Ted Lasso

It appears the Pies had some Intel on Max's injury and deliberately targeted it all day. I've decided to baselessly blame Jeremy Howe.

Out: Disco, M.Brown, Chandler In: May, Weideman, Bedford

Short answer is no, i'd say we're probably in the heaviest part of the phase now and we'll slowly release it over the next 2-3 weeks and look to be cherry ripe for the run home. I think honestly we've just had a few things go wrong on field at the same time as we've not quite been at our greatest physically, we've got a few players who i think are playing injured, a few who are pretty banged up and losing Steven May has absolutely killed us. I think we had a little bit of a blessed run with injury in 2021 and 2022 is a little bit closer to just what you'd expect, especially given we now have Selwyn Griffith in charge who has a very similar program in place to Burgo, but not identical and sometimes individuals respond differently to subtle changes in the conditioning program.

I couldn't disagree more. i'd suggest Luke Jackson would be one of the most valuable players in the competition trade wise, not just because he's already a premiership player and rising star winner, but his potential is almost endless. he's 20 and good enough to be a number 1 ruck in a top 4 side. Losing Jacko would really suck, but i have a level of confidence in the fact if he did leave we'd be compensated pretty well and Jason taylor and co would be able to use the early picks we'd likely get to really re-set us to stay near the top for a long period of time.

Collingwood supporters are a special breed of gross, honestly the Boo's you were hearing may have just been them trying to talk but their lack of education, teeth and hygiene in general does make it difficult for them I for one say we let them celebrate their June premiership they seem to think they've won

We are 100% loading. the last 3 games we've gotten into a dominant position and then run out of legs. Form, confidence, opposition tactics, our players being a little banged up in some cases are all factors, but there is no doubt in my mind our lack of run, energy and spark is due to a heavy loading phase. the same 3 rounds last year we went 1-2 and dropped off dramatically, with commentators saying we were shot.

I reckon teams are just taking LJ a bit more seriously these days and putting in more effort into stopping him. No clue if he will stay or go, but we will be fine either way. I'm sure the club has plans in place for either situation.

Can't wait to see the BS token punishment that comes of this and the story being very quickly swept under the rug.

I have been shocked at the development of this kid, don't be surprised if he really makes this spot his own. He's a very capable one on one defender but his reading of the play is very good and knows when to peel off. if he's come in for Adam Tommlinson it could really suggest it's going to be harder and harder for Tommo to gain a spot as a defender in this team

That's as strong a media performance from a player as you'll ever see, Raw, you can see he's hurt and dissapointed, but articulate, doesn't duck any questions, sets boundaries well. Such an impressive guy.

Definitely agree with all of that. but i would also say that while our coaches have done a brilliant job, we still aren't a particularly skillful team, and so when fatigued we do revert a little bit to old habits when the options aren't immediately available to us. I think our poor conversion inside 50 is a result of our forwards being fatigued and not being able to create gaps as easily with their opposition, and the players further afield being slightly fatigued and not being able to run and carry quite as far before being rounded up, so they end up having to kick long from further out, resulting in shallower, and more predictable entries. I feel like we had a similar issue at this stage last season, i remember commentators saying if we can't find a way to score we can't win the flag.

I think you should look closer. they've been scoring, but their scores against have risen dramatically. so it's pretty clear to me that loading fatigue has caused the less natural game phase for both sides to fall away slightly. we've lost our offensive game a little bit, and they're struggling to transition back and defend. 117, 96 and 99 have been their last 3 scores against, and important to note 2/3 sides are outside the top 8 pretty comfortably.

The interesting thing is that the Brisbane Lions are in exactly the same boat as us. they've won 1 of their last 3 games, been beaten by Fremantle and Hawthorn, and had a very narrow win against the Giants that could have easily been a loss. but they're not getting the same media attention we are. I think both teams have done a great job banking early wins without an enormous injury list, and only doing that really allows yourself to load to the extent that may offer a really serious advantage in the back end of the season. It's a really interesting topic to discuss on here because we've been awful for so long, that we've not been in a position for decades where this sort of thing is something that's even been relevant to us.

It's really interesting topic to discuss on Demonland because there is so much varied knowledge poster to poster on the topic that it's almost impossible for the conversation to play out productively. For the record, i am almost certain out training is in some sort of loaded phase at the moment, to what degree that impacts is impossible to tell because it's different player to player, some players performance won't change at all, some will fall away 5-10% due to fatigue potentially. it's a hard thing to balance. I'd say the loss of Steven May has had a bigger impact on our two most recent results than anything to do with training. i think we would have definitely beaten Sydney if May played, and likely would have beaten Fremantle had he not gotten concussed.

I assume you're an expert within the fitness industry?

Geez a fully fit Joel Smith would be handy.

I surely can't be the only one curious about who was winning the fight? May is a beast, but Melksham is a more than handy boxer.

I'd say that Petracca was pretty selfless against Fremantle when despite feeling like S@#$ he still took the field, granted it was clearly misguided but i don't think it's fair to suggest the selfish tendancies are back, the wheels aren't off, we just need to re-set and we will be fine. Honestly i don't know if it's MFCSS but if we all got offered at the start of the year to be 10-2 and a game clear on top of the ladder at the conclusion of round 12, at the start of the year, i'd suggest all supporters would take it and be thrilled. Potentially it's us fans who bought into the rubbish about us going undefeated who are a little bit sour with the reality check and need to remember how young this group is, we will be down in patches, but we know our best is the best and all that really matters is that come finals we're playing our best footy.

This is a terrific post, and i know for a fact we adopted a similar plan and had a drop off in performance at exactly the same stage last season, and it allowed us to absolutely peak when we needed to. This is something we've only as recently as the last 2 seasons started doing, we balance our pre season out with a lot more skills and game plan focus and work more carefully with in season training loads to try and absolutely maximize our conditioning advantage.

It's definitely high time for the leaders of the club to step up, stop the bleeding and get us back on track. we've had 2 flat weeks due to injury and poor form after a 10-0 start to the week and suddenly all the wheels are falling off. Queens birthday we need a statement win and nothing less. go into the bye with some momentum and the league getting a firm reminder that the MFC is still the team to beat.

Given he's been our mr fix it, i see the only logical option as playing Angus Brayshaw as our towering key forward.

Oh i completely agree. he's as out of form as a player really can be. Sam Weideman really has a massive opportunity if he can find his best form

Last year at a similar time we went into a heavy training phase, and our form dipped along with it, due to increased fatigue from the players. What i know about Selwyn Griffiths program which is admittedly very little, is that it's quite running heavy and designed to help us run teams off their feet heading into finals, similar to last year, I suspect something similar is happening and why our form has dipped slightly, combined with unavailability and injury to key players. I think this is also the cause for our reversion to Bomb it long and hope for the best demons. the coaches would never admit this publicly i don't think

i'm sure a component of Browns form is him not getting to the right spots, as well as a really poor forward structure, as well as diabolically kicks inside 50 we seem to have reverted back to the bomb it long and hope Max or Fritsch takes a screamer.

i don't personally remember a single occasion of Brown being outmarked one out, i may be wrong, but from memory the McCartins took a lot of marks in pack scenarios where blocks were provided, I think those situations speak a lot more to poor forward structure than anything else.