Rodney (Balls) Grinter

I think you are off the mark here. What do you call the punting of Jack Watts to Port? Goody has also shown he is more than willing to send star players like Brawshaw back down to the reserves fix their deficiencies and to earn their place in the side when it's the right thing to do. The impression I get of Goodwin is that he is hard but fair, a good comunicator and that players respect him because they know where they stand with him because he clearly comunicates his expectations of them and acts consistent with those values. There were reasons Roos picked him as a sucessor.

The current form slump is part of the reason it was important to contact Goodwin before the start of the season. Can you imagine the further instability which would be floating about were he presently not contracted beyond the end of the season? Whilst our start to the season is regrettable and constitutes unexceptable team performance, it is hardly unprecedented in AFL terms. It would be more unprecedented if our climb from the bottom of the ladder continued uninterrupted. Peter Jackson expicitly made this point in his final Demonland podcast last year that history tells us there will be setbacks, sighting the examples of mid 2000s Geelong and Richmond that I recall. It's is a sign of a stronger club in times of hardship to keep the faith and persevere. No doubt there are lessons for our players and coaches to be learnt from this period, but that's quite different to the questions of their fundemental character and ability that might be thrown about.

We had much of the same last year and it worked ok. It's a team form and structure thing at the moment are my thoughts. I actually think 6-6-6 has really hurt us. We previouly setup with those 1 or 2 players running off the back of the square at center bounces, which was really effective for us, particularly for guys like ANB. That doesn't explain things post the centre bounce, but I think there is also an element that once a team is getting on top of us, we are becoming reactive to their structures around the ball and always on the back foot. From what I understand, Richmond had way more tackles than us last game, which I don't think was as much to do about their intensity Vs ours, but more to do with us always delivering the ball to players in positions where they were easily tackled as opposed to them moving it in more open space. My view is that it's more about player positioning and ball movement than simply a lack of outside pace which seems to be the flavor of the month around here this whole season. My guess is that 6-6-6 is here to stay so we need to find a new structure/game style that works for us without it. It can take a long time for players to learn and have confidence in a new game plan. If we spend the rest of the season finding and embedding a new game style that stands up against the best teams, then I'll be satisfied that the season hasn't been a total waste. It's not nessasrily a bad thing for guys like Oliver to be bought back down to earth either. Hopefully if anything good comes out of this season, Oliver learns more about what it is to be the hunted every week to flourish in that environment and/or to defend better. A more mature, 'next level' Clarry is a tantalizing prospect.

31 possessions at an 80% turnover rate is not a good performance though. Just for the record, I'm not trying to be overly critical of Oliver, but they were my just my observations. I usually love what Oliver brings and I guess his recient down performances show that he is actually human after all. Also shows how much individual performance is influenced by team performance and how fine a line it is between good and bad form. When we were up and flying, those dinky handballs release a player who bursts into space, we are away and all praising Oliver for winning the initial contested ball and feeding it out through the eye of the needle - please bring back those days sooner rather than later.

Absolutely @longsuffering. I remember sitting through some miserable performances as a 5/6 yo in 85/86 and just pulling my beanie down over my eyes hoping that when I took it back up the team would somehow start turning the game around. I have almost the same feeling at times this season. But then we turned it around in 87 and 88 with a desperate workmanlike team, hungry for success, only to be heart broken. The nineties so full of potential yet tuned out to be total frustration. I'd rather forget most of this century. The last couple of years have continued the roller-coaster ride and whilst I thought it was unlikely we would walk into a premiership this year in a cake walk, I've been really taken back by just how poor we have been to date. I despise the current negativity around the team and consider our present performances as something more of a temporary frustration and disapointment than a more permanent imparement. These trials and tribulations will make that elusive next flag all the sweeter when it finally comes. For the real MFC supporters, Every Heart does indeed beat true for the red and blue. Living interstate, I can't make it down to training on Friday, but will certainly be doing everything I can to cheer on the team down at Carrara in a few weeks and later in the year at the Gabba. CARN THE MIGHTY DEMONS!!

I don't know if it's a symptom or a cause of some of our problems against Richmond, but I thought that way too many of Oliver's dinky flick over the top handballs either missed their targets or were to players under almost immediate pressure who either fumbled and turned it over or were smashed in a tackle. Basically the options he chose to handball to were in poor position and/or we were not presenting enough good handball options around the ball, with enough space to execute an effective next possession. A few of his kicks hit their mark, but again I recall a high percentage of turnovers based on quick around the corner and hope kicks. My impression was this one of the least effective contributions I've recalled from Oliver, but then, he also wasn't the only guilty one by my account.

