Earl Hood

LW I thought you had demanded a new name for Pedo as it brings back inappropriate memories for some in the religious orders?

The R word?

I have a feeling that most of our guys are best to just train, running around witches hats. They do look fantastically fit on the track but as soon as they get into a physical contest, they seem to pick up soft tissue injuries, corkies and any thing else you can come up with.

Viscount Hood!!! How good does that sound? I am up for it. Do we all get a chance at it?

DrDrake zis is Demonland! We don't do positives here!!!

I hope you are right on this one. We are all wanting the same outcome, it is just that we can't keep stuffing up first round draft picks! Let us hope we have finally nailed it with two exceptional kids!

Rjay I hope you are right but all I point to is we are yet again talking about a first rounder in the hope he develops over time versus some one else's pick, who is firing early. It is getting tiring and if we had been proven correct, on any of our picks since 2007 I would be more relaxed. In short at this early stage I would go for a Dunstan over Salem as I would go Ollie Wines vs Toumpas etc and it goes on, do we pick hard nuts, ready to go types versus highly skilled kids needing development. I have my opinion anyway.

As I ranted on another thread recently that every year we seem to be defending our first rounder picks, they need time, they have more upside, or we have stuffed up their development yet again, this goes back to 2007 for heavens sake! Why the hell is that? Meantime other teams that have got it right and I point to West Coke who have done a complete rebuild inside, what 5 years by picking tough, hard kids ready to go as far as I can see anyway, perhaps with Nic Nat as their big project player. We have consistently walked past hard nut kids in the first round, I just do not get it! it would be great if a positive jury decision had come in on any of our first round picks since 2007. I think the score card is zero at this stage. The jury is still out on the true value of Watts, Trengove, Tapscot, Blease, Strauss, Toumpas, etc. Some other of our first round picks have moved on, Gysbert, Maric, Cook etc.

I was very young at the time but we had been to a lot of matches that year at the G but I can't remember why we were not at the final, nor did we listen to it. The only thing that comes to mind is that we were skiing! Very cliche I know but the family went skiing every September in those days to Smiggins Holes in NSW on the cheap, we stayed in a shearers hut on a farm just out of Jindabyne. I remember I loved the farm more than the skiing. I can even remember the Jindabyne valley and old township before the valley was flooded for the dam. The family was obviously blasé about MFC premierships, we assumed the team would be successful for evermore I suppose.

Yes I looked at there team for tonight's match and thought OMG this line up will destroy us. I will be very interested in how Jamie Benell goes as this could reopen the development vs talent debate. Lets see how he goes. I also noted at the same time how many of their players were picks we could have snaffled! Shuey, Scott Selwood are the obvious, Nic Nat is debateable, as is the forward that everyone else went past, Jack Darling. But the point is they have made every early draft pick count we on the other hand have, what? Lets face it we have stuffed it up every time in the early picks. In that we picked a player with some talent but could have picked a player with exceptional talent. Yes the jury is out on a lot of our early picks but that is what shytes me big time about MFC. We are always debating the long term outcome of our first round draftees. Other sides find their first rounders but not all of them just hit the ground running and are at least useful in their first season and they have confidence in their futures. But no not us, we are forever debating skills vs appetite for the contest vs body type etc to compensate why they are under performing!

My real worry from tonight is that we were beaten in the mid field clearances after half time I thought. The stats tomorrow may prove me wrong but I thought we were outplayed through the middle after the break. I can live with the rest as we had no forwards and injuries a plenty during the game. But. I hoped we would maintain midfield dominance throughout to vindicate our recruiting and our hopes for the future. Alas I think not.

Yes but looking at his efforts tonight I think he will grow into the role as long as he gets support and some protection.

Watched 7 and 17 last year to practice my spanish and because we had just travelled to Amazonia via Peru. Good movies though.

Are you kidding? Just checking, were you there? I didn't see enough of him in the quarter or two he played to make any judgement. I am open to constructive criticism of his game.

Agree with that prognosis.

We had some critical injuries that meant we would struggle and add Shyte kicking for goal but let's face it he mid field disintegrated in the second half. We will really struggle until we get the key forwards back and Grland.

We ended up with no forward targets, we kicked poorly early on but what worried me was the midfield. It was basically smashed after half time! I thought that was where we were going to build from and I would be happy with that. The few positives tonight for me were J Watts, still a work in progress, showed something but needed to take the first option and kick it more often. N Jones, Dunn, Terlich maybe. The difference in the end was Reiwoldt and our injured MacDonald!

Tyson is worrying me, poor disposal, forward line is shot! What's happened with Fitzy? Watts has to go forward in the second half. Where did Vince go to in the second quarter? Our midfield is struggling to impose itself. After all that our game plan makes us look a bit better even if we do lose. At least we get possessions and see if players have the skills we need to go forward.

I will be at The Rose myself early on but not necessarily because there is a footy match on.

Gee what struck me from the short film of the 1945 Grand Final is how familiar the game looks to what we have seen so far this year in round one. So far we have been spared the mauls and presses, it has all been open, running football. My memory of the football film reels of the 50's and 60's was of stop, start footy but this 1945 highlights reel shows, high skills and a marking, run on game with the occasional handball to advantage.

WJ great post but in the interests of accuracy wasn't it Herbert Spencer who coined the term "Survival of the Fittest" not Darwin. Sorry to be a pedant!

Up the front of the medical room?

Anyone else received an email questionnaire from MFC on our thoughts about our club? A lot of questions about the club emblem! And what excites us about MFC. The MFC shield is good but I would like to see the menacing Demon character back in the mix, on our away jumper. Are we going to be threatening or private school embracing? I said I was here because I was born into MFC allegiance, I have no choice. A rational football follower would have jumped ship years ago!

And serious talent still!

I know this is giving away my age but anyone else here into the Cure? Not likely to see them at BDO. I liked one of their albums ( and there is a story behind that) but knew very little about Robert Smith and co but went long to a live concert at Rod Laver in the mid 2000's at my wife's insistence, with a lot of goths and boy did that blow me away. Best concert I have been to, I knew some of the songs but was blown away by the musical ability of the band members.