Demon16

i'll eat some humble pie after bell's performance today, and i'll enjoy every bite. i said he had a long way to go after a poor performance against west coast, and hopfully he is much closer than i thought he was. todays performance was excellent and i look forward to him playing games like today more consistantly.

the last thing i look at when judging bell's performances is goals conceded. it's a purely subconscious thing, but i don't judge flankers either forward or back, on goals kicked or goals kicked against. ryan o'keefe is a prime example of a flanker that does a heap of damage without necessarily kicking goals. you may well be right that he has been our best defender, with rivers and whelan injured for chunks of the season and carroll and co. not showing much. if bell has been our best defender, that might go some way to explaining our 0-8 start with all due respect. you are also probably right about the ball in the hands of bell rather than ward or carroll.......but again, i think it shows our defense is rubbish ATM.

cheers mate. my point though was not you defending bell, i have no issue with that, it was that you thought i singled him out and i hadn't. of our current backline i trust in whelan and rivers....thats it. i haven't given up all hope in bell turning into the rebounding half back we would all love to see, i just think at the moment he is erratic, decision making can be poor and he's in general just plain unreliable.....not a great quality in a backman. i really hope i'm proven wrong because he was a high draft pick and i would like to think cac saw some consistency and reliability that seems to be missing at the moment. in terms of his endevour....i have no issue, he always has a dip.

love watching this guy play, he's a superstar, but he'll get 2 weeks.

i agree with most of that, and we all know how much of a difference the midfield pressure makes, but thats not my issue. my issue was not some of the marks lynch took on the lead, it was the "contested" marks he took, when carroll had the chance to do something. he was pathetic. when bell failed to stick a tackle on judd running into an open goal when he had a good grasp, when he turned the ball over kicking backwards to the goal square, failing to gt a fist on the ball time after time. it's not the space and the ease with which the opposition lead and mark.........that you can't stop......it's the things our defense can control. we make far too many excuses for our ordinary defense.

If you can take the belly blinkers off for one second you may notice i paid out on nathan carroll and brad miller. the only reason i held back on whelan was because it was his first game back, he looked like he was on another planet. the defense deserves no break......they are there to do a job no matter what the circumstances. if the midfield are letting them down because of a lack of pressure that is one thing, but the defense are failing virtually every time the ball goes forward for the opposition. imo we need to base a premiership side around a super-strong defense and of our current lot down back i would probably keep 2 of them.

It's weird to me that bell's performances this year have usually been seen in far differing opinions. i thought he was terrible today....just terrible. he turned the ball over in the back half giving away goals, failed to stick tackles and lacked accountablity. he does get a hard match-up each week but imo he has a long, long, long way to go. just my opinion on his game today and i'm sure others will think differently. nathan carroll was disgraceful..........he didn't effect one spoil on lynch....not one. most of them had nothing to do with the supply lynch was getting either. no excuses.....he was useless. brad miller is finished. nothing more to say. big word goes out to the new game plan which holds us in good stead for the larger grounds. it was evident today how great it's going. mind you playing an unaccountable style of game yet having all your mids "trying" to do stopping jobs also helps alot, that worked great. a couple of positives........ not the biggest fan of godfrey, but he was sensational today. did a good stopping job and whenever we won a clearance it was usually thanks to him. we should have lost this game by 100points+ and without godfrey it would have been well over that mark. mentions to col sylvia from limited opportunities, and also travis johnstone. overall a terrible performance from players and coach.

my point is don't read too much into stats...... port being 4-1 is irrelevant IMO, just like our record of never having lost against them a the G and winning by an average of 36 points. does that mean we'll win by 36? your right....49 was way off.

when lloyd was missing from your line-up last year did you simply equate his absence to an amount of goals that he might score if he was playing? or that he's captain, brings other players into the game, makes them grow a leg etc etc.

and of course our chief goalkicker has played played in one and 5 minutes of those games and should play this week.

i agree the skill level is poor, and injuries and poor form have hurt us in this area also. example; travis johnstone couldn't hit the side of a barn with a handfull of wheat at the moment, but we all know he is a highly skilled player. is it possible the continued changing of a game plan is affecting us in this area? for example, a player trying to run and carry, then finding himself under pressure and forced to dispose quickly, rather than what has been asked of him in previous years; spot up a target by foot, kick long to position etc. i think it takes a long time to adjust to a new game plan, possibly half a season. thats no good if your making game plan changes at the end of each year.

thats the perfect example. Eade has coached the swans to a grand final and could have been forgiven for thinking he could get the same style to the dogs and get success, yet he's recognised the strengths and weakness' of his side and adopted a style which i think will give them success when the side has the right balance.

During the brisbane lions era of dominance……. Neale’s plan was to get tougher players and to play more like the lions After Sydney won the flag……………… Neale openly admitted he wanted to play more like the swans the following year….to adopt their style of play. After the eagles won the flag last year…………. Neale decides to adopt a run and carry style of play similar to…..let me guess…the eagles. Notice a pattern here? These three different game styles have all had ultimate success and they are good game styles for the respective lists, but isn’t it time we adopted our own style? Tried something that was unique to us? It seems to me that the results of trying to adopt another team’s style a year after they have won a flag are two fold; 1/ we are trying to change the way we play far too often. How can you expect a team to adopt a totally different game plan each year? Keeping in mind footballers are not rocket scientists. 2/ over the past three years we have seen three different game styles win flags so it makes it entirely possible we are using what worked in 2006 and probably won’t work in 2007….and even if does work again the side that won the flag the previous year will be better at it than us. To my way of thinking we need to keep the same game style for a 4-5 year period with minor changes to it as the game evolves. Looking at our success this year with the run and carry approach…….including practice matches which I think there was 3 of, we are 1 from 8 with that win coming over the tigers. Another factor is that in at least 3 games we have been very close to having the same handball to kick ratio. Not good. Injuries? Of course they have been bad….but the close to full list against st.kilda were pathetic, the workrate, regardless of personnel, nothing short of pathetic in all games…players and coaching staff. Tonight i was flicking channels between our game and the blues vs brissy game, and was shuddering at the thought of us playing either team at the dome……..yep….mfc playing a basket case for the past 5 years and wondering how bad the damage would be. I have no idea where we are going anymore, and it really is more than just an injury issue. Are we a genuine chance next year? Basket case about to start rebuilding…………. again? I don’t know anymore………but I think it would help to start with a game style and structure that our players can understand, that suits them, and that leaves them in no doubt what is required of them. They can base it around defensive pressure and aim to be the best tackling club in the comp. pressure applied in the right manner can break down any style of play. I just don’t want keep changing to follow what everyone else does when it’s always a year too late.