Maldonboy38

Jordie McKenzie ( I think Cotchin is currently trying to remove Jordie from his car)

Very good, Great One, lol.

6 . Moloney

5 . Jones

4 . Watts

3 . Frawley

2 . McKenzie

1 . Nicholson

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I loved Watts' body work on his opponent that allowed Jamar to take a mark, for a shot on goal that he eventually missed. I went with my brother-on-law, a Tiges supporter, and his summing up comment was "The Dees shepherding and blocking was the difference in the game". Our team work, with the exception of some third quarter laziness, was top notch today. Nicholson, Jones, Sylvia, Gysberts, Scully all spread with intelligence on many occasions AND we had someone forward to kick to that maed a huge difference.

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I don't like bagging our own, but I have restrained myself long enough. Morton is becoming a starting 22 liability. His first touch today, from the back pocket was to direct a kick to centre-half-back (???) and kick it straight down an oppositons throat for a goal. I don't question his gut-rnning or his positioning, but his lack of marking ability and atrocious foot skills mean we end up in sight of losing games we should win. Players like Bartram and Brad Miller come to mind here. IMO he is now a liability and needs to be told so.

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He was better than solid today but did take on his opponent one-on-one a couple of times when he should have dished it off. But his attack on the ball (and player) is second to none. I arrived late today and missed the first 15 minutes so got stuck up high with the seagulls and helicopters. Different vantage point that allowed me to examine setups etc... Nicholson relly took the game on. He left his opponent unmarked a number of times to go help out a team mate, and if the ball turned over he gut ran back to his opponent. Really impressed. Surely he will be placed on our senior list for 2012. Especially if he can hold this form.

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Green - good but selfish

Jones - our energiser battery

Watts - stronger and stronger

Gysberts - quiet but effective

Bennell - just all right

Frawley - strong but fumbly

Trengove - quieter but poised

Morton - some excruciating mistakes

Sylvia - magic but tagged

McKenzie - aggressive and focussed

Petterd - some outstanding patches

Garland - mr reliable again

Moloney - brilliant midfield game

Jurrah - improved defensive work

Rivers - position and timimg

Macdonald - OK, unfairly subbed

Scully - stats plus clangers

Martin - another string game

Howe - team-mates ignored leads

Jamar - rusty but OK

Strauss - rarely noticed him

Nicholson - another great rookie

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We can't go into this game thinking of how to match up on 6 - 8 players. The mindset here is "their best 22 is beter than ours so let's negate as many of them as we can". We need to shut down their 2 or 3 most influential players, and then trust that when the ball is in our hand, we can keep possession and score once for every 3 times we go inside 50m.

For mine, their three most influential are:

Martin. Not only a really good midfielder but a reliable goal kicker.

Reiwoldt. They don't rely on him as much as they used to, but he is a match-winner.

Deledio. He is the Tiges offial "run out defence player" like Shaw of Collingwood and Yarran of Carlton.

So,

Martin : Jordie. Jordie will match his strength and annoy him to death. His famous fend off will not work.

Reiwoldt : Frawley. Strength to match in the air and can run off him often and easily. Chip will show up Reiwoldts lack of defensive effort.

Deledio : Bennell or Nicholson. Whichever of these two can concentrate for long periods. Bennell has shown good discipline in this role.

As far as Nahas and Vickery go, our basic back six can handle them. Rivers as third man up does not make him weak or incapable. It is a specific role in a modern backline and this is our main weapon against vickery.

Cotchin is a great footballer, but like Mitchell of Hawthorn gets a lot of ball in areas of the ground where it doesn't hurt the opposition a lot.

On the other side, with Watts in the form he is in I can't see the Tiges having anyone of suitable heigth AND aerobic capacity. If he has the confidence to kick more than handball, he will be a real headache. Our forward line lines up very well on them and I especially think Howe will suprise them.

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Green - growing into leadership

Jones - grunt and endeavour

Bartram - Sam Blease please!

Watts - joy to watch

Bennell - very limited opportunity

Frawley - strut is returning

Trengove - strong and committed

Morton - good in patches

Sylvia - grunt and skill

McKenzie - should clone him

Petterd - surprising midfield presence

Garland - quiet but effective

Moloney - physical presence showed

Jurrah - get some anger...

