Lil_red_fire_engine

Todays was a pathetic performance but the reaction of some on here is almost as embarrassing. It was the first proper game with a completely different gameplan. Players who have not worked hard without the ball for 5 years are suddenly expected that it will come naturally to them. The figurehead of our great club dies one week before the first game and no one thinks that it would be a distraction. These are kids who live by routine and that is dropped on them. I hope the coaching staff have more faith in their plans than some of the knee jerk reactions on here.

Only when you put in your official team sheets 1 hour before the game.

I love the excitement shown by Tynan in his press conf on the MFC website. I love that Magner in his describes his natural game as "aggressive". I love seeing players debut. Cant wait for tomorrow.

How long does it take people to realise that the position a player is named in the selected team has no relevance to where they are actually lining up.

Agree that lack of pack can be countered by good ball movement but it has great importance when you dont have the ball. I thought last night's game was a great example of that.

What indicator did we have when drafted that Taggert had a back fracture? You draft a player particularly in the first half of the draft for the next 10 years not their first season.

Strauss just cant take a trick. No Williams on the list will hopefully start to see him lining for Casey 2s from this week.

I will just be happy if he turns into a star. We have lacked one for so long I dont care what position that means.

I think thats pretty close.

How about you judge the guy on what he is rather than what you hoped he would be. Ignore the fact he is not a power forward and that he was a number one pick. 26 possies, a couple of goals and a handful of assists is a dominant display in any ones book whether you see it or not. Be disappointed that he is not what you hoped for but judge his performance for what it is.

I think the word "sold" is being used very loosely.

What an inspirational man and family. Rest In Peace big Jim. Gone but never forgotten.

Thanks for seeing the main point. If Hawthorn hadn't landed Buddy and Rioli everyone would be talking about their 2005 misses Ellis at 3 ahead of Pendlebury at 5, Dowler 6 ahead of Ryder at 8 and Thorp the year after ahead of Selwood. Landing a star or two certainly makes the whole picture look brighter.

You obviously missed the bit where I said its too early to tell. This is a no excuses look based on if you drafted now. It shows in my opinion that in no case with the exception of maybe Trengove have we picked the best of the bunch. However in most cases we have done ok comparative to at least half the other players taken within ten picks. I did not take into consideration Scullys departure I just dont rate him very highly and think we will in the future see as fortunate the picks we received and the money we saved.

The best exercise is to look at the 10 players picked after ours and realistically judge which you would pick over who we took. People seem to focus on who we missed without considering the flipside of those others that were chosen around the mark. It is reasonable to start judging 2007 and maybe 2008 but 2009 is still way too early to guess and even if I did this exercise next year I am sure my views would change across all 3 years. Based on the 150 players chosen after our picks, 43 of them I would have picked ahead of who we chose. To me this is a pretty mediocre effort but it would look a whole lot better if we had landed a clear star in that period. 4. Morton, 5. Jarrad Grant, 6. David Myers, 7. Rhys Palmer, 8. Lachie Henderson, 9. Ben McEvoy, 10. Patrick Dangerfield, 11. Patrick Vezspremi, 12, Cyril Rioli, 13. Brad Ebert, 14. Jack Grimes. (4 of 10) 14. Grimes, 15. Robbie Tarrant, 16. Matthew Lobbe, 17. Harry Taylor, 18. Alex Rance, 19. Callan Ward, 20. Tony Notte, 21. Addam Maric, 22. Scott Selwood, 23. Tayte Pears, 24. Clayton Hinkley (2 of 10) 21. Addam Maric, 22. Scott Selwood, 23. Tayte Pears, 24. Clayton Hinkley, 25. Brett Meredith, 26. Andy Otten, 27. Marlon Motlop, 28. Brendan Whitecross, 29. Jarran Jacky, 30. John McCarthy, 31 Levi Greenwood (6 of 10) 53. Kyle Cheney, 54. Cale Hooker, 55. Mark Johnson, 56. Matt Austin, 57. Fraser Gerhig, 58. Tony Armstrong, 59 Craig Bird, 60. Jaxson Barham, 61. Adam Donohue, 62 Josh Smith. 63 Guy Okeefe (3 of 10) 1. Jack Watts, 2. Nick Natanui, 3. Stephen Hill, 4. Hamish Hartlett, 5. Michael Hurley, 6. Chris Yarran, 7. Daniel Rich, 8. Tyrone Vickery, 9. Jack Ziebell, 10. Phil Davis, 11. Steel Sidebottom. (3 of 10) 17. Sam Blease, 18. Luke Shuey, 19 James Strauss, 20 Tom Swift, 21 Haydn Ballantyne, 22, Jackson Trengove, 23, David Zaharakis, 24 Nick Suban, 25 Jack Redden, 26, Jayden Post, 27 Sam Wright, (4 of 10) 19 James Strauss, 20 Tom Swift, 21 Haydn Ballantyne, 22, Jackson Trengove, 23, David Zarakis, 24 Nick Suban, 25 Jack Redden, 26, Jayden Post, 27 Sam Wright, 28 Shaun McKernan, 29 Dayne Beams, (6 of 10) 35. Jamie Bennell, 36 Ashley Smith, 37 Zac Clarke, 38 Matt Broadbent, 39 Steven Motlop, 40 Mitch Robinson, 41 Todd Banfield, 42 Mitch banner, 43 Liam Anthony, 44 Rory Sloane, 45 Jarrad Blight.(3 of 10) 51. Nev Jetta, 52 Jordon Jones, 53 Michael Walters, 54 Jarrad Redden, 55 Michael Still, 56 Ben Bucovacz, 57 Aaron Cornelius, 58 Tom Hislop, 59 Tom Lee, 60 Cambell Heath, 61 Alistair Smith (1 of 10) 1. Tom Scully, 2. Jack Trengove, 3. Dustin Martin, 4. Anthony Morabito, 5 Ben Cunnington, 6. Gary Rohan, 7, Brad Sheppherd, 8. John Butcher, 9. Andrew Moore, 10. Jake Melksham, 11 Jordan Gysberts (3 of 10) 2. Jack Trengove, 3. Dustin Martin, 4. Anthony Morabito, 5 Ben Cunnington, 6. Gary Rohan, 7, Brad Sheppherd,8. John Butcher, 9. Andrew Moore, 10. Jake Melksham, 11 Jordan Gysberts, 12. Kane Lucas (1 of 10) 11. Jordan Gysberts, 12 Kane Lucas, 13. Daniel Talia, 14 Lewis Jetta, 15 Christian Howard, 16 Jasper Pittard, 17. Daniel Menzel, 18 Luke Tapscott, 19 Ben Griffiths, 20 Nathan Fyfe, 21 Ryan Bastinac (2 of 10) 18. Luke Tapscott, 19 Ben Griffiths, 20 Nathan Fyfe, 21 Ryan Bastinac, 22 Gerrick Wheedon, 23 Koby Stevens, 24 Jake Carlisle, 25 Aaron Black. 26 Travis Colyer, 27 Callum Bartlett, 28 Mitch Duncan (3 of 10) 34 Max Gawn, 35 David Astbury, 36 Joel Houghton, 37. Jamie McMillan, 38, Sam Reid, 39. Sam Grimley, 40 Allen Christensen, 41 Ayden Kennedy, 42 Nathan Vardy, 43 Marcus Davies, 44 Matthew Dea, (2 of 10) 50. Jack Fitzpatrick, 51. Troy Taylor, 52 Justin Bollenhagen, 53 Brayden Norris, 54 Byron Sumner, 55 Trent Dennis Lane, 56 Josh Cowan, 57 Jordan Williams, 58 Rhan Hooper, 59 Rohan Kerr, 60 Jesse Smith, 61, James Craig (0 of 10)

