Roost it far

Injuries are the number 1 reason clubs don’t reach or play at their potential. Nothing in the current landscape affects performance like injuries. They aren’t an excuse they are the reason and I don’t require your respect.

You’re not accounting for injuries as a reason. We can sit back and pick apart Goodwin but in 23 we lost Petty, a seriously in form Melksham and Gus in the last weeks and still only just lost. Add those 3 and I reckon we’re Premiers. You take DeGoey, Mihochek and Sidebottom out of Collingwood and they don’t win the flag. Last year we had 50% Oliver, Petracca gone in July, May hobbling and several others injured, including Max. We missed finals by a couple of close losses to PA, GWS and one other I can’t recall. Yesterday was horrible but our formline isn’t the train wreck many here believe it to be. We’ve so far lost 2 matches and were without May, Pickett, McVee, Melksham and Tholstrup. We lost both Jefferson and Lever in game and Max was given a complete dusting. Add all those players back in the side and I’ll bet my last dollar were a much improved side.

Ins: Langford, Johnson Outs: Woewodin, Jefferson I’d be doing the least amount of changes possible. The week after we’re likely to get May, Windsor and Pickett back and the week after that McVee and Melksham. If Lever doesn’t get up I’d give Adam’s a run.

One thing I did notice on the weekend is that we seemed very congested across the HF line and particularly at CHF. I’ve no idea why but that made the bomb it long appear even more necessary

maybe but I’m not sacking Goodwin

We often appear flat footed and I reckon that’s largely because the new gameplan is not embedded yet so there’s some second guessing going on. This gets worse when a team brings the heat. I’m hoping as we get the remaining best 22 players back and the game plan starts sinking in we’ll start improving. We do need to snatch a win this weekend to keep the confidence up. Lose 5 or 6 on the trot and cracks will appear.

I’m a believer in finding a player if they’re in space and if you can’t you back your teammate to win a 50-50 more often than not. The game plan has to take precedence over finding 4 loose players to transition the football. It also comes down to getting some help around these 50-50 contests so you end up winning more than you lose. You can chip it around HB all you want but I’d love to see us just take off once we get beyond the D50. I’m sick of watching us take the make and hesitate, pull the trigger and make the next contest happen.

It’s a bit of a furphy that you need a team of perfect kicks to play transition football. Richmond won 3 flags with disposal no better than ours. What they excelled at was manic levels of pressure and the ability to get to contest after contest. North weren’t clean yesterday, in fact it’s one of the worst games I’ve watched this year. What they were was determined to win and Xerri gave them first use time after time.

I’ve read and posted plenty of rubbish on this forum but this has to be near the top. The guy’s played a quarter and a game at Casey and you’ve ascertained that because he wasn’t gushing on draft night he’s not going to work out at Melbourne ?

I tend to agree but what forward set up are we actually trying to instil at the moment. If the idea is 2 talls deep and the rest further up the ground which led to the first Jefferson goal last week are we then replacing a deep tall with Fritsch? There is an argument that you play JVR, Fritsch, Pickett, Chandler, Spargo, Melksham and Petracca/Langford as our forward line. However if the ball kept getting bombed in guys like Combden would have an absolute field day. I still feel our problem remains we’re not sure how much we remain a contest and defence team playing a forward half territory game or a transition team. Thats the balance we’re still trying to find. Again if players fall back to bombing it long we’re in trouble. Against GWS I thought we looked much better at finding that balance for 3/4. Interestingly it was losing contest in the last quarter that ultimately cost us the game.

I tend to agree that playing Fritsch away from goal is counter productive. Problem is is he good enough one out from the goal square?

The Viney bit has definitely been circulating around here. I think it’s worth a shot. After watching on Sunday I’m no longer convinced you can have 3 inside mids in the middle unless Max is dominating hit outs. Witts is no slouch so we need a plan if Max is getting beat. We got Campbell for a reason?? Is AJ good enough to take on their second ruck? Our mids are used to Max dominating and that’s now changing.

