buck_nekkid

Interesting game. Could easily see it as a poor performance/lucky win against decimated opposition. I think the ‘bones’ of what we want to do is there, we just had too many rusty players. The solid defence and its capability to push up and defend at the wing to lock the ball in worked well. When may and Lever (and Tommo) control the air in the defence, we look very good. Most of the issues I saw were players attempting skills that eluded them, hopefully mainly because it was the first game of the year. Work rate looked good across the board. Hunt and Harmes probably had ‘bad days’ with some patches of light. Kozzie was good, Dogga OK with some glimpses. I felt that we were pressured a couple of times, but never really threatened. The game style reflected this, and is welcome for the first game of the year. Our biggest issue remains our centre clearance work. The freo midfield are young but fairly high quality - but they smashed us. We keep getting all sucked into the contest and allowing ourselves to be tackled or left behind if the ball gets to the outside. Max has no plan B, and we look static in our set ups and activity at the bounce. A mixed bag of skills, but a win with good work rate, outstanding defence, and a lot of the game played in our half. I imagine those things alone are pass marks for the team in that game.

Lots of ‘learnings’ in that i reckon....

Got something that was booked up last year, so can’t make it today. It is already killing me that I can’t be there. Go Dees, make the pain of having to sneak peeks at the app at inappropriate moments during my other thing worth it!

Watching the games so far, it’s about fast starts followed by quality execution. We have to make use of any territory dominance and not allow turnover slingshots. Late in quarters steady heads and leadership might be what wins the day. Guys like Jones and Jetta might start on the bench during the first 5 minutes of madness each quarter then come on to a more tempo style game. this year two words will prevail; persistence and execution. Not contest and scrap like previous ones. Hope we are ready for it...

So much MFCSS... Oscar was delisted. Has gone to a different environment and has performed ok. Would not be in the Brownlow votes. Sometimes a change in scenery , a change in environment, makes the difference. how he goes at the scum is beyond our control. You would have to say regardless of what he does there, the decision to delist him was the correct one for Melbourne at the time. No regrets, hope he does ok. perhaps we should let it go and re-evaluate at the end of the year?

I have us down for the win. I think if you break the teams into groups of 4, the top 4 (Tiggers, Port, Bris, Doggies) will usually beat teams in the lower groups. Bottom 4 (North, Crows, Hawks, GC) will lose to most in other groups. The middle two groups (WC, Coll, Dees, Saints) (Swans, Bombers, Dockers, Carl) will win and lose against each other depending on how they show up on the day. On this, we should win (group 2 vs group 3), but it didn’t work this way in Cairns....

Viney to play VFL by all accounts, can’t see Hib or Melk rushed back either. They might be ‘fit’ but are they ‘right’? great news re Lockhart - 2 to 3 weeks. crap news re Brown and Weids - look r6 or r7 before we see these guys. Both running though.

A team would usually have a carry over emergency who would play if someone got injured in warmup. Now that player is on notice for the whole game, rather than just until the first bounce.

Video posted showing Gawny announcing Jordon’s debut. Good luck fella. Suggest for @WERRIDEEhe starts on the bench? Jordon to debut in round one

Jones could be the perfect sub - acts as a coach on the bench, and if needed adds his skill and experience. If he struggles with playing out the game in the longer/less rotation era, he could be exactly the player to have as a sub in critical games.

Didnt we do this already in another thread? Or is where we put our new versions as we hide in shame from our first guesses....

I am stupidly excited. I know I’m setting myself up for tears, but I just am. Go Dees.

It shows the media set a narrative and then all buy into it. Good luck to them, what you are getting is uninformed guesswork like any of us can offer, as biased as it may be. Obviously the narrative around MFC is middle to poor. BTW, Sideshow is more likely to be a recruit of the year, taking a crap forward line and turning it into a thing of beauty rather than Daniher who has to take goals from his team mates.

Fair call. Will you relay your concerns to the club? Be interested in their response (or lack of it as I am hearing from many who try to contact them..)

Perhaps they did not expect people to be so frothy about a reserves of reserves hit out played against a team with no AFL players. It was more like a practice session (which they tell us nothing about until after if we are lucky) with some ‘match sim’ against no one of note. im not as aggrieved as some, but a summary would be nice. Let the real stuff commence!

Number of rotations is spread over fewer players. Concussion leads to more opportunities to rest the remaining players! some issues: what if you get 2 concussions? Why is concussion worse than an ACL? What if your player is [censored]- drag him, give him a concussion test and sub in someone for fresh legs in the second half... Pandora’s box this one. And Pandora hasn’t bathed in a while...

All good for mine. New kicks and a MFC red training tee on their way...

Perhaps start with feeling ashamed - when the chips were down, the Demons failed to deliver. It was in their own hands and they stuffed it up. They should be angry with their attitude and application. Hold each other to account for once. Then get over it and play like you want to be there.

Any news on Lockhart?

Good. The bath water tastes like cold fish soup. Nothing to drink here. No plaudits or posturing. I hope this means the boys are clear- it all comes down to what you do on the park.

Kid is just back from his mum’s funeral. Think it showed care and consideration. He did not play in the game at Drivel stadium.

Culture - Maclure’s knowledge of culture obviously comes from the swab they took from the end of his old fella. I dont want Essendon’s ‘win at all costs’ mantra and the culture it created - people will suffer a lifetime of harm because of this. I dont want collingwoods racist, elitist (disposalist) culture. Someone commented they saw Goody giving Kozzie a big hug after the Daw/Smith reveal. That is the behaviours that drive our culture. Get them to care about each other, give them the tools, and then demand they uphold the standards THEY choose. It does start and end with the group (by its definition, culture is a social construct), but I can see things that show me culture is being developed in a positive way. They are over-communicating on the gaps (the value of storytelling to culture development) and attempting to use external agents to enforce internal change. I have no problem with this. It takes but a moment to actually look and see the behaviours that define culture. I see MFC are not in a bad place, but have to now add the ‘edge’ of accountability to the picture to really use the culture as a tool to drive high performance.

The game has changed again. The value of fast, accurate and high footy iq ‘quarterbacks’ off HB (short and Daniels as examples) is becoming apparent to set up overlap chains. Salem and Bowey work there for mine (more so than Hunt) with Kozzie pressing up to be the corridor speedster. This leaves Langdon as the preferred wing option on one side, and still a gap on the other. Rosman is a longer term possibility. Baker has shown flashes, but might need more time. It could also be TMac on rotation. At least we have one wing sorted. Wish R Flower at his peak could be slotted onto the other wing, or maybe S Stretch.

And a thousand bucks, some insight into AFL, and some bragging rights for his mates. was a strange call going so late...was it done as a ‘favour’ or did the kid win a raffle?

So beating the premiers is worth......