It sounds like they may only be one of very few that actually witnessed it first hand.

Neeld has stated this is not a short term plan. His game plan is the polar opposite of Baileys. He is working with what he has which truthfully is a bunch of kids and mature C graders. Get the structures right. Teach the right lessons. Sort out who has the balls to play the footy he wants to play. If we have a poor year have it with 2 compensation picks in play that hopefully unearth the stars we so desperately lack to add to Viney who will be what we expect. Anyone that expected miracles this year is kidding themselves but it doesn't mean the path that is currently being set is wrong.

Thats defence is seriously turnover city. We might lock it down but we'll just give it back to them to have another try.

Playing his first half for the year in a NAB cup game and you are judging his captaincy. Ignoring the fact that one of the reasons we had co-captains is to spread the load for exactly the reasons you stated. Moreso because the other one you mention who was so gallant as captain has a habit of getting injured. Where was he Saturday night? I guess the weight would have fallen to the vice captain then. Neither of them are there yet that is why we have joint captains which was the right decision to make.

NAB Cup results this round Adelaide 138 vs Collingwood 61 Richmond 108 vs Geelong 49 Brisbane 104 vs Carlton 40 Yep that logic stands up well. Not saying our performance was acceptable, Neeld made that clear in his press conference but give it some context. Neeld also made it clear that he chose to stick with the zone because that is how we want to play. Do you seriously think that if that was mid season he would not have changed to man on man?

If any have watched Neeld's press conference it is blatantly obvious how much he hates losing and hated last nights performance. If that was his attitude to the press the boys would have been left in no uncertain terms where they went wrong with their attitude and application of game plan behind closed doors. It was a poor showing but give it some context. We started our best player from last week as a sub, subbed off our best player of the NAB cup with a dislocated finger, played Davis on Hale all game whilst our best backmen rested the second half. Neeld could have gone man on man to minimise the damage but stuck with the pressing zone as that is what will be our plan A and it needs to be learnt. I expect we will show consistency this year in beating the sides around our level however we do lack the polish required to challenge the better ones.

I think its a fair summation. I'm not going to state our season is over just like I didn't think we would be top 4 after last weeks effort. If you want to get lathered up about it best of luck to you. You're in for a long year. We struggled with their game style and we lacked intensity at the man. Winning the contested possession is a fair indication of competing but our ball use was rushed even when it didn't need to be.

Our intensity at the man was not the same as last week but we won the contested possesion count and went down in the clearances by 3. As many have said we seriously lack midfield polish hence we get it and bombed it straight to where they had numbers. Clark, Jones and Howe the only positives for mine. Nicholson is not an AFL footballer, Bail appears to have gone backwards and I cant see Bate playing midfield for very long except at Casey. A bad loss against a good side in a game that means very little.

Howe interview on MFC website stated we need to "take it to over to Adelaide next week". I would say that means Port over there.

Hoping for Geelong or Carlton. The more we play against mature midfields the better.