spirit of norm smith

In our build up to the Premiership, the Dees recruited strongly. The recruits were players who playing AFL (not VFL) and at the standard. We were attracting players who either came home to Victoria or saw opportunities. Hibberd Lewis Melksham May Lever Langdon Brown All were players who were regulars. But since 2021 premiership… VFL grade only Dunstan Hunter Schache Billings McAdam Fullarton Sharp Campbell Enough evidence!!! As we watch the Hawks rise, they followed the recruiting blueprint. Don’t bring in players who are below par. Attract the players who are at the standard and make your team better. Memo. Cc Tim Lamb, Simon Goodwin.

Stats that matter 💩Geelong 12.13.85 Melbourne 6.10.46 But there’s other simple stats that are worth looking into 💩Inside50s. Dees 50 Cats 49. Dees 6 goals from 50 entries. Horrible. Tells a story. Panic. Poor disposal. No target. Lazy forwards. 💩Conversion (shots per inside 50) 32.0%. Horrible. Dees are lowest in the league. Goal efficiency 12%. That stinks it up 💩Marks inside forward50. “5”. Very poor. 💩Cats marks 165. Uncontested 148. Dees let Cats sit free without any pressure. 💩Tackles in forward 50. “7”. Poor. 😀one percenters 47 much much better effort 😊clearances 32-32 dees won centre clearances 10-6

Easy !! Lever in. Fullarton in Let’s see what he can do Sestan in (Need to see what Sestan can do and he can’t, then at least we gave him a go ) Woey jnr (Give him a go and as a starting role Tell him not to stop just run run run at all times If he’s not up to it, then at least we gave him a go ) Petty out !! Get his confidence back JVR OUT !!! See above Spargo out Can’t run Can’t tackle Can’t jump. Melksham is done Please no more games to Billings, Spargo or Laurie V bummmers Lever May Salem Bowey McDonald Riv Windsor Viney Langdon Chandler Turner Trac Kozzy Fullerton Fritsch Gawn Oliver Langford Int. Sparrow Sestan Woey jnr Henderson Sub. Sharp.

Media are scum. Love ripping at our carcass!!

Is this a joke ! Execution and skill was horrible again. He is gaslighting us.

Agree. Handballed at times when he was running and free and could hit up a target !!

6 goals. 50 inside 50s. Forward 50 connection Straight lines into the 50 or mark just outside, … stop. Stop. Panic. Stop stop panic oops play on then kick it to no one or no one's advantage or straight to a Cats defender!!!

Gawn. 7 x one percenters. Team of 23 players had 30. His intensity and desire was miles ahead of his teammates. 5 clearances. 12 contested possessions.

Easy 6 Gawn 5 May 4 McDonald 3 Bowey 2 Pickett 1 Oliver Apologies to Chin. The rest were average to very poor -1 Sharp -2 Petty -3 JVR

Goodwin has no idea. No strategy. No instruction. Either they are ignoring him or he has no idea. That’s the two [censored] observations!!!

💩Fritsch goalkicking - another miss 👺👺👺👺Anthony Hudson’s biased commentary barracking for Geelong 👍🏻May ??? Smothers ??? Tackles inside 50 💩Petty. Separation!!! 💩kozzzzy holding it. Poor !!! 💩ANOTHER LAST QTR WHITE FLAG !!! 💩💩💩💩Connection inside z60. Henderson. Oliver. Windsor. Disgraceful 20 minute mark !! 💩Pickett miss 15 metre out left foot !!! 💩Bowey stupid 50 !! Wait until they call okay play on 💩Bowey 20 metre kick miss target 💩💩💩💩guard grass !!!

3rd 👏Pickett to Turner 💩💩💩💩💩💩tackling !! Cats break tackles and handball ☠️☠️☠️☠️umps killing us. Frees 16-8 !!! 👏Chandler 💩💩💩Trac tackles is [censored]

1st half 💩fumbles and fumbles. Oliver Oliver pathetic little handballs to no one Metres Gained 160!!! Low!!! 💩 handball to no one . Salem 💩Petty Viney Sparrow Sharp 👏Langdon run 👏clearances even 👏Trac two goals 👏Langford goal 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮umps !!!

