Accepting Mediocrity

For all the dumb 'rules of the week' the AFL have introduced in their eternal war against congestion, it's surprising they haven't cracked down on players delaying handing the ball to the opposition after a free kick is paid against them. It's one of the simpler measures to introduce - if a player gives away a free kick, the onus is on them to get the ball into the hands of their opponent. If they fail to do so within a set time (3 seconds seems appropriate), pay 50 every time. As it stands, the decision of whether or not to pay 50 for stalling seems to be primarily based on the players acting ability, which is patently ridiculous.

Unpopular opinion, but taking the red and blue blinkers off the 50 was probably there. All Fritsch needed to do was hold Bailey up for a few seconds - he simply didn't need to tread such a fine line as we were set up behind play anyway. That's just dumb football. Players always feign sudden and complete loss of co-ordination when 'attempting' to hand the ball back, but there comes a point that you're just blatantly taking the [censored]. Petracca was unlucky, but we sure as hell didn't lose the game because of one non-50. There's such a high degree of subjectivity with these situations that there will always be inconsistencies in how they're interpreted by umpires. Annoying, but impossible to rectify.

The hawks midfield has serious 2010 Dees vibes, back when we had McDonald, Mclean, Moloney and Jones running around. Not absolutely terrible on paper, but it's incredibly one-dimensional and there's not much evidence of young talent coming through to solve their problems. Their under 23 talent is probably the worst in the league. The next few years are going to be beautiful. We made a lot of bad recruiting decisions, but I don't think this was one of them. Scully was the clear #1 for about 2 years leading up to the 09 draft (until Trengove entered the conversation at the last minute). According to every recruiting guru at the time, he was Chris Judd mk 2 and about the safest bet you could wish for with a number 1 pick. Even if we passed on Scully, we would have been just as much chance to pick Morabito (remember him?) as Dusty. What a draft that would have been.

Let's be honest, 99% of us have absolutely no idea about leadership within the club. Captains viewed as 'good' by the public are simply those that play well in winning sides. Case in point is Cotchin, who suddenly transformed (in the eyes of the media and public at least) from a terrible leader to RFC's greatest ever captain on the back of a couple of flags. It goes without saying that leadership is important, but how anyone thinks they are in a position to assess a captain's worth from outside the walls of the club goes beyond me.

Perhaps a poor choice of words on my part - I agree that it's a massive problem (last 2 weeks notwithstanding), and not necessarily an easy thing to fix. My point is that this major, very identifiable problem makes it hard to see the things we've been doing well all year. Across the rest of the ground, we aren't just competitive - we're right up there with the best in the comp. If/ when we can sort out the forwardline (and recent signs are encouraging), I think there's some strong evidence that we could be knocking on the door of the top 4 very quickly. The forwardline might not be an easy thing to fix, but it's a damn sight easier than fixing glaring weaknesses across the ground, which has been the underlying theme of our team for most of the last 2 decades. Time will tell. Brisbane will be a good test.

I was going to post this in the 'Best in 50 years' thread, but I thought it deserved it's own discussion. Here's an interesting stat: AFL Ladder Inside 50 Differential Ranking 1) Port Adelaide 1) Port Adelaide 2) Brisbane 2) Brisbane 3) Collingwood 3) Collingwood 4) Richmond 4) Melbourne 5) Geelong 5) Richmond 6) St Kilda 6) Geelong Our forwardline/ midfield connection has been woeful bar the last 2 weeks and has been discussed to death. However, I think those issues have masked just how good we've been in other key areas. Many have rightly pointed out that winning the 'territory battle' in the middle is pointless if your midfielders can't deliver to your forwards. Not exactly groundbreaking news, and Blind Freddy could see that this was the key reason we were getting belted in the early rounds of the year. But it's also a relatively minor problem - clearly, generating more forwardline entries than your opposition is strongly correlated with winning games of footy. We've been doing a hell of a lot right, and in this key area we're mixing it with the best teams in the league - we're 90% of the way to being a bloody good side and premiership contender. The last 2 weeks have been highly encouraging, and it looks as though we might finally be sorting out our issues up forward (albeit against terrible opposition). If we can continue to improve in that area, we'll be charging up the ladder very quickly. Some cause for optimism (always easier after a win). Go Dees.

