tiers

Clarrie is not Mitchell reincarnated in red and blue. There is no comparison. He is a much more impressive and complete player. Clarrie wins his own ball in crowded situations (unlike Mitchell who used to stand at the back of packs and wait for the ball to be flicked out) and can deliver with thought, play with intensity, tackle with ferocity, run with speed, mark with the best and kick with both feet to advantage so as to create scoring opportunities galore. His hands are slicker and quicker than Mitchell and even Williams from the 90s. When the demons start to read and react to Clarrie's possessions in the same way that the dorks did with Michell, then he will be unstoppable. It is time for the team to step up to his standard. As for being lippy notice how, when he gets pinged for supposed "incorrect disposals" by umpires who have no feel for the game, he does not carry on but only shows his disappointment and gets on with the game. A model citizen yet he loses Brownlow votes because his best work is too quick and too subtle for the umpires. No grand gestures like others. Just pure footy smarts and skill.

Looking forward to never having to beat anyone above us!

Too hard to place in order. So give 3 votes to Salem and then 2 votes each to Lever, May, Oliver, McDonald, Neal-Bullen, Spargo, Hunt, Jordon, Petracca and Langdon. Total 21 votes. How good is it when the teams performance is so even with multiple contributors.

The only significance of 9 wins in a row is that it is one more than 8 wins in a row. One week at a time. First make the eight, then the four, then the two. Have been through too many false projections.

Oliver's kicking needs some refinement. He has to decide whether he is a "long bomber" in which case the forwards should adjust or if the is to be a "straight passer" which will also require an adjustment. At the moment he/we are not sure. He has shown before that he can pass with long bombs but it requires the forwards to lead to space. As for Brayshaw. His kicking was poor but his kick selection was worse. He should be reminded that the goals are the big sticks at the end of the ground, not in the grandstand, and kick in their direction. In fact most of the team should be reminded as too many kicks are directed deep into the pockets. Salem is a gem. Lever and May, as a unit, are clearly the two best key positions backs I have seen for decades. Hunt, Hibbert, Petty and Rivers fill any and all gaps and Brayshaw and Langdon provide key support when needed. Roos' defensive planning finally coming to maturity.

Stats are easy to collect in other (inferior) sports where the action is slower, most of the play is static, it is less crowded and there are lots of stops in play. How they collect our footy stats always amazes me. So let's not compare our great game to others.

It's time to go back to one week at a time. Projections are worthless.

Well summarised Dee. But to me it is as much, if not more, a case of the coach constructing a team and team plan around his assets. In the past there have been times when it seemed that the team and team plan was based on some pre-conceived plan (typically a copy of the current fashion) and that the players had to adjust their games to suit the plan. This led to many disappointments. Finally, this year, we have the assets - three strong talls at the back, an in and under midfield cohort, two tall mobile ruckmen to share the load, three talls and three smalls at the front and two running, roving wingmen to patrol the boundaries. All that is missing is a pair of hard running midfielders to complete the plan by improving the clearance rate. And a coach who let's it happen. Go dees.

Two things caused our decline. The first was the so-called Norm Smith curse that destroyed the fabric of the club. The second was much more influential and compounded the effect of the first. In the mid 60s the VFL implemented "zoning" whereby each club was gifted an exclusive recruiting zone in Victoria. This destroyed the MFC's dominance in recruiting by being able to use the MCG and the connectedness of our club to attract talent. Our zones delivered Robbie and Garry but not much else in terms of out and out champions. Clubs like the dorks and the lollie blues were, by chance, gifted unfettered access to productive zones that delivered an ongoing supply of great players eg dorks had Mornington Peninsula and Berwick that were fast growing residential areas that delivered Tuck, Matthews, Scott, Brereton, Langford, Mew, Ayres, Crimmins, Wallace, Dipierdomenico etc etc hat brought them success.

Been here before and learnt a lesson. Back in the early 00s we were top of the ladder after 18 rounds for the first time since 1964 (when there were only 18 games in a season). Then we lost three(?) in a row and missed out on the double chance. My time for celebration will only come with a cup in our hands.

