Gawndy the Great

I recall Clarry saying he already had COVID back during Xmas & NY in Melbourne. LJ is probably one of the few left in the team uninfected given he spent most of the year and pre-season in WA which as we know is just approaching peak right now. Clarry is pushing the limits of his natural immunity post infection, but hopefully it holds at the 16-20 week mark and he isn't one of the cases. Lets face it, it was the only way we were potentially going to lose a game. Just sucks that it had to be easy-kill Hawthorn. The other plus, is that it was early enough that hopefully they fully recover and are ready to go against the Saints.

i reckon choco or richo will take over boundary line responsibilities. Yze will stay in the box as the tactical master mind. We even have quality depth in the coaching ranks... how good is this.

Seems like COVID is making the rounds within the club.

Spot on. For an inside midfielder that racks up possessions, to be set apart, you need to have much more in your kit than handball to the outside. Otherwise you just end up like Macrae, Libba, Steele, Shuey etc. All very good players, but every team in every generation will have one.

Its not the role of inside contested players to get huge metres gained or i50's. Generally if they are 50/50 handball to kick then they are doing wonderful things. This is why Clarry's games on the weekend was so phenomenal. 41 touches, 22 contested and 600 odd metres gained with a half or so dozen of i50's. This is definitely what you want but is not the norm. I would look at this performance and say Clarry has exceeded expectations of his role on Sun night. Parish's game with 44 touches tells you he made it to lots of contests, probably had a high hb:kick ratio and probably contributed to his teams high CP numbers. Yes he did have a few cheap non-influential possessions but his objective is to get the ball into space for his team mates to have time to deliver an effective disposal. To me he did what he was asked to do to a very high level. Was it Clarryesque, probably not, but it was still a great performance.

He has got to be standing on a stack of yellowpages there.

I'm amazed that Cripps got the 10 votes in a losing team. it didn't feel like he was that much of a standout ... Great to see us balanced in the top 20... Early days but i reckon Trac will put in a solid block of in the next month that will get him back on top.

I really really despise of the Hawks. During their dynasty, they often gave us a spanking (a lot of teams did - but the Cats and Hawks were without mercy) i want us to register a 10 goal+ win.

I was anxious to check the count because it genuinely felt like a 5-35 free kick count given that the avg game has us 10-15 lower than our opponents.

Nothing official but I listened to the DeeBrief podcast with Harmes as a guest and it sounded like it was.

Agreed. Hopefully they pull through COVID quickly and without issue.

So was thinking of this kid after another great performance on Sunday night. What does the future hold for Bowey? He may continue to hone his craft and become a champion HB flanker, but is there a role where his attributes can be further beneficial to the team? Clearly he won’t become a KP player, but does he get a chance to run through the midfield / wing? And perhaps add further weaponary to deliver ball inside 50. He needs to add size and build further fitness but he is super smart footballer and having him learn the midfield craft maybe an ingenious move. I really like Brayshaw in HB as a pinch hitter for Salem and he plays the role pretty good as well. So we could definitely cover for him. Happy if he stays as-is as well. Food for thought.

Haha this is exactly what my reaction was too.

I look at our own in Gawn. He has swagger, cheek and clearly has tickets on himself. But he is able to find a way to cast that aside and put his team first. That is why he is so likeable. maybe it’s a maturity thing, but raw arrogance in this Pies player is so very unattractive.

He needs to pull his head in I reckon and pump up his team mates not his own tyres.

If there was text book case for dissent based on AFLs explanation, it was right there from DeGoey. Don’t agree with the rule but the inconsistency is what drives people irate.

Listed as injured along with Mitch Lewis. If CJ does play I reckon you move Hunt into the forward line to tag him.

I will be interested whether the Hawks Use this attacking game style against us next week. They will likely man up in defence and rely upon clearances to score. It will be difficult to beat us at this game but the Hawks midfielders usually rove Gawns taps pretty well so there is a possibility. it’s a young side too so hopefully pressure on the ball carrier will result it a high turnover style game which is what we like.

Haha that’s a standard remark at our household when MFC plays.

I hate loosing but agree it wouldn’t be a bad thing to drop a couple. Generally 64+ points gets you top 4 and it’s only 1 game that separates the top 2. We lost 5 games last year and most of them were in the second half. I think we will go 3-2 in the next 5 games and probably relinquish top spot as a result.

There are a few differences from last year: 1) we have a shortened preseason and teams that have a shortened preseason tend to take a month or so to hit peak form. I thought we hit it last week but today inaccuracy took the shine off. 2) we are hunted every week. Coaches are trying to figure out how they can beat us. Extra person at the contest? Leaves May/ Lever behind the ball and we burin from d50 (GWS). Even numbers at d and contest. Deal with our AA centre line and first rate contest work Suns Tigers). when those don’t work, turn it into a scrap and make it ugly(Port , Dons)

Anyone have the set shot stats? We missed the majority in open play I think.

Every game is going to be a dirty grind. That is the way our system works. Teams that want to back there own system over ours will tend to get exposed more than teams. So we may turn out a performance like last week every 4-5 rounds. But I bet if we looked at last years postgames we’d be complaint of lots of similar things. If ain’t broke….it wins you a flag.

It’s (selfishness) starting to creep back in. I think the lads were a tad happy with themselves coming into this game.

This game should be well and truly over by now.