Older demon

I, for one, am very pleased that he has signed on. Key position players who can take a contested mark are gold. He is coming off a serious foot injury with a limited preseason, and as far as I am concerned, he is invested and always gives his best. Glad to have you on board. Look at Freo and their forward marking targets, Treacy, Amiss, Jackson and Sturt with Tabener in the 2nds.

Don't let anyone tell you the ruck contest is overrated. Darcy was brilliant, gave his team first use of the ball and tapped it to space, allowing his mids to run onto the ball. The tapouts and clearances were a mauling, and our makeshift ruck combo was out of their depth. I was disappointed that we couldn't cover their overlap run and they constantly switch to the middle of the ground to a lone player and then the run starts. They scored 10 goals starting from their half back line. Our half forwards were pantsed and didn't apply enough pressure or chasing. I thought McVee was sensational, May was outstanding and poor Lever had probably his worst game I can remember but had his left shoulder heavily bandaged after quarter time so unsure if he was injured. Against their talls we needed extra marking power. Tuner was monstered and Petty/JVR rucking meant we were undermanned up from. Max's influence is immeasurable as he marks down back up forward and contests.

Ruckmen are vital Ruckmen = clearances Work rate important Clearances mean victory Gawn without Max

Not surprised Woey out it must have been a bad cork. Ben Brown was a late withdrawal and they didn't have an extra to replace him, so they are playing one short. Clearly they didn't see that one coming as they didn't have time to bring an extra in. Wonder were Yze was

In fairness the club also said they didn't think the 3 hour flight with a significant corkie was a good idea as well as giving him a full game.

Is this another BS Tom Morris rumour? We are enraged when Morris touts Clayton as gettable but come up with all connotations to get Houston across the line. He is contracted for 3 years and until he says he wants out I take this rumour with a grain of salt.

He hates Melbourne because we sacked him. Years ago he was media manager and kept reporting at his other job stuff from our club that wasn't for the public. Tactics etc. When asked why he leaked news allegedly he said he was a journalist (loose use of the word first) and a scoop was a scoop. The club happily released him. As for Clarry, he is invested at MFC. Goody is looking out for him, he plays chess regularly with Max and occasionally stays over and look at how he embraced Kozzie and his clan.

I liked the wisdom of Leigh Mathews last night re Ruckman. If you don't have a solid ruck then play the most agile tall you can. WRT MFC he said they have no choice with no Gawn play someone there who is agile. Last time around Darcy actually threw his weight around and put Max off his game. Best not to engage with him at centre bounce but jump at him and join the ground contest. At boundary throw-ins Darcy's bulk and skill will pose a problem. Maybe Max will get up for the game!!

That is a beautiful story and just another one of those things this club does so well. We seem to do a lot right for a club with a suspect culture. For those critics of Clarry, look at how invested he is in this club and how we look after our own, we don't try to offload them. It's hard to believe that not that long ago our indigenous brothers could go into town after 6 pm. I congratulate the club for putting this together. I am overjoyed to see how happy Kozzie is and Clarry as well. To the critics and the press who continually look for an angle to bring this club down all I can say is you are wrong. This playing group are as tight as any I have seen and we are a club that looks after its own and a lot of that stems from our coach Go Dees

6. Rivers 5. JVR 4. Windsor 3. TMac 2. Langdon 1. Pickett

Great team effort

The deficiencies are obvious and every centre bounce Verrall is surrounde by White an MFC list player and 2 Casey lads who are small. We are continually murdered at the clearance. As mentioned earlier the big bodied gutys missing hurt but they aren't backup for the seniors. Similarly down back only Hore and Adams are senior listers the rest of the back line are Casey boys who are undersized. Deoth is is the issue and body strength. Not sure where all the depth has gone. This makes it hard for the MFC listed guys to shine when they cannot get their hands on the ball.

Petty hamstring? I thought he hurt his ankle?

I know one of the AFL umpires and feel for them with all the criticism. Their job is to make split-second decisions that are supposed to be perfect and scrutinized by numerous slo-mo replays. Listen to Razor Ray on the radio and how he follows the game and adjudicates A lot of what Dillon says is true when he discusses their training, reviews and development. To this, there are lots of measurables, stats and KPIs on which they judge performance. If Dillon is so sure that the standard is as good as ever I would ask him to produce the data they collect to support this premise. In our game last week there were perhaps 25 frees given for the whole game and it was the obvious ones not paid that fire supporters up. I get the impression that is safer to err in not giving a decision or handing a 50-meter penalty than giving an iffy contentious one.

