2 hours ago, 1964_2 said:

Agree with this. 

Brown’s form the last 2 weeks, is exactly what we have been hoping for all year. Can see the confidence rising by the week as well.

Nibbler was massive - nearly best game for the club 

Confidence and fitness. He moved a bit like the Terminator in the first couple of weeks (Arnie's version, not the T1000). His leap is better and he seems more able to get low in the tackles.

1 hour ago, titan_uranus said:

I agree, although I think we deserve to be cut some flak for last night with the lightning break.

Something’s not right with the world: this was posted an hour ago and not a word from @Demonstone 🤔 

2 hours ago, DubDee said:

Stay tuned for the defamation suit from Leppa   😂

Haha, until just now I thought that was Tim Watson haha.

Not really one to look for conspiracy theories with the umpires but it just seems to get worse year after year, just want to watch a game where the umpires aren't noticed. Be great to watch a game where our performance is not unduly influenced by the umpiring.

While I'm at it would the poster who was claiming that BB would be lucky to play 6 games, his knee was shot, and his preferences were elsewhere to football please fess up.

Still [censored] seething about the umpiring 🤬

And watched the highlights again

The booooing after the final siren... WtCF? They had 8 Frees to 1 (i think) post lightning and still booo the umpires?

What a pack of dead [censored] they are!

1 hour ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Something’s not right with the world: this was posted an hour ago and not a word from @Demonstone 🤔 

I was going to say something, but thought I might cop some slack.

37 minutes ago, Demonstone said:

I was going to say something, but thought I might cop some slack.

Just watched the replay. Wow. No wonder people turn the commentary off.

BT constantly pontificating on how people are feeling. We seemed to get the rub of 

the green with the umpiring. They let a lot go. The booing is ridiculous.

Is it on a loop or are they really that brain dead?

I would have thought that to boo you would need an excuse?

The third quarter was instructive.  AVB gave them their only goal.  For the rest, we won the majority of contests, wore them down and created scoring opportunities.  the 10 minute mark we were only about 6 points up, and the dam broke from there.  Nic Nac jogged after Max (what the hell is wrong with his goal kicking?  He is a good field kick), and we were well on top.  This was the game.

Other observations:  Kelly is so slick at moving the ball out of contests. Almost every time he was hands on they got a clean exit. 

Don’t know what drugs they took for the coaches votes.  Nic Nac 1 vote after that? For the one mark?

The umpiring was all over the shop.  At one point it looked like the Demons were almost second guessing their engagements as the free kicks were so blatantly running against them (in the 2nd)

There was a massive scoring differential to right of screen.  Our misses to the left were dreadful, and could cost us a close final.  Kozzi showed them how it was done.  After the lightning we were defending against the tide with them having nothing to lose - it was ugly, but we (just) got the job done.  They benefited from the breather more than we did, which shows that we have better match fitness across the match.  We are still immature in many ways and it showed up on our execution post-lightning delay.

Some impressive role players right across the park Petty, rivers, bowey, jj, Harmes.  Special mentions to ANB and Dogga. 

Kozzi tried to do too much and was not running to the right spots.  Still did lots of good in between.

AVB brings ‘tough’, when what we need is ‘touch’.  Might struggle to retain his spot.

I think we still have a lot of improvement in us.  We have a lot of good things going for us, and when we bring our full defensive press we are going to be tough to beat.  Glad we walked off with the 4 points.

Gee Fritsch was poor last night.

His kicking really gives me the [censored]. He looks so casual and leans back on his shots. Its such a basic thing. He needs to be leaning forward over his leg as he kicks.

Surprised they haven't drilled him at training. He has to make those shots count. Particulalry on a night when goals are hard to come by and he only gets two or three looks at it.

Petracca's kicking has the tendency to do the same when he leans back or kicks off a step. Annoying when he gets the ball and doesn't get back on the mark quickly - then goes for a hero kick...that nearly gets spoiled

Aaarrggh

.

Edited August 10, 20213 yr by adonski

1 hour ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Something’s not right with the world: this was posted an hour ago and not a word from @Demonstone 🤔 

51 minutes ago, Demonstone said:

I was going to say something, but thought I might cop some slack.

I was tired after staying up late watching the game...

2 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Gee Fritsch was poor last night.

His kicking really gives me the [censored]. He looks so casual and leans back on his shots. Its such a basic thing. He needs to be leaning forward over his leg as he kicks.

Surprised they haven't drilled him at training. He has to make those shots count. Particulalry on a night when goals are hard to come by and he only gets two or three looks at it.

Petracca's kicking has the tendency to do the same when he leans back or kicks off a step. Annoying when he gets the ball and doesn't get back on the mark quickly - then goes for a hero kick...that nearly gets spoiled

Aaarrggh

Neither of them are as bad as Gawn. Spins the ball around, ambles in, hoops out right and then hooks it massively left. Every. Time.

At least Fritsch has kicked 39.18 this year and Petracca 22.14. Gawn is 10.14. 

22 hours ago, Stiff Arm said:

Loving the development of Petty this season. Lever and May are great mentors for him. Thomo might find it hard to reclaim his place next year!

or one of them be redeployed as a forward?????  Agree, Harry has been enormous and improves week after week.

22 hours ago, dl4e said:

I am glad we got the 4 points but just cannot believe what I have seen. A game put on hold because of lightning ? Maybe I am just too old fashioned. We had them by the balls and that ridiculous break gave them a chance which theu came close to taking.

OHS is a big thing now ... like the head being sacrosanct (unless it is Selwood attacking).

23 minutes ago, defuture15 said:

Just watched the replay. Wow. No wonder people turn the commentary off.

