Diamond_Jim

Now you mention it Fitzroy was very nomadic. SEN by co-incidence had a remember the old grounds theme late last night. Lots of talk about toilets. They mentioned Moorabbin and were saying it was "state of the art" when built. Only went there once and stood on the outer terraces. North stayed all those years at Arden Street but they never cracked the supporter market. Perhaps as LDC says like Fitzroy, North as a population base were squeezed between the relatively bigger clubs. Then there was the Swans............? History has a lesson for the present clubs .... perhaps the most vulnerable is Hawthorn

Sorry... I missed Carlton .... not really sure where they are going on the power club stakes but I get the feeling that their supporters are not exactly rusted on a la Collingwood... more like Hawthorn who have yet to mange a sustained downturn

He has an X factor together with an excitement factor... MFC need that along with a good team.. perhaps I am still dreaming of that magical player

There is something about this guy that says he could star in our game plan

Dylan Grimes ?? seriously... if Zak Jones moves the worst pressure move he could have was one to the MFC. Brothers at the same club sounds great but in reality that is the worst competition one can have. Speaking of brothers.... I got onto the end of an SEN interview with Glen jakovich the other night.... does anyone know if he mentioned his brother Allen?

As an aside it is interesting to look at the inner city clubs of the earlier years. Richmond and Collingwood went on from a supporter base but Fitzroy and St Kilda did not. Melbourne had its own pluses and minuses which goes some way to explaining why we are where we are but really Fitzroy and St Kilda came from the same place as Richmond and Collingwood. Even Richmond is strange... no premierships between 1943 and 1967 but they then had four more including their last win in 1980. Perhaps it was the MCG move in 1966(?) North Melbourne is another one but to me they never really had the historic supporter base. (I could be wrong... which I often am.) It underscores how brittle/fickle public opinion is and how we really have to do something about getting the MFC back on track.

Crows ... loss the rest 50-50 so two or three wins .... of course we could luck in and win all 5 but MFC doesn't have that kind of luck

Good point.... like the forward thinking. The republic will happen unless the politicians play the system again (thanks John Howard). Perhaps the holiday will be replaced by an Indigenous recognition day but no guarantee it would be on the same day.

Would be interesting to know whether any players "rest" these days on the ground. Someone into stats might be able to tell us. In the modern game perhaps the most viable on ground resting position is around the wing as the push up forward. That being said I am not sure I would like to have that position taken by my resting ruckman ... Nic Natanui and a few others aside.

After the first five weeks hard to see the next six being worse but I suspect they will be due to harder competitors and the long injury list. Before the season I had us 4-1 at this stage with the Essendon game dependent upon how their senior players performed on return. On paper and the Essendon performance we should have been favourites. Throw in the injuries and the patchy form and it is now a 50:50 at best. The older players need to fire and a few need a purple patch if we are going to maintain any momentum over the next six weeks. Sure there is an excuse for each week but each week we were in a winning position and lost. Hell relatively speaking we stumbled over the line against Carlton.

ooooooooooooooooouch all those references to how lucky we were to have Mitch Clark in place of the guy who went to GWS were very painful

As I mentioned earlier you have to attract the "theatre goers" who have made the ANZAC day clash such a success. In reality neither Essendon or Collingwood have been up for a while and certainly not both at the same time but the event is regarded as the home and away match of the season. It is attended by a lot more than just the supporters of the two clubs as well as being a big corporate game. Sell out the MCG... put a few extra dollars on the tickets (say $10 not the $40-50 imposed today by Essendon) and as Terry in Minder would say .... that is a nice little earner. As an aside years ago Melbourne was in one of its early final series. (1988) A friend of mine knew someone and got us tickets to each of the finals. When Melbourne got to the grand final I asked whether the tickets might be available. He said ... "no my wife is using them." .. "But your wife doesn't like football" I replied... "yeah but she loves the balloons before the game!" That's a theatre goer !