Rivers - solid and steady

Macdonald - solid and steady

Scully - very bad haircut

Martin - self belief emerging

Gawn - seeds of excellence

Strauss - would've learned alot

Nicholson - showed some ability

Howe - wins his position

It all hinges on the next three weeks for mine. The Tigers, Bulldogs and Power at TIO are winnable games. However, making 8th is meaningless if you are not a serious threat of winning at least one final. The problem starts straight after these 3 winnable games - those three probable losses to Hawks, Geelong, Carlton could rob us of confidence and we would find ourselves losing a later, winnable game against Port or the Tigers again. Remember our late loss to North last year? We have a poor record of winning these kind of games late in seasons.

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I just finished watching the game, and I also squirmed when he said "the Dees love it when a game is like this". Pathetic and stupid comment from a group of commentators who couldn't have sounded more bored if they tried. I suppose all ex-players have a team or teams that they hate. Mark McClure (ABC or 3AW - I can't remember which) is the worst Melbourne hater. Called Moloney a C-grader at the start of the year. This from a bloke who was nothing more than gap-filler in a champion Carlton side, made to look good by a heap of stars like Jesalenko, Walls etc...

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Couldn't get to the game this week, and have just finished watching the game on AFL video. We won that game far too easily. If Freo had the same kicking efficiency as us we would have won by only 20 points.

The Good

Two young ruckman.

Jordie McKenzie (and the serious man-love from the commentators)

Jack Watts. His aerobic capacity for a bloke that size is amazing.

Dan Nicholson

Howe. He reminids me a bit of a young Ken Hunter who played for the Blues in 70's and 80's.

Brad green's leadership.

Scully's ability to read the play at a stoppage and win the ball.

The Bad

Bartram's disposal when there was zero pressure.

Handball that much against most other teams and we will get murdered.

The crowd.

The Ugly

Fremantle.

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Grimes would have been a lock-in for mine but for two reasons. One, he is unfortunately injury-prone. Two, his footskills produce frustration among the players and the skipper should not be producing frustration but finding ways through it or around it. Other players really lift around him, and even older players look to him when setting up in defence, but he needs a full pre-season and 22 rounds.

Trengove is emerging as the true contender for Captaincy. He has my vote.

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Great post, DrDrake. The Dees are still 2 years away from a starting 22 that can win a final which is a bit disappointing, but many thought 2013 would be most likely anyway. The great problem is 3-fold:

When we lose, we lose horribly

We haven't adapted to the 2011 game (we would match up well with a 2007 Geelong gameplan that has been mostly negated by new defensive structures)

Leadership. As a footballer, Junior was probably a player who would start on the bench but he was a magnificent leader. I thought his appointment as leader was a grasp at short straws but he proved me wrong. When he was asked to stand aside I thought it was a good decision. Again, I was wrong. Sylvia, Rivers and Moloney have provided leadership at times but Davey and Green are proven to be influential PLAYERS but not influential LEADERS.

With 11 to go, apart from our appalling under-pressure skills, kick in structure, inability against the press etc... I want to see leadership and ticker. Yes, I want wins and the win/loss ratio is important, but we will go nowhere without leadership. We have leadership at Board level, we have it in Admin, we have it in Marketing, Membership, Sponsorship but we lack it on the field.

Will the next leader(s) of the MFC please stand up.

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The Good

Sylvia - if he doesn't win the Bluey this year, something has gone seriously wrong.

Watts

Strauss

Howe

The Bad

Brad Green - especially his 2nd efforts.

Tackling.

Players not being aware of each other, bumping into each other, spoiling each other in the air, handballing to a target that was surrounded by opposition

Our chip kicking inside 50.

Jurrah. Casey beckons

Scully's field kicking (Marc Murphy's was this bad early on, by the way)

Gysberts. Was he on the ground?

The Ugly

Our disposal under pressure

Our crowded set up at stoppages that demands 5 or more dinky little handballs to get it only 10 metres away from the original contest.

Being 36 points down at the 5 minute mark of the last quarter, to lose by 88.

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6 - Sylvia

6 - My gf for giving me something to at least stare at at the game...

Very good DeezMan, made my morning.

