buck_nekkid

If this young man has an intellectual disability then he has truly been poorly ‘cared for’ by his carer. Getting on Hawks TV so he can be ‘built up’, then not helped to define appropriate behaviours at the footy, and also not being cared for enough to not get near an opposition supporter if he cannot control his physical responses is all poor. It all is so ‘hilarious’ to build him up and encourage him to carry on. I doubt he would have been called these things bu the Nufti who hit him if he wasn’t ‘engaging’. Then he is poorly managed to allow him into this situation if he has no ability to control his physical response. No one looks good here. The young man is now scared to go the footy. Hard way to learn a lesson that could have been better imparted by his ‘carers’ over time. But then that is not as ‘funny’ as having a disabled bloke going off at the footy, is it? The Nufti who punched him in the head will get done, society will demand it. (Punching someone in the head is an OTT response and does potentially lead to the terrible one-punch outcomes no-one wants to see). But he also did not deserve to have his chilled beverage knocked all over him. But I suspect this young man has been poorly ‘cared for’ in this instance, and leading up to the incident over time.

From the footage shared on the TV, no one has covered themselves in glory. Violence can never be condoned. Whether it is to purposefully knock a guys beer all over him, or to retaliate with punches to the head. This is the sort of stuff that ruins the experience for everyone.

Suggest Fritsch could do with a week back and do a straight swap for Weids.

Wow. Ashamed it is one of ours. Poor form, regardless of what precipitated it.

The club have issued a statement about an incident that occurred after the match. Didn’t happen near us (and we stayed back for a Bevvie or 2). ANy Demonlanders affected / know what happened?

So I have just watched the replay. Umpiring generally good, but that missed 50m to us was a shocker. Really liked trac’s game. The goal kick was an absolute mongrel, but his work around contests - particularly his strength and how he kept his feet - was a real upside today. Harmes played the lights out, Oliver and Brayshaw solid in the midfield. Fritsch had a shocker. OMac had some really poor moments. Lewis and a few horrors, but also did some valuable things. Lockhart did a superb job. I also thought Garlett was getting to he right places and doing the right things, just needs to trust himself to finish properly. Was the the first mark this year to TMac? It felt like it. We still are poor with our movement and leading inside 50, but at least we won contests in there this week. Kielty did enough good things. I didnt notice it live, but he also laid a ripper tackle on Roughy in the middle at a critical stage. Hore as another new player also did well. Max had a good game, too. Stretch did enough. Hunt forward started to look an inspired move. Playing the goalkeeper role and stopping Hawks getting outside us so easily made such a difference from Qtr time. Sitting Harmes on o’smearer was also a great piece of coaching. Some good signs of what we can play like. Still need to clear up some possessions, and a few players need a little more form, but we were good enough to beat a mediocre team. That was what we played. Going to have to still be much better to take big scalps.

The composure he showed to gather the 50/50 ball from the ruck, break the contest, run and kick inside 50 directly led to a goal. Didnt kick his first, but that will come. Lowest AF points on the ground, but worth giving another go. Showed he is not lost at this level.

We should give him the nick name “lentil”. They often improve after a good soak.

Crikey. They pants us. Needing a serious lift across the board to get this done.

It encourages you not to cheat

At least it shows that they are still working to fast track performance, through breath hold/lactic acid type exercises. It may have been a shift up from HIIT type training, to give some variation. I dont imagine that they would be doing this every week. 2 other points: Trac was obviously pushing himself, (good thing). Trac was pulled out safely in an appropriately monitored exercise (also a good thing). It is just that we are travelling so badly that everything is viewed though the ‘clown school football club lens. Its a hard job not to....

I am very pleased that Dec gets a chance, and I will be cheering him on to have a brilliant game. I find it interesting that as Smith came out, they didn’t bump Weids back in. Obviously the decision was made to send the Weid a lesson, to go back and work. I think Dec will be a good inclusion, backing Maxy up in the ruck and taking some nice grabs in the f50.

