DeeSpencer

It’s a tragedy on a tragedy. Might be best done privately to a large extent but MFC need to step up big time. Unfortunately our next proper home game isn’t for a month but maybe then or later in the year it would be wonderful to gather a lot of Daniher/Bailey era players for something for Brad and the family.

I'm one of the first to say we need more pace and outside run/skill and wanted us to use multiple picks taking some gambles, but it's also true that after Oliver, Viney, Harmes and hopefully a rejuvenated Brayshaw our inside ball winners do drop away pretty quickly. Jones is close to the end, Petracca hasn't shown he can step up and be a midfielder, Vanders' foot is stuffed, Maynard's gone backwards. After that it's Sparrow and that's about it. Same thing goes for ANB, Spargo, JKH etc as that half forward who rolls up to the midfield. If he can tackle, get contest to contest and hit the scoreboard then he has a chance in that kind of roll as well. Keen to see him play for Casey.

The is my opinion only not mail but I'm very confident in it: Brayshaw's on the wing because he's too slow and lazy in transition running and butchered the ball in the midfield. He lost the trust of the coaches to be around the footy. It helps if your wingers are quick but it's not vital these days as long as they run hard and keep in position. Slower, unaccountable inside mids get torched and Gus wasn't keeping up with the play. He'd get 30 but they'd do nothing and his many would get 35. Decision making and transition running are easier on the wing. Pacey wingers would be nice but Baker doesn't have the tank for it. Lockhart lacks the tank a little and the ball winning. Stretch knows how to play the position but is just going. Corey Wagner is meh. There's really not a lot of other options. With Salem and Hibberd back this week Fritsch should go back on the wing and give us one decent outside runner but we're still short other options. The preseason plans for Vanders and KK have fallen through. Gus should go back on the ball at some stage but if he doesn't show defensive transition and better ball use I won't feel like the coaches are to blame.

Agree. He could’ve taken a few intercept marks along with some spoils and had a pretty decent first half yesterday. Instead he went for some safe spoils. Then he cops a knock and looks limpy and slow. He slow and lacks a physical presence at the contest but there’s still signs of talent with reading the play, quick hands and a nice kick. Needs to go back to Casey and show 6 weeks of consistent form rather than a couple of good weeks then a couple of quiet games.

Clearly I don’t know of the salary cap implications, nor do I know of the cultural implications of retiring or making inactive a bunch of senior players. I just think teams are being super conservative with a new rule whilst usually teams find advantages by being creative or bold. We’ve seen it with academy pick trading, future pick trading, the Tigers taking Sydney Stack etc etc My plan is probably more of the Mark Neeld style moneyball but if these picks are all 10-20% chance of being a good player I’d rather multiple swings.

Why don’t we: - Retire Lewis and Garlett - Inactive list Vanders and maybe even Jetta Take 4 or even 5 picks. It’s 50k a pick, plus 20k if they’re delisted at the end of the year. We know Lewis and Garlett are done so why not look at replacements now? We’ve also got Stretch, J Wagner, JKH, Maynard, Jones and other options to come off the list at the end of the year. There’s usually plenty of 19 year olds or state league types taken in the 2nd-4th round of the draft. Some work, some don’t. Why not take a huge roll of the dice?

Hore looks like an AFL player. Needs to keep working on his disposal and lack of size/pace means he's not the ideal match up for a lot of opponents but he judges the ball in the air, gets to the right spots and his decision making with the ball is solid. The only concern that could see Hore not playing a lot of games is if Lever takes his role and 2 intercept marking defenders can't play in the same side but I doubt that's the case. At this stage I want to see a backline of May, Lever, Hore, Jetta, Salem, Hibberd. Until we get that group on the field together it's hard to know exactly who the best 7th player is to go with them. Frost is still Frost but I think he's also looking like an AFL player right now with a decent amount of spoils, running out of trouble more than in to it and kicking better than he has before. The question is more does he look good because we've got some pretty slow and average defenders next to him or is he really turning a corner.

