Adam The God

I thought our midfield really lacked cohesion. As an elite player, Max has next to no influence in clearances anymore, except for the occasional flash (see the Langdon goal). Oliver constantly flies under the radar though. Thought his kicking was strong, two beautiful piercing 50m passes that I recall resulted in scores. 35 possessions, most contested possessions on the ground, at 80% efficiency. He completely runs our midfield. Without him we're stuffed. Lever, May and Tomlinson, against pretty ordinary opposition, were excellent in tandem. I think it was the best 3 KPD effort I've seen at Melbourne. Big call, but all three were excellent at intercepting and May's kicking is becoming such a weapon out of defence. I like our set play long kick to the centre square for Max and Jackson. It does something interesting. Because we used it so often, the opposition tried to predict it, which then left easy shorter exits, which we usually took. That was Tom McDonald's best game since the 2019 flash in the pan performance against Carlton. Thought he led and presented strongly. He missed two he'd normally nail, but kicked the harder one. Was impressed with Spargo's game again. He needs to keep working on staying in the game longer, but just about everything he touches results in a score. That's partly system and partly his game smarts. The young guys in Kozzie, Jordon and Sparrow provided some good tackling support with ANB, Harmes and even Spargo. Felt our forward pressure was really solid, we got the ball inside and got great looks at goal, but our goal kicking was woeful. Our defensive structures strangled Freo, particularly as they had little to kick to in terms of tall targets, especially after Pearce went down. The big issue for me is our midfield. I know we've had some issues with continuity and injuries in there across pre season and the early part of the year, but if Yze's having much influence there it isn't good so far. I'd love to see Rivers tried on a wing and Hibberd off half back, but I suspect Trent doesn't have the tank for it yet. Brayshaw and Jones on the wing signals to me that we don't really have a new plan for addressing our lack of run to support Langdon either. I'll take the win, but most teams would have pantsed us for our poor set shot kicking and lack of accountability at stoppages. Our midfield set ups were truly horrendous for much of the game and we were clearly murdered in the middle. We were fortunate they rested Fyfe forward for so much of the second half, because we just let him run free in the middle. Andrew Brayshaw was allowed to roam similarly free too. Hoping for a much better performance next week. And even though he's only a few days old, my son has 1 win from 1 game. Let's hope he's a good luck charm. I'd be happy to celebrate a flag in 2021 for him, even if he won't remember it.

That's good. Is it like a probationary period for soon to be three time premiers?

Yeah, fair enough.

Hang on. So did the Casey Demons twitter feed cover the men's VFL game too? It seems like they did. Not really sure why people are having a go at the club... Having read the whole thread now, I guess if enough supporters are upset about it then it's a problem, but it doesn't bother me much.

Most of your words are gold, Bob, but I disagree with this. I find myself often agreeing with Gary. You might say that says a lot about me, but he points out the moments that are simply not good enough from our perspective. He's hard on Melbourne, but if the game play isn't good enough, it isn't good enough. As for your comment @Pollyanna about playing a defensive player on Daniels, 100% concur. To me that's a very obvious move. One you'd make very early in your plan to stifle the Bulldogs movement. The other would be ensuring that Bontempelli is marked at stoppages and isn't allowed to run around by himself. His scoring shots were embarrassingly easy. Okay, so we're playing Jordon in the midfield, but it simply wasn't VFL standard the amount of room we constantly gave Bontempelli. Yes, smart player and all that, but come on. It'll be interesting to see if we inject any adventure to our game style in Round 1. I'm also over the 'back our guys to win it' approach. We need to plan for the opposition and very deliberately try to curb dangerous influences on the game.

Spot on mate. Oliver is our best player by such a big margin, it's laughable how some Melbourne supporters talk about him. Sure, he can still improve, but his average game is an A+ game for anyone else, outside of probably May, Petracca and on their days Viney or Brayshaw. I hope Lever gets a proper run at it this year, because if he can play 22 games alongside Steven May again, I'll have less concerns about our backline. Tomlinson doesn't have to do much but keep his player quiet and allow May and Lever to intercept. Our backline needs much better run and dash though, so that appears to have been identified again and that's why Hunt looks to be playing off half back. That's where he should stay IMO. I'd love Beveridge as a coach, but alas we have Goodwin. It'll be interesting to see for how long. Our forwardline is an absolute disaster if we don't get first use or surprise a side on the counter, but it's an unsustainable plan. Hopefully with Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw back in there we'll be able to increase supply to a winnable level.

