stevethemanjordan

It's a disgrace.

We are a sick club.

It is as clear as day where the problem lies. The club has been below average for so long that it has infected this playing group inside out. We have been mediocre from the top down for so long. The appointment of Bailey and the staff employed at the time has given way to all of this. Below average recruitment has led to below average players. Below average standards has led to a below average culture. Our players have been conditioned to be lazy. Many of them are not up to standard. Neeld has tried and will still try to strip the place apart, but perhaps after the weekend even he didn't fully know just how infected these players have become because of the past 5 or 6 years. I'm telling you right now, I would have no problem with getting rid half the team next season because the MFC is so badly infected. Frawley, Dunn and Garland. I don't care if they all go. They are infected. Can people see it?! They are not AFL players.

Means absolutely zilch unless we get them right and they develop properly under some real leaders. Thanks Don.

As the great philosopher "Scribe" once said.... "Not many, if any."

We got a long way to go.

I'm not sure if this needs it's own thread except for the fact that I believe it's an interesting point of discussion, however feel free to merge it. I feel like I know the answer to why yesterday happened, again. We were all fearing it. You could feel and hear it in the crowd from the beginning. And it happened. Three major points came to me after yesterday's loss to confirm what I already felt about the team. 1: Conditioned - The MFC still have a core group of players who are conditioned to train and play a certain way. Let's take the midfield for example. They are reactionary when it comes to a contested situation which is why we were absolutely smashed on the spread yesterday. Players do not trust one another to win the ball, something that has clearly developed over time (during the Bailey era also). That mentality has meant we now have too many players go for the ball or ball gaze. Neither impacting or getting ready to spread. Yesterday, Nab cup, last year. You would have noticed many times how easily teams would win the ball and the next thing you know they have free men everywhere. Well, that's one of the reasons. It's absolutely caused by a conditioning in mindset. A laziness. A lack of awareness. An ingrained habit that's been developed from a lack of success. We have been down for so long, how could any of our midfielders trust each other enough to win the ball. Our midfielders ball watch. That is one example. It's very complex because as you can see with this mindset of not trusting each other and being reactionary, other aspects of conditioning are intertwined with this lack of trust. A conditioning to how hard an AFL player needs to work. Work ethic. It has been well documented that we have been training at a below par standard pre Neeld and Misson, meaning a conditioning of work ethic comes into play here also, which clearly adds to the lack of defensive pressure or our ability to 'work hard both ways.' Players such as Sylvia has never been pushed to work his absolute arse off which you can see when it comes to running offensively vs defensively. It is now in his conditioning. The first thing he thinks of when his opponent gets a few yards on him is not "I am not letting this guy touch the pill." It's more like, "Someone else will pick him up, so I'll take this guy next to me." This is a reason Moloney got the flick, I am sure of it. We have been conditioned and are now being re-conditioned by Neeld. 2: Stupid - Here is something that may not resonate with a lot of you but it is my view. Whilst I am still a fan of what Neeld is bringing to the MFC, I believe the next two points are major contributing factors to why we are cellar dwellers and I'm not so sure Neeld stresses this as much as he does for the re-conditioning of our players aspect. Stupidity is one. Just as is the case in any social group, organisation or in this case sporting club, you will find some people are smarter than others. In our case, the MFC have a plethora of stupid players. Frawley, Garland and Dunn are stupid players. Hear me out. Whilst I rate Frawley as a guerilla defender with reasonable aggression, reasonable (and at times questionable attack) and reasonable skills. I also think he is stupid. Those three at times make terrible decisions and there was an instance yesterday where the three of them all went for the ball at once, leaving two opponents free and of course they fumbled it, an opposition player got it and Port kicked a goal. Surely Dunn has the smarts to mix things up a bit from a kick out? Not just the under 15's long bomb down the line. Surely Frawley has the awareness to use his skill and not kick to a contested situation when there are free men? Surely Garland has learnt that this is AFL and he needs to show more desire and aggression as a senior backman in a young side? These players are capable but need to smarten up or we need to bring in some smart players! There are many on our list who make similarly stupid decisions. We need smarter players. Viney had his first game yesterday and whilst his kicking is not elite, you can tell he is smart! He used the ball extremely well through his footy smarts. Melbourne will continue to suffer if we keep drafting stupid players. Bringing in Gillies and Pederson will not help our cause. I understand it's about mature bodies but geez we have so many stupid players. 3: Skill - Not much needs to be said. Not only were we shredded by Port because of their spread, work ethic, player smarts. It's also about skill. They have more players with better skills. We are as skill-less as we are stupid. Too many players who are unable to hit a target. More than half our side yesterday. Matt Jones showed more skill and smarts than so many of our players and he is a 25 year old from the VFL! They can't be that hard to find ffs! We need to make drafting players with good footskills a priority. As well as footy smarts. I don't care if it means we have to build their bodies and wait 3 or 4 years. At least by the time they are big enough to contest, they will already have other aspects of their game covered. It's really tough to deal with. So much hope. We will take a long time to get the MFC back to where it needs to be and I really hope the recruiting over the next few years addresses those two points. Here's to a long year. End of rant.

And then you look at someone like Hamish hartlett who dances about with the ball on a string and hitting every team mate.

Gillies is one. Why he is playing I have no idea. He has no awareness or decision making skills. Disgrace.

The most worrying thing for me is the ease in which port are able to spread and use us like witches hats. It's 18 players on each side! How the [censored] does it happen?! We train all pre season for it.

Viney is the only positive. We have so many stupid, stupid footballers.

