Nasher

You’ve got to love it when both sets of supporters think they got the rough end of the pineapple with the umpiring. It’s why I don’t bother - I know I’m too one-eyed to judge objectively. Everyone who is invested in a team is. Our game is hard to umpire, made harder by ever-changing rules and interpretations, and weird and wonderful calls will get made sometimes. I reckon the culture of moaning about all the time is one of the uglier aspects of our game.

FTFY

6. Gawn - used everything in his bag of tricks other than a grab 30 out. Ruck work and marking all over the ground immense. 5. Viney - bull, with much improved ball use this week. 4. Petracca - poor ball use lowers his ranking but his contested efforts were big again and as far as I was concerned, all was forgiven with the mark and goal in the last quarter. The Petracca of old, after a day of poor ball use wouldn’t have had the mental fortitude to calm down and nail that goal, which sucked the energy out of our opposition and in to ourselves. Coming of age. 3. Oliver - lessons learned from last week. Just awesome. 2. Salem - ball use really important, especially in the first half. 1. Langdon - I just love the way this guy runs, haven’t seen anything like it in MFC colours in ages. He is untackleable. Also enjoyed the games of Hibberd, Hannan, Vanders, Weid and OMac.

I’d feel like we would be both taking on a risk and personally doing him a disservice by picking him up and prolonging his career. Sure that might be unfair - it could be seen as taking away a choice that is his to make, but I just don’t see why anyone would just keep on rolling the dice on a living person’s brain. All the potential footy related benefits just feel meh to me in comparison to that. Just find another player who isn’t another hit away from having his life erased.

I’m nowhere near ready to say Jetta is done yet. Even senior players can have slow starts to a season and even entire poor seasons. Look at Hibberd for example, who had an awful year last year and has been on the outer parts of this season. Suddenly since returning to the side he has gotten going and looking similar to how he did when he first arrived. He’s been excellent three games in a row. Jetta does definitely need to raise the bar this year though or the opportunity to show he can still play will dry up.

Moment in the first quarter where I seriously considered turning the sound off: TMac is on haunches on the turf with his eyeball on the ground in front of him. Jonathan Brown, while watching the slo-mo: bit of a delayed reaction there. One day they’ll raise the standards in the commentary box beyond intellectually deficient oafs who were good at footy when they were young, but it clearly hasn’t happened yet.

Out: TMac In: Brown Rivers, Lockhart and Jetta are competing for two spots and neither of the incumbents staked an overwhelming claim, but it was a decent win so benefit of the doubt is given at this point.

I enjoyed that. Not going to put an asterisk on it like others, I just enjoyed it. Tough contested game that despite the scoreline, I never felt like we were going to lose.

Why would any club just randomly offer up a good KPF when they are so hard to come by? It’s easy to put up random what ifs but they’re rarely realistic. People seem to forget to take their Demons scarf off and that the trade needs to be suitable for both parties.

Viney is a player with his flaws, but you are completely deluded if you think we’re better off without him or with a second round lottery ticket/draft pick and starting from scratch with an 18 year old. Of course we re-sign him. It’s only the remotest possibility that he gets an offer elsewhere that is hugely in excess of ours AND he indicates he wants to go. I expect there will be enough good will on both parties’ behalf that an agreement will be reached quickly. If that remote possibility did come to pass then we deal with it then, but all the planning now should be around re-signing him.

It’s a damning stat, but it’s also indicative that there’s a lot we’re doing right, and that not a lot would need to be tweaked for a sudden step change to occur. It feels like this season has gone forever, because we bookended a very long break with disappointing performances, but we have only played 4 games. We’re less than a quarter of the way through. There is still HEAPS of time to get the system right. It’s in my nature to be optimistic but I see this as evidence that there’s a lot of promise we can build on, not evidence that the cause is lost as some will, and I think my conclusion holds up to logical reason (as opposed to being optimistic against all reason).

Nope - home hub city (eg Sydney for MFC - not that it will be us).

Presumably that’s why we’re at Giants Stadium and not the higher capacity SCG - lower break-even attendance point. There is likely going to be finals played at neutral venues with low crowds no matter what, so there’s not a real lot of benefit in moving away from the standard home team model I wouldn’t have thought, eg flying two teams that have been in QLD to Adelaide for a final would be pointless.

Home ground of top side. Edit: didn’t realise capacity of Giants Stadium was only 24,000. Home state of top side then - so either Optus, Adelaide Oval, SCG or Gabba.

What role would he play though? He isn’t a legitimately dangerous forward prospect and it would be a waste of a spot to select him to ruck for 5 minutes a quarter when he was ineffective as a forward. It’s why Preuss hasn’t been able to break past the fringe.

The Wright-Preuss combo would be a salivating prospect for Casey next year.

Demonland logic: Tomlinson has played a couple of bad games, therefore there is no hope for redemption and the entire 4 years of contract is a waste. ?

Goody will be thrilled and relieved to have our endorsement, no doubt.

Got the ins right for once! 2/4 correct outs. I didn't have the guts to drop Tomlinson but in hindsight he was terrible last week, and I'd prefer Rivers over Lockhart, but happy enough with that.

He said that because it's so frowned upon in our game to just say "I'd like to play anywhere other than the joke of a club I play for", or "I'd have stayed but those other guys offered me waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more money". Players have no choice but to offer up BS excuses or they get lynched. Bit like when Mitch Clark was desperate to get to Perth, until suddenly he wasn't.

Out: Smith, Lockhart, Hunt, Pickett In: O.McDonald, Jetta, Weideman, Bennell

I think DeeSpencer has summed it up, although tough on Oscar - I think he is overestimating how long he has been around. He is in his 6th season and while that meets the dictionary definition of “years”, it certainly doesn’t meet the implication of an experienced KPD as intended. The timing to start switching them around now would be wrong with TMac showing signs of improvement and May showing his value as a defender yesterday. While the biggest problem in the side seems to be translating winning the ball in to scores, I’m still not 100% sure it’s the forward line personnel that are at fault. I think individually, they’re all capable forwards. It’s just that for some reason we can’t get it in there in a manner that gives them a chance. We frequently kick to outnumbered players at half forward, or get jammed up in handball chains through the middle, which (if we survive it) nearly always end up in a rushed kick. It’s a systematic, whole of team issue that I think both the forwards and those delivering it need to address. I’m not sure changing the names on the magnet board wouldn’t just result in having different players make the same mistakes.

I don’t think anything has “happened” to Clayton. He is a player with strengths and weaknesses. He’s trying to weed out the over-reliance on handball to add more field kicking to his game. He’s not as good at it as he is at navigating through a pack, but he’s also not as bad at it as it looked yesterday with a couple of very high profile turnovers. The strengths that made him such a good player early are still there. His work in close is as good as anyones; in a contested situation he is extremely trustworthy to win the ball and get it out. He’s only 22 and far from the finished picture. We are impatient because we always are, but I’m sure it will come.

6. Petracca 5. Hibberd 4. May 3. Hannan 2. Gawn 1. Fritsch

We can play when we choose to. It is frustrating as all heck. May and Hibberd huge in the second half. Hibberd might be a bit of a butcher but his efforts are crucial. Petracca is a star. If Oliver wants to be one he needs to fix those kicks under no pressure and do it yesterday.