Lucifers Hero

Its quite baffling to read all the media going on about Geelong's 'holy trinity' midfield. They are all 'star struck' or desperate for 'click bait'! Have they not noticed that Clarkson's midfield is none too shabby with Mitchell and O'Meara? I bet Chris Scott has! It will be fascinating to watch; not just the game itself but also how two mastermind coaches play their cards.

Re how Lever is playing/being played. 1. There is a big assumption on here that our coaches want him to play as the 3rd tall, sweeping, intercept defender. The assumption is based on Adelaide's game plan not ours. 2. Even if given the 3rd tall role he can't sweep and intercept if opp coaches isolate him. Scott plonked Lever's (debutante) opponent in the goal square and moved his other forwards away. Lever couldn't get to the play to make a contest. 3. If Lever can't play one on one he becomes a one trick pony. Opp coaches aren't going to sit there and watch him waltz around their forward line so he is being taught to play one on one. A good ref point is Rance who has learnt to play one on one and on Friday night showed how good he is when he was able to switch between the two. Lever is still learning the defense craft and when he does he will be every bit as good as if not better than Rance. It will take a little time but Lever and our team will be much better for it.

Have to admire Hinkley's great coaching yesterday! Even when they were being outplayed, he held his nerve by keeping a kid (Dougal Howard) with 12 games experience against Buddy for the whole game. He kept another kid (Tod Marshall) with 4 games experience in the forward line who rewarded his coach with 3 goals. He then got creative and made some matching winning moves. Instead of being defensive and put players behind the ball he did the opposite and made really attacking moves: Dixon in the ruck, Boake forward which allowed Vines to come into the game. Hinkley decided to 'go small' to open up his forward line and it worked. A very refreshing change to the somewhat 'automatic' defensive strategies coaching boxes employ when the momentum is against them. That was a very good game.

People are missing the importance of Jack in Port's structure yesterday! Having him forward enabled Hinkley to make the match winning move of Dixon to ruck the 2nd half, without leaving a gaping hole in forward 50. He also took a key defender which enabled a young kid (Todd Marshall) to kick 3 goals. And, Jack's hand pass to Boake for his first goal helped spark the turnaround to win the game. I'm sure people will get a lot of laughs this year from looking at Jack's stats and ridiculing him. But that just shows they probably haven't watched the game and don't understand the role Hinkley is asking of him. TBH, I just don't get the lingering antipathy towards him. We pushed him out. He is gone. You don't need to wish him well. But this petty ridicule just makes posters look mean spirited.

'Roost It', a poster with excellent and highly accurate club intel posted these in during last year's trade period: "spoke to my man today regarding Hogan. Was told he's not part of the untradeables but only leaving for absolute top dollar. His management are adamant he's happy in Melbourne and that he'll remain a Dee for quite some time". and "There's 6 players deemed untradeable by Goodwin and co". So 'Beetle's' info is very probably right about Hogan being available for trade - we just didn't get the 'offer we couldn't refuse' for Hogan. And I am very happy about that - love him and the way he is playing.

What an indictment by an AFL captain! Marc Murphy says his teammates fell into the trap of believing their positive showing against Richmond last week would just happen again against Gold Coast on Saturday. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-03-31/blues-got-carried-away-says-murphy Murphy obviously didn't notice they had 20 scoring shots vs 38 by Richmond last week nor that many of their goals came from free kicks. They were scorched last week yet came out thinking they were champs this week. While Murphy spoke the truth it is tantamount to saying they thought GCS were easy beats and didn't pay them any respect. Haha. Unfounded hubris. Paid the price. At this rate they are heading for the wooden spoon, again. Oh, and Carlton need a new captain.

