How good are Sunday mornings after a big win over the magpies. I reckon it sits somewhere between Rangers beating Celtic and England being knocked out of a World Cup or the Euros. 

Pruess’s performance was incredible, considering the circumstances of no VFL to hone his match fitness. He was clearly under instructions to look for handballs rather then kicking, which is smart coaching. Max should do similar. 
 

No question Pies we’re far from full strength, but gee how dumb are their supporters backing them Into favourites? Bookies love it when Pies are performing poorly, money still piles in regardless. 
 

Ed Langdon’s ability to get back into defence and then still able to quickly present further up the ground has made a massive difference to our defence. 
 

Big admirer of Sidebottom, and even though he had 29 disposals, we were able to limit his effectiveness. It looked like Sparrow was his tag  at times, be interested at the coaches assessment of his game. 

Yesterday I stated 

Im calling this the season defining and maybe Coach defining MFC BLOWTORCH DAY

In order of importance the heat is on the following

1 Blowtorch ... Every single player brings a 4 quarter effort, plays their role and importantly we don't waste opportunities by kicking points instead of goals. Weeds must kick crunch goals and so too Fritsch, who misses some easy ones as well.

2 Blowtorches ... The following players who MUST lift... Melksham, Jones , Vanders, Harmes, Spargo, T Mac, ( yep get that they both  played well last week ) but must sustain it, 

3 Blowtorches ... Goody, . Two wins against meek opposition will mean jack sheeeet if he can't manufacture a win and get his matchups right and win a game against a tired Collingwood with some good players out. Very good  teams cover champion players like Max, so time to step up.

Today Im saying ?  Fires have been extinguished 

Re Blowtorch 1 All players played a 4 quarter game. Fritsch still misses easy chances though

Re Blowtorch 2  All players lifted some exponentially so! Spargo, Harmes, Vanders all excellent!

Re Blowtorch 3 Re Goodys coaching, structures were good intensity was up and I thought he outcoached Buckley!

Well done  but please do  not drop what should be a win next week!

Does anyone know whether Pruess got an injury and played on through the last quarter?

The AFL app had him as injured during the third quarter and he was not sighted at this time.

I know he came back, but wonder if he was carrying something, putting him in doubt for selection next week 

14 hours ago, Satyriconhome said:

@picket fence @WERRIDEE  so how was Spargo's game?

Close to his best game. Credit where due! 

5 minutes ago, Neitas bump said:

Does anyone know whether Pruess got an injury and played on through the last quarter?

The AFL app had him as injured during the third quarter and he was not sighted at this time.

I know he came back, but wonder if he was carrying something, putting him in doubt for selection next week 

The below is from the AFL APP. Doesn’t mention any injuries for us but who knows. 
 

MELBOURNE            3.3      10.4    12.4    16.4 (100)
COLLINGWOOD        1.1      5.2      6.6      6.8 (44)

GOALS
Melbourne: Spargo 3, Fritsch 2, Langdon 2, Melksham 2, Weideman 2, Brayshaw, McDonald, Petracca, Pickett, Sparrow
Collingwood: Reid 2, Adams, Brown, Elliott, Hoskin-Elliott

BEST
Melbourne: Oliver, Langdon, Petracca, Brayshaw, Hibberd, May, Spargo
Collingwood: Sidebottom, Adams, Grundy, Daicos 

INJURIES
Melbourne: Nil
Collingwood: Mihocek (concussion), Reid (hamstring)

3 minutes ago, Neitas bump said:

Does anyone know whether Pruess got an injury and played on through the last quarter?

The AFL app had him as injured during the third quarter and he was not sighted at this time.

I know he came back, but wonder if he was carrying something, putting him in doubt for selection next week 

He came off in front of us and it appeared to me as a cramp. Laid on ground and got his legs worked on. No surprise seeing he has hardly had any sort of game of past months. Hope it was only a cramp.

Seeing live again what impressed so much was our gut running up and down ground including Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw but the best one was Langdon. He just ran and ran up and down the same wing all night. Very impressive. We seem to be as fit as any team. Going along very nicely at present.

9 hours ago, 3Dee said:

Just thinking about what Spargo is gonna order at the Nudgee Macca's on the way home to Maroochydore .

He certainly deserves it.  I wouldv'e shouted the kid.

