Its Time Again

I didn’t expect Langdon’s and Tomlinson’s recruiting to result in a whole different game plan but it’s looking like that. The ratio of uncontested possessions has gone up significantly too which I guess reflects getting the ball out into the open more with the switching. Also a much more sustainable game plan injury wise.

WS interesting to see us sort of swapping game plans with Hawks. Who’s going to get that right. Goodwin or Clarkson?

From Goody's presser last night. "When we went into the summer we wanted to establish a game style that was recognisable to our supporters. When they come every week they can see a style that they can see consistently and something that will stand up over the duration of the season. I think the teams been able to do that over the summer. We've been able to establish some behaviours in a lot of phases and they should be really excited heading into the season and get a long to see the Dees." What do people think the game style is? As usual Goody makes a statement in riddles and so rarely actually tells you what he's talking about. Why can't he give us the game style in his words instead of making us guess. The Club really need to give him some media training. He should have a coffee with Daners and find out about his transition from never saying anything to realising as Coach he had to be the spokesperson for the Club and transform into the Reverend. He talks about it in his book. Goody mentioned early in the presser we're establishing how we want to play. Defensively really hard to play against and starting to get some reward for it. That's one aspect but surely that's not the definition of the game style. In 2018 his mantra was contested football. And we saw them playing on at all costs which sometimes was very exciting, sometimes creating very costly turnovers. In 2020 what I've seen is no longer the play on at all costs but being prepared to hold the play up to find a more certain option down the field which seems to be leading to more uncontested possessions. This seems also to be more switching the ball sideways to get into space rather than playing on straight down the ground. It looks like Tomlinson and Langdon are aiding this by using their running power to create targets in that space. I'm loving this aspect of what they are doing. What I'm not loving at all like others have mentioned is they're still bombing the ball i50 way too much and it rarely works. I'd much rather see them hold onto it and ping it sideways outside 50 till an option comes up. I saw them practicing this at the one training session I went to but I haven't seen it in games yet. I'm preying I do because as far as I'm concerned it's the missing piece to the game style to take us towards being a contender.

I agree with all of that except that he should have retired or been pushed. I think we've learnt our lesson from James McDonald's exit. Sometimes there are cultural intangibles that are more important than just the football. I have no doubt he understands if he's good enough he will play if he isn't he won't. But keeping him sends a clear cultural message of respect to the playing group which outweighs the cost of his position on the list.

Honestly I can't wait to see this scenario but see HB pounce on the loose ball kick it a milli second before the siren goes and see it sail through the goals after the siren for us to beat the filth by 1 point in this year's GF. I could truly die a happy man. Can't think of anything I'd be happier to take to the grave.

RDB made it a precondition to him coming back to the Club to coach. At that time the entire MFC Board were appointed by the MCC. He thought the Board were totally ill equipped to guide a footy club. I'm sure there was also some lingering resentment over the way they got rid of Norm.

Sydney tried desperately to hang on to Jones but he was determined to go home. He had tried to leave over the previous couple of seasons. On your theory Langdon must be a dud.

Agree. I wouldn't write off Ryder either. He was carrying bad injuries for most of his time at Port. He is apparently fit now. Agree Hannebury sounds like he's got his body right and same for Carlisle who has had injury worries for a few seasons. Their pace cut us to pieces last year and they've gone up another notch in speed with Hill and Jones. We haven't. They looked formidable in that first Marsh game. Very well structured around contests and clearing the ball to outside runners. Something I've been hoping to see us do but haven't yet. They had clear passes i50 to clear leads. Something I've been waiting to see since Goody took over in Roos's last year. We still don't. Hill is a match winner. Explosive pace but with elite decision making and skill to deliver the ball down people's throats. Langdon's stats pretty much matched Hills in the last period of last season but he doesn't have the same skill level. If he plays like he did in the last 5 weeks of last season he's going to be the smokey pick up of last year's trade period.