This! Hunt is playing hurt and should be rested. Last night he uncharacteristically gave up the chase in the first quarter so if he can't chase and run from defense thru the middle his value is limited. Brayshaw or Salem can play that role. They don't have his speed but they do have very good foot skills to pick out targets and give that rebound out of defence. So Brayshaw for Hunt. And for all those calling for Lever to become the 3rd tall and to let him roam the backline well other coaches won't let it happen. Scott showed last week how to neutralise him: isolate him one on one and make him defend. I didn't realise how slow he was; he couldn't keep up when chasing last night. Anyone can play that unaccountable sweeping defender. Lever needs to learn to defend. Nonetheless, I would bring in Frost not to let Lever roam but to wear Brown like a glove. I wouldn't care if he got zero possessions but his role would be to punch the ball away or bring it to ground and for goodness sake play in front. So Frost for Harmes or Bugg or Fritsch (if sore) or at a pinch Wagner. Changes for match-ups and having the fittest team, rather than form. Lastly, Ziebell is a shadow of his former self, Cunnington looked injured so their danger man and play maker is Higgins - we need Bernie to do a job on him and keep him quiet.

Vince isn't getting enough credit for the job he did on Zorko in holding him to a handful of possessions in the first half. When Zorko got off the leash the Lions got back into the game and their midfielders started kicking goals - they kickd 7 of their 10 goals. We tried to stop that momentum by putting eight players in defence. And it didn't really work - eventually, we stemmed the flow (thankfully) but it happened when Hodge was off the ground in the last and their inexperienced backline faltered. There is a lot to like about our game and there a few seemingly entrenched flaws in how we play/respond and I'm delighted we won. But I support @Clint Bizkit comment above: The result is almost irrelevant, it's about seeing the team play a certain way and creating habits that will lead to sustained success. We need to find solutions to our lapse's and now transparent game plan because we won't always be as lucky as last night nor will we have that sustained success of regularly winning..

A perfect end to the evening to see Essendon get convincingly beaten. All is good with the footy world again!

My reference was to their disposal skills (ie abililty to find targets/not turn it over) being better than ours. To my mind their mdifield (Martin, Beams, Zorko, Taylor, Christiansen) match the fierceness of ours (Gawn, Jones, Oliver, Salem, Tyson). So a genuine question A F: in what way do you think our skills are better than theirs?

Brisbane may look like an 'ordinary' side to some but they have some pretty good players and a decent game plan: exploit our lack of midfield pace https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/brisbane-coach-chris-fagan-backs-his-midfield-to-go-headtohead-with-melbournes-hard-nuts/news-story/6fe6ae0d4bbca3c78ec6d975436de177 That is how Pies beat us in rnd 23 last year and to some extent Geelong did last week. Brisbane have a very decent midfield - they will match our fierceness and have better disposal skills. They will find their outside runners. Martin is no slouch either altho I expect Max to get the better of him. And, if Fagan was paying attention to Scott's strategy on Lever last week and to Pyke's strategy on Rance the other night, he will isolate Lever and make him accountable one on one. I hope Goodwin has also been paying attention and has plans to counteract these two very effective strategies. And, if we underestimate Brisbane, Fagan, Hodge etal we do so at our peril.

Neither team deserves 4 premiership points for this rubbish! Downright embarrassing.

He is out of contract this year so if the club rates him they need to either give him games consistently or sign him up on a new contract. Otherwise, there will be a few suitors out there talking to his manager. We have re-contracted all the players who can be considered his peers so he is the only one still on the shelf. I really rate him, he is much more than depth and would hate for him to look elsewhere.

Hard to believe he is only 18. He certainly does the #32 proud! He could have been ours if we had kept pick 10 and done the deal MFC originally wanted: I recall Mahoney saying something like: "... one 1st round (either 2017 or 2018) and one 2nd round pick with exchange of other picks..." Not sorry that we have Lever and I'm sure he will be great for us but time will tell what the true cost was.

Very true - goes to show, win a premiership and you become untouchable. Commentators quickly forget how ordinary they were in 2017 (except when it counts in September). These days Hardwick looks like the proverbial 'cheshire cat'! I suspect it won't be long before the smug smile is wiped off his face as they revert to their 2017 (pre Sept) form . Apparently, Ch7 really looked after Hardwick last night: "The footage came to light after he fronted the media so Hardwick was able to avoid questions about the incident post-match." For those who haven't seen it footage is in this articlehttp://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-03-29/watch-hardwick-has-altercation-with-fan Imagine if that was a demon coach, it would have been shown a dozen times straight away and the whole press conf would be dominated by it.

