Lucifers Hero

Fitzy gets a game this week, (somewhat at Vickery's expense. Crickey, Richmond sure cleaned up on that deal: pick 26 as the FA comp pick, after some shenanigans between the two clubs). http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-05-12/vickery-will-get-his-chance-says-clarkson Clarkson: "In this case 'Fitzy' put together six or seven great games of footy that just meant we had to reward the player who had been the better of the bigger fellas". I've always liked Fitzy (tunnel ball notwithstanding) so its good to see he is getting another go at the Hawks.

And StK sold a mountain of memberships on $1 deposit. While North has 3,000 t0 5,000 members in Tassie. And we are not too far off Carlton who have 46,426. For some ungodly reason they are considered one of the Vic 'powerhouse clubs'. This false status gives them umpteen home games at the G (at our expense) against the high membership clubs like Ess, Rich, Haw, Coll. It also gives them numerous FTA games in some prime time slots. It sure helps to have friends in high places and an ex captain head of the AFL.

Great report, thanks Earl. Re Hogan. I wonder if some of his family is still in Adelaide and he has gone over early. Or maybe just having a day off. The 'special' work Trengove was doing may be why Saty thinks he will be selected. Wouldn't be surprised, Goodwin has said several times that he is very close. Trengove is pretty good at forward pressure.

I need to come to young Gus' defence. If those comments are based on 2016/2017 its rather harsh...he played only 12 games of the possible 29, The 10 in 2016 were interrupted by injury. Roos said later they brought him back too quickly after injury early in 2016. In 2017 he took a hit in the 2nd game, dropped, then injured. The valid body of work is 2015 when he played 21 of 22 games and touted as a gun. From what I recall he was often in the thick of the contest and a very good kick. He is a much better kick than the likes of Viney, Jones, Tyson etc He is also a smarter player than those guys...how often in 2015 did he perfectly place the ball for Jeffy to run onto, race in to kick a goal... @Grand New Flag reported a few weeks ago (paraphrasing) that Gus was physically ok but needed to get his head space right regarding putting his head over the ball. I think we can all understand that. Regarding the concussions, Salem has had a few and he has bounced back and I think Gus can too, then he will recover his 2015 form and be the gun some of us think he will be. Give him time to recover, DA.

That is what I thought deebug! If any of the players named by Craig B or the team felt deflated by his letter and the heavy handed criticism by club legends (Lyon and Ox) then Goodwin can give them a pep talk with the new memebership numbers saying: '...Supporters are right behind you and the team, and that is what counts... go out there and reward them and give your all...' Go Dees!!

Only when playing the Demons

Somehow we are now a lot more! 40,358 Clearly, a lot of supporters were not as disappointed with the Hawks game as many here on Demonland. 300+ have put up their money since the weekend! Good on them for backing the Dees!!

Thats good news and good timing as Carlton's major sponsor has pulled out so they will be seeking a new one also http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/blues-face-1-million-black-hole-as-sponsor-pulls-out-20170510-gw20yl.html. As an aside, the sponsor was Career One which is associated with Andrew Demitriou...you have to wonder how much back room, 'quid pro quo' was happening in that deal!! Any coincidence that he and Mike Fitzpatrick were heading up the AFL? I don't think so!!

Looks like Tayla is a chance to come to us http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/brisbane-marquee-tayla-harris-set-to-test-aflw-trade-period/news-story/fb490adab204761acfe962a535d49538 Carlton are keen on her but she doesn't seem so keen on them. She has a strong connection with the Dees. Given she is only about 20 I reckon we should give up what we need to - imagine Harris and Mifsud in our forward line. Happy days!

Here are the rules: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/ Fortunately, they have slightly increased the size of the list. It will help overcome L-T injuries. There will be a father/daughter draft option next year. (Father will need to have played 1 game for a club). Draft is on mid October. I assume the draft order is from the bottom up. We had a core group of 12-15 players this season who played consistently well and we noticeably improved as they played more games together. Hoping we can keep them all. We will start hearing of contract re-signings from next Monday.

