CHF

As William Wallace was once heard to remark.......

I've given up trying to predict selection and picking a team and giving my compelling reasons why I am 100% right and they should leave team selection to me. Having said that, the team this week, given the unavailables and injured, is about as good as we could put together.

It is not a matter of being pleased or displeased with the selections over the last two weeks. It was just a reflection of the reality of the results. Additionally, with regard to team selection, I do not believe that it is possible to please ALL of the people at any time.

Last week we gambled on selection and had a win... this week we also rolled the dice and lost. I think to walk (or fly) away from these last two games with 4 points given the loss of Petracca and Gawn is not a bad result. A few observations... a. It is foolish in hindsight to go into the season with no recognised back up ruck. We have bought in a couple of NQR talls/forward/rucks (?) that we wanted to develop and that has not worked out. Bad list management or bad luck? b. I would still like to have seen one of the talls given a run on Sunday so that we could have a look at them in context. c. With Brayshaw's medical retirement, Oliver's lack of a pre-season and Petracca's long term injury our midfield is very underpowered and badly structured. It looked like we did not do any research into the setup of Fremantle's mids at the bounce or stoppages. d. Given the lack of midfield cohesion and structure I find it difficult to be critical of either our Defence or Attack on Sunday. With no defensive pressure between the arcs from boundary to boundary, it was impossible for the defence to hold up. Similar for the forwards. No attacking structure through the middle gives the forwards, no clue as to where to lead or where the ball is going to arrive. e. One other observation. Our defensive team lead by May and Lever is still one of the best in the game not only during the game but also off field in driving the standards and culture of the club. Some of this might be down to Troy Chaplin, I am not certain to what degree. One thing I do find interesting is the way the players from the defence are finding their feet in other roles within the team. Petty and Turner in the forwards, Rivers and Salem as mid rotations. This development of role flexibility is critical to our future success and I hope that it continues. I am at an age where I have a hell of a lot more long and winding road behind me than open road in front. When I survey my journey as a MFC supporter over the years a couple of things stand out. Win the midfield and you win the game. Players that play with imagination and a smile are always my favorites. Anyway.... onward and upward to the next game.

the mousetrap worked to perfection.... well done Goodwin and co.

The mousetrap is working. so far... so good.

so far..... so good.

Goodwin and the selectors have come up with a cunning plan and believe they have built a better mousetrap. All we need now is for essendon to chase the cheese. Dees by a couple of goals.

Well, this selection has made the game a hell of a lot more interesting to watch. A lot of pressure on the midfield to step up and force turnovers. I feel that is going to be the key for us. Mildly confident about a win on Saturday evening. Go Dees!

Looking forward to seeing how we cover Max's absence. I don't see us changing our setup very much after the good pressure we showed last game. It will also be a bit of an unknown for the Bombers as they, along with all the other teams in the comp set up to Max's taps most of the time and accept a negative, covering attitude at the center bounces and, to a lesser extent at stoppages around the ground. Without Max there they will need to adjust to their ruck winning more taps and their mids will need to be more aggressive at the ball rather than trying to negate our mids. It may open up the work around the stoppages for us a little. I am sure we are doing a lot of work on all of their possible rucks to put in place a few options as to setup to ensure we get some good clearance numbers. Around the ground I think we can cover them. It will again require a lot of thought and planning to work our way around this but the basic nonnegotiable is that we bring the pressure for 4 quarters and force the turnovers. Force the turnovers and nail the transition with speed and being clean by hand and foot. B: Lever, May, Bowey HB: AM-W, TMac, McVee C: Langdon, Oliver, Windsor HF: ANB, JVR, Pickett F: Melksham, Fristch, Chandler Fol: Fullerton, Viney, Rivers IC: Salem, Sparrow, Tholstrup, Turner, Verrall - sub Yep... I know no Petty, and Verrall as sub. The forward setup last week worked as good as it has all year and I think it would be a good thing to give it another run. Petty at Casey for mine. We do not seem to use the sub as an aggressive move at all. It may be an evolving role for all teams but I think this may work for us. Fullerton as main ruck with Turner as back up. Those two can rotate between ruck and forward as required. As long as we do not have any injuries we bring on Verrall half way through the 3rd quarter for either of them. We get to see what he has at this stage and a fresh set of legs to run the oppo ruck around a bit more.

