My Christmas wish list:

[DeeSpencer 25,687]

8 Christmas Wishes. Feel free to critique or add your own.

1. Teach Clayton Oliver forward craft:
Clarry was 3rd in the league with 166 total tackles last year and first in the league with 405 contested possessions. When you add those together plus preseason games and training you start to work out why he had both shoulders operated on in the offseason. He's only 21, we have to protect him if he's going to play well in the 30's. So that means improving his leading patterns, his marking and his crumbing as a forward so he can impact games from there. We should have plenty of options to role through the midfield especially if we are lucky to be leading games with big margins. So it's time to take the load from Clarry's shoulders (and back, hips, knees etc).

2. Make Gus Brayshaw's kicking up to scratch
Gus got his head and body right and turned in to the elite ball winner we all hoped he could be last year but now it's time to get him hitting targets at a much higher rate. In a lot of ways the pressure is on to show he is a dangerous midfielder worthy of a 3rd place Brownlow finish. I hope he continues to embrace his kicking on both sides and works hard to really be decisive with his decision making and flatten out his kicks. 

3. The club needs to get Jayden Hunt to play tennis
I was up to the boring bit of my occasional West Wing rewatch when the great Leo McGarry had this to say

Quote

The President gets regular physicals, and because of the MS, rather more regular MRIs and neuro-physical tests. But MS is a disease of the central nervous system. It can affect cognition: Perception, reasoning, judgment. What the doctors actually term executive function. As President of the United States, this needs to be monitored on a weekly basis. You need to get the President to play chess.

It made me think about players who aren't performing as they could and what might be done about it. One thing that stuck out with me with Hunt at his best compared with Hunt this year is the quick little steps he'd take to get down to a ground ball then break free to space went missing. Obviously, he had some ankle issues that wouldn't have helped but I wonder if the best way to bring that movement back is to get him playing the sport he grew up playing. One that relies on quick feet. We have a couple of tennis coaches available to the club - Todd Viney and Nicole Bradtke, one of them should get Jayden playing some tennis! The AFL is full of junior basketball players lauded for their vision and movement but in the case of Hunt tennis might well have taught him how to move.

4. Fix Tracc's goalkicking
I don't know what the plan should be but after excellent accuracy in 2017 Petracca's goal kicking went down the drain last season. Fix it. Fix the other 10 things wrong with his game as well but fix the goal kicking and he’ll play with confidence to do the rest.

5. Get Melksham and Tommy Mc tackling
Both guys move like they have fused ankles when it comes to laying a tackle. Melksham 1.9 per game is not good enough for a half forward. T Mc 2.3 is better but for such a mobile key forward he should do more. I don't know if it's training drills or an unusual training method to get them more agile and reactive but something needs to change. Maybe they can play squash and get used to quick in tight movements and getting down low. Hopefully offseason surgery helps Melk out but even with healthy ankles he’s got improvement in him.

6. Oscar has to wrestle a bear
Oscar has the skills, size and discipline to make it as a good key defender and we saw that at times in 2018, but as his confidence waned as the year went on he became indecisive. He was attempting to watch his man instead of backing himself to go to the ball and he was tentative in crashing packs. To keep his spot in the side with May coming in and to thrive as a player he has to get more physical. You can't be a good key defender unless you're tough and aggressive. As a child UFC fighter Khabib wrestled a bear.

 

Sadly I doubt the club wants to risk the complaints of the RSPCA by bringing in an actual Russian baby bear. That said, we've got something simialr available. At North Braydon Preuss nearly snapped Andrew Swallow in half one day and he put recent GWS draftee Jye Caldwell out of the game in a North VFL v AFL academy match. He's a big angry man who doesn't take a backward step. There's no one better on our list for Oscar to make a statement against to show he's ready to take on big forwards. The coaches need to design a drill that has them go one on one, word both players up and then let the magic happen.

7. The Nibble needs to add some bite to his nibbling
ANB is clearly our best forward pressure player and a great runner. His ability to go contest to contest and not give up a chase makes him a certain starter every week even when he’s doing very little good (or a lot of bad) with the ball.

That said, chasing is good, laying the tackles really ups the turnovers and is what makes you great as a pressure player. ANB probably isn’t going to suddenly develop Rioli like instincts and movement or get any quicker, he’s just not that type of athlete, but he still catches plenty of defenders and can increase the damage he does once he catches them by mastering some sneaky tackling tips. The Cyril Rioli special was grabbing an arm and then turning a guy to spill the ball loose. Ain't no thing but a chicken wing.

