Bonkers

His impact last year against Port up in Darwin was pretty good. That is the game that sticks out in my mind as his best from memory. I've seen glimpses of play where his thinking & spacial awareness is a few seconds ahead of everyone else around him. He also has pretty clean hands below his knees for a player of his size. His work rate is pretty good also, think he laid 5 tackles yesterday. He probably needs to be played a bit more in areas where his height & athleticism can give him an advantage. Could be worth a gamble telling him to stay a little closer to goal for periods of games, he may have a greater impact on games by using his height, speed & leap deeper in the forward line instead of picking up midfield possessions up the ground where he seems to get lost at times. Although he is undersized in terms of physical development, it can't hurt to play him at full forward for periods & push Jurrah up the ground.

So it is the right thing that Stynes has had to come out & manage the media? I know who should be answering questions on performance & it isn't Jim Stynes. Stynes has very little to do with the FD.

Again where in any of my posts have I asked to shame or belittle an individual member of the side??? Comparing what I'm saying to what Brent Harvey had to say is laughable. Jim Stynes shouldn't have to come out & make a statement like that. I'm glad he did, because it is at least a message from the club to acknowledge what we witnessed on Sunday is unacceptable. I am not asking Dean Bailey to criticize, belittle or shame any individual member of the team. What I am asking is that a member of the FD take ownership & stand up publicly. Perhaps the message behind closed doors to the players is not getting through. There is no shame in losing when you have played your guts out. Being rolled the way we were & then to hear that Bailey didn't see it coming & that Hawthorn were too good is just embarrassing. It sends the wrong message to members & the footy public. Jim Stynes has had to come out & clean up after him. If he shows that its not acceptable then the players have to tow the line, its not really that hard a concept to understand. If he takes some sort of ownership publicly of what occurs the players have to respond, its called being open & transparent.

Part of motivating players is not just to have internal motivating factors but external motivating factors as well. This issue isn't just about the media, it's about being able to say to the players who pull on the jumper they have a responsibility to perform at a minimum standard. As a club that is what is expected. What good is it going to do for any of the players to be protected from reasonable outside expectation??? It's part of their jobs to deal with pressure. At what stage through any of my posts have I stated that I would like Dean Bailey to bake our players publicly? If the media start to really get stuck into the players, then it is time for the coach to protect the players & handle everything internally. It should be a last resort.

Even the greatest managers/coaches in world sport can admit to their team performance being at a sub-par level. That doesn't have to mean that the media will have a field day. By making a statement that the performance was poor it puts the onus back on the players to lift their game. I don't see anything wrong with that. The media will say what they want to say & write what they want to write regardless of what Dean Bailey says in a press conference. To me it just looks poor to not acknowledge when your team plays ordinary, it's almost putting your head in the sand. Part of being a senior coach is to manage your players & combine that with the way your team is being perceived outside the club walls. To me it doesn't look great to just praise a team that has just given your side an absolute flogging when your own team contributed heavily to the end result.

I'm not expecting the coach to name names. However some acknowledgement of our poor performance would be appropriate. Call a spade a spade for FFS. If you think Stynes is trying to manipulate the masses that's your opinion. I just think Jim answered a question honestly to tell you the truth. The fact is after saying it & if we lose this week after another insipid performance the pressure is really on. You are right internally questions would be being asked, but to deflect criticism is to be unaccountable. There is nothing wrong with stating you were out played, or the performance was poor.

Someone at the club needed to say it. There's no one better to say it than the man himself. All we'd heard from the FD was how great a side the Hawks are. We need to see an increase in workrate from Davey & Moloney as well as Jones if he plays. Green has a chance this week to take ownership of the side & lead by example.

Out: jones, maric, jetta In: morton, gysberts, wonna Morton to a hbf, grimes to play centre. Take away a forward and play 3 wingmen. Gysberts to be added to the midfield rotations. Tapscott or Morton can move out of defence with Grimes to go back if needed. We need better clearance work this week, if we win the clearances we win the game. Think it's worth experimenting with Grimes through the midfield if his body can hold up with the extra workload.

