Gawn's Beard

"I'm not proud of this club and the excuses and promises after every loss". As a supporter, I am not proud that one of our so called supporters would jump ship 7 games into the season (and chop up his membership), and blame the loss squarely at the feet of a coach 7 games into his tenure. After the last 10 years we've endured, and comparing where we are now as a club to then, I hardly think now is the time to be chucking a tantrum!

Looks like Linsday Thomas is going to be spending quite a few weeks on the sidelines. The Dees doctors report won't do him any favours: "Corey had a really significant head knock and he spent the night in hospital," Misson told melbournefc.com.au. "He's already been ruled out this week and we'll just have to see how he progresses for next week, but it was a significant concussion." Sounds like Maynard might struggle to get up for the week after this which doesn't bode well at all for Thomas

Respectfully disagree old dee. I think his game against the Saints shows he still has it. I think it's just about finding the right role for him. A high half forward might be his best position if he lowers his eyes in delivering it inside 50. I don't mind him off half back (not deep), but only if we have the run and spread to give him the targets. Watching him try and force things is where I think he gets found out / turns it over.

I think that was Harmes who had an issue with his eye wasn't it? Hopefully Maynard is out of hospital. No room for acts like that in our game.

Goodwin pretty much flagged a change mid-game when he moved Hunt down to the forward line to try and put some pressure on the Hawks back 6. I would be surprised if Kent didn't come back in this week

Good to see. Suggests that Kent was applying forward pressure, which was really lacking at times against the Hawks on Saturday. Not sure where I see Trengove fitting in within our team - he's obviously not an outside runner, and I wonder whether he could apply the forward pressure in a AVB type role. He's best almost as the link man around stoppages (we have Oliver/Viney & co in the trenches), but there are too many ahead of him for me to see him sneaking in.

I agree with you re having 3-4 players up. I don't mind it as much if they're killing the contest and the ball is going 15-20 metres away from the contest. However too many times we're having 3-4 men up, the ball stays within 5 metres of the marking contest (or out the back, which happened at least 2-3 times) and it results in an easy goal to the opposition.

Would be interested in hearing someone's reports from the Casey game. Looked at the best this morning and Melksham was BOG for Casey. Disappointing that no other MFC listed player was named in the best. I'm a massive fan of Kent, but doesn't seem to be banging the door down which is disappointing. Unless his performance warrants the selection, I think we need to persevere with Hannan. Our forward pressure was however horrible in the first quarter in particular, so I'd expect at least one change down there (maybe ANB).

I don't think the overuse of the handball is necessarily the problem. I think it's a by-product of our effort (or lack thereof) at times during games. Our game plan is to run the ball, get the ball to the outside runners and break the lines. This is what worked so well in the third quarter (think Frost with the run out of the defensive 50). The problem in the first quarter, and when we're not playing well, is the lack of outside runners. The midfielders keep handballing to try and find the outside runners but when they're not there the ball goes around in circles. The lack of spread and run both ways in the first quarter made them look good, and us look like we were over possessing.