In: Salem, Hibberd, Weideman, JKH, ANB Out: Petty, C. Wagner, Spargo, Stretch, Garlett FB: Hibberd Oscar Hore HB: Salem Frost Fritsch C: Brayshaw Oliver JKH HF: Baker T Mc Petracca FF: Smith Weideman Hunt Foll: Gawn Viney Harmes Int: J. Wagner, Jones, Lockhart ANB

Kicked one too many goals and moved from pick 2 to pick 3 for no reason. Hope it doesn't cost us the player we wanted. Reminds me of trade week when we love giving away extra draft picks in trades for no reason.

When half your side isn't up to AFL standard it's always going to be a slog. Without any skill from half back or run in the middle it was always going to be a lot of bombing down the line, reset, hope to create chances. Our backline was so slow and undermanned we couldn't open the game up. Just wasn't going to happen until the Giants pressure dropped off. The mental weakness in the first half to give away dumb free kicks and not just hang in and create a few goals was really poor, but physically there wasn't much to be done. The game opened up in the 3rd quarter and the Giants walked in goals whilst we battled away to add a few. Then in the last they dropped off and the game was at the standard (below average AFL) where many of our players are at.

Gives it his best and knows how to play the wing in terms of where to run but there's just nothing AFL about him. Small, not quick, can't change direction, has a 40m pop kick. In a good side you might be able to use him as wing depth but in a side like this he's just another ordinary player.

Meh. Point 1 is a fact, injured players are more likely to sustain future injuries. Point 2 feel free to argue but I’m willing to bet there will be concern about May and Lever struggling when they come back. They won’t be anywhere near their full potential. Same with Hannan and anyone else who’s missed a long stint. I remember when Gawn came back after his hamstring and everyone thought he was awful. Point 3 is debatable to the impact but it’s certianly going to take time to settle the side. My post was a response to some comments that players back will see the team improve over the next month or so. I’m not saying we won’t improve but I think at least until guys have had 4 weeks or so in the team it will be mostly on the back of the 22 who played on the weekend.

The problems with so many returning are: 1. Guys who have missed a significant amount of time are more likely to get injured again 2. Those guys will often perform below expectations, particularly May and Lever with high expectations 3. The other players will be disrupted as their won't be cohesion in the best 22 and many will be looking over their shoulders worried about their spot in the side. I can see it already, a fringe player has a bad week (ie. Josh Wagner) and gets dropped for a returning player (ie. Lewis) who then performs worse than the fringe player would've. We really need a month without further injuries, the bye week to allow for some rest and main group training and some of the current side to really lock in their places to really get any benefit from returning players.

Tom McDonald - either nails is straight through or sprays it. We all know about his kicking. More confidence in his game and he'll nail them again. Petracca - yeah he's cooked. Probably going to take a full summer to fix. Garlett - mentally checked out of AFL Footy ages ago. Hunt - pretty similar to T Mc. The technique isn't pretty but mentally he gives it a go Melksham is meant to be our sharp shooter. And whatever choice of Smith/Weid/Preuss should be able to steer them through. Fix Tom's general play, fix Tracc, get a good small forward and it should improve.

No issues with his game last night. Played restricted minutes and played forward as well as mid to protect his shoulder but he won important contests in the middle and forward, pressured well, and actively looked to handball rather than bomb kick. Round 1: Shouldn't have played Round 2: very good against a huge tide of Cats Round 3: the only mid who could lay a glove on the bombers at the contest, beaten away from it Round 4: a more defensive role but did a good job Round 5: same as Essendon game Round 6: excellent for a quarter/half then ran out of puff/injured Rounds 8/9: doing a different role and contributing He's not the player we want him to be right now but it's not panic stations after the last 2 weeks. Haven't seen him live but looks to be covering the ground and strong at the contest. If he stays healthy I think he'll bounce back. Ball use is obviously a concern but the whole team is completely out of sync going inside 50. There's no easy targets/easy decisions. Most AFL Players struggle to make good decisions under pressure. The whole point of team work and coaching is to set up players to make easy decisions. Viney, Jones and Oliver keep butchering the ball because there's no midfield runners or hit up forwards to catch their eyes. They should be better regardless but team work will make it easier on them.

