tiers

What has not been mentioned so far is that in 2001 Neale tried to convert our damaging, Brownlow Medal winning, running midfielder into a backpocket/hbf that ruined his game and made him tradeable not only for salary cap reasons. Might not have happened if he had been left to play in his best role. Poor judgement and decision making by the coaches of the day.

Tony Campbell's finest hour. Kept the chief under control.

18 teams can be made to work by adopting the following format. Each team plays every other team once (alternating home and away each year). After 17 rounds the 18 teams are divided into 3 groups of 6 teams along the following lines: 1,4,7,10,13,16; 2,5,8,11,14,17: 3,6,9,12,15,18 to maintain relativities. Each group then plays a round-robin 5 match series and the wins and percentages are added to the ladder after 17 rounds. Because the groups are similar in composition, no one team should get an advantage in the race for the finals. Introduce a bye after 17 rounds for the the draw to be sorted out, another bye after 22 rounds for the annual awards such as Brownlow, MVP, rising start and coaches. A further bye before the grand final will give teams the best chance to be fit and rested. Total so far is 25 weeks. With a March start this should be doable. The finals should also be enhanced with two groups namely 1,3,5,7 and 2,4,6,8. Each team plays a round robin over three weeks (4 games every week) to select the top side in each group based on wins and percentage in the final series. My preference would be for all games in week 3 to be played at the same time so the results cannot be gamed. It's a major change but can be done and will provide much more interest and excitement.

Tasmanians are already committed to existing clubs and the state is too small to host a new team. One the other hand if a Melbourne based team can be convinced/cajoled/coaxed/compelled to move across Bass Strait in the hope of picking up an extra supporter base, then it might work. A joint Victorian and Tasmanian partnership playing home games in Hobart, Launceston and Melbourne. North stand out as the obvious first, last and only choice. When considering whether or not Tassie can support a team on its own, there is a relationship between population (proxy for money) and the number of national tier 1 competition teams (AFL and NFL) that can be supported. It takes minimum of 500,000 population to support one tier 1 team and Tassie barely qualifies. Tier 2 and 3 competitions such as NBL, A-league, netball, AFLW and the multitude of cricket formats are more appropriate. They should stick to the lower tiers.

Given that the AFL already support GWS and GGS who operate in large markets, how can anyone realistically suggest that the AFL should also support a team in Tasmania that has a small population, divided major cities and no large corporate entities to sponsor a footy team. It is a pipe dream (it's like Tasmania can now wear long pants without growing up) and should be shot down at once or the other 18 teams will be bled for years.

Why is there a high half forward but never a low half forward? How is a lead up forward different to a leading forward? Why is a ruck-rover neither a ruckman or a rover? Intercept defender? Ground ball getter midfielder? Lock in forward? Clearance specialist? Could be anyone. It seems to me that there is a competition between expert commentators (so-called) to come up with new names that reflect the roles that players fill as well as the positions and that, whereas in the past a position came with an image that tended to define the player who filled that position, today with interchange and zone defence and chaos attacks the old rules no longer apply. For those who can remember, what would Alf Brown have done? He used to write a match analysis in Friday's Herald (afternoon paper) based on fixed position one-on-ones eg half forward on half back. At least the footy can still be great to watch especially if the sound is on mute and teams play in the corridor and stay away from down the line.

The name missing in this discussion is Brayshaw. Got lots of Brownlow votes in this role. Trouble is that he is perhaps too valuable as a wingman playing up and down the filed and strong intercept marking.

Teams that succeed have momentum going into the finals. At the moment we have none. Time to crank up the momentum.

The topic of on field leadership has been tossed around in this thread and, whilst we may have some reasonable suggestions here, there remains the need to appoint someone of the coaches choice. It's like Kennedy's injunction to his team to "do something". We can only hope that the coaches get the message and "do something".

Chunk has been a great and deserved leader by his actions but, to me, has never shown the ability to direct play. That's what we are lacking around the centre line and forward. I recall Angus once showing on field enterprise by waving his arms and barking instructions. It does not have to be the captain just someone who can think.

What seems to be happening is that there is no one on filed player to take control and give direction. Normally the captain would fill this role but ......? May is too far back, Lever too busy intercepting, Tracca guilty of not thinking it out so who's left. I remember a game some years ago when we had scrambled to a small lead with little time to go. The only one then who showed initiative was TMac who, after kicking the winning goal, called for everyone to go down back (before 666). Why not give him the role. Someone on the filed has to take charge.

There was another year in Northey's time when, after being in a strong ladder position, we started losing and had to win the last game against either filth or lolly blues to make the finals. 2004 (or 2006?) under Neale was a continuation of our bad habits. I suspect it started in 1964 when, after Hassa Mann had kicked a freakish goal from the railway side pocket at the Glenferrie Rd end to beat the the dorks at the Glenferrie bog to ensure that we would have top spot after 18 rounds (even though it was only R17), we promptly lost the next game to the doggies by 40 points. So either being the actual or apparent top team at R18 is bad for our form. Time to break out. Go dees

A crooked and unpredictable bounce has been and remains a feature of our game. There was a time when there was a single umpire who bounced the ball every time at all stoppages. They seemed to do it quickly and easily. What has changed? Is it the ball's characteristics, it it the condition of the super, sandy drainage underlay under the grass, is it that umpires try to bounce too hard and too high? I don't know but there is an answer. Boundary throw ins are an embarrassment. They are too slow, too high and too often too short that ruin the chances for a fair contest. How many times has one ruckman been able to run forward and attack the ball uncontested at hip or ankle level. Need a serous review of the training, and perhaps selection, of boundary umpires to mandate low, longer and quicker throw ins.