It would appear that Robbo has teed off in the Sun and demanded a Royal Commission-like review. Does anyone have access? Where does the solution lie? Is it Laura Kane or has this all started with McBurney's appointment? I never thought much of his umpiring back in the day. Whatever happens I find it hard to watch our games let alone any others the umpiring is so inconsistent and unpredictable and influencing results.

Congratulations young man a fine debut and you didn't look out of place. He has a bit of toe!

Even the greatest of players have had off seasons, so spare me. It is too easy to write him off when none of us know the challenges he has had. That fracture dislocation needed surgery and I suspect has hindered his ball handling. Just last week he gave it a tweak at training but still got up to play. And if you want to see how invested he is in the club just look at his joy in WCW's videos at training and his unbounded enthusiasm last week and today when the club announced to debutants. Hi is our player deserving of our support not our scorn

And isn't it great to see the club reward him for his effort and persistence, A great outcome. Gee we had 10 players 22 or under last game yet another junior. Go AMW.

This was in last nights footy record I posted it so you can put a face to the name and her story

Can I bring some perspective. I was lucky enough to be at the Presidents function and the guest speaker almost brought me to tears. Her name is Toni and Steven May is her favourite and he wore her name on his warm-up vest. Look it up and see Toni's story as she met Maisie at Casey this week and there is an Insta photo of her with him post game. Diagnosed triple-negative breast cancer at the age of 31. Despite becoming infertile a surrogate derived her and hubby a family and then it returns and has metastasised to her brain. Somewhere in all this turmoil she wins the Amazing race and has the courage to state that statistically sometime this year she will become another victim of the cancer. She even stated it could be as early as October. I am not sure I could talk as candidly as she did to an audience. I really didn't mind her saying feck a lot and she was so brave, extroverted and I am glad Maysie played a blinder for her. Somehow the narrow win was nice be she left a legacy with me that goes beyond the game. My only complaint for the night (umpires aside) is the miserable crumb that thought they could pocket my MCC/MFC staff and pink beanie I left under my seat when I moved away briefly at the end of the game. Not our best night but we won. I am so proud of this club for its commitment to Pink Lady and MND. The rest well, it is only a game and the sun came up this morning.

6 Viney 5 Rivers 4 May 3 Gawn 2 Langdon 1 ANB

North are finally showing what so many first round draft pick will do to improve your team. We have too many passengers who don't get enough ball. Sorry to the Fritch apologists he is soft, is waiting for the cheap out the back and is no longer able to compete 1 on 1 he hasn't given a peep up forward for a month. Ditto Chandler he doesn't do enough for the role he plays. I c cannot for the life of me work out why Chandler or ANB are station at CHF for centre bounces.. The umpiring was putrid. % frees in a row to N.M resulting in 3 goals and 2 50 metre penalties one of which was wrong. The 4 umpire system as drained the talent pool. Early goals to North gave them some confidence and momentum. Lever controls the backline and organises everything and comes over the top and makes great spoils, The forward setup is a mess and with no Trac we are going to have to come up with a better plan moving forward.

Bevo was originally sounded out to be part of Roos succession plan as was Dew. Bevo wasn't interested in an understudy! He is his own man and was only interested in a senior coaching role just as Dew chose to stay in an assistant role at Sydney. To the credit of Bothe Goodwin & Beveridge both have become premiership coaches. I could only see Goody going to NSW as his fiancé and her family live there and will not be moving to Melbourne.

Irrespective of the errors what got my attention today was the explanation Laura Kane gave. Has she even looked at the footage or is she reading a pre written excuse from McBurney? She states that Scott took the mark paused moved forward and should have been called play on. The replay is everywhere and it shows Scott take a mark and take 4-5 steps back and not go off his line. He backtracked as the 2 Collingwood players encroached. It is a 50 metre penalty every day of the year. Scott looks at the umpire as do the 2 offending players all expecting a penalty. Only then does Scott play on. Under her narrative they could have tackled him and pinged him for holding the ball. It is the most blatant lie and mis interpretation this year. Matt Stevic the most experienced and capped umpire froze. He got it wrong and every journo knows it. On Friday night Windhagar got a 50 metre penalty for an infraction not as obvious as yesterday All credibility gone. The new umpires boss has seen a litany of mistakes on his watch and I cannot see it getting better As for goal review just as May was robbed against Carlton so too were North when the Crisp shot at goal was clearly touched. And god help me I actually agree with Kane Cornes and calling out the free ride Daicos gets. I truly do not like the way the game has evolved this season

The players were mostly back today for the mid season breakfast meeting with their club sponsor. Training was after breakfast and I was told the emphasis was on goal kicking. From what I saw on the news the emphasis was on tackling and pressure (Clarrie came uo saw in a wrestling match with Kolton). I believe McVee wasn't available not sure if he has an injury. I would really like to see him in the midfield for a stint.