drdrake

I don't think its is far behind, I think we assess harder now because we are sick and tired of losing. If this was year 2 of the rebuild and not year 6 we would be cutting Neeld more slack. There are 26 players where on our list in 2009 that are no longer at our club, only 9 of these are still on AFL lists these are Bennell, Cheney, Martin, Mclean, Moloney, Morton, Petterd, Rivers and Warnock. 4 of these are regulars is there current team Mclean, Moloney, Rivers and Warnock, with Petterd making a few appearances. The other 17 either were at or close to the end of their career Robertson, McDonald, Bruce, Green, Wheatley, Whelan or been no good. Add this to the turn over last year just highlights the player turnover in a 4 year period, with out looking into this we would have at least 8 players drafted from 2009-2011 that are no longer on our list.

If I had time it would be interesting to re-visit post from 2009. Did we have Dean Bailey under the same pressure as Mark Neeld or were we happy he was losing to get the first 2 picks of the draft. What we all need to realise we are basically back to 2009, we where an extremely bad football club, but the back half of the year we did show signs of what to expect going forward the lure of the first 2 picks was to great for us to finish of the year well but we showed improvement. 2009 after round 6, 1 win 5 losses, in fact we didn't win our next game until round 14 and then winning 3 of our last 8 and pulling up in a couple. Then in 2010 we had a year that was good it clicked 8 wins and a draw playing very attacking footy but we struggled to stop good teams scoring against us. Like 2009, I think we will see a strong back half of the year, it will click, hopefully we see Clark and Dawes in the same team and all of the sudden we have Gawn as a third tall option and not the first. The question, is our list today better than our list in 2009 looking forward. To me the answer is yes mainly due to the Forward line that we will have in 2014, Hogan, Dawes, Clark, Gawn and Howe, would be nice if the 6th option was Jurrah but that gives us some good solid targets. The 2009 midfield is stronger and it will depend on how far Viney, Toumpas, M Jones, Blease, Trengove and others develop over another pre-season plus what will be another top 4 pick. We have good Ruck stocks behind Jamar and our back 6 has only really lost Rivers and Bartram since 2009, both limited and I think with another preseason to McDonald and Jetta/Strauss they will fill that void. I have great hope that 2014 will be like 2010, the difference being we should see continued improvement beyond 2014.

They tried today, just had no polish and nothing up forward. Bad turn overs thar where just deflating. You just cant turn the footy over off half back. Good effort, we are just not good enough

Know your limitations, if you cant hit a target kick it as long as you can

No confidence but that has been most games. We have a real honest team in today, workmen like

This guy needs to go, he is starting to speak like a Nazi leader from world war 2. The way the AFL handled the Tanking issue, bad the result was bad but the constant media leaks was bad, an Age journo seemed to have the AFL word through the whole process. The Drug saga, he comes out beats his chest then goes into submission and the latest have cracks at other clubs for potting Essendon and stepping into to assist Essendon retain Kia as a sponsor. He talks like a war load not an administer, vail threats all the time, he can't handle crisis, his response to crisis is aggression, talk first then look at what needs to be done. The AFL thinks the MFC is in crisis, I suggest the AFL is and has been in crisis for a number of years, the only saving grace is the media deal, money is a short term fix for the holes in your business, you need to look no further than our club to highlight this. If that money isn't there in 3 years the AFL is in huge trouble.

If you are honest you would understand we don't have the personal to beat the blues, this week no high profiled recruits Clark, Dawes, Watts and on the grape vine Sylvia and Jamar may be missing, add to this Carltons midfield is miles better than anything we can put on the park and the speed they have through their small forwards is amazing, so how do we beat them, here are my ideas Forward set up: Play Max Gawn deep forward, instruct him to always be Goal side of his opponent and not to go past the centre square, try to draw his opponent as deep as he can forward. Howe plays in front of him approx 15m far enough away that Max's opponent cant get to any marking contest he is in. Once again Howe play goal side of his opponent and always stay inside our forward half, once again try to draw his man deep inside our 50m arc. Blease and Byrnes play the forward pocket role but push on to the wing but not past the centre line. All other forwards are playing as midfielders so we have a four man forward half and two extra midfielders running around. Run the footy with our spare midfielders if Carlton drop players back, don't have spare men in defence have them around the footy. My plan, crowd the footy and bang it long forward don't think just kick it as far forward as you can, try to clear Blease and Byrnes so they can use their speed to run onto the footy or if we can get it long enough to Howe with Blease and Byrnes working hard to the drop. We do to them what they will try to do to us put the ball into space and use our speed forward of the ball. Try to get the footy into the hands of our long kickers, Dunn, Tapscott and if Sylvia plays him, work hard to get the footy of half back in these guys hands. Back six man on man don't let the small forwards get goal side of you, play unsocial football rest your elbow in their kidney region with a sharp jab when you can, niggle the crap out of them, they will try to bully us and we have a chance to really get them upset. Be anti-social take the arms out if you have no chance effective the spoil, do it smart not to give away a 50 but do it hard enough to make it hurt. Midfielders at stoppages start in a semi circle on our defensive side and move have 2 nominated players to stay back just in case but all other players start 5m off the ruck contest defensive side and be on the move time your run to hit the contest at speed but run straight don't all run to the football, pick a player you need to cover in case they win the football but attack it be on the move we are to flat footed at stopages, this is not ideal but it gets us moving and hitting contests at speed rather than get the footy standing still tackle secondary ball up and on it goes until we lose the clearance. So to be basic crowd the footy and the defensive half, have targets to kick to with a lot of space to work back into, don't think bang it long and if we turn it over at least it gives a chance to defend. Stay defensive side of your opponent don't let them run past you no forward of the ball running expect for the 4 forwards or when we have the absolute control of the footy. We can win keep in simple, be unsocial and kick it long don't risk turning the footy over in our defensive half get it over half way so at the very least they need a couple of possessions to get it into a scoring position.