Right, so now JKH's name is splattered all over the Herald Sun. It is disgraceful. Ox has a lot to answer for reading out his name as has SEN for distributing the letter with JKH (and other names) name not deleted. Ditto the HS. I'll repeat what I said yesterday. Its one thing for Ox and Lyon to criticise the club we love, the club that made them great but I don't like the way they sink the boots in. I don't hear T Watson, Lloyd, Carey, Darcy etc sink the boots in to their old clubs or naming young players when they have a bad run - they are able to criticise without the resultant headlines attracting ridicule to their clubs or players. Just when we were on the verge of getting some respect back we become the media's punching bag again. Sadly it has been our own hero's leading the charge.

If the AFL Tribunal can be swayed by Carlton doctor reports of post game injury diagnoses attributing them to in game events, then they will be swayed by anything when it suits them and adjust the penalty accordingly. Lots of AFL Tribunal lenient decisions lately...

Thomas gets a well deserved 3 weeks http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-05-09/roo-handed-threegame-ban-by-vfl-tribunal In practice it means 5 games as there are 2 VFL byes. He might now become just a fringe player if he ever makes it back to the seniors...karma

Agree 100%. I think SEN and the Ox need take responsibility as he read it out on air and SEN released it and it is now posted all over the internet.. They should have removed JKH's name. They would still have the headline without the name. I am appalled that the Ox doesn't get the impact on a young man. While I'm at it, I'm sick of our ex champions potting our team and our players in the search of headlines. Garry did it yesterday and now the Ox. Sure they have a job to do but they don't have to sink the boots in the way they do. I don't hear other club's ex players in the media bag their club in the same way ours do. Criticise all you like Garry and Ox but be aware at how damaging your delivery is to our club and to the morale of supporters. The media just love getting stuck into us and as our ex champions they implicitly give other media 'permission' to sink the boots in as well.

From HS website: Good news for Melbourne fans, ruckman Max Gawn was spotted running and doing light ball work at training Good work. Speedy recovery, Maxy! We need you... Edit: Update: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2017-05-09/gawn-spencer-progressing-strongly “He’s starting some faster run throughs this week and he’s still only four weeks’ post op, so he’s four to six weeks away. “Jake is going well. He’s got very good range in that shoulder and good strength, but he’s probably four to five [weeks].” Looks like both Max and Jake will be ready about the same time. Sometime after the bye on my reckoning.

To my mind he showed this in his acceptance speech at last year's b&f: smart, articulate, gracious, humble. Couple this with his competitiveness and fierce desire to improve and win at all costs spells 'leader' to me. The way he plays says: 'follow me, guys' (as does Viney). His suggestion at the last Freo bounce suggests he has the 'footy smarts' to read the play and how to respond. Hopefully, Jones listens next time. Have no idea how he is viewed internally, tho. I agree - I'm not fond of the co-capt model either. Bit off topic but maybe - Viney as capt with Hunt and Gawn as VC. Gawn also has a good footy brain and on-field voice.

Hunt tried to get Jones to go defensive for the last Freo bounce. Jones' response was to point to our goals ie attack! The rest is history. One wonders tho why the coaches didn't send the runner out! Hunt will make a very good co capt with Viney (when Jones hangs up his boots). Perfect balance of brains and brawn Both have a fierce desire to win. Great combo.

Here is an article on how to beat the Crows. http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/expert-opinion/kane-cornes/geelong-coach-chris-scott-and-his-twin-kangaroos-coach-brad-have-plotted-successful-afl-game-plans-against-the-adelaide-crows/news-story/88143638e06cbc9b1a5cc236deda23ae It makes sense to me. Key points are: Hold your defenders back - Don’t allow your defenders too push too high up the ground... It’s vital to have a spare defender almost playing like a soccer goalkeeper Tag Rory Sloane Ferocious tackle pressure Get physical Based on those I don't like our chances without some drastic game plan change because: Our 'or brand' attacking game plan is based on defenders pushing up and we (try to) apply forward and mid field pressure. We aren't consistent at that yet. We constantly leak over the back goals. We generally don't tag - a good job for Bernie or Bugg perhaps? Depending on which Melb turns up we will do well on 'ferocious tackle pressure' - If Kent is selected he better bring his best in this regard. We can get physical but not sure any of our defenders do the 'in your face' stuff - maybe Hibberd is an exception. Pyke knows our weaknesses and will be waiting for us. In my industry we have a saying: 'work smarter not harder' as it saves a lot of wasted effort while achieving the same result. Relevance, you ask? I don't think we can play 120 minutes of our frantic level, go flat out game. We need to play smarter! (Lots of suggestions in the Post Game thread). If we play smarter we can take it up to the Crows. I fear Goodwin and co are so committed to 'our brand' attacking game plan and trying to perfect it that they will stick to it. Sometimes the core game plan needs to be 'defence first' rather than our 'attack at all costs'. Hope our coaches get that decision right this week and the team changes will follow.

