spalding

We weren’t great. They were worse (flat?). if anyone doesnt think we are in this up to our our eyeballs you are never going to let your mfcss look at football objectively. thanks binman

Just another opinion that has no place on this site

An island oasis in a sea of misery through the mid 70s to kid 80s as an aside, I recognise just about all the umpires’s names in the record from that day of his debut, and I think every single one of them is better than what we see today.

Butters and Rozee, and to a lesser extent JHF, are small bodied light midfielders who I think will struggle physically when targeted later in the year. they still have Wines, an ageing Boak, and PP as bigger midfielders, but not sure they are good enough to get it done. will be top 4 id say, but not impossible to beat, even at Adelaide Oval

There’s a lot of validity in what you say. I get really frustrated with the umpiring at AFL level, and while I don’t swear or use threatening or abusing language I get get loud and upset. I tell myself before every game not do it - but I’m too emotionally invested. So much so, that one of my kids either just laughs at me or tells me to shut up (particularly if I’m yelling at the TV) I have 4 kids who play at various levels - Country footy, underage NAB AFLW, and now AFLW. I have seen a lot of umpiring. at country level, it usually a couple of older ex-players who don’t move much but are clear with their decisions, explain them, and I have never seen too much angst on the ground. Generally there is often some disagreement, even sometimes some banter, but they just pay the obvious, and get on with it, and they seem respected by the players. The bigger issue is drunks in the crowd, and the odd nutcase who wants to hit people (usually in the seconds), but quite often it’s the rest of the players and officials at the clubs that deal with these clowns. at NAB underage league you can already see that the umpires are now in the “system”. It’s nearly like they are trying to get noticed (lots of look at me decisions and moments), and nearly like they get positive reinforcement for making game defining decisions at the end of close games. It happened so often, and in womens underage, it was a 50 metre penalty, or a holding the ball that had happened 20 times during the rest of the game but was never called until it was result changing. I would really like to know the KPIs of the AFL umpiring department- and whether too much money is spent in head office where officials have to create a reason for their existence, and how this translates into what we see on the ground at AFL. I also think 4 umpires creates more confusion and variation in decision making, particularly as the umpires further away from the action seem to want to interject all the time.

I loved having Dogga at the MFC. He reminds me of my puppy. Slightly crazy and unco at times, but happy to be alive and in the moment. I hope he plays well, but we win. Then I can focus any negative energy on Cripps, the Daicos media storm, and the entire city of Geelong.

Think I heard something similar last year about round 10 lots can happen between now and September.

Why do I read this after a loss?

I am a little wary of reading too much into this as yet, as we have played the three worst teams in the league, so I think the samples are not quite comparable. I thought the game where we had the most pressure on our entries into the forward line (Gold Coast) resulted in more defensive intercepts than we have seen in the rest of the games (perhaps with the exception of the losses). I think Friday will be a good test of whether we have made significant progress from last year with sorting out our forward line challenges (assuming Port's bring the pressure). I think too many have not given enough credit to Petty's defensive work in our forward line, and I think its still work in progress.

I’d put the onus on Tmac to play as a defensive forward. with the teams were playing in the next 4-5 games, we want to make sure that the intercept marks are kept to a minimum (ie Aliir, Ryan/Cox, weitering, Moore, Stewart) - so TMac can focus on defensive efforts, with the resting ruckman and JVR in behind him if those guys drop off him when he leads to the wing. Think he can do this better than BBB

Give Choco a raise Pig deserves to get to 200

I think C7 are about to infer it might happen sooner

Chairperson probably a grammar educated cats supporter

I love being a good team. Underwhelmed by a 10 goal win in Perth

Pretty good - although I think you are way overvaluing Brown. If Brett Lovett was finished by 94, then I think Salem has easily got Brown covered, and Bowey will too pretty soon.

I really rate JJ. Having watched Adelaide play Port on the weekend, they are setting up nicely to be a force in a few years. The midfield depth is their weakness and I could see him being a good replacement for Rory Sloane (who really wound back the clock last weekend). Sparrow could also be a target. Previously I thought that Sparrow would be the one to keep, and have been expecting him to breakout, but I think he might not have the game awareness and craft of JJ. It might be a fascinating watch this year as to who progresses further. I see Harmes as being “I’m Melbourne, Tony”, but maybe we do have to be supportive of him finding a new home if it means we keep both the SA boys

I’d rest Hibberd - to make sure he’s fresh for Stringer and Martin (possibly bring back Tommo), and leave out BBB (no risk and no flight). Go with the same forward line as yesterday after half time and have May and Hibbo for Oscar Allen and Darling, and cover Waterman with Lever. Riv actually played the Lever role really well yesterday (I reckon he had at least 3-4 intercept marks in the Third quarter when the swans were coming) so we can actually use him in that time if they are trying to stop Jake.

JJ has obviously addressed some of the issues from last year and should not be considered for demotion any time soon from what I saw yesterday

20 games to go in the home and away season after this one. Just saying! pies and swans look like the two teams to beat atm, but we know this changes through the season. We we were 10-0 last year (and the year before). Couldn’t sustain that momentum either year, but recovered it in 2021 (helped by a good run with injuries). it would be great to win without Max and Kozi, and would give us some confidence that we probably need to have when we play the Swans later in the year when it counts for more. But, jeez, some perspective on this site would be nice!

I sort of get the mfcss being a 50+ year demon supporter, but c’mon everyone can be we just try and enjoy the next few years at least rather than default to glass half empty every time? although we were [censored] last night we were still favourites before the game (fair enough given our recent interstate record). That in itself seems weird to type!

I was out last night and missed the game until the last 5 minutes (luckily) cane on here to find out about Max - is it a confirmed ACL and he’s out for a year, or is it just rampant MFCSS atm?

Both seemed very ordinary

So easy in hindsight. I was one who advocated that we try and rest more players during 2022, but in the end we were fighting for top4 and couldn’t risk a loss. Geelong got it tight, but are gifted wins at home in the lead up to the finals versus mainly [censored] Victorian sides or disinterested interstate teams - who they could probably beat with most of their senior backline, Hawkins or Cameron and rest from VFL. All teams would have injured players in finals and would roll the dice to some extent. Sometimes it works (ie Brisbane in 2003) and sometimes it doesn’t.

I’m a 4th generation MFC member who now owns quite a bit of hawks gear (thanks to the vagaries of the draft). At least they know how [censored] their colours are by using navy in all their merchandising. It’s sort of like we own them now (at least in a football sense) anyway.

Gone for scans too mfcss rampant for many