Nasher

They’re predictable by design: so the players know how to set up. Sit down and watch a neutral game and focus on kickouts, and I think you’ll see all the teams only have one or two variations on their kickins. We do actually seem to have a couple of plays in the book: May long to Gawn on a flank, May long to Gawn in the middle, and a Salem driven short kick navigation out. Kicking it to Gawn seems like a pretty high percentage play I think. Last time we had a player who wasn’t predictable with kickins, we had Gawn saying in the media afterwards, “he forgot to tell us he was going long”, it lost us the game and the next time said player took to the field again, it was in a Collingwood jumper.

Out: Jetta In: Rivers

It’s not just that he tackles though, it’s that his tackles prize the ball loose so much more than other players (as distinct from a tackle that causes a ball-up). I can’t name another player in our side I could say that about. The next best flankers such as ANB certainly can’t say that, and aren’t going to be so much better with the ball to justify the loss of that attribute.

Lots of theories around why Goodwin and Burgess didn’t mention the injury when given the opportunity, but isn’t the simplest and most likely explanation just that they didn’t know about it at the time of the reports? it seems like the type of injury that a player could probably attempt to conceal and not alert the club staff until a few days later when it didn’t seem to be getting better?

Beat me to the punch, I just came to post this. Great question from Gibson, who obviously reads Demonland (hi Ben) and great explanation from Goodwin about the need for calm and clarity in the box. It’s these types of answers from the coach that convinces me Goodwin is a high quality leader. Stuffs me why supporters would prefer a coach who loses his cool and cracks in high pressure situations.

Confirmed out for two weeks after cheekbone surgery. Bastards in the MFC social media team headlined it as “surgery for vandenBerg” and my mind immediately went to the foot.

He leads by example, AND he’s relatable to players and supporters. I listen every time he is interviewed, we always knew he was good for a laugh, but he’s also extremely insightful, which is extremely rare. As a grown adult I don’t throw around terms like “favourite player” much, let alone “favourite ever player”, but if I had to nominate one, Max is a contender.

The higher you are on the ladder, the more you tend to beat teams below you.

It’s only Victorians who are pissy about not being able to the footy who think there’s an asterisk. I’m invested and want this flag as much as any other.

Pleasantly surprised, I was fully expecting this to be a post bagging him. A poster on another forum mentioned that vandenBerg’s tackles hurt more than any other player because they frequently cause turnovers. I don’t reckon we’ve had a player like him at the MFC since I’ve been watching. A medium-tall with an extremely solid build whose greatest asset is defensive work. His tackles hurt in both the physical and footy sense. I’d be afraid if I was nearby. Hopefully he is able to get a decent run at it - he was important in the finals in 2018 and has been so far this year.

I hope you’re right, but as you are also the OP of the Goodwin thread, I think you are riding the roller coaster a bit. I can’t remember the origin of this quote but someone said things in footy are never as bad, or as good, as they seem.

I’m shirking selection this week. Who comes out for TMac is too hard a decision. It would be a very brave decision not to select him. I think he is going to be in. Make no mistake though, the TMac question is the only one being asked. Melksham and Brayshaw aren’t going to be dropped for Jones or any of the kids, those suggestions are just laughable. The only player whose place in the side is tenuous is Lockhart, and they won’t make a pointless change like that after such a big win.

Fair enough. Over the years I have formed a pretty healthy disregard for what “sources” say on matters like this which are completely subjective. Even if Troy Chaplin himself was my best mate and told me that the newfound success was because Goodwin started listening, I’d still treat it with skepticism because I know if I asked Goodwin he’d say he’s always listened to his assistants. Perspective and facts aren’t the same thing, so I think we shouldn’t treat them as such when we’re so far away from the situation.

This is just inventing what happens in the box, just to suit narrative/agenda. Goody’s started listening to his assistants and now we’re good. Or Goody’s stopped listening to his muppet assistants and become an authoritarian, and that’s what has made us good. Or, the most likely thing, the relationship with the assistants is the same as it always was, and they’ve arrived at the right chemistry by chipping away at the problem together. We don’t know though, so we shouldn’t guess. In my view if we’re prepared to unreservedly put the blow torch on Goodwin when we’re struggling then we have to be prepared to give him all the credit when we’re flying. Anything otherwise is complete double standards. For the record, I do neither.

Jeez, they’re a bit slow off the mark on posting All the Goals (with thanks to Haymes Paint). Surely that’s what the media team start working on the minute they start work on Monday morning - if not, they have their priorities all wrong!