Diamond_Jim

I'd give Tim S the rest of the season and see if he can stand the heat. If not.. goodbye Joel Smith.. bye AVB... bye (medical retirement) KK... one more year.... he's still young and I think there's something there but be ready to delist/medically retire mid way through next season. All are very tough decisions but they need to be made.

VDB, the two Smiths, KK... all injury prone players. Taking each player alone the list can carry them but can you support a list where almost 10% of your players begin well behind par from a fitness viewpoint.

Must say I'm surprised a little by those who think Preuss is a forward. Sure a goal or two every couple of games but no more than a 17-20 goal a year man. Gawn is the key... Preuss to ruck 70/30 and Gawn to play forward 70/30%. Gawn is a potential 4 goal a game player.

the reality is that this season was a chance to move past Carlton membership wise. Today was a second albeit lesser chance to keep the gulf to a manageable level. We blew it just like we have blown this season. Gutsy wins against cellar dwellers don't bring in new members. There are pivotal times in the life of a football club and make no mistake this year was one of them for the MFC.

you may be interested to know that judging by the number of supporters around the quarter time and half time huddles they probably had the larger supporter numbers there as well.. (nowhere near the mismatch of the Collingwood game though). On the video feed could not agree more... two unmanned stationary cameras.. two feeds.. watcher clicks between them... cost not much.. or give it to some film students or the like to run.

if you'd seen his game at Casey you would wonder when but certainly not now

Juice also had to put up with learning his craft at Sandringham where Sautner was the dominant forward. On the other hand those stats are a little misleading given the high scores that were quite often kicked in those days plus the open forward line. My real concern is that four years in the Weid hasn't had one day out bar a half at Box Hill.

so which side is more likely to get the membership bump out of today? At the end of the day that was the only thing riding on this game.

not so much this year.. the opposition mids have worked him out. TBH I don't rate the ruck role that much. It's all about halving the contest

Kreuzer was very influential with his round the ground play in the first half. Preuss held his own in the ruck and I see stats wise slightly outdid Kreuzer with disposals. Preuss' role as I have argued for yonks is to free up Max to play around the ground. Max' hit outs are not much better than Preuss' so it's the midfield that needs to lift. With Mc Donald out next week if not longer there's lots of time to experiment not to mention for Weideman to justify his re signing.

was that a win that felt like a loss

honestly does it really make a difference if we lose after such a lousy game

A loss would be somewhat fitting for this useless game. Should have been up by 60.. three decent injuries.. what a season this is

digital delay.. agree it renders the service impossible for use at the ground. The old transistor I am afraid is the only way.. you can buy them at the $2 shops still but few other places.

you're probably right.. either that or a loss

That last minute was embarrassing .... nothing good will come from this game and of course we had to have the weekly injury. Weideman missing everything from around 30.... (not alone) there's seriously something wrong in the headspace of the players. And then the number of chip passes that have missed their targets. Luckily not too many turnovers but momentum killers.

That should have been an 8 goal quarter and almost game over. Weideman is not even the shadow of an AFL forward

Kreuzer's round the ground play is keeping them in this not to mention our atrocious forward play.

what's that .. six or more gettable shots on goal for 1:2

Wish him all the best. I hope I'm wrong but I always thought his role was to free up Gawn not replace him. Bit of an unfair test if supporters are expecting more. Preuss with support from Tom Mac and Weideman against Kreuzer... this could be instructive

The game plan is much the same at VFL level. I can understand that they have to know the gameplan etc but it could be played every third game with equal affect and then the intervening games could be used for skill development and dare I say it testing alternative gameplans. The goal sealer yesterday came from a scrubby kick by Munro from around the centre that just rolled through the goal (it almost stopped) because there were zero players forward of the defensive 70. Okay that's modern football but it isn't necessarily smart football.

Team sheets are due in xxx (I think around 30 minutes) before the game starts. That's the last time for a change save for a "fresh" injury after submission. (Travis Boak was withdrawn yesterday during the warm up for example. Interesting ... he suffered back spasms which one would think could be described as a pre existing injury.)

Like you JV7, have decided not to go along today. The game offers nothing in the context of this dismal season other than confirmation of our mediocrity. Will head back for a bigger challenge in a few weeks perhaps.

Clarkson reported as seeing the signs of the Hawks next flag with today's win against Collingwood. God I'm jealous

nothing outstanding. Was the recipient of a good forward pass but missed the goal from around 40 metres on a 45 degree angle. Has difficulty at VFL level finding any space and lacks the body for one on one contact. Needs to play a lot smarter if he is to make it. Of course the gameplan does not suit him with its congested forward line and scrum like packs.