Just now, forever demons said:

give him a cheer for me

Will do, FD. He deserves it. He’s an outstanding captain and he’s taken his side to their first final in over two decades, today being an elimination final. He’s kicked a few bags this year, a couple of sevens, eight and even nine. And he’s an awesome person, to boot. 

3 hours ago, John Crow Batty said:

  Brad Green kicked 55 goals in 2008, and Tmac 53 goals in 2018 were the last two players to kick over 50 goals in season aside from Fritsch. As you say, not hard to replace.

Both players gave their all every time they stepped out onto the field.

Fritsch's efforts at times are one of the reasons we are in this predicament. His defensive skills are non existent and players must shake their head when the ball goes into our Fwd 50 and comes straight out again.

Infuriating.

You're welcome to your opinion of course but for mine his attitude is cancerous in a team

17 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Is it possible he’s not suited to the JVR/Petty/Turner setup?

He plays his best football as that deep lead up forward ala Jason Dunstall. In the second half of the year he’s become a bit part player that chases kicks high up the ground.

Some assessment is needed in the off season to (re)utilise a class goal kicker.

 

I think this has a bit to do with it. He's a close to goal player whereas higher there's usually quick dashers that he can't keep with on turnover. Possibly why he's checked out right now.

On 24/08/2024 at 14:39, DeeSpencer said:

You don’t reckon they haven’t been telling him for years to work harder and lay a tackle?

A new forwards coach is a tiny reason for hope but largely if he hasn’t done it by now why would he at Melbourne?

He’s playing like a guy who wants to be traded, so we might as well do what he wants.

He is a gun when on .

But he's a player that thrives on space and one on one competitions

Coaches just jam our fwd line up and our mids haven't exactly given fast delivery.

But I agree about his lack of pressure. Really needs to lift helping lock the ball up.

A month ago when we were still a statistical chance, his lack of chasing was very evident and didn't look good at all.

 

 

Edited August 25, 2024Aug 25 by leave it to deever

9 hours ago, forever demons said:

give him a cheer for me

Gave Darcy a cheer for you, FD. And guess what? HE DID IT!!!

Nervous times though… he kicked a goal in the 2nd which took him to 99. But then nothing, absolutely nothing, the game had become a blowout (Coldstream were thrashed) and the ball rarely came into the F50. With about eight minutes remaining in the last quarter, Darcy took a set shot and the wind caught the ball and… a freaking poster! Three minutes later he snapped and it went through! We all ran onto the field and it was absolutely nuts!

Lucky for Pauline since she had these t-shirts printed…

Because the year is printed on them they were only good for today’s last chance at getting the ton. Had Darcy been stranded on 99 there’s $1000 down the drain.

It was a surprise for him. 30 of us had them hidden ready to put them on before running onto the field. Balloons were released and a big congratulations sign was revealed. It was a huge occasion and quite the spectacle.

Big bro Bayles was super proud. 

A fair bit of criticism here on Fritta, which has me wondering, how much do you put down to having Stafford as forward coach?  I'm prepared to see how not only Fritta but all of them go under a new forwards coach before I make a judgement.

12 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Gave Darcy a cheer for you, FD. And guess what? HE DID IT!!!

Nervous times though… he kicked a goal in the 2nd which took him to 99. But then nothing, absolutely nothing, the game had become a blowout (Coldstream were thrashed) and the ball rarely came into the F50. With about eight minutes remaining in the last quarter, Darcy took a set shot and the wind caught the ball and… a freaking poster! Three minutes later he snapped and it went through! We all ran onto the field and it was absolutely nuts!

Lucky for Pauline since she had these t-shirts printed…

Because the year is printed on them they were only good for today’s last chance at getting the ton. Had Darcy been stranded on 99 there’s $1000 down the drain.

It was a surprise for him. 30 of us had them hidden ready to put them on before running onto the field. Balloons were released and a big congratulations sign was revealed. It was a huge occasion and quite the spectacle.

Big bro Bayles was super proud. 

Maybe we should get him. 

23 hours ago, FreedFromDesire said:

Yes, because I filtered the results of the search by key forwards and medium forwards and only listed the notable names.

Again, I think Fritsch very much needs to lift in terms of pressure and consistency of effort, but I don't think it's correct to say top 4 teams don't have players whose main job is to finish.

Full list is here, if you'd like to see (again, this is only top 4 teams, and us):

My point is:

Key forwards don’t need to be good at pressure. Their job is to jump at the ball and crash packs and they only need to do token amounts of pressure to defend their rival key backs.