1 minute ago, Docs Demons said:

He came off in front of us and it appeared to me as a cramp. Laid on ground and got his legs worked on. No surprise seeing he has hardly had any sort of game of past months. Hope it was only a cramp.

Seeing live again what impressed so much was our gut running up and down ground including Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw but the best one was Langdon. He just ran and ran up and down the same wing all night. Very impressive. We seem to be as fit as any team. Going along very nicely at present.

he was off for the last 5 or so minutes of the third quarter, i think

langdon's running up and down the ground plus scoreboard impact was the reason he was bog for mine

Geez I'm loving the salty comments from my Filth supporting 'mates'. They are coming up with the flimsiest excuses left, right and centre for their flogging, including the classic 'it's not a real season'! LOL

I particularly love when they have a crack about having injuries, only played out VFL team etc and I simply reply, "Why did you tip them to win them?"  SILENCE!!! HAHahaaaaaa

Enjoy the week Melbourne Legends - we've earned it!

13 hours ago, Earl Hood said:

One of the many plusses for the night was Puess I thought. What I loved was not that he smashed the ruck because he didn’t but he competed and took the odd mark and kicked the ball long to advantage. He showed some footy IQ which I thought he didn’t have. In the past he has mixed good stuff with bad stuff but today after a long layoff he seriously challenged Grundy I thought. Max can take an extra week if he needs it now. 

Agree Earl. I would imagine a number of opposition recruiters also took note of his performance. His value just went up.

46 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Soft Rusty...

Was worth every drop. Now watching the replay on Fox Footy is even better.

Recovery not so good post 50 Dazzle.  Enjoy!

1 hour ago, Scoop Junior said:

A very good performance for four quarters - looked superior from the start, always had the answers and never really looked like being seriously challenged.

The most interesting thing to me was the manner of the win. It was very different to the usual Melbourne wins - in fact, it was almost a reverse of what the opposition usually does to us. Even in many losses we've had clear wins in contested ball, clearances and inside 50s, but just either failed with the last kick inside 50 or missed chances in front of goal. The opposition on the flip side would be more efficient and take their chances and we'd lose despite dominating some of the key stats.

Last night we were level in contested ball and inside 50s and the Pies shaded the clearances. Yet we won the game by 10 goals. It was a complete reversal of the roles - we were the team scoring every time we went inside 50 (20 scores from 40 inside 50s is a big return), kicking accurately (only two more scoring shots after quarter time but a score of 13.1 to 5.7), hitting targets around the ground and taking uncontested marks. I thought the Pies were at least our equal if not better in terms of getting first hands on it at stoppages but they fumbled, over-handballed, turned it over by foot through the middle of the ground and then struggled to score when inside 50.

It does need to be kept in mind that this was a Pies team missing some key players and going through a poor patch off a four-day break. I thought they looked pretty woeful against the Crows and they carried that into this match. They then also lost two players by midway through the third and had Ruscoe limping around for the second half with a corkie. This is not to understate what was a great performance by us, but just backs up what I've said for a while that it's a fairly even competition and things like injuries, fitness and confidence can be the difference between a team looking a premiership contender (Collingwood earlier in the season) and one looking about a 10-12 side (Collingwood the last few weeks).

Pickett was fumbly, but just as you are happy if young key forwards get to the right spots and get their hands to the ball at marking contests (even if they drop them, as you know with more strength and confidence they will start to clunk them), his performance was the small forward equivalent. He regularly got to the right spots and got hands on the ball but just couldn't be clean at the crucial moment. Tidy that up and he probably could've kicked 3 or 4 tonight. His reading of the drop of the ball from marking contests is exceptional.

I think Lever is getting unfair criticism based on some glaring errors. Unfortunately these few mistakes stick in people's mind more than the brilliant work he did for the majority of the match, which often doesn't get noticed. His positioning was fantastic and on many occasions when the Pies got the ball around 80m out and looked up, there was Lever plugging the hole and causing indecision in the inside 50 kick. He was a big part of why we defended our back 50 so well and only leaked 6 goals from 41 inside 50s.

Great to win a game based on being the cleaner and more efficient team. Also pleasing to see more evidence to support the view that the Port performance was an aberration, which some of us on here maintained at the time despite the many panic merchants thinking it was a true representation of who we are as a side.

