drdrake

We have a president that is in Hospital fighting cancer, a captain, coach and senior player stating in the media that this one is for Jimmy and the coach bringing back some names that we have all seen plenty off. If we don't win the backlash that will be directed at the club will be enormous. Forget draft picks this is a must win game for our club.

Unfortunately for Shane the last thing the MFC needs right now is another slow inside midfielder with a suspect kick, we already have Jones, McDonald, Mclean, Moloney and add in Bruce to fill that role. If Shane was a yard or two quicker with a pin point kick he would be playing, in fact any midfielder we have on our list that is quick with good skills would be playing.

You could say that about three quarters of our team at the moment. The only players on current form that would get games in top 10 teams are, Sylvia, Davey, Green, Bruce, Frawley and Grimes the first three would get games in top four teams

We should send him to France to bulk up.

Unfortunate for Miller he will be only as good as the players delivering the footy to him. He is a good leading CHF and put him in a team with good ball movement he will take his 8-15 marks per game. Play him in a team with very poor ball movement and even worse foot skills and he will struggle, hence he is playing poorly. Johnson, we quickly forget that he has been our only ruckman for most of the year. He will be tired he has shouldered a huge work load over the past 13 weeks and for the first half his ruckwork was good and played well. The last 4 weeks though he has been beaten and struggled. Both these two will continue to play for the MFC in 2010.

Our list is at a difficult period, we have older players playing for their AFL future and younger players trying to establish themself at AFL Level. That leads to tension, we have a lot of players playing for survival. To ease this drop the players that have no future, the club knows what senior players will be around next year the ones that won't play them at Casey. We need to create a team that wants to play with each other, that wants to push each other to improve, we need all players wanted to take this club forward, not players that just want to get another year or two out of the club.

Sudden illness is never good, fingers crossed for Jimmy. To support Jimmy we need to get to the game this week, he will be watching and to see 30K at the MCG and a win surely will help his recovery, something positive always helps.

If we find our posts from last year, one No 2 draft pick was also unimpressive.

If I was coaching the MFC for the next nine games this is what I would do 1) Drop Whelan, Robbo and don't play McDonald, give all three the last game against St Kilda as farewell game. These three will not be there in 2010, no point playing them now. 2) put Aussie in the paddock, he is trying to play again this year, get him right for to start preseason. The same might go for Brock Mclean if he keeps up current form. Structure No more zone, one on one footy we need to find out which players we have that are prepared to work hard, run hard to create and then run hard to defend. The only zone I will accept is point kick ins, even then I want to see more one on one. Forward set up, 2 deep forwards out of the square one small forward starting high about the 50m arc and to stay in our forward half and to work to be front and square at every forward contest. 2 lead up CHFs give marking options out for when we come out of defense, a HFF that will play more like an attacking wing man will cover from Back flank to our goal line. With that in mind we set up as follows Watts, Jurrah Maric or Jetta Miller,Bate Sylvia Midfield we need to win the footy and give to out outside midfielders then create space for them to run and kick to a target. at Ball ups/throw ins have two defensive side one attacking, with out outside midfielders setting up a little wider on the defensive side. Always have a player 5 metres defensive side of the contest for an attacking option or to stop an easy clearance See below Attacking side Jones Green Ruck Johnson Defensive side Morton Mclean Moloney Davey The HFF Sylvia Backline attack of HBF and work together to cover each others man, keep a back six structure regardless even if they play a 4 or 5 man forward line, if they choose to put numbers in our forward half create the wall so the ball doesn't come out easy. HBF Bruce Rivers Grimes FB Cheney Warnock Frawley The others Newton to get a run at FF with Watts and Jurrah we add in Newton of the bench Bennell Can play back forward or on a wing Martin the spare ruckman Then pick between Dunn, Valenti, Petterd, Bartram for a more defensive midfielder. Strauss to play 2 games.

although I agree with most of the above, we can not continue to accept poor negative footy. To me we seem more concerned about lossing by 100 points then trying to win. We have a very negative mind set, we need to start to run hard and take the game on. I hate lossing but I hate loosing more when we don't attack. I accept that we are trying to develop a team, but we need to also develop a game plan that can see us winning games. At the moment our game plan is to try not to get thumped numbers behind the ball. I would love to see over the next 9 weeks us play one on one footy no zoning, back every player to beat there opponent, we as supporter accept that some of our players aren't good enough just yet and will be beaten, but they will learn more from playing one on one than just protecting space. Give them all the license to run off, work together to ensure that if we do run hard that someone will cover your man. We have 6 games against the 6 teams directly above us on the ladder, its time to attack and back our young players, play exciting football, at the least if we lose we tried to win the game.

