stevethemanjordan

Word. Great post, agree wholeheartedly. On a side note, if our supporters and footy debt truly believe that Oscar and Frost playing in a down-to-the wire final together as our key defenders will help us get over the line, we can kiss our chances of a flag goodbye. It's one or the other, not both. Development is one thing and yeh yeh yeh Oscar is developing etc. But it should be blatantly obvious after that prelim that we need a serious physical presence in our defensive half and if we lose May to Collingwood who already took Dunn from us after we off-loaded him, I'll be sick. Oscar will never be 'physical' enough and Frost will always possess brain fade moments. Not ideal traits to have going into a finals series. Collingwood are the definition of living in the 'now' and we need to take a leaf when it comes to targeting players for the 'now' whilst keeping an eye on the future. We were one win away from a Grand Final birth and there are zero guarantees going into next year. Regardless of the fact that we have a strong core that should improve. Every club's young players will improve. I'm really bullish about us going forward, but I also want to see us get aggressive at the trade table this year. Give me a Steven May at full back with Oscar in a pocket and Lever as an intercept mark. Frost as depth, Keilty and Petty as developing young players. That's what key position depth looks like. Either that or Jesse needs to be moved back to what I would call his natural position. AA CHB for WA back in his under 18 year.

I was firmly in 'pro Frawley leaving' camp. For one, we were always going to get great compensation for him. And Two, he lacked the personality traits to help make us great again. The complete opposite of Jones in fact. In short, the guy is not a thinker. And if you were to dissect his performance last night, you'll see what I mean by the way he plays. The bloke is made of fluff. I can imagine last night he would have had some 'what if I stayed' moments as the game was slowly slipping out of Hawthorn's grasp. I don't buy the view that supporters believe he'd be happy with the call he made. A premiership that he barely had anything to do with. Good riddance, we got Brayshaw. We are about to embark on an unbelievably exciting period for the club. Let's continue to ride the wave of these last few weeks. It's been magical so far.

Strange question. Given its a Hawthorn home game, is out cheer squad likely to be at the city end for this game?

MCC have predicted 85,000. It'll happen. Just let it.

We got nearly 55k in round one. I think you're underestimating the context. It's been 12 years since we've been seen in September and Geelong supporters turn up for finals. My prediction is 85k and I'm hoping it's closer to 90k.

He was, I wasn't.

As he always was, developing nicely.

I'm really not sure why posters are so convinced Gaff is off to North. Polec is about to go there on enormous money so I find it extremely difficult to believe North would pay another bucket-load to a similar outside running player? It really doesn't make any sense to me from a list management pov. Not that it means much, but I happened to bump into Gaff last week playing golf at Camberwell. I had a chat to him and told him I hoped to see him running around in our colours next year, to which he responded; "I've got a bit to think about over the next few weeks." My feeling is that we're still very much in the frame. My brother played school footy with him and has said he's a very honest kid who was a big dees fan growing up as most are aware. His father hasn't been well either which is obviously a massive factor in his decision. Players go home to play at their club of choice sometimes even if it's for less money. Jeremy Howe for instance took less to go to Collingwood over the Gold Coast to play under Buckley who was his favourite player as a kid. I'm still confident.

Weitering could be worth a crack even though he's under contract. Lever will be of most value when playing that true third intercept defender. Oscar and Weitering to mark talls with Lever as intercept. Two key backs and Lever as the intercept specialist.

No, obviously not. He is a young and developing player. However, it's the only line we have that lacks depth, quality and experience. And it's remained that way since Dunn left. Frost, Keilty and Petty are not depth yet as we saw with Petty. Two of them are untried and Frost is a mistake ridden athlete who is the furthest thing from the word 'consistency' one could think of. The fact we don't have a mature body with either experience at AFL level or the level under is a serious oversight by Goodwin and the recruiting team. You look at Weideman VS Oscar McDonald and compare the way in which they've been handled over their careers. One has been made to play out of necessity rather than form. The other one is in his third year and has been dropped again after one poor game due to depth and talent. Weideman was a top end pick. Oscar a pick in the 50's. It doesn't make sense to me. It should be our priority over the off season along with diversifying our midfield mix. You get rid of Frost, Tyson and Bugg over the off season and bring in May, Gaff and a half forward who is quick, skilled and pressures and watch our team transform.

Give Frost a chance? He's been given a chance in almost every position possible on the football field. Unfortunately for him, (and fortunately for us watching) his weaknesses won't allow him to be a consistent AFL player.

You need to post more please.

