rufus

Legitimately seen a couple of our guys fully [censored] themselves at the physical contact today. If we hadn't already set the lowest of low standards then tonight might have been the all time worst!

Last week we applied good pressure to GCS when they got the ball. Better pressure than we have applied for the past season and a half (although our tackling execution still wasn't great). If we apply that sort of pressure to Hawthorn then we give ourselves a good chance to win. If we revert to type and think that our own ability to win in close is enough to win us this game, then we will lose. If only our group start to realise that while they have a great ability to win the ball in close and generate forward entries, the golden forward entries are the ones that come off opposition turnovers. Bring the pressure, watch how our own ability to score increases.

Given our players copped it a bit in the media this week, we might have a better chance of seeing nearer to 4 quarters of decent intensity (historically this is usually what has triggered a bit more from the players at MFC). If we do, guarantee our skills will look much better. If we don't see it this week, then buggered if i know what it's going to take.

Bang on. Most AFL games and in fact most AFL premierships are won by the team that applies the most pressure for the longest time. Its not hard. Its not the NBA where the skill level is so high that good defence can regularly be overcome. It seems too hard for our players to apply pressure for long periods of time...and it always has. And further, our lack of pressure is the reason why our skills look so bad. It's because we rarely force the opposition to give the ball back to us in a way that we can break into space and create more time for ourselves. We applied pressure in Q1 vs. Carlton = we looked like we had some skill. Downhill from there.

We've been here before though. Many times. Remember the week Mitch Robinson accidentally said what every club thinks about us (that we like it bruise free)? The players came out breathing fire the next week. Smashed the Bombers. Mission accomplished apparently because we went back to normal within a few weeks. I just don't think this club is about winning. There has always been a reason why it's too hard for our players. You can see the culture of this club all over this fan board...

Ha i was the same when Bombers game was cancelled. So relieved. Could just watch other games without wondering what fresh hell the club has to offer us that week. I generally follow scores now for a couple of reasons...first that we hopefully will kick 2 or 3 goals for the game...and second that we don't lose by 100+. Sad.

Why is anybody surprised? I'm guessing the one's who are surprised are the ones who thought last year's train wreck was purely caused by pre-season surgeries. And that the 2018 prelim was just a bad day at the office. And that this season is all Simon Goodwin's fault. - Good competitive groups don't churn out the 2018 prelim 'effort'...and if they did it would burn so hard that it would drive them forward. Not this lot. - Pre-season surgeries might have made last year a tough one. But it didn't have to make it a complete disgrace. - Those who want to see the back of Goodwin are going to be real upset 2 years into the next coach's reign (if the players haven't managed to completely bury the club by then) when our players still can't muster up 4 quarters of high intensity, high pressure football.

Feel sorry for neutral people who pickup the TV guide and see the Demons are one of the featured teams. Just know you aren't going to get a battle worth watching and it couldn't possibly be worth watching.

Good quarter Demons. Really got stuck into them there.

The group has the capability to be top 8, however we are a bottom 4 team right now and we will finish in the bottom 4 this year. Unfortunately we don't work hard enough defensively and just seem to be poor defensively in general. This means two things: first we can give up 5+ goals in a very short space of time, and second we rarely get easy goals our way (as easy goals usually result from forcing the ball back from the oppo). Was interesting once again seeing most games on the weekend won by the team that applied the most pressure to their oppo. It's a much simpler game than many believe.

Like all the other players at our club reaching their peak years, he needs to keep improving and be able to deliver a consistent minimum level of output. He's looking like being another on the long long list of talented MFC players who seem to go backwards with experience. Other than low expectations from supporters, teammates and the club in general i have no idea why this happens. You would think that all else failing, personal pride and drive would see these guys willing themselvesto be dominant.

Not sure regarding Goodwin, but hearing Melksham this morning get the impression they are quite happy with themsleves about yesterday. It's a major worry. Getting the 4 points yesterday would be hugely important if we also learn from the 2nd half capitulation...but it means nothing if the FD don't adress how badly we played in the latter part. Doubt clubs like Hawthorn, Collingwood, Essendon, etc. Would have been happy with playing like that.

One thing that really struggle to reconcile with our club is how poor a return we get from our players in the 'experienced` bracket. I'm not talking about leadership, I think that word is overrated. I'm talking about pure football output. Over the last 20 years I can think of so many MFC players who's output is just hugely inconsistent as they go through their physical peak. I would have thought the one thing you should get from an experienced player is consistent output. The whole idea of gaining experience is that players get comfortable with what they need to do to make their contribution to the game. It must be a freaking nightmare for our coaching staff. You expect a lack on consistency from the young guys, but with us you have no idea what you're going to get from these supposed experienced guys. Nathan Jones over his career has been an exception to this, and it seems we get pretty consistent output from Oliver and Gawn. But most of the rest of them are confounding. I cannot see how someone like Tom McDonald can be as poor a contributor as he is right now. I always thought he perhaps just wasn't good enough when he was playing in defence, but his season forward a few years back was exceptional. How can he now be this bad? Do these guys get ahead of themselves, stop doing the work, and fall of a cliff??

