PaulRB

The other side of the "destination club" phase is that some of the ok but fringe players may want to leave to get opportunities elsewhere, i.e. ANB, VDB, etc... if they feel they can't play their freferred position at MFC but may fill that role elsewhere..?

If we can continue to improve and win more than we lose over the next 8 weeks, the prospect of adding Hogan and Gawn back in as we make our run towards finals is one to salivate over. Hogan healthy, fit and focused is a big weapon that we're yet to see the full potential of.

Feel for the young man. Wish him all the best and a speedy recovery.

Pay the fine and move on. Bigger fish to fry.

Reckon we just laid down our first set of scars on another top 8 team... big win.

It's a Grand old flag...!

Tmac!!!!

10 points at the half... not a bad result, least we're showing fight.

We've got this.

Figure we just need to soak in the hollow feeling that come too regularly with supportingbthis club..

Probably our best team across field for the year, with the exception for Gawn/Spencer, and maybe Kent/JKH though the jury still out on that as Kent been so-so...

I think the wider footy community is starting to twig onto the fact we've got a good number of kids that can seriously play. Will be a good day when they're all firing together. ???

Ummmm Hogan..!? Did you see the stats comparing best forwards after 29 games in HS?

I'd suggest that having just "pulled" Lewis and Hibbard last year, our "pulling power" has now moved past the Hawks, and will continue to do so.

It a good team to meet at this stage, we need to learn to come out guns blazing from the first bounce and break teams before they get rolling. This week, with Hogan back and Lewis playing his old mob, we should be treating it as an opportunity to practice the approach that wins elimination finals, and scars opposition teams. Really want a 4 quarter belting against these [censored]. ?

Excuses, even plausible ones like injuries are an avoidance of owning and talking responsibility for doing what's required to win. Losing is the result of one team succumbing to discouragement and turning their focus from those opportunities to win, to justifying why it's ok to lose... aka excuses. We didn't learn how to win after the Cats ran over us when Maxy went down, and as a result when it happened again two weeks later, the same result ensured. Instead of languishing the the comfort of a plausible excuse, "poor us Maxy went down", we should have taken responsibility to be ready should it happen again... I'm not saying things don't go against you or the team, and injuries are one of these, but as soon as you accept these events as plausible excuses that justify losing, you set yourself up for mediocracy, and failure. So, no excuses.

No

With Swans Hawks and North failing, the door into the 8 is wide open for us. no excuses.

Was talking to a sports scientist working with the Suns (down for north game) tonight, and he was saying during matches all players are on GPS and monitored for their work rate and brought to the bench to rest (and for how long) based on this real time data. then during the week post game they review each players performance against their game data and work with the coaches and fitness advisors to review and further develop players based, in part on it. So I suspect Goodwin and his team are probably delving a bit deeper into the players performance, load, intensity, etc than we on here do with our rudimentary stats and old school understandings... and we're just gonna have to trust them and hope they're on the money.

I too am starting to warm to our prospects come Sunday. The reality is we're near full strength with the exception of two key players (Gawn and Hogan) and one could easliy argue that, if not for injuries by half time to our rucks against Richmond and Geelong (whom we were both leading at the time, and are placed 2 & 3 currently on the ladder) we'd be higher placed and seen as a team on the rise. As it is we're learning through adversity and crafting a resilience and strength that will bloom into wins soon. And the Bombers... meh! they lost to Carlton!

Jack Grimes..?

Bring back Mitch!

Hogan and Lewis are hardly injuries... Self inflicted stupidity list: round four Jesse Hogan (suspension) – 1 week Jordan Lewis (suspension) – 2 weeks

If we can straighten up, we've got them.

They've set Oliver and us up for the "Dangerwood tames young Demons." or "The master and the apprentice.", etc... if Oliver stars and we beat Dangerwood, the lid will officially be off, re our midfielders. "Baby Demons come of age!"