CHF

Petracca and Oliver have very different skill sets and have very clearly defined but different roles within the team. The great part is that both are performing at high level and driving the team performances. I also like the fact that they feed off each other in the games. Not that they look to move the ball on to each other to the detriment of the team but they seem to have an awareness of position that allows them to react instinctively. Great to have both of them in the team. I could not split them.

With the team selections I have decided to revise my prediction. Dees by 8 to 10 goals.

I think that dropping Brown is an acknowledgment that they got the selection wrong last week. We just seemed to have had too many tall forwards tying to get some space in our forward 50. Brown was the unlucky one as I am sure that the selectors wanted to give Weideman a couple more games to get a settled look at him. Same thoughts on the dropping of Chandler and reinstating of Melksham. Chandler was unlucky not to get at least another run in the senior team but his inclusion last week with all the talls looked to unbalance the structures and positioning for the forwards. Melksham will give us a bit more flexibility in linking between the back half of the ground and the forward half. I really like the look of this team and think we will play to our strengths against Adelaide and run out comfortable winners. There is no nervousness apparent in this team.

Danger game? I don't see it. We have them covered in all areas of the ground and so far this season all I have seen from our team is one that is able to respond and work out a way to win. Simple structures, setting up well behind the ball and players taking on the proper responsibilities. Nah, not a danger game.

I would find it tough to drop either Chandler or Weideman after just one seniors game. I know that Jackson is a young gun but Weideman did his job and I think Max's game improved a bit on the lat couple of weeks and it may be because he was asked to spend a bit more time in the ruck. Chandler to get a second game to allow him to settle in. Chandler also allowed Spargo to move up the ground a lot more. Only change I would make would be to bring Sparrow in as the med sub instead of Melk.

