Earl Hood

You can’t.

The tackle is dead! The Hawks have kicked one legitimate goal, the rest were rubbish free kicks in front of goal. FFS we are playing a cut throat final and you can’t tackle a forward in your defensive 50 with the intent to stop the forward getting boot to ball or a pass out to a team mate.

Are you serious? That’s 2 ridiculously soft frees to Hawks for 2 goals. Sorry as I write that’s 3 goals! The game is rooted!

Yes pressure rating must be off the charts but the worry for Port is they are only 2 goals up. Not sure they can maintain this pressure for another 3 quarters.

Does Sestan have any leg speed? We need more players who can kick and can spread.

Tasmania more likely.

My first reaction reading the email detail was could both reviews skirt around some of the problems? Shand & Pert looking down on the football dept and the board review just looking at board members and governance. Senior management slides in between perhaps

You want any findings completely buried again, like last time? Professional reports for public consumption don’t engage in witch hunts, denigrating individuals or airing dirty linen, they identify areas needing improvement & set out specific actions to achieve improvement.

Paying frees for grabbing a collar of a jumper??

We are seeing a game style that is yelling at me to forget our fixation with getting a big forward at any cost. It’s about quick, clever ball movement, midfielders with leg speed and smart, quick, small medium sized forwards, with a mobile tall or two to contest in the air. We look a mile off this pace.

Umpires have stepped in already! What’s with all the frees to Hawks?

Very worried the Hawks will win this. The wife is mad Hawks and is looking for a win and talking about a road trip to Adelaide next week to take on Port! Life is too short, I have better things I could be doing!

Kevin Dyson for one 😀!

I think we are in rebuilding phase. I would seriously look at a good offer.

We had the external review by one of the big 4 consultants back when Cam Schwab was in charge in 2012? While the club was totally imploding that was obvious to everyone, the review, according to Cam came up with very little, apparently. Well that’s according to Cam who never released the report nor did he do jack**** about any of its findings. If we have a review, its findings must be made public.

Now your talking and especially the MRO and Jeff Gleeson!

WTF is going on at MFC? Seems like everyone is suddenly homesick! Is it a “rats deserting the sinking ship” scenario, where those players with currency are the first ones out when they sense the team is going nowhere?

I hope we are having a good look at Jack Lukosius!

Totally agree. Trade Tracc, he wants out. Now is the time to load up on first round draft picks. Get 3 quality midfielders this year. We need leg speed and kicking skills. Maybe use our later picks for some recycled players, especially a ruckman. The worry is Richo saying we would be wrong to go young, they still think the P Window is open. Maybe losing Tracc will change the hierarchy’s thinking?

When it comes to the time for the club to submit its preferences for next years fixture can we ask not to play the Pies at all? Everytime we play these bastards we loose one of our best players for weeks, months or their career! Brayshaw, Tracc, now Kossie! And zero just desserts for that runt Moore.

But the elect to bump works where the opposition has possession of the ball, but when the ball is loose in front of a player what do you do? You can’t tackle, you can’t dive across the player as that would be a dangerous below the knees infringement. So what does a fast small forward do accelerating toward a 198 cm KPB running with the ball bouncing in front of him? And who would expect an experienced, giant key back man to flop at the knees at the last second, fearing physical contact?

NO!!! Please.

Getting nervous that it might be the Hawks that could go all the way. They are coming into the finals with a full head of steam having demolished a succession of teams and lost a close one to GWS. They haven’t been on TV much so I haven’t seen a lot of what their doing but they appear to be moving the ball rapidly and through the corridor at all costs. Their recruiting has concentrated on leg speed, kicking skills and quick small forwards. Reminds me of the Dee’s campaigns in 87, 98 and 2000, the difference is we ran into genuine quality, inform sides at the pointy end of the finals. This season would be a great year to get into the finals as every side in the 8 has deficiencies and a lot have patchy form. It’s wide open for a young team in form.

We have deficiencies but so does every other side. What we do need is a well drilled game plan that is competitive. At present we aren’t competitive against sides that run, hog possessions, share the ball around, utilising the whole ground. Freo, Pies, Lions have humiliated us every game this year. Our game plan and players can’t cope with constant ball movement. And it only works when everyone understands their roll and they practice it over and over. I think this year our game plan kept changing by the month with Goody tweaking things when we werent winning to the point the players aren’t playing freely.

Yes we do but what does that entail? For me it would be, given we could have 7 spots to fill, at least 2 young midfielder draftees with leg speed & foot skills & add a mature, big bodied, inside possession accumulator. Then we need a 200 cm forward ruck to run cover for Max. If there is an opportunity, let’s find a big marking forward, but that’s second tier stuff. In the end the only sure thing is to go to the draft, get some kids who can run.