Agree, it's a bit ridiculous. Dusty didn't stamp himself as an elite player until his 8th year, and it feels like he's been dominating forever now. Patience is a virtue.

Good key forwards create far more goals than they kick. Modern footy is all about intercepts - a key forward's role is as much about preventing opposition defenders marking the ball as it is about marking it themselves. Menzel could take a grab and kick goals, but he was a liability defensively. I don't think it's a complete coincidence that the first game we've had an effective stay-at-home key forward resulted in us kicking our highest score for the year.

There's no point sugar-coating it - the basic eye test says that Smith has been a weak link in our backline this year (not that he hasn't done a few nice things). Stats are virtually meaningless for defenders - the less you notice them, the better they're playing, and we've noticed Smith quite a lot. That said, the biggest weaknesses in his game are things that should improve with good coaching and experience. He's got some traits that give him a real point of difference if he can sort the rest of his game. It's worth remembering that Howe didn't look like much of a defender in his first few seasons either. I'd keep him on the list for another year or 2 and see how he develops.

I'd play it at an empty MCG just to troll interstate fans. Yes, being a Melbourne supporter does make me bitter.

IMO Daniher being a terrible set shot is mostly a demonland myth. I suspect it mostly comes from the game against us where he kicked 1.6 or something a few years ago. He's converting at 58% over his career - not great, but not awful either. A fit Daniher would be our best forward by such a long way it's not funny.

It would be a very dangerous thing to willingly let Viney go. Baby and bathwater and that. People forget how much we were crying out for his hardness, competitiveness and leadership before he arrived at the club. He's not exactly flavour of the month atm, but if we were to play a final this weekend (lol), you'd already have him penciled in as being among our best. Yes, our midfield has deplorable kicking skills, and Viney is probably the worst of the lot. Structurally, something clearly needs to change, but Viney is one that I'd keep. It would make me nauseous to see him in an Essendon jumper.

Which established, gun key forward were we supposed to recruit at the end of 2019? They don't exactly grow on trees. Drafting one was the best we could hope for. He hasn't even researched AFL. Hawks spent big on Lake and Frawley during their flag run (albeit through free agency). Both played key roles in premiership teams (Lake won a Norm Smith, Frawley very nearly so).

Oddly enough, our fitness department is the one aspect of our club that I currently have faith in. We'd be crazy not to inquire. Every other club will be. There aren't too many forwards capable of kicking 60 goals a year - Daniher is about as close to an instant forwardline fix as you can get. Massive question marks over his fitness, but that's what medicals are for. If we can get Bennell back on the park, anything is possible.

I had a good chuckle at a comment on MFC's Instagram post yesterday: "You've legitimately diminished my quality of life for 31 years. I hope you know that." Summed it up perfectly!

I can't remember feeling so 'meh' after a loss. Positives: some huge individual efforts. Hibberd made a few mistakes but tried his heart out all afternoon - you can't ask for more as a supporter. Showed tremendous courage at times. Ditto Brayshaw and May. TMac worked hard - things aren't working for him atm, but I don't think it's through lack of effort on his part. Petracca's first half was huge. Gawn was immense. Hannan and Fritsch made the most of limited opportunities. Negatives: Melksham, Hunt and Pickett combined for 12 possessions. That's half our forwardline providing nothing. Lever is a talented player but just looks completely devoid of confidence. Oliver has gone so far backwards in the last 18 months it's not even funny. But the biggest negative was the predictability of today. No shame in losing to the defending premiers (who played well today, it should be granted). It's just the unbelievable sameness of it. Our forwardline functioned exactly how we all knew it would after Thursday night selection.

