dimmy

By the look os thid OMac, Stretch & Gartlett are in for promotion . TBH I think Spargo ,Jnr Wagner and Hunt might be looking down the barrell. I still think Hunt is worth perservering with because he has pace and is developing his tackling, but needs room to move. ANB seem top be banished even though he is a busy bee which is better than havcing St Kilda Players standing 25m fro a Melb playing with a flag up saying, "MyTurn"

TMac is one of the besty endurance athletes at he Club. He is obviously : Playing injured Still has enormous pride in playng for MFC because I do not think anyone bleeds more at losing/playing poorly Suffering from the delivery coming into the fowsd line. SG suggested last night that we are not connecting from mid to fwd. He (SG) may have added we are nto defending from Mid/Fwd. All of these things combined mean that life is pretty difficult for a KPF at MFC at the moment

He has been a sensational [player. Make him our Defensive coach !!!

I thought Hore was alright and the Wagner family were competitive. At least this loss cannot be blamed on Oscar. The indecision delivering the ball into the fwd line does not give Weids,TMAc any chance I think TMAc is injured becasue he is not running like he can. Jeets was good today. Woried about Hibberds ability to \compete 1 on 1. Charlie Spargo has to learn to make good decisions i.e When there are 4 or 5 Melbourne blokes , WHY KICK IT TO a CONTEST !!!!!! Fritsch , Brayshaw, Gawn Good , Preuss & Petracca Good first half. Probably the worst I have seen the team play for 3 years. The loss to WC in Prelim Final showed ALL sides how to play Melbourne. How come Ratten got away from us . He would be worth more than what we are paying May.

Talk of Umpires ,maybe we could get special permission for Clarrie toto wear black & white and he will get all the free kicks going, based on Brisbane vs AFL Umpiring panel game currently under way.

I have been one who has defended Oscar. I will admit he is limited, but last year was showing signs of developing into a good stopper. That role is not a stats feast so inside the group his worth may be appreciated more. By saying Frost was our best defender last night highlights how badly we played. As I mentioned on another post, he gave the impression when the ball was coming down that he was hoping somone else got it, that is how badly he seemed to fell. I have said that Frost is when he gets possession and thinks he can run. Unfortunately he loses somthing in relation to reasoning when he has the ball. However last night he was being beaten in 1 on 1 contests (eg Baguley) that he should eat up. Remeber at the moment we are probably paying 1.5 million to defenders who are not playing. That is a fair gap.

Too many loose rinning entries into our Defence makes life unbearable for defenders. I felt sorry for Frosty who had a horrible night , but you could see on his face and Body language he was dreading the ball coming into his area. To be beaten by blokes half his size in marking contests does not really cut it. WHen we have three players running in to tackle the ball carrier . Blind freddy could see that there are 2 spare people hanging around in the medium viciiivty i.e NcD-T , Smith McKenna < Zahaha and the list goes on. TWO WAY RUNNING IS REQUIRED.

" ..we continually get sucked into the contest which allows an easy outlet for our opponents. Oliver lays a tackle, Viney wants in on the act...the EFC player scrubs a hb over to Viney's player 20 metres in the clear and off they run." This Scenario happened too often last night and was really obvious. This is the way we were playing 4 years ago and i thought we had moved on from that.

I feel that he has enormous potential as a mid fielder at centre bounces hwere the heat is really on. He has demonstrated many times the capacity to get the ball to our runners. This works to his strength of good decision making in close ( basketball background). This buys time for our runners wh owill then be able to deliver the ball better to our fwds. Do not give up on him yet.

The AFL are real happy because we play sides that are above us each week. ( Just like they did not tell us that it was not a 4 game JLT season)

I remember listening last year (early) and the commentators were saying Melbourne had trouble playing the MCG, because of its width ( and our incapacity to run when off the ball). We seemed to correct that pretty quickly, so it may be an attitudinal issue rather than slackness. Confidence is a big thing and when down players go to the ball and not the "position". Consequently when it breaks into the open we have 3 or 4 around the ball (or where it was) and nobody in position to counter the break. That was exactly what happened yesterday ( and @ WC last season) So all is not lost. Again I will defend our defence because the ball was coming in with options available and our blokes still up the ground wondering where the ball went. Our defence in very vulnerable to poor defencive positioning and impact by the Fwds and Midfielders

An absolute belter of a game of footy. The umpiring was great in that they did not panic with decisions and were not whistle happy (like Razer & Nichols). This allowed the game to ebb & flow. I thought Ryan's tackling in the 2nf half was brilliant and Shuey was a worthy NS Medallist

When they shifted Gus into the middle for the second half against Essendon. He took his chance and the coaches had enough nouse to leave him there. The 15-20 minutes of perfect football v Footscray when we wacked on goals coming from BRILLIANT Ruck work and clearances. ( It really showed our class in Max, Clarrie & Gus. When ypu see the video concentrate on Petracca's role because he was also extensively involved with those sublime handballs that enabled the clearances to be really effective TMac when he was fairdinkum and attacking the footy. ABSOLUTE HIGHLIGHT was Neville Jetta's stitching up Dangerfield in 1 on 1 's v Geelong in Elim Final. Jetta the Magnifico !!!!

