rufus

Fritsch picked up his defense and contest work massively at the pointy end of 2021. I thought it was emblematic of the buy in from the whole group. We need him to get back there...his lack of defense and poor contest work is not going to cut it and he's not alone in the drop off in that area.

At this point, we have to hope we have one of the seemingly random weeks where our pressure is right up when we come up against Coll or Geel, beat them and hope that it builds some belief and recognition of what it takes to be there at the pointy end. Right now we look absolutely miles off being a contender in my opinion. Very much like the latter half of 22.

The issue with May is that you expect the floor for your experienced 30 year olds to be quite high, or at least a consistent level. That's how contending teams need to work...you know and trust what you get from the Senior guys so you can ride the bigger variation in performance from younger players that you try to bring into the team. May, along with some other senior players, just serves up too many complete stinkers. I reckon it would make it damn hard for the coaches dealing with that kind of inconsistency.

North were as physical against us as any team was last season. They are a better team now, and I expect they'll hit us very hard. I hope our guys aren't expecting an easy game. I'd like to see us hit them physically hard early and not give them the upper hand. This one makes me nervous.

Deserves his contract. He's one whose still sacrificing and doing the things that contribute to flags...this is exactly what we should be valuing.

Our disposal appears bad BECAUSE of the lack of pressure we are applying to the ball carrier in my opinion. We are not getting the ball streaming forward in space off turnovers anywhere further afield than deep in defense. Creating a turnover from half back/centre and anywhere forward creates the easiest time to hit targets and generate scores. And the lack of pressure is also making it easier for the oppo to do what they want, which is to bring the ball into the corridor. I heard many interviews from players after '21 where they acknowledged that if they sacrifice and do those teams things (applying manic pressure being number 1 in this category), they all get their 'lick of the ice-cream '. Just not seeing that from the group now. It disappeared last year, and I had a feeling that maybe they deliberately eased off in the 2nd half so that could jump teams again with it come finals...but that clearly wasn't the case.

I reckon we just look like a 7th to 10th placed team this year. It was great to see the intensity lift in the last and grind out a win...but we just looked like we were attacking the contest in slow motion through the first 3. Our defence was giving up around 18 scoring shots consistently a few years back...it seems to be more like 24ish now which is just too many to be a contender. Our pressure is nowhere near where it was back then. Mark Williams' goal kicking work is saving our skin right now. Also Steven May seems to have similar issues to Tom McDonald. They play more like rookies than guys with 10 years' experience...so unusual for players with that much experience to have such a huge variation on performance. This is an issue we've had with senior players since forever...and there are a couple of others at the moment who aren't too dissimilar.

Result is probably not going to change much about where we are at as a team. The lack of intensity perfectly encapsulated in Brayshaw taking 17 seconds to try and dispose of the ball while deep in defence. 29 tackles to 44. It might be that we are simply an overrated team, but our lack of real fight is the bigger blight.

Expect us to be switched on and up for the contest next week. But it's concerning that it feels like we need regular wake up calls in order to go as hard as our oppo do. This is the part of MFC culture I was hoping this period would erase. Bottom line is, it's been long enough now that it seems like it's one of two things: either our players just don't get it and aren't determined to fight for sustained success, or they just aren't that good. Surely it's fair now to rule out injuries/tough draws/fatigue from a long season in 2021.

It's looking more and more like Kate Roffey and the club went the early crow on the 'changed culture' after '21. Ultimately our culture prior to that included being fragile under physical pressure...and it seems we haven't managed to get past that. We came ready for a physical contest against Syd, but other than that it's been 12 months of wilting under pressure. We're in danger of wasting another year of a list in it's prime because we don't seem to want to scrap for it. If our top end talent wore black and white stripes they'd win 3+ flags I have no doubt.

This. The way we choose to bring the ball forward off 'slow play', I.e. in the situations where we haven't forced a turnover and been able to slingshot forward, absolutely demands a physical contest from our forwards. Petty is excellent at this and it has been a massive weakness of our group in recent times.

Great effort. Needed a good win against a tough team. Our intent to compete and intensity getting into defensive position were much closer to 2021 levels and more where they need to be. Made their switching harder by closing spaces so much faster than we have been. We competed harder in the air and at ground level than we have in a long time. Our pressure around the ball meant we could force them to kick to the areas we want them kicking to, instead of letting them dictate the game to us. Good week by the selectors too...we need competitors playing all over the ground and they finally got that right with JVR over McDonald.

Beat us twice last year by being harder than us. Would like to think we'd get some motivation out having them embarass us in a final on our home deck...but that seemed to mean nothing against Bris last week. This is a huge test for the resolve and competitiveness of our group. We need to see that we can match it with tough teams. Get pushed around again by this type of side and the evidence will be mounting that our guys aren't hard enough to beat the big boys.

