poita

In: May, Stretch, Lewis (if fit), Preuss/Keilty Out: Frost, Spargo, Hore, Viney (inj)

Not sure that is a perfect solution either. I still remember Brent Moloney being suspended for attempting to charge against Geelong. But yes, anything is preferable to the current climate in which deliberate, off the ball punches go unpunished.

This club has made an art form of playing unfit players in the past 24 months, why would Gawn be any different? In fact he probably started the trend when he came back too early in 2017.

This is what happens when you promote AFL as an entertainment product rather than a sporting contest. People go along for the "event" rather than because they care about the team. They are too busy tweeting their mates and posting on instagram to actually get involved in what is happening on the field. I would guess we have roughly 10K members who are passionate and turn up each week, a lot of whom still don't make a lot of noise. The rest are just along for the ride. Any Port fans who turned up are clearly in the top 5% of the club's most passionate supporters, so you would expect them to make plenty of noise.

What's this fascination with having 70,000 members? I'd settle for having 30,000 full members who turn up, make some noise and support the team each week, as opposed to having a truck load of 3 game members who come for marquee games and nothing else. Look at Hawthorn who get 60K crowds twice a year for Easter Monday and against Collingwood, and 30K the rest of the year. Having a big membership base just means that every game is ticketed and you have to fight to get to finals. Sure some extra money is nice, but it is not the difference between winning a premiership and being an also ran.

Jack Viney needs to be saved from himself, and the coach and the medical staff need to step up and do so. Seven years in and still not being at 100 games must absolutely sting for a person as dedicated and committed Jack. Zach Tuohy has played 138 games in that time, being taken in the same draft. Viney has played 99 and has been been at barely 50% for the last 20 of those. It is clear that Jack is never going to put his hand up and ask for help (although as a leader he should be doing the right thing for the team), so the club needs to act in his best interests . At some point football needs to be a secondary consideration to his quality of life after football.

My thoughts, two days on: We weren't prepared for this game physically or mentally. We showed Port no respect and assumed that things would just happen for us. Many of our players are underdone, others are just plan unfit or lazy. A 26 point margin flattered us as we could have lost by ten goals. Our coach had a shocker, both at selection and on game day. Why did he get an extension before the season had started? He needs to sort out the forward line structure in a hurry and find some decent support for Gawn. Hopefully he get over his stubbornness and fixes the game plan before it is too late. Jones - I'm his biggest fan, but he was dreadful. Forget the skill errors, his major issue was wandering down the Southern wing by himself all afternoon whilst his opponent ran unattended where the football was. Salem - clearly our best on the day, and should be spending more time in the midfield this season. Harmes - had a crack and not our worst. Petracca - he may not be fat, but he is clearly carrying too much weight as he can barely move. More concerning is the battle that is raging in his head. He gets down on himself too easily and is second guessing everything he does. Needs to be allowed to play with the freedom that he displayed in his first season. Viney - diabolical decision to play by both coach and player. Clearly struggling with his foot and a complete passenger. If he needs two months off to get right, just do it. Spargo - slow, small and spectacularly good at being where the ball isn't. Not AFL standard. Brayshaw - not his best game. Needs to focus on doing the basics well, rather than trying for the spectacular. Gawn - the template to beat Max is now well established. Can player and coach respond? The big concern is how quickly he drops his head when he cops some physical punishment. Oliver - probably his worst game for the club. I'm hoping it was the effect of some big hits early in the game that caused him grief. Hibberd - the faintest shadow of his 2017 self. Some of his defensive work was appalling for an experienced player and his disposal has fallen right away. Frost - a great athlete but the dumbest footballer around. Ideally would never be in the same defence as McDonald. Needs the game made as simple as possible, so I would have had him chained to Westhoff for the entire game and told him not to worry about anything else. Melksham - clearly our best forward, but would benefit from keeping things simple. T.McDonald - a horrible game. Clearly suffering from appalling forward structure and delivery, but something doesn't seem right. Weideman - his best is potentially elite, but he goes missing far too often. Would benefit from focusing on repeat leading and providing physical pressure rather than trying to take big pack marks. O.McDonald - I'm a fan but he makes the same mistakes too often. Will benefit from May taking the number 1 forward each week. Hunt - a shadow of his 2017 self. I'm not sure he has the football brain to work through his issues. Neal-Bullen - the biggest front runner in the game. Will kick three goals running ahead of the football in a flogging of Gold Coast, but never contributes when the going is tough. Fritsch - doesn't find the football playing through the midfield and his defensive work is poor. His only role is to be leading at the ball carrier from inside forward 50. Sparrow - showed enough in the second half to persist with, but is another tortoise. Hore - clearly displayed why he has been stuck in the VFL. Miles away from AFL standard and looked all at sea defensively. Jetta - doesn't look fit and has no confidence in his kicking. Wagner - had a crack and was better value than Spargo, Neal-Bullen or Petracca. Acceptable as the 22nd player on the team sheet, but little more.

Sparrow showed a bit on Saturday and was at least having a crack in the second half when most of his teammates had thrown in the towel. He is clearly better value at present than any of Spargo, Neal-Bullen and Petracca based on Saturday's efforts.