BT constantly pontificating on how people are feeling. We seemed to get the rub of 

the green with the umpiring. They let a lot go. The booing is ridiculous.

Is it on a loop or are they really that brain dead?

I would have thought that to boo you would need an excuse?

One requires to have once possessed a functioning brain for it to be dead, so I doubt that is the case with BT.  

1 hour ago, Graeme Yeats' Mullet said:

Still [censored] seething about the umpiring 🤬

Agree. They had 28 to 14 frees. 8 frees to 1 in last 15 minutes after the lightning delay. 

cc: @jnrmac

On 8/9/2021 at 11:34 PM, Engorged Onion said:

For those who are a bit jaded by the last 15 minute output.

imagine you’re 6 goals up - 15 to go, you’ve cooled down - you’ve essentially sewn up top 4. And Burgess says, don’t go out and injure yourself, play it cool, play it safe…you’ve got another 5 matches to go for the season.

do you a) play it safe or b) ensure a greater likelihood of injury after cooling down and go really really hard?

 

Then imagine Burgess said nothing of the sort.

 

Haven't seen a moment of the game, but 4 points in Perf is epic and the only thing that mattered.

Rest up and make amends for our shocking loss to the Crows last time.

10 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

 

Petracca 22.14. . 

Add his on the fulls to his point tally and it would be 22.65. 

I wonder what tracks set shot percentage is. Terrible technique - including the ridiculous ball spinning Max does.

The best set shot routine I have seen in recent years was Watts. Short, slow run up with few moving parts

In his first full season I'm sure he had a simpler set shot technique. Shorter run up and kept the ball still. Not unlike Watts method  though the punched the ball a bit harder. Was very accurate from inside 40.

Tracc should go back to that style. Like his first goal he is so strong he can rely on his power to keep it straight. And punching means he kicks through it properly, whereas he often seems to lean back on it.

4 hours ago, faultydet said:

Then imagine Burgess said nothing of the sort.

 

...

Possibly not.  But I think the scenario Engorged painted would have been in the mind of every MFC player regardless.

16 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

Goodwin made an interesting comment in his press conf about learning to read 'game stages'.  And that they didn't prepare the players as well as they had hoped in that lightening break.  I'm thinking he is referring to our decision making or lack thereof when we had a 5-6 goal lead and just 15 min left and they nearly ran us down.    

Setting results aside for a minute, other such games this year were Adelaide: 16 pts up with 8 minutes to go and Hawks - a goal and a bit up with a few minutes left.  We didn't close those games down by using up time, forcing stoppages etc etc.  Umpiring decisions aside we lost and drew them.

A bit of work to do in our end-game strategies.  I'm sure we have them but we haven't always remembered to execute them as trained.  

I thought we played it a lot better than previous games. We chipped short when we could, and went long down the line when we couldn't and managed to get forward 50 entry but we couldn't get a F50 stoppage to be able to set up and lock it inside 50 or a mark inside 50. Also as Trac stated on AFL360 last night they started to take every contested mark which along with the frees gave them plenty of inside 50's.

11 minutes ago, Grimes Times said:

I thought we played it a lot better than previous games. We chipped short when we could, and went long down the line when we couldn't and managed to get forward 50 entry but we couldn't get a F50 stoppage to be able to set up and lock it inside 50 or a mark inside 50. Also as Trac stated on AFL360 last night they started to take every contested mark which along with the frees gave them plenty of inside 50's.

I noticed that.  I wasn't been critical just drawing attention to Goodwin's comment as it hadn't come up in the discussion.

Your comment and those of @DeeSpencerand @titan_uranus elaborate on my point that we didn't do enough to close down the game and that our end game strategies need work if we are to defend leads in the dying stages of games in finals.  

17 minutes ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

Your comment and those of @DeeSpencerand @titan_uranus elaborate on my point that we didn't do enough to close down the game and that our end game strategies need work if we are to defend leads in the dying stages of games in finals.  

I agree with your theme, but it's hard to shut down a game when umpires are awarding momentum-boosting series of frees to the opposition. Happened in the Adelaide game and happened in this WCE game.

8 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

I agree with your theme, but it's hard to shut down a game when umpires are awarding momentum-boosting series of frees to the opposition. Happened in the Adelaide game and happened in this WCE game.

I agree to some extent. 

I will cut the players a fair bit of slack 🙂 in that Eagles were kicking with the wind and we were probably trying to avoid injuries from restarting after a long cool down and many hours in planes/on tarmacs etc.

But Goodwin felt the need to comment on it.  And many could see where we fell short in the last 15 minutes.  Umpires or no, there are many defensive things we can do to close down a game and defend a lead.  I would like to be confident that we can do it in finals.

Edited August 10, 20213 yr by Lucifer's Hero

18 hours ago, Engorged Onion said:

Good stuff @roy11 - what do you find interesting about it?

well a few things, mainly Harmes played well but seemingly wasn't on for as long as others. Maybe less time to make an error aha. Nah well played all. Good win for Goodwin

22 hours ago, leave it to deever said:

Talk about entitled. I do believe their booing does impact the umpiring and is the reason they do it.

Its the booing of opposition kicking set shots that does my head in.

Its really un-australian and unsportsmanlike to be honest. The sustained constant booing throughout a game is bordering on the ridiculous (or well past it). I get a bit sick of commentators saying its a fantastic atmosphere in this stadium (which im sure it can be) but please dont encourage these feral bogans. Its becoming a real blight on the game.

(this goes for you too Geelong)

Christian Salem has been charged with tripping and offered a fine of $1000 (down from $1500 if he pleads guilty) following an incident in the third quarter involving Eagle Dom Sheed.