binman

I assumed at first this related to the annual discount New Balance give to MFC members. Does anyone know if that is happening again this year?

True enough. I'm not sure if your comment is in reference to the discussion about selecting frost, but if so i don't think TMac not playing is relevant. As you say pederson will play that role, perhaps not as well but still play it.

Yeah i guess you could include him. I know he was a number 1 drat pick but don't recall him being so well paid (relatively of course) when he crossed from Freo. But i guess the expectations were very high.

It's called the zone defence. Every club, bar Sydney uses a variation of it, with some more aggressive than others (we have been quite aggressive under Goody, though interestingly not os much in the forts 2 games). Have done for the last few years. They do so because it creates quick ball movement and rebounding from defence and as a result scoring opportunities. The risk is when exposed (for instance by poor all ground pressure) it can result in easy goals out the back, such as 2 of the goals Jessie got against the Lions or mismatches (such as Guthrie on Roughhead, Jetta on Brown). The other issue for zone defenses is that it relies on the back six having great synergy, which is much easier said then done and takes time to build. Brisbane are trying to implement an aggressive zone and you could see from our last two games they have not quite got it right. But also when it works for them they can score quick goals.

Agree. On all points. But as someone has noted a player coming to a new team for the price we paid and the draft picks we gave up will be under scrutiny and thw expecation will be they perform from the get go. And fair enough too. In thinking about players coming to melbourne from other clubs with similar price tag and expectations i reckon there have only been 3 in the last 35 years. Clark, Moore and Templeton.

Some seem to be suggesting jlt1 has no relevance to this game. glorified practice match and all that. But riddle me this. Why would the club not trial the defensive unit they had in mind for a game for premiership points against the same opposition 4 weeks later? Now im not saying they wont pick frost but given we won that game and limited the influence of brown it would seem a strange decision. Particularly given they have stuck with same back since

If you are a telstra customer you can get a Live pass and watch all replays. A really good resource actually. I guess Foxtel subscribers have an option to watch replays on demand, but not sure. The many other ways to watch replays on the net would breach copyright.......

Yes there is. Unfortunately i would be in contravention of DL's code of conduct if i told you. And would have to be shot. That said YOU could probably SEARCH for an answer to your quest on the WORLD WIDE WEB

Another random comment on the game: I was watching a bit of the dogs v wc game and the commentators were talking about how hard it would be for dogs to make finals given that statistically it is quite rare for sides who lose their first two games to make finals. Not sure how accurate that is but it did make me think how bad it would have been for our chances this year if we had lost the lions game.

Have to agree. If they chose not to pick him round 1 with the cats having two talks can't see why they would pick him next week. The problem for frosty is we can't afford another player who turns the ball over. That said hunt is struggling so they may be tempted to do a straight swap

Yep - and fair enough too. I am 100% confident though he will be worth the investment

Agree. In addition to his near misses set up two goals with beautifully weighted kicks, including a critical goal to jeffy after a nice mark (yes an easy kick but how many of our players would have instead forced Jeffy to stop and mark and then have to have a set shot from 30?). Also has booming left foot which he doesn't hesitate to use.

