Demon Dynasty

Thank goodness for Bugg! Kicking practice appears to be working

If you were telling me that after you had seen today's match I would be feeling a lot happier Chook!

If that is true then it would be the first time at the MFC for a very long time Saty. If so it augers well for the future and prospects going forward. Need a bit of depth to be able to carry that strategy of course.

Wells you do realise this is a 2018 home & away game? The 1987 finals series finished a few decades ago!

Going to wait till the final siren on this one

Nor was I doodle

I'm not sure either DV but he's the only tall defender we have, outside of T-Mac, who can stay with him on the lead. If you can't match him on the lead you will have zero chance of stopping him overhead. May as well put Nev in him ?

Mods pls delete this post.... immediately!

Most of Brown's best work is on the lead and high marking. Not saying O-Mac wont be minding him at some point but this would be the poorer of the two options IMO. Frost has the pace and leap. Not quite as good at finding his man though or hustling one on one but he would be expecting help in this sort of situation much of the time. Frost also has greater ability to run off Brown and make him chase hard up the field, which may limit Brown's tank to make multiple leads when the ball comes back again. The flip side to that is Frost is a bit prone to turnovers, probably more so than O-Mac. Better option would be to run / carry then handball to a runner (Hibberd / Others) coming from behind then find Brown again ASAP. With Frost heading off on the run and leaving Brown in his wake (hopefully) this is where Lever's expertise should be utilised if the ball comes back in again quickly on the turnover. Him & O-Mac will need to stay within reach for the spoil attempts as best as possible. Suspect North will look to limit us here taking those intercept players deep or on the other side to where Brown might be leading.

Endurance and intensity at the contest are a must in today's game. I can't recall seeing Brayshaw bring that at AFL level for more than a quarter or two since his first season. I know he's had plenty of injuries and knocks but AFL level is extremely competitive and tends to sort out the weak from the strong. Some luck also needed though and hasn't had much of that. Makes you wonder if the constant head knocks have taken their toll already. Would be nice to see him back at it once the FD feels he is up to it.

With no Casey to get into some form prior to the big league I agree to an extent Paul but he will need to hit the ground full tilt this week to justify his selection IMO. No room for passengers in the AFL and hasn't been for a good 2 or 3 decades now. If you carry them too long (provided there are other depth options hovering that can play a similar role and do it as well or better and in form in the Magoos) you will pay a heavy price.

Like OD I still think we are about 4 to 5 quality players off troubling the top 6 clubs. But Norf isn't a top 6 prospect at this point of the season so this week SHOULD be very gettable. In the end everything said on here is just a bunch of thoughts and in some cases very astute observations mixed in with some cluey football brains (some with experience some with none). I am obviously not one of those. In the end we just have to sit back and have faith in the ppl appointed that they are making the right moves, most of the time! Nobody is perfect but given where we are coming from as a club we need a hec more correct moves than crappy ones in order to get ourselves out of the gutter that was the last decade. We have seen definite signs of progress for sure and some great work by all involved to get us out of the mud in the gutter that was the Neeld era. To me though, this week is a line in the sand critical match that we absolutely must win if we are to take a psychological step forward and leap frog some of the middle of the rung clubs (or just below), like Norf, and start to pave our own way up the ladder into successful times. A win this week will also boost the confidence of all involved at the club that we are doing just that, not just the players and internal stakeholders. Will be a nice boost to the cophers of our membership drive I would think and bust the last major hoodoo! After this weekend we might be all ahead full steam as a revitalised club on a real path to success...finally. Fingers crossed!

I'm struggling with Kent for Pedders also. Big men always have up and down weeks. He provides structure at CHF, brings ball to ground, can kick straight IF he gets a shot at goal and can also play relief ruck. Kent will need to provide signifant value to justify the replacement. Bugg needs a pretty big game also after last week. Another game with a few score involvements and tackles surely isn't enough to have a stay of execution. Not sure why Goody continues to persist with him up forward either. Certainly done enough to convince me he isn't a forward.