Who cares the 2007 team and the players that formed that team and the team that competed from 98-2007 weren't good enough to win a flag. Hopefully what we are seeing is the building of a team that in a few years that can win a flag.

We will win

The scary thing is we have a chance against West Coast, Port, North, Richmond and Fremantle. We go from playing basically top 8 teams for the past 13 weeks to have a draw that sees us play the bottom 5 teams(above us). We have only played four teams curently outside the 8 with one being Hawthorn.

I like him better as a forward than a midfielder, but our midfield is rubbish at the moment and any forward would struggle. Dunn wants to play in the midfield because he knows if he plays forward he will gone at seasons end.

Isn't the media funny, Naitanui has 8 touches and three goals and West Coast unearth a superstar, Watts against Essendon has 12 touches and kicks 2 and he isn't ready for AFL.

We don't have to decide on our younger players just yet, but what we do have to do is give them the opportunity over the next 9 weeks to show us what they really have. Play them in the positions they were drafted for give them a chance to play. To do that we need to stop playing the older players that will not be apart of our 2010 squad.

It is time for the club to decide on the futures of a few players. They did it last year with Yze and White we need to do it again. If we are serious about developing our young players, it is time to end the careers of a couple of older ones. I honestly thought we had every chance of winning 5-6 games this year and we still might, but our list still has so many gaps in it we can't afford to win more than 4 and I have been dead against this we we need some class. Robbo times up he needs to make way to give Newton the remainder of the year. Is Newton a better option, we need him in for 9 games as the key FF to find out. Whelan he is tough as nails but we need to get Cheney in, Matty more than likely could go around again next year but that would be it so he needs to be cut loose. McDonald, this bloke is great I kind off hope his injury keeps him out for the next 3-4 weeks, he like Robbo is done. These are the three easy targets and we certainly can't blame these three for how the team is playing, but if Bailey and co are serious about developing players they need to make the call on their future now.

Our midfield are all one paced and don't work well with each other. We are forced to play Davey in there to add speed and skill. The scary thing is look at Casey yesterday more of the same. Dunn, Bell, Bartram, Valenti no much to get excited about there, Strauss great kick but needs to get the ball more. The biggest dissappointing factor is the remaining senior players excluding Bruce and Green. Robbo, Miller, Whelan, Rivers, Mcdonald, Mclean none of these players are leading from the front, to me a few know it is there last year and don't care.

no changes, no one at Casey dominated.

no way, keep playing him if he wants to captian our club he has to show over the next nine weeks why he should. We need someone to step up at the moment no one is except Grimes

Play him, keep playing him we have nothing else. Our midfield is rubbish our ball movement is crap, Robbo is done we need to keep playing him.

6. Grimes 5. Sylvia 4. Martin 3. Davey 2. Frawley 1. Bruce Worst 6. Mclean 5. johnson 4. Moloney 3. Jones 2. Miller 1. Robertson

So the richer clubs will get richer and the poorer clubs will get 1mil from the stadiums but will more than likely lose the 1mil they get from the AFL at the moment. The AFL has to bridge the gap between lets say Collingwood and Melbourne MCG deals for an example. The AFL through there draw has rewarded Collingwood and restricted Melbournes earning capacity. I would love to see a season where Collingwood play home games against North, Bulldogs, Port, West Coast, Fremantle, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Richmond, St Kilda and Geelong, you will see then there average attendance drop below 45K. You replace West Coast, Fremantle, Port with Essendon, Carlton and Hawthorn we would average over 40K to our games. Don't be fooled by the bigger clubs agenda here, they want the AFL to stop funding clubs and in the mean time get extra cash for themself.

Morton needs to be on the wing, play him on a wing

We have no forward line defensive pressure, ball goes in ball comes out, I wouldn't mind seeing Maric, Jetta, Jurrah, Watts, Miller, Bate inexperienced but it adds a bit of speed, Maric and Jetta front and square get to every forward contest. Aussie when fit can also play this role and we would love for Davey to get back doing this but he is required further up the ground for now.