Lucifers Hero

Doubt they will make top 4, Adam

We needed to rotate/rest only one player per game to keep our best dozen fresh. If the club thinks we didn't have enough cover to do that, then I give up. We have a fit and healthy list and cover is what the players 15 to 30 are there for. Instead we rotated player 15 to 22. Go figure. We didn't protect our best players and now, those little ole chickens have now come home to roost.

Ha, ha. I just opened a shiraz to prepare myself for team changes (and to cope with the extension of stage 4 restrictions virtually until late October ?)

A bit late in my book. I think it is the core players that should be rested. imv we should have rotated/rested sore players, midfielders and Weideman (who has been bashed around for a while and is still not AFL conditioned having played about 30 games) during the first condensed fixture or at the beginning of this condensed fixture. Now we are in a catch-22 where we can't afford to rest core players because of injuries to others. Edit: As an aside, I was a bit disappointed in Goodwin talking about the tight fixture, Alice, travel and arriving at Gazaly same day. All may be correct but if we had rotated/rested players when we had the chance, then those things probably wouldn't have taken the toll they have. It sounded like he was laying the ground work for reasons excuses for not making finals. He was not at all convincing in his expectations of what we will achieve. Hope he does a more convincing job on the players.

If @Tough Kentis right about 9 changes and Goodwin mentioned 6 names there is at least 3 others to come in so Kozzie could well be one. Would be surprised if he wasn't. There could well be a few surprise outs.

When asked who is in the frame for selection this week those mentioned by Goodwin were: Baker, Hibberd, Jetta, Lockhart, Bedford, Preuss. Its anyone's guess who might come out other than Brayshaw, Harmes and Jones who are injured.

Your mail is usually quite good so don't doubt it. Will be good to see the likes of baker (and Jordan?) get a go...at last. We know of 3 forced changes but 6 unforced? Hardly a way to stabilise a team...?

Thanks. As much as I wish we would do something similar to Richmond I just don't think our coach and FD see the need so very much doubt it will happen.

Roos and his wife Tami had this going at the Dees. It fell by the wayside when they left. Individual players have recently talked about (Viney, Petracca) about their 'calming' pre game routines. I think we are very different than Richmond when it comes to 'midfulness'. They had a coach and FD led 'mindfulness' program for not only pre-game but also in-game techniques. We have players trying to find their own method. Chalk and cheese. That the Roos' program wasn't replaced when they left suggests that Goodwin and Mahoney aren't fans of a 'mindfulness' program and we are unlikely to do what Balme and Hardwick did.

Nothing on the club website yet. Anyone seen a tweet or fb post? Hope they don't forget! Its a shame border closures prevent this little guy from Tassie being their to watch the 100th as he was for Christian's 1st. petracca-looks-after-his-little-mate Hadn't played a game yet had time and care to share his opportunity with a great kid. No accolades sought. It was Lucas' dad that let the media know about Christian's befriending of his son.

No argument from me on that one OD. For several years I have said our Line Assistant coaches don't have the experience at AFL level or in the lines they are trying to coach. Like the senior coach they are learning on the job, so to speak. A club can afford one or two of those but not a complete coaching panel. And the FD person that hasn't changed that should have long ago is the GM, Football.

Sad isn't it. Roos' approach was to teach players the foundations in sequence: 2014 - defence, 2015 - contest, 2016 - attack. In 2017 and 2018 that was turned on its head to predominately 'contest' and 'attack' as shown in the 'numbers at the ball, ballistic, play on at all costs game plan' with an 'agressive zone' defence that regularly leaked goals 'out the back'. The 'defence' part had been relegated to a distant third. It got us to a prelim but the foundations were shaky. 2019 was a mess and best forgotten. Now in 2020 the coach is trying to re establish the 'defence' foundation. It works sometimes and not others. Hard to undo the programming of young players that were taught to attack at all costs. So when the pressure is on they revert to their 'basic' programming of ballistic paly. In the process of the new 'defence' players have forgotten how to 'contest'. Our defence is not yet up to scratch. We are 18th in tackles for a team having 'contested football' as its mantra!! We can attack in a 'ballistic' but not an effective way. God give me strength! The foundations are a bit all over the shop. Hopefully, one day we can find the balance of what Roos' started: defence, contest, attack.

All good, EO. Your comments on the topic were quite fair.

I'm reluctant to comment as culture is so complex. But here goes: I didn't refer to 'weak or 'soft, 'good' or 'untrustworthy' culture. I'm not sure culture can even be compartmentalised like that. My reference to Dusty/Connors/King wasn't about their behaviours per se, as you say people are basically decent and anyone can make mistakes. Using those examples was to highlight Rich and the AFL keeping dirty lanundry in-house and covering it up, downplaying an incident if it becomes public or if they have to, use a 'wet lettuce'. Connors was an exception. Notice Dusty didn't get the same treatment for the same behaviour. Stack is in the same boat as Connors; would senior players have been expelled for the finals series? The cultural message to players is 'if you get into strife its ok, we will whitewash it (unless your are an unimportant player and can be dispensed with). A 'good' culture would say: you get in strife you wear the consequences, regardless of who you are. Most clubs try and keep dirty laundry in house. I referred to Richmond because of the assumption that their recent on field success equates to 'good' culture. From the outside it seems to me that part of Richmond's culture (whitewashing dirty laundry) hasn't changed during their successful years.

