Demon Dude

the blues midfield fought back but the main problem we have IMO is Goodwins inability to do something about the opposition putting an extra number behind the ball and its really hurting us. their fightback started right when they put an extra back and it turned the game for them. all teams do this to us, as they can just easily intercept in our forward half, especially with someone undersized like Fritsch or Hunt at FF, and then rebound quickly catching out our slow half forwards like TMac, Jones and Melksham and our poor chasing midfielders and then the defence doesn't have time to push up and get the game on their terms either. the ball just goes forward to an outnumber, then goes straight out again down the other end allowing them to push up on us instead.

i thought he was good on Saturday. yeah he had a crap year last year, but who didn't. I thought at times on the weekend he looked to be back near his ball hunting and bulldozing best, plowing through the opposition to get the ball and had some important touches around the packs to get the ball going our way. also Gus got an elbow injury in pre season and looked a run or two behind the other mids coming into the season, but i'm not worried by his numbers as someone has to take the back seat in the midfield behind Clarry, Viney and Petracca. they cant all be in there winning the ball at once.

i hope Max tore strips off the pair of little ***** for breaking the rules. now we have to endure more of ANB again aaaarrrggghhh!

we wont be getting a first round pick from anyone for them. I think you're over rating their value. Sparrow was a mid second round pick who has played two games. there's plenty of midfielders in the draft, he's not worth that much on the trade table. and Petty was a late second rounder who has played more games but has been moved around back and forward and hasn't really done that much to date. combined you'd probably be lucky to get a second round pick and a half decent player back.

I reckon its more likely that the Crows will be interested in Sparrow and Petty than Port. if they're rebuilding it might suit them to come looking for a couple of SA boys who have been developing in the system for a couple of years already but are yet to get any sort of decent crack at it. they could pick up an inside mid and a key tall who are both ready to play and speed up their rebuild.

well there is never really a right answer binman when it comes to selection. there's usually always more than one way you can get the job done, but whatever way they go I just hope it leads to wins or we'll soon be back to the drawing board again. yes i'm hoping the likes of Bennell and Jones will help us with that kick inside 50 this week. not sure the forwards will have all that much cohesion though, as they would haven't played much together and we cant really expect much from Jackson in his first game, which could possibly have a knock on effect down to the likes of Fritsch again like it did in R1 with Brown doing stuff all. I guess Hunts job might be to fast lead out of the square as a hit up option but also to try break apart the oppo defence a bit, while the likes of Jackson and Fritsch stay deeper. small things like that can make a difference, so fingers crossed. Melksham was a bit quiet R1 too, if he lifts and hits targets it will also make a difference. but I've sort of given up on our ball winners hitting up our forwards, it just hardly ever happens. if we bomb away again too much into the forward 50, we'll lose the same way we did R1.

i think the right defensive decisions have been made. looks more balanced to my eye. it might take a while to gel together with some new players, but it has to start sometime. think Smith offers better flexibility than OMac, and I don't particularly like Hibberd off the HBF as he's too wasteful, so happy for Rivers to get a go there. i'm not sure about our forward line though. it probably shows why we struggle to kick goals. Goodwin can't seem to find a way for them to make it work. he has pretty much gone with the same structure as he did in R1 with one genuine key forward (TMac), and swapped one not really key forward for another(Jackson for Brown), and changed the smaller players (ANB, Bedford and Spargo, for Bennell, Hunt and Jones). we struggled to take marks and score r1, and i think there's a good chance we might struggle again if we haven't changed anything about our forward half except the players.

he's been moved back because Frosts departure has left a bit of a hole in our defence, and Fritsch is now preferred as the third tall type forward instead.

but it's not written anywhere that that's the structure you have to play, and it's not written anywhere because you don't have to. May is quick for his size, but he's not quick or agile like a smaller player is and he's not an interceptor either. having him push up the ground is just a waste of time. you should just have May play deepest as FB and Lever at CHB. Lever can play CHB, I've seen him do it before. in 2018 Lever played CHB along with Oscar at FB and we won 8 of the first 11 games before he did his knee. we won 6 in a row once he'd settled into the team and some of those were big wins. if you're then worried about a third tall fwd/ruck, you can bring in a someone like Smith who can play on big or small forwards, or play a versatile tall type like Petty on the bench who can play back/ruck/forward so you're not tied down to an inflexible structure of having 2 full back types in the team. Lever is 195cms, that's taller than May who is actually 193cms. Oscar is 196cms and while a bit heavier than Lever he certainly doesn't play much stronger to my eye. and he's certainly not as quick as Lever or May either. I mean are we really going to pay Lever and May a fortune and not have them both play as the key defenders? if so then that is absolutely some of the worst planning and recruiting that I've ever seen. what is Lever on, 800K a year? for what, to play as a back pocket, halfback flanker or a loose man in defence? or have all of May, Lever and Oscar together floating around in some sort of quasi zone defence? I find that just staggering. for what we are paying them Lever and May should definitely be holding down the key positions and not only that, they should be winning them too.

