Rodney (Balls) Grinter

I honestly think it's a mindset, system and application thing from here. The team just has to get good at always finding a way to win, even games that we shouldn't because of poor form, injuries etc. One hall mark of the Hawthorn teams in their eras of success is that they rarely, if ever lost three weeks in a row and I think that gets you a good part of the way there. Similarly, I know coaches always play down the importance of winning round 1 (probably mostly the ones that regularly loose Rd 1), but I really do think that's a bit of a misnomer. To finish top 4, teams can only loose 4, maybe 5 - 6 games within a season. To me that says that the team needs to be winning every 4 out of 5 or 5 out 6 games. Loosing in round 1 puts the team on the back foot from the start and always playing catch-up to finish in a strong ladder position. Playing catch-up means the team has to take more risks injury wise towards the back end of the season as opposed to being in a position to manage players for a good finals series. Classic cases of teams who's strong mid season ladder position enabled them to better manage their lists for a solid attack on a premiership were West Coast in 2018 and the Tigers in 2019. For as long as I've followed them, the MFC haven't been able to put together a consistent well controlled approach to consistently stringing together wins over the course of the season to position us appropriately for a genuine attack on a flag - we've had the superstar tallent, but it's the consistency, system and management over an entire season that wins you flags.

Agree in principle, but I'm impatient, so I say the winning with consistently starts now. 2018 and perversely 2019 were our learning years. In my view, the age, experience and talent profile of the club is now at a point where we should be seriously be competing for a flag each and every season we set foot on the park (pending endemic injury riddled seasons). As you point out, seriously competing for a flag means winning consistently and against the best teams, with the implications of finishing top 4. Consistenty just aiming at and making finals won't translate into a flag.

It's always been fairly well known that Lever's role is as the third tall to peel off and intercept, so I don't think we should start having expectations of him becoming a lock down type defender. We did try him as a lock down for half a dozen games at the start of 2018 and it did benefit anyone, so I don't think we should waste our time with that anymore. My personal view is also that Lever is only an average kick himself though, so not sure that logic stacks up. On the positive, although it's only a small sample of preseason games, I'm encouraged that Levers intercept numbers are up their - pretty hard to get hurt by his loose man or the oppo's small forwards if we have control of the ball. I saw some encouraging signs against Hawthorn that O Mac is starting to find his mojo again, so I reasonably comfortable for him to lock down the key forward and release lever. Otherwise, perhaps we need to send Petty back there again once fit or perhaps it's even an oppertunity to give Weid or T Mac a run in defense - if they struggles find form up forward, perhaps a run down back could actually help them find the leather again. Overall though, key lockdown defenders are probably where we should be looking to stock-up and develop at the next draft, somehow trade for or prefferably poach as a FA as May won't last that much longer in the scheme of things.

Yeah, but he was probably TBC the week before he was named in the practice match against Adelaide as well. I don't think we are going to get any simple straight answers on the AVB injury front as the year progresses.

Hawthorn - the arrogance of their supporters is unbelievable. Decades of slow painful non-competiveness would be a fitting fair for this mob. Daylight second Essendrug Carlscum West Coast - I actually wish the AFL would introduce a popular 3rd WA team, just to help break up WC's finacial monopoly a bit more and reduce their dominance as an AFL power. GWS St Kilda before we broke our hoodoo against them North Perhaps the crows. I actually don't mind some of the other interstate sides, except when we loose to them or loose players to them. Every club's supporters has a few half back flankers, although the standouts in this regards are probably those listed above 1 - 4. Collingwood and Footscray supporters are just garden variety inbreds. Melbourne supporters use to be the wealthy man's club, but I think a lot of the well to do band wagon jumpers have followed the success, so I hardly think we hold that title anymore.

Well that works doesn't it? Pretty hard to rotate 6 players through 6 positions.

I like the thought of the flexibility this could give us and the opportunity to manage the workload of our mids over the course of the season, to avoid burn out. If the opposition has a damaging mid that we want to contain, then throw Harmesy onto him, but if not then we roll with a different midfeild structure. Could also make us much less predictable to play against. People have also been critical of Goody in the past for not reacting quickly enough in games, but perhaps up until now, he hasn't had the luxury of enough mature, quality players to shuffle the magnets around with confidence.

