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The lads passing Holbrook...

On the highway with Uncle Bitter. White knuckle driving at its best. Mad Max-esque. If you see two empty seats in the throng of the Hill Stand you'll know we crashed and burned

So another game day in an exciting season. I am sure we all do different things on game day and I am wondering what others do. This is my game day. A game in Canberra, so a lot of supporters will be in the same boat as I am every week, unable to get to the game and watching live on a screen. I am based in Europe so I am 8 hours behind. Game starts at 5.45am for me. I wake 15 mins before the first bounce. Do what I have to do. Watch the first half on an iPad in bed. Come half time I have a shower, get the coffee ready and breakfast. Second half is had over breakfast. The cereal ends up all,over the table. The hangover (Italian wine this evening) is either pounding (we're losing.... ) or receding (we're winning...) it is a fine balancing act. it really is a knife edge existence, not attending games live. It is, in some ways, a lonely existence. I can hear the crowd reaction on the visual and know why they are yelling, but I am apart from it. so, I yell,at the images, tell,Goodwin what to do... abuse the maggots.... tell,players in no uncertain terms how useless they are...... all ok milk and cereal... .... and then, when the game is over, I have to go,about my day... win or lose..... go about my day.... In the evening, in a calmer frame of mind I watch the replay with a drink or seven.... the boys will,win it today...or tomorrow.... for themselves and for supporters like us.... the ones that, no matter what the circumstances, are there, week after week watching, cheering, cursing.... wanting the rewards a win will bring. what sort of day are others looking forward to?

Just looked out the hotel window, sky is mostly blue, some wind, but not gusty, and according to the weather app on my phone, any chance of rain will be 0% by 1:30pm at which time the temperature will be 11c (feels like 1c). This has been a public service announcement.

Hi VP. Barry is my old man and he, together with a few old codgers who used to frequent Beach Road Oval, taught me everything I know. Unfortunately, although he used to enjoy the odd drink (and there was always a plentiful supply flowing from the social club) his medical condition makes drinking even more hazardous for him than back in the day. He and my mum, Mavis, reconciled a few years ago (after the accident he had with the lawn mower) and they upped stumps and retired to the Gold Coast where they live in a nice aged care facility not far from the Yatala prison where mum can visit her brothers. The ground here has lots of memories but it's not like it was in the old days.

Attended the pregame function in Canberra today. Brendan McCartney was the guest speaker. He was super impressive. Here are some of the points he made . . . We are getting it right 85 percent of the time – flags are won by teams that get it right 90 percent of the time No team ever operates at 100 percent – that’s a fallacy Often he can tell who’s going to win a grand final within two minutes of the opening bounce based on how many numbers are at the ball and mistakes made Numbers at the connect is what counts – bad teams have players that leave the contest too early or arrive to late You know the side is playing well when you leave a contest and the opponent is on the ground Pressure acts must be executed with the body close to the ball/opponent (i.e. not with the arms out stretched and the body at a distance from the pressure act) The Melbourne game style is based on a ‘physical’, style of game – hard to play but ultimately successful in finals Teams that don’t play a physical style (he said there were six at the moment) will be found out in September Young, low profile coaching group and it’s a deliberate approach to keep media profile low Under pressure, players default to their ‘instinctive’ way of playing (this was in reference to a question about Jack Watts) Players attend around 16 meetings a week Players review clips of their performance Most players are able to provide accurate self-analysis of their performance Videos are made and reviewed of training sessions and more is often learnt from these than game footage His role is one of mentoring and assisting the assistant coaches – often sitting in on their meetings with players Goody’s role is confined as much as possible to the players and game day (90 percent of his time) the other 10 percent is meetings with the board or managers etc. A club is operating well when it can find good players low down in the draft (in reference to Maynard) Priority has been to recruit players “who love the contest” The players are acutely aware of how their performances effect the supporters Many players who were treated poorly by the club a few years ago are now around the club (McDonald was mentioned) Most professionally run club he’s been involved with The club has provided a lot of education about the history of the MFC to the players and they all love the place At any one time a maximum of 90 percent of the players will be buying into the game plan or coaching philosophy and anyone who says they have 100 percent buy in is kidding themselves All players are given full and frank information about their performance and no player can claim to be in any doubt about the standards required from the club (both on and off the field) and how their contribution is measured When asked about why the players do “dump things” he said footy teams are like any other endeavor where people management is involved . . . just because a coach (CEO/manager/parent) directs something to be done (example sighted was kicking long with the wind last week), it doesn’t mean they will/can execute it