The biggest problem the way I see it is we revert to type as soon as the pressure goes up. I’m a believer in getting Viney out of the middle and have him play forward as a small. I think he’s a smart reader of the pay. Rotate Pickett, Lindsay and Windsor in the middle with Petracca and Oliver to get some outside class in there. It didn’t help that Xerri absolutely monstered Max. I just don’t think Langdon should play anywhere except the wing or maybe HHF. Sharp isn’t an ANB replacement but could work towards that perhaps. I think we have to play Laurie or Billing’s, after watching VFL I’m leaning towards Laurie. Such a pity he isn’t a better player. Losing Jefferson and Lever didn’t help our ability to change things up. I think we’ve been recruiting well but I’m leaning towards trading Petracca out for draft picks. Yes he’s good but hard decisions need to be made if this is actually were we are at, which I don’t think we are. I think once we get May, Pickett, McVee back in the side we’ll look a lot better.

I thought Lever and Jefferson going off when we were already missing May really affected our ability to change things up. I’d loved to have seen Petty or TMac moved forward, Turner moved back and Viney played as a small forward in the second half. At the start of the last quarter I would have had Petracca, Oliver and Lindsay in the middle. Anyway injuries cruelled our ability to switch things up and I think we saw that Sharp and Woewodin are still VFL players.

No they don’t they need to keep selecting elite runners and ball users. We have to keep improving our skill set.

Selection is based on available talent. Our list, as with all clubs lists don’t have amazing depth. We are forced to play guys whose form isn’t great because the replacement isn’t going to fix the problem. In saying that I’d say we need to play one of Billing’s or Laurie for Sharp, Langford has to play and I’d be very close to seeing what a Fullerton or Campbell could do to help out Max although Johnson is likely back this week. I really hope Lever gets up as no May and Lever is the stuff of nightmares currently.

If we miss finals or limp in to get flogged in an elimination final I’d say Goodwin will go. We’d then likely look for the next Kingsley type. You gotta understand that with a new coach comes a new strategy which will take several years to bed in. If a new coach comes I’d hock Petracca for draft capital. 2 high picks would do it for me. Not because I don’t think he’s an awesome player but because we can’t carry an ageing list for ever and need more high picks. We have great young talent we just need to manage the transition. I’m still hopeful we’ll improve as the season goes on. Confident we’ll bounce back against GC.

I hate it. The only time I was happy there was when I got a ticket to the Medallion club and we flogged Richmond (a game that should not have been played there in the first place) I paid $92 to sit in level 1 with my daughter, absolute rip off.

My takes I think there’s an arrogance to the club playing one ruck against the biggest and best young ones like Xerri. He dominated Max and was a massive part in the Roos clearance game. These are the games you just have to risk playing Campbell, it’s an experiment the club has to have. Why didn’t we deal with the Combden issue, we made him look like Glen Jakovich. That’s on the coach. We signed Viney to a 4 year deal. North are on top at the end of the third, we’re getting beat in the centre and we start the fourth with Petracca forward. That's on the coach. Why oh why did we go back to bombing it long especially with Combden dominating. Thats on the coach. The depth across the competition is poor. Take May, Windsor, Pickett and others and all teams struggle. Personally I think it’s pretty clear that Langdon’s best position is the wing and Rivers is HBF. I imagine the club will persist but I hope once Windsor is back and with Lindsay and Langford available we can do some positional changes. If players won’t stick to the game plan don’t play them. One last thing, that’s the last time I ever go to that stadium for a day game, probably night as well. Absolutely horrible sitting in there on a sunny day. Not to mention they put the food stores next to the toilets so you literally queue up in front of the toilets. Who designed that? That stadium reeks of terrible design, they couldn’t even put comfy seats in. 💩 hole

We got the draw we deserved. Don’t panic we’ll be Prime Time in September Baby!!

Does anyone have news on Mentha and whether he's a chance for a game this year? For a team crying out for small forwards the selection of Culley over George leads me to believe George is a long way off.

I think we’ll win easily but I do have a small, deep hole in my soul where I store the thousands of expected wins that turned south. I also store the last round of 87 in there to keep the overall vibe positive.

It’s going to get ugly if we lose tomorrow

Do MCC members have a section and how do you book seats?

As usual pies supporters relentless booing to end a quarter. Unbearable scumbags.