15 minutes ago, rjay said:

May is the one I would keep an eye on...has had some soft tissue problems over the last few years.

Wouldn't want to risk him.

It will be an interesting to watch how we handle him and Max to a lesser degree.

Agree with this and add that , believe it or not ,Jackson strikes me as being one that is under the radar we really need.

That way he stays fit, learns, albeit good contributor, and covers Max"s load at the same time. Could work well, could be problematic.

24 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

4 games in 14 days including two interstate trips 

5 games in 20 days 

That would not happen to anyone but MFC.  We’d better not play Swans and Giants in SYDNEY - ffs

This may not be the correct place for this post. But the way I see it, by Thursday week we will have played Richmond, Cats, Brisbane and Port.  Four teams regarded as very likely finalists . Then two weeks later we will have played the Pies. Somewhere in the remaining weeks we must have a run of matches v the lesser clubs . A win in R 17 v Swans  would  be just as valuable as this week’s match, if it gets us into the finals

19 hours ago, binman said:

I reckon a big problem with rotating players is that with all its zones, patterns and structures team synergy is critical in footy circa 2020.

You mess with team chemistry at your place peril. 

Rotating players risks increasing the chanced of osing games in this block and disrupting the chemistry going forward, increasing the chances of losses in the next block. Even with a fitter, rested team.

And in any case we need wins now.

Yep, it's why many of the top EPL sides try not to rotate the squad, but when they do, it often leads to slip ups. Liverpool kept the same back 4 for the majority of the season and usually played the same front 3, enabling rotations through the midfield positions that require arguably greater fitness anyway (even though the attackers need great fitness too as Liverpool defends from the front 3).

I'd be going with no changes at all if we can help it, because as you say, don't mess with the chemistry. Only if it's clear your mids are tiring would I make any changes to the midfield (outside of an injury of course).

I think the most important area of the ground not to mess with is our defensive set up and I think we need to play these guys together as much as possible.

So for mine, the forwardline personnel can be tinkered with depending on the opponent, but I think it's pretty clear that we need to play two talls, with Weideman being one of them, playing deep and across half forward. Then Jackson playing second fiddle, with TMac as back up KPF.

I find it interesting that we're thinking about playing Tom on a wing. This would suggest strongly that we see Weideman and Jackson as ultimately working and that Tom needs to carve another niche for himself. If he can kick goals from the wing and gut run hard both ways, that is going to give us an additional weapon that is very hard to match up on.

I wouldn't mind seeing Fritsch and McDonald rotate between wing and half forward as well. We constantly need guys willing to lead and run again to create space for others. That's a key to the shorter kicking game we implemented in particular last week.

It'll be fascinating to see what we do if we can get through this congested period without losing and without injury. Will we look to mess with team chemistry on the other side of it to freshen things up, or will we want to keep the chemistry going?

I think ultimately where we want to get to is to play a system where as players can be plug and plays as possible. The Bulldogs premiership side of 2016 was brilliant at this and big on system. Our 2017 side wasn't too bad at that either, when he were missing Gawn for large chunks. So Goodwin has shown himself to be big on systems, but it's whether our team can get to that level of consistency and understanding of team roles, that is another matter.

51 minutes ago, A F said:

...

I find it interesting that we're thinking about playing Tom on a wing. This would suggest strongly that we see Weideman and Jackson as ultimately working and that Tom needs to carve another niche for himself. If he can kick goals from the wing and gut run hard both ways, that is going to give us an additional weapon that is very hard to match up on.

I wouldn't mind seeing Fritsch and McDonald rotate between wing and half forward as well. We constantly need guys willing to lead and run again to create space for others. That's a key to the shorter kicking game we implemented in particular last week.

It'll be fascinating to see what we do if we can get through this congested period without losing and without injury. Will we look to mess with team chemistry on the other side of it to freshen things up, or will we want to keep the chemistry going?

I think ultimately where we want to get to is to play a system where as players can be plug and plays as possible. The Bulldogs premiership side of 2016 was brilliant at this and big on system. Our 2017 side wasn't too bad at that either, when he were missing Gawn for large chunks. So Goodwin has shown himself to be big on systems, but it's whether our team can get to that level of consistency and understanding of team roles, that is another matter.

I agree - would give us great flexibility.  Fritsch has shown he has great foot skills when deliving the ball into the forward line, TMac's running capacity will trouble some opponents and both would give us an extra marking option further up the ground.

It might not work but we have Vanders (and Tomlinson) in reserve if that is the case. 

Would love us to develop some more unique weapons that force the opposition to worry about us rather than the other way round.

I’d rather play Crows, Swans and Kangas right now whilst they are down.  Hard to see them getting any worse ! 

13 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Agree absolutely with this.

When you add in the Essendon game, I think the additional disruption that our side dealt with is one of the key reasons why our form has only just turned the corner.

This is the really screwed up thing with the Essendon game, we miss out on being able to have a rest when the whole competition gets to recover. I know it could just be seen as “one of those things” but it still feels like we’ve got the raw end of the stick. 

naturally we'll pick the best team from fit players. Sounds like a obvious question from a reporter.

What I am happy about is the AFL not to allow additional bench players.  Squads with older players and already more injuries will fit it tougher, I think our main list is pretty good shape going into the marathon.

7 minutes ago, Darkhorse72 said:

naturally we'll pick the best team from fit players. Sounds like a obvious question from a reporter.

What I am happy about is the AFL not to allow additional bench players.  Squads with older players and already more injuries will fit it tougher, I think our main list is pretty good shape going into the marathon.

I think we would’ve been a team that benefited had they extended the bench, we have a healthy list a would’ve been able to rotate players through the game. But I’m fine with the decision not to, there’s been plenty of tinkering already this year.