I think they'll take on the Blues midfield first, then will possibly throw Harmes at Cripps if he's winning too much ball. hard to stop Cripps though as he's so big, but Harmes could make him pay going the other way as Cripps is a bit of a plodder most of the time. is Brayshaw guaranteed a spot in the 22? he was bad in the first half against WCE then improved in the second half, which I think also mirrored a couple of his pre season games from memory. he needs to wake up and come to play right from the first bounce if he wants to be in in the team every week.

I reckon the Crows will be into Sparrow this year. he's a SA boy and he hasn't cracked into our team yet, just a game or two, and the Crows will be desperate for some big bodied mids at the end of the year. we could probably afford to let him go too, but i'm not sure what we'd get for him though.

but that's kind of the whole point. we played 3 key defenders and so we beat Darling and Kennedy, but we got flogged by the smaller players again. we conceded 6 goals from small forwards and 1 goal from tall forwards. our defence is built to stop talls, but not smalls. and it could have been worse, Ryan actually missed 3. while we also coughed up 5 goals from their mids. our midfield doesn't work hard enough to defend. at one stage I watched Sheed run past all of our mids and not one of them went with him. that sort of thing has become standard under Goodwin. and they don't kick enough goals of their own either.

the only thing getting squeezed out here is a brainfart from Ralphy's head. Viney and Fritsch won't be going anywhere.

I think its more to do with only being allowed to train as a team with physical contact for about 2 and a half weeks before the games start. an attempt to lessen the contact and soft tissue injuries on players by giving them less overall game time. for this year I don't have a problem with it anyway as this is not a normal year.

I think it would be good for us with the age and shape of our list. kids like Jackson and Rivers could get a taste without being over exposed early in their careers, or guys like Petty and Sparrow could break into the team and then never look back. but the biggest benefit could be bringing in known performers like Bennell and AVB and not having to push their bodies to the edge to gain the fitness they would normally need to play.

in theory i'd say yes. he's 6'3 and is fast and athletic which means he could probably play on a bigger types, plus smaller types as well which would definitely come in handy every week. but in reality he still has to prove he can actually play the game well enough and stay fit.

yeah I guess it just come down to how each person sees it. I don't have anything against OMac and I don't want him to fail either. I just feel we could be a little more dynamic for lack of a better word. i think people can sometimes over rate how dangerous some tall forwards actually are in the modern game, with pressure on the ball carrier going through the roof and with the defensive systems used in the modern game. not many teams have 3 good tall forwards. last year only about 10 of them managed to average 2 goals or more a game. and on the other end of the scale some of those are more of a second ruckman than a forward and don't really pose that much of a threat in my eyes. should we be paying those guys respect, or should we be trying to exploit them. its a fine line. i will admit that using Hibberd probably wasn't the best example, but I was trying to show a different way of thinking and how a mismatch of a smaller defender can actually work in your favour, especially in a zone defence, but i'm sure you got that picture. anyway we'll see how it all unfolds during the season as I reckon the coaches have made their minds up in regards to playing OMac and they'll stick with it for the now. hopefully we win plenty of games, us MFC fans need it!

that's true but I still wouldn't be that worried about McGovern. on the lead Hibberd can go with him and he's actually quite a good body spoiler, and for the high ball in he will more than likely get coverage from May and Lever anyway. if McGovern is proving too much of a handful you can always move Tomlinson back instead. but having said that I would prefer another 3rd tall type like Smith in the role rather than Hibberd, as he is more athletic and better suited. or hopefully Rivers can be the long term option.