Virtually Lol. Didn't get that at first. Great work by The Bull - another three quarters virtually like that would be bloody awsome.

I could definitely handle another game for us like that Carlton one. Might get our percentage back to somewhere over 50%.

Still not happy with this. Many are presently decrying a lack of pace within our present squad - something Dean definitely does have. Would be just our luck that he now gets through to the end of his career with few injuries after being pepetually on the casualty list for us.

Haven't seen one of these in a while, so I thought I'd throw one in for fun. Whilst I'd admit that a victory against the Tigers would appear to be unlikely, stranger things have happened in sport. Is it the mix of players we presently have in? Is it confidence? Is it system? Fitness and work rate? Or all and the above? Watching the game last week, in the periods of the first half when we were still the game that we dominated general play, but I felt that we somewhat over used the ball across half forward by hand in an effort to create the perfect forward 50 entry and then subsequently fumbled or otherwise turned it over. Well doucmented that when entering forward 50, we just couldn't take a mark or find a crumb. Let's not even bother talking about defense. However all these problems are fixable, we still have a great midfield and dominate the forward 50 entries for the most part and at some point the worm had got to turn doesn't it? Anyway if we beat Richmond tonight, I'm having a beer or two in celebration and I'm hoping a few other Demonlanders might join me in that gesture. GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS!!

Expecting a hard fought spirited performance from our lads today. Jack Viney got back to his hard tackling best last week and Jets and Lewis back into the side should also add some hardness. It should also help playing with a full 22 players from the start of the game, rather than the 21 we effectively have been playing with Oscar's output this year. Everything on the line, nothing left in the tank is how we should be playing practically every game right now. If we ultimately can't do enough to make finals in 2019, then so be it, but we achieve nothing by going soft and throwing away the season at any stage. One match at a time, win or loose, so long as we are putting in 100% and working to rectify the chinks in the armor then we achieve something. Personally I'm in the camp that the Saints are overrated. No push over, but not the damaging side that some are making out either. We weren't on our game when we played them mid last year and I doubt we will make that mistake twice. Carn the DEMONS!

Your thinking is way too logical for the AFL to contemplate.

I'm interested to see how the big Preuss goes this week. From what I understand, the Saints backline isn't that much chop. If we are worried about covering their run, they should be worried about covering our tall forwards. We also need to learn to kick better to position with Preuss in the side and for him to be in the right spot. If we do that, then all those practical loose ball gets that Alir Alir mopped up last week disappear and Preuss either clunks another half a dozen marks and/or we have crumbers at the drop of the ball running into goal. Guys like Hunt, Spargo, Hannan and Jeffy, could/should have a feild day!

I'm thinking the comeditiveness in Tommy will probably be happy that Oscar has been dropped and that he's not a liability to the team given what his output has been. That said Tommy hasn't been that great in his own right, but it's both harder to play forward and he has shown he might not be that far off his best in patches. If Tommy were to spend a bit of time in the backline to provide a bit of tall cover for Oscar, filling in the hole and clucking a few marks, that might be good for his confidence as well.

Something I think people may be under valuing at the moment is what the speed of Sam Frost brings to our backline. I can't remember if it was Buddy himself who said it or a comentator, but Buddy knew he couldn't try to burst away from Frost and that helped to significantly contain Buddy. In our last game against St Kilda (less Frost), they burst away from us out the back on a number occasions into huge open space, where if Frost had have played, he probably would have caught them. Whist we need a good team defensive effort as well, I think having Frost down back does give us some good defensive cover that few other bring. He has been in pretty decent form most of the year and I think he can be a part of a good win for us on Saturday and remain an important part of our backline as the season progresses.

Without being disrespectful to Lewis, I think you have it the nail on the head with the above. That said, if we can squeeze a few more good games out of Lewis whilst we dig ourselves out of a bit of a patch of poor form and down a fee key troops, I'd be happy with that too. On the leadership thing, Lewis wasn't a backman most of his career, so it's not like he should have anything too special to add to that part of the ground. Realistically, guys like May, Hibberd, Jetta and even Lever/Salem should have enough experience and leadership potential between them to steer the ship post Lewis. Likewise enough leaders and experience in other parts of the ground - we need them to stand up to really take the team forward. There was a time that Lewis was in the same shoes as our emerging leaders. It will be interesting to see if Lewis takes relligation to the two's as well as Bernie did and if he can play a good developmental role with our young guys comming through. One thing I've been a little suprised and perhaps disappointed with is the lack of presence on match day that Lewis has had while injured, but perhaps there are several reasons for that and it would be interesting to know what his contribution from a leadership/mentoring perspective has been behind the scenes at training etc.

