NeveroddoreveN

He has another year to run anyway :) I reckon we are harsh on some of the players trying to make the step up from reserves grade football to the Seniors. It takes time to feel at home amongst a bunch of idols and peers that have bigger bodies and more preseasons. Oskar had played 3 really good games in the Covid affected 12 or 14 a side scratch matches. I am glad he did not get dropped after one week in horrible conditions for anyone to really show their skills. I feel Bedford is another who deserves more than 5 minutes in the team, will surprise many when he gets going. It took Max quite a while before he had a breakout game. Seasons in fact. I think we need to give younger players a bit more leeway when it comes to judging them so quickly. Too many are labeled spuds or cop unwarranted criticism imo. Senior players should be much more accountable and consistent. The only players i got annoyed with last night overly was Melksham and Lever. Lever i can forgive because he really played great in the last quarter particularly, and made up for some of his earlier screw ups. Melksham played different role in last 2 weeks but i know he can give more, and expect him to give it. Spargo/Kozzie/Rivers were all great at times too. Young leaders that i hope continue to grow/develop!

You must miss Oscar. Can't agree with any of what you said above. He is not getting paid a fortune.

Nice to get bit of inside information on these type things. Curious did he elaborate much? Did he also have good things to say? Was not questioning the original post on this at all, just have the memory of a goldfish when it comes to remembering names.

Jetta will not play, his last heroic effort saw him get injured :P

I must watch a different game. Tomlinson has been one of our most consistent performers over the last month at least. He gets in the right spots, holds most marks that come his way, is neat by hand or foot. Definitely goes hard when it is his turn to go. No way he will get dropped with his body of work. When he was dropped earlier in the season that was for lack of effort. Since then he has shown himself to be a very valuable player for us. Constantly doing the team things, has been a great pickup for us imo, and has some versatility to play a number of positions/roles.

We'll get in some good assistant coaches at least after the year we have had. Maybe another video series in 2021 to give you some hope. To Hell and Beyond!

GWS tried their guts out last night. Much like us they had been pretty average the last few weeks and were not getting team efforts. They looked a 10 goal better team on paper imo. Had we played like last few weeks it would have got ugly. We fought hard and more than anything it gives us hope for the future. One of best games we played all year vs a decent opposition who turned up to play. That in itself for MFC should enthuse you.

Someone mentioned that some of the coaches thought our midfield was uncoachable. Would not surprise me if that revolved around JV. If there was any truth to it anyway! See Clayton and Petracca as absolutely coachable. Brayshaw also seems like a smart guy and although a bit lethargic at times totally coachable too.

I would say from observation that Viney was not quite 100%. He took some big hits the week before! He seemed to be playing a half forward role with the license to roam, but not much further than half back. Would need to look at his heat map to be entirely sure, but was definitely playing some new role. Coaches should be doing quick handball drills with Viney and telling him to get the ball off much quicker, tries to take on way too much at times. If he was Cripps size he might be able to get away with what he is trying to do. Needs to play within his limitations more often and do the team things unerringly. Love Viney but he needs to add layers to his game. When Jack starts to add finesse he will become a great player, not just a bash and crash type.

Props to Jack Viney for questioning the umpires. Overheard him just before half time saying something like "He is just trying to bash/hurt our players". The umpire responded they would check the tapes at half time. No guesses as to who he was in fact talking about. Thugford played well overall though and really did his best to rough us up. Respect to the whole team for standing up under pressure at different stages. Very few passengers, was super proud of the team and even moreso the team effort.

Almost knocked over my cheese platter with that ANB commentry. ?

Logical deduction! I think we'd be derelict to at least ask the question with both Lyon/Clarkson at a minimum. We got no idea how this will all turn out but having some discrepancy plans put in to play would make a lot of sense.

Hmm probably right, it is a battle we could have pushed for a lot harder. On the flip-side now it can be used as another excuse or reason. What do we stand for ultimately? Do we stand up to the AFL ever? No, because they give us $$$. Last year our draft was compromised due to GC getting a raft of concessions. We were as much of a basket case of them for that season. We roll over when push comes to shove. Just imagine Kennetts or Eddies reaction if they were facing similar...You would not hear the end of it, they would use the media to pressure the AFL into making a decision in their favour. Something i have rarely seen us do.