Agree with this. Realistically it's been this way for the majority of the days since Northey.

At 3 qtr time we were still in a great position to make this a good result. All we needed to do was match their intensity for a period until we broke them. But we didn't. I'm a bit lost as to where this club is at again. Maybe our list really is terrible. But can a terrible list play the way we did early in the game? I still feel like as a club we just do not know how to compete when it really gets physically tough. I just don't see how a different coach gets different results in that area, but who the hell knows at this point.

We are an ordinary football team and and ordinary football club. Once again, the people in a position to actually do something about raising the intensity when the opposition does the same (i.e. the players out on the ground) failed miserably. I can't even be bothered looking but I'd love to know how many times this group has failed to kick a goal in the last quarter over the last few years. They just don't like the heat. We look like sending North Melbourne a pick between 1 and 4 for Pickett which is great.

I agree. Goodwin was part of a winning culture as a player and seems exremely committed to turning this club around. Not sure where we would look next turning away from him. And at some point, we might realise that the constant over the last 20+ years has been an inability to get consistent effort from the players. You might say that's the job of the coach, but Roos couldn't do it, nor could Neeld or Bailey or even Daniher in the latter part. It's a part of the clubs fabric and its that that needs to change.

In terms of pure talent I think we have them covered by a huge margin. Unfortunately the evidence is suggesting we may have yet another group who don't go so well when things get tough. The Hawks culture thrives under the idea that their competitiveness can outdo the talent of the opposition. Ours does not. The fact that Hawthorn won 11 games last season was one of Clarkson's greatest feats. By rights that list should have sat in the bottom 4 with no more than 5 wins. They compete in an envious way.

We have a pretty strong midfield but I'm uncertain how much better our forward line will be than last year. And our first choice backline is very poor with poor depth behind it. You can't win a flag with a struggling backline.

Just my opinion but as a weaker Victorian club i see it as crazy to draft an interstate kid with a top end pick. We are destined to go through the 'go home' chatter at every contract. Why not just cut that out with a gun Vic kid? We don't have a Collingwood or a Hawthorn culture to wrap these kids into.

I don't know mate...I reckon 9 or 10 wins would have been a real bad year but it might have still given people some belief that this club was in the process of changing its ways. As it stands, we looked like a club that was pretty lost but even worse we didn't even look like we were fighting to right the ship. The performance late in the season against Sydney looked like a group who gives no $hits about the direction of the club. Very hard to sell it to potential recruits on the back of that.

Difference is that there's a general expectation to compete at those clubs. Competitive people often like to be in competitive environments. The players efforts of 2019 have resigned us to having to build again through the draft (that outcome may not actually be the worst thing). Hopefully we can uncover a couple of people with the kind of drive to compete and show linear type improvement through to their late 20's (and maybe become the second person at MFC to do that since Jones started).

Jeepers the clubs thinks Oscar can fill the 3rd tall defenders role???? That genuinely worries me that they can possibly think that. Don't rate Frost at all so not fussed with his departure...however Oscar is a frighteningly poor league footballer. I reckon we could find a number of better tall defenders in suburban leagues.

Whilst there is hardly anything I would like to see more than an MFC flag, I honestly don't feel like it is the most important thing for this club to achieve over the next 3-5 years. We need a sustained period where we are competitive, hard and fight out every game from start to finish. We need to try to find a way to emulate our neighbours at Collingwood and build a club that is ruthless and expects nothing less than absolute commitment to winning relentlessly. I would be happy if the next 5 years saw us defy any percieved lack of talent, or bad luck with injuries, or bad runs with umpires, and just give every team we play a tough time week in week out. That will provide my kids a reason to watch this club with pride and give them a reason to love them (instead of turning to the Bulldogs).

Other teams have lost important talent and managed to stay competitive. The Dogs lost Ward and Griffen, two of their more valued players, and then went and won a flag. If we lose Petracca we lose him. We clearly still don't have the right personalities in our playing group to truly affect a meaningful change. Maybe it's actually best for us to keep moving through these guys (provided we get fair compensation) until maybe at some point we arrive at a hungry group who compete relentlessly. As much as we all want a flag, this club doesn't need a flag as badly as it needs a group that just has us competing consistently through games and through seasons over a number years. This would give us a stronger foundation for a viable and more enjoyable long term future.