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Our midfield is built to bustle, getting an ugly ball forward, never mind the details. Unfortunately the credible rotation has shrunk with Vince and Tyson gone, Jones necessarily finding a new role, and Lewis obviously playing less and less time around the middle. So the rotation of decent inside mids that we do have is getting tired, and we don't have the depth to let them shift around to spare them from constantly swimming inside the washing machine. Naturally, they can't afford to diversify to do anything more than their core job of bashing it forward, they don't have the legs to run defensively and they don't have the freshness (physically or mentally) to be clean in their ball use. Injuries on the half-lines (esp. Hibbered and Melksham) compound the issue and the call-ups from Casey haven't delivered the necessary standard. Capping off the point, the allegedly lazy fatty Petracca is second only to Oscar McDonald for time-on-ground this season, at over 88%, because we are desperately trying to keep those core mids rotated to the bench while he smoothes his fatgiue up forward. It is all the old 'too much for too few', and we've had to limit our play to what we can do, instead of what we'd like to do. Meanwhile, our forward line, currently almost entirely injured, has also been almost entirely out of form. The fringe players we had up there providing some diversity last year combined for 3+ goals a game in 2018, but are either not on the field or far down in output this year. For example, 2018 to 2019 goal-per game numbers for players in roughly the same role - Hannan from 1.5 to 0.7 Nibbler from 1.1 to 0.4 Spargo from 0.8 to 0.3 You can play around all you like with the mess of Garlett, Vanders, Kent, Hunt, Fristch and so forth, with injuries and positions changing all over the place, but there's not a lot of useful insight there because there's been so much change. I guess the main insight is simply that there has been so much change and disruption. And clearly, whatever way you mix it, Weideman and Smith are not currently a rival for Hogan's 2018 contribution. Not even combined! Tom McDonald has been not even half as effective as a forward as he was in 2018. Just as he was showing a pattern of improvement he got injured, so, yeah, life sucks. But it is also notable that in the scattered few games where he did perform well, we mostly won. In fact, his five best games for the season are also our five wins. His numbers in those 5 games are uncannily similar to his 2018 stats, most notably averaging 2.8 goals. Tom McDonald kicked 14 of his 18 goals this season in Melbourne's five wins. I'd argue that McDonald is second only to Gawn as our most important player, and he has had an absolutely pestilent year with injury, form, and more injury.

Poor coaching, lazy adaptation (or lack thereof) to 6-6-6 rule, dysfunctional leadership, and growing pains for Oliver and Brayshaw, who have both been found out as being extremely one dimensional. Dunkley for the Bulldogs is demonstrating the type of player Oliver *should* be, or become, but Clarry is going through the motions and simply playing the year out atm. His performance is eerily Scully-esque circa 2011. His mind appears elsewhere. Very concerning. Brayshaw seems down on confidence. Mcdonald has attracted No.1 defender with Hogan gone, and so it's been a learning curve for him. Same with Weeds. Garlett, Spargo, ANB have been useless. There goes out forward line. At one point this year our entire back 6 in Salem, Lever, May, Jetta, Lewis and Hibberd were out. This leads to lack of cohesion and connection with the mids due to lack of experience playing together. The variables all point to a pass for Goodwin given all of the above but the entire coaching team's approach has been a symptom of this and I feel Goodwin has been found lacking. It will be a learning curve for him as well. The stats point to a list badly lack depth, but also a coaching team that had not prepared for nor considered the worst. We've blooded some talent in Petty Lockhart Hore Dunkley but these are atm depth players. That Hore was the general in our backline for a few weeks shows how badly hit by injuries we were. Again though, we've maintained a healthy core, continue to win the ball and continue to get the ball forward. Goodwin's defensive coaching prowess is nonexistent it seems and he would be on notice. You don't go from premiership fancy to bottom 2. I don't care how badly hit by injuries you've been. Will be a fascinating next 12 months. Watch this space (if you dare)

Hawks, GWS, Geelong, Eagles = 4 top 8 sides last season but knock yourself out to suit your argument Not to mention the Crows were in the 8 when we pantsed them in the NT last season FMD the sky is falling

Have been racking my brain all year pondering the 4th to 16th slide, and agree with most of this assessment. I think the loss of confidence (in no small way due to the Prelim last year, then the unexpected round 1 defeat this year), has not been adequately acknowledged, nor addressed, by the club as a whole. Footy is a game of cohesion and momentum, and team success flows when the many moving pieces are in sync. Despite all this, there have been unexpected positive signs, Fritsch is exciting and creative, Hore is committed and reliable, Frost is imposing and instinctive, and Lockhart is explosive and a finisher. It doesn’t make up for the disappointment of the season as a whole, but it gives me faith that next year, with the likely return of Vanders, Melksham, McDonald (Tom), Lever (fit), Jetta (fit), and Hibberd (fit), the combination will be a strong, skilful core, capable of matching any team.