Best Demon player I have seen in my lifetime...and comfortably. One of the cleanest players when under physical pressure I have ever seen. Absolute legend of this club. Needs more mates able to operate effectively in a contest if he is to get the rewards he deserves in his career.

We are just really panicky and fumbly for a team that is built around contested ball and has so many players in their physical prime. The only way to overcome this is to apply enough pressure on the oppo that we get some clean ball running away from forcing turnovers. We haven't been a good pressure side since 2021...we seem to have forgot the magic ingredient. Geelong copied our 2021 game style last year and included the full ground pressure that we left behind...and looked street's ahead of everyone. A bit like us in 21. Like to admit it or not, we've been done for hardness in the air and around the contest by multiple teams over the last 12 months...it's up to the players if they want to go down that way or step it up and make the most of this window of opportunity that we have.

It's starting to feel like, despite moulding ourselves around contested ball, we just struggle really badly in more physical games. Some of our more highly rated players, e.g. Petracca, just get massively fumbly in high intensity games. I thought we were the 2nd best team in it last year and should have made the GF...but maybe we finished up where we belonged. We might just have caught a lucky break in 21 getting 3 teams in the finals that weren't playing really physical football. Who knows...but Sydney, just like Collingwood, are a terrible match up for us as they'll fight physically from start to end...and I'm not sure anymore that our guys are up to that kind of contest. Success in this sport is hugely aligned to your ability to apply and absorb physical pressure.

Personal opinion is that it's the talent of your top 6 that dictates whether or not you CAN win it, and then the buy in and application to the process/roles of the whole group that dictates your chances of actually getting it done. That's why player movement outside the top few players at each club is much of a muchness for this sport IMO. We have the talent, but we absolutely didn't stick to the discipline that took us all the way 12 months ago. Geelong played our 2021 style while we veered away from it (they applied huge pressure around the contest, we didn't. They worked hard to shut down ANY outlet from marks/free kicks for the oppo trying to move out of their half, while we let them advance too easily). Gee it would have been a great GF had we brought our intensity from 2021 to the Cats of 2022. If we get back to it next year, we are a chance to have a crack at another GF.

I am probably massively in the minority, but i really love the conceptual idea of a 2 conference comp. 10 Victorian teams play their season and 10 of the rest play their season (maybe with a smaller set of cross conferences matches). Winner of each conference to the national championship game. Would probably see all the national talent wanting to get to the Vic teams to play on the big stage though. Atmosphere is just leaps and bounds better for any Vic vs. Vic matchups.

Reckon the deal is pretty fair for the player that he is and will be. Don't think that Luke Jackson was moving the needle upward for us much this last year, so we move on and look for someone new. WA is in danger of becoming a state where only their absolute elite junior talent end up in the AFL. Surely Vic teams will start to become hesitant to take these guys on. Bit concerning to think that if JVR for example just explodes and becomes a star, he's probably just going to want out and back to WA. Best case scenario for Vic teams with these guys is that they be solid bottom 6 guys so they might not get lured back to WA.

In the first Sydney loss, he got exposed in some 1v1's that really hurt our chances of winning. They are the kind if contests that decide finals. Think he may have been dropped coming off that. Ultimately our mid/small defenders aren't great in the contest, which is why Hibberd should as is going around again. Neither Hunt nor Smith are good enough in 1v1's to help us win a final IMO, so if he leaves I don't see it hurting us if we make it into the finals next year.

You're quite posdibly right there.

You have 100% perfectly summed up what wins finals, and in reality what wins any game between decent sides. And also summed up how we failed this year. Good thing is, in theory these things should be easier to fix than other problems (like huge talent gaps). Our players have shown they are capable before, but are they prepared to go to the level required to do it again?

Honest question about where AFL football is at. Why can seemingly no players kick with their non preferred foot any more? Or are they advised not to because of some analysis of the likely outcome of using it? So many times players are breaking in a certain direction and have to stop and double back to get on their preferred foot. Why has this skill fallen away so much over the last 20 to 30 years? These guys are now full time footballers...

One thing that Geelong have done brilliantly is that they shift their zone across and setup beautifully down the line, but that is only useful if you block the kick into the corridor and restrict the switch. They have given teams no switch outlet and have defended the corridor. I think we got too cute with our defesive structure this year. I heard some players, when questioned about why we let teams switch and just walk the ball up to center wing, say that 'there are times when you want teams to switch'. I guess the coaches know best, but it just didn't look like allowing teams to advance so easily to the halfway mark was going to work for us. Really opened us up to the ball getting brought back into the corridor too.

Are we really too small bodied between Oliver, Petracca, Brayshaw, Viney and Gawn?