"Oscar is fine and he isn't even close to be being a problem for the club at the moment". That's dismissive m8. I'm not sure why it doesn't compute for some, but I've made it fairly clear that it's not alllll Oscar's fault. I've highlighted one problem area, which is real. And which imo has some significant flow-on effects that supporters clearly can't see. I'm going to go to the effort to learn how to edit some clips of what I'm talking about and post them. Obviously there are a handful of problems at our club. The absence of an experienced and consistent key defender is a big issue.

There a few problem areas. Our lack of key position experience and size is one. Dismissing such a thing is ridiculous.

Agree with Sfebey. Oscar after the weekend is back to performing the way he was last year. Playing without physicality, urgency or smarts. It's just limbs everywhere at present and as much as our defensive system as a whole isn't working, you simply need to have strong defensive pillars at all times. Now before fanboys of his come at me like a buzzard, believing I'm 'blaming' him for our loss, just hold up. Look around the league. The best defensive units have super strong bodied key position defenders that are the glue for the rest of their defensive unit. Our keys at the moment without lever look again like school boys playing against men. It reminds me of when we were made to play Scully, Trengove, Morton etc all at once. It's clear as day we made an error by not bringing in a mature-aged key after giving Dunn the flick. We've loaded up with young keys and that's fine. But why not have a crack on Steven May if he's exploring his options? He is a top 5 key defender. Why do we need to wait? Who knows whether Oscar will actually come through. There's no reason why he can't continue to develop at Casey. Some of his efforts on the weekend were that of an 18 year old, underdeveloped and physically intimidated tall.

My OCD meter is through the roof right now.

Nah, don't need em. Ask Goody. I arksed him. He only plays inside mids on the wings like Tyson and Harmes and it's the same with half forwards. ANB and Petracca. Ball use, composure and speed is overrated. He thinks it, not me.

Pretty sure Roos said this when he first took over in 2014, which is why Daniel Cross was brought over. But cool to know Goodwin is saying that it's still not ingrained in our players 4 years later... On a serious note, that kind of a response is an absolute cop out. How obvious is it to see that if you play a super aggressive zone as a defensive unit, you're going to need to be an extremely skilled side through the midfield and forward line? We are the third easiest team to score against once the ball is inside 50. We just let St Kilda of 2018 kick a score of 119 against us. 119. Do something Goodwin.

Trading up is naturally the preferred scenario in any draft, if feasible. And drafts are ALWAYS important. Rather than suggest ludicrous sideways trades of young potential stars in Hogan and Petracca like the posts above have entertained, I'd rather look at who would be considered 'excess' of what we already have and who could net us value. The most obvious of which to me would be Tyson, Frost, Bugg, Stretch, (romanticism aside) and Kent. List upgrades are always important and from a list needs point of view, we're in clear need of players who will bring a set of skills that we need. Adding youth is obviously always paramount for the sustained success of a club as well. Tyson (as an example) packaged with pick 31 could net us something of great value if a Carlton, Essendon or Gold Coast were to bite. Goodwin concerns me with his stubbornness. His unwaveringly commitment in playing certain players out of position completely stifles our ability to hit the scoreboard against strong opposition sides who apply pressure. Whether that's players inside mids like ANB or Tyson as half-forwards or on the wings. Hogan as a permanent key forward. Vince and Lewis in the same backline. Etc. I can see our potential, but to me our team balance is still a way off. We have this mantra of playing 'tough' Melbourne footy and have recruited players who can play that way. But clearly in doing so we've neglected a skill and composure component and have lost run with Hunt's injury and our abundance of inside type players who play in other areas of the ground doesn't help our cause.

Incredible resume, huge get.

Both Petracca and Brayshaw have had to face some adversity early on which has most obviously had an impact on their development as players. I don't really care for comparing them at this stage. Gus had his breakout couple of games for us this year and Trac has shown glimpses of what he's capable of. As long as we continue to nurture and educate these boys, they will both be big time contributors for the MFC. Trac missed all of his first year and Gus pretty much missed all of last year. It put them both back. The exciting thing in my eyes is that they're both so untapped along with some other players and we're still sitting 5th at the halfway point. As I've said a number of times, greater consistency in performance will come once these guys reach 80-100 games. And from then on it'll be a hell of a watch if we can keep our core together.

Can confirm that we wouldn't be interested in 'any' player. And no, I didn't ask Mahoney.

Should always be playing in the guts with rests either on the pine or at half-forward. He is ball player. No more experimenting thanks Simon. Gussy looks to be gaining more and more confidence with each game, can't wait to watch him develop further.

Unbelievable player, super lucky to have him. This year looks like he's genuinely loving it, loving the club and loving his team mates.

Weird thread. Both differing in skill-sets and neither of them are well rounded yet. Petracca is clearly more dynamic. But when they’ve hit 100 games together with Oliver, and Viney is close to 150 our midfield is going to be pretty crazy. That’s all I care about.