Midfeild and forward would be my preference, but so long as Harmesy can handle being thrown around different positions a bit, it might be a very handy thing to have up our sleave to throw the opposition off ballance in the middle of a game if we can shift him around a bit. Was very effective against the Hawks on Friday. It's also possible that he will adapt further to playing back and go on more aggressive attacking moves at the right time. Will be interesting to see if he develops further in the role once he has a stable team of May, Lever, Salem, Jetta, O Mac, Lockhart, Hibbo around him and they develop some cohesion together. I think it's also fairly apparent from some of Goodies comments in the latest eppisode of To Help and Back, that he doesn't view possessions as king, that playing a role for the team is more important and I certainly see sense in that team first mantra as well. So long as we are winning with Harmesy down back, I think all and sundry will be happy.

Wouldn't be MFC if we didn't drop that game that we shouldn't have and couldn't really afford to. Critical we win upcoming games against Freo and Carlton now.

So who is her best mate?

Well done to our girls. Building a really good season towards a solid finals position. Would love to see this headline repeated again in a few weeks!

I can see Clackson walking away himself, if after a few years if things are going further south.

Spot on. Asides from the Hawks and Cats, I think the other sides with extremely lob sided age profiles for their sides best players would be Collingwood and West Coast. This is where I see a real oppertunity for the MFC to win flags in the next 3 or 4 years as the best of the current teams start to fall away and the age of our list profile comes into it's prime. What's also pleasing with respects to Hawthorn is that some of the youngish players they paid premiums on like Jager O'Mera and Wingard aren't really producing the rewards proportional to what they gave up for them with respects to draft picks either. On another point, yes our win against Hawthorn is only against what may well pan out to be a middle ranked side, but it's also worth noting that many of the so-called experts predict them to be in the 8 ahead of us (well before this weekend at least) and I agree with Mr.Short Temper that beating middle ranked sides consistently goes along way to making finals, although I'd contend that we also now need to get into the habit of beating the best teams as well and finish top 4. Personally, I'm quite happy for Hawthorn to never completely bottom out and spend a decade or more finishing in positions 7 to 12 - never good enough to genuinely compete and never low enough to get first crack at the cream of the crop at the draft. They should also find it harder to attract free agents from this position as well after a few years and everyone works out that they are not really a genuine premiership contender or have buckets of money left over after they pay Mitchel, O'Mera, Wingard, $culley & Co. In a similar vein, while 2019 really was not a fun year to support the MFC, perhaps we will look back on it as the hickup we had to have, particularly if Jackson, Picket and Rivers all deliver for us in the comming years.

That kick in was like the 'Frost Ball' kick-in goal from that final we played last year, but without the Frost and without the risk.

I know it's only preseason, but one thing that did please be last night is that basically no Hawthorn player got off the chain in any way and I recon pretty much all were well beaten by their man. Scully did a few things but was totally shaded by Tomlinson and Langdon Burgoyne virtually unsighted Wingard - no impact Puopopelo - did he even get a kick Mitchell - quite (although coming back from injury) Patton - well beaten by May Frosty - little impact although if he had the job on T Mac, then he did play his role well to take him out of the game O'Mera - hardly touched it Bad mullet man Worple - turnover king Sicily - marginal impact About the only good players I could really identify for them were Frawley and Ceglar (of whom was rucking against a non ruckman for most of the game). Hope this caries on into the season propper. I have been waiting for Hawthorn to fall off a cliff and into a hole with their aging stock of ex-stars.

I'd been uncomfortable and displeased with his performances up to this point, but only because I know he can do better. If he can really get going, it will be good to see if he can take his game to the next level.