Good article, agree with most points. I disagree that the talent pool has become too thin with the addition of the suns and GWS - if that were really an issue, why are more gun players than ever being plucked from state leagues after missing out on several drafts? Also, the population is continually growing, so basic maths says the talent should be available to fill additional teams. There have always been, and always will be sub-par players on AFL lists - that's nothing new. The talent is there - it's just that any natural flair and creativity is being coached out of players. I don't think the problem is low scoring per se. Low-scoring games can be great - think back to the Sydney vs West Coast grand finals. Similarly, high scoring does not equal quality football. 'All Star' style matches where both teams kick 20 + goals are generally rubbish. That said, modern footy is increasingly hard to watch. You almost never see any individual player dominate entire games any more. As others have said, getting rid of the ruck nomination should be a no-brainer. Any other measures need to be properly trialed before they are introduced. That's half the problem - the AFL continually introduce rule changes with the best intentions, only to have them immediately backfire because they weren't tested properly. I don't like bonus premiership points for reaching a certain score. My solution: perhaps instead of using % to separate teams on equal points, we could just use points scored?

This place is good for a laugh sometimes. Not quite sure what "malicious" factors the OP is alluding to, but there's 3 possible scenarios: 1) Gold Coast have hit some good form due to astute recruiting, a young talented list starting to gel, good coaching and the significant advantage of playing all their games on their home turf; 2) They've spent the last decade tanking; 3) Secret AFL Illuminati agenda. I'm not going to rule out option 1 just yet.

Don't want to turn this into an Oliver thread, but it would be impossible to put up the tackle numbers that he does without running and chasing opponents. We've had plenty of lazy footballers at MFC; I don't think he's among them. What stood out against Geelong to me was our lifeless, robotic zone allowing Geelong to play keepings off all day - I put that down to coaching and game plan, not Oliver. On topic, I think a lot of supporters put too much stock in Brayshaw's 2018 brownlow placing. If the vote count went as we all expected, and he finished below Gawn and Oliver on the leaderboard, he wouldn't cop half the bashing that he does on here. At his best, he's an above-average AFL mid, and an important cog in our team - but I don't think he has the weapons to be among the game's absolute elite. He's been pretty good this year after a disappointing 2019 (and was excellent on the weekend).

I've seen that written about Oliver a fair bit recently. You know how many players have laid more tackles than Oliver across the last 3 seasons? The answer is 2 (Zorko and Steele). Can we please stop saying Oliver doesn't work hard defensively? If he's a one way runner, so is every other midfielder in the league.

Completely different players and roles. Being short doesn't automatically make you a crumbing forward - that's not what Spargo was recruited for, and he'll never will be that type of player. At his best, he's a very clever link man across half forward - he makes good decisions, has neat skills and provides good defensive pressure. His problem is the same as half our list - the gulf between his best and his worst is enormous. I'm yet to be convinced he's a long-term player for us, but I've seen enough to suggest he's worth persisting with.

It's been 'raid Adelaide time' for the last decade - they've been raped, pillaged and burned to the ground. Literally no-one on their list excites me. There were serious shades of Neeld-era dees about them on the weekend. Better off finding another Port to plunder (I'll see myself out).

I think we're over-complicating things. For mine, it's a pretty simple question - between the Weid, Jackson and Brown, who is likely to have the biggest impact at full forward/ backup ruck this weekend? No matter which way I look at it, I cannot fathom how the answer is Jackson (not having a crack at him).

I know he's not going to single-handedly resolve our forwardline issues, but seriously, did the Weid back over Goodwin's dog or something?

Taking the league's most dominant tap ruckman away from what he does best would be crazy IMO. I think Jackson is years away from being able to hold his own in the ruck - I said it when he was drafted, and nothing has changed my mind since. No tall in the modern era has ever looked good in their first couple of seasons (except man-children like Darling and Hogan) - I don't get why so many think that Jackson will buck the trend. I really don't understand the rush to play him (happy to be proven wrong of course!) Agree, Marshall will be a gun. I also think that Martin doesn't get the hype he deserves - he's been a very consistent player for a long time now.