Grr-owl

I’m thinking these days that this thing is unstoppable, so the best we can do is invest large in hospitals to deal with the most serious cases and just let the rest of us get it...

I like the idea. Doing it helps solve the Brayshaw dilemma. There’s a new Robert Ludlum novel in that....

Also just want to thank Binman for the thread. Tactical changes shocked me when I came back to the game after 15 years overseas with my back turned. Felt as if finally someone got smart and drafted in a team of scientists to work out how to win. 

On Bennell’s performance against the Crows... There’s a fear there, totally justified, of what success will mean in terms of the impact on his body. With a family now, the stakes have risen.  No doubt as a young man, his talent meant he had few reasons to doubt himself. But now he does. That all adds up to a big burden and it will be interesting to see how he copes. For mine, I think it is essential that he just keeps playing games and sooner or later a better footballer will emerge than he would have been otherwise...

On 8/9/2020 at 6:17 AM, Engorged Onion said:

Risk Taking also looks like Brayshaw on the wing.. playing to role..which sucks for some(him) emotionally, yet importantly contributes greatly to our structures around the ground. The risk is actually all about, what are you emotionally willing to have, in service of what matters

Is he willing to have it? By that I mean, does the emotional sucking for him mean he becomes a dissatisfied and ineffective footballer? Is he too selfish to make the sacrifice?

ive been thinking lately that B has to be played in the middle more, where he shines, or traded. Logic being there’s not much point having players in roles they aren’t suited for when we could have someone who is.

1 hour ago, america de cali said:

Fyfe was universally ranked as a low second rounder or high third round pick. He was a stroke of dumb luck being picked at 20 for Fremantle or they knew something no one else did about him. We got karma big time though for having top two picks and 4 first round picks. All duds for different reasons. As the Chinese say, 4 is the unluckiest number.

You know why 4 is "unlucky"? Because the sound for the word that represents the number is similar to the sound of the word for death. Consequently, buildings don’t have 4th floors, much in the way that western buildings often don’t have 13th floors. I used to enjoy debunking such superstitious [censored] with my students, logically asserting that, given there is but one earth shared by all peoples, if either were true then all buildings in Australia with 4th floors would be unlucky and all buildings in *hin@ with 13th floors would be unlucky, and as they’re not, the power of the belief depends upon believing in the first place.... and is therefore bogus.

Not sure why I told you this. ‘Pose I just saw an opportunity for an anecdote. Belief is certainly powerful, however, and if MFC ever gets some we might win a flag...

Well, Brayshaw seems a plodder unless he’s in the middle, and Harmes seems wasted unless he’s played in the middle and forward, so f#$@ing do it, Goodwin....

9 hours ago, TRIGON said:

I'm Woo-Who man and so's my wife!

Beat ya to it... see earlier post ?

I'm the Woo-who mystery man, and so is my wife....

...and all against the bottom side. Needs to do it against the top teams.

Some very bad moments, but okay in the end. Brayshaw even did something..Yeah, against the worst team in the comp, but credit where credit’s due....

1 hour ago, Half forward flank said:

Brayshaw is one of those big bodied kids that always got to play on ball as a kid. His size, fitness and drive allowed him to get plenty of kicks as a junior. I am always suspicious of the kids that have a golden run on the ball as juniors. Its no good trying to learn to kick or handball properly once you hit the big time. He cannot or does not want to play anywhere but in the middle. 

Played as if he's entitled these past 2 seasons.

4 hours ago, chook fowler said:

or is it that the players have lost Goodwin?

Have they looked behind the couch?

6 hours ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Make no mistake, win, lose or draw, we should beat Adelaide tonight it we out score them.

Logic suggests it, just as long as outscoring them also means our points add up to a higher number than theirs.

I think, maybe, we're getting to the roots of the problem. Is it Brayshaw? He appears to me to think he doesn't have to try. And maybe, with coach's reluctance to drop him, it's a matter of relationships. Can anyone close to the club tell me, without giving away too much, how Gus gets along with Goodwin, and the group more widely? I did read somewhere else on Demonland that Hogan, Watts and Brayshaw are similar personalities... illustrative??? 

Jordan Lewis was kicking coach until COVID. I reckon he’s average in the media, but has assistant coach written all over him. Get him full time for midfield and skills?

On 8/3/2020 at 11:02 AM, Patches O’houlihan said:

It will! 

Have heard some talk that the football dept has been officially put on notice and the club is making enquiries about an extensive external review of the entire football department 

seemingly the executive branch of the club agrees that the current situation is not one that will see us having any serious success in the near future and may need to change. 

in saying that, it doesn't mean Goody can't coach, or shouldn't be the coach. i just think it really says the game plan, and culture at present isn't working and needs to be overhauled. Buckley and Hardwick have undergone transformations like this in recent memory. hopefully Goody can learn from them.

Learnings...? Uh-oh...?‍♂️

1 hour ago, Rednblueriseing said:

MASSIVE NO to trade Oliver, he is only going to get better and along with Trac will be top 10 in the league in a couple years, while I think Gus can also, id probably trade him for a gun half back with speed and good disposal or a 1st round pick, nothing less.

Saad.....?

2 hours ago, Drunkn167 said:

Dropping Oscar doesn’t make sense to me, thought with him the team it allowed May and Lever to play their roles a lot better

Was about to write the same thing....Is Tomlinson supposed to drift back into a tall defensive role?

Get Saad if possible. 

5 hours ago, jnrmac said:

This.

And it is blindingly obvious to everyone except our brainless coaching staff.

I think this is why we need to get Salem into the midfield. He is no use to us off half back.He doesn't run and carry and deliver to a forward. He constantly dinks the ball 10m (which he does quite well but provides no real value).

He is quite a smart decision maker so could well be a revelation in the guts

Oliver is now next to useless in the middle. Turns it over too much, puts team mates under pressure and his happy handballing provides no impetus.

Viney we can afford to have in the middle but he isn't creative nor can he burst away to deliver to a forward. My thinking is we cant play oliver and Viney in the middle together.  Or maybe brayshaw goes in there as it is his natural position and can't seem to play anywhere else. 

I just wanna add my observation that we ran hard against Hawthorn, and last night we plodded around like trees. And trees don't plod.

7 hours ago, deanox said:

I honestly don't think it's anything to do duty plans: it's all about execution. 

We couldn't win the clearances, we didn't take marks, we didn't run into space for uncontested possessions. That's not plan.

Agreed. The difference in the running between last night and the Whorethorn game was unbelievable....

I truly believed we’d bottomed our a few weeks back. Surely the noise can’t be ignored any more. You have to try your guts out week after week to win in this competition. Is that noise?

1 minute ago, Hell Bent said:

Triple M commentary: 

"Simon Goodwin standing 3 metres from me with his thumb in his mouth,  clueless what to do next. "

Says it all really. 

I’ve got some advice I know he’ll take: ignore the noise. 

No energy. No skill. No hope.... Where the f#@k is the desire to win?

1 hour ago, bobby1554 said:

Well, AF, Sue and Engorged Onion, we will agree to disagree, and revisit again in 21 days

There was an interview with Burgess shortly after he joined the club, maybe on SEN, where he discussed this very issue. As I recall, he said the soccer players do 11 times more accelerations than footy players, but otherwise the games were roughly equivalent in terms of the demand on the body, apart from the length of the game, which doesn’t count this season... Anyone interested might be able to find it. With Garry L and Tim Watson if I remember correctly.