Vipercrunch

I only watched the stream on the AFL site. As far as I could tell he played forward all day. A little rusty early but got involved well as it went on. Flew for a few marks but I don't think he dragged any down. He would be behind Tomlinson and Turner for a gig in the seniors down back, so playing him forward to see how he goes makes sense. No VFL this week and I think needs another game there before being considered, but maybe he finds enough form at in the scratch matches. Just an option right now.

I'm quite confident JVR will be our number 1 or 2 tall forward in 2023, but also believe he is a preseason away from being ready to regularly do the 2 things the MFC demand from our tall forwards at AFL level. The MFC require them to have the aerobic fitness to get up to the wings and even half back to contest before rushing forward post turnover, and that they have the talent/technique/strength/competiveness to not be outmarked. I don't think JVR yet has the fitness required to do the first, and although he has talent and competiveness in spades, he still doen't have the strength or technique for the second. At least twice yesterday at VFL level, he gave away free kicks in marking contests and he was also outmarked a few times. I think for those reasons, although he isn't pleasing anyone outside the four walls of the club, Weids is ahead of him and also why I think Joel Smith played forward for Casey yesterday. Ideally we have a fit and in form BBB and TMac for the finals, but I think Weids and J Smith are the coaches preference ahead of JVR while those two are absent. JVR will be a star for us, but I think we're going to have to be patient to see it in the seniors.

Joel Smith played forward. He didn’t especially stand out but after such a long lay off and playing forward for the first time since (as a guess) late 2018, I doubt much was expected of him. Possibly the coaches are considering him as a forward option in the seniors if required. Right now, he’d be behind Tomlinson and Turner for a big back position. Didn’t see much of Howes unfortunately.

Unreal goal by Fogarty. He’s finally fulfilling his potential.

His (JL’s) comment that his team had become unpredictable to each other was a wonderful argument for why we didn’t try anything drastic during our loading phase even when we are losing. Allow the game plan to be instinctive and believe that when the fitness is there to execute it at a high enough level, it will be effective.

Lots of room for Weids to improve obviously but his key role would for him not to be out marked and he ticked that box. Similar story to ANB’s role which was to reduce the impact of Jordan Clark which he also achieved.

It got messy after the rain and the ground went to crap. Would have been a 12 goal win if it stayed dry. Hopefully Jackson is ok. Not in the song for some reason. Onwards to September we go.

He’s done his primary job closing down Jordan Clark. Has some things to tidy up but main job achieved.

If LJ goes and we get Logue as part of the deal I’d be ok with that. Plays forward the way we like our big forwards to play.

Booooo. Booooooo. Boooooo

Great start and great to see no strapping on Rivers knee. Nice new haircut also 😂😂

Did Gawn get a free when he got this shiner or did he duck?

No idea if he stays or goes but I just wanted to say he seems like an absolute jet of a person. I loved his interview of the Gus n Gawn podcast. Great sense of humour, respectful, hard working. On that basis, I hope he plays his entire career with us.

Your last sentence is the key for me. Get out clauses both ways if things go pear shaped somehow which drastically reduces the risk of the long term deal.

Ask why he doesn’t just give the players a good ‘ol rocket. That’s the answer to all our issues according to some..

They did 100x100’s during half time. It’s obvious isn’t it? 😂😉 I’d love @dazzledavey36to provide some evidence that anyone has said anything like what he claims. I won’t hold my breath.

SEN reporting he’s ours for the next 6 years

The reason I am convinced of the significance of loading is because I am yet to read or hear of one other reasonable or logical explanation for the shape of MFC's 2021 season. Why did we win 9 straight then suddenly become a 50% team for the next 9 games (4W-1D-4L)? Why then did we go into a 7 game winning streak that crescendos with what many commentators say was one of the most dominate finals series ever? What were the trigger's of such widely different form lines? And why, when you look at the formlines of other premiership teams over the last decade is it a pattern that is repeated so often? If there is a better explanation to why very good teams have mid-year slumps, then I'm ready to hear it.

With Turner now playing again, it creates a little more depth for our bigger backs. He came into the side at the expense of Tomlinson (omitted) for the Collingwood game, so went fit and going he is obvisouly rated by the coaching group. As well as covering for injuries if we have more bad luck down back, he becomes an option if the coaches feel the need to move one of the backmen (Petty or Tomlinson) forward to cover for BBB and TMac. 6-7 weeks for TMac puts it right in the middle of the finals series which is a really unfortunate time to be coming back from a long term injury and he has never been one to find form quickly after a break.

Absolute myth. It’s very easy to go onto the AFL website to see that Richmond had some ugly loses in their premiership years. Bigger margins than us and also gave up leads.

Great question and I agree with your final sentiment that it has been strange. I went to several games very early on, and although we were challenged during most of those games, I never once doubted we would win, which was a completely foreign feeling. My son who attened all of those games with me said he found expecting to win all the time to be less enjoyable than going to games with only a faint hope of winning. As we moved into our mid-season slump, because I'm firmly in the Cult of Loading, when we started to perform poorly and lose games, my confidence has never waivered, quite the oppisite in fact. I am impressed that my club has it's eyes firmly on the real goal, that of playing it's best footy when it counts in September. Simultaneously hating to lose while also framing those loses within the big picture and being ok with them is also a completely foreign feeling. Now as we enter the final run home, there is a lot of trepedation as questions/predictions are finally answered. Has my trust in the players and staff been well placed or totally misplaced? Time will tell but I will be devasted and angry if we don't at least make the preliminary final as we are definetely good enough. I don't believe last year was a fluke or only due to incredible luck, so to not make at least PF weekend would be an absolute failure.

Great post. I was reminded today, that at the moment the photo below was taken in Round 23, 2021, we had not sealed the minor premiership and had no idea of the dominating finals series we were about to produce. The reality of our 2021 season was that it had periods where we stunk it up and looked no chance. Same team, same coach, same staff (DB left but there is no indication the Griffith is doing anything differently).

They just have to enforce their own rule. Players subbed off can't play for 12 days.

A lot of people are saying we have been worked out. If that’s the case, why in all our losses have we been up by 3-5 goals before being over run? Are opposition coaches only working us out during the games?

Absolutely.