Melbourne equal second in the positive column is clearly an error and should be disregarded. How the AFL allowed this top happen is not yet understood but I believe that it will be overturned this season and the dees will be demoted to their 57 year old status of not being allowed to be successful. Let's scream "baaaaallllll" at every opportunity to try and maintain our advantage.

No. Tainted by his current mob.

As I have said before in previous posts, the late Dean Bailey used to say that it takes 70 games played as a group to build the sort of cohesion and understanding needed for success. We are getting to this target - Oliver, Petracca, Brayshaw, Salem, Harmes, Gawn, TMac(?), Viney, Jetta and maybe others. It is significant that Oliver, Petracca, Brayshaw and Gawn have been prominent in recent Brownlows. McCartney used to say that it takes 5 years to build an AFL footballer. Combine the two and 2020 was supposed to be our year but it will now have to wait for 2021. With good coaching and leadership it's nearly time for this group to burst out and find success. Adding May, Lever, Langdon and Tomlinson plus Choco and Yze's contribution to a team structure that now has winners and stability on all lines makes it look as if they were on the right path. It just takes patience and learning.

In 1965, as reigning premiers, we started 8-0 thanks to a series of close victories. It all came to an end on Queen's Birthday Monday when we were smashed by St Kilda by 63 points at the MCG. Nothing but misery since. It was the day made famous by Allan Jeans masterstroke of selection when he swapped Verdun Howell from FB to FF and Bob Murray from CHF to full back. Murray went on the become a highly regarded full back whereas Howell was already a champion having lost to Bob Skilton in the 1959 Brownlow on countback (it was subsequently awarded to him when the Brownlow rules changed).

6 Gawn - just too, too good 5 Lever = recruit of the century 4 Langdon = recruit of the century 3 Oliver - never stops 2 Salem - grown in poise and smarts 1 Jackson - competes and wins to release Gawn

Navy blue for me. This is the best so-called clash jumper. Royal blue was introduced to coincide with the introduction of colour tv in 1975 when the colour renditioning on the screen was no so good. Clash jumpers are intended to avoid confusion between jumpers. Imagine watching NM and filth in the mud before colour tv arrived. No worries telling them apart. So why do we need modern day coloured clash jumpers? Because it is fashionable in overseas inferior codes and doubles the potential sales. Get rid of them.

Maxed out.

Agreed. Too many scoring opportunities squandered by poor decision making with the ball, too many goals scored by brilliant individual efforts eg Kozzie, Maxie and not enough from good team play based on a game plan that maximises potential for scoring and too few "easy goals" from sharp, clever and fast ball movement from turnovers and kick ins. In 2018 we scored heavily without Jesse so expecting our scoring to improve with Brown and Weid is wishful thinking at best. It is not the players but the system that counts.

Isn't it remarkable how all those who have historically had good techniques can kick well in any conditions. Over and out.

You learn how to control the ball drop and how be balanced for the kick. These techniques apply in all conditions.

Practicing goal kicking in the wind should force players to concentrate and focus on their approach and ball drop. Skills and techniques learnt under pressure will apply even when there is no wind.

Re; Clarrie's treatment. Arms around the waist in the goal square is paid as a free kick even when there is no interference or impedence. What a laugh. Arms around the waist that do impede Clarrie from running to a ball up of throw in is not considered to be worthy of a free kick. With three umpires on the field it surely must be visible to one at least. Time for S Hocking to fix this up.

I watched the start of Christian's segment but, as much as I wanted to watch our boy perform well on TV, I had to change channels because I could not stand Robinson's dumb, insulting and offensive questioning of Christian's future intentions. Should this happen again, Christian should be primed with a quick, pithy response such as "you'll be the last to know", or "I'll let you know when I know" or "my contract is my business so please don't ask again". Or better still alert Whately before the show to control the mouth on his left. It might hurt Christian's media career on 360 but so what? He is a smart boy and will do well wherever he goes post footy. He doesn't need drek like Robbo.

Steve Tingay came on and with his first kick won the game. What a start to a marvelous career. I noticed how often the ball was kicked long into attack and came back out just as fast. Nothing has changed in over 30 years.

There might be 10 v. 11 in a soccer match but a suspension in our great game of real footy still leaves 18 v. 18 on the field in the next match. No comparison with that inferior sport.