drdrake

AFL Predictions: Brownlow Medal: B Goddard Coleman Medal: M Pavlich Rising Star: J O'Mearer Grand Finalists: Hawthorn V West Coast Premiers: West Coast Wooden Spoon: Western Bulldogs Biggest AFL Story of the Year: Andy D steps down The Biggest Improvers: MFC The Biggest Sliders: Adelaide MFC Predictions: B&F: J Howe Leading Goalkicker: Clark Best First Year Player: J Viney Most Improved: N Jetta Final Ladder Position: 10th Biggest MFC Story of the Year: Col Sylvia free agent to Collingwood

First thing I noticed when watching the reply, we looked a lot more organised with our defensive structures, we seemed to set our zones well and rolled them over well. Only one concern it seemed we allowed the short kick and set our zones a little to deep. On the other side we seemed to get through Port's defense quite easy, the polish in transition from defense to attack was still poor but that will come. Pleasing to see the improvement in structures will be interesting to see what it looks like with our best team on the park.

This is the right move, who cares about a round 2 Pre-season game in Renmark, the only thing to be gained are players on the fringe for round 1 stake a claim and young players gain experience.

My team for this week Strauss Davis Sellar Dunn Gillies MacDonald Taggart M Jones Tynon Kent Pederson Tapscott Davey Fitzpatrick Barry Spencer Magner Couch Clisby, Stark, McKenzie, Nicholson, Evans, Terlich I don't care about this game, protect the players that should be playing round one, give some fringe players a chance to stake their claim. Week 3 and 4 go in full strength.

I will take the CC hit for this one

I've had a chance to watch both games, what it highlighted is we need our best 18 playing and if we don't it will be a long year, our depth is developing and still shallow. I still believe if we have Jones, Sylvia, Grimes, Viney, Toumpas, Rodan, Blease, Trengove and add in Evans running through our midfield we will be able to compete with most teams in the bottom half of the 8, you take 2-3 of these players out we will struggle. One player that is a concern is Col Garland, I've always had him pencilled in for our best 18 but he is a worry with the ball in his hand, he doesn't seem to have footy smarts and seems to make poor decisions, add that to Nicho, McDonald, MacDonald and Frawley, all the sudden that back 6 which looked to be strong is know a major concern with the footy, defensively OK but we need Jetta, Watts, Strauss and Dunn to hold down 3 of our 4 defensive posts to enable has to attack with confidence of half back. Renmark will see a very ordinary team, in no way should any player in our best 18 be risked in Renmark, we need to have our 25 players that are in contention for round 1 playing together in the 3rd and 4th rounds of the NAB cup, I don't care if we lose by 100 points in Renmark as long as our players come back healthy.

The club has a responsibility to give it's supporters/Members value for money. To be as poor as we have for as long as we have isn't value, it ius border line torture. I buy a membership each year and will as long as I can afford to do so, but I can certainly understand why supports that are reluctant to re-new or buy a new membership, 2012 was the first year that I left games early, sometime 3 qtr time sometimes half way through the last, prior to this never always the final siren. Last year was the first year that I was completely frustrated with my Trident Membership, I found the management of the reserved seat area was poor and I let the club know about this on a number of occasions, appreciate this is a MCC function but we by our membership from our club. Due to this poor management of this area, 2012 saw me sit somewhere else to avoid getting into arguements with opposition supporters that should have been there. 2012 was the most unpleasent year I ahve had as a member. I have no problems with the supporting the club arguement, but at some stage the club has to give us something to support and be proud off. Until this happens our membership numbers will fall year on year and the 40K target in 2-3 years could become a 30K target

Give me Col Sylvia getting the footy plus 20 times a game and I will take that. He usually gets most of his footy from Midfield pushing foward and his ball use would be in the top 3 if not the best at our club. Would love to see Col get the footy 20-25 times per match with half a dozen great games of + 30 touches with a couple of goals. The game against Hawthorn a few years back is still one of the best games I have seen any Melbourne player play for many many years, it is the last time I can remember a Melbourne player have so much dominance in a game, we need 3-6 like that every year from Col.