We actually lowered our eyes and hit targets a few times last week for the first time in a while. Unfortunately it didn't last much beyond the first quarter. Hopefully we can build slowly to 2 or 3 quarters at some point!

As others have said it will depend on the delivery and pressure on those trying to deliver Doodle. IMO this is a great challenge to those further up the field to look / glance before they dispose and try to get it to the advantage of designated forwards or put it out in front for them to run onto. Quick long raking kicks out to favoured side of forwards (where possible) are also better than up and under bombs. We need to work on that side also this week. The Hawks do this beautifully week in week out without necessarily hitting up forwards all that often.

Filling the whole down back with Frost / Lever (in tandem) and one less up forward means more space for Hogan, Jeffy and Tracc to work their magic Lucifer! We don't need Hogan to mark too often, just get it to ground and get our Ferrets (Jeffy/Hunt/Kent) to pounce front and square etc.

Now now FD! Bugg has been working on his kicking during the summer ...and this week i'm sure!

I hope this is the case Buck. Kent has shown patches of nice play at times but can also turn into our worst version of the invisible man at times. Fingers crossed.

Eelesie nice work but wld really appreciate it if you would not mention the phrase "above the shoulders" and the MFC in the same breathe pls & thx.

I'm with you SWY. Why are some clubs (and in our case one of the poorest) running down the moral (minority) no through road when the AFL is clearly sticking to the main pro gambling Hwy in every sense of the word? It's embedded in every TV coverage and post-mortem (and pre-mortem) tv / radio broadcast of every match and fully endorsed by Gill & his AFL cohorts. It's a nice fuzzy outcome but has PJ explained how we are covering the lost revenue in the pressers / media release?

In the main this is true CB, however there are some very clever (and/or extremely lucky....or both!) pokie players out there who sometimes win and win quite big at times. And i am talking winnings in the $10k plus region within a fortnight or so on occasions. I agree that most normal punters/dabblers would seldom win though (unless they got lucky on the right machine and the right time once in a blue moon) and some addicts would be selling the farm to fund their addiction. Not good for some that's for sure. The MFC out of it isn't going to stop ppl using those same machines though. Leighoak and the Bentleigh Club will just lease it out to another bidder or take the license over themselves (Bentleigh via new owners IF the MFC divests i mean) .

If they make up the loss i would happily applaud the club Jaded. But i'll believe that when i see the end of year report to members (at least a good 12 months after we have fully divested ourselves of pokies revenue, which might be 2 reports away!)

The MFC divesting their interest will not stop pokies being played by the masses CB. Even if all AFL clubs followed suit. Many humans love to pass the time away on the punt. Be it horses, poker, the dogs, sportsbet (etc etc etc) two up or an illegal [censored] fight. Do you think we will ever ban all forms of gambling right across Australia/society?

Dee i fear we will be waiting decades for that to happen, if it ever does. In the meantime pokie addicts and/or occasional flutterers (like myself) will just go to another venue, including some who will drop their hard earned (or otherwise) at a rival club's venue (potentially). I would like to know how much we are losing from this decision yearly and projected to lose over the next decade and how we are planning to replace the money foregone as a result of this.

The challenge for Goody is to keep him playing on the edge but eliminate the complete brain fade ill disciplined acts (at least one or two) pretty much every week that end up costing us a goal or two. Lewis also needs to reduce the number of panicky tumble punts forward when under little (perceived?) pressure and instead try and look for a free target and kick it to advantage (or to him). Has lost half a yard probably so my gut feel is he may think he's often under more pressure than he sometimes is. Just an awareness thing that the FD and Lewis may well be working on already. Aside from that he reads the play very well as one would expect. 10 intercepts and 4 score involvements on the weekend was pretty impressive from a defensive side and we know how much coaches (apparently) love intercept players!