6 . Sylvia

5 . Morton

4 . Watts

3 . MacDonald

2 . Moloney

1 . Howe

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Apart from the red looking pink-ish, it is the best alternative strip we have ever had by a long margin. It has really sharp design even though it is simple. Let's just leave it alone now and get on with footy.

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Our rollercoaster ride has changed. Even with the Lions win and Crows win, our 22 were not playing with a lot of confidence. We were playing on momentum. If we had it we played OK, if the opposirion had it we folded. When Carlton got that first goal of the 3rd quarter you could see the entire Melbourne boys body langauge change to a slump.

Our win against Essendon has changed one vital ingredient - confidence. Up until this match we have been "hoping to win with a young side". The Melbourne players now genuinely believe again, and that means anything can happen. Also, we figured out how to work our way through a press: don't handball, kick!

With the Pies arrogantly deciding to send Swan away, and with Thomas suspended we have real chance. Two important factors:

We must start well and not get more than 20 points down at any stage

We must kick well, especially into our half forward area.

For mine, head says the Pies by 40, heart says Dees by 20. I am a heart man - Dees by 20.

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I went to the St. Kilda v Pies games last night when my brother phoned saying he had an extra ticket. I sat in the members and had a graet view of the game so I took the opportunity to be a neutral observer. I thought I would share some insights. It always looked like the Sains were "just holding it together" but at any moment the Pies would break the game apart. The only reason the Pies did break it apart was because for some reason, the tags were lifted. Jones was killing Thomas but for some reason the tag was removed.

The Pies are beatable.

If St. Kilda had a half forward line (Reiwoldt can't do it on his own)they may have won the game. St. Kilda got into thier half forward line with ease. But they paid no respect to Shaw and O'Brien. Shaw is a worry but I would play him on-on-one. He gets a lot of loose ball and looks good but wins very little contested ball. His tagger should focus on him and not on the ball. Maybe Nicholson or Jones (maybe lacking pace though). O'Brien has attacking strength but can be run down if you get him in the first 3 or 4 steps or so. If we place someone super quick off the mark on him, he will resort to long bombing without thought. He resorts to this under pressure amd players should be 60m upfield of him ready for it. I would play Morton on O'Brien and keep him accountable but I am unsure if Morton is quick enough off the mark. This persono needs to tackle really well. Howe maybe?

St. Kilda looked dreadfully slow bringin the ball back in after a point to the Pies but I soon realised that it was a successful tactic. Del Santo would hold the ball for as long as the umpire let him and then would do one of two things. 1. Bomb it long to wing/half back where McEvoy or other would knock it straight over the boundary line. St. Kilda would then set up a set play and move it to their half-forward line. The Pies rarely managed to handle this tactic. Only Shaw and O'Brien being left unattended, and the Saints being Reiwoldt-happy, meant the Saints could not get through. 2. As everyone moved to the boundary to stop the "inevitable" short kick into the back pocket Del Santo would hit up a target straight up the middle about 30m away.

Players like Thomas, Didak and O'Brien do a heap of gut running. I thought they may vomit at times after three of four very long sprints trying to offer something. Saints were very static at times but the Pies designated runners, run all night. Our fitness will be tested. I reckom Howe, Evans, Strauss and Nicho may find this constant running difficult to cope with so our rotations are vital. May need to complete 120 rotations in order to stay in the game.

The stoppages were even for much of the night and I reckon our young midfielders could worry them with pace. Pendlebury is a gun and gets a heap of it, but usually forward of the ball. If a defender plays him by playing goal-side it will diminish his effectiveness. Moloney, Sylvia, Scully, Trengove, Gysberts, etc.. can 90% match it but need to concentrate. maybe Gysberts run with Pendlebury all night - come on with him, rotate when he rotates.

The main worry is Cloke and Dawes. These two are very strong overhead, helped by a lot of off-the-ball blocking. Rivers and MacDonald need to do a lot of third man up spoiling and then get up for 3rd and 4th efforts. Both Cloke and Dawes are hopeless at their feet. Although Cloke marked well early, and Dawson looked out of his league, he annoyed the carp out of Cloke by spoiling marks Cloke thought he had. These two players can be beaten through team play.

