TGR

Needs to play wing. TMac to go back until May +/- Lever come back. FCS, Goodwin is giving roles (Lewis +1 in 2017/18; and Jones wing) on reputation. The wing is super-important with 6/6/6 and requires speed there. Also Hibberd swinging around on his left gets the ball I50 quicker and deeper, and avoids Mick McGuane's trampoline zone that he referred to last week in the HUN. If Jones keeps playing, he must re-invent himself in the back-half taking over Lewis' role. Jones is too slow to be a wingman in the current game.

Farewell game v Hawks. That must be his last game if this club is serious about addressing uncontested possession.

Do the bloody maths. 6/6/6 don’t allow him to hide in a +1 down back any more. Even if he did, go back and watch the prelim again. He will slow is further. He needs to retire now. This club will pay the price for making us slower (Lewis has soaked up 50 development games somewhere else) and selling the farm with Lever in a super-draft.

Hunt - career bravest game Gawn/Oliver/Brayshaw - Carrying the team 6/6/6 - Exposing our legs Umps - Pedants Pedants Pedants Hibberd - Play him wing ANB/Melksham - All about me Lockhart - Great 2nd game Goodwin - First real challenge Goodwin - Review Prelim Final? MFC Simpletons - Get on valium

Feel sorry for all concerned here. The AFL obviously threatened all MFC staff with potential life bans from the game. With that hanging over their heads, of course they spilled the beans on each other. Also, those giving evidence would have been assured of confidentiality of their evidence. Who was the biggest crook? IMO, Demetriou and daylight second. Demetriou was in denial. The biggest carrot was dangling and it was too good. The footy world knew it. Tanking wasn't invented the year Melbourne did it. Fault here is completely with the architects of the rules. The footy world might be all shock horror, but decent people would definitely has contemplated it....even in hindsight.

Don't know who I am agreeing with. My question is who were the leaders at the dogs in 2016? Murphy wasn't even considered when Griffen got the gig. Don't know about leadership? Who here was singing Cotchin's praises in relation to leadership at Richmond before they won a flag? We can skirt around the issue of leadership, but the ingredients of a cake are talent, effort, knowledge, resilience....and the list goes on. Think for one moment why Clarko was happy to turf out Hodge, Lewis and Mitchell within what...18 months? He wanted youth and leg speed in, at the expense of the most overrated ingredient mentioned in footy-land. May was co-captain of an AFL club, yet turned up to pre-season totally unfit. I would say, and I have said consistently, that the "leg speed ingredient" is missing far more than leadership. That is why we were suckered into the Lewis deal. Well done Clarko....you fooled the MFC and 95% of its supporter base.

Jack Viney will be captain for another 5 years at least. Brayshaw will follow him.

Didn’t notice a limp on Saturday night

Angus Brayshaw....by a country mile. Comes from good stock. Principled. Looks into your eye when his speaking. Doesn't speak BS. Bloody good player with low centre of gravity and evasion. Right mix of professionalism and 'havin' a laugh'. pTGR

I hope you are. Look at Brayshaw's interview last night. Refused to use the surgeries excuse and referred to Oliver blitzing. Like Caro said, Melbourne (the club) aren't complaining, nor excusing. There are so many in the media, in this 24 hour cycle, you actually have to say something slightly ridiculous as a point-of-difference.

May pulls up sore. Goes off. Gets assessed. Allowed to come back on? Now we know he will miss weeks for the same issue he was assessed for? a) Why did he go back on? Medical call? Player? Coaching staff? Medicos would have cleared him surely. He will miss more than this week. From afar I have always given the benefit o the doubt to the medicos....but.... The benefit is getting smaller; the doubt bigger. One day we will learn the short term pain (rule him out), gives you long term gain (plays round 4).

A better question is: a) he initially went off complaining of what was obviously this issue. b) Why did he go back on? He will miss more than this week.

When our defensive spread is D grade, then you can multiply this problem. No wonder opposition can score easy from D50 congestion and convert it to a score. That Hawthorn goal last year from City end to Punt Road comes to mind, when the Hawk beat 3 MFC 'defenders' back to goal.