Agree with your comment about Toumpas, he is all class. The work both Toumpas and Viney do to get the footy is amazing to watch, both different styles Viney is just a machine a hunter keeps tracking the footy until he gets it, where as Toumpas just gets to the right spots and demands the footy. They are two players that just will complement each other and it won't be long before both are dominant midfielders. We still have too many players that turn the ball over, we do have more quality in this department than years gone by, but there will be players in MFC jumpers this year that we will be crossing our fingers every time they get the footy.

At this stage Jetta Frawley Garland Watts McDonald Dunn Next 6 Nicholson Sellar Davies Straus Gillies Mcdonald

You are focusing on one part of the business, Cam Schwab is responsible for the whole business. The club has senior people below him that secure the Sponsors. Schwab, the Board and the senior staff are all accountable for the position the club is in at the moment, you are right that 2013 must be a year of significant improvement, not just in the sponsorship department but right across the business and this has to start with our Footy Department, the better our team plays the easier it will be for the Board and Schwab to Manage the business.

Sometimes we need to be realists, the Economy is flat, we are the worst performed team on field for the last 6 years, we have an extremely low membership base, a low supporter base, received the worse Financial fixture over the past 2 years and 2013 is a complete disaster draw for the Admin side of the club, no one outside MFC supporters and the opposition supporters have any interest in watching our games they have been crap. Off field issues have been non stop over the past 6 years. What benefit does any company gain from sponsering us at the moment? In all honesty, Schwab is only one person that unfortunately heads up a failing organisation. I don't disagree with the pressure he should be under, but the board and other senior staff need to be placed under the same pressure. The club can't continue to be the whipping boy of the competition both on and off the field.

I've been to a few sessions since new year and with every session we see the intensity increase. I actually thought Sylvia was one of the better players today. One thing that stood out is the players we have that can hit targets and the players we have that can't. When the ball was moved with our quality players it looked good, but we still have many players that just miss targets. Blease may have looked great with his speed but let himself down with his disposal. Last Friday was 1 quarter today was 2. The speed was a stand out and the ability to maintain that speed through the 2 periods is the biggest improvement from last year. Jack Viney needs to lose his superman cape and learn he can't take on the world. Nathan Jones had the same issues until last year hopefully he can help Jack through this. Watts played on Dawes and actually held his own on the lead, if he gets confidence early in the season, we will all be reminded in how good he is. To me the main spots up for grabs is the small midsized forwards and backs. Two spots forward and two spots down back. Early doors I would have Jetta and Dunn down back and Davey and Blease up forward with Tappy not to far behind. A lot can change in 9 weeks, but we will beat port by 10 goals

Lucky to catch the match simulation, it was full on no holding back. The Howe Garland contests were great to watch. Most has been covered, just like to add, Viney is a hunter, he just wants to win the footy, he think he has no chance or beaten then bang he gets the footy or lays a monster tackle. He will be a gun and with Mr silk Toumpas running with him makes me a little excited

Last year they didn't only Melbourne listed players, they reduced the numbers per side. This year we have a very healthy list, if we stay that way the only players that won't be ready to play is Trengove, Clark and Gawn. Even Hogan trained with the main group today.

The only way is up

Our forward 6 will take some time to gel, we basically have a brand new forward line and at the moment 2 keys aren't training with the main group with Clark not playing much footy until round one. The back half of last year our forward line was Blease, Rivers, Howe, Green, Sellar, Magner, compared to Blease, Clark, Dawes, Pederson, Howe, Tapscott, I think we have our goals covered. Our back six looks OK, our difference has to be our midfield, we need Sylvia, Trengove, Jones, Mckenzie, Grimes to really start to dominate games and control the middle, Toumpas and Viney will certainly improve our midfield from last year but the core players that have been on the list for 3 + years need to be the difference.

