rufus

Positive that we found a way to win. Also positive for our long term objective to become a consistently competitive football club that we have been in a position to win all 21 games so far. Just not convinced that we are as good as many on here think we are. I've been thinking/hoping we've been keeping something hidden and had a switch we might flick at the pointy end...but our defence has dropped way off (uncannily kept teams to 16 to 18 scoring shots every week last year, this year it's regularly 24 to 25), and we don't seem to have a method of getting the ball forward when plan A isn't working. I honestly see us in big trouble in week 1 of the finals if we drop next week...I reckon the Tigers are a better team than us and Dogs and us are line ball right now.

I reckon it'll be heavily dependent on what happens in the next 2 weeks. If we lose one of these games, then get bundled out in week 1, the club will be pretty aggressive around the fringes. If we make it to the last 4 when all is said and done, then it might be looked at as an acceptable return from this group and we might stick fat.

I am in the minority but I like Collingwood. Always have. I don't care about ther supporters...sport for me is about one thing...watching the best athletes battling it out desperately for the win. When i check which matches are on Channel 7 for the week, if I see Collingwood in those games you know it'll be worth watching. Regardless of ladder position, there is a pride in the club that means they will give it everything. I have a theory on their poor GF record...they have made many GF's that they had no business making. They weren't the best, second best or possibly in the top handfull. They get there by out husting better opponents. When you get to GF day, both teams tend to scrap and fight for the full 120 minutes. Collingwood lose the gap they often have over their opponents in the desperation stakes. Best team usually wins and its often not them. Still think it's a record to be proud of.

He might be dirty, but they have looked tougher, stronger and more resilient than us in each of our last 3 meetings. The only way to respond to this stuff, and to their general physical domination of us is to raise the intensity at our end...give back bettet than what we get...

I know he's won a Norm Smith and had a good year last year, but I've just always felt he's a bit overrated. He still fumbles whenever under hard physical pressure, something that players usually get out of their game as they mature physically, and with his body size you'd expect him to have no problem with that. He is Dangerfield-esque with his defensive efforts, which isn't a great look for his teammates. And i find it hard to remember a time where he's ever actually in genuine 50/50 contests in dangerous spots on the ground.

Staggering how much legs this has ever gotten. Sure we have probably loaded, as have the other teams, but it's just another embarassing excuse for some of our down hill skiing. Our stats last night looked like it should probably have been a win, but in the one thing that really matters, pressure, we again got out done by the Pies. Everything we did was under pressure, while not everything they did was. That is just will to win and unrelenting competitiveness. It's just not in the DNA of our club. We can do it ok when things are on our terms. We look timid and weak when the physical pressure really gets put on us. Really not an admirable trait for a team to have.

Gee this has been an arrogant season from the club, through admin to the coaches and players and down to the supporters. We are heading for a big serve of humble pie. Absolute nightmare scenario to cop the Dogs in the first final. We will legitimately be putting our season in the hands of the incompetents in yellow, with a very likely 10 vs 25 free kick count. AFL umpires love nothing more than piling on to a narrative, and the whole league will be salivating at the idea that the MFC chokes away a 10 zip season start without a whimper.

Yep one of our best in 50/50 contests which is huge. IMO it is the second most important component to winning games (behind applying pressure to the oppo).

Cats look extremely good...pretty similar to us last year...just overwhelimg teams with inside 50s until the goals flow like an avalanche.

When you're in a position to compete like we are at the moment, players like Hibberd must be retained. So good at halving genuine contests, which really stands out the way football is now played. The change to player empowerment has been terrible for players like Hibberb...unless they are at a club that is trying to win a flag the next season, foot soldiers up and around the age of 30 are now being let go in favour of bringing in youth. With high profile players abandoning clubs as soon as they think the flag window is shut, clubs are now also abandoning the peripheral contributors as soon as they believe they'll be too old for the next flag tilt. Free agency and players dictating destinations between contracts does not work well in this sport.

When our pressure is up we're a very good team. When it's not, we're ordinary. Surely it couldn't be any clearer to the players now. Having a good shot at it is 100% in their control from here.

Tonight will tell a lot about our hunger to win it all this season. Players should be stung by the earlier meeting where they belted us in the contest and on the scoreboard on our own patch. When teams have really upped the physicality this season we just haven't responded well enough. It's going to take a full 4 quarters of intensity tonight, including finding a way to drag ourselves back up when things are going against us. Do we have it in us?

Great signing. I personally love the long term deals for your best players...reduces the annoying noise about potential defection. I was getting a bit worried about him leaving and what that would have said about what we're trying to build the MFC into. Very relieved. Brayshaw is a much improved player over the last few seasons...one of our very best at winning genuine 50/50 contests.

