Bang Bang Bang

Dom's an interesting one. He can roost it 60m on the fly and has a nice looking action, but turns it over as much as anyone on our list and a poor shot for goal. He's a very good 4th string midfielder but if we build our midfield up to GWS levels in the future (would he get a game there now?) then he's going to have to fix his kicking, which I think he can. Against Hawthorn he didn't miss a target. His kicking actually reminds me a bit of Scully's who was a liability until recently but is now a decent kick.

You'd be laughed off the forum if you suggested in January that Jeff Garlett is our most important player. With our pretty good form since Gawn went down, and our bizarre form with Hogan out of the team, you'd be hard pressed to find a more important player to our fortunes than Jeffy. He's the quintessential AFL forward. Having said that, we're 4-1 with Lewis in the team and 0-3 without. He'd be in contention along with Oliver and Viney.

Moloney was the poster boy of the Bailey era. Super talented, but inconsistent and a downhill skier. We all thought these guys needed some 'tough love' in 2011 but Neeld completely butchered that theory. Copying a game plan from two years prior has proven time and time again to be ineffective, removing senior players from leadership group straight off the bat, publicly pouring acid over young players (Jack Watts, late 2011), no people skills at all by the sounds of it. Moloney was right about him setting the club back years.

Strangely enough I had an inkling we'd win this or have an honourable loss. We play Adelaide Oval extremely well. A stark contrast to Football Park!

Interesting how everyone sees the game differently. I look forward to the coaches' votes. 6 - Petracca. Finally got to play midfield and scoured the midfield like a Dustin Martin / Scott Pendlebury hybrid after half time. 5 - Hibberd. Huge. 4 - Viney. Back to 2016 levels the past two weeks. 3 - Oliver. 30 touches and goal of the year. Unbelievable tackler too. 2 - Vince. Best tagging effort since Simon Godfrey on Nathan Brown in 2001. 1 - TMac. Keep him forward please. N. Jones deadset stiff to miss votes. Frost is excellent but still can be a bit nervy under a high ball. Salem was good but his stats are inflated from the kick in play ons. Jetta was huge on Betts during 'the run'.

Confirmed. Bernie posts on Demonland. Hi Bernie!

Oliver's goal is one of the best I've ever seen because it was 100% deliberate. Up there with Carey's in 1999.

I'm actually going to this game as I live in Asia and have some time off then. Firstly, the game sold out very quickly (the capacity is a mere 11,000 or so). I'll be very interested to see what percentage of the crowd are expats, tourists and diehards and what percentage are locals. I'll hazard a guess that there'll be a very strong majority towards the former. If 0.01% of China's population take an interest in the game, then that's 130,000 new fans. I can see why the AFL are going down this path, but doubt it will succeed.

May I be the first person in the history of the internet say... Goodwin HAS a plan b. I think his coaching has stacked up well. We could easily be 6-0 if it wasn't for mid game injuries and inaccuracy (factors out of his control). Some of his selections have been questionable but otherwise I think he's doing a good job so far.

[censored] me the kid compared himself to McLeod. He'll fit in well in the states.

I was happy to get him but didn't expect him to be this good. Our trading and drafting last October gets a big tick. Hibberd for a pick in the late 20s, Lewis for peanuts and Hannan in the 40s are all wins. Unfortunately the Melksham trade is n't looking quite as rosy.

He is LEADING the 3AW player of the year with Rory Sloane. Surely he'll slow down at some point, but if he doesn't, 'going to be elite' is wrong. He is elite.

I just realised we scored 14.4 from the time Watts missed a dribbler to Hannan's final goal. At least we made amends for the Geelong catastrophe. And it's another reason why Joe Daniher can't be taken seriously. Conversion is the most important stat in footy by far.

There you have it. Your knowledge of all things MFC is second to none. How are Trent Zomer and Brendan van Schaik going these days?

Vince in the middle was a throwback to his 2015 days of dominance. Is he getting too old too stay there? I'm growing a bit tired of his brain fades in defense. I do like how Goodwin mixes things up a lot. Against Freo, he threw Petracca on ball in the last which nearly won us the game. Today it was the old timers and it worked again.

How about the pack mark and quick thinking to set up Petracca in the second quarter. That was the only highlight of the half. Clarry resting forward should happen more often. Today was his worst game of the year and he still racked up 33 with high efficiency. The kid's a freak.

If @dazzledavey36 hasn't heard of him then you know something is amiss. Over to you dazzle. I don't recognise him at all.

To be honest I'm not a fan of his commentary, hyper critical to all teams, like he never made mistakes as a player. But he was spot on about TMac.

Ummm Jason Dunstall consistently got stuck into TMac about 'biting off more than he can chew'. I reckon he said it at least 5 times.

Unpopular opinion, but I think Garlett is close to our most important player in 2017. His goals, pressure and consistency make him irreplaceable.

Agree with all of this. Goodwin is going to have his mettle tested because Melksham is his mate and his doing but doesn't do enough. His other mate Hibberd is an absolute star though. JKH over Kent, unless you want someone who is small, slow, fumbly and invisible for large chunks than this error needs to amended next week. ANB was terrible but has had a pretty good season so he can stay.

Not a chance. You can't be best on ground when you're giving the opposition silver service with every second kick. Pedersen, Watts, Lewis and Hibberd were better than him and even a few Essendon players were better.

Important 4 points. There will be 3 finals spots up for grabs this year. Port are certainties to grab one, leaving Richmond, St.Kilda, maybe a wildcard and us to fight for the other two. Clearly Essendon won't be one. Oliver, 3x the disposals of Parish. And I thought he had a quietish game. Freak. Tom McDonald and Tyson will cost us a final one day with their poor kicking. Petracca will win us more than one. About time Daniher spudded it up against us. He would have kicked 7.0 any other time.

I don't buy into these ultimatums. We're a finals side if we win 13 games. Granted, winnable games like today are a huge opportunity to bank 4 points, but if Freo catch us out we shouldn't all of a sudden say we're not a finals team. From what we've seen so far we're capable of beating all of the other teams when the planets align. I'm expecting a Carlton like game where we win but can't relax until the final siren.

Kent did a similar injury at a similar time in 2015 and wasn't seen again until the following season. With a 12 week injury, you've got to hope for no hiccups AND an additional 2-3 weeks of match practice. I don't think we'll be seeing big Max for a long time. Plenty of successful teams have had a plodder in the ruck so I don't think our finals chances are as bad as one might fear.