You're kidding right?

There is one thing from this game that stands out to me the most, and that is the total disconnect we have at the moment across our half forward line. Our least influential players on the ground today were our tall forwards and Garlett. That says either our forwards are not working hard enough, or our disposal and decision making forward of centre needs to change. I think it's a case of both. We like to 'bomb it in' so to speak, except the problem we have is that all three of our tall forwards actually prefer being hit up on the lead. So we fluff around with it and then kick it long and high. We don't mark it, ball hits the deck and GWS run off with it without too much pressure. It was predictable today, but you also feel a little for the forwards as they didn't exactly get silver service. A forward relies plenty on the delivery of the ball, and ours at the moment is not good. For us to challenge for finals we need to change it, and change it fast. I also think we went in a little too top heavy - did we need Pedersen, or could we have plonked Petracca in the square as we had Jones, Vince and Maynard coming in to the side? Do we need to get players like Salem and Hunt further up the ground so we can use their foot skills and pace more often? Are we going in with too many contested ball winners? Lots of questions need answering, but they CAN be answered. That's what gives me hope. We are still right in the finals race and we have 3 weeks to make it happen. I remember us playing for a finals spot in 1994 in the final round, and this year seems very similar to me. That year we weren't playing great footy coming in, and this year we are doing the same. Time is on our side at the minute though, and I can do nothing but back the players, coaches and the club in from here.

Too many players gave us little to nothing until it was far too late, including but not limited to Garlett, Hunt, Petracca, Jones and Viney. With that in mind, I'm looking forward to how this thread will all be centred around how terrible Lewis, OMac and Watts were (admittedly, the latter was terrible in the first half). If Demonland crashes tonight, I'm outta here.

3 of the arsiest goals I've seen in about 5 minutes . When the Scully goal happened I knew it wasn't our day. 99 times out of 100 that never happens. Then the umps started plucking.

I saw plenty. Gawn is back. Jones needed a few quarters to get back into form. Has never had to come back into a side after injury before. Back at the G for last 3 weeks. Everyone relax. lol

Disagree. We low balled him on a contract offer and he ended up T the team he supported as a youngster. He would still be a Demon if we wanted him.

We will win by 43 points or lose by 7 points .

Got his 1st kick in the 3rd quarter so I guess he did have a better half.

My sentiments exactly, get sick to [censored] death of 'supporters' singling out one player when at least 12 others were as bad or worse

To be fair, they show 5 seconds of a 20 minute break. While I think leadership in games like this is a valid question to ask, I'd be careful about drawing conclusions from such anecdotal evidence.

We have too many one paced players through our midfield. We also have too many players who don't maximise their disposals. We played poor yet cost ourselves the game with 20 minutes of effortless, leaderless football in the first. In my opinion the drop in form of Petracca and Hunt two of our most dynamic players has coincided with our drop off recently.

Maynard looks like a find Crap effort Handball game was predicted by GWS and they flooded the contest Goodwin outcoached

Stupid comment. 1) Picking on the easiest target 2) You are wrong why don't you aim up on some of the "experienced" players who bottled it today.

We've also proven we can defend scores without Lever. Letting go of Hogan is completely illogical. I can't believe it's even being considered.

I saw it as well - it said ' farrrk '

Bumped into a player on Wednesday night, it's fair to say he was furious with the effort last week ( particularly a handful of players ). If the look in his eye and want to redeem is replicated across the whole team we will win.

