Grandson of a gun

Structure and Gameplan come back to the coaches. If after 4 years your team still cannot follow them OR more as i suspect, your structure and gameplan has been found to be inadequate to win games, then something is drastically wrong and a change is needed. That change must be either in the structure and game plan or in the coaching department.

Watch the tape....He was the only one who contested in the first quarter. He continued to present and work hard. He had a hand in all (i think) of Melbourne's first half a dozen shots at goal. And he also showed, for all the hype and crap spoken in the last couple of years, he is in front of Nic Nat....

Looking at the drafting logically: 2008- Watts was the best in the comp- so they take him and he is progressing (albeit slowly). And for all the hype of Nic Nat, Watts showed last night that he is ahead of Nic... 2009- Scully and Trenners were clearly the best two with Martin a close third- there was no complaints when we got either of them. Gysberts still has a light frame but he has shown how good he is and Tappy has the mature body you speak of. 2010- Cook was all australian CHF and looks ok. Darling was passed over by every club at least once, and some clubs with multiple picks- perhaps their mistakes but hardly something to really crack MFC about. As you would well know Old Dee, football is a simple game. Forget presses, zones, rotations......IT'S ALL ABOUT PRESSURE. Footy has not changed in 100 years in this regard. The best teams, and the teams that win consistently, have the mental strength and desire to tackle and harrass the opposition like their life depends on it. It doesn't matter if you are the best player or the worst player, EVERYONE can tackle and chase and harrass. Unfortunately, under Bailey Melbourne do not exhibit such a desire on anywhere near a required or consistent basis. I was a defender of his until last night, but i have now changed. The game plan is a shambles. The way he has our forwards playing means we have no targets coming out of defence, AND HE HAS NOT INSPIRED OR DRILLED INTO THESE BLOKES THE HARD EDGE OR REQUIREMENT FOR CONSTANT PRESSURE AND TACKLING that he should have... I think the list is very talented. I don't think we have the right man at this point to advance the group. I really hope Malthouse is interested...

Tapscott will not even be cited. He didn't hit him in the head. He didn't raise an arm. It was just probably a little far from the bloke with the ball but he could mount an argument like Barry Hall that it was in the motion of making a play or run... Out- Dunn, Bennell, Morton (as much as it annoys me) In- Petterd, Maric (as long as he plays ok at Casey), Blease or Strauss (if they put in another good Casey performance)

It would be less painful.......!!!!!!!

Ha. No. I actually think he is a big part of our future, but our game plan crucifies our players... Thank god for WATTS!

I used to believe our game plan was going to lead somewhere and develop into something positive, I am very sad to say I have reached the point where I don't think our game plan is any good at all, our coaches have been caught with their pants down and I have lost faith in the game plan (and by extension Bailey)

K. M. N.

I suspected this may be the case- he's versatile but also a player who has the potential for a big impact late in the game, especially if he can get the ball close to goal... C'mon Dees, fire up!

I think Le Cras is still out injured. I believe our team will be something like: B: Bartram Frawley Garland HB: Bail Rivers Grimes C: Morton Maloney Davey HF: Bennell Green Sylvia F: Wonna Jurrah Watts R: Jamar Trengove Gysberts I: Martin Tapscott Petterd S: Jones Out: Dunn In: Petterd Close: Maric Frawley v Q Stick Garland v Kennedy Bail v Priddis Cox v Russian Embley v Morton

Thanks DemonWA. It sounds like it was a great night. Can't wait for tomorrow night, 11 days between games has been too long!!! I have a feeling we will put in a good showing.

Yep. On channel 9 looking jovial. Also showed Trenners and Chippa...

After recent results, in particular Gold Coasts win and Brisbane's effort against the Saints i thought it was a timely reminder for people on here to have a little perspective... We drew with Sydney and given the start we had, that was a pretty reasonable effort as Sydney definately are a reasonable team this year. We were poor against Hawthorn. There is no escaping that. But it was an expected result. We beat Brisbane after being 5 goals down. This win looks much better after Thursday night. Then the TWO YOUNGEST TEAMS in the competition played off and we beat them by 90 points after a hap-hazard first three of quarters. An even better effort after tonight. At the start of the year, everyone was expecting us to be 3 and 1. 2, 1 and 1 is pretty close. We are not a finals team. We are still learning and developing and anyone who thinks otherwise is having delusions of grandeur. At times we have not been great, but we have not been that bad either. Good teams win games even when playing poorly. We have done that. We haven't yet played our best footy even for a quarter, at best we have been average. But only being average has still seen us getting wins. We have a big 4 weeks ahead of us but perhaps the 75% of doomsayers on here might actually take an objective look at things and see that we are about where we expected to be. Bring on Wet Coke...

