Lord Nev

Thanks mate! Appreciate the insights from someone actually there. The bye came a week late for us I reckon, just looked flat from the start and not able to recover.

Haha yes true, kicking more goals might have given us a better chance! I'm not putting the blame for the loss on the forwards. The delivery was absolutely horrendous and meant Pies players were able to either intercept easily or be in best position to rebound. Hard to apply effective pressure in that situation let alone try and mark the ball. Would actually be keen to hear from people at the game. We only get to see the positioning once the ball is already inside 50, could potentially be that's why we bombed, but from watching on TV, and seeing how much we bombed it all over the ground, it just looked like a bunch of tired players trying to deal with the pressure Collingwood brought. Noticed on the broadcast, pretty sure the last quarter, Gus yelling out the players to talk more out on the ground, to me that's another sign of a flat team.

Some overreactions going on about Weid IMO. Partly because he's been the new whipping boy since the start of the year, partly because footy forums/social media tend to make everyone make things black and white, but also because we had a poor loss and everyone looks for a singular blame point. Apparently, despite being smashed in disposals, tackles, marks, hitouts, clearances, and having horrendous ball use, that's all on Weid. He was poor, no doubt, likely to be dropped now for at least a few weeks, but the hysteria about him seems over the top. Reminds me of the 'Is Goodwin the right guy' thread where it's up and down based on that week's performance. Weid will become just a good average serviceable player I reckon. The sooner MFC fans reconcile that and then manage to look more broadly at the circumstances, some of his own making, around his performances; the more reasonable the discussion will (hopefully) become.

Yes, and I posted it here a fair while back. Doesn't mean he's gone, but from what I've heard there is definitely something to it.

Like when he broke the story Bartlett was stepping down? ??

Based on the fact you don't like it, or based on the fact he has strong connections with MFC and has been correct on numerous occasions about MFC things?

Not sure why you're jumping around between different points and other peoples posts. Here is a reminder of what you said. Again, you can't just 'add a Kennedy, Hawkins, Walker...etc' You must give things up to get them.

DON’T GO, LUKE There have been rumours swirling recently that Melbourne’s Luke Jackson is homesick and misses family and friends in Perth. These have been flatly denied and the Demons are not concerned about losing him any time soon given he’s contracted until the end of 2022, but they did put their foot down when he asked to move out recently. Man On The Mark understands Melbourne did not believe Jackson was ready to move away from host family – the Brayshaws – and made this point clear to him when he asked to change accommodation. The Brayshaw clan also have Trent Rivers and mid-season pick-up Daniel Turner under the same roof. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-news-2021-man-on-the-mark-tom-morris-column-luke-jackson-trade-paul-roos-north-melbourne-umpire-jack-ziebell/news-story/7a28e9011f486cf21ccf9f0cfd77a13d

There's give and take mate. You can't just 'add someone like Kennedy'.

I don't think we lost to Collingwood because TMac and Fritta had down days.

Just replying again as my initial one was before your edit. Agree with this mate! I think TMac and then one of Brown or Weid will be the setup eventually, but I reckon the problem is neither have been able to get a run on yet for different reasons.

Weird how we've wasted our time going after duds like Jackson, Pickett, Rivers, Langdon, Lever, May etc when we could have just signed Kennedy and instantly won a flag...

Should have clarified, that's a general comment, not directed at you, to what i think is a big overreaction in a lot of places about our 'goal kicking power' which isn't backed up by the stats.

More key forwards doesn't automatically mean more goals from them though. Out of our top 5 goal kickers this year only one is a key forward and we're top of the ladder. Weid and Brown played together, against Carlton and we kicked a higher than average score for us. Neither Weid or Brown kicked a goal though. That was the end of the 3 permanent tall forwards experiment it seems. In that game we had only 7 tackles inside 50, fairly below our average of 11.3. Bulldogs and Brisbane are the two highest scoring teams this year, we beat both of them. As far as inside 50s go, we're 3rd for average inside 50s and 5th for average score. Seems fairly balanced. Dogs are number 1 in both categories, Lions number 2 in both. We play a fairly fast rebounding style this year, in which forward pressure is very important, IMO playing more key forwards hurts us in that area. Personally, I'd go back to the setup we had at the start of the year with TMac, Fritsch and then Gawn/Jackson rotating forward. During that time we averaged 89.5 points per game, compared to 88.0 the rest of the year. So we actually averaged slightly more with less key forwards.

The current top 8 and their average scores: Melbourne - 88.5 Bulldogs - 98.8 Geelong - 88.3 Brisbane - 93.7 Port - 87.3 Sydney - 86.3 Eagles - 90.1 Richmond - 86.9 I think the 'goal kicking power' point is being oversold and it's pretty lazy analysis by the media at the moment to be focusing on our forward line. On current averages we are ahead of Geelong (Hawkins and Cameron), Port (Dixon), Sydney (Buddy, Papley) and Richmond (Riewoldt, Lynch). We're also ahead of other 'goal kicking power' teams like Adelaide (Walker) 79.8, Carlton (Mackay) 84.7, Gold Coast (King) 71.6 and St Kilda (King) 70.6. We sit 5th in terms of average points scored. I really don't think this is a panic like it's being made out.

Interesting given we average a higher score than the Cats so far this year.

Maybe I've missed it, but I've not seen one person do this.

Agree. Gawn just seems not 100% in the ruck this year, not sure if he's carrying an injury. At least 3 times this year in close games we've gone on a run when Gawn was on the bench and Jackson in the ruck. It changes our mix. We know our struggles with clearances this year also. Also think Gawn is a better forward than Jackson and Gawn's goal kicking seems to have improved.

Yep fair point, but I believe it's been mentioned they consider Fritsch as a tall. (I think it might have been Gawn that said that a couple of weeks ago but not 100% sure). Potentially they could go with TMac, Fritsch and then Gawn & Jackson rotating, similar to the first few rounds. It's a tough one, and we've had 3 different forward setups this year role wise so I don't think they've fully settled on it tbh.

I think everyone seems to be making false equivalencies here. Weid coming out doesn't automatically mean Ben Brown comes in. It doesn't even necessarily mean Mitch Brown comes in.

Based on the fact he wasn't picked in the squad for the game on the weekend. Pretty simple.

"Old school rules"... I think you'll find players still get picked on present form, COVID or not. That form might be training form, practice match form or VFL form, but it's still how it's done. If we start picking the team based on performances from 2 years ago then we're in trouble. I agree on current form Weid will likely be dropped, but Brown wasn't even named as an emergency so that should give you some insight into how the selection committee rate his current available form. I don't need to "accept" your opinion when it's not aligned with the facts.

Sure, no one would argue Brown isn't a more proven player, but you pick the team on current form not form from a couple of years ago.

No mate, you're still missing the point. Weid was originally selected off the back of good VFL form. He'll likely now be dropped as he hasn't performed. Brown hasn't earned a game with his VFL form yet.

He was selected due to his good VFL form though, Brown doesn't have that atm. That's the point.