Adam The God

I've been thinking about this a bit lately. It's Petracca or Lever for mine. The more dominant and team orientated Petracca has become, the more he's come into captain calculations for me. Lewis also floated it on 360 last night.

I'd forgotten how long we've had New Balance as a kit provider for.

I never liked the look of Demonology. When I first became interested in posting about the MFC, Demonology had that weird takeover happening (who the [censored] bothers to do a takeover of a message board?) and I also felt at the time, the content of posters here was far superior. I hadn't realised the likes of @Pollyannaand @Axis of Bobwere posters over there, because they are some of my favourites now. I do remember really liking RobbieF's posts too. I've now been here 12 years. Time flies. It's really helped me download after all our terrible losses in that time, from 186 to the Neeld years. Thanks to @Whispering_Jack, @Demonland, @Nasher and @Grapeviney for providing a space where it can happen.

Spot on mate. Completely agree with every word here.

2.1 is a quiet week? Looking forward to when he has a good week then, let alone a dominant week.

It's all about whether Essendon match our offer. I can't imagine they wouldn't, but it depends how much he wants to come.

The big thing for me is keeping our list as fit/injury-free as possible. Do that and we'll give 2021 a real shake. Luck is so tied to success in the AFL. So yeah, keeping a lid on it...

I'm liking your new conciseness mate.

THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!! Sorry, I'm @picket fence level excited.

I'd agree with 2 and 3 mate, but IMO it was reckless and not clear to me that he was protecting his hand. That said, given those recent cases of players getting off, I'd say we'll win this challenge.

Not sure I agree with you, Bin RE ANB not going out all year. If he plays another game or two like the North game soon, he'll be out. If you look back at his career to date, Goodwin definitely backs him in, but you can have all the pressure acts in the world, but he didn't lay a tackle. His KPIs would definitely include tackle count. He stays in this week IMO because he has credits in the bank this season. We need ANB of Rounds 1-6 though, because he's been a real asset and kicked some clutch goals.

Great ep so far. Still listening. I'm going to disagree with @binman RE KPFs and pressure. I'd be happy with 2 or 3 tackles from Brown and Weideman, providing they're kicking 2-3 goals a game and bringing the ball to ground. Weideman was ordinary in the Casey game at applying defensive pressure, but when on song in the big time, his tackling is just as tough as Lynch or Riewoldt for Richmond. Brown just needs to match that. McDonald is a bit different given he hasn't been kicking big bags. His value is pressure and providing a focal target up the ground when we need it from defence.

Currently listening to the podcast and it sounds like you're covering my question here. Edit. Sounds like we're on the same page @binman vis a vis McDonald and Petty.

I know this may seem a strange thing to write given we are such a system based team, but I wonder if Tomlinson's injury will force us to change our system slightly. And will we utilise Max differently or is it simply a case of plug and play? A slight reshuffle could see May take the lockdown defender role (leaving him less creativity and freedom) and see Petty take May's role as an interceptor and stopper, while Lever still takes the third best/tallest forward. The most important thing is obviously just having two guys that can lock down their opponent and allow Lever to intercept and direct traffic. Petty started shakily a few weeks ago, but given a bit of time and continuity (a block of 3 or 4 games), I believe he'll be a solid contributor back there. He's got great hands and he's a very good reader of the play. The make up of the back 6 might also be a week by week proposition, which I feel like I've heard Goodwin mention once or twice before in terms of picking the best team each week, may mean a different mix depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition. What do Demonlanders think we'll do here? My feeling is we'll see some experimentation over the next block of 3 or 4 games. If we can strike the right balance coming into the back end of the season, that's the aim. I see McDonald as a distant backup option, which I really hope we don't have to go to.

Hickey has an excellent record against Max. Used to really kill him when Hickey was at St Kilda. Yep, I like this. Good idea. Our MC aren't afraid to try some interesting moves either, so it'll be intriguing to see what tweaks we make now that a few important cogs (Viney, Tomlinson and Fritsch) are out.

I don't mind your side above, so maybe you're right. Rampe is that organiser though. He might not have a great match up, but he'll straighten up their defence no end. I hope he doesn't get up for it. They're a very different side with him in it.

It was pretty clear to me that it was a major midfield problem (work rate and intensity) and our smalls like ANB and Spargo weren't bringing enough frontal pressure either. Brown's ground level pressure was reasonable.

Leslie ;) and it was Robert Hays who said that. Leslie's line was 'I am serious... and don't call me Shirley'. See, I think you're right that they probably wouldn't have tried Brown, Weid, Tmac and Jackson all forward in one go, but now that Fritsch is out, I think they will and it's an excellent time to try it and see if we can stretch the Sydney defence. We need more frontal pressure across half forward, ANB and Spargo need to lift. I'd bring Petty in for Tomlinson, Weideman for Fritsch, Sparrow for Baker and Harmes for Jones. I'd look at Harmes tagging Kennedy and playing a really defensive run with role all night on him. I'd expect Gawn to push back into defence more like he did prior to the North game, particularly with Buddy likely to return. For the record, I think we're very likely to lose our next two games. If not, we have to ramp up the intensity next week. It needs to be at the level it was against Richmond. Pickett, ANB, Spargo, Sparrow, Jordon are our pressure forwards and Pickett, Sparrow and Jordon should add to the midfield rotation too. Then there's Harmes, who at his best could kick goals on Kennedy and force him to defend outside of stoppage, to go with Oliver and Petracca. Melksham will keep his spot and play both high half forward as a connector and rotate deep forward. If Buddy plays, I'd use May on him. If he doesn't, it gives us an option for Papley if Hibberd doesn't work. I'd set our forwardline up like this: Pickett Brown Jackson Spargo Weideman McDonald With Melksham, ANB, Sparrow and Jordon as those guys off the edge of the square. Jackson and Kozzy at ground level next to Brown could be very dangerous deep for us. If we bring our work rate like the first few rounds we'll be a handful.

Was always going to get rubbed out for that. Stupid IMO. I reckon this will force the MCs hand and we'll play Weideman now.

Such incredible intellect. I really feel like I'm reading greatness.

I reckon I've had enough maths on this thread to last me a lifetime mate. And despite having cost reports and bookeeping due tomorrow, I'm still none the wiser after approximately 8 of 13 pages dedicated to SWYL and his band of mathematicians.

Haha, indeed. *Sparrow. Derps.

David King said the same thing on First Crack. I reckon the players have to be mentally tough enough to maintain focus despite this, but each to their own.

He always avoids contact. For me, it was that he turned over scoring opportunities with ball in hand. Usually that's why he keeps his place in the team, but he didn't even do that right today. He's an interesting case, Melksham. He's the sort that can win you a game of football with a clutch moment or two out of nowhere. I think this is why we persist with him and will continue to do so. Glad they finally won for you mate. Yep, that snap when he had a team mate on for the handball was textbook selfishness. If you burn a team mate like that, you'd better kick the goal. He kicked it on the full. Shocking stuff.

I'm not convinced Bedford is good enough. Sparrow should be in before Bedford.