9-0 9 Rounds played…..9 wins….. 36 points in the premiership bank. Pinch me…. I gotta be dreaming. If I am, I am not sure I want to wake up. I love to win against Carlton. Let’s face it, who doesn’t? We are getting a lot of my favourite scalps this season. To go along with Carlton we have Richmond, Geelong, Hawthorn and North….. hate em all and love to beat em. There are a few more scores to settle this season. Bring em on! Watching the game on Sunday had a strangeness to it for me. We had a number of players that were down on their early season form, but the teamwork covered the individual form dips, and I was never worried. Always had the answers and the big thing that I noticed was that we had a hell of a lot more run left in us in the last quarter than the Baggers did. I have seen a lot of references to being “May Premiers” and “peaking too soon”. Anyone that has watched our last few matches will have to concede that we are not really “peaking” in any sense of the word. Want to see “peaking’? Look at North against the Hawks last week….. And so, to the Round 10 encounter with the Crows over in The Land that Time Forgot on Saturday afternoon at Adelaide Oval. The Crows started the season on a high with Walker kicking a bag each week and they were sitting 3-1. Not bad. However, they have lost their last 5 games and now sit 15th on the ladder. Bad. They have a few problems. The facts: We are coming off a cruisy win over the Carlton - Advantage us They are travelling back from a loss in Perth – Advantage us We are playing on their home turf – Advantage them We have one day extra rest – Advantage us Problem areas of the game for us. Some areas have small problems and others have even smaller problems……. Problems, nevertheless. On the travel again this week. Of the first 9 rounds we have traveled and won in Canberra and Hobart and now move on to a trip to Adelaide. I get the feeling that, after last season with all the disruption and last minuet travel plan changes, that MFC has a positive outlook to interstate games. Look at it as a chance to get together. I am amazed at the way our defence is working. Good structure and the right players in the right place at the moment. May and Lever as the rocks, the generals, that the rest of the defensive squad build their game on. Petty looked better this week and did his job very well. Hibberd is solid and experienced, and Salem is in the best form of his career. Add Rivers and Hunt and there is a very well-balanced structure that is the best defence in the league at the and drives a lot of our attacking movement. Noticed a couple of Demons helping out back there at times in Spargo and Weideman. Good to see. The Crows forwards do not look to present too many problems, but I expect to see Walker back in the team this week. Hello May. Of their forwards last week McAdam and Berry kicked a few between them and may bear watching. We have them covered in this area of the ground. Not sure what to make of the midfield. Why can we not at least break even on center clearances? It is not up there with Brain Surgery and Rocket Science is it? Is Viney so essential to us in this area? Really want to see us sort this out. I know that the mids bring great pressure on the opposition around the ground and also at stoppages and that is critical to our success. However, it would make their lives easier if they cleared the ball a bit more. Crows have a few quality mids in the two Rorys and Keays. After that the quality falls away a bit. Keays we will need to pay a bit of attention to as well as Sloane. Would love to see Petracca put in a good one beside Oliver. Love it when they are both on song. I could go on about the midfield but you all know the quality we have out there. Max was better this week. Seemed to have his head back in the game. Knew what needed to be done and did it. Adelaide will have problems matching up in the ruck against him and also around the ground. O’Brien rucked for them last week with forward back up of Frampton. WC had double the hitouts that Adelaide had. WC won the clearances 32-30 so the Adelaide mids were sharking the ball at the stoppages well. Now for the forwards……. The good; we kicked a winning score last week, again. The bad; the forward 50 looked to be standing room only it looked so crowded. The ugly; Max and Chandler spoiling marks for Brown and Weideman. More Talk! TMac is in excellent form and with Fritsch will again present the biggest problems for the Adelaide defenders. The beauty of having Brown, and to a lesser extent Weideman in the forward 50 is that Fritsch gets a mixed bag of defenders on him and TMac causes problems because he drags his man all over the ground and generally runs their legs off. A hard structure to match up. Our forward 50 is where Adelaide looks to have the most problems with manpower. Their defence does not have the KDPs that they need to cover our rotating talls. Their defence has conceded 850 points so far this season. To put that in context, we have conceded the least number of points, 560. While we did not gel in this area last game, I think we need to have another look at this set up. Spargo and Pickett were good again. I would give Chandler another run to see how he settles. Not sure if there will be any changes to the team this week. Would look at bringing Viney in if he is 100% and match fit. If there is any doubt keep him in our pocket for next week. Possibly Sparrow as Med Sub for Melk. Bathwater Express in Cruise Control but I do have a nice new set of blue bags in the boot. Had to add a few more seats as we were near capacity. The road ahead is flat and straight for a good way, but I do see a few hills up ahead that we will need to navigate. All good at the moment. Purring along. I thought/hoped we would win by more against Carlton. My winning margin was wrong. A bit more conservative this week. 4 goal win after it being tight at ¾ time. Go Dees!!!!

I like this team. TMac to have a lot more movement up the ground and to be fill in ruck. With Chandler in the team I can see Spargo playing a bit more expended role a little further up the ground as I believe Chandler is a natural closer to goal. The other option is to have Pickett play in middle a little more.

Center clearances on Sunday will be interesting to watch as we lost ours 4-17 last week and Carlton lost theirs 7-23

With Jackson's injury it will make for an interesting selection night. Personally I would bring Weideman in for Jackson and look at rotating both Weideman and Tmac into the ruck as the game requires. We get a chance to mix and match the forward talls to see if we can get advantageous match ups. I like the flexibility we have had with Jackson in the middle and think that with Weid will have similar flexibility but it will be different because of the different mix of skill sets. Sparrow in for Melksham for me. nothing wrong with Melk but I just think Sparrow will bring more pressure to the contest then what Melksham does. I also think that with Fritsch we have a better version of Melksham. I am one that looks at the possible midfield rotations in a team and like to see more rather than less.

I agree with the idea that we need to bring our 'A' pressure game to this one. I really like the way that the players seem to have trust in each other. No longer do they feel like they have to step in every single time to help a teammate in a contest. They give him a chance to win it and step in if required. The pressure we exert looks to cover a wider area around the contest than it used too.

It's a hard life!

The Great Sock Debate!!! I predicted this in one of my early match previews and prediction threads. I said that if we kept winning we would be reduced to complaining about the socks.

