The Chazz

^ Didn't get the credit it deserved, so I'm just replying to it so it gets a second run. Well played, John. ?

Didn't train with the main group tonight.

Any interesting stat - we are =4th for lowest score against. Not bad considering we overpaid for Lever and May apparently. This weekend we play Collingwood, who are 13th for score for. We are 10th. Collingwood is also the best ranked side for scores against. We have kicked around 10 goals more than them this season, but they have had 11 goals less kicked against them. What does this mean? NFI. But I'm probably expecting a defensively cr@p game on Saturday, and hope that having the extra two days rest will mean we are fresher in the legs, and can open the game up in the 2nd half, coming away with a 3-4 goal win.

And Free Kick Against total?

Probably mentioned a million times elsewhere, but Gawn looks at his most dominant when our midfield actually move at a ruck contest. It's why his hitout to advantage count is not as high as it should be, and why decent opposition mids shark him so easily. While I like the guy, and have had a bit to do with him in a previous life, the midfield/stoppage coach needs an absolute rocket, if not moved on totally.

I don't. I actually won't watch another MFC game if he is named, unless it is built up as his farewell match, which I will watch with a deal of sadness knowing I have seen the last of one of the MFC's great clubman. A magnificent achievement for anyone, let alone someone that played all their career for this club, during arguably their darkest period in the history if its existence. I bet if you asked an 18 year old N Jones if he'd take retiring with 289 next to his name, he'd do so with great pride. Thanks for allowing us to watch a brilliant career, Chunk, but it's now time to make the call.

I've gone for like-for-like changes; Out: T McDonald, N Jones, K Pickett, A Brayshaw, In: @old dee @Biffen @Bitter but optimistic @dazzledavey36

103 is a big score you twit. And anything over 60 points this year has been an above average score. And please, I'm basing my opinion of Levi on his whole career, not just week to week. This year, he is drawing the 3rd tall defender of the opposition because McKay and McGovern are their best 2 talls. He was quite serviceable last year, but before that, he was an average plodder in a [censored] team. His goal kicking has always been terrible, actually, I'd call it a liability. What his stats don't show, even since he has "improved" his goal kicking, is how many out on the full he kicks. These stats sucked you in just earlier this year, "he literally hasn't missed" I think you said. He had missed-he missed the whole bloody goals AND points on a number of times. Casboult's greatest strength is his contested mark. It has been most of his career. But what's the point of taking pack marks inside 50 if your conversion is terrible? He would actually do our heads in as he rarely let's the ball hit the ground, which is what our game plan and forward structure is based around. He's holding his own in a team that is playing well, more so because of the game plan that their coach has introduced. If you look at his form over the past month, he has stunk it up. You clearly have a communication channel with someone associated with the club. Your mail is often quite accurate. But please understand that in this case, where you are using your own opinions (hopefully) rather than having them fed to you, that you are actually making a terrible call.

When LN brought up Casboult's name, we were crying out for a help for TMc. My argument was that we have two capable back-ups in the scratch matches that could do that. Bugger me, the coach finally brought in Weid, and what do you know? He has averaged 2.5 goals a game since his return. Significantly more than Casboult's return in the same timeframe (to be fair, Levi has been ordinary since LN brought up his name, and Carlton have had some big scores in that time). Casboult is not a player that we need to chase.

How's the great Levi been traveling lately, champ? Please tell me you have come to your senses and realised he is NOT a player you should have in the top 3 of your shopping list.

Obviously this year is a strange year. Period. But what I think it is showing is that some of the sides that have had an extensive period of sustained success, ie Hawthorn, Geelong and Sydney, and to some degree St Kilda, they are at the end of their era, and the years of being up at the top and not bringing if top end talent, as well as trying to plug gaps with older players to keep them up there, is finally starting to bite them. GWS, Collingwood and West Coast haven't really brought anyone in to keep them up there, and their list has enough quality on it to keep them dangerous. That said, their respective lists are starting to age. These clubs are approaching an interesting time - do they keep topping up (like the teams in the first paragraph), or do they have a 2-3 year mini-rebuild and launch again? I can't see Collingwood doing that. A side like North is showing that they, like many other clubs, have been desperate to show some success, and have also tried to plug gaps with established players from other clubs. All that has done is kept them in that "around the mark" area of the finals race, meaning they have also not bottomed out and picked up those high draft picks. Fremantle are probably in this boat too. You look at sides like Carlton, Brisbane, Gold Coast and us who have been down the bottom for a long time, built lists with top draft picks, and now are starting to see how those kids are stacking up. That's not to say us, or any of those teams I mentioned, are going to be powerhouses, but if any of them got their list management and development right, it's a perfect time to be coming in to the start of that famous "premiership window". While I'm not as positive as the OP just quite yet, I am confident that if we have got things right, that we will have an extended period of finals footy, where we regularly finish in the Top 4. Time will tell.