that's a good explanation and I acknowledge that Omac will more than likely play vs Blues, but I myself still think we are too slow in defence when playing all three of May, Lever and Oscar. for example against the Blues, i think Hibberd, while a bit smaller in height, could quite easily take McGovern. they're pretty much the same body weight, and yes he might lose the odd marking contest but that's also why you have players zone, to help out others. and Hibberd can also expose McGovern at ground level more than Oscar ever could. that would leave Lever and May on Mckay and Casboult, and we should be backing in both of those guys to beat those forwards, or else what the hell are we paying so much for? I don't buy into the theory that we need a 3rd tall so Lever can just float around intercepting either, as that's not true. he plays on a man, he just backs his judgement on when to drop off them when they run to place he thinks isn't dangerous and tries to intercept instead. he zones off. before doing his knee again Lever was actually one of the highest ranked key defenders in the game over the period when it was just him and Oscar as the key defenders together. with May, Lever an Hibberd taking those taller guys we can then play another smaller defender like Lockhart to go along with Salem, Jetta, and Harmes as our 7 defenders, as I feel that's the way we usually get exposed and get scored against the most, by oppo small forwards. I just think the 3 tall defence is too defensive on our part, and not needed against most teams. you might lose a bit in the air by playing only 2 tall defenders, but you can also gain at ground level by doing this with better ground ball coverage and also be more attacking with quicker better ball users who can break the lines with run. try and make the oppo forwards work defensively and get the game on our terms instead. as the old saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat. if Hibberd cant get the job done each week as the "3rd tall defender" then drop him for one of Smith, Hore or Rivers who are also all more mobile than Oscar and see if one of them can get the job done. imo Oscar is not quick or agile enough and struggles with the ground ball and in general play. to me Oscar is a full back stopper only, who is behind May in the pecking order of full backs.

I don't remember who was on him when he got his first, but I think from memory Ah Chee might have got his second goal straight after his first in about 10 seconds flat when Melksham was moved to him for the very next centre bounce. Melksham ran off into the centre square leaving Ah Chee all alone at the top of the 50m mark, meanwhile the bounce went straight to Nicnat who then threw it on the boot forward straight to a 3 on 2 with Melksham caught in no mans land and doing his best impression of an Olympic walker on his way back to help out. shocking football.

well I actually said Weideman or Petty, but who else do we really have? Brown? give me a spell. he might be an ok replacement option if Melksham or Fritsch or Hannan are all out injured, but he's definitely not a key forward. Jackson doesn't have the body strength or craft to play as a key forward yet either. and Goodwin could help his tall forwards out a lot more by letting them have equal numbers forward as the opposition. it might help their confidence if they can actually get a 1 on 1 with also a decent kick to their advantage. something that rarely happens for them.

i reckon a marking target like Weideman or Petty will come in at the expense of Brown. one of Hore or Smith could come in for OMac if the Blues don't go too tall forward. the experienced Jones and Salem come in for youngsters Spargo and Bedford.

yeah that was our plan in 2018 and it worked sometimes. too bad that everyone has now worked us out. Goodwin likes to push a forward up the ground to give us an extra around the ball instead, and 2 years ago the opposition would run a player with them, but now opposition coaches just let them go and keep an extra number in our forward 50 instead, knowing we cant hit targets to save ourselves, or have any sort of working forward system, and we'll usually just bomb it in to the hotspot. so while we increase our chances of getting it forward, we usually just kick it back to them, then from there they quickly rebound down the ground because we also lack leg speed all over the ground to stop the fast break and most of our midfielders and the odd forward (hello Mr Melksham) don't like to work hard enough defensively. everyone is awake to us and we just play right into the oppositions hands every week.

Mahoney wasn't exactly very convincing was he? adding that 'territory game' caveat at the end. it all sounds ok, but too bad it doesn't work for us. most good teams seem to make us pay for doing it, easily intercepting then rebounding quickly, catching our midfield and defence out with quick transition. it really doesn't help when Goody insists on pushing a forward up to the contest which leaves us outnumbered inside F50 and makes it hard to score or even lock the ball in. instead it usually just flies straight back out again up the other end.

the Crows should be favourite for the spoon imo. they've got no big bodied mids left after letting both Greenwood and Ellis-Yolmen go, which means teams will target their small ball winners like Sloane and the Crouch bros and absolutely smash them. well that would be my plan anyway! plus they've also got a new coach implementing a new game plan and they'll probably be playing more than a few untried kids in an attempt to sort out where the list is at. I think those things together will see them lose a lot of games.