3183 Dee

Yep - I agree. Something seriously wrong.

Spargo, Stretch, ANB out. Wagner and JKH try, but not up to it.

Just walked out early for the first time. That was Neeld like in its incompetence.

Bump - this is very much the reality. No point in filling all those gaps with JKH, ANB, Stretch etc. We need to add legitimate skilled players - it may take a couple of years.

Bit quick to be calling out the Lever trade. Apart from some shonky disposal, he was very good yesterday.

Yes - not sure if Melksham was rusty yesterday, but that was the worst game I’ve seen him play for us - usually a great user of the ball.

I also thought OMac didn’t do too badly yesterday - he looked more comfortable in that position. I think you’d leave him there, at least over pre-season: his field kicking was actually pretty good and he didn’t do a bad job as 2nd ruck. As someone has already pointed out, what is killing us, is getting too many drawn into the contest. We desperately need the outside run that can have the ball fed to them and then link up to the forwards. We also need some speedy defensive cover on the outside. Positives for me was that the controlled game of the 1Q was working well, also the F50 entries were much improved - how good is it to see Fritta clunking those contested marks?

I just don’t understand why people keep harping in about this. Fritsch was put back out of necessity! No Lever, May, Jetta in the backline for the majority of the season meant that Goodwin had to put someone back who could at least jump at a contest and is a reasonably reliable kick out of defence. That is why Fritsch was played back - not because of any stubborn, misguided Goodwin decision. Who else could he have put there? It’s no surprise that, now he’s able to revert to the forward line, we are starting to see why we recruited him.

Earlier this season, Jordan Lewis was asked, on the Inside Melbourne podcast, who were the potential leaders amongst the younger players. He said Oliver, but only if he wants to be.

Also Rod Grinter was on the same show - Demonland podcast again scooping the big boys!

Well, in terms of running through brick walls for the MFC, I would say he does. In terms of representing our club à la Cotchin, Pendles etc, I would say not.

Agreed - I chanced to speak to somebody on the weekend, who claimed to have a bit of contact within the club (not players). He hears that Viney and Jones don’t particularly get on and there are two camps within the squad. This is all hearsay, of course, but might go some way into explaining part of the dysfunction. It will be a brave decision to get rid of Viney as captain, but probably the correct one. He certainly flies the flag for our club, but that doesn’t automatically make captain material. Funnily enough, Jones is probably similar in that he was the only one willing to fly the flag during the Neeld times, so was the automatic choice. When you look at the likes of Cotchin, Pendles and Selwood, you see the attributes required. Other than Maxy, May and Lever, I don’t see anyone else banging down the door.

Not bad ??

I think this is the game plan that we are trying to emulate. I went to the Richmond v Port game last round and the Richmond style was similar to our best footy last year. The main differences were that the Richmond mids ran hard both ways and spread so well. No stupid hand balls to stationary targets and aimless punts up the field. It’s chaos ball without the chaos. Also - having two quality talls to hit up definitely helps, as do the legitimate pressure forwards and crumbers.

I think that you’ve nailed it regarding the trust - of course, part of that can be put down to this year’s team being so disjointed through injuries, so there has been very little consistency in the team personnel. It’s not necessarily injuries to key players that have hurt us the most this year, more that most weeks there have been enforced changes which have disrupted the flow.

I was at the Tigers-Port game yesterday and had these exact sentiments. It’s not so much grunt, because we do have grunt players, but what really stood out was the constant running from the Tigers’ mids. Whether in attack or defence, they offer pressure and options: when they win a contest and break from it, there seems to always be 2 or 3 options. They also know where each other is - for example, I saw very few missed handballs or handballing to a stationary target. Added to this, when you have a couple of legitimate marking forwards in Reiwoldt and Lynch, as well as some good half forwards and crumbers, it make the transition from back half stoppage to Forward 50 entry so much easier. The Tigers play the game that we are trying to play, but without the ‘panic’. The intensity and ferocity of ‘panic ball’ is there, but clear heads, when it comes to distribution and decision making.

I think another silver lining, will be getting games into players in the back end of the season, so that they are raring and fit for pre-season.

It was a good crowd - loud especially in the last quarter, when Carlton came back into it. That horrible feeling and noise when the opposition is coming back on top of you!

I was at the game - we completely dominated Carlton for 3 quarters. By half time, the game should have been over - instead, our inaccurate kicking and inability to stop them scoring immediately after our goals, kept them in it. In the end, it was a relief to get over the line, but we deserved the win. I wasn’t aware that we were 3 rotations down in the last - only knew that TMac hadn’t returned - but some of our boys looked cooked, which would have helped Carlton’s momentum. Our forward line without TMac tried hard, but really missed some grunt - Weid doesn’t seem close to dominating yet. It’ll be interesting to see if they keep Preuss in with Gawn as a resting forward: he did some good stuff today. I noticed that we are starting to spread the ball much more now - maybe a change to the game plan? Otherwise, some great stuff, some terrible stuff: story of our season, really. Still - deserved the 4 points, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

On the MFC website, they’ve put the whole footage up - it’s pretty interesting. Frost doesn’t want to hear it at first, but then goes back to placate May. I like it.

That’s a pretty long bow you’ve drawn there.

Have liked his game from the get-go: as others have said, he has real footy smarts and keen determination, but also he goes so hard at the footy, regardless of the opponent. Yesterday, there were three occasions that I saw, where he crashed the contest against much bigger bodies. He and Marty Hore have been great pick ups this year - long term Demons, both of them.

Probably pretty stressed - those guys have a lot to deal with.

I’m not sure about the last bit, but I’m afraid I tend to agree with the first bit. I cringe at the thought of the upcoming Inside Melbourne podcast, which will be run by the players during Player Takeover Week. I’m all for mixing things up and having a bit of a laugh, but not sure that this is the right moment!

Thanks for the report @Earl Hood - this is a bit concerning from McCartney. Surprising that the level of training is not good enough, especially when the players, you would think, have everything to prove.