Watching the Tigers-Power game today and the Lions-Roos game tonight, footy is a game on real intensity.  If we have not got real grit and energy and desire to win the footy, talent alone isn’t a factor. 

Loved the Martin-Prestia-Boak-PowellPepper grunt today and the Robinson-Zorko-Cunnington-Ziebell grunt tonight. 

Tackles

Head over the footy 

Smothers

Knock ons

Real hard chases and pressure

It made me question who are our MFC soldiers.  When the heats on, who gets it and looks for the contest. 

Oliver, Viney yes but who else? Jetta. Steven May showed recently his steel. Lockhart has shown me he has it. Others are harder to identify!

Couldn't disagree more to be honest.

We have plenty of 'grunt', and grunt isn't improving our delivery or use inside 50.

8 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Watching the Tigers-Power game today and the Lions-Roos game tonight, footy is a game on real intensity.  If we have not got real grit and energy and desire to win the footy, talent alone isn’t a factor. 

Loved the Martin-Prestia-Boak-PowellPepper grunt today and the Robinson-Zorko-Cunnington-Ziebell grunt tonight. 

Tackles

Head over the footy 

Smothers

Knock ons

Real hard chases and pressure

It made me question who are our MFC soldiers.  When the heats on, who gets it and looks for the contest. 

Oliver, Viney yes but who else? Jetta. Steven May showed recently his steel. Lockhart has shown me he has it. Others are harder to identify!

Harmes, the Jones boy & AVB (IF he returns).  Not sure he'll make the grade but Cwags hits in pretty hard also.

Would add ANB & Salem in there as well.  The latter two don't exactly body line the ball at every opp but that's probably not their forte'.  Both lay their fair share of tackles if my eyes aren't deceiving me.

Apologies. How did I forget Harmesy.  Yes Harmesy is a soldier.  He loves the contest. 

Pretty sure Tom Mac holds the record for one percenters in a single game this year by any player.

last year our club leader for 1%s was Omac....

 

8 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Watching the Tigers-Power game today and the Lions-Roos game tonight, footy is a game on real intensity.  If we have not got real grit and energy and desire to win the footy, talent alone isn’t a factor. 

Loved the Martin-Prestia-Boak-PowellPepper grunt today and the Robinson-Zorko-Cunnington-Ziebell grunt tonight. 

Tackles

Head over the footy 

Smothers

Knock ons

Real hard chases and pressure

It made me question who are our MFC soldiers.  When the heats on, who gets it and looks for the contest. 

Oliver, Viney yes but who else? Jetta. Steven May showed recently his steel. Lockhart has shown me he has it. Others are harder to identify!

I was at the Tigers-Port game yesterday and had these exact sentiments. It’s not so much grunt,  because we do have grunt players, but what really stood out was the constant running from the Tigers’ mids. Whether in attack or defence, they offer pressure and options: when they win a contest and break from it, there seems to always be 2 or 3 options. They also know where each other is - for example, I saw very few missed handballs or handballing to a stationary target.

Added to this, when you have a couple of legitimate marking forwards in Reiwoldt and Lynch, as well as some good half forwards and crumbers, it make the transition from back half stoppage to Forward 50 entry so much easier.

The Tigers play the game that we are trying to play, but without the ‘panic’. The intensity and ferocity of ‘panic ball’ is there, but clear heads, when it comes to distribution and decision making.

5 hours ago, 3183 Dee said:

I was at the Tigers-Port game yesterday and had these exact sentiments. It’s not so much grunt,  because we do have grunt players, but what really stood out was the constant running from the Tigers’ mids. Whether in attack or defence, they offer pressure and options: when they win a contest and break from it, there seems to always be 2 or 3 options. They also know where each other is - for example, I saw very few missed handballs or handballing to a stationary target.

Added to this, when you have a couple of legitimate marking forwards in Reiwoldt and Lynch, as well as some good half forwards and crumbers, it make the transition from back half stoppage to Forward 50 entry so much easier.

The Tigers play the game that we are trying to play, but without the ‘panic’. The intensity and ferocity of ‘panic ball’ is there, but clear heads, when it comes to distribution and decision making.

2 way running should be the first thing coached into players

Why do we always lack in that area?

5 hours ago, 3183 Dee said:

I was at the Tigers-Port game yesterday and had these exact sentiments. It’s not so much grunt,  because we do have grunt players, but what really stood out was the constant running from the Tigers’ mids. Whether in attack or defence, they offer pressure and options: when they win a contest and break from it, there seems to always be 2 or 3 options. They also know where each other is - for example, I saw very few missed handballs or handballing to a stationary target.

Added to this, when you have a couple of legitimate marking forwards in Reiwoldt and Lynch, as well as some good half forwards and crumbers, it make the transition from back half stoppage to Forward 50 entry so much easier.

The Tigers play the game that we are trying to play, but without the ‘panic’. The intensity and ferocity of ‘panic ball’ is there, but clear heads, when it comes to distribution and decision making.

Great call.

I feel like a lot of that stuff stems from trust in each other on field. We don't seem to have much of that for some reason. Very few players shepherd, even less move to useful spots when they don't have the ball. We seem to have no idea what each other is going to do. This is the reason we crowd the ball so much, fly for the same marks and bomb it inside 50. Less 'chaos ball' and more trust next year thanks Goody.

10 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

Great call.

I feel like a lot of that stuff stems from trust in each other on field. We don't seem to have much of that for some reason. Very few players shepherd, even less move to useful spots when they don't have the ball. We seem to have no idea what each other is going to do. This is the reason we crowd the ball so much, fly for the same marks and bomb it inside 50. Less 'chaos ball' and more trust next year thanks Goody.

I think that you’ve nailed it regarding the trust - of course, part of that can be put down to this year’s team being so disjointed through injuries, so there has been very little consistency in the team personnel. It’s not necessarily injuries to key players that have hurt us the most this year, more that most weeks there have been enforced changes which have disrupted the flow.

Just now, 3183 Dee said:

I think that you’ve nailed it regarding the trust - of course, part of that can be put down to this year’s team being so disjointed through injuries, so there has been very little consistency in the team personnel. It’s not necessarily injuries to key players that have hurt us the most this year, more that most weeks there have been enforced changes which have disrupted the flow.

For sure. We've used more players than any other team this year, nearly the whole list. That's a big part of it for, but I think the chaotic game style also doesn't lend itself to trust as far as what's going to happen and what players are going to do. Bit of a deadly combination between those two factors. I hope we can get our coaching setup all sorted as early as possibly, have them nut out the style a bit more clearly and then spend the preseason hammering it into the players so it becomes more 'automatic' and they develop that trust.

We have plenty of grunt and intensity, but we lack the smarts, game style and cohesion to capitalise on our hard work.

If we manage to work out how to efficiently move the ball, our grunt and intensity will stand us in good stead.