2 hours ago, Skuit said:

Cheers for setting me straight with your blunt inside-knowledge. Clearly I was delusional that some players care about winning. Silly me. 

Stand by what I say, and yes I do have some inside knowlege on this one. Family is No 1 with Ben.

4 hours ago, Half forward flank said:

Ben Brown could not give a stuff about MFC. Play for pay. Buyer beware.

Considering he's currently a contracted player at North, I'd suggest this is true and correct.

1 minute ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Considering he's currently a contracted player at North, I'd suggest this is true and correct.

Take it to the Bank. Happy wife, happy life.

4 minutes ago, Half forward flank said:

Take it to the Bank. Happy wife, happy life.

That could easily be amended to ‘no wife, happy life’ HFF ?

Edited October 16, 20204 yr by Demon Disciple

1 hour ago, Half forward flank said:

Stand by what I say, and yes I do have some inside knowlege on this one. Family is No 1 with Ben.

Glad that he's been finally exposed. Definitely don't want someone who puts his family ahead of his teammates at my club. Poor character in my opinion. Especially when it's so difficult to care about more than one thing at a time. 

Edited October 16, 20204 yr by Skuit

Are we there yet 

25 minutes ago, Skuit said:

Glad that he's been finally exposed. Definitely don't want someone who puts his family ahead of his teammates at my club. Poor character in my opinion. Especially when it's so difficult to care about more than one thing at a time. 

Not sure how your mind works with the smart, well you would be a smart alec if you were smart comments, but I am saying I do not believe footy is not his main passion anymore and  it is reflected in his form drop off. Another baby due next year. Now some players do not miss a bit when they have a family. Others it effects differetly. 

The hub life would have been extremely difficult for him

2 hours ago, Half forward flank said:

Not sure how your mind works with the smart, well you would be a smart alec if you were smart comments, but I am saying I do not believe footy is not his main passion anymore and  it is reflected in his form drop off.

Good point. How mind my mind works with the smart is definitely another issue when it comes to the recruitment of Brown. 

23 hours ago, Axis of Bob said:

I can see that my 'Fritsch in defence' thoughts are about as popular as COVID, so I'll try to give a bit more information to support it (although I may still skip doing so for COVID).

Fritsch has received Brownlow votes twice: two votes in a tight win against Carlton at half back (26 touches, behind T McDonald who kicked 6 before being injured), and two votes in a close loss to the Eagles 2 weeks later (kicking 4 as the second tall forward). He stayed forward in every game after that and we lost them all, despite him kicking goals. He kicked goals as a key forward, with Weid and TMac both missing, rather than as a small forward.

In games he has played as a forward from 2018-now, we were 13-14 with him in defence/not forward, and 16-18 with him forward. We won the game he missed this year against St Kilda in a dour defensive slog. 

There were some excellent articles in the 'Game Plan' thread and I saw this table from one of them, which showed the top 4 teams and their contribution of goals from different players. 

It shows a 'barbell' of goalkickers, where goals are mostly kicked by the talls or smalls, with few being kicked by the mediums (mostly midfieders). This makes sense, because it's so much harder to get space inside 50 in the modern game, so the goals are kicked from big marks (eg, Charlie Dixon, Tom Hawkins, Tom Lynch) or crumbing forward (eg, Robbie Gray, Brendan Parfitt, Daniel Rioli). Then have a look at ours:

We kick twice as many goals from mediums as the others, and hardly any from the talls and smalls. 4 of our top 5 goalkickers were mediums (Fritsch, Petracca, Melksham, Hunt - nobody else kicked double figures other than Weideman). Fritsch kicked 22 from 16 games as our leading goalkicker, so it's clear that what we're doing isn't working. Our best wins were when we lost the inside 50 count because we could kick goals in transition (where mediums thrive) but couldn't kick goals when teams were set against us (where the tall/small setup is better).

We can solve our tall issues because we have some talented players like Jackson, Weid and Petty (and possibly Brown). But Fritsch doesn't help our small forward problems because he isn't a small forward, but instead he'd be a fourth tall forward! He has shown promise as a smooth moving and flexible defender who can intercept and provide drive. I think that's the role he best serves the team in.

 

I like the analysis.

Its clear we haven't really had a tall option other than Weed but the small fwd goal number is significantly below AFL standard. A big worry.

V important that Jackson comes on...

I see Fritsch in the same mould as a Bruest or a Gunston. Physically and the way he plays. Gunstons kicking has been of a very high standard for many years.  Fritsch needs to model himself on these two...

 

Edited October 16, 20204 yr by jnrmac

7 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

I like the analysis.

Its clear we haven't really had a tall option other than Weed but the small fwd goal number is significantly below AFL standard. A big worry.