Let us celebrate Gus and Gawny's results. Maybe the umpires are closer to the action and realise the "quality"of a players involvement a little better than from a TV Screen or from 200 metres away. Let us recognise it is an Umpire Voted award. The Coaches have their award and Channell 7 have theirs etc. The one that would rate the least credible is Ch 7 , because the organisation of last nights count resembled a school concert, because they could not work out what the main event was. ( It was really Richo/Cooney skit which was great.) Let us revert to making it a radio event and have reported driving around Melbourne to find the winner. ( and telecast that !!!)

Looks like we have found our scapegoat. Amazing how , after a loss, we seem to find the odd chook in the chookpen !!

Martin Flanagan reinfoces his standing as possibly our greatest football jounalist, purely because he loves the culture of the game. A terrific Ode.

There are two rules that frustrat me : The 50m rule for a bloke following his direct opponent within the protected zone. It is being milked. Clarify the below the knnes rule , particularly the Brayshaw situation last week. Is Brayshaw supposed to wait there until the opposition player gets to the ball before he can tackle him. I thought the bloke with the ball should be protected, rather than the one that flies in knwees first and lands on the back of the bloke actually getting the ball. The rule was brought in to stopp the "sliding" into the contest area and taking an opponent out. , but the ball carrier or competitor should be protected more. Ar we going to legislate against the ClArrie/ Sellwood clash last week , when both players went for the ball and Clarries skills were sublime to maintin posession and feed the handball off in the time it takes to open the phone box door.

Gunston is not playing this week !!! I just feel the brains trust would be very happy with the side's current form. Tyson is a strong body , which gives room for Gus or Clarrie to move forward for a while but still have presence around the ball. Bernie would love to play( and it would have been good to fit him in) ,but is also mature enough to realise that it is pretty hard to break into a side that is gelling so well together and players are all playing their roles. A case could be presented for Jeffy to replace Spargo, but the kid is providing a consistent presence and level of involvement in the last few games. It is not as if we have been playing practice matches against Coburg anf Frankston the last few weeks.

ANB has been one of our really big improvers this year because he has had a role and been supported by his coaches. Same does for Weiderman ,Frost and OMac. Confidence is a marvellous teacher. The we have the "babies" in Spardo (only 19) and Batley Fritsch . First year players. Both with a lot of upside. Then you really have the cream on the cake in Salem & Gus & Clarrie & Tmac . I also feel Dom Tyson is working into his role and Tracc is supplying the X factor and will develop consistency. Our coaching and development team are providing a terrific program Future is bright. I was disappointed that Jack Watts was traded ,but I now can see that he did not fir into the "Brand"that Goody was developing.

Well next time an opposing ruckman goes into Max at the bounce with studs out ............?? RUCKMEN ARE PENALISED FOR MAKING EXCESSIVE CONTACT (

I thought Gerard Whately's call of Hannan's goal was by far the best ( and to think he is a Cat's supporter) Roosy reminded me of a pregnant grandfather , the way he was beaming non stop after the game. And so he should, because these kids all virtually came to the club under his tutelage. I remember him describing Gus first year (when he was running out of puff at end of year) where he said he virtually was playing out of his long term position on the HFF and that long term he would mature into a genuine midfielder. Shows the longer term thinking that enabled us to get this side together.

To be honest I have had resrvation"s re Jack. My fears were that he would upset the chemistry of the Midfield. I have to admit I was wrong, because rjay's comment reflect the more mature way he approached his game. Maybe his time in the "gameday coaches area" would have given hi m a wider perspective than "see ball, GET Ball

Am torn between Nev( for sheer perserverance that has enabled his class to shine thru) , TMac (Pride) , Gus ( loves the club and had shown a lot of courage ), Clarrie ( for phoneboxfooty par excellence),Jonsey (for loyalty & effort) & Max (for being Max, for perserverance through injury issues), with Harmesy coming through fast. I have to admit too, that when Mikshake was coming to Dees, I ran around the house to cool down. So my jumper does not have a number on it ,but is Navy & Red

I think it is a terrific effort and it is a vast improvement in the quality of his ruckwork. I think the highlight was against Footscray in the 3rd Q when MFC played perfect football for about 15 minutes purely from the linking at the centre bounces where Gawny just seemed to put the ball into Clarrie, Gus Trac and Harmesy. Last Sunday was equal because of the quality oas well.

What a delicious dilemma though. I am sure they can arrange rotations / forward stints / bench time to keep them out of each other’s way. This has been my worry, because our mid field has really gelled over the last 6 or so weeks. Viney must accept that he has a supporting role and that we are lucky to have him up our sleeve. If Dom Tyson is fit then a tough decision will need to be made , because Tyson has been running into some terrific form so the "fringe players"such as JKH may miss out despite having his best game because of the way he covered ground. Young Spargo has been a really good team player and he is one of the reasons our defence (yes I am talking defence) has been functioning so well because the pressure applied by our mids and fwds. AVB ,Spargo, JKH ,ANB are all 2 way runners which is something we did not have/do earlier in the season. These blokes are our lesser lights and their efforts are helping OMac, Frosty etc contain opposition targets because they are not getting left 1 out in half the ground. We are NEVER going to stop good sides ALL the time, but at the moment we are restricting them enough to let our scoring ball movement to show through.