Only thing I was disappointed about was that Tapscott didn't get the chance to lay him out at any point in the game.

The only way we know that the issues are being addressed is by judging future performances, I'm sure internally the game would be reviewed & the performance wouldn't be accepted. It's the future mind set/mentality & performances that will show us if we are moving forward. So far this year we have seen a decent couple of wins in Adelaide, some pretty ordinary performances in the NAB Cup/Challenge against Essendon, Hawthorn & Brisbane. A decent showing Rd 1 against Sydney & an ordinary performance yesterday against the Hawks. I wasn't at the games vs Hawthorn & Brisbane in the NAB Challenge however, I saw the loss to Essendon & yesterdays loss also. Similar mistakes are still being made coming out of defense in particular. I don't know if dropping players is really addressing the issue as I'm not sure what players are not performing their roles or what individual player instructions are in place. I would imagine a fair portion of responsibility has to be with the midfield group.

I agree with what you have stated in regards to the young players coming through. It's quite obvious that we are a developing side, there will be ups & downs in performance & I accept that is the case. Yesterday was a failure no matter how you look at it though, which is disappointing. Intense pressure was applied by the Hawks & the MFC players young & old completely folded. It was a stern test & the playing group as a whole failed pretty miserably. We laid down & didn't respond. Some of the teams failure has to be put down to not being prepared well enough to deal with certain match day scenarios & tactics. Whether they have been taught them I'm not aware its purely speculation, but being young isn't an excuse not to set up a zone for example. Setting up a zone from a kickout requires discipline & understanding your role in the team. Something that even the least talented footballer is still capable of doing. A lot of the things the team are getting shown up in aren't to do with talent, it's to do with being well drilled & disciplined. There is a trend that we are not doing enough in between the two 50m arcs to win games. I'm not criticizing the playing group or FD just to be an angry member or to be part of the mob as you call it, I'm being critical because I know they are capable of so much more than what they served up yesterday. To be a strong club, we have to build a stronger culture. I believe 'strong culture' or similar words was one of the phrases used on the banner yesterday as the players ran out on to the ground, if the club are going to talk the talk they are going to have to start showing it through actions. As supporters & members of the club we shouldn't have to accept the level of performance that we saw yesterday(the second half more specifically), regardless of how good Hawthorn played. If a Sydney Swans side coached by Paul Roos played the way we did yesterday serious questions would be asked internally & it wouldn't be tolerated. That is the level we have to aspire to as a footy club.

Good post RR. However there are parts of our game which aren't developing & which don't appear to have been addressed. Bailey has been coach for 3 years & serious questions need to be asked why these aspects aren't improving. I'll list the most obvious deficiencies in our game. 1. Kickouts & navigating through a zone. 2. Forward pressure from kickouts & setting up an adequate zone. 3. We are ranked last for forward 50 entries. 4. Clearance work is poor despite having an All Australian Ruckman. 5. Intensity, work rate & winning mentality which should be not negotiable is not in place. To me the points I raised are all parts of our game which should be rectifiable, however in 3 years they don't appear to have been addressed. I applaud the club in the direction they are taking with youth, but a portion of blame needs to be pointed at the FD for not rectifying deficiencies that have been pretty obvious even to supporters for a significant amount of time. Some of the simple tactics of modern footy don't seem to be being taught. If they are being taught, we are seeing little result. I'm fully supportive of the direction the club is taking, but not everything that goes wrong can be put down to a developing list or a group of older players that aren't good enough.

We are a big chance if we can stay with them until halt time or thereabouts. In most games last round players got tired due to the sub rule. This caused games to open up, which will suit us more than the Hawks. Last year the reason we lost was due to the wet conditions & their bigger bodies. I'm hoping we can negate their clearance & stoppage play which is one of their biggest strengths & try keep the game as open as possible. If we can play the game on our terms & try to exploit their lack of pace as much as possible I think we are a good chance.