Fun to watch because it would show how prone to MFCSS many here are. Would they be guaranteed to not get injured playing in the VFL? Better to have them playing together and with May and getting some knowledge of each other in games, something they have had almost zilch of to date.

I have written in another thread that there should be a team rule that anyone within 40m of goal and running free (or for Tracca and Clarrie 50m) must have a shot. No more dinky passes or stupid hand offs to players in worse positions with their backs to the goals. If a player must hand off (being tackled) then only to a team mate running free and facing to goals. Better to shoot and miss than not to have a shot at all because of some stupid concern about being called greedy or goal hungry. These should be encouraged attributes. Just shoot. When it becomes normalised we will win more games than we lose because we will be conditioned to scoring with every opportunity. Simple change.

Here's a thought reduce the interchange and make it a war of attrition were players can't cover as much ground and we get more 1 on 1 One of he most brutal games I recall seeing the 89 Grand final had a total of 72 tackles

Oh no. No. No no no no no no. Ah hell. Oh, this is no good at all, not at all. This will not do. You know who we really need, the extra tall forward who can float aroud the ground, uses the ball well, and who is currently out of contract and probably unhappy with the way his current club hung him out to dry in the pre-season, and is a Victorian boy currently at an interstate club. Forgive me. Ahhh I can't even type it. Jack Watts.

Brutally tough call re:Lever. In 2017 he was acknowledged as one of the upcoming rising star defenders in the AFL, and was duly recognised by being named in the All Australian squad of 40. He started 2018 poorly with the MFC, however hit his straps by round 5, got a couple of brownlow votes in round 9 and then left the club and its supporters devastated after doing his knee in round 11. The following 3 games we fell to pieces. Lever's a lot better than what he dished up last week. He should be judged after a full pre season and a full 2020 season.

No surprises. I know people talk about poor delivery but our forward line has been terrible all season. No coherent plan. No leading. Dropped marks. Shitty kicking. Not taking shots. Lack of confidence. Just a disaster.

When Trac takes his shots he's such a damaging player. On Sunday he went beck to this rubbish... Maybe the disconnect Goody is talking about is actually in the FD or between the FD and players rather than the midfield/forward connection.

Opposition rucks are allowed to jump into Max 3 seconds before the ball is available to be tapped but that's OK.....

Nup, not any more. I reckon he's worked much harder this year to develop consistency in his game. If I have concerns over our young mids, it's over Oliver, Harmes and Brayshaw. I don't see enough defensive running from any of them (Oliver in particular). I don't see enough buckling down when the going gets tough. I don't see enough leadership. I see too much sulking, too much poor body language and too much selfishness from each of them. All fixable things, and if we're going to go anywhere as a club then these three need to learn from their flaws.

I can’t believe a few people here are considering dropping Pruess ?‍♂️ Was one of our best against Carlton & while didn’t have a great game today showed some signs that he could do well for us forward. The seasons done for us, give him a solid 3 weeks as a Forward/Ruck. If it doesn’t work out then we should drop him but to drop him after his first game as the main tall forward is just ridiculous. McDonald was playing rubbish for the first half of the season but he wasn’t dropped so why should Pruess ?

Oh ffs. We did and still do need the $$$$$$$$$, get over it. We almost beat them at there manufactured cauldron this year.

The nicey nicey way ..if actually done. And it gets you NOWHERE The whole point of kicking up a stink and playing the game in the media s Eddie or Scott or Jeff etc would is to put that idiot Dill Gil on his back haunches and put the league on notice we simply aren't going to accept this. Thats how you do it.