People don't realise how deeply troubling a day in Australian history this is. The end of the most key source of syndicated press content because the next generation would rather read opinions from social media influencers than from proper researched and intelligent journalists. AAP was funded by both Rupert and Nine amongst others so was the most unbiased journalism we had. These are the people who keep the b@stards honest. Who's going to do that now. It's a terrible day.

This is just crying out for a caption competition.

Given he's not even in enough condition to join the main rehab group this seems a tad optimistic. Goody was saying mid year Pert was saying 4 or 5 games for the season would be a big win which would put it at about round 22. I'd be very very happy if it was around round 16 to 18. I'd be ecstatic if it was mid year. I'd be very very worried if it was round 3. I don't care how long it takes as long as it means he firstly comes back at all and secondly comes back and never breaks down again.

Who will?

I thought To Hell and Back is a great initiative and expected to see a response in memberships but in the two weeks that it's come out they have ground to a virtual halt. Surprised by that. Maybe the Club are just behind in posting the latest membership numbers. Hope so.

Don't agree. There were two worthy Captains and they had an agreed Captaincy sharing model. Mitchell first two years, Hodge after that. Very different to being stripped of it after you've been appointed permanently. A bit irrelevant really. Your point is taken that hopefully JV will be fully engaged despite being stripped of the Captaincy. You'd think knowing what we do of him that he will be. Can't imagine it being any other way. I'd be more interested in what impact the discovery that Polly Farmer had CTE will have on the head first take no prisoners way he plays the game which has already lead to a few concussions including one in an intraclub match.

Mitchell was appointed Captain under an arrangement that he would hand it over to Hodge after (from memory) 2 seasons. So not relevant. In Paul Roos's words "Leadership is players telling other players what to do." I loved Jones and Viney leading by their actions but unfortunately not sure they were great at guiding players by telling them what to do. Max has to do this in the midfield setups. Will be interesting to see how he manages around the ground. Lever and May appear to be the standout onfield leaders that satisfy this criteria. We need a lot more of them.

Good pick up. But just shows how stats and figures can be manipulated. By the start of last season before the true state of the team was known and therefore off the back of the previous year's success memberships were up by 6,000 on the previous year. They only increased on the previous year by another 2000 from 1 April to end of membership year. That 2000 is probably a tick to the membership dept for getting anyone at all on board. It wouldn't be over stating it to think that the rate of increased memberships would have increased significantly if the team had performed as it was expected to.

They explain it. Good small forwards are a very rare commodity and Pickett was a standout. Robertson is another inside mid. Think he will be the steal of this draft. We weren’t the only ones rating him as high as top 5 but didn’t go till 2nd round. Unbelievable gift to Lions.

By far the best thing the Club's every produced. I'm really loving getting to see this genuine behind the scenes footage we've never been shown before. Really interesting to see Bennell down at the new players induction session when there had been discussion from me and others about him being excluded from it. Great to see he was there given he's on the list now. I really hope this inspires people to leave behind 2019 and get back on board as members. We're about 3300 down on last season. Hope to see them back. Great proactive move by the powers to be to be so proactive at getting supporters engaged.

Do you guys know about the NSW Demons. They have organised watching every Demons game at the Cammie in Redfern and other venues before that going back to the pre Foxtel days. You should contact them and offer some incentives for Dees supporters to go there. Getting Hardtrack’s band to play the song pre game could be a clincher. I intend to get to one of his gigs so put him in some time. I’ll be there.

I'm going to go over for the game. Perhaps we could organise a Demonlander get together at some stage.

Did you get that as a WA member?

Lions were his 4th team. I saw an interview with him where he said he thought his career was over and then Matthews gave him a last chance. He said he had to play there for almost nothing the whole time he was there through 4 GF’s and 3 Premierships.

Good observation. I hadn't thought about the team photo being taken before the leaders have been announced.

Oh come on. It was tongue firmly in cheek

Bragger