Beyond optimistic… it’s being misti-optic !!! Cats lost by a kick to Saints and Lions at away venues. Hardly a disgrace to go to Brisbane and lose by a goal. They thumped Freo by 13 goals at cat park in round 1. Dees lost the last 2 games by 10 goals each time to average teams. Not reigning premiers. Miracles do happen in sport. Dees getting a win or even getting close would count as a miracle.

Still have Tom Morris and the gutter merchants all banging on about Dees offloaded Trac or Clarry or both to get in before Tassie takes over the draft !!! Wtf They criticize and then advocate to trade. Ffs.

Gotta hate Collingwood !!! [censored] them arrogant pieces of 💩💩💩💩💩

New additions for 2026 Really we don’t offer much as a destination club right now. We’d like to be in conversation for Reid, Butters and Allen but I cannot see us being on any of their radars. Disappointing as Butters is the type of players that MFC desperately needs So targets… realistically probably only perhaps Wade Derksen and Seamus Mitchell. Each are very strong VFL players who would fit into our team. Add Kalani White & Toby Sinnema in the draft through father son and NGA respectively. White is a future ruck or tall back & Sinnema is a running left foot midfielder.

CASEY DEMONS B: L. Bryce (73), J. Adams (26), B. Howes (22) HB: O. Sestan (38), R. Bonner (52), D. Smith (54) C: T. Woewodin (40), M. Hardie (55), J. Billings (14) HF: P. Cross (64), T. Fullarton (33), R. Mentha (39) F: N. Yze (49), A. Johnson (42), K. Windsor (66) R: T. Campbell (29), K. Brown (41), B. Laurie (16) INT: **M. Kirkwood-Scott (51), R. Baldi (56), J. Culley (46), T. Edwards (58), W. Verrall (28) 23rd Player: **M. Kirkwood-Scott (51) EMG: C. Peters (63), C. Doultree (61), J. Craven (75), M. Gregory (57) 13 MFC, 10 Casey Missing (7) Lever. McVee. Jefferson Throlstrup. Lindsay Hore. Kentfield

So where is Lever? That’s two weeks out. Supposedly was close to playing v suns. Bring back burgess!!!

I’d like to see us trial more youngsters. See if they measure up. Why play McDonald and Melksham. They will retire at seasons end. We need to see what youngsters like Adams, Laurie etc can offer.

Happy with this early crow and happy he’s in the red and blue !!! Rising star. Definitely. 👏👏👏👏👏

Salem had 20 possessions v Suns. Metres gained 240 !! Many junk slow sideways kicks He needs to do better. Quicker and more positive movement ASAP Compare to Daniel Rioli with 20 possessions (80% DE) and Bodhi Uwland with 15 possessions who gained 400 metres (93%DE). Run and carry and forward positive movement Coach Simon - please take heed of such simple advice

Agreed. He was sorely missed when injured and it was good to have him fit and firing in 2021, as he became a key part of our success. Had an outstanding 2021 GF. He kept us in the game before Trac and co took over and won it. But Salem is overrated now as a good ball user. His kicks are mainly chip kicks either - slow and sideways 15 metres OR slow and forwards 15 metres, or he kicks it 35 metres up and under and in the clouds making it easy to defend. Disposal efficiency can be ok when you are slow and do 15 metre safe kicks. He takes too long to dispose of the footy. It allows the defence to set up. Also twice on the weekend he handballed directly to Suns players on the weekend (specsavers) . Salem is one player who needs the 240volts shock treatment of intensity to lift !!!

Presume that Turner gets promoted Pickett into MFC after suspension Windsor and Lever in after injuries Given last weeks woeful performance by MFC, might be more than 4 changes. Dees might consider adding Fullerton or Laurie as other players to be promoted.

Yes agree Love is not the solution. I think Lloyd picks us as a soft target. Hardly needed to be said given we are 0-3. He is still a Barrett like hater of the Dees. Compare to guys like Nathan Buckley or Luke Hodge. Both are super impressive with their insights, comments and analysis. Hodge said the word “Respect” should be emblazoned all over the MFC rooms. Respect for each other. Respect for the club. Respect for the jumper. Respect for the fans.