In theory they share between Docklands and the MCG but the only Victorian teams they play at Docklands is us and North. All other Essendon home games against Victorian teams are at the MCG

how did we get to play the Bombers next week at Docklands when both teams nominally have the MCG as their base?

Many teams are rated by their "bottom 6" Another way to rate is by their over 25 year old players. It is in this category that we have failed miserably. Take out the recent additions of Hibberd and Lewis and one can easily see what the last ten years have done to this club. The mantra over the last few years has been draft more mids as that gives you an immediate hit. Hard to disagree but hell I hope Weid and Hulett come on in the next two years. On the ruck position.... well at least Lumumba's position is free next year. Frankly I think this season is gone unless we alter the game plan to one which is more defensive. The again we could look at using this season to fine tune the game plan. Lose next week and we may as well "play the kids".

The danger to our game is not from the Collingwood v Essendon fixture (they are powerful enough to protect their turf) but rather from other clubs when Anzac Eve starts to fall on Thursday, Friday Saturday or Sunday. Here's a hard one.... if you could only keep one blockbuster would you choose Anzac Eve or QB. Personally I think Anzac Eve has more upside. Collingwood supporters do not appear to be exactly enamoured with the QB game... just another game to them Richmond also has its "Dreamtime" game but the reality is that without Collingwood, Essendon or Richmond as the other team it hard to create a blockbuster.

Hate to say it but we need to attract the "theatre crowd" ANZAC day is almost a pre -season sell out because as well as the usual club supporters it attracts people who like the sense of the big event. The horse and the cauldron has been a great success and the night time gives us the opportunity to build the theme.... (think projections onto stands of wartime memories). Nice to talk about something positive for once.

Apparently the crowd last night was the biggest home and away crowd the MFC has played before since 19663(4). Next year it will be our home game. Let's hope we monetise the game appropriately without alienating the fan base. It will be a Tuesday night so the long weekend affect we had this year may detract from the numbers. An extra $10 per entrant would do wonders for our finances.

Apparently Fitzy was almost BOG for Box Hill last weekend TBH ruck stocks and back up KPP's must be hard to handle from a list management viewpoint.

This is perhaps where a team's VFL side could come into play. One could have playing rookies who are nominated for the senior list for the first half of a season and then either renewed or replaced from the whole of the VFL list. It could also be extended to allow you to "deactivate" a player at senior level while keeping them on the VFL list and then return them the next season. Sure there are some problems (salary cap, contracts etc) but it would enliven the VFL and certainly provide for some enjoyable speculation for fans around mid season.

ok.... coming down very slowly after yet another disappointing MFC result. In line with the eternal optimism of an MFC supporter still believing in the mathematical chance of making the finals (wasn't late last year fun for a while) I am curious what is the best outcome for us from the Collingwood v Essendon game. My head says Essendon to lose as I think Collingwood can be relied upon to achieve mediocrity and a near bottom four end of season position even with a win today. Perhaps a draw so both teams can rue what might have been. Cannot bring myself to hope for injuries no matter how tempting the thought might be. So.... Essendon to "hit the wall".

Agree someone last night posted the stats of our main midfielders ... handball to kick ratio..... the over reliance on handball was readily apparent. Same at VFL level. A chain of three handballs with the last going to a player who was covered notwithstanding that players one and two could have kicked it forward. It could be that coaches prefer the third player getting caught and the subsequent ball up rather than the risk of an intercepted kick

The third man up allowed many teams to paper over inadequate ruck stocks.

As they say in management parlance.... King's inclusion would be "sub-optimal" but it is the right choice. We need a nullifying ruckman. Dare I say it we also need to adapt the game plan to a lack of ruck dominance. Surprised that there has only been limited discussion re Declan Keilty for some role.

Sober analysis says that is pretty well our season gone The first 5 games (6 if you count next week) were our easy run. We needed to win 4 or 5 of those 6.