durango

At the moment just enjoy the fact that we seem to have a healthy list, which could change at a moments notice.

Most teams win premierships when the best 22 or near best 22 play week in week out.

I personally don't care how many MFC players are named as AA's so long as the current MFC players can say they are premiership players.

I remember Gary Lyon's comment when introduce on the footy show as 6 times AA said I would give them all up to be called a Premiership player.

I think that Petty has improved every game he plays he is a better mark than Ingerson and has more athletic ability although Ingerson was a better one-on-one player.

Petty's disposal is a lot better.

He played on the Friday night on the best defencive player (Andrews) outside of May did ok but again did not stick the marks he got his hands to.

His last mark in the 4th quarter was excellent but was under pressure to kick a goal and shanked the kick, sometimes you drop players because they played poorly but he did contest most balls and again our talls competed with each other sometimes which has to be fixed.

The talls have to get separation and compete with their opponents not teammates.

Viney needs game time whether in Casey or AFL will be upto Burgess and the coaches since the lockdown no games in the VFL have been played maybe he becomes the 23rd man for a couple of weeks.

The player automatic return is Langdon so we need 2 spots if Viney is included Melksham is on thin ice as a player at AFL level the other is Sparrow but his game on Friday was very good with his limited game time in the VFL or AFL in recent weeks.

I think the current team is better than any MFC team since the 1955-60 teams, it would decimated the 1964 team but might struggle against the 1955 team which was a great MFC team with great players who sacrificed their game for the team with Ron Barassi, Beckwith, Spencer, Ridley, Johnson, Dixon, Williams and Cordner leading the charge along with players who did their jobs without fanfare.

I believe the fitness staff has turned this boy into a man and the result is he will play his 50th game in a few weeks so he has matured, looks quicker and has realised what he needs to do to stay in the team as well as what his job is in that team,

There is no 'i' in team but there is a 'me' and if you rearrange the letter it spells tame and when players play for them selves they play selfish football which in the dying moments of a close game means they want to win the game off their own boot leading to panic and defeat.

People don't remember the ride in the 1950's where we went from ordinary to a champion team winning premierships.

This team has shown last night it maybe on the track to greatness, time will tell whether the players can keep improving and stay injury free.

Premiers are teams where the bottom 6 players not only play their part but improve over the course of the season, the experts are now taking notice.

Yes the ride has started but the prize is up for grabs.

I made a prediction when we recruited this player and not Hayden Young that Trent might just be a better player and will turnout to be a very good player.

So far my prediction is okay looking at Hayden Young and Trent Rivers stats and games played.

He gets his hands on a lot of balls but does not complete the marks because he is too straight he should mark the ball at eye level with his arms outstretched and [censored] in a v shape stopping the defender from getting is arms near his arms or the ball.

He need to practice this at training so it become second nature when he gets near the ball along with timing his leads so that players make his job easier, on Friday in the 3rd quarter he was timing his leads and positioning himself much better and 2 goals resulted.

Also on Friday the talls were either competing against each other or not flying at all.

We have reach the half way mark of the current season and for the first time in a long time the football club has not played any of the 3 recruits Bowey Laurie and Rosman who will benefit from getting a grounding in the VFL.

Watch the replay and the standard of football was close to terrible, no foot skill except Bowey and the forward line talls competed with each other all trying to get into the seniors.

There was not a lot of teamwork.

When I played over 60 years ago it was called paddock football and panic football.

I think that the recruiters when they selected Luke had some idea what the upside to his game were but did not expect his development being so quick along with TMac's form reversal has created a winning senario for the club.

This has probably created the selection problems which the club now faces which is a good thing for the team since players are now on notice play well along with doing the team thing and you will retain your place.

If players play poorly or don't do the team thing then your in the VFL.

I already predicted Luke would have a breakout game this year but I am pleasantly surprised by his consistant level of performance over the 8 games were he has allowed Gawn to rest or play forward.

I still think he will surpass his Rising Star game and take a game by its throat and kill it.

I think the MFC has made good decision on recruiting in the last 3 seasons but the best recruit is Mark Williams who challenges the players to get the best out of themselves.

For the Bradke knocker he was very good when need in the second half when Daw was injured?

I watched the game on foxtel and he was very good, I think with a little more upper body strength he will be a very good small defender maybe as good as Caleb from the Western Bulldogs.

I watched the Richmond vs Western match and Caleb was not one of the reasons they lost.

He is a downhill skier, when the going gets tough he disappears rarely puts his body on the line and went missing in action.

I always said to others he is what Ray Jordan used to call a Jib.

He first has decide whether he wants to remain at Essendon and then has to make a decision which club has the best chance of a premiership in the next 4 years, the money aspect will then come into play.

I believe we will have the money since Jones will probaly retire which probably frees up 300k and some players may take a paycut to fit in a player of his quality.

The only thing that he has to eliminate from his game is when he is about 50 meters from goal try to pass the ball to a longer kick.

The depth in his kicking means the maximum distance is about 40 meters, the players should be aware of his limitations.

At the end of 2019 we recruited Langdon, Tomlinson to play on the wings as well as Jackson Pickett and Rivers.

There was criticism we made a mistake recruiting Tomlinson and after a few games in 2020 he was dropped but forward thinking turned him into a tall lockdown defender and the rest is history.

We may say 2019 was a poor year on the field but a great recruiting year off field.

We will never know who had the brain child move of Tomlinson but that person or persons should take a bow.

I remember everybody wanted Young in the 2019 draft before Luke Jackson was picked and then we got the Young clone in Rivers but I think at the end of the day Rivers will be better than Young.

9 minutes ago, Dees2014 said:

Yes, interesting to contrast with 2018. Then we dropped games consistently throughout the season, but also won games by close to 100 points in others. Hence we had a %age close to the leaders by the time finals arrived. 
 

This year so far much more consistent, but don’t win by nearly as much. A lot to do with a game plan ld suggest. Will be interesting to see what the margins are in the next six weeks or so. Time to put the foot down l would suggest as our percentage moves closer to the doggies as they start to play more top sides. So far, they have not played anyone higher than 8th.

We have played Richmond 7th Fremantle 6th and Geelong 4th and both Richmond and Geelong played off for the 2020 premiership.

At the start of the season all the experts said if we were 3 and 3 or 4 and 2 at the end of round 6 we have done very well!

The way we are playing reminds me of the MFC of the 1950 and 1960 which had great defences, great midfields and reasonable forwards who managed to always kick a winning score.

Norm Smith once said there are 3 phases of the game:-

1 when we had the ball

2 when they had the ball

3 when no one had the ball

Good teams play well in all phases to win games, this team has that characteristic.

When he was recruited by the club lot of experts said he was too small to be a AFL ruckman but he has proven them wrong and they may end up eating their words and change their minds that he should have been pick 1 not 3 like Dustin Martin?

Salem is now in AA form 2021 Half Back

This feeling can only be bettered if we win the ultimate prize in 2021.

We are now $6.50 to win the premiership some one must have put a lot of money on us?