drdrake

The problem with JB is he needs to settle in a role, to me he is a good defender. I think his defensive side late last year was good, didn't get enough footy but didn't get beaten by his man. If he can find the balance between attack and defense he will be a good Back Pocket HBF. Like Morton play JB in the position he was drafted to play and see if he can play. Any chance Casey can thump a team great to win close ones but would be nice to win a few 10 goals plus

Not only has Hawkins taken 5-6 years to show consistant form, we have to remember that Geelong has had one of the best midfields over the past 8 years, ours has been to amongst the worst and still is. On Saturday night we were hard and showed something but we still only went inside 50m 44 times compared to St Kilda's 66. SInce Jack has played up forward for the demons we have rarely won the inside 50m count, our foot skills are the worst in the AFL. Jack can't use his strenghts which is is leading because we can't kick to his advantage, the number of times, even on Saturday, that Jack should have been kicked the footy, but we chose an option in the pocket because we don't back our skills to hit him is high. In the last half we allowed St Kilda to play lose men in defense, Ok Fisher had a bit of it in the first quarter, Jack was lost on him, but came back in the second half of that quarter and the second quarter and did his role. Some here need to relax take a deep breath Jack will be OK, he will get better as our team gets better. We are all jumping on the Clark band wagon and he has been OK but he has only taken 4 contested marks and 7 inside 50m in the 4 games he has played, these stats are what we picked him up for, looking at stats alone this is a poor result, but take into account that our ball movement, midfield form and inside 50m stats it's not a bad return.

I still think we leave Cale on a Wing four the next 4 weeks let him be what he is and hopefully he can show the reason why he was considered a top flight midfielder. We have tried to change this guy to much and I reckon he doubted himself, back him in to be the outside wingman which I personally believe he can play this role extremely well

No, this has been tried and it hasn't worked. Sylvia is our best midfield option, resting up forward, he should be used mainly as a midfielder he is the only one with the ability to break away from stoppages. He can be rotated through the forward line for a rest and this will give Howe or Watts a run in the midfield. I would like to see Jack Watts one out up forward

As soon as our players realise there is only one football on the oval they will be a better team. More importantly once they realise that since there is only one football that means only one person can have it, the better they will be. I know this may sound stupid but at the moment our players are playing stupid footy, I have posted since round 1 we are running around like under 9 footballers. Since there is only 1 football here are the options as a player your have Opposition has the footy-Lay a tackle(we don't need 2-3 players going for a tackle), man up, push to your spot in the zone or push to where you think the next contest will be. We have the Footy, but you don't-Lay a block/Sheppard, create space for the ball carry, run to space to receive, create space for someone else to receive, run to where you think the next contest will be. If you Have the footy- Don't fumble, kick/handpass the ball to advantage, have awareness and vision, don't be afraid to make a mistake. Ball in dispute- Don't fall over, once again only one footy we don't need 5 players fighting for it or diving on it, or you can't effect the contest position yourself to spread or defend, don't get draw to the contest. It is simple get the footy, be an option to get the footy, try to get the footy or defend, but remember ther is only one footy to be won.

Jones isn't the problem, the group of midfield clones is the problem. The desire to do the unselfish acts is the problem our midfield needs to realise there can only be one ball carrier.

Hawthorn have a lot to answer for, they complain about ducking, Sam Mitchell has been doing this for years, dropping the ball again Sam Mitchell has been doing this for years. The more concerning part about the dropping the ball is clubs are doing this to advantage, they see there team mates and drop it near them, most clubs MFC just drop it to the nearest player and usually it is the opposition. Holding the ball is the other, how long does the player get. You can spin them three times, they can drop the footy and you still don't get a kick. The only time you know a kick will be awarded is the run down from behind and they even get that wrong with players actually kicking the footy refer to Magner on Sunday.

The only indicator we need to have is get the F**king ball indicator, because if you have it your opponents can't score. Sorry they can and the way we are kicking at the moment we more than likely we force a behind.

Biffen, we must watch different teams, Martin, Bennell, Petterd and Gysberts a little questionable IMO. The only players I have 100% faith in is Watts, Howe, Sylvia, Jurrah, Davey, Jones has a good kick but makes the wrong decisions, Grimes is a good kick but trys to kick it to low. Sellar has a good kick we just don't know it as he only has had the footy a handful of times. The issue with us is we have to many players that just can't hit targets my list includes Frawley, Garland, MacDonald, Rivers, Bartram(our backline from last night) There is a difference from having bad skills to making bad decisions, the players below have OK skills but make bad decisions Morton, Bail, Moloney, Jones, McKenzie(our midfield from last night) McDonald And these guys just can't get enough of the footy for us to get a fair assessment Dunn, Sellar, Trengove, Davey Thats 14 out of 21 that started last night, either can't consistantly hit targets or make good decisions when they have the footy or can't get it enough.

Sellar had every right to be there on the boundary line 45m out. Don't forget the hole pre-season Sellar has been training with our backs, he wasn't good but in this instance he had good position, IMO Mitch had no chance marking the footy. To me Mitch will be a good pick up but he has to learn that he doesn't have to run and crash every contest, if he continues to do this he will spend more time either injured himself or injuring others. One thing I do agree this goes accross the team they don't know how to create space for each other, I have posted this a few times over the past 4 weeks we play like under 9 footballers everyone just runs to the footy, if we don't win the footy we have all our players flat footed around where the footy was. We have to learn only one player can win the footy others can assist through blokes and sheppards(which we don't do) but we need to maintain players away from the footy for when it comes out. All the good teams have a get out player usually 5m away on the defensive side of the contest, we never have this

Jack is a 21yo playing with the worst midfield, the worst group of senior players in the AFL, I thought in the last quarter he had his chance on 3 occasions to take good strong contested marks he had good purchase but couldn't hold them. I don't think it is his concern of Physical contact I think it is like all our players they have no confidence. It will click for Jack as a forward one day this year and we will have two tall very good mobile targets deep inside our 50m arc. The more games Jack and Mitch can play together and work each other out the better we will be.