If the Dees can be intense at stoppages, account for Shaw and O'Brien, we can stay in the game. St. Kilda showed that you can get the ball into the half forward area easily, but it can come out just as easily. Our half forward line is the key for mine. I would have Watts, Jurrah and Evans through this zone. Especially, play Watts on or near Maxwell. Watt's pace will kill him as will his aerobic capacity. Maxwell HATES playing one-on-one and does not like to run too much. Nicho on Shaw, Morton on O'Brien and then take the game on. Our weakness is in covering Cloke and Dawes.

Thoughts?

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Maximum GAWWWWNNNN!!!!

Utah, that was priceless! It is years since I have seen that sketch and I have tears coming out my eyes. GAAAAWWWWNNN. Very woody sounding name, don't you think?

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Green - a captain emerging

Jones - sets an example

Watts - Class and run

Gysberts - clearance brilliance displayed

Bennell - attack from defence

Frawley - not his best

Trengove - class, class, class

Morton - pace, poise, skill

Sylvia - not another injury?

McKenzie - heat seeking missile

Moloney - passion with effectiveness

Jurrah - excellent and horrible

Rivers - Perfect backman's game

MacDonald - tough and creative

Scully - makes us better

Martin - genuine ruckman emerging

Gawn - good first game

Howe - intelligent and skilled

Jetta - Mathew Whelan cloned!

Strauss - solid with errors

Nicholson - strong and focused

Evans - great gut running

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6 . McKenzie

5 . Rivers (are we beginning to see his Rising Star form again?)

4 . Martin

3 . Gysberts

2 . Trengove

1 . Green (He is starting to LEAD. Growing into captaincy at last)

Huge apologies to Watts, Scully and MacDonald

Smaller apologies to Howe, Jetta, Jones and Bennell.

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Yep - I agree. He made a few mistakes at times but he set up well, attacked his opponent well and ran hard when Essendon had the ball. I just hope they leave him there for a few weeks and let him learn. His awareness is good but his excellent kicking gets a bit shakey at the moments in the bustle of contested footy. I remember Moloney when he was forst with us - it was either a 60 metre bomb to no-one or a clanger. Strauss will develop. He looks the goods to me. Most importantly, when his disposal improves, he will be a better option coming out of defence than Bartram (who we will probably also need for his closing down and negating role). this will be an interesting space to watch over the remainder of 2011.

The Good

The newbies : Howe, Gawn, Nicho, Evans, Strauss (yes he made a few mistakes but he earned his place and was excellent on occasion)

Green's captain's speech before 3rd quarter when all the players were in a circle.

Green's captain's goal in the last quarter

Jones 3rd and 4th efforts in the back pocket

Jurrah beginning to tackle

Jordie McKenzie

Stef Martin

Our future midfield on display together

Our backline : special mention to Rivers

Bennell, Morton courage running back into packs

Beaner's goal

Watts' aerobic capacity burning off his opponents time and time again.

How I feel this morning....

The bad

Not enough TV footage of Hird after the loss.

Gawn's miss - did you see the look of total unbelief on his face? - priceless!

Not enough TV footage of Hird after the loss.

Jurrah sometimes deciding not to go for the ball

Did I mention Not enough TV footage of Hird after the loss?

The Ugly

Hird's face when he knew the camera was on him and he knew they had lost.

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What can you say about this bloke? His attack on the ball in any contest is frightening.

If anyone else can remember back that far, I am reminded very much of Bobby Skilton and Kevin Murray. I am not saying he is going to reach those heights, but like Skilton and Murray he locks his eyes on the ball like some heat-seeking missile and nothing - NOTHING - makes him change his focus or attack. His second and third efforts after being gang tackled are inspiring and the demons fans roar when he does it. Great stuff.

I better stop now - blood is running to a place it shouldn't and I have to get up from the computer soon.

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He is a lot bigger than when I last saw him during preseason. I was very impressed with his intensity and attack (on both ball and player) and he has a physicality like Moloney. I'n not going to make huge statements but he looks so strong. If I compare him to Dunn or Petterd etc... at the least his attack on the contest tonight was very impressive.

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Evans is playing like he belongs at AFL level. In the 3rd or 4th quarter he took on the man on the mark and ran around him. There is a confidence in him and he is a genuine team player. He will have his ups and downs and may be dropped here and there, but he is establishing a place for himself.

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