The usual 'home state, home crowd' advantage, perhaps! Wouldn't be surprised if Hardwick comes out and has a big whinge about the free count like he did after losing to the Cats at Kardinia Park last year. He is a sore loser - witness the hissy fit with a Crows supporter after the game.

38,609 1,584 ahead of where we were this time last year! March has been phenomenal - increased by 5,661 for the month. Great result of player phone-a-thon, Family Day and round one being at Home and at the G! Very good chance we will beat last year's record of 42,233. Final of 44,000 to 45,000 is on the cards!

I agree it will benefit him, but I would like to see him lock down the forward role first and get some runs on the board there - then develop his ruck skills. Just my preference on sequence of things.

@Demon77 Thanks for great report. I'm curious about Weideman working out with the rucks. Reports were he has done a bit of that in Casey games. I would have thought we would let him settle into his natural position as a forward and once he has that nailed then develop his ruck skills. Trying to do both at AFL level is fraught and runs the risk that he won't reach his potential in either role. And I'm not sure he has the height or the build (at least not yet) to ruck. Wondering if you have seen him do 'enough' forward work in the preseason - we could certainly do with a forward who is ready to step in if needed. Cheers

Prepare for a long, tortuous season... Really, we need to do more than just win. Surely, if we can't put away last year's wooden spooners with a convincing win both on the scoreboard and on the field, we will be just making up the numbers should we make the final eight. We let hubris get to us in the last game vs the Lions. Instead of pressing our advantage and getting a big win we relaxed and nearly lost it. No room for that on Saturday - this is a game where we need to make a statement. Win convincingly! Take no prisoners!

What Lewis was saying is that 'after a loss, you have to hurt, you have to hate losing' or words to that effect. He said it in the context of while players have different ways of dealing with a loss there were a few times last year when there was 'too much joviality on the bus' after a loss and he wasn't too happy seeing that [joviality]. He wasn't talking about 'faux' hurt he meant real deep down hurt. On this Lewis knows what he is talking about. He knows what a winning culture looks like. The 'not hurting' makes me wonder if we have been so poor for so long, last year players were satisfied with close losses or playing good footy for three quarters. Listening to Lewis I'm not sure the burning will to win was there. Sure everyone wants to win and we can't win every game but will our team do what it takes to try for a win each and every week? If they do it will go a long way to eliminating the fade outs for a quarter in games. Time will tell.

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2018-03-27/viney-mcdonald-to-start-running-soon Looks like the 'deload' phase for Viney and Tom Mc will end soon as they are both expected to start running next Monday. Estimate is still 6-8 weeks away. Everyone came thru round 1 ok so all are available for selection vs Brisbane. Melbourne injury list: round two Pat McKenna (hamstring) – indefinite Tom McDonald (foot) – 6-8 weeks Aaron vandenBerg (ankle) – indefinite Bernie Vince (webbing) – available Jack Viney (foot) – 6-8 weeks

With Hogan @#4, Petracca @ #6 and Lever @ #8 we are well represented. I would leave out Curnow - he will be a star but hasn't done enough yet to be included with the rest of the top 10. I would like to leave out Merrett because I don't like Ess but he is pretty good and deserves to be there. But it is a fair top 10. Guthrie does say Oliver is hard done by to not be included and I reckon he is well ahead of the other 'hard done by' players (Andrew McGrath, Darcy Moore and Jack Billings). So to have 4 of say the top 12 is sensational. Can't wait till it all clicks for us!

I think you missed something during the trade period... But I do like your optimism: Game 1 of 25!!

Garry asked him if it was true that Tyson wasn't selected because of his role in the camp being cancelled. Garry wouldn't make that up so he has heard it somewhere. Jones gave the only answer he could which is it is 'nonsense'. But right there Tyson was outed as one of the agitators which is really poor. Whether he deserved to be selected I do not know. However, I would be ropeable if our selection panel were 'punishing' a player for standing up for something he believed. It would be petty and I hope our coaches are more mature than that.