As a medium forward who doesn’t have the structural role of a pack crasher Fritsch has to defend his smaller running opponent. He has to be compared to similar medium forwards. Hayward, Ollie Henry, Rayner for instance.

He does play deeper forward and a different role to those guys so I get the numbers won’t be the same. But the eye test of a guy who is so lazy to chase and an awful tackler is pretty clear. 

On 25/08/2024 at 08:26, jnrmac said:

He's kicked 50 twice. in 8 seasons

Next best 41

Not that hard to replace. And with someone who can put on pressure and tackle,  two traits that Fritsch seems incapable of doing

13 players in the entire competition this year kicked more than Fritsch's 41, and only 17 had a better goals per game average. One of those 17 players was Sam Day, who only played 5 games, and another was Thilthorpe, who only played 7.

Of the other 15 players who played most of the season and averaged more goals per game than Fritsch, only 6 averaged more pressure acts than Fritsch's 8.3 per game: Treacy, Ugle-Hagan, Rankine, Langford, Greene and Sam Darcy.

"Not that hard to replace...with someone who can put on pressure and tackle"? I beg to differ.

10 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

13 players in the entire competition this year kicked more than Fritsch's 41, and only 17 had a better goals per game average. One of those 17 players was Sam Day, who only played 5 games, and another was Thilthorpe, who only played 7.

Of the other 15 players who played most of the season and averaged more goals per game than Fritsch, only 6 averaged more pressure acts than Fritsch's 8.3 per game: Treacy, Ugle-Hagan, Rankine, Langford, Greene and Sam Darcy.

"Not that hard to replace...with someone who can put on pressure and tackle"? I beg to differ.

The 'Experts' on this site never cease to amaze me. 

I recall the Barrie Vagg and Geoff Tunbridge days. They played in a similar way to Fritsch - and in the end, Fritsch is Fritsch, he's not Pickett, Brereton, or Barry Hall. 

The criticisms of Fritsch are ridiculous. As others have pointed out, it's not always the role of a key forward to be chasing backmen up the field. Sure, he could improve his tackling, but nearly everyone on our list could improve some aspect of their game.

Some Demonlanders want to trade him in 2020, but without him, we don't win a flag.

I always go into games thinking that unless Fritsch or Kossie fire, we have no hope of winning.

FWIW, my view is that Fritsch is more of an icing on the cake, and in a season where the cake was disgusting, the icing didn't get a chance to shine.

We need to fix the cake (ball movement) and if we do, he'll be better for it.

However, that's not to say he can't improve his defensive work, because he can. But I don't think that goes anywhere near the level of trading him out, because I don't think he's easily replaceable at all, and I think his value goes up exponentially if/when we improve the midfield.

5 minutes ago, mo64 said:

The criticisms of Fritsch are ridiculous. As others have pointed out, it's not always the role of a key forward to be chasing backmen up the field. Sure, he could improve his tackling, but nearly everyone on our list could improve some aspect of their game.

Some Demonlanders want to trade him in 2020, but without him, we don't win a flag.

I always go into games thinking that unless Fritsch or Kossie fire, we have no hope of winning.

Tend to agree with this - we have struggled to recruit a genuine tall forward that can compete and score goals consistently - and nothing has changed unfortunately.

We have tried to recycle tall defenders with some success, but I think most believe that is not the solution longer term.

Fritta is one of the competitions best forwards when the forward 50 has space and the delivery into him is good. Our game style seems dependent on crowding the field including the forward 50 and our midfielders are some of the worst kicks in the competition. For him to get back to his we need to tweak our F50 structure and get some players capable of delivering the ball fast and with precision.

 

 

2 hours ago, Katrina Dee Fan said:

A fair bit of criticism here on Fritta, which has me wondering, how much do you put down to having Stafford as forward coach?  I'm prepared to see how not only Fritta but all of them go under a new forwards coach before I make a judgement.

Here here KDF. 

4 hours ago, layzie said:

Maybe we should get him. 

Darcy is good enough for AFL level except for one thing… his back is shot to pieces. That’s the only reason he isn’t playing in the AFL, it’s the reason he doesn’t play in the VFL anymore. Such a shame, but he’s happy with his current situation and he’s much loved and respected by the whole EFL league. 

1 minute ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Darcy is good enough for AFL level except for one thing… his back is shot to pieces. That’s the only reason he isn’t playing in the AFL, it’s the reason he doesn’t play in the VFL anymore. Such a shame, but he’s happy with his current situation and he’s much loved and respected by the whole EFL league. 