So the real positives for me were the return to good form of: Viney Spargo Freitch Melksham May Oscar - I actually thought he looked like he belonged again tonight ANB in patches Hibbard late in the game Brayshaw was quite serviceable and did a few nice things Bedford showed he's on the pace Continued good form from: Lochart Tomlinson Langdon Was a bit disappointed with: Trac didn't dominate, but better to save that for Rd 1 Clarry was average, but has a few credits up his sheave and did a few nice things Jones didn't play a full game. I assume he is being managed for the season ahead, due to old age, but did some nice stuff when on the ground and suggested again he could make an important contribution this season. Injuries to Weid and AVB Commentators talked up Lever a fair bit, but I thought he was just ok, but conversely good to get through another game T Mac's almost non existent presence was one of the more disappointing things of the night to me, but then I do also wounder if they had him playing a slightly different role, with Freitch and Melksham playing deep and being the main focal points. Overall, I thought we lacked a bit of system and skills at times, but the wind did seem quite tricky and for a team in the Hawks that I think many commentators would have ahead of us, I thought we made them look pretty ordinary and were not really threatened by them for most of the game. For the most part though, I thought we looked pretty well in control of the game, which had not often been the case against Hawthorn for the past few years. The game did look a little like the intensity wasn't quite there at times, like both teams really did hold back a little more in reserve than if there was points on the line.

Agreed, and that's without even talking about the excellent pressure game that he bought. Harassed well all game and properly stuck some great tackles. To me it was pretty close to the sort of form that saw him play the majority of the 2018 season. Really don't understand why people are so quick to pot Spargo. When he's up and about he makes an impact.

I wasn't all that impressed last week to be honest and thought we would have been better off playing Brown against the Hawks as more of a dress rehearsal for a fortnights time in Perth. Was also a bit concerned with T Mac's lack of impact against the Hawks and so really think we need a big man with form on their side to play the Eagles.

Makes you appreciate the value of having Preuss as backup once he gets over his injury. He may be a bit slow (though hopefully a bit slimmer and fitter this year), but he does provide a pretty decent contest.

Agree. To some point. I think Weids will come good, he clunked a few good ones tonight. But I agree with T Mac as backup and playing Brown as the second tall forward as I think he is actually the other in form and has a good record of being pretty handy for a few goals a game.

I actually didn't mind the look of the predominantly red polos, but I can imagine they are probably too vivid a reminder of the Neeld era to ever revert to them again or at least for a long while.

Following on from some of the points made in this thread Re the finacial value of theAFLW, I can't say I agree with this Muppet a lot of the time, but Kennet make some interesting points in this article: Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett says it is a ‘gross discrimination’ that they don’t have an AFLW side https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/hawthorn-president-jeff-kennett-says-it-is-a-gross-discrimination-that-they-dont-have-an-aflw-side/news-story/93f11e1bf549dd5e848aa0ce8873f965 Kennett said the Hawks are missing out on a major revenue stream by being excluded from the rapidly growing women’s game. “We are very disappointed we are not in the AFL, not only for our female (VFLW) players, but also our female membership,” Kennett said. “I consider it to be gross discrimination against the four clubs that are not part of it. “It puts us at a huge disadvantage in terms of our membership and sponsorship and our ability to participate fully in what is the AFL. In the article Jeff also openly makes the point that the AFL don't like the success that the Hawks have in recient times - it's not just the AFL, just about every non Hawthorn supporter thinks this way I recon.

All the attention has been on Kossie, so Bedford has been a bit of a sleeper and gone under the radar a bit. In general, from a situation of being bereft of small forwards we may end up with it as being a strength. If they are both in good form, don't see why we couldn't play both of Kossie and Bedford. Then we could also have the luxury of ANB, Spargo, Hunt and Baker all fighting it out for competition for a spot in the team - all of which are very capable on their day. If Hannan and/or Smith ever make it off the injury list, they are both pretty quick forward types very much capable of making an impact in the air or on the ground.

I think you have figured out who we will run with fairly well there AW. I suspect with his performances to date that Brown is pretty close to a lock too and Jackson may be in to cover for Gawn to be eased back into things a bit such that he doesn't take quite as much of the ruck load that he normally does. Personally I'd like to see Weid playing more time forward this game than as a make shift ruckman. I personally think Spargo is showing some good indications that he is close to the sort of form that made him a regular in 2018, but his finishing by foot (particularly in front of goal) just doesn't quite seem to be there at present. I hardly noticed Hore against North, so would be surprised if he gets a gig. Thought Rivers was the standout backman in the North scratch match, so surprised he wasn't named in the 26.