Well really, all you've done is said the same that many said about our 'up and coming' midfield of a few years ago. If you, (as all of us) have witnessed certain players in the past not developing, how can you be so sure viney and toumpas will? I sure hope they do but I don't know how you can say you have 'no doubt' that they will become dominant a mids when our past crop have proven otherwise.

Techniques obviously vary with players. Some have a few aspects to their kicking that need a lot of work. Others have one or two. Ball drop, body weight, timing, follow through. Viney's technique is not actually too bad. I think it's more to do with the fact that he kicks at top speed rather than settling which is why he misses a few targets. Someone like bail has a bad ball drop as well as a few other things. It doesn't look like he'll improve much unless he adapts or changes some of those aspects to his technique. You can do all the kicking practice in the world while stationary but it won't mean anything come an AFL game where your are expected to hit targets on the run under serious heat.

Well I'm sorry Ron, it appears you are incorrect. The motion of kicking and generating power predominately comes from quad strength. That is not to say technique has nothing to do with penetration and power. Obviously it does.

Well why is it that I see very little if any improvement with any AFL player that carries a bad technique? The Nathan Jones is example as pointed out has nothing to do with technique. As for players trying to do more than their 'ability' allows... The word ability could also be substituted for technique couldn't it? It could be that a player makes a bad decision because they do not have a good enough kick to hit a player they're intending to hit. This could get confusing... Not the point. I was talking about Cotchin as my favourite player to watch because of his set of attributes. I believe we greatly underestimated or miscalculated the levels of some players kicking skills during the Bailey/Prendergast years. Howe is someone who has a fluent technique but sometimes mistimes the ball. He is still a much better kick than Jordie and Bail and was a low draft pick.

Maybe if you are playing kick to kick rpfc. There is no way that players drastically change their kicking technique when on the run during an AFL game. Yes decision making falls down under pressure. So does incorrect technique.

Understood, however Jones was never a long and penetrating kick from the start of his playing days, so I don't see that it's a technique change. It's leg strength.

I really don't understand how they can get such a simple thing wrong. Looks pretty unprofessional for an AFL club if you ask me.

Penetration and distance come from strong quads which obviously comes from having pre season after pre season in the gym. I honestly don't see any technique change with the jones of now compared to the jones of 2005.

In my view it was Jones' decision making that improved. He has always been able to hit targets, it's just he used to bomb it aimlessly a lot of the time. He has learnt to lower his eyes and now makes much better decisions when in possession.Not a technique thing of you ask me. His technique is fine. Look at his set shots.

I reckon Nasher and Old Dee have summed it up but going into more detail, kicking a footy comes down to ball eye coordination. It seems like there is a fair chunk of natural ability involved but the question that intrigues me is where does the natural ability come from? I don't know if it's to do with being exposed to balls from a young age or if some are born with it or if its a combination? Same can be said for kids that excel at maths and physics versus those of us who are creative etc. Left Brain development versus Right Brain development. Those who are blessed with this natural ability or coordination seem to develop a fluent and proficient techniques when it comes to the art of kicking and those within the AFL who have beautiful kicks seem to move more gracefully and have better awareness than players without this natural ability or coordination. Kids without this natural ability who end up being drafted seem to never quite develop a better kicking technique as its hard to break down what you've been doing for so long especially for players who are not blessed with this natural ability. They never learnt how to kick the ball well from whenever they started to play so its near impossible for them to re-learn a technique whilst at a club. McKenzie will never improve his kicking much and neither will Bail alongside a host of others on our list. However as people say, McKenzie was picked up for a reason. Attitude and work ethic. Which is why we see him fly in at the contest so often. Bail got a spot on a list because of his aerobic ability. He is a great runner. We have had far too many on our list who have had one or two standout attributes but kicking has been one of their weaknesses. We need to start picking up kids that are more well rounded players and natural sportsmen. When you get a player with natural ability and coordination come in to your club along with several other strong attributes, you know you have a star on your hands. Cotchin is my favourite player to watch because he fits that description to a tee. He would beat Mckenzie in a contested scenario, burn him in a flash and deliver to the [censored] of reiwoldt before we knew what had happened. Same with Cyril. If Jack Watts had the same desire and urgency about him when it comes to winning the pill, he would be a star of the comp as he has all the natural ability in the world. Apologies for the rant.

This is why we need to weed more players out by the end of the season and bring in some quality kickers. I know it won't happen but in a perfect world for me I'd like to see McKenzie, Davis, MacDonald, Bail and Couch all gone by years end. We may improve in other facets of the game this year but these players will never improve their kicking skills much.

Never imply led zeppelin play crap ever again. Kind regards.

Judging Nab cup form is tough but a lot seem to think it means absolutely zilch. I believe it can have a hugely positive effect on a cub. Especially cellar dwellers who have been starved of success for so long.Yes there are games in which sides will play a more inexperienced side or be down on rotations or they'll be pipped in a close one. But competitiveness, a show of improvement in implementing game plan, the proof of development in younger players. These things are a must. For the MFC, a club who have craved success for so long, it would do absolute wonders for us if we were to one day win the Nab cup GF or at least play off in it. The positivity, morale, membership drive, sense of arrival etc etc. It would do more than many think. I am sure. So please, for all those saying it means nothing, please stop. For the MFC it would mean a lot.. We need that feeling back. We need that winning culture. We must win round 1, and not by a couple of goals. We need a serious injection of life. Go dees.

That movie Me, Myself and Irene keeps popping up in my head for some reason...