 

8. Run Bayley Run
When Fritsch was moved on to the wing for the 2^nd half against the Bombers I thought the team took a huge leap forward. We finally had a guy with lovely skills, the ability to get out in to space and overhead ability to bail out a bad kick. A lot of our best ball movement came through Fritsch. Clearly he tired as the year went on and he wasn’t as natural when forced to play half back. So to take his game (and the team) to the next level he needs to run like a gun wingman. Every indication from training so far is he’s running really well so I hope it continues.

 

[Demonland 72,176]

Love all your points. I just want a Premiership. 

[Moonshadow 17,676]

Like them all.

I'd only add that it would be great to see Lever play most of the season with no further knee problems. 

[Cards13 9,117]

2 hours ago, Demonland said:

Love all your points. I just want a Premiership. 

As soon as I saw the post and from DS I thought there will be multiple “wishes”, yet i have just the one. Premiership, just give us that sweet sweet feeling.

[4_Kent_Watts 888]

I'm pretty easily pleased, I want a MfC Stadium Jacket. Please Santa.

[Dee Zephyr 19,267]

Sign here - Weideman, Salem, ANB, Melksham, long term please. 

Have a Merry Christmas Demonland. ??

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,754]

Great list. I'd like to add:

1. That Viney (and others) improve their ability to kick on the "wrong" foot. Viney made good progress in that regard this year but off a very low base. I'd like to see him become even more comfortable when forced to kick with his right foot. 

2. That Jetta remember for 100% game time and for a whole season that there's no reason for him to go 4th defender up (or even 3rd) in a marking/spoiling contest. Again, he improved this year and remembered to stay down more often than not. But there were still times when he forgot that he would be the shortest player in that pack and more importantly, his man was waiting on the ground for the ball to come to him.  

[Lil_red_fire_engine 11,175]

1. Full season from Viney

2. Trac has a breakout 

3. Lever's full recovery

4. Weid build's on Geelong EF and signs early

5. Hunt and Kola get back to previous promise.

6. The Gawn/Preuss double delivers 

7. TMac outscores the bloke that went west

8. May proves he is the gorilla tamer we have desperately needed

[stevethemanjordan 6,952]

^ If all that happens, we play in a GF. 

[Bobby McKenzie 2,385]

11 hours ago, stevethemanjordan said:

^ If all that happens, we play in a GF. 

And we WIN!

[jnrmac 20,060]

Number 6. LOL

[MrReims 313]

After recently rewatching the Rnd 2 Lions game, having that jeff garlett in the team again would be nice

[ding 5,126]

Well the obvious #1 wish would be for a flag, and for me to be at the ground watching.

Next, in no particular order so I can do without the numbers for each line are, .....

 

# Petracca to finally deliver on the hype and become an AA.

# Jake Lever to recover fully from his knee, and stay fit/in form from early/mid-season. (We don't need him to rush back)

# S.May to slot into the backline from Rd 1 like he has played in our team for years. 

# Viney to recover 100% and stay that way all year. I don't need to wish for him to play well because if he if fit, we know how good he is.

I could actually stop right there because if those 4 things happen, we are a real shot at the flag, but for the sake of listing some other wishes, I will keep going

# KK and/or Hunt and/or Stretch to own the Wings. (We haven't had a great winger for many years)

# Preuss to play the relief ruck-switching forward well enough to give us the option to rest Maxy in games we don't need our A team. Even better would be for Preuss to play well enough to become a part of our A-Team.

# Weid to have a great year, and re-sign early in the season before going Ape droppings in front of goal from mid-season onwards. *I only hope to delay the Ape droppings part to keep his contract size manageable. (I have genuine faith that this kid is going to be a star of the comp in the coming years).

# Jeffy G to develop a massive hunger for the contest, and become our first choice small forward. (Ok, so this is a bit of a Hail Mary, but its a wish list after all) 

# NO MAJOR INJURIES !! This is the key to ANY clubs season. If I can't have any of the other wishes, this one will do me fine. No serious injuries to our best 22 and we will be as good a chance as anyone. Throw in 2 or 3 other the other wishes and our supporters will be off their faces with happiness at seasons end.

Go Dees.

Edited January 2, 2019 by ding

[faultydet 7,594]

On 12/23/2018 at 6:05 PM, Demonland said:

Love all your points. I just want a Premiership. 

Couldnt read a thing he posted. Too [censored].

 

But I want a flag also.

 

wooooohoooooooo