decision making is too often not up to scratch.

Can we please have another 3 or 4 Clarry's in our midfield though? What an absolute star. Salem and Gus were too good.

Frost and Stretch were pleasingly good tonight. Jeffy just does enough, as does Charlie boy. Take them both into next week. ANB must be on very thin ice. I'm finding Nev is not as reliable as he was anymore. Still does a lot right, but I used to feel comfortable knowing he'd win every contest. 

Big problems remain: connection between midfield and forwards (the opposition was very weak), all up - no one down in pack situations (Bulldogs will murder us at this) and inefficiency once we go inside 50. 

 

50 minutes ago, Brownie said:

He's the only one. Chunk is not a super star but his disposal and kicking into the 50 is pretty bloody good.

Week in week out he's a solid contributor that never goes missing. 

He always goes missing when the chips are down.

1 hour ago, Clint Bizkit said:

Our forward line structure is a mess, one passage of play summed it up:

Viney won a centre clearance, was streaming forward with no one around him, looked up and had no one to kick it to so he had to handball to Spargo.

It was a shocking handball, but that’s irrelevant because imagine not having forward options to kick to after the forwards have had a centre bounce to set up properly. 

 

I reckon we're a mess at both ends of the ground. In contested marking situations at either end of the ground, we still have yet to address the problem of all defenders or players up and no one down. It's the stuff that the great sides do and the best side in the comp right now are brilliant at it. The great Hawthorn side were too.

The writing's on the wall this season. It's weird, because I said we'd still make finals after our loss to St Kilda, but after tonights game, we still haven't fixed the basics. I think this'll mean the St Kilda will cost us.

Edited July 7, 20186 yr by A F

1 hour ago, Redleg said:

A few of us said 3 weeks ago he should be in, together with Billy and some more pacey crumbers in Spargo or Garlett.

IMO we win the Port and Saints games with this side.

The Coaches must take responsibility for poorly selected sides, that have cost us a couple of games.

Spot on Mr. Leg!

3 minutes ago, Skuit said:

Not sure if anyone else here has played footy in the tropics? 

It's truly horrible if you're not accustomed to it. And it's not like wet weather footy where you're bent down with a heavy ball and you adjust to that type of wetness. The ball moves at pace and slips right through the hands when you think you've done everything right. On top of that, it feels like you can't ever get in enough oxygen. 

I know it's not the wet-season, but that's the slipperiest I can recall it for one of our matches up there. Never mind the comparative humidity figures or Uncle Bitters rolling around in the dry grass - the proof was there in the vision and the post-match comments. 

Oliver, Salem and Fritsch were simply outstanding in their control of the ball tonight. Stretch was clean too. 

Yep... and that's why you never take a cold weather based team mid season to a sauna like environment.

No other team in the league would be dumb enough to do this unless they were directed by the AFL.

2 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Yep... and that's why you never take a cold weather based team mid season to a sauna like environment.

No other team in the league would be dumb enough to do this unless they were directed by the AFL.

We may not have had the chance to be dumb if we didn't do it.

It is what it is. Soon we'll move on. 

2 hours ago, The Swimming Dee said:

Did anyone else notice Joel Smith playing full forward for a lot of the second half?

How did that happen?

I watched about 10 minutes of the game and noticed this..

2 hours ago, The Swimming Dee said:

Did anyone else notice Joel Smith playing full forward for a lot of the second half?

How did that happen?

I thought it might have been as he was a liability down back. Did not function well  up forward.