If there was ever a clear sign that Oliver runs our midfield it was today. Take him out and we don't get first use. There were a lot of really ordinary performances. Outside of May and Lever, I'm not sure there was anyone to write home about. That said, Chandler showed some good signs early, ANB tried hard, Jones was relatively clean except for that brain fade off the ground and Fritsch had 6 scoring shots again. Our forwardline hasn't improved at all though, nor has our delivery to it. I know it's difficult because they would have planned for Weideman and Brown, but our forward entries are high, long and hopeful (like 2019-2020). McDonald and Jackson aren't natural forwards and aren't particularly good marks. I'd have Chandler in the forwardline with Kozzie though. I liked that they've given Hunt a licence to run off half back, but I felt Hunt and Langdon delivered the ball inside too many times. Both of them are classic, high up and under kickers. Langdon probably had his worst game for the club too, which didn't help. Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw walk into that team. I wouldn't have Sparrow near by best 22. What is it he offers this group? He doesn't break away from packs, he's not a good kick and he's not a great blanket player either. Jordon has a bit to work on too, if he's going to get a game consistently. It'll be interesting to see how we respond in Round 1. I know it's just one practice game, but I think we're in big trouble here.

Glad he's committed long term. The big signature is Clarry. Put pen to paper already.

A few too many with interrupted pre seasons. Not a good sign.

We had the blazers. They had the 'They know what's coming'. I'm very glad they're a hopeless club these days. Long may it stay that way. Hopefully Hawthorn and Collingwood can join them.

I've noted this before, but we're viewed as grovelers that just take our grant from the MCC Foundation and toddle off. There isn't a great sense of trying to work too closely with the MCC. Maybe that's fine, but that's what I've heard. I also can't speak for the entire board, but the sentiment is certainly within the board room.

This is definitely a step further than the MFC putting together a doco for their own website. Going out to Prime is just very Carlton. Arrogant and in the modern era, no record to show for that arrogance. Utterly cringe. It's not like they were even close to the 8 last year.

Thanks for the insight BB. I have no inside info with regards to the MFC board, but I do know that it isn't particularly applauded within the walls of the MCC boardroom. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

Nonsense. One played on the outside and one drives our midfield and has done since his second season.

Interesting. I definitely have an email and was sent stuff to my email as well as my postal address.

Interesting. I definitely have an email and was sent stuff to my email as well as my postal address.

Emotional economics as in behavioural economics? Yeah, behavioural is much more real than the fantasyland that the mainstream presents. I much prefer hard economics rather than soft economics.

Have any MCC/MFC members not received their membership packs yet? I'm still awaiting mine, despite paying for it in August...

Fair enough. I think with access to media and education, for quite a while there we were cognisant of our past ills and could have made a stronger and better society. Then the neoliberals tore that to shreds. I think we can get there, but there needs to be a paradigm shift.

Look, I agree to an extent, but neoliberalism has utterly crippled the Western world. It was always going to end in an ugly fashion. I've always hoped it wouldn't end in fascism, but who knows anymore. It's so successfully hollowed out the Left that leftists think there's no alternative anymore, everyone else thinks centrists are leftists and right wingers are no longer particularly conservative, they're just anti people. It's a ****show that has so successfully hidden itself or rather embedded itself into the fabric of our societies (at the most intimate levels too), that it will take an enormous effort to turn the ship around.

Maybe, but I can't see our current administration changing the way the MCC Board seems to view the MFC.

This is essentially where I sit. I lost the faith throughout 2020, but I'll reserve final judgement until 2021.

Interesting watching America from my privileged position of Australia with my own house and JobKeeper payments. That country is not only third world, but corporate power has utterly ruined the majority of the country. How they haven't managed to pass a stimulus is an utter disgrace. In the same way that they managed to politicise COVID 19, they've managed to politicise stimulus. Bernie, AOC and the Squad are proving to be absolutely useless. Unless they force this vote on Medicare for All (can you believe there is still a Western country without it?), they may as well be Pelosi. Due to the lack of stimulus in America, I think they're going to be hit far worse than we are, despite our record private debt levels here. It just all seems to me to be heading either towards anarchy and social and civil unrest, culminating in the end of neoliberalism, or America continues to down the path of the third world. They even resemble Russia with oligarchs and then everything else just nowhere and pitiful. Their infrastructure is crumbling, their small businesses are dying, their people are dying left right and centre. Something has to give here...

A UBI would continue neoliberalism by ensuring the government doesn't need to create jobs and locks people into a self reliance on Government. But most importantly, a UBI would be wildly inflationary and provide no price stability. The numbers make no sense. The JG is meant to be 4.5-5% of the working population (the NAIRU equivalent of "full emoloyment"), not 100%. If everyone gets it, not only do the numbers not make sense, you'd have to find a way of having a counter cyclical tax. But there's absolutely no price stability with it. There's a reason corporate America loves the UBI. It means they don't have to pay decent wages, but the economy has more money in its pockets to buy their products. I know Bill doesn't agree with this, but I think the JG paired with a small basic income (for the 1% that slip through the cracks) is the best solution.

We'll be fine. Our biggest difficulty is remaining diplomatic with China. We don't need direct foreign investment and we don't need other countries. We are incredibly well resourced. We are a lucky country. We need to ensure full employment and a just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and tech over the next 10 to 20 years or we're done. It takes political leadership. I don't see it at a federal level currently.