I think this points to a number of impacts - not only were we essentially 33% down on completed sessions, 22 to 33, we were also down 36% in the number of played who did them (25 to 39). This speaks to a decrease in conditioning prior to the first game, but also speaks to individual players not being confident or up with their skills. Even more importantly, the lack of team cohesion becomes apparent when the players have had little chance to work together on the game plan, on changes to the gameplan, and to convert ‘what we have to do’ into instinctive play through repetition. The lack of cohesion is critically apparent. Poor decision making, looks like there is low trust for players to complete what is expected of them (lead to space, win an contest) and this is dramatically slowing the play, allowing the opposition to become completely set behind the ball. So no excuses. However how can you realistically compete when your team is >5% down across the board (Rusty Nails stats analysis), only 2/3 of players completed 2/3 of the volume and training? Seems like either a disaster, or long term planning in action. My suspicion is they thought they could get away with it, but are being caught out. The pressure will go on to be more competitive, and as we start to bring important players back and conditioning and cohesiveness improves, the back part of the year should be vastly improved. It is still a terrible waste, however!

We simply are not getting any line of sight. Who knows what he actually does, has achieved, or what his plans are. The on-field performance is the result of the football department. How he responds will be interesting. Perhaps he may even make himself seen and heard?

The Scully Frawley Memorial Grubbers game. Always hate playing this team.

Perfect, that was probably the better question - “how did WE average at our best?” 14% off is massive. 5% off is still enough to get towelled up. Don’t want Mrs Rusty to get upset, so this answers the question. It will be interesting to see if we can pull our team average up and see it show up on the scoreboard.

Loving your work Rusty. A quick question: What would the team average be for an elite team - say Geelong this year, West Coast at their peak last year? I agree with your observations about average ratings across the park and nothing forward. This is a significant concern.

The most dangerous animal in Africa...

Should be “welcome back to the bottom”... FFS, this is MFC after all.....

Some of the footy is totally unwatchable. Add to that feeble commentary and it is a right turn off. The rule changes have not had their desired effect. The game looks more contrived, poorly umpired and low on overall entertainment value.

Wasted? I am getting a little over all of the spewing on the kids that got selected. If he was a first rounder and was cruising around like a millionaire, then OK, have a crack. But this kid was a late selection (60+) if I recall, and part of our academy. There was enough positivity about him being selected at this pick at the time, as a project type for us. Everyone overlooked the Stack kid picked up by Richmond. About 100 times he was overlooked (Draft and rookie selections), and people even overlooked him when they had room on their lists still to fill. It is not a perfect science. Gotta say that things will turn. Not everyone will make it, some will exit our system. Others may be selected in the ones and become players and do better. Some on our list will improve and make it. Bedford has played something like 5 games at this level and you are making this call? How many games did Michael Tuck play in the reserves before he got his chance? I get that everybody is pizzed off with being stone motherless last, but it getting a bit annoying that people can’t feel that way and still support the kids that we have (and will have until the end of this year at least), recognise that Casey is important to our success at senior level, and do more than just spit vitriol. I want all of them to play better, to push the seniors hard for spots and make the seniors work harder to stay in front of them. Most of these guys are just kids, and unless they are freaks will take time.

The crystal ball glows strong in this one, young Jedi...

Have you noticed the player pics in the header? Based upon performance (and staying on the park), there are 10 players there, and on a pass mark basis, we would be lucky to get a 3.5 out of 10. Describes the whole season, I reckon.

Honestly, Jack has underwhelmed this year. Back from his foot injuries, he is not explosive out of a contest or clean enough with disposal. Being ‘tough’ only gets you so far. I am disappointed he is injured, but he is a real barometer on where we are at right now. We can’t keep playing guys that are NQR, except there is no one to replace them.

I think Maynard and Sparrow become important. Our current midfield are ‘get ball, butcher ball’ at the moment. I could see a role for different players in the guts, and shifting Brayshaw and even Oliver outside at times to get better value out of them. 30 possessions and 25 turnovers and 5 passes to players under heaps of pressure is not really a good day out for the team. I think Petty and Kielty must be really close, and if they can show form would add significant value to the main squad. I also see OMac as worth watching - can he discover his form? Chandler, Bedford and Jordon (and Bradtke) are really early in their careers, so let them build into the game. Oskar Baker is returning from long term injury, so I suspect needs a few games to get going before he would even be looked at. I would not write off any of these guys. It is unfortunate that they are even in the conversation by necessity at this stage.