CHF

Pretty much what was expected in selection. During the first quarter last week Melksham looked the goods but them disappeared from the game. With him only playing a bit over 50% game time it is understandable that he did not have much more impact. It was a strange way to use him last week. Give him more game time and judge him on that. There will be some great tactical games played tomorrow night. The bulldogs have a lot of strength and height up forward with the inclusion of English to ruck along side Sweet and both rotating into the forward 50. Either of them along with McNaughton and Bruce will stretch our backline. Add to that Bont moving through there as well and we will need to be in top form back there. Hibberd to Bont when he is in the forwards. Salem will improve the defence this week. In the midfield there are a lot of Bulldogs that can cause problems. I expect McCrea, Libba and Smith to contest the first bounce against Oliver, Petracca and Kossie. Looking forward to that. We really need to exert our will on the game from that first bounce to make sure we are proactive for as much of the game as possible. we need to get them on the back foot and have them working to close our players down, not the other way around. Get on top in the middle and force them to make the changes. We need to make sure we are well prepared and well drilled to react quickly to any adjustments that are required. Not sure what we will get out of the forwards this week. One thing I would look to do is set Spargo to run with Daniel to try and curb his influence.

9-1 10 Rounds played…..9 wins….. 36 points in the premiership bank. WTF???? (the same a last week) And now 2nd on the ladder. Firstly, an apology, usually I bang this out on Mondays but as it was a public holiday where I am I had a couple of other things I needed to do and yesterday I had a game of golf. Played like a dog. Managed to scramble 33 points without hitting too many good shots and leaving a lot of points on the greens with less than good putts. Bit like us on the weekend, thereabouts but not good enough. Hence, I am banging it out today instead. Damn, I found it frustrating to lose to Adelaide the way we did. Have to say no amount of “the umps got it wrong” from the AFL makes it any easier to accept. Hate it! Our defence was found out and may had a shocker against Walker and his murder of crows. Of all the people to have a bad day against??? The rest of the defence team were also out of sorts, we gave up the most points in any match so far this season. Adelaide also applied constant midfield pressure that paid off for them. I hope that our newfound maturity is reflected in the game next week. We need to learn from this loss. Still, as much as I was disappointed with the loss, Sitting 9-1 after the first 10 rounds is pretty damn pleasing. I would have ripped ya arm off taking that at any time before the season began. And so, to the Round 11 encounter with the Bulldog at Marvel on Friday night. Big match…. And that is an understatement. Whoever wins this goes a game clear at the top and builds that little bit of a mental edge over the other team. The Bulldogs have been cruising lately but have a couple of injuries that may take their edge off. We have a few problems of our own on the injury front but that may be on the improve. Salem looks likely to be back which will help in defence and will also give us additional drive from the back half. The facts: We are coming off an umpire error loss in Adelaide - Advantage the maggots They are coming off a light training run against the Saints witches hats. – Advantage them We are playing on at Marvel– Advantage them The odds are stacked against us. Problem areas of the game for us. Umps are a problem that we cannot do anything about. They are already responsible for effecting the results of 3 games so far this season. While the game itself ha the potential to be a classic, 1st vs. 2nd. There are individual contests within the game that will also be more than interesting. Who runs with Bont? Harmes? Who gets the job on Petracca and Oliver? There is going to be so much to watch. As good as the defence has been for 9 rounds, it looked to lose all structure on Saturday. As I said, May had a less than ordinary game and there looked to be a plan in place by Adelaide to bring the ball into the forward 50 low and hard. It worked. Last week the bulldogs had 15 of their 21 goals scored by 5 of their forwards. If our defenders are no better than last week we are done. And done by a lot. Salem back for Jetta should help settle the group a bit. One can only hope. Midfield improved their center clearances a bit and that will be needed to give us that initial drive to unsettle the Dogs. McCrea, Libba and Smith need to be controlled in this area. We can match them with Oliver and Petracca and last week Brayshaw snagged a good number of clearances as well. I see this area of the ground as a close arm wrestle that will determine the outcome of the game. We come up against the best midfield in the competition this week. It will be minus Treloar and that will be significant. Really looking forward to this contest. One area of the contest we might just have an advantage is on the wings. Looks like English might be back after a 4 week layoff to challenge Max. Good to see Max regaining a bit of form last week. We won the clearances last week and gave up 15 goals. How does that work? Now for the forwards……. The good; There was no good The bad; The goal tally from our KPFs The ugly; My mood after the game. Gee it must be tempting to go back to the initial setup we had at the beginning of the season that was forced upon us by injuries. There looked to be so much more room for the forwards to operate in. Last week it still looked crowded and the forwards were static with ordinary slow delivery. Not sure how you sort it out. I would still work this week around Tmac/Weid/ Fritsch setup with Jackson/Max working through there as required. Maybe best to leave all that to people that are wiser than I. Changes? Salem back for sure. The other thing I want to see is Sparrow get another run. I like the pressure he brings, and I think he will develop well over the next season or so. Bathwater Express is misfiring on a couple of cylinders and we missed out on the adding the twin overhead crow feathers to the aerial last week. Never mind, I will take 9-1 at this stage of the season. I am not one that will stop drinking the Kool-Aid at the first sign of stomach cramps or a bit of vomit in the mouth. I am in this all the way. Now for the prediction…. Head and heart in a big battle. Head says Dogs in a close one. Heart says “never in doubt!”. Have to go with the heart…… Dees by a couple of goals!

That depends on the definition of tall forewords. Not so much the definition of the tall part, more the definition of the forward part. Brown for Jackson is not really like for like and I would expect Jackson to spend very limited time in the forward 50. Weid and Tmac to spend a lot more time than Jackson at the pointy end. Forward roles will be defined a bit differently this week.

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.