Earl Hood

In suburban footy the coach would word up his enforcer to take out Mummy next quarter if only to stop him maiming our players. You can see what he is there for, Max best keep an eye on him as well.

But it was under constant pressure on the ball carrier. Imagine if MFC could apply that sort of pressure across the whole ground, pressure not only on the ball carrier but on all his options up the ground so everyone is covered. How do they do that? Why can’t we do the same because if you could it covers a lot of your own deficiencies as you eventually get the turnover and a chance to go the other way. Goodwin talks about defensive pressure but we are miles off what I saw tonight.

Unfortunately their selected side is probably the strongest 22 they have had in for some time and here I was thinking 9 changes meant they were dragging in untried kids but no we have 5 or so experienced players coming back! A big ask now.

Yes I have been wondering why Hannan hasn’t been given a run on the wing. Does he lack the endurance to do the required running like Langdon? He looks to have the speed and skills but playing forward he goes missing but again is that as much to do with our forward entries, kick long to contested packs of defenders hoping for someone to crumb the ball but we rarely have someone front and centre for the spilled ball. Hannan, Melk and Fritsch aren’t crumbers or defensive forwards more the slippery, smart flanker types who can get free to mark on the lead. But we rarely spot a forward up with our entries so can’t play 3 blokes we aren’t gonna use. Moving Hannan to the wing might make better use of his skills but only if he is prepared to gut run to position, chase, tackle, all the stuff that most of our players should be able to do but often don’t.

Chances of us winning the last two? Not good I would think on past performance.

Thought I would wait and have a look at Cerra before replying to your question, rjay. After that performance, basically BOG I would say yes but doubt Freo will let this kid get away from them. He would bring a number of attributes that our boys struggle with, speed, outside run, elite decision making, goal kicking ability.... I think we will be left trying to make something out of what we have got and I still think a good midfield coach could get this lot working much smarter andmore cohesively. I think we can make use of all of them, Brayshaw, Oliver in the middle with Harmes doing a run with role, Viney more time forward as a defensive forward, maybe Tracc more time up forward and more working on the outside for the receive. And we need to find another Langdon type for the other wing, with better kicking skills hopefully. But I like Langdon’s running, positioning and evasive skills, he is nearly always available as an option on the outside for the ball carrier.

Yep many of the first round decisions have reflected that we thought we were in the window, early picks for Lever and May etc. now we find ourselves well outside finals with [censored] all draft picks. Great.

Yep yelling at the TV but it must get back to the coaching group! Max not switching the attack just did my head in. But for some reason we stopped doing that 3 weeks ago, why? Well maybe it is linked to midfield dominance, when we have that we get creative but in the last 3 games our midfield has been towelled up by less talented groups because they are better organised. All goes back to coaching.

Yes I was screaming at him to switch play although on TV you can only assume there is someone there but this is MFC so no guarantee on that. The wife came in to see why I was yelling by the way! Dumb football, yes we may have 30 dumb footballers but I am looking at the coach!

What did he say?

No it seems they always have someone just sitting there for a chest mark, no need to read.

Why do 95% of hack kicks out of a contest go to the opposition? In contested footy there are always a lot of these but it seems ours never land with one of our free guys.

Agree that is my point both Weid and Brown had no hope with our dumb, predictable entries but at least Brown looked likely at times. He did well the week before putting his body on the line and actually tackling in the forward half, that is a rarity. He looks like a natural forward to me, moves to the right spots, good hands just needs to get his set shot goal kicking right and he has about 20 mates with that problem. Poor selection decision for mine.

More horrible than Weideman? At least Brown kicked a goal and laid 2 tackles amongst his 8 possessions. I wouldn’t blame any of the key forwards given the rubbish I50 entries last week. I thought Brown looked good early the few times we put the ball to his advantage. Weid never got near it. I would be running with both this week and one of Fritsch or Melk would be out instead. They must be thinking of rotating Max and Pruess forward.

Agree with most of what you say Rjay. I still think Lockhart has talent, Melk and Hannan have the skills but can’t be consistent, is that something good coaching should be fixing? but basically it is about too much left to too few but against the Swans why did the too few suddenly revert to the same dumb play we were seeing earlier in the season, the bombing it high to that spot just in front of the goal square repeatedly and from front on so it is just so easy to defend? I noted the Swans do the same but from wide in the pocket which opened the angles for their crumbers. When we play our style, it’s so predictable, no variation on the angles of attack, there was little switching from the back half to open them up just attempts to attack down the middle. I just think we are a poorly drilled and coached team with a suboptimal game plan based on midfield dominance of contested ball and repeated I50’s. Problem is our midfield gets towelled up too often by units that work very well together to extract the ball and move it forward.

I am not sure about the silver service. I don’t know what Max was doing last night, he was not obviously tapping the ball to our advantage and I was scratching my head at times at where our guys were positioning themselves at some of the throw ins, is there a detectable system at stoppages? If there is I am not sure they are using the same playbook. Max wins the hit outs but Nic Nat really stands out for me where he is able to palm the ball straight to his mids advantage, that is silver service.

Harry Beitzel and Tommy Lahiff!! Silver!

Yes there is a good argument that making finals and being bundled out would be counter productive with this playing group who seem too content with the odd win and good performce only to trash the good work and praise a few games later with a cruising, lacklustre performance when the heat is on. Too easily satisfied with their efforts, where is the leadership demanding a higher level of performance?

That is this season, I am afraid. Teams are playing games at a disadvantage from time to time, short turn arounds, too much travel on game day, inequities in training and residential facilities etc. We had a chance to get back into that game despite our poor start but our execution was VFL standard at best.

I was born in 55 so I have lived through 6 flags and 9 GFs but I don’t feel any better as I was too young.

Yes been there in under age. You know your are centre half forward you lead wide all day to get separation and watch your mids kick it to the lumbering backman behind you repeatedly. If you are big enough you just sit in the hole I suppose. That is footy. But not at AFL level but you wouldn’t have seen that up in Cairns today, that was not AFL, that was under age suburban footy level by MFC.

Love the guy but I think that is it. He has lost pace but last year I liked that he was always made position to be an option for someone under pressure, he was always outside option, albeit without pace but he could move the ball by foot. It seems this year his decision making is right off the mark, he is struggling fitness wise and he has lost any pace he had and we try to play on the wing? Time to move on I hate to say.

There is no way you could lay blame on the key forwards today. The entry was when it wasn’t putrid, it was stupid, either inaccurate or inappropriate! Can’t believe our midfield dished that rubbish up today. Under pressure our midfield failed and the heat was put on our backline big time who battled hard but failed when it counted also. A bad day that makes everyone look bad I suspect.

For the first time this season I am passing because I have no idea. In most games no matter the outcome there will be players who stand up in adversity but today? There were contenders of course but really I just think the errors blotted out their good efforts. Max tried all day but could he once tap to our advantage? I will need to watch the replay to understand what he was doing with his dominance. Langdon was the obvious BOG for us but then misses two pot shots and coughs up a kick out that just cancels out all his good work, overall he played well but I can’t give votes for basic errors that cost us 2 missed goals and handed them one. That is almost the difference. Oliver, Tracc and Viney had their moments but were totally outplayed by the Swans unit. Sorry on today’s important must win game I can’t give anybody a vote! First time this season or any season I remember. oh and as an edited addition I should mention our coaching. What was the game plan? The bombing into the forward line destroyed our forwards so I am not blaming Brown who looked good early and Weid but I can’t give them votes or the smalls who can’t function as crumbers as the ball is just lobbed up for the opposition backs to mark. Why the dumb football?

As usual if don’t dominate the midfield everything else falls apart!