Well done and well deserved. A very good first 8 games...

8-0 8 Rounds played….. 8 wins….. 32 points in the premiership bank. Hate to think how many times in the last 20 years that we have not managed to accumulate this many points in a whole season. Firstly, let me just address the umpiring, not just in our game but the whole season. Opinion on the umpiring is split. Some people think that the umpires are dumb, blind maggots. The rest think they are bias bunch of numb nuts. I am undecided between the two. Both could be correct. What is the collective noun for AFL umpires? A confusion of umpires? A blunder of umpires? An omnishambles of umpires? Personally, I think I will go with a Magoo of umpires. I think if you gave a troop of monkeys a shrill of whistles each and let them loose at a game they would make as many correct decisions as the Magoo of umps that were ‘in charge’ of our game last week. If you are too young to know about Mr. Magoo, google it. I was casting around in my mind trying to find a way of describing the Sydney game. Bear with me here. When I was a kid, I used to love going to the show and the best part for me was side show alley and the best bit of side show alley was the Jimmy Sharman’s Boxing troupe. 8 or 9 hard men lined up on the gallery, one pounding a big drum and Jimmy up there spruiking for challengers. I would sneak in and watch the show. A majority of the bouts were the local brawlers taking on one of the troupe and coming up short. These bouts seemed to always go the same way. The tent boxer would take half a round to assess the local, the next round or so to put on a show and then he would put him down. A bob or two to the nose, a couple of slowing shots under the ribs and then the stopping shot. Usually a hard one in the solar plexus. These bouts were always fun to watch but the ones I really liked were when the unexpected happened. A local would step in and as soon as the opening bell went you understood that he knew what he was doing. He had the discipline and defence to keep with the trouper, took his shots and landed a few. It was not a slug fest and in the end the tent boxer won on points. The challenger was still standing and at the final bell he slipped the boxer a grin and a wink as if to say… “See you next time….” The boxer commits him to memory and vows to keep an eye on him. That about wraps up my feeling over last week. Sydney can handle themselves. And so, to the Round 9 encounter with the Carlton at the MCG on Sunday. Carlton, a great place for an Italian meal or a cup of coffee but an ordinary footy team these days. They have won a lot of flags in the past but come the 21st century, they have more wooden spoons than anyone else. I like that. Let me remind you that this was the club that had John Elliot as president. Just go back and remind yourselves of the wonderful impact that cheating [censored] had on the club and footy in general. I do not care if they languish in the basement of the AFL ladder for a couple more generations. They deserve it. You do understand that I have very little love for them, don’t you? The facts: We are coming off a tight win over the 4th placed Swans, - Advantage us Nobody likes them – Advantage us They were run over in the last by the fast-finishing Dogs – Advantage Us Not sure I can find any advantages they have…. A very good defensive key position player in Weitering? – minor advantage them. We have one day extra rest and will need it – Advantage us? Problem areas of the game for us. Coming up against Carlton this week we will need to ensure that we have the right approach to the game. No matter what the opposition, we cannot afford to drop the pressure on the ball. Defence Was not too bad last week. Petty will improve week on week the more games he plays. With The rest of the defence around him he will learn where to be and when to go. Carlton’s main tall threats seem to be McKay and Owies with Betts at their feet dangerous. Betts is getting to the age where his legs are not moving as they did but he still has the experience and tricks to cause a headache. Rivers to mind him? That would give Rivers a chance to run off him on the rebound. We have them covered here. Petracca was down a bit on his usual standards. Seems harsh, I know, but he has set himself such high standards. I hope he recovers from the last second corky and can take his place next week. Oliver was excellent in the second half as was Jordon in the first. I would like to get Sparrow’s grunt onto the ground but not sure it will be this week. Cripps looks shot… that is bit like poking a stick at a sleeping tiger, I know. He will most likely come out and rip us a new one. Max! Max! Where are you???? Pittonet and Sweet rotating in the ruck against Max and Jackson. I will back our duo to win out but we need to find a way to at least break even in the center bounces. At the start of a quarter we line up with Petracca and Pickett with Oliver standing 10 m defensive side and it aint working…. Find another plan or two guys. Now for the forwards……. The good; we kicked a winning score last week. The bad; the fact that between them Brown and TMac only kicked 7, I wanted more The ugly; Fritsch got off the week suspension and still took a week’s holiday TMac starred and I can see the structure between Brown and TMac beginning to work. I had the impression that our forward line was very crowded last week and I would like to see the ball come in a bit faster and with a bit more space at the talls feet. I think our smalls lacked the space in which to work. Could be a short night for the selectors if Petracca comes up. Anyone sore? Want a rest? Want to visit dad in NZ? The new Swan feather stuffed cushions on the Bathwater Express look good. When I ordered this fine vehicle I dropped off a few options. Had all the driver assists removed along with the mufflers. Want to make sure people hear us coming and we turn a few heads. I also had the brakes removed I like the dangerous edge that gives us. Besides, when has a bandwagon ever had the need to slow down. All Aboard!!! My prediction last week sort of worked out… I said 8 goals and the margin was 9 points…. Only one number out. Dees by a lot this week. 8 goal margin… believe me…. 8 goals.

