Lucifers Hero

The closest I could find is: GWS are fuming! But Fox Footy understands the club is privately fuming that officials blatantly ignored an AFL directive to spend more time getting review calls right...A private memo was sent to score reviewers two weeks ago reminding them they could take as much time as they needed to get decisions right. I suspect 'officials' there means the umpire who didn't wait. Garry Lyon: "We’ve got two systems in place; if an umpire says yeah, we can review it, then we might spend 45 seconds on it and take our time looking at it and use all the angles in the world. If there’s no review, you’ve got 20 seconds left before we bounce the ball". Because the the umpires ignored the 'touched' call there was less time for the mandatory review. It is easily fixed. Central umpire does not bounce the ball until he gets the all clear from the score reviewer. Did anyone notice which umpire hurriedly bounced the ball?

Giants may have missed some chances but it is no reason to not adjudicate the game fairly. Ess six goal final quarter was on the back of umpires shifting momentum for them at every opportunity. At one stage (half time or in the 3rd qtr?) frees were 15 v 9. At the end: 29 v 14. When umpires see a big diff in frees at 3/4 time they try to even them up in the last qtr even if only for 'the optics'. Absolutely none of that last night. The soft frees to Ess and the frees not paid to GWS were game changers. With 2 min to go the umpires hadn't got them over the line. Enter 'score review'!!! Well not quite. No umpire called for a review despite the pleas of 'touched'. The central umpire then bounced the ball before the mandatory 'score review' was completed!! Had the touched 'goal' (which equalled the score) been correctly called a point with GWS in control of the ball who knows if Ess would have made up the diff in the last 90 sec. Certainly looked like match fixing.

Shameful umpiring. They lack integrity in their work, then they demand respect! Hypocritical! Just as well their were no GWS supporters, otherwise they would have serious 'respect' booing. A thought: Maybe the AFL were 'compensating' Ess for the controversial umpiring in the ANZAC day game which they lost? Or to help them climb the ladder to keep prime time ratings up? Both?

Anointed by the AFL as this year's rising stars Ess were gifted umpteen money making, prime time, FTA time slots. Really want Ess to miss finals. GWS to smash them!

Good to see Selwood's knee-dropping, ducking protege, Rhys Mathieson has been dropped. That is a few 'head high' frees we won't 'give away'.

or the ugly boy... ...anyway they have Brett Ratten waiting in the wings.

Posters who thought some security guards at Marvel were on student visas are on the money: security-guards-banned-over-alleged-accreditation-fraud: "Some of Marvel Stadium’s controversial crowd controllers are among hundreds of security guards who have had their licences suspended as part of an alleged fraud...about 400 guards working across the security industry over allegations that “false, forged and/or fraudulently obtained documentation” was used to obtain their security licences." "Industry sources say many of the guards were on international student visas and required further references to obtain accreditation to work in the industry...Instead of doing that, they are said to have paid hundreds of dollars to a man police are now trying to locate who allegedly helped them falsify applications". Kennett's racial stereotyping comments were totally inappropriate but reading "It's become a joke really. You've got registered training organisations churning out graduates who can't even use a radio, let alone defuse a dangerous situation...“And a lot of the foreign blokes don't have any English [language skills], which makes it hard for them to deal with crowds," the source said" ...makes you wonder if he knew something was up. Regardless of ethnicity, it looks like training of security guards leaves a lot to be desired. Could be dangerous for all concerned if scuffles break out and get out of control. So much for the due diligence by the AFL and Marvel management into who they contract with.

David King's interesting insight into how-port-adelaide-picked-apart-geelongs-game-plan "...Geelong’s modus operandi had been for all the forwards to stay on the ground, with the exception of the marking target...the Cats’ smalls such as Gary Ablett and Gryan Miers were setting up around bigger marking targets like Tom Hawkins as if they were attending a stoppage...“We saw on the weekend Ken Hinkley say to his defenders, ‘one-on-one, no one leaves their man. You’re responsible to a role, you’ll stay on the ground and we’ll trust the guy in the contest". Simple roles with simple instructions. Hinkley caught the cats napping. We like to play 'our brand' but even when it works it often is not enough. There is a lot to be said for different tactics to counter opp strengths. Hinkley has been very good at that this year. Dismantled us, the cats and will do it to other unsuspecting coaches this year. This year 1 vs 1 defence has become the winning formula. We still play mostly a zone/team defence. Who knows how long it can continue as opps know how to counter that game plan. Looking fwd to see how we adjust our defence plan and any tricks Goodwin finds to dismantle other team's game plans.

On his SEN interview this morning Goodwin said Dunkley isn't far off selection. Could it be this week? Of last weeks 22, ANB and Hannan are at risk. Hannan likely to get more time to find form, having had a long lay off so ANB to miss out when Dunkley comes in. Hibberd ready to come back so should replace Wagner this week.

Usually more than 90%. Re match ups without a 'spare'. Defender goes off when a fwd goes off and/or Max drops back.

Good question, especially as we have Petty developing. At some stage we may need to trade out Frost, OMc or Petty. It will be for their benefit rather than what some think; that they aren't good enough. I doubt if any of them would be on the trade table for long. And we would get good trade value.

Who did we have in the twos more worthy? And who did we have once Frawley and Howe left? And who was there when Tom went fwd? Folks would prefer we left Frosty out there on his own? Time will tell how far Oscar can go. But when looking back lets look at the circumstances of his selection.

