PaulRB

Good point, probably Terlich... but prefer a mid.

I doubt Salem has 120 min of footy in him at this level, and believe Byrnes can and has been playing as a defensive forward to shut down opposition rebounding HBs, a role I suspect he can do better than Christian, at this stage. Garland can play as a third tall forward/back as required... so Salem out and Colin in.

I think Salem will be OK in time, but Garland's better. And rest of team doing ok... Georgio rates higher than Salem at the moment IMO

Assuming all injury and suspension free... In - Colin Garland Out - Christian Salem

The reality of the collision is that Jack would not have damaged the Lynch's jaw if Georgio was not driving him to ground in a (premature) tackle. Hence the responsibility for the broken jaw lies with both MFC players. To single Viney out a solely responsible and punishable for the brake is akin to blaming a bus driver if someone trips and falls under their bus (or in this case is pushed under it), when they are doing everything to avoid injuring them. Sometimes accidents happen in a high speed and impact sport and to finger an individual up for it is simply unjust.

I reckon Roos will have a good motivational tool to get the boys fired up these next two weeks.

I really liked Jack Vineys attack on the ball, twice in 3 seconds at around the 11 minute mark of the first. Quite possibly won the game for us right there...

We should start recruiting from the AFL's pool of legal counsel...

Its a shame that this incident is over shadowing what was probably Jack's best game thus far of his 18 game career. He's going to be a star... a hard star.

It they need a scapegoat for the broken Jaw you could argue Georgio was as much to blame as Viney, i.e. he was riding the Crows player into a contest and used his head to break his jaw... There is something really dumb about all this...

I hope the club gets on the front foot and has a few things to say about it, especially if Jack is suspended. We've been made the scapegoat for enough "rule" clarifications... i.e. tanking.

Ball was in dispute, hows it different from any collision injury when two player intent on the ball collide?

I reckon the opposition teams have been signing a petition to get the AFL to ask Jack to be gentler on them... Bit like when he was told to go easy in school footy...

Experienced watches of pool rate a player not on their ease in potting balls, but where they leave the white after they pot them. Same deal with rating player in footy, unless you know what role was assigned to a player by the coach its hard to truely rate their game or value to the team.. The value of older player is they are (in general) better able to implement for 4 quarters a specific role 0r multiple roles, while also being able to damage the other way. Jones is learning to tag and break tags, Salem is simply learning to present and play a straight forward role... So who was Byrnes playing on and how did he go?

Agree, Viney is running at the ball, with eyes on a loose ball, braces for impact, impacts as opposition player being pushed forward, he keeps his eyes eyes on ball and emerges with it. Umpire calls play on, no-one on field sees Viney to have done anything wrong (i.e. no remonstrations), commentators say nothing was untoward... We're making a mountain out of molehill here.

Viney was tracking the ball back, and simply braced for impact. His feet didn't leave the ground, and contact was unavoidable. And the broken jaw appears to be on the RHS from impact with Georgio's head. no issue, sh!t happens, fingers crossed.

And he has few options in the twos... Ooops

Footy seems more and more about roles and patterns, running patterns (defensive and offensive), with different roles needing to adhere to different patterns in order for the team to gel and win. I suspect that the key to developing a young player like Salem is to teach them their pattern, make sure the can demonstrate their knowledge and discipline in their applying their pattern relentlessly, under pressure, with skill in the Reserves, and if they do they are ready.. Christian Salem seems bright, dedicated and hard working in addition to being talented, he's learnt his patterns and is ready. If the coaching team can keep developing layers to do this we'll continue to gel and improve as a team.

Somehow MFC followers have more soul

The stats really show how much not having Clark, Hogan and Dawes (for the first three games) impacted with their absence seeming the prime cause of low Contested marks, low inside 50's and low marks inside 50. The rest of the areas are showing good improvement. On the clearances being worse than Neeld, be keen to see how well our opposition does in clearances now vs Neeld's time, as I feel we are bottling teams up far better at stoppages.

Hey Stuie, have you ever watched us go down to the Blues with a blues supporting mate? Or even sat near them at the game? Cause if you have you'd be enjoying and salting their wounds like the rest of the footy world currently is... I mean they are upset because they believe we are so beneath them that to lose to us is the ultimate humiliation... I'm loving it, bring on more salt, memes whatever..

If we knock off the Blues today, the mob will start to turn on Malthouse... A slim chance, but a big prize!

It's encouraging that 37 of 44 still believe that an upswing is in the works... if still a while off.

We've all hoped and been wrong on picking the turning point in the downswing of our footy club. So I thought I'd poll where we reasonably think the upswing will become evident. Not talking about storming into the 8, just solid performances and indications we can compete regularly?