Just watched the replay. Some random observations/comments: Brisbane are pretty good team, with some genuine guns - the future looks pretty bright for lions fans Cameron was a terrific get for them Some truly baffling umpiring decisions and non decisions - how Gawn didn't get a free in the 3rd (or maybe 4th?) after Martin threw him to the ground from a throw in is anybody's guess and ridiculous that Fristsch didn't get a fifty - he was wrestled to the ground after clearly taking a mark. The free for holding against Lewis in the middle of the ground was ridiculous, made more so when on a number of occasions players were given an eternity to get rid of the ball Jetta has had tough couple of weeks, though this week his cause wasn't helped by some tough borderline umpiring decisions Lever was ok, made some smart decisions and has great hands. Did make a couple of bad errors that cost us goals at key times (his failure to 'kill' the ball when one of three players up against Walker and then not keeping the ball in front of him allowing Hipwood to goal near the end of the game). I found it curious that Roos was quick to point out these errors and also had made a couple of other mild criticisms of Lever in the call - it made me wonder if he was keen on him as Goody hibberd was back to his AA best and i think our most influential player (with apologies to Jeffy who was awesome) My take on the Lions come back: Mistake one - not slowing things down. Brendan Speed said at some point in the third we had started to play tempo football, which i though strange because we hadn't. Just as he said Jones (as pointed out by someone above - a good get) elected to go long down the line from hb to a contest rather than going back and chipping it round to slow things down (though to be fair on the tv i you couldn't see if there was spare player - but if a player worked hard enough there should have been). Fom the contest they won the ball and took it the length of the ground to score. Mistake two - near the end of the third oliver missed a set shot and jetta a snapped goal from 20 metres. At the start of the last, after a great build up Hogan missed everything from a set shot from 35. Cameron meanwhile kicked truly twice from 40 metre set shots in that same period. We get those goals and momentum is stopped. Also not sure what happened with Zorko - he was instrumental in getting Lions back into the game and didn't appear to be tagged in the second half However after they leveled up we got the goals needed, with Jeffy and Hoges standing up when required with clutch goals - a terrific sign and we will be able to draw on that all season Bugg and Melksham missed some very gettable goals that would have mad things harder for lions Brendan Speed is a really good commentator Fritsch is the real deal. A wonderful mark, reads the flight really well, is brave and for his size is hard to beat in the air. On the ground picks up the ball beautifully and to round things out is an excellent kick with a sound technique. I love left footers so all in all a top package Hogan look really switched on, body language and temperament is good and seem in a good place. However he seems to run under the ball a fair bit still Gawn look in ripping shape and is better now when the ball is on the ground Lewis made some errors but was terrific in the second half Oliver is already close to the best mid fielder i have seen at the dees in my 40 odd years of watching us. Big call i know but he is just so good. Of course our habit of giving up bags of goals in short periods of time is an issue but a game still has to be considered in totality. And in the end we won by 26 points. One of the best measures of the likely outcome of a match is the line bet as it is a function of bookies, who do not like losing, setting the line and then thousands of people making a decision on the likely outcome, moving the line up and down. Money talks. The line was 18 points and in the end we easily covered it.

Some good points, particularly the one about not having TMac at his disposal. Tmac up forward is critical from a structural point of view, in terms o fGoody's game plan. We reacted a bit better this weel with much fewer long bombs but clearly it is an importan part of our stategy and Tmac is central to it. I think a real issue is our on field leadership, which is no great shock as it has been for meany years. The two most effective ways to stop a team with momentum is slowing the game up and keeping possession (the hawks under Clarkson are the best modern example of this) and scoring a golas against the run of play, which the best teams find a way to to do - and often it is the out and out start that hets it (think Gary Ablett at the Cats, or Dangerfield or more recently Martin). I guess there is a third way. Combining the firts two. We don't seem to have the ability to take the pace out of the game and lack the real star who can will himself to change the course of a game - and then deliver. The first is about leadership and but the second is about having the right players. The leadership option requires a handful of players and outside of Viney i'm not convinced about our on field leadership (Jones makes too many bad decisions - like his choice to go wide to Melksahm from the corridor in the last when we desperately needed a forward entry). But i'm confident Trac, Oliver and Hogan have the star quality and Viney has the will power to chage the course of games in the next few years.

I think you'll find the problem is some people have very long memories and have to go back to the Northey era to remember a time when we routinely flogged teams

The 20 metre handball from Oliver to Trac in the final quarter putting trac into space Then the brilliant kick from Trac over the top of the zoning defender to Hogan The brilliant kick by Tyson to ANB Apologies to the much better kicks to Hogan's advantage , with Pederson being a good example

I don't get this comment. The 'same old feebleness' would have been a loss. Yet we won by 4 + goals. If that's feeble i'll take some more of that please.

Hunt has lost his mojo. Frost for Hunt would be good swap i reckon.

I have to say this sort of comment is starting to bug me. Don't get me wrong i am rapt we got Lever and he will be worth every penny and draft pick. But given how highly he is rated (justifiably) and the coin we are paying him surely he doesn't need a Frost to ride shotgun to be effective (read as allow Lever to run around zoning and not have to be directly accountable to a specific forward) and earn his keep. I mean he is a defender. And his job is to beat a forward. I have to say given the stick two posters in particular have given TMac's younger brother over the last couple of years i find it a little amusing how their yardstick for young defenders has struggled to take a mark, hit a target, break even one on one or 'kill the ball' in his first two games for us.

How's your love child Lever going? Being shown up by the other young defender atm

Yep. x 100. Would have been gutted if we had lost, particularly because we burnt opportunities to push further ahead than 7 goals up (so similar to last year's game). That said they had the momentum in the last quarter so to balance up once th scores were level and get out to 26 point win was impressive i thought

Jack watts say's hi

Rich out for them. And fuckknuckle - who is suspended. Bell end dropped. Matheson in

Afl site has on and outs. Outs hannan and maynard. No ins listed. That's condidence

Haven't been able to bring myself to watch the replay. i'll wait till we have a win under our belt.