durango

If luke jackson does not win the rising star award for this week the people giving out the award should be given the sack.

For all of the doubters Luke Jackson is a player that will only get better and better, he is learning the forward craft that will make him a great player.

Since Chandler did not play he must be 23rd man

I like BB game was presenting and rucking when the ball was in the forward area.

Bowey was good this week and has potential Rosman is completely lost with his positioning the coach has no idea where he should be played I would play him in defence  like CHB so he can run at the ball.

In 1965 when the MFC sacked Norm Smith my father who also barracked for the Demons said the MFC will never win another premiership in his life time he died in 2007 but he lived to see 11 premiership and he was perfectly correct unfortunately.

In 1965 the match against St Kilda was the 9 round and 2 of our major defenders left the club Brian Roet and Trevor Johnson to pursue their Jobs Overseas both were in exceptional form and never could be replaced.

Brian was the CHB and Trevor was in the BP covering the Rucks, we also lost McLean to Carlton who was playing CHB.

Late we lost Tony Anderson later and Brian Leahy.

The MFC defence never recovered fron these loss in 1965.

21 minutes ago, CHF said:

There has been a lot of talk over many years about our lack of ability to develop our young players. However, I found it interesting that at the first bounce on Sunday we had Petracca, Oliver and Kossie at Max's feet while Hawthorn had Mitchell, O'Meara and Wingard in the center square.

Our three have all been developed in house via the draft and the Hawk's three were all imported as mostly finished articles from other clubs. It has to be recognised that we have had access to a lot more early draft picks than Hawks. having said that, out talent spotting has been very good in the drafts. Kossie and Oliver were considered as 'brave' picks. Petracca fell into our laps because of the Saints preference for a forward.

In defence it is different. We have an imported defence with Hibberd, Lever, Tomlinson and May.

!7 of last week's team of 23 came to us through the draft and been developed in-house.

Given the way we are travelling, our development of mids is very good but it seems we need to import key defenders. In all other areas of the ground except for the wings we have developed our players very well over the last 5 years or so.

Maybe with Yze and Williams joining Goodwin they have all added some polish to the almost finished goods.

Actually all 4 players from Hawthorn were recuits from other clubs whilst our 4 were recruits developed by the MFC from the draft

I think he will win the rising star award for this round with 17 disposals 5 marks 22 hitouts and 2 clearences which should be enough

I noticed that when TMac is in form the players like Jake Melkshem are better, their form mirror each other in 2018 Tmac was very good and so was Jake but in 2019 and 2020 both were poor.

I think it is Deakyn Smith who missed a season of football along with Bowey Laurie and Rosman all of who will benefit from the coaching of Williams who is accelerating the development of players at the club.

I watch some of the game and I was more impressed with Deakyn Smith than Bowey.

He may be the small defender like Neville Jetta was 3 years ago. 

I have seen teams pick talls and then find it rains and they become useless as the ball becomes more slippery.

Fritta is more than a marking option so we need a marking crumber kind of player which neither Petty or Brown are in that class.

I would pick Hibberd and Sparrow with Petty as the Sub.

The reason MFC changed from Navy Blue to Royal Blue was TV colour coverage came in 1974 and we were forced to change by the VFL power brokers. because the clash with Carlton

I  went on the AFL web site and watch the game I don't know if this is a new feature that anybody can watch games?

In the past you had to pay a fee.

I have seen 6 premiership at the MFC in my time as a supporter the teams since the 1950's and 1960's always lacked something which made them poor, the 2021 team has the same feel as the 1950's team which was an excellent defence and good midfield whether the forwards can kick a winning score is the major question that will be answered in the next 10 weeks.

When Norm Smith was coach he always had a system that a good attacking defence and midfield put pressure on the opposition's back line and the fowards who played their roles would eventually kick a winning score.

The players have to have a positive outlook meaning they should always believe they will win no matter how badly the game looks, I remember back in the 50's the MFC was playing South Melbourne as the Lakeside oval and at 3/4 time Melbourne was 29 points down and were kicking into the wind Norm Smith made a change and played Ron Barassi in the Back Pocket.

The result was the run out of the backline increased and Melbourne won the game.

This is the type positive thinking that can win premiership.

We have the cattle and we will find out whether the players have the mental edge?

Sometimes players like Melksham or Hibberd need to win back their spots on the team after just cruising for the last couple of years and that their spot on the list is in jeopardy they will do the hard yards to win back respect from their teammates.

I believe the current teams needs Harmes, Hibberd, Melksham, Brown Vanbenberg and Weideman capturing their best form then we are a chance to win the ultimate team prize in football.

Don't let fact get in the way of hope, the current team has done what it had to do win.

The fact is the team contains 5 players who have played less than 20 games and 1 who has played 37 games along with 6 players who have played less than 100 games so more than half the team has less than 100 games, the fact that they have won 3 games that in the past they may have lost has in my opinion due to the Williams and Yze affect.

On Sunday we will find out the whether they are a good honest side or one that has become an exceptional side that can only get better and better with more experience and training, along with pressure of the new key forwards and experienced players who are out of the side wanting to part of a great side.

I met the man on several occasion while watching the MFC preseason training he was the Chairman of selectors had a wonderful football brain

He has the x factor all indigenous players have and when you reflect on a player who has played less than 20 games and is capable of creating such excitment when he is near the ball just watchout when he has played 100 games or more.

Luke will have a breakout game like Gawn did several years ago against the Cats and when he does the belief in himself will help create the star we hope he will turn out to be.

If you have look at the Gawn breakout game he dominated the game but he had help from the 2nd ruckman in Spencer and they created a headache for the Cats maybe it will come to pass this next weekend, with a Jackson breakout.

What about the following

Barassi

Spencer

Tassie Johnson

Hassa Mann

Bob Johnson

Beckwith

in the 50's and 60's knowing you cannot compare players from a different era make this difficult.

The above players did not play in the professional era

In the 40's

Percy Beams

Alan Fontaine

Jack Meuller

Norm Smith

Don Cordner

Since most people are not surgeons or have an intimate knowledge of what will be done, we should wait and see what happens and maybe TMcD will be used to fill in for BB unitl he returns to take up the FF position.

Sometimes karma is your enemy other times it is your friend, just imagine if TMcD had left.

I think the list is the best since 1998, the players like Jackson, Rivers and Pickett must step up and improve and BB needs to be on the park soon.

As for winning a premiership lots can happen between now and September, we need our list to be relatively injury free and have at least 16 of our top players who play nearly every round and the finals.

Premiership teams always depend on the core players and the bottom 6 must at least be competitive and make a contribution to the success of the team.

I believe that the new coaching panel has decided that the players need more speed hence some players have fined down for example ANB Hunt May and TMc so they can play a faster slicker game similar to Richmond.