Older demon

When he was recruited, Robert Shaw was of the opinion that at that stage Chris was the most influential player in the competition. He understood why Roos targeted him as he was then and is now rarely beaten, very competitive and hard at it as well as being a beautiful kick. I note that in the picture of the top 10 draftees that year, 3 are at other clubs, Boyd, Freeman and Aish have all moved on.

Tippet has been omitted this week

Agree First quarter into a 3 goal wind we kick 2 and are down by 15 points The second quarter start off well and make basic mistakes and turnovers playing dumb, lairising footy. Keep going into the corridor and turning it over and once the ball clears our press it is a GC goal. Poor football, under 18 stuff by a group drinking its own bathwater Third quarter after 10 minutes the leaders stand up and we play accountable football and get back into the game now the wind has dropped Fourth quarter complete domination to kick 9 goals 4 over a team that chucked it in. Give some credit. For years we have watched good first halves and then teams run over us which we have come to expect. Not once this year have we turned it up or thrown in the towel. Yes some players ambitions don't quite match their abilities and there is lots of room for improvement and we still are down on a killer goal to goal line but we are getting better

Zac is a much-improved player and provides run and grunt, but my preference would be to fill the gap we have in key position players before we get another mid.

Agree but will you talk to Salem after Arsenal beat Everton 3-1 or will you mention that Arsenal missed the top 4 for the first time in 20 years?

Cunnington's was NOT a jumper punch. It was a punch to the guts and the MRP get out was to grade it low impact. Someone please do an experiment and deliver the same blow to Jimmy Bartel and Nathan Burke in the street. You would be charged with assault in an instant. I hope McLachlin is true to his word and does something as punching is not a good look. Condoning punches to the abdomen is unacceptable

Until we can settle our goal to goal line we will be up and down. The Roos had Tarrant, Thompson, Cunnington, Waite and Brown up the spine and they all took a lot of contested marks. Hawthorn beat us boasting Frawley, Stratton, Burgoyne, O'Brien and Gunston. Essendon have Hurley, Hartley, Merret, Hooker and Daniher so unless we play keepings off these guys dominate. We have yet to settle the spine with loss of Garland, both Smith's (in their first year) and Hogan. Weid, Oscar, Frost and Hannan is going to struggle from time to time. In the JLT we were using Spencer as the other big body and we rely on Gawn to take the contested marks down back. Our key postion playesr need time to develop or we need to recruit. I love the way Frost plays, Tommy Mac is are main key defender and Hoges the key forward but who else would get a game elsewhere. Gold Coast and GWS both were able to get all the best key position players in the last 5 years. I hope Joel comes in and develops into a key back, I hope Weid develops into a key forward but both are 2 seasons away.

All year changes have been kept to a minimum. Salem will accept the week and Kent will have a rest ANB and Melksham in I would like Harmes to come in but after a week as emergency the club often sends them back to Casey.

This is purely opinion but Jake Spencer is a RFA at years end and is a Qld boy. I would be loathe to see him go but he has been forgotten in the rush to get Max back. We need a back up ruckman but Gold Coast rely heavily on Witts and GCS may target Jake if we start targetting theirs. As an RFA we don't have much bargaining power either. As we know from other threads all clubs have the next 2-3 years planned for recruiting from under 18's, free agents and others who cannot get a game but may fill a role. I find Lyon's comments unhelpfull. We need to shore up our own stable and look after our a grders and reserves before we look too far afield

6. Hibberd 5. Hannan 4 Pederson 3. Jetta 2. Frost 1.Tyson

Exactly I pointed this out elsewhere he backed out of that contest and the ball went sailing past him. For all the vitriol JKH got Kent has not been any better. Give me ANB, Harmes or Stretch any day of the week

Things that annoyed me today. Oliver is not playing under 18's and some of his handballs may have worked at that level but not AFL. He is a kid but today his handball was ordinary and of low percentage, he was much better when he kicked it. Petracca, likewise is not playing under 15's where he can shrug opposition off and run and carry. He is still trying to do too much. His best is awesome his worst is school yard stuff and puts pressure on downfield. My old coach said do the first thing that presents. Kent, lots but in the last quarter I am sure he stopped and waited instead of going for the ball (as in didn't go in hard enough). Not a patch on last years efforts. Bugg, for leading for the ball in our forward line when we all know he cannot kick for goal. 4 behinds from gettable shots and the momentum changing miss after the 3/4 siren Much as I love Jones, he burns us on those turnovers and it happens way too much. Umpire Nicholls refusal to pay any free kicks especially to MFC. You could drop it, throw it, trip someone and manhandle someone with no penalty. His deliberate out of bounds in the last quarter that actually came off the body of Wood was laughable. Ziebel punching Clarrie behind play and Cunnington punching Bernie on the umps blind side. Hope they both get a week off. Other observations are that Norths goal to goal line dwarfed ours and took too many contested marks. We made too many skill errors and North kicked 11.9 from turnovers. I liked Hannan's game and Jetta is so under rated

