deanox

Bugg. No right foot.

Did the umpire ask for the review?

Look rjay, if you are going to keep up this type of reasoned approach to discussions and disagreements we're going to have to ask you to leave Demonland. It just isn't on.

Watts Tmac Jetta Garlett are the four I want to hear about. Then Hogan. Pumped re Harmes though.

I'm not surprised by the inside mid bit. It lets him just play football with less focus on structures and less demands on pace.

Yep the coaches must be wrong. Let's do what worked 52 years ago.

Sitting behind the goals on Sunday and I can confirm this is exactly how we were setting up most of the time. There were two other set ups I observed, a man-on-man set up (only seen in the second half) and another that I can't quite recall (I think it was a 5 man set up with 2 on the last line like a pentagram rather than a diamond). I like the diamond. It works when the midfield wins. We need a plan B for when the midfield isn'tworking. And we need a plan B for when the opposition exploits the zone by sending players deep and kicking long over the diamond which happened against both saint kilda and Footscray. I think at those times pushing the zone deeper in defence to cover the last line or sacrificing one of the extra mids might not be a bad option. Obviously if the diamond is our plan that's what we want to stick to but a plan B set up for long enough to kill the oppositions advantage or to regain the momentum is worth considering.

I'll be dissapointd if Jetta goes. Hacing watched the replay o it, Bont comes up behind him and Jetts action is to shrug him off. Yeah he shrugs hard and contacts Bonts jaw with his elbow, but it is reasonable for Jetta to expect that opposing players don't come up and try and grab you from behind, which is what Bont did.

A big issue is the 3-4 goals they've scored directly from kick ins today. Kick those goals instead of behinds or stop the coast to coast and it'd be a different scoreline.

Wind is holding it up towards punt road end.

Port play WC next week too. Getting a long way ahead of ourselves but assuming GWS beat the dogs next week, we can win today and we overcome our inability to win as favorites next week, next week we would be a game clear of the dogs, Adelaide and the loser of PA v WC. That means the lowest we'll be is 7th and a game clear of 8th-10th.

To be honest, if the Weed was able to save a country from recession during a global financial crisis, I'm not sure we even need Hogan!

This may be your most coherent post yet! And i agree totally. Until they set up an AFL reserves comp the VFL does need to be run to service the AFL.

It's a fair point but: a) low pressure situations allow you to execute game plans exactly as planned, with success (as long as the coaches enforce their strict adherence and the players aren't allowed to get sloppy); and b) winning builds comraderie amongst the playing group and winning expectations as well. These things mean that when a player does play well and eventually goes up he a) knows exactly what to do and exactly how to play the role and b) he expects to keep winning. He will need to adjust to the pace and pressure, but that is easier when you are brimming with confidence.

We won't pay overs for Prestia in $$. If he leaves GCS it'll be to win premierships and the chance to win win at his club will mean more than a little extra in the open market. Hurley however will cost $$.

On frees to us last night: at one stage i saw we were about 16-9 up and i couldn't believe it. If we had 9 as well I would have been surprised. A lot of contested marks get awarded as free kicks instead for pushing, holding etc. even though the mark is taken. We take a lot of contested marks and i wonder if this bumps our free kick numbers up.

I don't think we make any changes this week unless injuries occur. Apart from Hogan, McDonald and Watts (who are certain starters next week), our three worst were probably Kent, Garland and Michie who were still serviceable and contributed. I rated the contributions of Stretch and Hunt. I don't think you can drop Garland or Michie after one game and Kent has performed over the last few weeks.

On Hunts disposal: tonight he seemed to kick a bit up and under, something I haven't noticed in previous weeks. Given how the stategy seemed to be kick it quick to the forwards, that may be why he looked hurried (GCS defenders were a bit shorter than ours and I think we liked to exploit that). I don't think we make any changes this week unless injuries occur. Apart from Hogan, McDonald and Watts (who are certain starters next week), our three worst were probably Kent, Garland and Michie who were still serviceable and contributed. I don't think you can drop Garland or Michie after one game and Kent has performed this year. Dogs looked good tonight and I doubt think we can afford to make skill errors in our defensive half as they will make us pay. For me, one key to winning next week is to win contested ball around stoppages including clearances. This has been one of our strengths and given it is one of theirs (they have gun inside mids) we need to make sure we win that battle to win overall.

Back on the G next week. Important considering Footscray have played 7 straight under the roof at Telstra Dome.

Actually not true, despite them continually saying it on tv. We scored over 150 in round 4 2011. Looking back at the 2011 results again, they are crazy. I haven't checked but it may be the first time we've scored 160 points since 2004 though? Also, I believe we had 13 individual goal kickers, which is a record for quite sometime.

How many historic MFC players would have gaps of over 2 seasons between games? There would be a few I guess but I wouldn't have thought it would be a common occurrence. (Note if Terlich sneaks in for his first game this season in round 20 he'll have done just that! )

Brayshaw for Petracca for me. It is a direct upgrade based on position (forward pocket rotating in occasionally). Unless we have a mysterious injury of the week, any other changes will be structure or match up based. Matt Jones and Oliver are unlucky.

Had a review of the fixture and finals is definitely possible. Realistic for melbourne? Maybe not. But I'll go into enough games thinking we should them. 5 games: Carlton, Freo, Saints x 2, Brisbane, gives us 8 wins. If we don't win all of those we wouldn't deserve to be there. 6 games: Suns x2, Port x 2, Collingwood, Adelaide (at the G). Determine whether we make finals or not. Win 4 and we make it. Win 3 and we probably won't. The remaining 6: Geelong, Hawthorn x2, West Coast, Sydney, Bulldogs, i expect to lose. But if we can pinch one it takes the pressure of the other matches. Of the 3 groups I think we'll win 4 (lose one against the saints, win 3, and win 0, leaving us with 10 for the year. Solid improvement, and we'll finish 10th, felt we should have done better but will comfortably play finals next year. I'm happy to be surprised.

I like golden goal but can you imagine the scenario where a team scores 6 begins in extra time then concedes a goal, winning the game but scoring less?

Was frost playing a modification of Garlet's role today; a tale version of the forward pressure pocket/flanker? Add that he is tall and could swing into the ruck if needed but he want playing as a traditional tall forward