We don’t even have a forward line

Agree with you that the Dogs probably didn't put much homework into Petty and will find the going tough against a much better defensive unit in West Coast, but should not be dropped after an encouraging 3 goal performance. I don't mind Hannan as a player but must be dropped after a 3 possession game. It would be a serious lack of selection integrity if he's retained. He hasn't played 1 half decent game since returning from injury. IN - T Smith (to tag McGovern per last time), JFK, Out - Hannan, Dunkley (apologies but an average of 8 possessions a game isn't cutting it.)

Yes balls, just wanted to add his defensive work in the forward half might be a little underrated. In a year where we have struggled with ‘retention’, I think Trac has worked hard defensively to keep the ball in, especially in the last 6 weeks or so. Often he reads opposition defenders well and puts him himself in a good position for an intercept or simply just sticking an arm in to bat the ball down. I like what some of the young players have shown also, for me it’s Trac that’s been a big positive. He’s received a lot of negativity and I’m glad he’s starting to show what he’s capable of. Pity it’s been in a horrid year, can’t wait for next year though when he starts getting some more support.

A bit harsh on JKH, only just selected so you could drop him.

Decided to have a look at Tom Hawkins’ average stats in 2010 when he was the same age as Weid is now. 1.2 goals vs 1 goal. 12.6 disposals vs 10.3. 5.7 marks vs 4.2. 1.2 contested marks vs 1.4 The picture paints two very comparable players stats wise. Two years later, Hawkins kicked 62 goals and was All Australian. Some patience needs to be shown with Weid. Surely even his harshest critics can see the glimpses of potential. Let him continue to fill out, build his craft, and let’s see what sort of player we have in a couple of years time.

I have liked many of your posts but sometimes l have scratched my head with you being ruthless with a player because he does not satisfy your liking for the way he plays. I don't think you mean it sometimes. He has his faults but his football this year has been more consistent without hitting the scoreboard with the so called goals. Petrac has held his own and is well entrenched in our best 22. IMO he will get better and if traded what makes you so sure the he will be the equal or better. The chances are they won't be better. And for the kids sake he Petrac probably needs a break or rest like some we are carrying at the minute. He can play better footy because he has the potential however depends what you and others think what his best footy looks like.

Unfortunately most of the gains from this year are improvements to individual players that are still on the fringe of best 22 when everyone is up and going. It's been good to see Lockhart, Hore, and Baker have an impact, but that's not where the real improvement comes from imo. Outside of this, Gawn remains stellar, and Salem and Petracca are building their fine careers, but not many others in the established team have done much this season (apologies to Frost, who has been excellent). Big improvements don't come from finding some decent role players, but positive changes to the way the team structures itself, approaches the game, and plays the game. All we've seen here is stagnation or slightly worse performance in the things that the club says wins games of football (contested ball, inside 50s, tackles), and total incompetence offensively. Sure, some individuals have had good moments against the tide, but that's not enough when the gameplan, style of play, and approach doesn't go anywhere. What's most worrying for me is: What if it's not a failure of players to carry out the gameplan (explaining the lack of improvement from so many players)? What if, instead, it's the plan that is stifling the development of the players so that they have no chance to get better? If the vast majority of 'positive signs' are from those who weren't really exposed to it all previously, perhaps that suggests that the environment is not conducive to better play.

I really cannot believe I am mentioning this, but watching the show Bob tonight with Fev, he discussed kicking coaching and Ross Lyon simplified Fevs kicking action. Fev was a complete idiot but he was an amazing set shot, his larrikin attitude that has matured might be a good pairing to work on Tracs set shots. Fev spoke about playing forward similar to playing chess (yes you did read that correctly) knew when to be in the right spots through training drills.

Sure - but you can't have players missing huge slabs of the pre-season and then expect them to take it up a notch the following year. Just not possible. So by the time you take out all the injured/operated-on, there aren't all that many left - and no surprise that those who have been mentioned here (Salem, Frost), had full preseasons.

In my view, Patracca's solid and consistent run of form amongst the carnage has been a big positive. Yes, he desperately needs to fix his mid range goal kicking, buy asides from that, I think he has been very workman like in his approach to keep presenting and bulldozing his way out of packs to often create forward movement for the team where the ball would otherwise have gone nowhere. Once the team gets it's act together around him, I can genuinely envisage thay he will start splitting games open at times. It's hard for him to have the same impact at the moment, when his performances and potential contributions are being dragged down by the team performance around him. Similarly, I really think Hunt has been very good particularly when measured by his consistency across the season and I also think his set shot goal kicking has improved the longer the season has gone on.

