frankie_d

May mightn't miss many May matches

I reckon the new "stand on the mark" rule is helping him use his speed. Once he's away, only the speedsters will catch him, and I think that gives him a bit of confidence. Haven't seen the DE stats, but I reckon his kicking was pretty good yesterday

I wonder how much Yze and Williams have contributed to this?

LIke everyone, I have had enough of the talk ("the boys are hurting" rinse and repeat). The only thing that counts is wins. Mark Williams, interviewed on the Club's website: (about 7:00min in) "Can't wait to see to see the thousands and thousand of Melbourne fans at the G, waiting for us to show something. It's a bit of the chicken and the egg; you come, you support and we'll deliver" I don't mind that - puts the pressure where it belongs, no talk of "hurting", or "learnings". Just footy. He'd go alright, I reckon.

This. Tackling ferociously, shepherding, tap the footy on, caring for each other. Not the faux “get around him” crap.

Agree 100% DD. And Grinter was not just tough - he was incredibly skilled. A bit of Rhys-Jones about him. We could absolutely do with a few like that.

The times I felt confident were the Northey years. He cared, and they followed his example. I was at the G one day when Strawb O'Dwyer stuffed something up on the outer wing. He screamed at the runner to go out and tell Strawb that his teammates had "worded their guts out" to get the ball to him and he'd let them down, and now he had a chance to make up for it over the rest of the game. Daniher the next best, then daylight/moonlight/the-whole-of-the-universe to the rest.

This team got us to a grand final (and got smashed): Here's the 2000 team (also smashed): For those of us who are old enough to remember those games, I wonder how many of today's would be in that team? That's the level of talent you need to GET to a grannie - and not enough to win one.

Good hit out by Jackson

Bowey isn’t a bad kick.

Jackson has done ok for a kid

He looks as if he’s carrying the weight of the world

They are killing us in the clearances and waltzing the ball out of our forward line.

Forward half goals from intense pressure to keep the ball in. Seriously. That’s the plan. Background articles by Robbo and Jake Niall. I wish those on charge would talk much less. We are all SICK OF IT.

ANB having a really good day

ANB has done ok

Score now reflecting reality

If we keep playing like this, don’t be fooled by a last quarter rally when the dogs have put the queue in the rack. This is awful.

We are being run over. They are front and Centre, have better skills and are killing us around clearances. I know we are playing plenty of young ones. if the plan is to score forward half goals, someone hasn’t read the script. No ball retention in the forward half.

TMac jogging. 1 1 7 (us) 1 2 8

Early turnover. Goal.

Highlight so far: umpires having practice whistle blowing. And silly walk practice running

First time at the footy for a looong time. Feels great. Some things never change (cost of chips at Etihad/Marvel/whatever, Maxy’s ball drop). Saw Rivers and Lockhart doing kick to kick. Instead of just kicking straight to the other (plenty of that, amazing skills, training the house down etc) they faced at right angles to the other and “ran back off the mark”, turned 90 degrees and kicked to the other. interesting drill, an example of deliberative practice. Wonder if Chocko had a hand in that?

The clever rolling kick from the back pocket to Harmes on Queen's Birthday. Harmes -> Watts -> glory!

Wonder how Goodwin will cope with that clear signal?