rpfc

Workrate was up, and he was clever in close when he kept his feet. Don't remember him going to ground so often in the past... Anyway, he stepped up in the first game of a month that we need him to. Had a few other passengers today, good to get a win when you are just going.

All the doom and gloom I have seen here the past week and we could be 4th at the end of the day... Injuries effect how we go about the next month but we can win games because we are a good team, with an attacking mindset, and a ferocious desire to put pressure on the bloke with the footy. If we bring our best, the Blues will have to out perform to beat us.

Hawthorn effectively lost but fixed their percentage... But they can only drop one more and they have Geelong, Freo away, and Sydney in the next three weeks...

Can't omit something not there in the first place... If he was selected and you expected him to be a leader of a performing AFL team you are putting way too much pressure on a bloke trying to save (or restart) his career.

They force teams into kicking bombs into the forward line and it makes Jones look like Glen Jakovich. If we do the same to Hogan and Pedersen - he will peel off and do what he has been doing really well. So it's hyperbole but enough to [censored] us over.

Yeah, I was going to post something similar to this. Love the post, DD36, Watts has been resilient to keep playing footy and to keep playing at the Demons. But that doesn't mean that Boyd is any less resilient - depression is not about people booing you and calling you [censored]. But I did have a think about 'what if Watts took time out 4 years ago? How would that be treated?' I think the most rancid edges of our football culture would have come out...

Needs to reproduce his form of 2016. And keep his censored feet in close... I will back players as good as him to give us a month of footy he needs to give.

We are a win over Carlton away from being 9 and 6. Forgive me if I am not depressed about some [censored] injuries. Get a grip people.

If we keep the attacking and daring mindset - we have enough cattle to beat Carlton. Their midfield will win footy but we don't rely on that and if we are ferocious with our pressure we will win more than enough footy to kick a winning score.

In no way is he 'right' or 'righteous' in his crusade against the media. The corporate media are finally doing their job and holding lies to account and THAT is what he has disdain for - not the shitty journalistic malfeasance that propelled him to prominence and the presidency. The media having a short memory and a desire for worn narratives is not new - I don't know why Dees fans care so much. Perhaps it is because we have been irrelevant for so long that we are unsure of ourselves when it is the Demons that are now in the eye of the shambolic and hyperventilating footy media world.

Harmes. He has dare and run and we are going to need to through the midfield without Jones and Viney. Lewis and Vince are going to have to shoulder a lot but if we are looking for someone to show something over and above what they have before - I think it will be Harmes. And Petracca is needed in the middle for a month... I think he will be shut down though - he would be so damaging. He will be worked over. I don't think he is ready to dominate in the middle for 75% of the game.

FWD Syd: T McDonald, Petracca, Pedersen, Hunt, Melksham (MID), Hannan, Carl: Hogan, T McDonald, Pedersen, Garlett, Melksham (MID), Hannan, MID Syd: Viney, Oliver, Tyson, Lewis, Gawn, Neal-Bullen, Stretch, Harmes, Bugg (FWD) Carl: Oliver, Tyson, Lewis, Gawn, Petracca, Neal-Bullen, Harmes, Kennedy-Harris, Kent (FWD) DEF Syd: O McDonald, Frost, Hibberd, Jetta, Vince, White, Wagner, Carl: O McDonald, Frost, Hibberd, Jetta, Vince, Hunt, Stretch If Garlett and Hogan get up, we will have a more than enough to win against Carlton given the right mindset.

So to unpack the tide of neurosis above... Outs vs Carlton for an 8 and 6 team: Bugg (Susp.), Viney (inj), White (Career suicide), Wagner (Just Terrible), Melksham (Fumbly Liability), Stretch (Sudden lack of appetite), Neal-Bullen (Sudden 'Not-up-to-it-ness'), Poss outs: Harmes (Sudden invisibility), Tyson (Suddenly ineffective), Vince (Steady Decline), Pedersen (Sudden Impactlessness) INS? Every MFC listed player playing for Casey? We are 8 and 6. After three of our finest wins since the Daniher years. Eating everyone alive for failing to deliver against a great team without 6 of our best 12 players is not helpful, and if I read Goodwin correctly, it isn't going to happen.

