durango

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?

I don't know how a player who has played only 13 games can be so good in such a short time most coaches say that big men take a long time to become a player can you imagine what he will be like by seasons end if he stays healthy and when he is 25 he may the player Schwarz could have become if he did not do his knee 3 times.

You might say Salem has put to bed the comparison between himself and Kelly, long live Salem.

We beat Richmond Firsts Premiers and Richmond Seconds Premier and made them look ordinary what just happened to the Demons?

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.