Nasher

Dropped another sitter in the clear 30 out. Luckily cleaned up by Petty who tackled his opponent by the arm and got a HTB.

To continue the theme of patting myself on the back: exactly as I said last week. Has ten thumbs. Not AFL tandem-ruck quality until rectified.

Exactly as I said pre-match. Was never going to be a flogging - in fact we had every chance to win. Wagners not awful.

This is a seriously unfair post. Roos is a professional who reached the top of his field, let me tell you that nobody in that boat comes cheaply. Given the amount of value for the MFC in being competitive and for the AFL to have the MFC competitive, it’s totally ridiculous to then slam Roos for having a steep price tag. He was the best in the biz - for our situation at least. Sorry Daz, but that’s not greed or ego, it’s just how the world works. As for him having a smile when the crowd was chanting his name - FMD mate, he’s only human. Who wouldn’t feel pretty happy with themselves in that situation?

Yes, I worked that out last week when I described the game as a gripping contest that we were never really in, and he highlighted the first bit and called me Pollyanna. Another case of being unable to add two sentences together to deduce context. Wish he’d just stop replying to me tbh.

You mustn’t understand what “this team” means. If you combine the second sentence of my post with the third sentence, it changes the context! Isn’t English amazing?

We won’t be flogged. This team almost never is when it looks like we should be on paper. Floggings only come when it looks close on paper. Not sure I’m prepared to go quite as far as calling a win though. Regarding Wagners: I reckon their deficiency gets massively exaggerated on here. They don’t have much point of difference and they don’t have the extra gear needed to give us the lift we’re all looking for, but they’re both capable of being quite competent AFL footballers. This type of player always looks awful when looking through an angry lense and great when high on victory, but I think in reality they’re just middle of the road. Sure, we’d all love for better players to be available, but I reckon the thought that T.Smith or Baker or JKH or whoever would make a difference to the outcome is just delusional. They’re all in the same boat (with Baker having the youth upside).

Yeah I know it was, but you’ve got to admit it was a funny way for the discussion to flow. If you came on here as a neutral to try to measure the views of the fans, you’d leave crosseyed.

There's also the alternate explanation that he believes what he's saying.

Goodwin can't get the players to relate to him, and also they're too friendly. Got it.

As evidenced by pulling the pin himself. I know it was probably jump before pushed, but for whatever reason, most coaches wait for the shove.

I actually thought the biggest mistake in that chain was that the handball existed in the first place. Oliver should have taken the first option, which was to kick the Sherrin in to the second tier in between the tall sticks. Who handballs from 40 when open and charging towards the goals?

Yep, I could be swayed to this direction - it’s a development year after all. The only concern I would have is that he’s not doing it in a “first ruck” situation by playing in the firsts, but that might not matter in the context of the long term goal.

I counted three marks Preuss dropped that he had clean hands on. He’s almost there, but he’s not there yet. Also, Gawn was ineffective when not in the ruck, so in effect by playing both, we’re robbing Peter to invest in virtual currency. I’d drop Preuss for the time being. The clear focus for him is to work on his marking - around the ground and when sneaking forward. It’s what he needs to be able to do if he wants to ruck in tandem with Gawn in the long run.

I think you mean “rah rah rebuild! Herp derp sack Goodwin! It’s not possible to draw positives when you’re at the arse end of the ladder!” RAGE POLLYANNA!!! Seriously though, excellent post.

194 wasn’t it? It was in reference to Dunn. Too tall to be a mid and too short to be a KP apparently.

No out of form player ever looks like they’re enjoying it.

Dropping a player to give them confidence seems upside down doesn’t it? It’s one of the great footy fan Furphys I reckon. Anyway, two reasons I wouldn’t drop him. 1) even half going, he’s still better than the next best Casey player. Would anyone genuinely prefer JKH or C.Wagner in the side? 2) because it’s AFL confidence he needs. So goes back to the VFL and gets 40 touches. So what? He knows full well the AFL NQRs and part timers making up the VFL aren’t a patch on the players he’d be up against in the big time. I think we just need to calm down and sit tight. Keep working with him, coaching him and tuning him, and it’ll come.

The commonly used term “second year blues” is one that covers a whole of season temporary form slump, so it must happen a lot if it has its own name. Obviously it’s not Gus’ second year, although it is the year after his first very good one. I think it’s confidence and that’s it. He needs a game where the cards fall his way and it will reset his mindset. We saw it happen almost overnight with TMac. No doubt Brayshaw will do his knee or get concussed on the day he finds his though, given 2019 luck.

I ignore umpiring mistakes normally as it’s a hard game to umpire and I know I’m going to be one-eyed like every other footy fan in the country, but this made me rage. An umpire of 200+ games experience calling this garbage. Far out. I did like “that’s ruck craft, big boy” though. Hopefully the umpires get some coaching on this rule during the week.

He’s out of form. That last kick just summed up how he’s going really. I’m a long way from worried though. Form slumps happen. He’s a very good player and will bounce back.

Well it was. I enjoy the slogs as much as I enjoy the free flowing, high skills ones. Sorrynotsorry.

Gripping game - a real arm wrestle. Low skills but super tightly contested. Never really felt like we might win, but never felt like they were going to skip away either. Loved Petty as a temporary forward - it’s definitely an option to continue to explore for the rest of the year. Development year, so what better time? Goodwin rolled the dice moving May forward and it nearly worked. He is such a beast. I’m a huge fan. Preuss has ten thumbs. He actually reminds me of pre-breakout Gawn. He WILL be a useful tandem with Gawn, but isn’t yet. Also Gawn was no good when not in the ruck. All in all, just another loss really.

The umpiring isn’t affecting the result but it sure is affecting the watchability of this game, which I reckon is otherwise an enthralling contest if not the most skilled game ever. Even a few of the frees paid to us made me laugh out loud. Enjoying Petty forward experiment-by-necessity. Not quite ready to call him a swingman yet, but he’s contested well and looks like he might do until we get actual forwards back.

Why let pesky facts get in the way of a good rant?