Earl Hood

Good to see Cheney still getting a Friday Night game for Adelaide! Made the most of his talent that boy!

Given some of the bewildering ruck frees paid this season against Max ( I am thinking Grundy) I think the “unduly” must play a big part in their decisions.

I wonder if the published side sends a message for Tracc? A lot of the selected 18 are out of position and is Tracc in the interchange club speak for you are on notice?

I think we just have to go with Jeffy to get him back in form. Waiting for him to get into form in the VFL won’t happen. As for squibbing contests not sure about that I didn’t see those. He adds X factor up forward that we need and hopefully he stays down and crumbs the ball.

Good point I should have included Jeffy for his speed up forward but I also hope they give him short stints in the middle just to get him into the game and he used to go alright in the middle a few years ago when given the chance.

I will be going skiing!

It appears they diagnosed the problem as leg speed, thus Frost, Stretch and Spargo. I agree with that diagnosis somewhat. Another was no crumpers up forward so hopefully Garlett and Spargo won’t be flying for everything.

I reckon Flash was the first to transform the role of the small dangerous forward but Rioli took it to another level. If you cross cloned Flash and the Wiz you probably get Cyril. Forward and defensive brilliance in spades.

I too support the concept that we need the best people not the best ex demons. But I recently listened to an interview with Stan Alves on 774 with Matt Clench on Stan’s retirement from broadcasting the game. Stan said he no longer liked the modern game and called time on himself because he was not adding value. It was best for younger people to take over. Very honest appraisal. A a large part of the interview was about Stan losing his son early and the devastating affect that it had on him, very moving and instructional. But also how it motivated him later on. But another interest in the discussion was on his time as coach at St Kilda. He was a real innovator and took the Saints from nowhere to a Grand Final but was constantly being challenged by the Board about his unorthodox (at the time) tactics. Think leadership groups, meditation before games, letting players take responsibility for their own training, every player must set personal goals, it goes on and on reflecting modern football methods but maybe a decade or more ahead of his time. I thought Grant Thomas was a real innovator but I think he took a lot of ideas from Stan. They lost the final and the next year struggled somewhat and his enemies in the Board moved on him in 1998 and he was gone.And the Saints went downhill until 2009. What an opportunity for MFC to have bought him on board as an advisor for the Reverend? Stan came across as an exceptional person who would have added immense value to the MFC as assistant coach, mentor or Board Member. Another missed opportunity I believe but he could still fill a role on the board.

I would have thought that being nominated as captain of any sporting team means you show the better leadership attributes than your peers in the team. Doesn’t mean he is going to be a gun footballer but we know he is comfortable in a leadership role. Captain of the U19 Aussie cricket team says to me that we have an individual that is determined, focused and will give it everything he has.

And I could accept that team mantra of every player being a hard at it defender if we were defending but we are failing miserably to defend up forward or through the midfield which then leaves our actual defenders, shall we say defenceless! All the better sides have worked us out, it’s time for a change in stratgies, Spargo, Jeffy and Stretch need some game time.

Layzie, hang in there mate. Maybe time for a change in your job? My worry is that you are depending on the Dees performances, I think we all know they will find a way to let you down, Year on Year. I know I struggled with this a few years ago but have learnt to move on from a loss very quickly, I have had to work hard on that though, I admit. You need to work to keep the MFC and it’s rials in perspective. Their failures are no reflection on you.

Just a bit of house keeping here. I assume this thread should also be locked based on the no politics, no religious, no ideological discussion edict. Climate Change should be purely about the science and the observed data but we all know it has been politicised by some so let’s shut this one down before I have a swipe at Andrew Bolt!

DW the (b) words are confusing, are they from the rule book? I mean am I holding or pushing the player in front, you can’t do both according to your definition of a push. No wonder there is utter confusion. there is ample scope for the Umpire to award a free for rough play if someone dives into someone’s back that could cause injury. We have all seen players taken forward with arms pinned in aggressive tackles and get concussed. Those tackles should be pinged.

Tithe other interesting scenario is that if I tackle the guy running with the ball by grabbing him around the waist and we inevitably fall forward, if I am strong enough to swing him around in the tackle and we land sideways it will be judged a fair tackle but if I can’t and I land on top of him I am likely to be pinged for in the back. So is the infringement for pushing someone forward for advantage or for the impact when we both hit the ground. Again that logic seems faulty to me. The push in the back rule is intended IMHO to protect the player in front in a marking contest or any contested ball situation from being shoved out of the contest, not when they have the ball and are laying on the ground.