Agree re: the manner of the win. I think that might be the most pleasing aspect of the performance. We won by 10 goals despite not dominating in the ruck, in CPs, in clearances and inside 50s (I presume also we didn't dominate time in forward half).

Hopefully the players are now feeling confident in our ability to compete even when we're not on top in our "one wood" areas. 

Also agree re: Lever. The 2-3 errors he made were bad and noticeable but overall the way he, May, Hibberd, Salem and Lockhart are setting up behind the ball is a key reason why, the Port game aside, we've been tough to score against since we left VIctoria.

36 minutes ago, Demonland said:

 

Interesting. Would love to know the figures for Petracca, Viney and Oliver for comparison's sake.

@A F - do you think 73% is about right for Brayshaw? 

Last night gives me confidence we can get the balance right with the four of them.

When the human hammer VDB ( Mighty Thor) wacked Mihocek the other side were in fear.

He's worth his weight in iron.

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

What's better then waking up to a Sunday morning with a cracking hangover knowing your team has flogged the filth by over 50 points ?

Waking up Monday with the same result!!?

19 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Interesting. Would love to know the figures for Petracca, Viney and Oliver for comparison's sake.

@A F - do you think 73% is about right for Brayshaw? 

Last night gives me confidence we can get the balance right with the four of them.

Anecdotally, it looked like Viney and Petracca played some different roles more often. Also, Sparrow was in for a few centre bounces as well.

2 hours ago, D4Life said:

Changed your view since we were 1-3!

How so?

13 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

Petracca was interviewed post-game and was asked what had changed since the Port game. He said defence.

IMO, it's been noticeable (and was improving prior to the Port game too).

We've got far more defensive running from our mids, better pressure in the front half, and our back half structure is so much better and improves every week.

I agree on Pickett. I think he's close to ripping a game completely open. He fumbles too much but he's so often in the right spot, he's got a surprisingly good tank for a first year player, and his workrate is spot on. All things I'm sure the FD rate.

I just don't get it with Smith.

I don't think we can go into a game with Weideman and Smith as our two key forwards.

I think it has to be Weideman and TMac, and if not TMac, then Brown, unless/until Jackson is fit. I don't think we can risk putting Smith in as a second tall forward when he's so loose and untrustworthy.

That is certainly right with Smith , We should not be even suggesting his name to be picked.   Not up to AFL standard. Nowhere near .

I am sorry, l can see it.

There are many local clubs that would welcome him. 

4 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

Anecdotally, it looked like Viney and Petracca played some different roles more often. Also, Sparrow was in for a few centre bounces as well.

We appeared to maximise Brayshaw and Oliver in the middle and rotate Viney, Trac and Sparrow through half forward as the third. 

9 hours ago, kev martin said:

 

What we can improve upon:

Some players were in and out of the game, apparent confusion at the stoppages, lack of Sheparding, getting to where Preuss taps the ball, May shirking a mark, Picketts fumbling (though goes when he gets it) and a few losing there footing.

Tough to find anymore, an impressive outing.

Lever's wild panic 'clearance' HB that gifted a goal...

Harmes switch kick that was cut off by Varcoe who fortunately hit the post.

Will HE chest marking a high ball in the goal square by himself..

There's plenty but we more than made up for them in other areas. a great overall game

1 hour ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Definitely a happy meal. 

Bahaha actually LOL'd

I love the way now our backs, forwards and mids are functioning as a unit - no one dominating, all playing their part and presenting multiple options. This is the big difference and why it looks good for future games because there is no reliance on one individual to star. In the words of Del Boy - luvely jubbly and kushtie.

Wonderfully satisfying four quarter win.

That it was against the Pies is as Bruce would say.... "Special"

Very much enjoying Oliver kicking more and of course Spargo. Also very happy for Hibberd in this difficult year.

Petracca is playing well but if he and Brayshaw can lift a gear we might be able to match it with the big boys.

The next six games are an almost impossibly gruelling schedule but each is winnable. Unfortunately the top 4 appears beyond our reach even if we do the impossible. In this strange season there is probably little difference between finishing fifth or eighth.

Edited August 16, 20204 yr by Diamond_Jim

The mark Weed took in the goal square Off a Melk kick where he was looking over his right shoulder and had a collywobble defender right up his clacker was priceless.  
 

It shut the Collingwood fans up well and truely. 
 

Weed has matured nicely which is great for him and us.