Stu

Our record against the Swans since 2021 is WLLWWL or 3-3. The win in Round 3 2023 (JVR's debut) was excellent. Sydney had come off two huge wins and looked angry and ready to atone for the 2022 GF. I loved May's huge tackle on Warner on the MCC wing in the third!

This years trade period will be the first time we can trade picks two years in the future. While we don't have this years first pick, we can trade 2026 and 2027 picks to move up the draft order this year, or use those future picks to trade for players. MFC have been a trailblazer in future pick trading, considered the best in the AFL at it. I imagine that will continue with another years worth of picks to work with.

His turn of speed when he scooped up the loose ball inside 50 and powered away from the Eagles defenders was very impressive.

Thankfully, that can be improved with high impact gym work and specific training as @binman touched on earlier in this thread. A sprinters top speed (e.g., Usain Bolt) is all down to them striking it rich in the genetic lottery. While their acceleration is also largely influenced by genetics it can be improved with specific training to help increase explosiveness and improve mechanics during acceleration.

A goal on transition....

Are Geelong players only allowed to look 4-5 different ways? Seriously feel like they either look like SDK, Gryan Miers, Tom Adkins, or Jed Bews

AJ bulldozes it through 💪

Got to love how hard we work for a goal, and the Cats get cheap ones out the back of the F50 content.

And Billings kicks it 😀

Great forward pressure, and certainly trying to lower the eyes. Some concrete hands ruined excellent F50 entries, but the intent and commitment to the style has been encouraging.

🤣Yeah I hit submit about 3 seconds too early

Sestan's kicking is excellent

"The problem with Arsenal is they always try to walk it in..."

My read on this game is that we will be too strong for North and play 4 solid quarters. I think our ability to shift up our game plan will frustrate them. They have moments when they look to be gaining moment but we will stifle them and then score when the momentum swings back. Dees by 42.

One quality of Spargo’s that we’ve missed is his ability to hit kicks off the inside and outside of his boot. It allows him to disguise which forward he’s kicking it to, not allowing the opposition defenders from peeling off their man to where the ball is going.

It shows that he is thinking through what to do next. It shows he is a quick decision making and observer of the game. Very valuable. Players who don't have that skill are light grunts in the army - you can teach them some version of skill and smarts through pure repetition, but their ceiling is very limited. XL is clearly not a grunt.

Footage was taken:

Hore offers good versatility and allows match-day flexibility to get the right match ups for May and Lever to be more free to intercept. Against North, we could have Petty on Larkey, TMac on Darling, and Hore on Zurhaar, leaving Lever to play the intercept role.

According to last weeks injury report Hore was 'Test' so he may be available this round to replace Howes if we want to keep the mid-sized defender AND keep Rivers in the middle. Excitingly, by the time Round 4 vs Cats rolls around we are likely to have all of Picket, May, McVee, Hore, Spargo, and Melksham available for selection. That adds a lot of options and selection pressure.

In '21, we ran out quarters very well. I think it shows the margins between a premiership and an also-ran is pretty thin. Being off 100% concentration for 5 minutes of one quarter can lose you games, and ruin a good season. I think the fire will burn long after this one, and I expect very strong performances over the next two weeks.

More generally, adding strategies to our game like short kicks to hold possession, having Windsor come off half-back, and hopefully scoring 2-3 goals more from turnover, all gives opposition teams a lot more to worry about. Ultimately, what we're good at we're REALLY good at, and teams have worked out how to beat us if that's all we do. Adding other ways we can play makes teams adapt, and not just focus on one game plan to beat us. We don't have to become the best transition team, and score the most from turnover, but if we can add a little bit it can be enough to allow us to get the game on our terms because teams are off balance having to adapt.

GWS are a very good clearance side, but I think the stat that the FD will focus on is scores from clearance, which we won quite comfortably with fewer clearances.

I completely agree. GWS have the bye this week, and then play another 5 rounds on the road before there next home game, so they were going all out in that last quarter to win. On the balance of everything, I'm excited for what the year will bring, and that I think we will get stronger as the year goes on and the game plan solidifies and the young players gain more experience. It will be a good cross section to see how we perform at Marvel next week in 'perfect' conditions. I'm bullish on Jefferson taking a few nice grabs in the dry conditions.

They must’ve heard some lunatic driver with a MFC member sticker ditched his vehicle in the Yarra and was fleeing on foot directly to Gosch’s…

The average age of Sunday's listed players - 25.5 - is over 2.5 years younger than the team Collingwood fielded against GWS last weekend (28.2). There are 15 players under 28, and 8 over. Under 23: 8 players 23 to 27: 7 28 to 29: 5 (Fritsch, Lever, Langdon, Petracca, Salem) Over 30: 3 (Viney, May, Gawn)