Picture that with a Demons scarf around the neck. Mad Max crossed with Pricilla.

Disagree: just needs confidence. A click in his brain, hey I can do this.

Nothing personal, bloke, but couldn't you go be all chipper elsewhere?

Loved Max's game. He is one tough son of a gun!

Really? There are plenty of other fish to fry. Sad that a thread is committed to this.

The game was lost in the first half.

Lifted significantly in the second half.

What more can he do? Well get the ball forward for a start. 32 touches but only one i50. Poor return. Goodwin needs to find a way to convert his great stats to Oliver having a real impact on the game. Don't get me wrong, I love Oliver as much as you and others do. But we aren't getting the value from his efforts that we should.

Good one. Goes around again next week on that performance. Good to see the boys get around him for his goal.

It sure does. Rational thinking suggests that Braysh should be held out as long as possible as he's only been back a short time... But Goody has brought in some really out-of-nowhere guys... Hannan early in the year, JKH the second time... And usually they work. If he gets picked, I'll be super pumped.

At 1/2 time the camera cut to our rooms. Jones, Lewis and Viney sat looking despondently and blankly into space. No talk between them or with other players. In that moment I knew we had no chance. I expect our leaders to show some energy, get around the players, especially the young ones, give them some encouragement. Show they care. Nope. Nothing. Lead and they will follow. Don't lead and we become like Brown's cows. We supporters deserve better than that from our so called leaders.

Brayshaw in

Tidy debut.

Any team that starts relying on other results to secure a finals position really doesn't deserve to play finals. I've come to terms with that this week. For all the good our upsets against Adelaide and West Coast did, we squandered it with 4 unacceptable losses against North, Fremantle and Hawthorn. Hardly our fault though. I'm not one to make excuses but we've been utterly cruelled by injuries to our most important players all year. The suspensions haven't helped either but they are self inflicted by poor discipline.

18 disposals, 10 contested 6tackles ??????? 1goal.

Casey playing very well in the last. Weid involved forward 2 great marks. Casey first 2 goals.

What's with Mummy lining up Gawn in the third electing to bump rather than tackle collecting him in the head with his shoulder and the umpire calling play on? Should have been a free kick and 50 metre

It's worth pointing out who is standing up in such a disgusting effort with so much on the line. Jetta is the first to come to mind who can hold his head up.

I'm broken. I've hung in there all these years and continually paid memberships, travelled to games, even when I need to use annual leave the next day. But now I just cant do this anymore. The anger is getting worse watching this game style and the constant choking and lack of leaders. It's ruining my weekends. It's been a blast, but I'm done.

We just arent interested. Im am so over Watts. Been supporting the guy for ten years but Im happy to palm him off to a club. He plays bruise free footy.

Hey KC, see if you can find Barry From Beech Road down there. Did the same sort of thing for us when MFC were with Sandy as you do now. If you see him buy him a beer, he loves one!?

According to the logic of some on here it should have been Selwood or Hawkins...

Win today (which I expect) we are likely to storm home with confidence the last 3. Lose today I would not be surprised to see us whimper home 1 and 3 with a bad taste in supporters mouths. We played our best month of footy with Jones, Viney, Tyson, Vince, Lewis playing (bar Jones missing West Coast). Midfield depth and maturity is what drives consistency and quality. Hoping this allows Trac to go back to prowling the forward half and Salem to be released onto a wing (one of the only players that understands what lowering your eyes means).

You beat me to it Hardtack. Bit damp underfoot at the moment (Manuka has very good drainage though) and sky clearing out here in the Western badlands where the weather blows from. Should be tropically balmy by the time the game starts and will only require the one beanie!

No more missed tackles.

This thread has gone mad 1st off it was Tyson getting put up for trade which is madness and now hogan, my god that's just rediculous, might as well offer up clarry next

Please stop.