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This post has been designed for one specific purpose: to congratulate the MFC for creating a great match day atmosphere. Those who have followed my posts (and to that I must say poor you), you will know that I have been critical of how we have handled pre match and post match entertainment. Let's not retread old ground but you all know what I am talking about. Yesterday was bloody brilliant on that front. 1) The bells tolling before we came out was magnificent and in the future might sound foreboding for those who play us. They did segue into the 'Grand Old Flag' a bit quickly but I loved that. 2) The interview with Watts on the ground was great as well. The crowd was clearly on cloud nine and to hear from Jack over the PA was even better. How good must it have made him feel to receive the love and adoration of the masses rather than their hisses and catcalls? 3) The bugler was, and I can't believe I am typing this, used perfectly yesterday. He was sent back to the cheer squad to play the song on his trumpet when it was clear we were certainties. 4) The newly installed LED fences helped but I also loved the 'Game Over' on the fence when we won. It had a nice tinge of arrogance that we have lacked in previous years. 5) The air guitaring Demon on the scoreboard was amusing as well. It took me back to the days when channel 7 had those animations jump on to the screen when certain teams won. That was a cherished part of my childhood for sure. PJ said we were going to rebrand the club and I would say they have kicked a fair few goals thus far. Along with the new ad, I am pretty bloody pleased! Keep it up boys!

...is that they drive the modern game: a product of fitness, power running, and high footy IQ. And also belief, confidence, and trust - in yourself as a player and your teammates. Jnrmac (the poster) mentioned in the Sylvia thread the importance of said KPI and I love KPIs so I had a little look at what has happened with that stat recently. I found that we went from -12 Uncontested Possessions compared to our opponent in 2011 to -39 in 2012, to -76 up to the point Neeld was moved on. Thoroughly ridiculous and dire numbers for a thoroughly ridiculous and dire situation under Neeld. The juicy morcel that I must mention (that almost makes me want to waste a couple days retroactively looking at 2013) is that since Craig has come in we have an Uncontested Possession count compared to our opposition of -3. An improvement of 73... ! Leaving aside the low numbers from the slopfest down at Mordor (Geel 148 Melb 129), our UP numbers have increased by 47 a game to 228 in the other 3 Craig-led games with opposition UP dropping 31 a game to 226. It does not mean you win, or even look like being close (the Sydney game) but it does mean you are running hard and trusting your teammates to get you the footy, and when you are being aggressive offensively it takes away time for the opposition to attack - attack is the best defence. While Paul Roos would be a fantastic option for the MFC over the next few years with excitement and hope renewed immediately, Craig has shown to be the catalyst for improvement in his short time at the helm, even with an unwanted record of impotence in getting the ball forward arriving last week. Hopefully the improvement will continue over the following 7 weeks.