On the footage shown is it leg speed issues, fitness or mental laziness? Probably a combo of all three but we certainly our midfielders are one paced, contested ballers, but if they don’t have the ball.... Whatever no wonder the backline is struggling with the ball being run into our forward 50 like that. And we have been seeing oppositions move the ball Coast to Coast in every game where we haven’t totally dominated the midfield battle. Spargo, Stretch, Garlett, Frost must be in the mix over the next few games if things don’t improve.

Re your example of a push to the side, Petracca was penalised in the first quarter I think for pushing a Saints player in the side just before the ball arrived, took the mark inside 50m but no called for an illegal push out? Mind boggling stuff when I think of the antics of some of our major forward adversaries over the years, think Dunstall, Ablett senior or Plugger.

I agree in part as I was thinking during the match how Max’s amazing performance was reminding so much of that other number 11 circa 1991. Jimmy was amazing in that year. It was a different game back then where he could get to many more contests than any modern day player could, but gee he was a one man force to be reckoned with in those years. And Jimmy is still the perfect prototype ruckman in today’s footy, tall enough, huge endurance, incredible resilience, great mark, reasonable kick.

Rodney re the in the back ruling I would not pay it for the same reason we are criticising the Salem decision, tackling someone and they fall forward and take you with them is not the original intent of the rule in my opinion. The push in the back rule was for using your hands to push the player in front out of a marking contest or a possession opportunity to the point where they are disadvantaged. As to your other point I would support a new ruling where players who pile on top of the ball player to create congestion are penalised. It would be good if players caught with the ball could release it as in rugby. If a player on the ground who is not in a position to move the ball on grabs the ball they are gone but also if a player piles on even after the player gets caught with it, they get done. Not sure how easy that would be to adjudicate though.

Yes the Lewis holding the ball was laughable. He grabbed the ball in traffic, immediately tackled, no prior, ends up face first on the ground with a Saint sitting on his back and Lewis indicating to the Ump that he hasn’t got the ball, it is obviously somewhere down near his legs. The umpire is watching and sure enough indicates it’s holding the ball and the Saints player immediately gets up with the ball in his hands. Lewis did not drag a ball back in, no prior and no possible way of releasing the ball. The commentators said Lewis should have made some action to look like he was trying to handball, but you can’t do that if the ball is somewhere else. I wouldn’t pay in the back either for someone sitting on your back. It is ball up. Summed up the umpires efforts yesterday in my mind. Over officiated to the point I likened it to a World Cup soccer match where every physical clash is called an infringement. That said we didn’t deserve to win that game.

Are you saying he had no forward defensive work? Gee we have plenty of that with the current forward crew. Garlett or Spargo at least provide some crumming ability up forward. They will stay down looking for the spilled ball and be in a position to lay a tackle on the rebounding opposition backman as opposed to our current flying squadron who have all leapt and spoiled each other and ended on lying on the ground while the opposition defenders run the ball out up the Members wing, time and time again!!!

Interesting, is it about expectation based the Trac’s potential? I thought he battled on today and did some good things but yes he could not turn the game on it’s head. But I can’t remember him being responsible for an absolute howler whereas how many of our guys coughed up the ball with embarrassing errors? We all hope for more but today he put in, I thought.

6. Gawn 5. Fritsch 4. Hibberd 3. Harmes 2. Jones 1. Brayshaw

Didn’t TMac go down back for 5 minutes in the second half then went back forward? And Max going off with 10 minutes to go for quite a period of time had me flummoxed.

Re the umpiring, it was appalling at one stage I thought I was watching the world cup such was the over officiating, but we lost the game through our own sheer incompetence. Oliver is off the boil and that is showing weaknesses in our mid field and the lack of midfield dominance is exposing our weaknesses on the outside and down back. The backline is a shadow of its former self during the 6 game winning streak. Except for Hibberd I don’t think we won a one on one contest all day. And as for the forward line, they may as well be called the Forward Squadron, Everyone flies for every inside bomb, no one down. And what happened to forward pressure? They ran the ball back out of our 50 at will.