Pitchy

Oliver - kicked wrong way

He is like a combination of: A - Ablett D - Diesel A - Ablett jr M - Matthews He is A.D.A.M., the original man. * * not to put pressure on the kid

We need to start picking an MCG team, not Etihad dashers. That means stronger aerially, so Watts and Hogan come in for Bugg and Salem. Pedo CHF, TMac on Buddy, Frost playing smaller/faster (if faster is possible) Hogan and Watts are surprisingly mobile and remember Hogan was doing center bounce midfield work earlier in the year too.

How about TMac on the wing? His aerobic capacity can be exploited to it's fullest in this position? Might seem a bit of a shame to have him key defense after blossoming up the ground. And for those worrying we'll have too many talls, Frost is so fast he barely counts as a tall in the conventional sense. In: Gawn Out Jones

I hope Pedo can settle into a Cam Mooney CHF role after Gawn comes back. Not the best player in the team but the team is much better with him in it. Been very frustrating watching him sit behind Dawes for years and now Weed who needs a couple of development years if we learned anything from the Jack Watts saga. Cam for a mature role-playing CHF please.

You'd think that in the absence of a competitive ruck opposition they would have a 'long punch' plan. Could choose a spot on the compass and get width from the contest. Huge advantage if Dangerfield is stuck 15 meters from where the ball lands.

Get the feeling DD wants to use more than three words? Nice punctuation effort, particularly the use of the forward slash and some capitalisation, to try to stay within Joeboys format.

Cloke is struggling to get a game in the firsts, in a lesser team. He is 1000% better than Dawes. Shouldn't surprise anyone that Dawes place is being questioned.

I like having someone of Dawes' character quality around the club. But he shouldn't be playing.

Dunn was VC last year and a very competent member of our defence. We saw captain James Mcdonald get shunted and this treatment of Dunn has shades of that. In isolation, Oscar grew so much throughout he game on the weekend. He will be a good player quickly it seems. But Dunn is good now, so the heat is on Oscar to perform.

When did Dawes move ahead of Pedo? Last I checked Pedo was clunking marks that Dawes could only dream of. Is Pedo injured now?

I agree actually, I sort of meant 'explosive' as a veiled pejorative. He did some good things on the weekend though. Gee your profile picture is off-putting. Not trying to be mean if it is actually a photo of you. Your best photo? Sorry if so.

Frost is a natural attacking defender. Tall, strong and lightning fast. If we lose sight of his real strengths and relegate him to VFL as a failed forward it would be a huge shame. I know H was explosive on the weekend, but he is too small to play on the taller breed of forward. Frost is a defensive weapon we must deploy sooner rather than later.

Agree that he is not the foundation stone of future midfield hopes but it would be great if he could come on like an Andrew Leoncelli and play a solid complimentary role like you say. Like all youngsters, his poise, skill and tackling will develop with time. But I do think he is already a better ball user than many in the seniors. Despite the best of endeavour, the wind in Tassie masked our poor ball use. Matt Jones, Harmes, Stretch and Bugg were simply not showing enough with ball in hand to justify their place ahead of an in form ANB. IN: Brayshaw, Garlett, ANB OUT: Vince, Harmes, Stretch

A bit harsh there. It was his first year and he showed a lot, especially with nous near goal. Bagged a match winning 3 goals early on? One-paced is fine criticism if he is in his 5th year but he is young and developing apace.

ANB suffering from low draft position bias? He is dominating at the level below and hasn't been thrown in. If he was a number 3 draft pick (ie. Petracca) getting 36 touches and 2 goals we would be beside ourselves demanding inclusion.

And thanks John Dee. He has done a great job building that website up from scratch pretty much. Wish him a speedy recovery.

Or maybe getting a book deal to publish his preseason training blogs?

Where is Burgs??? He's nowhere to be seen, not on MFC.com, not on Twitter? The man has soldiered through so many sombre interviews after huge losses. Nodding gently, compassionately, as a devastated Nate Jones or Jack Watts searches for some way to explain yet another belting. Burgs was there for us in the hardest of times and deserves to be puffing his chest and smiling his way through winning interviews with his beloved players. (Russell Robbo doing a good job mind you ) #bringbackburgs

Frost has to play down back! Dawes' injury takes away the difficult coaching decision to drop him, which I have thought necessary for a while. I'd prefer to play small/Pedo or even Watts across the half forward line than have a place holder in Frost who should be developing in his natural defensive roles.

Draft him now! Kick the ball inside forward 50 and he will beat his opponent. FOOTY CAN BE THAT SIMPLE!! The better player wins the ball and kicks the goal. Liam is that better player. Boy we had a poor midfield when he was playing yet he still kicked more goals than Hogan did in his first 20 games. Would kick 40+ this year without thinking about it - such is his talent. Apparently he is very 'prison fit' at the moment (skills/weights/no booze). The excruciating pseudo professionalism of the AFL (rewarding GPS data and running patterns over the ability to influence games for example) means that he won't get another shot without being put through torturous non-footy hurdles. But if someone showed some belief in a genuine match winner he would be fine and train the house down I'm sure. Plant him in the F50, spot him up on leads (an old school Ablett Senior role) and he would bolt into AA as a 27 year old I believe. Even if his player ran off him a couple of times, it would be a net 4-5 goal/assists gain per game having him in the team. Won't happen, but one can dream...

But that game was the perfect example of why MARKING tall options are so important. Gawn and Spencer ran amok - took contested marks, we got our confidence up, hit the scoreboard and we collectively looked a million dollars. Stuie, you are right it is hard to argue purely statistically that Dawes restricts our scoring, though there is a indicative correlation and he doesn't kick goals himself. It's mainly that I just notice time and again that his link in the chain is at best a neutral result. The typical Dawes scene is the ball slaps his hands and spills to ground, and then he provides a commendable 'second effort'. Coaches love endeavor, and he certainly embodies that, but scoring goals requires more than that, it requires a decisive skill on display which breaks through the best strategies of the defense. Dawes doesn't possess those skills to a high enough standard. We need to look elsewhere for our CHF. Such a shame that Watts doesn't seem cut out to play the role. He is taller than Jesse at 196cm, getting stronger and really has all the attributes except that 'effort' which Dawes has in spades. Pedo is a good mark, good kick and good link-man. He fulfills the role for now but we would love a monster to be drafted in (Weed) or for King to come on.

Dawes can't play in the 22 anymore. He is a big reason for our scoring constipation. We average 66 points per game with him in the team and 80+ without him in 2015. And... he missed both miserly Freo games which flattered his stat, it's more like 90+ without tightass Freo games included. In an increasingly difficult comp to score in, forwards need to be more deft and brilliant than ever, not dour and poorly skilled (marking). It saps team morale very quickly when good play repeatedly goes unrewarded. Seems like a great bloke though and I'm sure he will be a very successful man in whatever he turns to next.

Sorry to be the one to include the unknown draft picks..... but if it's Parish and Weideman then it could look like.... Jetta TMac Garland Melks Dunn Frost Parish Jones Brayshaw Petracca Weed Vanden Watts Hogan Garlett Gawn Vince Viney Int: Salem, Tyson, Bugg, Kent

Our average score with Dawes this year: 66 Without Dawes: 85 (And Dawes missed the two games against Freo, who no team scores against)