Despite our loss, 2 players made TOW: Viney and Frost. I'm especially happy for Frost as this would be (I think) the first public recognitionfor him and I imagine it would be really confidence boosting for him. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-05-09/team-of-the-week-r7-did-we-get-it-right Also Viney got 10 from the coaches ie they both gave him a BOG 5. Jones got 3 votes and Frost 1. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-05-08/aflca-votes-round-seven-the-bont-makes-his-move Well done guys!

Fair enough. Its just that our kids looked a bit lost in the first half and I've come to rely on Lewis working to herd them back to the game plan etc and I didn't see it so much yesterday. Thanks for feedback.

I was disappointed with Lewis' leadership yesterday. From his pre game interviews he was naturally keen to play well against his old side. But did he become preoccupied with that and forget to look after the team? I noticed that after he kicked each goal he celebrated like I have never seen him do before, even when at Hawthorn. Understandably, they meant a lot to him. But his last goal was a few minutes before the siren and we could still win it. In the past he would have raced back to position, calmed everyone down and set everyone up for the next bounce. But I felt he 'took his eye off the ball' as our on-field-general. The previous week he chatted to Pedersen and the midfielders at centre bounces etc. Not so much yesterday. It looked like he was in 'individual performance' mode rather than 'team' mode. In fact most our players looked in 'individual performance' mode. Unfortunately, while our other leaders worked hard, there was no one to fill the void of on-field-general. Again, we paid the price of not having one. (Viney's wonderful individual performance notwithstanding).

Is it coaching?

I have mentioned Tim O'Brien in several posts but I think his game is worth more discussion as he really hurt us - in part because our defenders didn't pay him enough respect and he was able to dominate the forward line: He took 10 marks, had 5 hitouts and kicked 2 goals. He is 23yo and played only 20 games and I wondered where he has been hiding. The HFC website says: " After four games in 2014, the key forward couldn’t back it up with a senior berth in 2015, but was solid up forward all year for Box Hill as he continues to serve the time-honoured Hawthorn apprenticeship". He is the quintessential ruck/forward a perfect complement to Roughy. O'Brien is the type of player we desperately need. We could have won every game if we had such a player (no I don't think Watts is that player - he is needed elsewhere). Anyway, he made me think of Weideman and how quick some posters have been to judge him. The disadvantage Weideman has vs O'Brien is being a high draft pick so people expect him to perform earlier rather than later. O'Brien shows the benefit of proper development...hope our coaches are paying attention and don't rush Weideman back. My hope is Goodwin makes Weideman into a player who can be our ruck/forward in a few years.

I thought Jesse had a good game given recent events. He competed well. Took some good marks. He was double tagged and had a loose defender in front preventing him leading. And he still kicked 3.3. on a day when we couldn't get the ball very far into the f50. Importantly, he took poor umpiring decisions in his stride and had some good second efforts. Not bad given he had a stop/start to the year, playing only 3 games before yesterday so his match fitness would have been down. Naturally, he seemed subdued but I thought it was terrific how he fronted up yesterday and kept his head up regardless of how things went on the field. I am very confident that in time we will see him achieve the potential he showed in 2015. I wouldn't be surprised if at some stage this year he wins a game off his own boot.

First use can be an advantage but not always - we won the clearances yesterday (and last week). I had a sense that Hawthorn 'let us win' the clearances only to attack the ball carrier, spill it loose and run away with it. First use isn't much good if we can't get it out of the center square. With the exception of McEvoy we were taller than the Hawks. They marked (newbie O'Brien took 10) whereas we spoiled, ineffectively. It wasn't lack of height that hurt us, especially after they lost Birchall. They had 9 scoring shots in the first qtr we had 2. The ball didn't get close enough to the goals to even rush behinds or to miss deliberate shots for goal. That is where and when we lost the game. I doubt having Gawn yesterday would have prevented that appalling 30 minutes. So yes, we miss Gawn but his absence isn't the reason we lost to Freo and Hawthorn.