All I was saying in my initial post was that if you are going to take possession whilst being tackled don't spill the ball out aimlessly to a group of opposition players. If the option is there to give it to a team mate make an attempt, I accept that in this instance there may be errors. If there is no option to give it to a team mate then attempt to lock it in. My complaint is regarding a specific passage of play where there were no visible options to give the ball to by hand. But instead of just locking the ball in, they dished the ball out aimlessly & repetitively to no one but opposition players. The smart thing to do would be to just hold the ball, or make it look like your making an attempt to dispose of the ball whilst being tackled. Even if the free kick is paid it has stopped a quick turnover.

He has been acting the same way since even before he was drafted, you can't blame everything on medication & personal issues. No one is trying to chop him down, he's doing a perfect job of that on his own.

You make comment on Fevola like you actually know the bloke. Are you aware of the sexual assault that was reported whilst he was drunk at crown, in the incident which lead to his sacking at Carlton? That is just one of many incidents. Your defense of his behavior is pretty ill informed if you ask me. He's had plenty of chances to take responsibility for his actions, however continues to hurt people around him that care for him. Don't really like to judge people but he seems like an A grade Charlie to me.

Spot on. If you have an option dish it out. If you have just taken possession & have no option lock it in, take the hit/tackle & force the ball up. 8 times out of 10 the umpire will give the benefit of the doubt to the player going for the ball & call a ball up providing it doesn't look like they're hatching an egg.

I wish he'd tell the players to hold onto the ball when taking a tackle directly after taking possession. We cough it up a lot instead of locking the ball in when we have no option/player ready to give the ball to. Noticed it numerous times yesterday, which lead to a turnover.

Cheers mate joined. Im the original 'Pimp my Side' before the herald sun thought they'd have a crack at the name also.

Haven't seen a lot of Kyle play, however when I have he has impressed me with his ball winning ability. If this year goes well for him, anyone think he is a Smokie to be rookied next year? I think the MFC should watch him closely this year.

Dean Bailey : premiership assistant coach 2000 @ essendon, 2004 @ port. Todd Viney : premiership assistant coach 2008 @ hawthorn Josh Mahoney: premiership player 2004 @ port There was more afl premiership experience with Wellman on board. I think there is a level of afl premiership experience there to build upon.

I agree. A fair chunk of rate payers money has been diverted to spending on development of Casey Fields. I'm not sure all local residents are happy about this. The club will have to be pretty sensitive in the way they manage any split from the Scorpions. I am a resident of Casey & believe that based on the extra 250k we would have to spend on a new VFL team each year, it's a no brainer in terms of finances. I hope the club can find a resolution that also will be looked upon favorably by the locals.

If Gerard Healy can see it, we can see it, surely the coaches can also. I would have thought that both Viney & Royal would have brought in new ideas over the summer regarding zones & "frontal pressure". We either have to get better at it or develop a method that beats it other than just quick ball movement.

Our forwards & midfield aren't creating enough pressure to cause turnovers coming out of our attacking 50m arc. We barely ever lock the ball in our attacking half. At the other end our players are stagnant & not running hard enough to create options coming out of defense. I think a lot of it comes down to work rate & intensity.

Don't forget players on the interchange & other positions can be rotated through the midfield. I don't think it's as simple as saying pick 5 or 6. You may have as many as 12 players being rotated or pushed up the ground. If your talking about centre bounces I'd like to see a combination of Scully, Gysberts, Moloney, Tapscott, Jones, McKenzie & Trengove at the centre bounces during the course of a game. Scully & Trengove were playing on a wing a lot last season, would like to see them pushed into the centre bounces more. Collingwoods model to win a flag was to have aggressive mobile players that persistently pressure the ball carrier coming out of defense. They also have an extreme work rate when they have the ball. Are our current group capable of playing a style that can match or supersede that style of football? Essendon looks to be trying to implement that style already. We need to be ahead of the game I think if we are to succeed.