The big difference to our midfield this year is they are fit, besides Trengove they have all been able to put in good work prior to Christmas, they are healthy. You went to training last year besides Jones, most hadnt even joined the main group prior to Christmas, Sylvia, Grimes, Mckenzie, Tapscott are having good preseasons, you add in Viney and Toumpas, we will be a much better midfield this year

I don't know the benefits from a sports science perspective, but the bonding that will happen over the next 10 days will make us a better team. To stay together, as a team for this period of time plus face the challenges together should bring our team closer.

One think I like to do is our best 22 followed by the rest team, this highlights the depth or lack there of plus any major holes in our list The Firsts Nicho Frawley Garland Watts McDonald Strauss Trengove Sylvia Viney Howe Pedreson Blease Byrnes Clark Dawes Jamar Jones Grimes McKenzie, Toumpas, Tapscott, Dunn The seconds Jetta Sellar Davies MacDonald Gillies Terlich Evans Magner Bail Rodan Fitzpatrick Hogan Davey Gawn Barry Spencer Couch Jones Kent Taggart Tynan

When adding players to your list, you add players that suit the game style of the coach at that time. I read on this site ouur drafting was bad, which is hard to argue with but the players drafted fitted the type of players Bailey's game plan suited, uncontested high scoring footy, Bailey game out of the Port Adelaide system that had a basic game plan attak and hope you kick more goals that your opposition. Turn to Neeld, complete opposite contested footy, you win the contested footy and you will win more games than you lose. The problem Neeld faced was we have skinny under developed kids that for the time in the MFC system it has all been about uncontested fast ball movement. Out comes the broom we identify massive holes in our list they limited Mark Neeld to play the style of footy he wanted to. So to the MFC credit we get active we add big body footballers. Look back 12 months we had Jack Watts, Lucas Cook and Liam Jurrah as our key forward targets, this is a forward line that needed fast delivery, they were never going to work with the new contested footy brand that Neeld wanted to introduce, so we bring in Clark, Dawes, Pederson and a monster of a kid in Hogan all through trade periods, any media person that thinks we have done the wrong thing by getting these players is a peanut and has no idea about football. The twit on KB's show that keeps refering to us as the Bears I can't weight to get on the phone and rip through him. These players enable Neeld to set up his forward line to the way he wants to play. We add Byrnes and Rodan, who wouldn't want to be a small forward rover at the feet of these blokes, they will either take the mark or bring the ball to ground. We will add Viney tonight plus another Midfielder with pick 4, to me we still look a little light with quality through the middle, but as per a poster we have Sylvia, Trengove, Blease, Howe, Jones, Tapscott and others that we get better and better under Neeld. Our back 6 is good, would like a couple more midsize defenders and wouldn't be supprise if at least on of our picks tonight will be used for this role, but Dunn was good late last year and I think Strauss if he can stay fit will offer a good option. Anyone who has watch the MFC over the past 5 years know the players that are gone needed to go, Rivers is the only player you would have kept but the others didn't fit the game style Neeld and Co want to play. I'm looking forward to 2013 we can win 10-12 matches and who knows a bit of confidence and a get on a few runs through out the year finals isn't out of the question.

Besides the fitness stuff which has been mentioned, the ball rarely hit the ground, this time last year the ball was constantly missing targets.

Can someone show me footage when we were beating Richmond with a minute to go where the runner told our players to turn the footy over and to allow a goal from 50m out after the siren. With all the articles written people are forgetting how bad a team we were in 2009 and that we needed that priority pick to give us some hope. It has turned out to be a curse with 4 of our first road picks since 2007 are now gone. These aledged players that have come forward need to accept they are the ones that underperformed over a long period of time that forced the club to bottom out and rebuild through the drafts.

Maybe a trade, you can trade rookies

This is great for our club, put Watts on a half forward flank, with Howe on the other all of the sudden we have targets to kick to. We now need to focus on a midfielder with pick 3 in the psd I would be happy for a koby Stevens or Matt Campbell.