Agree with almost everything you said. We have had three poor to average draft / trade periods in a row. We have too many players who have been around for 4/5/6 years who simply aren't good enough. There were at least six players on the field yesterday who don't deserve to be there. Not one of our so called stars performed yesterday. Our midfield, with the possible exception of Harmes, are not fit enough and clearly believed the hype around them. Our forward line is truly shambolic and the defence even worse. The coaching staff didn't pay Port enough respect and clearly haven't learnt from the Prelim debacle. I can't believe we gave Goodwin a new contract before the first month of the season had passed. Viney is not fit, and you can almost guarantee he will be pulled for a period on the sidelines at some stage in the next month. God help us if we have managed to stuff his foot again.

After reading the hype filled posts on Demonland re Hore over the past three months I was expecting to see a ready made role player at AFL level. Harrison Petty was thrown to the wolves last year, but at least he was 18 and still developing. Hore is 23 and was woefully out of his depth yesterday. He is not tall or strong enough to play key position and isn't mobile enough or kick well enough to play anywhere else. Sometimes there is a reason players get overlooked for five drafts in a row.

Play and win at least one final is my pass mark. I think our best side playing its best football is good enough to finish top 4 and challenge for the premiership, but you only need 1 or 2 injuries to key players to take that away.

Underwhelming team in my opinion. The first 18 basically pick themselves, but the 4 on the bench don't convince me. Definitely a weaker side than we had for most of last year, and our lack of depth (particularly in key positions and through the midfield) is a real concern. I would like to see an extra tall to provide some cover for when Max rests and Weideman rucks, or if we have an injury, or is the plan to run Max into the ground so he is cooked by finals again? Any of Wagner, Hunt and Spargo could drop out.

This season was basically over before it began with a poor performance for three quarters against Fremantle. That game was ultimately symbolic for a team that went missing for periods in most games and failed to make the most of dominant periods in others. To have not played finals for three years is bad enough, but the continued failures in big games is a real concern. Forget the conference debacle, we lost to all three teams above us, had a mediocre percentage and have nobody but ourselves to blame for not playing finals. There are three main issues with this group: 1. Too many small-medium sized goers, particularly in the midfield, who try hard but are undersized, have poor skills and make poor decisions under pressure. Smith, Phillips and Scott are all in this category, along with a bunch of lesser lights. O'Dea has the size and is a good leader, but is not a great kick. I was impressed by Gay, and Paxman is a star, but they need help. We wasted Pearce's ruck dominance this year. 2. Our forward line doesn't work. Cunningham is fantastic, but they ask too much of Hore for her size and Newman flashes in and out. Another big bodied marking option is a must for next year. The delivery doesn't help (see point 1) but the structure is wrong. 3. I'm not a fan of the coach. He has one game plan which clearly doesn't work against good sides and doesn't really suit his playing list. He doesn't shut the game down when momentum is against us, which has been an issue for three years. I would look to replace him before 2020.

The website and associated social media of the MFC are abysmal and are a poor reflection on a club that has done a lot of things right in recent years. I would visit the MFC website once a month tops which, given my obsession with this club, is just extraordinary. Surely the sponsors are unimpressed that more traffic is not being driven to the site.

We have about eight blokes who are nowhere near ready for senior football, so to have another ten on the injury list leaves us with little more than the bare minimum to pick from this week. Some of our list management and player management decisions in the past 12-18 months are mind boggling.

May is a dummy, and clearly hasn't learned from his nine previous suspensions. I would much rather he took the week now and spent some time reflecting, rather than doing something equally stupid later in the year and costing the team when it matters more. Was contact unavoidable? Possibly. Was it necessary to turn and collect a smaller player with hip and shoulder with first contact to the head? Clearly not. As much as there have been numerous other MRP decisions that are completely illogical, I don't have a problem with this one.

Great read. I still think he had something to offer this year, but don't blame him one bit for moving on.

So, before we paid a fortune to send Lever to the US he was 3-4 weeks away, now he is 3-4 months away. Sounds like money well spent. Luckily I don't rate him as highly as most around here, because that is only one more hiccup away from being season over. I'd also like to know what proportion of his time on our list has Tim Smith been fit. He seems to be good for a new injury every second months.

I wish they would just make the change and be done with it so we can stop going through the charade of having a debate about it each year. The people want a day grand final, the broadcasters want a night grand final, and we all know which of the two groups the AFL cares about. If Channel 7 wanted the game to be played at midnight in Antarctica, I'm sure the AFL would find a way to make it happen.

Despite his lack of size and speed, Spargo does most things reasonably well, but his inability to consistently kick more than 40 metres is a particular concern. I agree with PF - if he is playing regularly this year it is a sign that we haven't improved.

I'm pretty sure we were told the same things about Viney this time last year.

Terrible news, hopefully he can come back bigger and better next season. Why does it take three days for this news to be released? If it was an open session there would be posts on Demonland within a couple of minutes. What if it was a big name player, eg Tom Mitchell at Hawthorn? This club has to get much, much better at keeping members informed.

If the powers that be decide that Jones is not the best person to be captain, I'll be disappointed but so be it if it brings us closer to a premiership. There is no way he won't be firmly in best 22 at year end, even though this seems to be the prevailing view around here. That said, I firmly disagree that Viney, either outright or as co-captain, is the answer. The guy has barely played in the past year and a half, and should be allowed to get his body right. We know he'll lead with a title or without, but it is more important that he is playing at the highest level possible. If Gawn or McDonald are added to the mix, that is fine with me.

When I go the home page I see most recent posts in all forums, so isn't the real issue where your bookmark points? I'd be happy for AFLW to be in the main board, particularly at this time of the year when we are starved of actual games to talk about.

Pretty good result for the MFC - you don't really want players on the fringe of AFL selection having a bye that early in the season, so it will be good to have a game for them to play that week.