Gawn dominated. Harmes and Oliver led the stream through the midfield. Rag tag defenders more often than not for 3/4's held up. Forward line created space at times, competed hard at others and pressured well. If Tommy Mc was in anything like his best form or if Petracca or Garlett wouldn't go to water mentally or physically the forwards would've put up a winning score by 3/4 time. Eventually the backline will improve and develop chemistry between the good players, which will cut down so many easy goals. There were still a ridiculous number of Frost specials: - running 30m off Kennedy to go up to Hickey 70m out with other defenders converging on the ruck - the goal line stuff - some crazy turnovers Not to mention Oscar turning a great first half in to more of his usual stuff - he's the one who should've occupied space at the drop of the ball to stop Ryan's mark. Throw in Petty who's super raw, Wagner who's going ok but limited and Fritsch who really should be on a wing and it's a miracle they did as well as they did. Disappointing night if the plan was to win and get back in to finals contention. A pretty decent night if the plan is to use this year to have a good look at players and build a more sustainable defensive game plan.

Started well, but then trailed off. Lacks the strength and technique to break tackles and dish handballs in tight at the packs. That's a vital thing to develop. But his evasiveness in traffic and pace are both strong assets. Seemed to play more forward after ANB went off. I think he's more of a natural on a wing but looking at VFL stats this year I don't think he's at peak fitness after an interrupted pre season and he's not an endurance beast either. So half forward with bursts on the wing seem likely for now. Think he's too raw for a sustained run of games this year but did enough to look like he's still worth developing.

Almost certain Petracca swam over there.

Hogan was excellent first up then pretty awful for a few weeks IIRC. Hibberd could be back for the Crows game but just as easily could be given until after the bye.

4-6 means 4 - never playing again, so I guess that's inclusive of 6-8. Seriously though that's good news, anything that's still 8 or more over the next few weeks is probably getting to the shut them down for the season range.

Not so sure on that, they only played 1 ruck last week (Vardy) with Oscar Allen the back up. We might decide to use Tim Smith to back up Gawn and then include another mobile forward option like Baker or ANB to replace Melksham. Sustaining really high forward pressure and locking the ball forward might be the only way to stop their forwards tearing our backline apart.

I'm not sure the 6-6-6 is responsible for anything that happens after 15 seconds from a centre bounce. It's made the centre bounce more valuable which in turn means teams have to defend it cleverly and not risk too much. Otherwise any other chances come from some of the other rules and the evolution of the game. I think a big impact on scoring has been the comp being very even with a lot of teams being competitive. Just look at us - for most of last year we steam rolled bad teams and struggle to score against the good sides. It doesn't take much for those bad sides to get a bit more experience and structure in and therefore restrict our scoring. My prediction is no small rule changes will impact scoring. We can either live with it and wait until a team discovers some attacking secrets/skills or go for a drastic rule change. The most obvious one to me is 16 on the field.

Alternatively we could just have a half forward with any kind of game sense watching repeat stoppage after repeat stoppage move towards the benches and then sprint off for Gawn. A second ruck who can do the job forward as well would be nice and hopefully Preuss can do that, but Keilty v Peter Wright wasn't a concern tonight and he held up against Witts pretty well too. The other players on the ground should be aware of when Gawn is desperate to come back on.

Really ordinary game today, maybe a hangover from doing a power of running against Smith, Gunston, Henderson and Scully last week? He's not a wingman, but he's too slow in transition running to play on ball with Oliver and Viney, and his poor disposal in the centre square hasn't helped either. Wing is actually easier to position away from the contest on the defensive side than midfield running. Really he's been given the Dom Tyson's and tonight he played like Dom. I'd rather see him at half back if he's not on the ball. At least his dual sided kicking could be more useful at half back and it's more of a contested role. Anyway, could be as simple as carrying a cold. Hope he lifts next week.

Out: Hibberd, maybe Melk, Lewis, Garlett, Keilty. In: Preuss (Keilty), T Smith (Melk), ANB (Jeff), Jordon (Hibberd), C Wagner (Lewis). My guess is they keep Lewis and Garlett despite the damage they must be doing to team culture with continued weak efforts.