Tony, you could argue against your first point, and I'm totally against your next two. It's getting to the stage where if anyone talks about Smith's athletic ability I will spew. This is footy, not athletics. His brain isn't wired like a footballer. To call him our best match up for Cameron is just scoreboard suicide. Jones played games off wing and half back last year. Opposition teams played through him because of his lack of pace-they would play a faster half forward on him who would push him up the ground, then burn him off running back to goal. It's a cruel game, but the game has gone past Nathan Jones rapidly over an 18 month period. TMc at his best us best 18. I did feel he was starting to get back to his better work in the week before the Gold Coast game, and he started the GC game quite well before his injury. I can understand the call to bring him back in, but I don't think it can be at the expense of Jackson. I was concerned about Weid & LJ vs Frawley, Sicily and Frost yesterday, thought the Hawks experience would give our young forwards a touch up. The opposite happened, so I'd throw them the challenge again. For me, no change.

I wouldn't be surprised if we win our next 8 in a row, come in to flag favourites, then the season gets cancelled. That's about all that's left to happen for our 2020!

And what's wrong with that?

I ask again, why?

Why? Jones is finished. Can't keep in the park, can't run out of sight at midnight, has numerous players ahead of him, and we are now looking at the strong possibility that there will be list cuts at the end of the season, which will also see us add to our list to try and improve it. If Jones still makes the cut after all of that, I will seriously question every aspect of our club. That's harsh, I know, but if we are serious about trying to get better, then it has to be the reality. Sorry if I've hurt your feelings.

Highly unlikely that he will get the 300 games this year, and if he manages to get a contract for 2021 to get him to the milestone, brutally I'd be suggesting he turns the lights off on the way out at the end of next year because the club will officially be deceased.

What's unpredictable about those types of moves? Besides, from what I saw I don't think Oliver spent much time forward in the 2nd half, Fritsch moving up the ground a bit was part of the medium size forward rotation that Goodwin is playing. And to be honest, I don't recall Tomlinson playing many minutes forward either. I could be wrong, and will happily admit it if I am, bit I certainly won't be watching the replay to prove the point either way.

I think that our list has enough in it to be better than where we are at. You can tell that when we have those moments in games where we show we can produce quality footy, it's just that not only don't we do it for long enough, there's large chunks of the game where we just appear to switch off. There's talent there, it's having it on display for four quarters that is the key, because when it's not, it cripples us. I hold the playing group and coaches equally responsible for it.

It does matter. He's being played out of position. Give him a preseason to work on those areas, rather than playing him in a position that doesn't suit him. It also proves another point. At half time, could have played him at half back, put Salem in the guts, then move Oliver to the forward line. This may or may not have worked, but it changes the look of it up. I honestly can't remember the last time Goodwin made an in-game move where it made me stop and think about it. Imagine how the opposition coaches must feel when they just get the same old Melbourne fronting up each quarter...

I haven't been to a training session since the Juntion days, but I just wonder how much kicking practice we actually do, especially in the early parts of preseason. I know most drills have kicking in them, but I'm talking specifically kicking practice drills. Given our inability to hit targets, and our ability to kick it on the full at least 10 times in a match, clearly we don't do it enough.

Why should he be? He was done last year, and has gone backwards this year.

Frost hasn't set the word on fire this year. And where was he playing when that was happening 4 years ago? Definitely wasn't deep forward.

Watch te Smith show. You're right, we will disagree.

No, it's because Oscar is a better option than Smith. That's how bad Smith is.