V important that Jackson comes on...

I see Fritsch in the same mould as a Bruest or a Gunston. Physically and the way he plays. Gunstons kicking has been of a very high standard for many years.  Fritsch needs to model himself on these two...

 

Interesting, my Hawk brother likes Fritta. He needs to become deadly though.

Buried deep in a HUN article on draft targets is a single line about Clarko being unable to visit Pruess to entice hime to Hawthorn and how GWS won the race. Then this kicker, " The Demons are chasing something in the vicinity of a second-round pick for Preuss if they can’t make him part of a deal for Ben Brown."

This in the last par but strongly suggests that MFC are keen on Brown! So put your creative hats on demonlanders, who goes from GWS to the Kangas so we get Brown and possible exchange of late picks?

A new kangas coach may want to keep Brown.

24 minutes ago, Half forward flank said:

A new kangas coach may want to keep Brown.

I highly doubt that this would be the case. It'd be very rare that a player would be pushed out only to be welcomed back in simply on the word of the head coach. I'd also find it hard to believe that it was Rhyce Shaw's word to move on Brown and the decision likely would have come from higher ups at the club, i.e. list boss (whoever that is), and Glen Archer (seemingly runs the joint). The joint is a mess and I doubt Brown would likely even say yes to staying if was asked to after all of this.

8 minutes ago, AaronDaveyChipsAndGravey said:

I highly doubt that this would be the case. It'd be very rare that a player would be pushed out only to be welcomed back in simply on the word of the head coach. I'd also find it hard to believe that it was Rhyce Shaw's word to move on Brown and the decision likely would have come from higher ups at the club, i.e. list boss (whoever that is), and Glen Archer (seemingly runs the joint). The joint is a mess and I doubt Brown would likely even say yes to staying if was asked to after all of this.

You may know more about workings of a club than me but if it has come to a coach not having a say in which players he wants to keep, well, god luck with your projects.

1 minute ago, Half forward flank said:

You may know more about workings of a club than me but if it has come to a coach not having a say in which players he wants to keep, well, god luck with your projects.

No doubt a head coach would have a say in list decisions, however there are many other factors than just their word at play in moving/retaining a player which have seemingly already been decided regardless of who the coach is. It would really surprise me if whoever was their new head coach completely backflipped an entire club's decision on one player.

Saints may have taken over from us as the main interest for Brown. They're currently working out how to trade out to get the cap space to bring him in apparently.

 

1 minute ago, Lord Nev said:

Saints may have taken over from us as the main interest for Brown. They're currently working out how to trade out to get the cap space to bring him in apparently.

 

King, Membrey, Marshall, Ryder & now Brown? Surely not. 

2 minutes ago, adonski said:

King, Membrey, Marshall, Ryder & now Brown? Surely not. 

Thought the same mate, but was told by someone who has had good goss in the past.

TBF - Ryder possibly may retire, Membrey is more midsized IMO & Marshall is a ruck.

Edited October 17, 20204 yr by Lord Nev

Having a team full of marking giants hasn't hurt the Eagles all that much. The Dees are a bit short in the marking department, especially now TMac has gone missing in the marking/goaling department.

On 10/17/2020 at 4:22 PM, Lord Nev said:

Thought the same mate, but was told by someone who has had good goss in the past.

TBF - Ryder possibly may retire, Membrey is more midsized IMO & Marshall is a ruck.

Wifes family mad saints supporters. Bayside people.

On 10/17/2020 at 4:19 PM, Lord Nev said:

Saints may have taken over from us as the main interest for Brown. They're currently working out how to trade out to get the cap space to bring him in apparently.

Why would he go to the saints instead of us.

2 minutes ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

Why would he go to the saints instead of us.

They played finals and we didn't - could have something to do with it

Just now, Lucifer's Hero said:

Why would he go to the saints instead of us.

No idea, but if I had to guess, playing finals would be up there, and maybe he sees better opportunity there given our tall forward situation is a bit in limbo with TMac maybe staying, Mitch Brown possibly there, Weid & Jacko seemingly preferred. Total guess though.

Of course, that's assuming we told him we were keen.

 

3 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

No idea, but if I had to guess, playing finals would be up there, and maybe he sees better opportunity there given our tall forward situation is a bit in limbo with TMac maybe staying, Mitch Brown possibly there, Weid & Jacko seemingly preferred. Total guess though.

Of course, that's assuming we told him we were keen.

Perhaps we aren't the destination club people think we are...

Tmac staying??  No takers or we have decided to keep him?

iirc the only people who have linked us to Brown are those who see we need a tall fwd, Brown is available so 2+2=5.