I remember early in the season when the Blues were up and about thinking "let's just wait till they face Melbourne and see how they go against some real physicality". Was probably the first time in my life i have thought of Melbourne that way. The way things are going, we might just let them stroll out the front of stoppages under little pressure and tear us apart. I can't believe how much we have dropped off in terms of physicality/pressure. The absolute phyical belting we let Freo give us on our home ground could maybe be excused after so many wins on end. But the lack of response vs Syd, and then getting belted physically with very little response vs. Collingwood was a massive downer. We play a boring style based on probabilities of outcomes in certain parts of the ground, that has been painful to watch when we don't bring the main ingredient: pressure. Still time to turn it around, but we are dancing with the devil by allowing it to drop off as far as it has. Hoping for a product to be proud of over the next 4 to 8 weeks.

Am talking on field rather than off field. Can almost never remember a Collingwood game where I've walked away and thought, gee they just didn't look like they had a fair dinkum crack today. To be fair we are better than we used to be in terms of competing harder for longer, but it still doesn't feel like it's the default expectation of a player wearing an MFC jumper. The Freo game was about as egregious an example of losing a game 100% due to lacking the intensity of your oppo that you'll see. Collingwood game similar. 18th rank for pressure, coming off a flag built on applying pressure, is appalling.

No. Look at their team. They are so low on talent yet have won 13 games. Every year they win more games than their talent dictates they should, because of their non negotiable competitveness. I hope we've been holding something back, because to be given a game plan that was proven 100% to work (and in fact to be close to unbeatable) provided you bring pressure to your opponent, and then dish up an 18th ranked level of pressure is completely unfathomable. If we bring number 1 ranked level of pressure from here forward we'd win the flag in a canter. It could not be laid out any more simply for the players. If we continue to dish up what we've dished up, this will be one of the biggest wasted opportunities imaginable. This is another weak season on terms of contenders, and our attitude right now looks like it's going to cost us a golden opportunity.

He's right. And at our current level of competitiveness we're not winning any finals. We are back to the old Melbourne of picking and choosing when to go hard. Our 'changed' culture is still a mile away from proud clubs like Collingwood. I don't care what anyone says, if Ugle Hagan is kicking 5 goals on you, that is your evidence that we are not hard enough physically.

They also, like Freo and Syd, made a concerted effort to attack some on on one's against us, in positions where most coaches hate to open themselves up to the ball potentially rebounding (e.g. kick ins and the centre corridor). It's a good tactic against a well drilled 'system' team that does not have great depth in terms of contest winners. We can be timid and weak in marking contests, which is masked by the fact that we structure up in a way to get 3 up in most contests. When we don't have a numbers advantage, teams are exposing us in the air, and also working harder to get to the full of those aerial contests.

Season was pretty much summed up by that Bulldogs kick in where we let them stroll the first 30 metres (yep nice strategy) then kick to Ed Langdon in a one on one contest out in the wing, with no other players even close to that contest. He looked like a 7 year old trying to compete with his dad at the park. Embarrassing stuff. We are so non competitive in the air, often in our own D50 (unless we manage to get 2 or 3 guys up in a contest). We are a poor reigning premier...we don't seemed to have gained any of that winning know how that teams get when they succeed. Unfortunately we really do look a bit like down hill skiiers and at times it has to be said we are a bit soft (it's one extreme to the other, but the softness was supposed to be gone with our great 'new culture').

Embarrassing performance. Tomlinson not AFL standard. May reaching Maxwell lvels of finger pointing while making schoolboy errors himself. Disappointed in Brayshaw. Gets enough of it and can win a contest but disposal for an experienced player is woeful. Petracca once again not near an actual contest. Getting beaten by Ugle Hagan is a pathetic step in a premiership defence.

Where do you source the pressure rating numbers from? Ans is there a site with past games that you know of?

The raising of the white flag at the end was retro Melbourne style. Inside 50s got to 52 v 46 and we gave up the last 14 insides. With an important game on the line. Just don't think we have what it takes when things aren't falling into place for us.

Play the corridor. Make our guys contest without 3 of their buddies to help out. We are extremely overrated and are a system team that had a system that took a little while for others to work out. Corridor teams, including the appalling Hawthorn team, make us look pretty ordinary.

The first part (regarding our pressure up the ground) x 1,000,000. It's a pretty simple game really.

Still wonder why this game gets so over complicated. No team in the AFL can score well if the ball comes in with 15+ oppo players behind it. The skills just aren't good enough and there just isn't enough space for any margin of error. For at least the last 15 years, the team that wins is the one that applies the most pressure. Apply pressure, get the ball back from half back or forward of there, your kicking skills can look great and you can score (and all these fringe players that everyone thought had all of a sudden become modern greats, who have now started looking like plodders again, all of a sudden will look great again). Our pressure has been abysmal and frankly a bit embarrassing that we get outhustled by teams like Collingwood every year. This is all in the players court. Forget Goodwin, he's given them a formula to win and they couldn't have better proof that it works. If they want to go the Hollywood route and think they are above the need to apply high levels of pressure to win games then there's a big shock coming.