Agree with this. Noticed it at the time and was surprised by the warmness.

Unbelievable. I had to check and make sure that we were actually playing the lions tonight.

Ok. I put my hand up and admit it. It is all my fault..... the lack of form for some players..... The injuries to key players..... the dodgy selections... the match day coaching and even Oliver's hard tags.....All my fault. I have been travelling over the last 4 weeks or so and have just not been attentive and able to give the team the benefit of my sage advice. I apologise. All down to me. The good news is that I am back in home base, rested and well and ready to watch the team respond to my online presence. I am sure that they will be able to hear me yelling advice from 15,000kms away. The wonders of modern technology. Lever back. Defensive tighter and better structured. Oliver to shake the tag and have a blinder in support of Viney and The Mighty Mississippi (Rivers) Forward line to to perform a smooth as a cat pi**ing on ice. All good and puuuuuuuurfect. Go Dees! A win for the Goodies by 5 goals.

As with the majority of others on here, I see this as a very difficult game to win. However, I do not see it as impossible. Against North we prevailed with a large number of our players underperforming, out of sorts or just plain not looking fit for the task. (why is it that we never look good after a spell?) Defence. Looks as if we will welcome back Lever this week which is a good thing. The defensive structures have looked like a car with a flat tyre while he has been out. It will be good to get the Lever/May partnership back pointing and arguing. I would keep Tomlinson in the team and drop Howes for Lever at this stage. AM-W to debut is a good thing. He has flexibility to fill roles at both ends of the ground and he can cover medium/small defence or Small forward. Interestingly we have three tall defenders that were in the team as forwards last week and we may well need two of them in the team this week to give us tall defensive cover and flexibility. Brisbane have a lot of tall forward players that could bother us. While I believe that our defence will be the key to our chances of an upset, it is the midfield where we need more polish and grunt. If they can work their arses off to pressure at HF and in the middle it will help the defence immeasurably. Midfield. Max needs to lead. Sounds like a strange thing to say, I know. However, last week against North he looked distracted to me. there looked to be a lot going on with him off the ball and it seemed to get to him. Viney always seems to step up when either Oliver or Petracca is out. Last year it was Oliver out. He relishes the responsibility and was great last week. He need a few mates in there. I understand Oliver being tightly tagged and I also hear the voices critical of him and calling for him to be dropped. I have to say that those asking for him to be dropped are judging him by his champion standards of past seasons and not on his contributions for this season which are still of an excellent level. He stays in. I liked Rivers getting a run there and have always thought he should get more of an opportunity in there. Sparrow has to be challenged to step up his game. Ask him to take on more responsibility, use his strength and power a bit more. Salem, ANB, Tholstrup and Woewodin are options to run through there as well depending on the team makeup. With AM-W in the team is there a possibility for Pickett to get more minutes in the middle? If he can be effective in there he may take some of the pressure off the Oliver tag and give him a bit more space to work. We have a lot of flexibilty and options in this area but we need to coaching staff to come up with effective structures and plans to work through both in offense and defense. Forwards.... Hmmm... yes, forwards.... What to say? JVR? Petty? Turner? TMac forward or back? Fristch, Where has he been the last few weeks? Chandler? Kossie more midfield minutes to shore up our stacks there or have him front and center at the drop pf the ball in the forward 50? All questions and not a lot of answers. My thoughts for this week? Persist with JVR and Petty as the two main tall targets and try to work out a way of getting more effective work out of Fristch. TMac in the side as cover forward and back. If Oliver is not effective with a hard tag I would look to play him forward for a bit as long a we get the work out of the rest of the mids. Chandler stays in and is asked to work hard on the pressure in the forward 50. The team? B: Lever, May McVee HB: Bowey, Tomlinson, Salem C: Langdon, Oliver, Windsor HF: Sparrow, JVR, Pickett F: Chandler, Petty, Fristch R: Gawn, Viney, Rivers IC: ANB,TMac, AM-W, Tholstrup, Brown (one of the last two to be sub)

I will take 4 points week in week out any time rather than a loss. I do not care who they are or their ladder position. Anyone, anywhere, any time.give me 4 points. Move on to next week and build on a win.