With Oscar dropped, Josh Wagner has been promoted to No.1 whipping boy. With his confidence and form as bad as it had been, just about anyone would have been better than Oscar the past month. One thing I'm quite comfortable that Wagner will give is 100% effort, commitment to the football and create a contest. Conversly, I'm struggling with all the instantaneous love for Jeffy after soo many here completely [censored] canned him most of last season. Quite happy for a desperate Jeffy to absolutely bang the door down at Casey, get rested in the last quarter and come in fresh against Richmond.

The whole team has gone back to what it was before Weid had his breakout game, but I know where you are comming from. It's so much easier to be a good player in a dominant side. It's probably because we don't have much else to replace him with now, but I've still seen some good signs from Weid that he is making a valuable contribution and I'm backing him to keep improving. Highlights from him for me from Thursday night were: * That vision and switch into the centre in the second(third?) quarter which cleared the way for us to use the corridor and resulted in a goal; * Classy 50 goal under pressure at the start of the last quarter which really steadied us; * Thought he generally got more involved in the last quarter, perhaps taking a few solid grabs for us comming out of defense, a few deft knocks to the advantacge of our players and thought he tackled/harassed and showed good desperateration to win.

Pedersen was a pretty decent pack and high mark at times. I think we are also missing Hannan's marking ability. Although I feel he doesn't pull down nearly enough of the high marks he jumps for, he has a good knack of either getting on a lead and racking them up that way, or reading the flight of the ball well, positioning himself well and taking those sneaky marks that elude the main pack. The other aspect to all this is how well the ball is kicked in to the forwardline, either as bombs, poorly executed passes or alternately as well weighted kicks to the advantage of our player - Melksham and probably a few others are exelent proponents of the latter. Makes such a difference. I think this is one area that we improved at times last year and have somewhat fallen away at this year so far. We could have got so much more milage out of big Preuss on Thursday night if we had have kicked it to him better. Even kicking to a man mountain like Preuss, we can (and mostly were) kicking it to a position and in a way that it was too easy to spoil.

A semi random thought regarding May and Lever - it kind of depends on how our key backs settle and build form over the next few weeks and it might be a bit old school, but personally I'd be in favor of bringing back both lever and May through the twos. Let their bodies build back into a fully match fit state for the rigors of compeditive senior footy and let them build some confidence with the ball as well. Steven May hasn't looked in great nick reading and finding the ball for his entire injury interupted preseason and Lever took at least half a dozen games to find form with us at the start of last season and he has missed practically an entire season of compeditive footy since then. I want these guys back in the side as much as anyone, but I want them in and firing, not struggling to get back into the game.

Any further word on how Preuss's shoulder has pulled up?

Off the bottom, now what second/third bottom - meh, who cares. I only care what we have achieved at the end of the season. If we beat St Kilda next week, we will be in pretty much the same win/loss position as the same time last year. The key difference will be that I think our draw from there on will get harder rather than easier, but if we can't raise our game to the point where we can consistently beat the better sides, then what's the point of making finals anyway. I think our fortunes from here will largely rest on how we recover injury wise. If we can get back some of our guns like Lever, May, AVB, Hannan etc, without losing too many other quality players, our back half of the year could be pretty dam impressive.

I don't know if it would be quite the same as 6-6-6 (I don't even fully understand the full technicalities of the rule), but I do see some potential for say requiring a certain number of player from each side to be behind the centre of the ground opposite the position of play at all stoppages such as kick in's, ball ups and boundary throw in's. I hate the current congested look and feel of the game. That said, I want a MFC premiership more than I care about the look of the game right now. It's fairly clear that we have recruited and developed a game style that works reasonably well within the current rules. To change those rules dramatically and suddenly now could be a huge and quite unfair disadvantage to us, so I'd want any new rules to be bought in slowly and within a reasonably distant timeline. Further reducing the number of interchanges is another rule I believe the AFL could tinker with to good effect and it could be done realitively slowly, with small increments.

I'm very glad to hear that. I'd know what's happened to him the last couple of seasons. The way many of our own supporters have turned on him quite frankly disgusts me. Jeffy has produced several 40 odd goal seasons when we were a way below par team. I'd love to see what he can do for us when both he and the team are really on.

Sigh