Tough to get a vb in these parts. However I think a glass or two of a good red might go down well.

Light drizzle here at the moment but it may not effect the game as I am in Northern Europe and it is 11am. hey, everyone else was giving weather reports.

I was on both for a long time and, like others, moved here when the attempted takeover failed. I seem to recall that the guys that wanted to take over the site would not allow any negative remarks re the club/administration of the club/teams/players etc. Have been wandering around here ever since.

TC, The swan down cushions will be reserved for the front seats that are upholstered in tiger pelts. As for Mr. Wells, I do not think it is HG. I believe I saw Mr.Wells brother in a movie many years ago', First name 'Oceans'.

A question... Haas the contract been signed as yet or ha there been any official word that it is 100% certain?

GoodW, just to be clear, I did not question your original post. I am sure that we have put an offer to Petracca. I was just asking if anyone had asked Judd's Granny, that guru of all information on Trading and Contract, if He had signed as yet.

I would look to have as little disruption to the forward and back structure as possible. Petty for Tomlinson and with the support of the senior defenders, May, Lever, Hibberd and Salem, I think he will be very much a like for like replacement. Get him into the team and get him some experience. Forwards to line up the way they did last week. Tmac in the team gives us a lot of options and flexibility as the situation last week showed. Midfield I would slot Sparrow into Viney's position with one of Melksham, Baker or Jones being dropped and the other two in the 23 with one of them as medical sub.

More than welcome. Just make sure you keep you seat right through until the end of the match. No jumping off half way through.

Mr. Wells, What you say about the past is 100% accurate and factual. However, it is history. While there are many versions of history depending on who is telling it, the facts are the facts. Predictions are not set in stone and we all see the future differently. You said that we are missing Fritsch which was a prediction. He is now eligible to play against Sydney if he is fit and well. Jump up here beside me on the Bathwater Express, experience the comfort of the roo skin upholstered seats, relax and enjoy the ride while you can. I am sure that we will run into some bad traffic at some stage in the season but this time next week I think we will have some added comfort of Swan feather stuffed cushions. Smile Mr Wells there is nothing to worry about for the next few days.