In our last premiership year 1964 we finished on top of the ladder after 18 games. Two more wins against the filth gave us a flag. In one season under Neale we were on top of the ladder after 18 games but then fell in a heap. No joy. My wish is that this year we are top of the ladder again after 18 games but that we do not fall in a heap. Still a chance for joy. Go dees.

Eight Demons. Who cares about the rest.

The only pressure stat that counts is "did the applied pressure adversely affect the player with the ball" so that he loses control of the ball, is penalised, miss-kicks, or misses a target that should otherwise have been readily achievable, or leads to an interception and so on. So long as the player is prevented from an unfettered disposal then the pressure has been effective. I will lead it to others to try and apply an objective test to the degree of pressure and try to apply some formula but for me all pressure actions are equal. The aim is the stop or prevent clean disposal.

1. Yes but how is that different to any other game this year? No walk ups allowed. 2. Depending on the attendance cap, the ballot might contain up to double the usual number of tickets. 3. Start lobbying now for special consideration, if we make the GF, for MCC/MFC members who have waited so long. 4. Those who attended the GF in 1964 should be guaranteed a seat if we make the GF (me). Go dees.

The failure of the umpires to satisfy supporters desires is not due to malice on the part of the umpires or their coaches. It is due to the failure of the rules committee and the AFL to institute a clear, credible explanation for the interpretation and application of the far too many inconsistent rules in our great game. Wayne Campbell's article this week explains some of the problem, but not all. At the moment there seems to be too much discretion allowed the umpires to "overlook" certain breaches (eg Oliver being grabbed and held back while PA kicked a goal) to allow the game to "flow". It's a breach of the rules or it isn't and, if yes, should be paid. However it might cause the number of free kicks to soar and interrupt the game. Where is the balance? As for the umpire retiring after granting a match winning free kick in the goal square to doggies against Jimmy in the dying moments of the game, he knew that he was stuffed and sensibly retired. One of the few times an egregious umpiring mistake has directly affected a result. Against weagles we got 1 free to their 21? at half times. Here it wasn't a single mistake that cost us but a full performance by all umpires. Maybe weagles deserved all 21 but surely we deserved far more than 1. So far as I know we never received an apology.

+1. In he air and on the ground the quartet would be the best I have seen in 60 years. On their day and at their best they were each capable of kicking bags of goals, if not necessarily all at the same time. They had ability, skills and footy smarts in abundance. And in that series they had Travis feeding them. 1998 - we was robbed.

They took us more seriously in 2018 when we were scoring so well. Whilst the accepted wisdom is that defences win flags, teams still need to score heavily when the opportunity arises. Sadly we do not score heavily when the opportunity arises against weaker teams. Winning by 15-25 points is not good enough when we should be winning by much larger margins to show our superiority. Percentage may also count by the end of the season and we are not as dominant as we deserve to be. Our forward line is still suspect for consistent high scores. Cats and dogs have stellar days but these are against weak opposition and are not consistent. Time for us to become consistently scoring higher. A settled forward line lineup would help. It's either BBB or Weed. Make a choice, toss a coin or flip a card and stick with it.

The best highlight for me is that we won without a functioning forward line. I don't mind winning by strangling the opposition but there will come a time when we will have to score a lot to win. Our nearest competition on the ladder have each shown that they can score quickly and big with multiple pathways to goal. There are only 8 games to go to find the magic potion. Let's use the time wisely.

Any Melbourne team that throughout the nineties had a choice of Lyon, Schwarz, Neitz, Jackovich, Farmer, Charles, Tingay, G. Lovett, B. Lovett, Prymke, Viney, Woewodin, Powell, Johnstone, White, Stynes and more would have to be the best team in our history. The tragedy is that only Neitz, Farmer, B. Lovett, Woewodin, Powell, White, Stynes of that group were ever consistently available for selection in that period and we were weakened whenever we had a real chance in 1990, 1994 and 1998 by missing players and a lack of cohesion that comes from playing together over an extensive period. That we made the GF in 2000 was a fluke at a time when the finals system worked in our favour (beating lollie blues in week 1 got us into a PF against tired roos). The 2021 team might appear to have fewer stars but those that we have are in defence and on the ball where premierships are won. Further, so far, the cohesion is building week by week so that there are no obvious weaknesses on any line. As I said elsewhere in another post, stay quiet and pray hard. Go dees.

The only time to say it will be on the last Sunday in September if it comes to pass. Until then, keep quiet and pray hard.

Percentage also counts in contest for positions in the eight. Percentage has hurt us in the past and could again. Let's not be comfortable with wins only.

M Brown is much more versatile as an emergency than B Brown. Bide your time Ben, your opportunities will appear.