Demon Disciple

Now returning to the purpose of this thread, the quality of their midfield is there for all to see. Then have a look at their forward line!!!! This one is going to hurt, but at least i'm a bit more realistic this week. Our best chance was for the weather to be wet, creating a congested slop of a game, where skills would be down (fitting us to a tee). Forecast is for sun and light winds and 28, not good. Though good weather to watch football (better pack the sunscreen).

Darren Glass, whilst a long-time quality defender, is more of a punch from behind or wrestling backman. He is not one who takes a heap of overhead marks in defence. Put Pederson on him, as he's probably the biggest and strongest body we have in the side. Have him go toe to toe all day with Glass deep in the forward line, and chances are, there will be a lot of spoils and balls dropping to the ground. Get at least 2 crumbers to rove the pack, and who knows how many goals could come from this. It's going to take a heap of forward pressure all day to keep the ball in our attacking half for as long as it can, the mids will need to help chase and congest and the backs will need to push up to at least the half back line, but almost flooding the forward 2/3rds of the ground when attacking, then moving/rolling that congestion to the defensive 2/3rds will probably be our best chance. Not that we have much of a chance, but we can all hope like hell that the warm weather sapped the weagles last week, and they stop to a walk sometime in the 3rd, preferably sooner (some time in the first might be just a little too wishful).

If Pederson remains in the team this week, just put him deep in the forward line and tell him to stay there. He's not going to be of any use to us around the ground extra numbers wise anyway. One thing Pederson has going for him is he is a big body. Tell him to throw it around, provide a contest when the ball comes in and have at least one small crumbing the pack.

I'd much rather Frawley stay, but there is upside for the MFC if he either stays or goes. If he stays, we still have our best KPD. If he goes, we'll get compensation (good compensation one would think) and it will open up many possibilities by either trade or through the draft. Even as much as we need to improve our midfield, whether Frawley stays or goes, i believe we need to start looking to bring in a young quality KPD. Frawley and Garland are both around 26 this year. By the time we're able to put in a couple of good years of development in said new KPD, Frawley and Garland will be heading into the twilight of their careers (unless they do a Fletcher).

Maybe if Bernie had kicked 4.1 instead of 1.4, he could have been that superstar we needed on the weekend! Just a thought.

We should have won the game anyways, with everything that did happen regardless. 6.15 is woeful kicking for goal. Vince kicked 1.4, Jones missed a relatively easy shot, so too Trengove, don't get me started on Pederson's miss (though Billings' howler was just as bad). St.Kilda didn't win that game, we lost it through our pathetic accuracy on goal and rule of handballing a million times before we allowed ourselves to kick it.

They have a much better midfield than the Saints, Much better rucks, much better backline and their forward line has way more targets. World of pain......................oh yeah, she's a coming (batten down the hatches)

And our turnovers contributed to at least half their score.

He has shown that his best is good, but his bad is worse. Needs to find more consistency, as he has had a few years on our list, and is overrated, imo. Sure he has a good highlight reel to date, but he has yet to stand up in a game when it matters. A player with his abilities should be influencing the game more than he does.

Go after a hesitant Ling. That way he'd need a few years under Roos before being ready to step up. So Roos has another 5 in charge, then over to Lingy!

turned 33 before the season started, so will be 34 before the start of next year, so too old for mine. Though i'd have him instead of Byrnes.

Had a great game, but i thought Jones was our best by a fair margin last night. He is seriously underrated in the AFL. If he was at a club with recent success, he would be seen as a definite star.

Agreed, played a very good game. Showed fantastic touch, as shown by his disposal efficiency and great awareness too. He was one of the few, if not the only one i felt comfortable with, when the ball was in his hands. A good start, and something to build on. Onwards and upwards Jack.

Whilst i don't really rate Bail, i thought he was far from our worst tonight.

Obviously i'd rather him stay than go, but if Frawley thinks he is god's gift to our back-line, he has another thing coming.

Inside hardness is not what we lacked today, but polished foot disposal. Even though we lost the clearances, our biggest problem was overuse of the handball and not long and direct football. We were so handball happy, we could have done with a kick first, kick second mindset player in the team tonight. A ready Salem would have helped a fair bit tonight with his good kicking skills. Go return into the ground and have a rest Norm,

Spencer, whilst maybe wining the hit outs, was behind in hit outs to advantage, other than the ruck, he is useless anywhere else. For a bloke who has a big body, he hardly uses it. I know McDonald got injured, but prior to that, his decision making and disposal were again abhorrent. I don't give a stuff if he can run, if you can't kick and don't know what top do with it, you shouldn't be playing AFL. Howe was woeful, didn't know what the footy looked like tonight. He is not a midfielder and he is not a KPF. His only role is as a third tall. However, as much as we stuffed around with the ball with the handball, if we decided to kick the bloody thing a bit more and were more direct, we would've looked much better.

Even if he was to leave, why do people think we'd be in with a chance to get his signature? It would be time and effort wasted, imo. He'd want to go to a club on the cusp of success, and whilst i don't doubt Roosy's skill and even his allure, not even he would be able to pull something like this off.

That's a good thing. It means that you have hope. I'd rather have hope and be a nervous wreck, than have zero hope knowing we're going to lose before the ball is bounced.

Remember we were a 2-20 team last year, and in one of those games we had to play one of our best ever quarters to beat a supposed "easy-beat". Every game this year that may be winnable for us, will always be a flip of the coin chance. The damage done during the MN era is unfathomable.

Totally agree with you, the sponsor page hasn't listed China Southern yet either. In the 2014 season guide handbook, it lists all the players' photos with updated guernsey, ht & wt. Wouldn't have thought it all that hard to update the website. I say it time & time again, but melbournefc.com.au is rather poorly run.

I agree with her. Don't worry about the succession plan, sign Roosy up for the next 5!!!

Maybe a too simplistic view, but if his foot has truly healed, why doesn't he return to his original running gait? Hopefully he is able to re-dedicate himself after his lay-off (not that he wasn't dedicated prior) and he gets a good run at being injury-free. Hell, i don't care if he has the rest of the year off, if it meant he was cherry-ripe for the start of next year (and played the rest of his career in good shape). On a different and maybe harsher view. If he does announce his retirement, well we haven't had him on the park for a while, so it's not as if we don't know what to do without him, and no doubt it would free up some significant cash to go after another forward, like Bernie's best mate Taylor Walker (maybe he knew something we didn't when he casually joked about him and Dawesy dominating the forward 50), or we could just throw it into the Jesse Hogan fund to keep him at the Dees.

Troy Broadbridge, Jimmy, Sean Wight and now Bails. Tragic. Thoughts go out to his family.

I'll only star worrying about such a factor once we get within a couple of games outside the 8 by seasons end, on a consistent basis. Before then however, it has little impact on our ladder position, yet a big impact on our bottom line.