In light of a few players being unavailable, and further consideration my team Strauss Frawley Nicholson Dunn McDonald Terlich Byrnes Jones Evans Sylvia Garland Bail Howe Gawn Tapscott Jamar Grimes Viney McKenzie Blease M Jones Magner In Strauss, Nicholson, Viney, Magner Out Rodan, Pederson, Watts, Davey Go a little shorter this week down back, we have four players that can offer run and possible match ups for the small quick forward structure. Try Garland up forward stop, Howe deep forward rotating with Sylvia, the resting ruck in the square.

I find it funny the head afl man wants us to take up the port adelaide module, it is very simple win 5 games straight and get your fans onboard, no one can disagree with that. Im interested to see how peter jackson fixes our midfield, maybe convincing the afl to gift us the best midfielder in the comp by turning a blind eye to a massive third party deal.

The only reason i dropped bail is for balance we need to add more to our midfield and unless bail can start spending more time on a wing he has to make way, we have to many small forwards playing and i went for blease over bail for now.

Clark will go onto long term injury, that should take him to the bye round, get him right not like we need to rush him back. Upgrade Magner, then if this,goes well dont we get to have a nominated rookie mid year, if magner grabs his chance gets this spot if not if Couch keeps his form he gets this spot. We need midfielders Magner has been our best midfielder at casey, he needs to come in, we are playing 5 small forwards Bail, Davey, Byrnes Tapscott and Blease , min of 2 need to make way for midfielders Viney and Magner.

In Magner, Dawes, Strauss, Viney Out Davey, Bail, Pederson, Rodan Strauss Frawley Garland Grimes McDonald Terlich Byrnes Jones M Jones Watts Howe Sylvia Gawn Dawes Tapscott Jamar Trengove McKenzie Viney, Blease, Magner, Evans If we are rebuilding a rebuild we need to start to play players that are part of the future not the past Rodan, Pederson and Davey thanks but we need to look forward to 2014 and play players that need to be a part of the plan or players that are young that have to show something. Give them 4-5 weeks in the team, tell them this and if they can't show something bring in the next batch Kent, Fitzpatrick, Toumpas, Davis, MacDonald, Dunn, Couch, Taggart, Tynon, Bail and again give the 4-5 weeks and hopefully we can find a team that really gives us some sort of hope from 2014.

You can say the same about Jack Watts, he either doesn't care or the weight of expectation has smashed him around. I don't disagree we all make life choices, we all stuff up some of us big time others not so big, but the thing about life, if you man or women up accept you need help to address your issues and come out the other side a better person you need to respect that journey and the individual because it is hard to beat addiction. This is why the Ox is ideal for Jack, he is at the crossroads of his footy career with the MFC, we either find someway or someone to guide Jack through this or he will jion the list of highly talented youngsters that have left our club and even more so never realise their full potential.

Grab his phone number give it to Jack Watts, be a mentor to a young bloke that is lost and needs some one. This is for two reasons, first of we cant find the key to Jack we will lose him at years end and you reckon moloney on sunday hurts, wait till Jack goes to another club and kicks five against us, he is a big talent that is lost. the ox is the man he has faced huge hurdles in life from a young kid to his footy injuries, to his gambling, it takes good character to face such adversity and to get out the other side a better person. Jack Watts can benefit from someone like the ox on his corner.

Mark neeld thought our list was Good when he took the job, he got a massive shock, he for a group of lazy unskilled, a group that lacked any experienced leaders, a group that was a mile behind nearly every other afl club in terms of professionalism and preparation. look at the difference in neeld, round one last year gee have the most honest press conference we have ever seen from a coach, he was fuming, frustrated by a team that he thought could be good. By round 4, he was resigned to the fact that our playing list was bad and i believe went from a coach about winning now to a coach facing a massive rebuild, we will turn over another 10+ players at the end of the year that will be over 50% of our list.

I tend to agree, we need to get it out of our mind that he is a key position player, he is tall, I like the idea of Howe/Watts playing the high half forwards giving us a forward line of Byrnes Dawes Gawn Howe Clark Watts Looks tall the other option is Howe/Watts/Sylvia rotate HFF/Midfield so we look more like Brynes Dawes Gawn Howe/Watts Clark Sylvia

The zone only works when all 18 players execute it. I'm more concerned about our plain stupidity and turn overs. No zone will work if you turn the footy over like we do. Mark Neeld said it in his press conference the game is going back to more one on one footy, this is bad news for us as we don't have a midfield that can compete with any other midfield in the competition one on one and when a team gets free run through the midfield our back 6 have no chance.

The midfield was extremely bad today, something like 12 Brisbane players had more touches than our best midfielder, in fact no one of our midfielders had 20 touches.

It wouldnt matter who coached us, we dont have a midfield, this is a huge issue, we have forwards our backs are ok but we just cant win enough football.

I actually thought he was ok today

We just dont have the midfield, our midfield is the worst in the afl by a mile

Lazy, dumb footballers

We are done, 80 points

There is a massive difference between west coast and us, for one last year west coast would of had a dozen,or so premiership players and a little less all australian players. There drafting and trading hasnt missed, to get darling for late twenties pick, gaff, shuey and even masten add in nicnat, kennedy these are pretty good players. We just got it so wrong, but i do agree to me we are starting to get things right. All we need is a big dose of confidence and we are on the right track.

My understanding is the 12 10 rule doesnt exist anymore and we can play a full mfc team if we chose to