All I asked for was for the players to contest and boy did they contest. I cannot remember a Melbourne team going that hard for so long, hunting in packs and tackling. Maybe have to go back to the days of John Northey coaching. That is an awesome result and a great return for Bernies 200th. Go Dees

The Scott brothers tactics used successfully is to not press up too far. The Crows especially Eddie like to sit back and get the easy one over the top. This will be a real test for our defensive structure. Tag Sloan and limit his touches and tackle and apply pressure in the same way the Hawks did to us last week. remember the hawks pushed the Crows early in the season.

Everbody talks about teams coming out after a bad week in the press. Hawthorn got belted in the papers last week jst as we have this week. I want to see some effort from the team leaders. We need to show the football world we care and can bounce back and take it right up to Adelaide. Go dees

So far this season every team appears to have its week in the limelight, for all the wrong reasons.The coach, the game plan the players all spend a week under intense scrutiny. This appears to be our week. I hope we respond as others have by coming out this week breathing fire. Collingwood has had the most publicity for underachieving and in 2 games have come out punching and Adelaide are expected to come off their first loss with and angry attitude. Well, I hope the Demons are even angrier and more committed. All I want is a 4 quarter effort. I hope the ex-member who wrote that letter is known to the club and not a setup by Ox to give the club a prod.

Changes will again be minimal unless Goodwin has specific targets who didn't turn up to play. Only those in the club will know. I think Ben Ken will come in with either ANB or Stretch coming in for JKH and Bugg.

Forget Kelly Zac Jones is according to "On the Couch" out of contract at seasons end. Surely MFC would inquire to his availability. He is a better kick than his brother.

They showed the same clip "On the Couch" Thomas runs past the ball making no attempt to contest it and takes Maynard high. Straight to the AFL tribunal I hope they throw the book at him.

R.I.P. Louie he is the reason I would read the HS from back to front and loved his outrageous dares. If Hawthorn win I will wash Brereton's car (which he did). The knick names and his humour, who else put iodine on his boots so those he ankle tapped didn't catch something. Such a different era than today full of characters. A true legend

At the moment we are vulnerable to teams with talls who take contested marks forward and back. Sandilands did it, McEvoy and O'Brien showed us up. We are using key position players to cover Max and Pencil and go short when Pedo, Watts or Tom are in the ruck or resting. Consider that besides Max and Pencil we are missing the 2 Smith's (Joel was going to hold down a key defensive post) Garland and Vandenburg are all big bodies and can play in the spine. That leaves Weid and Mitch King as the only talls at Casey. I jusst think we are 1 key position player down. Up forward, and we bombed it in too much in the first half playing Hannan, Petracca and Hunt at full forward is not a good long term strategy. We are relying on run and gun and fast ball movement. Last week if Daniher kicks straight we would have seen the marking problem but that got lost in his 1.6. This problem is not going to go away quickly

Gawn is our best contested mark and that is the biggest issue to overcome. Whether it is in defence or up forward he covers the fact that our talls don't take a lot of contested marks. In the last quarter, Clarkson slowed the game down and kicked to his talls who took contested marks when we were resting ours. Rotating Pederson, Watts and Tom leaves us deficient in other areas. Spencer would fill the same spot. The absence of a true ruckman breaks down the structure and strategy they trained for all summer. WE are 5 goals worse off in their absence

We were shown up today for our kicking. Hawks slowed the game down delivered pinpoint passes, played keepings off when we threatened to blow open the game. I could not believe the turnovers and kicks to open space where there was a Hawks defender. Talk about ambitions exceeding abilities. Jones did it 3 times in the first half kicking directly to the opposition. Bugg turned into play kicked into the corridor straight to the opposition and Bernie's switch which let Rioli in was beyond belief. There were others but too numerous to list. Decision making and poor execution kill us. Their ability to take contested marks hurt us and our reliance on Gawn to take contested marks shows our lack of another marking key position player. When Gawn eventually gets back we will still need someone who can take a mark. God I hate losing these close games

Jordan Lewis wore the pink polo on AFL 360 last night and they displayed the jumper that will be worn this weekend. He also mentions it in his article about the ridiculous out of bounds rule, declaring that his wife lost both grandmothers to breast cancer so it is an issue close to his eart. The function at the G is a "High Tea" at 1.30 in the Harrison Room Sunday. The link to the BCNA website is https://www.bcna.org.au/news/2017/03/help-turn-the-mcg-pink-to-support-breast-cancer-at-the-2017-pink-lady-match/

For the Tyson haters the coaches gave him 2 votes on the weekend. He isn't going anywhere. Changes will be minimal