durango

I guess dad must have got into his ear about joining a great club with still a huge upside.

That maybe so but he is probably past his use by date at 34 maybe a good fit for Geelong replacing Rohan or Luke? Under the finals pressure with 255 games he scored 1 goal 2 behinds against Geelong and 1 behind against the Bulldogs not exactly that much better than Spargo or Neal-Bullen or Pickett. We already have Jake Melksham for that role as well. The players from outside the club we bring into the squad must have at least 5 years left in his career best form so they have to be in the 25-28 age range.

The advantage Geelong has over the rest of the competition is they play at least 9 games at Kardinia Park so you pencil in 9 wins this is why they have had great runs over the years. Then they only have to win 3 other games to make the finals.

I once rang 3AW before a match between Richmond and Melbourne spoke to Rex Hunt saying every team at the start of a year over rates their list and aim to win premierships and Caroline Wilson poo me for suggesting such a thing. I have been in the MFC dressing room before game between the late 1960's and 1986 and found that optimism is always there between the training staff and players. In 1981 when we won 1 match by a point the players were told by Barassi at the start of the season he believed they would go very well that season even though he told the Journalists that he had a 5 year plan. What he did not know that during the season injuries would wipe out more than 1/2 of the playing list. But 2021 was a different animal and Brown and Co now have the reward and what ever was said in the past was an opinion peice from a paid journalist who like sensationalism.

At this rate he will be over 2 metres shortly.

The fact is the best 22 in 2021 was the premiership team and 10-12 extra for depth but you have to improve your list by going out and getting players that are not depth players but part of best 22 players each year. There are 2 methods of doing that by improvement in the 10-12 extra depth players or going to get players in the draft. This team has 7 player who were 21 and under as at the Grand Final so these players need to be better next year because the premiers become the hunted. A famous athlete Carl Lewis once said 'when you are number 1 you have to train like you are number 2', so this team cannot rest on their laurels and expect the competition to allow them to do it again without a fight. Carlton is an example of the scattergun approach to recruiting, were they recruit anyone they can without development of their skills hoping they will bolster the team.

The problem is ruckmen in the modern game have to do more than jump at the centre bounce and crash packs for the mids and small forwards. Ruckmen have evolved since the 1950 into defenders and forwards and now midfielders because they need to be mobile and good below their knees. Brisbane toted out Keating with an elite midfield in Grand Finals, Hawthorn had McEvoy with an elite midfield, Geelong had Ottens with an elite midfield and Richmond had Nankervis with an elite midfield. Melbourne on the other had Gawn/Jackson with an elite midfield v's Bulldogs Martin/English with an elite midfield. The Gawn Jackson combinations were better midfielders the Bulldogs counter parts.

The improvement in the MFC players disposal from round 1 to the Grand Final is seismic and one of the reasons they are premiers this is the Clarkson/Williams philosophy which Yze and of course Williams brought to the Demons. I have said the fitness staff at the MFC have been poor in the past and the recruitment of Burgess was also a master stroke. Also we have had a great run of no major injuries to players in the best 22 in the season other than Tomlinson and Hunt who were both covered by the next best defenders which is one of the reasons our best 22 played most of the games in the season. If we can emulate this next year and there is more improvement in the bottoms end players we can do it again, again and again.

Luke Jackson and Gawn have redefined what ruckmen are in the modern game, they are now midfielders who win their own ball or create a loose man. The problem is yesterday footballers are exactly that and if they don't keep up with the trend they never become coaches of premiership team but line coaches in areas which they played and remember their line coaches instruction and like parrots repeat.

The problem with Rendall and SOS is they don't realise the midfield landscape has changed in the last 4 season from where 1 ruckman was okay to 2 good ruckmen, Geelong thumped by Port then bring in Ratugolea and thump GWS, Bulldogs bring in Martin and thump Port but Melbourne having the best 2 ruckmen combination thump Geelong and the Bulldogs.

I have now watch the complete season and my analysis of the team improvement was that the rucks at Melbourne have become the 4th midfielders and we have 2 ruckman which means the pressure from the ruck division is never released. Also I noted when ball is on the forward line both Tom and Ben do their share of ruck work which puts more and more pressure on the opposition ruckmen to cover more ground and allows our ruckmen to set up behind the ball to take marks from the opposition relieving kick.

I watch the after match celebrations and Pickett tried to give his medal to Neville Jetta but he refused the gesture, which make Pickett the most selfless.

He is now the ruckman that all young talls will try to emulate because he has changed the ruckman role to a 4th midfielder not just a tall player similar to Jim Stynes in the 1991 season and one day soon he will be the next ruckman to win the Brownlow medal.

His marking is elite for a man of his size and stature

If Max does not want the captaincy then maybe Petracca might be appointed, Max has such a media presence at the moment that will sell season tickets and sponsorships that the club should not discard the current captain.

I think we are the most improved team 2021 and as a result premiers. The most improved is Luke Jackson or Fritsch (59 goals from 22goals)

They probably offered the Visy Board Job a la Chris Judd.

I wonder has any of them coached a premiership team? I don't think that Petracca wants the captaincy. I the 1950's Noel McMahon was Captain, Followed by John Beckwith when Noel retired, John relinquised the Captaincy in 1960 and left the club in 1961 to coach a country side.

There are a lot of people who have not got any recognition for the work they did with the club to get this premiership like Roos, PJ, Taylor, Mahoney, Lewis, Tyson, Vince and Cross who allowed the club to stop the bleeding and begin the rebuild in a orderly fashion.

I just now look at the Stats from the game and Bulldogs had 280 (207 Kicks 173 Handballs) disposals to Demons 266 (206 Kicks 160 Handballs) and we won by 74 points usually the discepancy is 50+ disposals to the victors. I had a discussion with the stats people mant years ago and said them what is the most important stat in a game of football and they quoted everything except the score which proves to me that they are maths wiz's and know nothing about the game. Ray Jordan and I had a discussion back in the 1980's and we agreed that scoreboard pressure was one of the most important stat of a game.

Players like Mac Andrew would also benefit from Majak Daw who I think is also from the same country and it would make him feel at home.

I suspect that Taj and Shane now have got a good reason to join the club as a father and son prospect, good development program and coaching to maximise his potential and a premiership to boot.

He has done an excellent job. I don't know who arranged the whole squad to go to WA for the full 4+ weeks but it galvanised the team and the result was a premiership, whether he suggested it and the board approved it or otherwise and he implemented it, it worked well. This is the job of a CEO get ideas and get approval from all parties. When you sell $500,000+ MFC merchandise then you are doing something right so we should give the man the credit.

His analysis did not take into account injuries and players losing form at the very worst times in a season. If you are going to do a critic then look at all aspects not tunnel vision.

I was worried but look back at the resolve when we played Geelong and 10 minutes in the 3rd we were 44 points in arrears and still managed to win the game this game had the same feel when the Bulldogs scored 6 goals in the 2nd and 2 goals in the 3rd before the MFC beast decided enough is enough and ran them ragged.