Good move by the club. Lock him in. He doesn't lose his cool and communicates well from what I can see. He hasn't been perfect (Jordan Lewis made a slow list slower; we sold the farm for Lever and removed ourselves from the super-draft), and these ramifications with stay with us for years. However.... The simpletons just look at a couple of games and judge. These are the same simpletons that would be spitting chips if Adelaide poached him and offered him a 5-6 year deal, if we hesitated. I am a big believer in not extending a contract to an un-poachable. But Adelaide would have circled. (Pike might be a carcass in the breeze, and might be one bad stint away from the axe). We had no other choice. Coaches grow and learn on the job. Look at Bucks, Hardwick, Clarko.

I'll give you under-simplification then. If a tiger or a lion is chasing you, I don't think you gunna be super-confident, and feeling dandy. But I reckon, you are going to run a PB.

Not many MFC supporters like you. If Essendon beat us, the Psychologists in Malvern, Camberwell, Brighton, Aireys Inlet will be booked out for a month. We easily forget that the best/safest coaches in the comp (Clarko, Buckley, Hardwick) had rough apprenticeships and had to grow, learn and transform on the job. Tick to the club for extending Goodwin. He will get better AND Adelaide would have come knocking because Pike is a bad trot away from being under the microscope.

I should get hypnotized. I might then be able to beat Usain Bolt. Lack of speed is lack of speed; nothing to do with psychobabble.

MDMT - not only looks at a player's capability to play 2 or more roles/positions on the field; but also evaluates every facet of the game (marking, ground-balls, mobility, defensive pressure etc...) I think the wet (Geel) and wind (Port & Geel) has highlighted that our talls have glaring weaknesses if they don't clunk it several times a match. Kudos to Gawn though, threw his body into unenviable positions and was unlucky not be paid 1 or 2 more marks at GMHBA stadium. Leigh Matthews, 30 years ago, had the view that BT for example, had to kick 4 goals or 'x' marks a game to override his mobility liability to the team. Even back then Matthews had his own equation/algorithm to justify selection. Matthews also regularly stated, it is never as good as it seems (Finals 2018) and never as bad as it seems (Round 2 2019); but that is for another thread. In the wet, Weed and Gawn aren't going to mark the pill too many times. When you take that one-wood from them, we are essentially a man-down or more. Gawn is one of the best rucks in the comp...virtually can't argue with that. Of course Gawn justifies selection, but we need to acknowledge every facet of his game isn't AA. I put him at no.2 to Grundy in 2018 for the simple reason that once the ball hits the deck, despite his 100% effort, he is slow and his change-of-direction is average. Superimpose this on the fact that "we aren't a quick team to begin with" (Roos OTC), then this issue becomes significant. Weed's defensive pressure when the ball went to ground was horrible last Saturday night. I have never noticed this before, but it was glaringly obvious. No wonder our I50 count meant little to the scoreboard. Tom McDonald doesn't have this D-grade facet to his game, and unfortunately, we only have one of him. Contrast this with Geelong's MDMTs in Blicavs, Stanley, and Ratugolea (returning from a smashed leg) etc...and the discrepancies are obvious. Joel Smith is an answer, and it will interesting to see how we go with selection in the wet next time, particularly in relation to Weed. Also, in the wet, TMac can't be left to rot at FF, and must play high half-forward IMO. pTGR

They are using Trello

"Moving forward" this thread should only include insecure middle-management employer speak.

Weakness or threat....FIIK. Gawn and Weed are good overhead marks. When windy (Port & Geel) or wet (Geel), their one-wood is gone. We are left with sluggishness for ground balls, and minimal defensive pressure. In the dry, Gawn and Weed are big strengths, particularly Gawn. In the wet, Gawn becomes average and Weed becomes below average. Joel Smith has massive upside and can address a lot of our deficiencies.

Weed - No defensive pressure Oliver - carried the team Brayshaw - B and F Neal-Bullen - Dispensable one-way runner Frost - 1 simpletons 0 Lockhart - O K Debut Trac - Swagger has gone Hibbert - Play him wing Melbourne - Watch out Essendon? Jetta - Was not bad Fritch - Kicking killed us Viney - Played with heart

Agree with most of the comments here. Nightmare of a game. I am sticking fat though.

Can't argue with it, although I don't see Gawn as the complainant. Melbourne owe Port Adelaide; but by the same token, I fear Geelong 'owe' us this round as we made them look weak in September last year.

Narrow ground will suit us (team that aint good with spreading). We embarrassed Geelong in the final...They should come out breathing fire.