All the more credit to Oscar to help us get to a prelim. He shouldered quite a burden while being 'gifted games' especially when Tom went fwd. 'Gifted games' is really player development. Everyone needs to start somewhere and our defence was threadbare having lost Frawley and Howe. Oscar had to learn on the job; the hard way and in the spotlight. We played zone defence rather than 1vs1 which may explain the low rating, why we leak like a sieve and easy to score against. Not Oscar's fault the whole zone and team defence thing broke down. We recruited Lever as an interceptor. When Tom went fwd we needed a big bodied player. Oscar's body hasn't built fast enough (bulk has to be built slowly on a young body) so we got May. Neither recruit was because Oscar 'won't make it'. I'm delighted the club has taken the 4 weeks for Oscar to rest, build some bulk and some confidence. It is all about helping him become the best he can be. That is good for everyone.

Misson on Oscar: Key back Oscar McDonald will play VFL this weekend after undergoing a "mini pre-season". "We just feel he needed to reset physically and probably mentally, and he looks unbelievable now," Misson said. "He's done some great work in the gym, he looks strong, really fit, and he's done some really specific conditioning over and above all the footy work he's done. "We're really pleased with how he's approached it and we're quietly confident it's going to produce some really good results for Oscar." Just shows how missing a large part of preseason sets back the whole season. Hip surgery can't be easy to overcome for such a tall person. Good on Oscar for taking the program on board and putting all into it.

Joel Smith out for the season. As is Jeffy. New injuries in AFL: Keiltly 3-4 weeks (Ankle) Stretch (Foot) 2-3 weeks. No info as to whether it is the foot Stretch hurt late last year. Difficult situation for them as all are out of contract at EOS. As Lord Nev mentioned KK had another head knock. Hope he is ok. Happening far too often.

He played 81% game time. While its a bit less than our tall backman usually do (~90%) he had strapping on his leg and is still new to the pace of AFL so would say bench time was to not overload him.

The comment was referring to Viney.

Yes, I'm glad our team isn't a bunch of duckers! But there were at least 6 staged frees by Dockers on Sat. 2 or 3 of which were goals. It is now a deliberate coaching strategy" I recall Brad Scott telling Brown that if the opp hold touch him to make sure the umpires see it. So in the first month or two he received quite a few really soft frees. He eased back when called out in the media. Who can forget Dangerfield pushing Brayshaw forward, arms aloft having called to be the ruckman and Gus was pinned for interference. Definitely a a set ploy. What Selwood does to hunch his shoulders and lift the arm to get a head high free has been deemed legit so everyone copies him. Not to mention the bulldogs 'quick handpasses' which were really throws. Teams are winning games on the back of these. I don't want us to become known for that stuff but using a few 'scoop the ball' tricks or 'lift arm when tackled' trick that are accepted by umpires , well I'm all for those.

Mighty Max features again in the coaches votes with 7 votes this week. And, is 7th on the Leaderboard. 69 Tim Kelly 62 Patrick Cripps 58 Travis Boak 56 Ben Cunnington 56 Brodie Grundy 54 Nat Fyfe 53 Max Gawn On a different note, Max has had a torrid season off the ball with opp players getting into him physically. It was constant against the Dockers with Max left flattened at least once that I saw. No free of course! In fact he received only 1 free all day. Credit to him that he just keeps on going. The club will now ask questions of the AFL on what is allowed. From The Age. "Mahoney said the club would also contact the AFL this week for clarification on the off-the-ball tactics on ruckman Max Gawn. The harassment of Gawn by Dockers players was constant during the weekend’s game and has been a regular tactic by teams playing the Demons since Port Adelaide employed the tactic successfully in the opening round". Glad to see the club is finally taking some action to protect Max.

Casey Fields is roughly in the middle of them.

Hawthorn is building at Dingley right near arterial roads to Dandenong and Frankston. Guaranteed to provide a catchment area in the SE corridor for new members. I do think our Board's 'narrow vision' which could be an obsession with inner Melb is holding us back. Gosch is our only real chance in inner Melb as we are already there so less likely to get anyone screaming about giving up facilities.

Might be wrong but I believe MFC owns the club and the land. Over the last 8-10 years TBC has gradually eroded the 'match-day' experience for supporters. Each time they downgraded it fewer people came: chicken/egg. Now there is no separate 'match-day' area. Just a pokey corner in the pokies room with a small 40cm screen! From 30-40 fans who bought drinks, food etc and now lucky if they get 10. My friends and I go to one of the RSL's to watch games we can't get to or we watch foxtel. We wouldn't have foxtel if Bentleigh club was even half decent and half welcoming.

The Bentleigh Club is on 11,000 sq mt of land. Is that big enough for an oval, offices and parking? We could buy up the neighbouring houses for about $15m to add 400 sq mts and add a gym, pool, recovery centre etc. But our Board is so wedded to the cbd/inner melb sporting precinct, I doubt it is open to looking at anything in the suburbs. Some broader vision is required, both geographically and of mind.

Government looks for the community benefits which can include: multicultural sporting activities, women's sports, indigenous sporting facilities, other sporting codes etc. We are in a catch-22: -imv, as long as we are aligned to Casey which fosters those communities, MFC will find it difficult to get funding for them in inner Melbourne. My thinking is:1) The government may see it as a duplication of what we have at Casey and prefer to put funding there 2) Other AFL clubs are heavily servicing these activities in inner Melb and again the government would see it as a duplication of existing services. -without community benefits we won't get funding. Catch-22!! Also, folks can forget Kevin Bartlett oval. Home to a variety of other sports under the banner of Richmond and Collingwood (not necessarily connected to the AFL clubs). And some $millions went in last year to upgrade the grandstand. What I find frustrating is that neither the AFL, MCC or any political party is lifting a finger to help us. All stay very quietly in the background.

If the MCC was remotely entertaining that, they wouldn't have created their own MCC Football Club (just last year) and included MFC in the Beaumaris project. That suggests to me that they have plans of their own which do not include us.