7-0 7 Rounds played….. 7 wins….. 28 points in the premiership bank. (took me a bit to work out the points total as it is approaching higher maths for me) What a turn up….. Top of the ladder a game clear of second. A strange situation that I am sure not many of us have experienced for a lot of years. Nice feeling though…. I predicted a 10 goal win against the Roos and I was half right… we won by 5. To my mind it was a very disruptive game for us. The game was disrupted in the lead up over conjecture as to where it would be played. There was disruption when Viney was pulled from the side prior to the game with a hot spot (whatever that is). There was disruption in the first quarter when Tomlinson went down with a serious knee injury. There was disruption with Tmac moving back. There was disruption when North out pressured us in the first half and played a hell of a lot better than expected. A lot of disruption. Good coaching and half-time adjustments saw us kick 10 goals to the Roo’s 2 in the second half. In all, while I was annoyed at how we played the first half I liked the way we responded after the break and settled into our structures and upped the pressure. And so, to the Round 8 encounter with the Swannies at the MCG on Saturday evening. I have to admit a soft spot for South Melbourne as a mate of mine played for them for a few seasons back in the dim, dark past. Always gave them some support as long as they were below us on the ladder and were not playing us. However, now they are Sydney based, I do not really give a flying fig about them…… More points….more points… I am greedy for the points….. Gimme gimme gimme. Oops, sorry I got carries away there. The facts: We are coming off a win over the Roos in Tassie, - nothing to rave about We responded to the game situation well and played the second half well – Advantage us They are coming off a tight win in Sydney against the team from down the road. – Advantage them? (not convincing – more like lucky) They are travelling down from Sydney – Advantage us They have one day extra rest – Advantage them Problem areas of the game for us. We have a few this week given the injury to Tomlinson and the suspension of Fritsch I am not sure I like this whole business of being undefeated as I find the lead up to each game just that much more fraught with thoughts about …”What if we lose?” Call it historical conditioning. Being a long term Melbourne supporter has conditioned me over the year to expect the team to find a way to screw up a good thing. Another win will be a step towards a strong belief in the team and coaches. Defence Will need to be as good as can be against the Swans. They were very accurate against the Cats kicking 14-6, 8 less scoring shots and 26 less inside 50’s than the Cats and running out winners by just 2 points. Looks like Buddy will be back in the forward 50 but I do not think he will be much of a factor in the game. We have the structure to close down the Sydney forwards. With Tomlinson as a long term out I would go with Petty to replace him. He was reasonable in the one game he had a couple of weeks ago and with May, Lever, Hibberd and Salem around him, he will learn a lot and get some good experience. Got them covered in defence. It seems that on every line we have the chance to show our depth. In the midfield we have lost Viney for a few weeks by the look of it. Tough to cover someone like him. Sydney have some potentially excellent mids that looked to have low possession games against the Cats. Then again, our mids had a half of gliding against the Roos. If we bring the pressure to the contest that we know is required, I believe we will come out on top in this area. With Viney missing I would like to see Sparrow back. Max played a very ordinary game last week. Not just ordinary by his lofty standards, ordinary by any of the game’s parameters. We need max back to his best for this match where he and Luke will be up against Hickey and Sinclair, not the most dynamic of rucking duos. Jackson to step up another rung and our mids to work out how to clear the ball in the center. Now for the forwards……. (again) The good; we kicked a winning score last week. Fritsch 6 and a week’s holiday The bad; The forward entries The ugly; Now Brown is in the team we can give Fritsch’s hair a rest. With better service in the second half the forwards settled and did their job. With Brown there and Tmac moved back it made for an interesting dynamic. Brown drew 2 and sometimes 3 defenders every time he lead. This opened up the rest of the space for the crumbers and for Fritsch to operate in. It worked well but I don’t think it will be enough this week against the Swans. We have a few questions to answer at selection and who is included will depend on what sort of tactics are adopted and what backup plans we put in place. Dare I say it???? Melksham to the Fritsch role with TMac and Brown as talls. Jackson and Gawn rotating there as alternative talls and Petracca and Oliver in the rotating forward mix as well. Definitely a 3 cheese platter night at selection this week. The Bathwater Express managed to hit a couple of pot holes last week but no long term damage done and all passengers accounted for. The road is flat and straight and flat to Saturday night’s horizon. Will need the head lights functioning for the night game but other than that all is looking rosy. Prediction?.... well I am tempted to go with another 5 goal prediction but I am feeling bullish. The G, Saturday night, a few points to prove… to me it all points to a big response by the team. I am going to go with an 8 goal margin for the Dees…. The Undefeated Dees…. 7-0… Had to write it one more time….

In bed after waking up at 5am via streaming.