Midfield coach, Plapp has gone under the radar. I would say the deplorable midfield performance this year needs to be laid at his door. Be it his lack of experience, creativity, adaptability or whatever, it is his job to get them performing. Just for now, forget midfield connection with the forwards and two-way running. Let's just consider their stoppage and clearance work, which supposedly is their strength. There was one game where Max had more clearances at stoppages than the whole midfield combined!!!! What are those midfielders doing between the 50m arcs which is where they should excel and dominate?. Can understand that 666 upset last year's dynamics but here we are round 17 and there has been little improvement in the middle. Max has not dropped off this year, the people around him have. That they can't take advantage of Max's dominance game after game is the biggest mystery of our season. (BTW Max made TOTW again this week). So what has Plapp being doing/not doing for the clearance and stoppage work to have gone backwards. In my mind if he is still midfield coach next year our rise up the ladder will be limited.

i for one am really excited to hopefully see this weekend how petty and weed work together, against the best defence in the game footscray don't have much in terms of tall defenders particularly, but petty played well against them i like the idea of both weed and petty forward - they bring the ball to ground level and fight hard when it's there, playing in our forward line is a pretty tough ask; both look cooked later in the game (weed all year and petty shifting back with may moving forward late against the scrays) definitely keen to persist with petty forward given the absence of t mac and the defensive linchpins of may, frost, and lever

That's exactly what I argued when I said it was crazy to think of trading watts. Our biggest weakness is our kicking and we get rid of our best kick (by some margin), one of only two elite kicks in the team. As I have said before I respect and understand the decision but I believe it was the wrong one and still do. I understand the cultural argument but you make that work somehow. Watts has in spades what we are missing - elite foot skills, good decision making and a proven ability to hit targets inside 50. And a proven ability to kick clutch goals. Can't see him playing on from 20 metres out, on a slight angle when we need a key goal.

Or maybe we get him to nominate for the ruck in a pea heart little voice or wink to the umpires and get gifted a free kick in front of goal like Dangerfield at the cattery last season - that one might have just about cost us have cost us a top 4 finish. Slimy bloody turd that Dangerfield.

TheAFL is corrupt. ..has been for a long while

Maybe we should put Spargo in the ruck, and say that the other ruckman are stopping him from contesting the ball because Spargo can't reach it before it's tapped out! FMD

I wouldn't know Tony Cochrane from a bar of soap, but having listened to him being interviewed quite a few times now I'm absolutely certain he's part of the problem. I'm not sure of the governance arrangements of the Suns (is it owned by the AFL?) but if I were the AFL I would want to provide the Suns with help, but on condition that Cochrane was replaced. Otherwise, the AFL will find that additional picks or any other form of on-field assistance will just be wasted. That club's problems are not just on-field and what we know from experience of just about every other club in history is that you can't fix the on-field without getting the off-field right first.

Just another one we agree on. I'm over this 'trade Petracca' rubbish. Yes, his set shots have been poor this year, but outside of maybe Hunt, that's true of the entire team. However, Tracy's had a really strong year as a forward in a team that has absolutely no idea how to use the ball. The team crying out for explosiveness, class, and creativity, and half the people on here want to trade one of maybe 4 players that actually possess the talents that win football games. Unreal.

Demons have decent support up here. Each community has their own team generally, that being the team that matches their colours, ie Yuendumu magpies. For us, it is the Nyirripi Demons, which has Demons flags in almost every front yard. Unfortunately, it is one of the more remote communities, being some 450km from Alice. As for me, can’t wait to walk down to the ground, a few hundred meters from home, for what is one of the annual yearly highlights for my children. Thanks MFC for making that possible

Is it possible for thread be opened about playing in NT without Demonlanders who are still grappling about the concept that we play games up there, not posting about their grievance yet again? Also - the team stay at the Casino. I went 2 years ago and had a great time... IIRC we were down at half time and came back strongly in the second half. I was only up for 2 nights - and if you are there for a short time - make sure you get out to the Alice Springs Desert Park - awesome experience.... and a lovely walk back into Alice itself which is well signposted.