This is the problem we have at the moment our players only contribute for quarters or halves, Dunn was woeful in the first half then stopped Murphy good job, Davey was woeful in the first half allow Murphy 18 touches looked better when Murphy wasn't his Concern. Watts was woeful in the second half, you can go through all our players they all go missing at some stage of the game

Just one other point, I think we are getting a little carried away with Mitch Clark. He has been OK but I don't think he has been fantastic and last night his fall was bad and lucky he is OK but he shouldn't have put himself in that situation. IMO he should have protected James Sellar instead of flying for the mark, I've seen a coule of times when Mitch should have put the ball to the top of the square but he hasn't and tried to kick the impossible. We all smash Jack Watts for his contested marking this year Jack has taken 7 contested Marks, Mitch has only taken 4. Don't get me wrong Mitch is a good pick up but I don't think he has been as great as most are posting.

I posted this on the Cale Morton Thread, Moloney had 2 options run harder for a good handball receive on but a big sheppard on to make space for Morton he did neither. I think Morton put pressure on Moloney but I don't think it was a skill error it was an attacking play that should have resulted in a deep inside 50m We are to tall at the moment down back and we have clones in the midfield all are slow, they fumble and go to ground.

I'm hard working and Courageous, does this mean I should get a game. Bartram got spanked and he would want to find something quick as he will have Milne this week. On Watts, it could have been a totally different outcome for him today, his dropped mark a couple of panick kicks and in the last he had three contested marking attempts inside 50m that if he had taken we would have been prasingh him all three difficult but he got a good peice of the footy. Changes In Grimes, Sylvia, Martin Out McDonald, Sellar, MacDonald

God Help Jack Watts if we delist or trade Cale Morton at years end. Cale was very good last night he was one player that continued to run and create, he had a couple of turnovers but at least he got the footy 21 times to turn it over. Some people need to assess his performance on how he played and not on what you think of him. The handball in the last to Moloney, I thought was a well placed handball to Moloney's advantage, Moloney just needed to run flat out straight and he was clear, the problem was 4th qtr Moloney couldn't accelerate. We all need to accept Cale for what he is not what we want him to be, he is a wingman not a Back flank he lacks defensive skills but last night he laid 6 tackles. He will never be your elite midfielder, but at the moment neither will anyone on our list, if you can put good players around Morton he can be an effective AFL player. I'm more concerned about the form of Garland and Trengove they both have been woeful this year.

I feel a bit for Cale, he came into the MFC as a top line midfielder with good endurance and good disposal. The first two years he showed this although he was intimidated by the hard contest. Then the game became all about contested footy, Cale didn't have a defensive side and struggled with the contested footy. We try to change him re-program the way he was played footy for 15 years change his position from an outside mid to a mid sized defender, he hasn't been able to change his defensive side and contested footy is still poor, he is not a defender and never will be. As a club we have two choices with Cale, get him back on the wing and let him show us if he still can be that outside talented midfielder that we drafted or delist him.

What we do is have a 60m footrace on the starting line we have Jones, Magner, Moloney, Couch, Gysberts, McKenzie, Morton and Brock, if Brock can beat anyone of these players replace them with Brock. It will be one hell of a race, we might even start Black Cavier at the 1000m mark she might still beat them all home

Lets look at the players we drafted from 2007 early picks 2007 Morton playing HBF Grimes Playing HBF Maric Gone 2008 Watts Playing wing drafted as a tall forward Blease Casey un fit can't play midfield Strauss Defender injured 2009 Scully Gone Trengove going OK Gysberts Always Injured Tapscott always injured 2010 All Talls 2011 No Early picks so from the above we have 1 midfielder that we have drafted over the past 5 years that is fit and walk up starter in our midfield. So the "again" part of this topic is incorrect we haven't addressed this issue.

I think Davey will start as the sub, I don't believe he can get a through a full game, Tapscott to start and likely to sub him out into the third quarter. My line up Bartram Sellar Frawley Morton Rivers Garland Bate Grimes Trengove Howe Watts McDonald Tapscott Clark Dunn Jamar Jones Magner Martin McKenzie Bail Davey

Would love to get positive but I think this could get ugly. I have always been half glass full in regards to the MFC over the past 5 years and they have turned me the other way. I just can't see how our midfield will compete

I will give you one answer 8 first round and priority picks from 2007-2009 still on our list. These 8 players have played in a combined total of 229 games the total number of games they could have played in is 522 games. We have 1 over 50 games Morton who played most of these in his first 2 years. Of these 8 players only 3 played last week and 4 the week before. These 8 have been on our list for 3-5 years, 2 are our co-captians walk up starters and Watts is the only other in our best 18. All we have heard over the past 3 years from Bailey and co was about getting games into our young players you can see that this hasn't happened.

It doesn't matter who is on your list if you can't get simple structure into your set ups you will get beaten.

It hasn't been fixed for 5 years, to me thats a big problem and this doesn't come down to the quality of players this is purely a structure and the willingness of our players to do the 1 percenters

This is a problem but our biggest problem is our players don't work for each other. Watching our game against Brisbane the work off the ball to create space for Black and others was great, our players grabbed the footy and seemed to run into road blocks, then we go back to being dumb we let the ball pop out all our players are around the contest it pops out and off Brisbane went. It was the same against West Coast, we have to realise there is only one football we need to work to assist each other.