Well, we just 4 on the trot and your response to our first loss is utter despondence. We have injuries, but can we fashion a forward line out of spare parts to kick a winning score? Done that. Can we lose a huge plank of our stoppage work and still get enough footy to average over 50 entries forward? Yeah, we did that for a couple months. Footy is never easy and yes we look to be without Salem, Jones, and Viney for a month, and Watts and/or Garlett for one or two more weeks, but we are 8 and 6 and in a great spot to not look for nihilistic excuses to be despondent about watching footy in the last 2 months of the season.

Not depth issues. INJURY issues. You can't replace your best players and as of the second half we were down Watts, Garlett, Hogan, Jones, Salem and Viney. Good depth is a misnomer. You. Cannot. Replace. Your. Best. Players.

The first half was like we were a proud, but wounded, animal, we threw everything that we had and played with dare and boldness. But all we could do is delay the inevitable. Depth is a misnomer - repeat with me - you cannot replace your best players. Sydney are a world ahead of WCE and Pederen, TMac and the other forwards were a lost and motley crew. With that said - White and Wagner were on a lower wavelength than the rest of the players, they were playing to a different beat. If they cannot do what Oscar has done, and lift their intensity and quickness of decision making - they should not be persevered with. We were torn apart by a methodical team that we hope to replicate one day but we need to take care of the teams we should take care of before we have designs on the top 4 or a flag. Carlton next week. You want to be as good as Sydney? They are 5 years ahead of you, next week you can restart on the path to that, lose and I don't know where you are...

6 weeks and if our depth plays like Wagner and White played - we will see him again. I don't really care if we do or we don't - we had some senior players do stupid things at the start of the year, but this is the kind of distraction that might cost him another contract.

I am a hardline - 'you have got to get the big decisions right' - person and those are ND9 in 2013, ND2 and 3 in 2014 and ND4 and 9 in 2015. Those decisions have to bring you solid 200 game players and one or two stars of the game. They just have to. Salem, Petracca, Brayshaw, Oliver, and Weideman is what we got with those top 10 picks. Two look like being stars of the game. One looks like being a solid 200 gamer, one will be if he can regain health, and one still has a question mark but is developing normally for a KPF. That is a success relative to other clubs. That is a ridiculous haul of awesomeness compared to previous investments by the MFC. Note: You can argue that the club turned ND2 in 2013 into Tyson and two upgraded picks that got Salem and Hunt but that was a club decision, not Taylor's drafting leadership decision.

I would suspect so. I mean, the Demons in the woodwork are not going to come out because we are looking 'likely'... I think they will come out of the woodwork and onto the bandwagon when we have done something of note; win a final.

He was aloof. Which was by design as he was an outgoing coach. The players developed more of a relationship with Goodwin in the last two years and that's what you want. I think he did an amazing and selfless job as interim coach. Well, if you can be amazing and selfless and still get paid $1.5m...

Mystery?

If Hogan comes back this week, I would go with Tom Mc, Watts, and Hogan forward with Tom doing the ruck work backing up Gawn. That would mean Pedersen out. Or does Oscar go? Frost is too important as a spark off HB. The fact that Frost is minded by a lazy tall forward makes him a weapon - tall forwards don't chase... The forward planner in me says it is easy - Pedersen has a year or two tops, but the coach in me likes what he brings around the ground. Still, he would make way should Hogan get up IMO.

And yet, who is the bloke who got a week? The bloke who threw an elbow. That week brought to us by the 'politically correct' AFL because the broad AFL community doesn't know any better. We all agree a 19 year old was elbowed in the jaw by a 28 year old. And what is the footy community stuck on? Whether the victim made a meal of it... Why did he have to make a thing of it?

Yeah, as I said in an earlier post - this is what is wrong with Australian culture: why are you making a thing of it? 'He only hit her once...' 'He only called you a monkey, he didn't know what it meant...' 'That happened 20 years ago, aren't you over it...' Why are you making a thing of it? I can't stand it. Blaming the victim. Exonerating the perpetrator.

My dad accosted him at Woolies a few weeks ago after the Crows win and Dom said that he is very aware how much competition for spots there is in the team and that players are still told the 'Roos Baseline' (my term, not his) of toughness, tackling, and pressure will get you games.