Well, there was a guy whose back was also shot early in his career, and that man grew up to be the 2024 Coleman Medalist.

Get him down, we'll have a few beers and a chat.. 

19 minutes ago, layzie said:

Well, there was a guy whose back was also shot early in his career, and that man grew up to be the 2024 Coleman Medalist.

Get him down, we'll have a few beers and a chat.. 

Not sure Pauline could cope having to hear both of her sons being sch!tt-canned. 

5 hours ago, Monbon said:

The 'Experts' on this site never cease to amaze me. 

I recall the Barrie Vagg and Geoff Tunbridge days. They played in a similar way to Fritsch - and in the end, Fritsch is Fritsch, he's not Pickett, Brereton, or Barry Hall. 

Vagg and Tunbridge were half fprward flankers in different era

18 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Gave Darcy a cheer for you, FD. And guess what? HE DID IT!!!

Nervous times though… he kicked a goal in the 2nd which took him to 99. But then nothing, absolutely nothing, the game had become a blowout (Coldstream were thrashed) and the ball rarely came into the F50. With about eight minutes remaining in the last quarter, Darcy took a set shot and the wind caught the ball and… a freaking poster! Three minutes later he snapped and it went through! We all ran onto the field and it was absolutely nuts!

Lucky for Pauline since she had these t-shirts printed…

Because the year is printed on them they were only good for today’s last chance at getting the ton. Had Darcy been stranded on 99 there’s $1000 down the drain.

It was a surprise for him. 30 of us had them hidden ready to put them on before running onto the field. Balloons were released and a big congratulations sign was revealed. It was a huge occasion and quite the spectacle.

Big bro Bayles was super proud. 

 

5 hours ago, layzie said:

Maybe we should get him. 

 

Didn't he kick 20 in a game 2 or 3 years ago? 

Is there a reason he's never made it to the VFL? Not up to that standard? Not interested?  

Edited August 26, 2024Aug 26 by John Demonic

4 hours ago, Sydee said:

Tend to agree with this - we have struggled to recruit a genuine tall forward that can compete and score goals consistently - and nothing has changed unfortunately.

We have tried to recycle tall defenders with some success, but I think most believe that is not the solution longer term.

Fritta is one of the competitions best forwards when the forward 50 has space and the delivery into him is good. Our game style seems dependent on crowding the field including the forward 50 and our midfielders are some of the worst kicks in the competition. For him to get back to his we need to tweak our F50 structure and get some players capable of delivering the ball fast and with precision.

 

 

Agree Sydee in ‘21-22 we had Ben Brown, a Fit TMac and Luke Jackson running around in our F50, we had the players to stretch any defensive group it also allow Max some freedom around F50 as well, so Bailey had space and freedom and our delivery was so much better during this period. Compare our lack of forward structure in late ‘23 - 24 he’s copping Weitering and the oppo’s best defenders. I have my fingers crossed that we finally get a specialist Forward Coach and a combination of Petty, Disco, Rooey and Jefferson can stretch our opposition and let Fritta do what he does best in 2025, kick  lotsa goals. 

Of all of our issues our 3/4th fwd who has won our goal-kicking for the last 4+ years and won us a flag is not one of them

1 minute ago, DubDee said:

Of all of our issues our 3/4th fwd who has won our goal-kicking for the last 4+ years and won us a flag is not one of them

I’m curious as to how long Flag credits last?

1 minute ago, Abyssal said:

I’m curious as to how long Flag credits last?

He still kicked more goals for MFC than anyone else on the list in 2024.

2 minutes ago, Abyssal said:

I’m curious as to how long Flag credits last?

Alright forget the flag credit, which I personally will forever credit him with.  Standing up when it counts most is the measure of a man

He is just shy of 200 goals in the past 4 years which I would guess is top 10 in the entire league for a 3rd fwd. He also missed 6-7 games last year

Add in 47 goal assists and you can see his value

13 minutes ago, John Demonic said:

 

 

Didn't he kick 20 in a game 2 or 3 years ago? 

Is there a reason he's never tried to play in the VFL? Not up to that standard? Not interested?  

Yeah he kicked 20 in a game in 2021. He was on track to kick 100 that season, 75 goals with seven games to go, but Covid meant the cessation of local footy for that season. 

He has played in the VFL, as recently as 2022 when he was picked up by the Northern Bullants but as mentioned, his chronic back issues ended any hopes for success.