Hardwick's offensive comments (to Longmire and Ox) and his player's antics this year suggests the culture has not changed: think Martin, Connors, King in the not too distant past. The success of 2017 to 2019 simply enabled them to keep their dirty laundry in the cupboard. Even then some became public: Martin and the chopsticks. Culture anywhere is notoriously difficult to change. It gets passed down from one group to the next. Its built into the folklore of a club. And often it becomes a 'self-fulfilling prophecy' be it good or bad. The cycle keeps repeating.

Yeah, good point. MFC has been pretty decent at delisting players early so they can be taken as 'Delisted Free Agents' (which cost the receiving club nothing but a list spot). Thinking about it a bit further, shrinking player lists may deter clubs from taking DFA's.

I'm thinking that other clubs might pick up Hunt, Omac or Hannan. For whatever reason their careers at the dees seem limited and they could fulfill a need at other clubs so I would like to see their careers continue.

Congratulations for the 100th game on Monday. You have worked hard to improve yourself and your game every year from debut in 2016. In every way you do yourself and the red and blue proud. Would love it to be at the 'G'. One of the sad parts of this season has been to not be able to watch your talents live. Hoping the team brings the win home for you.

Anyone think Charlie Curnow is worth chasing. iirc we were very keen on him until the last minute at draft time.

After round 15: Table is still based on 9 wins to make finals but more likely 10. Collingwood's loss makes our loss to the Swans even more disappointng. With Giants and Saints playing in the last round, a win vs the Swans would have almost guaranteed us spot in the 8. Now we are a game and %'age behind those teams and needing to win all 3 games which I feel is unlikely. Giants showed vs Carlton they can do what it takes to get a win, we haven't so I don't count that as a win. Ess will be out to finish on a high note with nothing to lose so I don't count that as a win. And Freo are playing like they want to win every game, so I don't count that as a win. We will (I hope) win some of those but doubt it will be all three. If all the cards fall our way we could get in on 9 wins depending on the Giants vs Saints game in the last round. Nail biting time, ala 2017.

Some points re various posts above: On any given day there isn't much difference in humidity and temperatures in Alice, Maroochydore and Carins. We played in Alice at night. We couldn't fly with Sydney as they were flying from Adelaide. Before Adelaide, Sydney had flown to and from Perth so they had to get used to the Cairns hot and humid conditions. We should have been used to them. We did influence the schedule by wanting to play in Alice. It had to be sometime in this block of games. We could have played the Saints in SE Qld instead but we would forfeit the $700k that came with the Alice game. We are playing in Cairns because that is the hub for Syd and Freo and we were about the only team that had not played them at this stage of the season. There is no AFL conspiracy against us and the club isn't being 'weak' by not complaing; it is simply how the cards fell. Rather than look for 'outs', I ask the question: why have our best players not been rested at times, especially our midfielders and our less 'match hardened' players? We knew this tough bloc was coming up on the back of a recent tough bloc. Pert said in 'Talking Points' that players were tired. Yet we kept selecting the same core players. So much for our depth if we can't rest them! Players that should have had a rest: Weideman, Salem, Brayshaw, Petracca, Oliver, Melksham (form as much as rest) etc etc. How different might last night have been if they had all had a break at some stage. Now all games are 'must win' with less chance of resting which only exacerbates possible fatigue.

Yesterday we virtually had a double chance of making the 8 as 7th and 8th spots were up for grabs. Now we will most likely be 9th. Had we won we would now be 7th ahead of the Saints on %. By losing we have virtually handed one of those spots to the Saints or the Giants who are a game and % ahead of us. Now there is one spot available, probably 8th. We can still get there but I expect Saints and Giants to take 7th and 8th. That loss did untold damage to our finals hope and how far we might go in the finals. Make it to 8th and we meet Eagles or Tigers in the first Elim. A win would have probably got us to 7th thereby playing Pies in the first final. Yes, this is all conjecture but we coughed up a double chance of making the 8 and winning a final. Heartbreaking.

I apologise to Max in advance because I love him. But I am frustrated with some parts of his game. The 'misdirected' taps I've mentioned earlier. The other part is lack of handball when he takes a mark or gets a free kick. 9.5 time of 10 he takes the kick. He almost never hand passes to a runner along side (usually there is no runner alongside) nor does he look for a runner. The very best ruckman have this in their tool kit. Not necessarily to be used all the time but it would make Max less predictable if he had it or used it more often. Our best ball movement is when we have overlap players running forward. Max hand balling from a mark/free kick would greatly facilitate that. Kicking it just allows time for the op to set up their defence. Now Max isn't the best kick going round and often the ball ends up marked by the op. I'm not raising this because we lost. It is the way he and the team play. When we played more of the play-on-at-all-costs football Max would just take his kick faster. He didn't handball. I can only assume it is a coaching direction to go back an kick rather than handball. Goldstein nearly always handballs. Nic Nat and Grundy probably 50/50. Has anyone else noticed Max's lack of handball vs kicking?

A 4.5 day break and the cumulative impact of short breaks might be an issue but I don't see the travel as a big deal. They were in the same time zone. Most working people are up by 7.00 am. Players have everything done for them. We shouldn't be letting everyone off the hook with travel and stuff. Coaches and players had their chances tonight; they stuffed it.

Max tried hard and took a lot of marks but he missed a captain's goal at a critical time. And his tap work was poor. His kicking into the fwd line was poor. No way he was our best.