None of the clubs are using this season or the draw as an excuse this year. They acknowledge that it is challenging, and preparation is harder, sure. Have not heard any of the presidents really kicking up a fuss though. Imo the one chance we did have to kick up a fuss was the Essendon game. We should have pushed hard for the 4 points. i believe if the shoe was on the other foot and was Essendon they would have pushed hard and got the 4 points. MFCSS, perhaps, i don't think we take a strong stance when we have all the reason in the world to do so.

Does it count when Vandenberg shoves his head into the ground giving away a stupid 50!?

On form i would not be laying money on either team! This is the "flaky" cup playing for a flake bar as the prize. On paper they should absolutely murder us....10 goals+ There is a blueprint to beat GWS though and it has been laid out well by other teams. Control the centre square, push them long and down the line, take away their run and gun style they love to play. I actually think they seem scarred from their recent GF loss, which was maybe worse than our prelim vs WC few years back. If we come in a with a solid game plan we will beat this mob despite them having lot more talent. If we come in with anything less we will miss out on the flake bar. I love/hate this club haha!

The key words you use here are continually act. This needs to happen from the boardroom, to coaches, to players, to the boot studders. We know what hard times look like there surely comes a time when you stand up as a collective and go, enough is enough! There are always reasons/excuses...you never hear it from the better teams. They use their failures as fuel to not fail in future if the same set of circumstances happen to arise. As a football club we hurt, but we don't seem to learn from many of our mistakes and excuses/reasons are always at arms reach. It is convenient, and i find it a cop out. Even our supporters look for these reasons/excuses to explain our achievements or lack of them. As a whole we accept failure way too easily. Is it culture, is it degree of want, is it just we don't have right people? I got no clue honestly what is the cure for this club but you are right! Until we learn to continually act the meaning of ruthless we will come up well short of that. Hiccups are one thing, cycles are another! We seem pretty entrenched within a cycle, until we get past that we will stay mediocre.

When i hear the word Ruthless associated with the MFC i actually hear compromising as a word replacement. We don't quite know the meaning of ruthless. The players come out angry once in a while. They then pat each other on the back for jobs well done. Following week they lose all the anger and put in a pedestrian performance. Until we learn the meaning of ruthless and stop getting carried away with any win, we are never going to build anything substancial. Drinking your own bathwater repeatedly is the complete opposite of ruthless. *Could have easily replaced it with the word complacency....either works fine!!

He would be a great addition. Gathering that Pies have to pay a few like Moore/ De Goey. The pies would not want to lose him! Pay him 100k more a year and get him in!

Watch him get multiple premierships at Geelong and become a great footballer. Nearly all of them do under the cats system! Really don't want to lose him. Has all the attributes to be a great footy player but needs development. He is not to blame for all our current woes at MFC. He tries his guts out every week. Even if he is a little one dimensional at times, i would take a team of Vineys, imagine them all crashing in...Heart and sole players you really don't want to give up too easily.

Glass half full or half empty! Could see both, we have wide range of opinions on this site. I think after watching the last few weeks i would take a spirited performance. Saints crashed in all night and looked to be over the line with 7 minutes to go. Nic Nat, Kelly and Darling all stood up and lifted at the end. Great leadership. For a crippled team they still have many leaders and show real heart. Makes me envious!

Sends a clear message. I would expect their whole team to come out breathing fire this week. We choose not to drop Tom Mc for a season and a half, Melksham should have been dropped many times this year. We tried to send a message last week by making 7 changes but did not drop the guys who deserved to be dropped. Brayshaw/Harmes to name a few more of players that should have clearly been dropped at stages. Cameron has sent out a wake up call and no one is safe. Simon does not seem to have the balls to drop anyone but fringe players. They might just roll us by 10 goals this week with bit of extra fire in the belly. I would prefer they did not drop Coniglio. This is a club or coach being ruthless. No player is above the club. Good luck Demons, come out ready for war!

If Melbourne had put up a performance like that vs West Coast. We would be disappointed but proud for the most part. Sometimes it is the manner that you win/lose. West Coast showed huge character, as did St Kilda If we lost playing like Saints last night it would easily be the best we played all year....with tough opposotion.

Brian Taylor.

They will miss McGovern badly for finals. He was killing it til he pulled that hammy. Over last few weeks i reckon Geelong is the team to beat, they look in brutal form. They are suffocating their oppositions with extreme pressure. Should be great final series, teams are starting to flex.