durango

Good players play best in pressure situations when the team needs them most Harmes and Brayshaw are examples of players desperate to do the teams things in the 'teams hour of need'. In the 3rd quarter the lesser lights Harmes, Brayshaw, TMac and Sparrow stood up and showed their metal and did things which helped us to victory.

I have noticed when I am walking or driving to the paper shop how many Melbourne Flags, Caps and billboards are now that we are Premiers lots of people are now proud to call themselves MFC supporters instead of hiding the fact from every man and his dog.

Luke will have to conform to the selfless style this team has adopted, at the Saints he was always in survival mode which makes you do things which are selfish and stats driven. He will be given a job to perform and if he suceeds he will be rewarded with more games failure means he will be playing at Casey until he gets the message.

None of the other clubs were willing to pay him as much as Collingwood after their salary dump last year they have lots of money to throw at fringe players from other clubs or maybe they had a gentlemans agreement after clearing Treloar to the Bulldogs last year.

Unfortunately he never tasted the success that the 2021 players now enjoy he even missed the night grand final victory in 1987, spoke to him in 1988 on the eve of the season and I suggested he make a comeback for one last go at the premiership and replied he was done. I have MFC football which he gave me on the eve of the Preliminary final signed by all the players, I was a trainer at the MFC till 1986 and I was thrilled he got to taste some finals success but we fell at the 2nd last hurdle and probably would not have played in grand final even if we made it.

A great centre man but gave it away too early like Stuart Spencer who did not live to see the premiership and Bluey Adams passed away before this triumph as well.

At the MFC PJ wanted Roos and Roos wanted a plan where the next coach was picked as an apprentice then when the handover was complete Goodwin/Dew had time with the players to create a good relationship for the future. At Hawthorn Clarkson did not come up with the idea of handover but the board did because they felt the Clarkson had run his race and Sam Mitchell was the successor who was courted by Collingwood so they acted in haste.

Why would recruiters tell an outsider like Twomey their thoughts regarding the selections they want, if you have the 1st selection like St Kilda did in 2014 St Kilda did not tell them until the evening of the Draft.

Salem missed one game for the season and it was against Adelaide in Adelaide maybe we would have won if he had been able to play?

Highlights in one match are just that but Goater seem a distributer of the ball very much in the Oliver or Petracca mold whether he will make a good selection or not is dependent on a larger body of work which this year was restricted again the recruiters may have seen his match at school or club in the previous years. I look at the vision and he has the tools and I believe so long as he is willing to do the work he can become a very good player but conversion of potential to greatness is a long and ardous road players who are happy to coast a la Sylvia never reach the greatness they could achieve.

I believe that was one of the reasons Goodwin decided to coach from the boundary a la Norm Smith, I have heard that with all the people in the coaches box stats people and coaches your head is full of distracting noise from these people and when your team is in trouble clear thinking is a necessity so you can give clear instructions to players going on to the field and relate to players coming off.

Midway thru the 3rd quarter what ever was said at Half Time was history the players on the field had to draw on their own intestinal fortitude and perform, watch how Oliver then decided to tag Bontempelli and look at Jackson, Harmes Petracca and Viney they realised that their dream was going unless they do something and do it soon. The champion teams of the past always lifted when the result was in doubt, see Preliminary Finals Hawthorn v's Cats 2013, Port in 2014 both match hung in the balance.

When players like Dusty and Dangerfield don't play the whole season or play at a standard just below their best, the Journalist forget how good they are compared to players who play 22 to 26 games in the season. The perfect example is the player of the final series was decided on Macrea's 4 games v's Petracca's 3 Games which is like handing out the Brownlow after the Grand Final with the finals included.

ANB and TMac showed great character to be shown the door and then fight back to reclaim their position and be a part of the 2021 premiership team with ANB being in the best players on the ground for the MFC.

It took 69 years for St Kilda to win their first, Footscray it took 29 years, Melbourne it took 23 years to win its first and North Melbourne it took 50 years. Freo, GWS and GCS are the only clubs without a premiership at this stage.

If you look at premiership teams past and present there is always fringe players who have a good season or get lucky with an injury to a best 22 player it their luck and the other players bad luck. Look at Steven Armstrong won a premiership medal, Hibberd, Bowey and Petty they got lucky and Hunt Smith or Tomlinson got unlucky. Thats football and will always be the way, in 1955 Bluey Adams was 19th man and lasted 10-20 seconds on the field yet he was in 6 premiership teams.

I also want Noel Mc Mahon and Nathan Jones there.

Simply a brilliant season and he is just in the prime of his football career, this is a great reward for hard work and dedication. How he missed being a AA player is beyond me but am I biased or just a better judge.

He is look good for a 85 year old, when older people watch games of clubs they support they tend to ride every bump, handball and kick. When the team wins the premiership a tear comes in our eyes because we are relieved that they have achieved the holy grail and we are there to witness it even if it is only on TV or a replay. Unfortunately my father and cousin did not live long enough to see the mighty "D" raise the cup again.

I have a friend who is a St Kilda tragic and we talk about the team from time to time and I looked at their season with fresh eyes they had a larger injury list than MFC, the older recruits like Hannebery played very little football in the last 3 season 17 games last year he played 8 of the games in a 17 game season, Frawley 2 games, Ryder 12 games, Jones 13 games, Carlisle 4 games and Kent 7 games. These are the so called high profile recruits who were going to get them into finals and maybe a premiership, if you cannot get your best cattle on the park and play together building a team cohesion then you have no chance of making finals or premierships. My theory is that if you can get at 16 of the your best 22 to play most of the season together and the bottom 6 improve then anything is possible provided the team has 20 very good to great players and at least 10 good players on your list with little to no injuries. We did get this scenario this year and if it continues into the future we will be very hard to beat again for the finals and a premiership.

I look at the picture they have changed very little in time I believe they were friends then as they are friends now, competition between them is like little brother trying to outdo big brother and that is a good thing because they will push each other to be better for the team and best players in the AFL.

Simple go onto the AFL site go to Match Video, then round and game, watch quarter by quarter match replays like I do when I what to relive the season we have had.

We have respect that he has 7 MFC players in the best 50 which when you look at the AA squad the players all 7 were there, only 5 got into the best 22. His 50 usually include players who dont get a mention in AA Squad. How you rank them is a personal preference and I always respect other peoples opinion I never rank players because I am bias towards my team. Draft ranking on the other hand were you have no club to cause bias is in the eye of the beholder.

They had a draw in 2010 and had great chance in 2009 were they kicked 9 goals 14 points losing to Geelong 12 goals 8 points, 1997 bad kicking again was their downfall and 1971 where they were 20 points infront at 3/4 time and lost by 7 after Hawthorn kicked 7 goals in the last quarter with Bob Keddie kicking 4 goals. Their only premiership was in 1966 by 1 point

Gawn missed basically 2 seasons with knee reconstructions and had some knee swelling in some other seasons.