Let's just worry about West Coast before we think of anything else. That will be a very tough match in itself...

I got my quote about the start a bit wrong but man was i spot on about the end.... It is ridiculous what some people on here post and whinge about. ...Nothing to take out of it...Terrible win....Not good enough.... FFS The Bulldogs and Carlton are two teams people expect to be top 6. We played better against the Suns than the bulldogs and but for 6 posters were close to the blues margin. And we played them away which the Dogs didn't. People want to say on one hand that so we should because they were kids but then again if the margin isn't 300 then we are crap because they are kids.... You cannot have your cake and eat it too. Here is a stat for ya. THAT WAS THE TWO YOUNGEST AND MOST INEXPERIENCED TEAMS in the AFL going at it. If many around here actually had REALISTIC expectations of where we are at, what this year holds and where we are going then they may actually see that all in all that was a good performance, with no injuries and getting the required percentage boost that is important when 6 teams have a draw this year... We are not a top 6 team. Probably not even a top 8 team. We are going to make mistakes at times. We are going to look ordinary at times. But that is what you get from a team that is still learning what is required to be the best in the AFL. Good on the boys. Good win. The bye comes at a time that will allow us to see the early season areas we need to improve on and gives us a chance to work on them in readiness for West Coast who will be very stiff competition over there...

In an interview on chanel 7 he said that he had been trying too hard because of the added responsiblity and thought he may have been thinking too much instead of using his instincts. Said that is what he is trying to get back too....

I read Demonland before watching the game on TV. My god how distorted some posters view of the game is. A couple of missed targets at one point and we are the worst coached most hopeless side in the comp. The reality was that we had a result that was better than most expected and we played just about as well as we could have expected. But for missing a fair few goals we would have had a 100 plus point win... I thought Watts was good when he came on. Couple of good contested marks, couple of good tackles, quick hands that resulted in goals or shots at goal. He looked to have some hunger about him which i liked. With no injuries i don't see any changes. I agree good form at Casey needs to be rewarded but i can't really see any more than 1 change at best. But no-one immediately springs to mind to come out of the team.

Nominated rookie. Can play all year. (I can't believe people still don't understand/realise this)...

Spot on Jordie. Unfortunately Rangey and Jackaub and a few others can't see what is really going on and want everything to happen now now NOW!!!

Crap. Great way to demonstrate you have absolutely no idea on drafting, player development or the modern game right there...

Morton won't be sub. The whole idea is to have a versatile bloke who can impact the game in a short space of time. I believe it is likely to be someone like Dunn given his size, strength and ability to kick goals. If it is wet then they may opt for Martin... I like the team they have chosen. I also like that there is competition for spots. Here's hoping for a fast ruthless start from the boys and a 30 point lead at quarter time....(and of course a 10 goal win at the end- although if that happened some on here would still say it wasn't good enough and they should win by 200).

Yeah but Cook has the potential to go well past Darling as his career progresses and we didn't need another mid sized forward. When is our best chance at a flag? 2014 onwards. They are drafting for then, not for the now. Back to the original post- I agree we need to show more aggression and a greater appetite for the contest. You don't have to be talented at all to go in hard for the ball and lay tackle after tackle after tackle. I disagree that it has to do with recent draft picks as Scully, Trengove, McKenzie, Gysberts have all shown an appetite for the hard ball and contest. I think it has much to do with the players still being light and needing to add more size to their frames. Eventually they get tired quicker and they get bumped off the ball as a result. For all the talk of rotations, presses, zones, set plays etc football is still, at the core, a very basic game. The team that has a greater appetite for the contest, is harder at the ball than their opponent, wins more contested footy and lays more tackles wins 90% of the time. This is where i would love to see the greatest leap in the development of our players. If it becmoes an automatic part of their game that they possess and display these attributes for 120 minutes then everything else will flow. Our players will in turn get more of the ball, have more space and time to use it, hit our targets better and see more scoreboard pressure applied. The players and the team will look and be much better.

People say that it is a good opportunity for Watts to play against kids but GC have a former AA CHB in Bock playing who is very likely to take Jack... No easy task for Jack at all!

Can you not understand basic English? It has been explained half a dozen times to you. Wow..... If you can't understand how all clubs name their teams each week how could you possibly question what the match committee are doing???

Humerous thread. Bought a little comedy to what has been a fairly negative forum for a while now........