Tbh I've  never quite figured this guy out ,as a player.  If he were an actor I would describe him as quite talented,  has shown his craft in a handful of 'roles' but for the most part just pops up in cameos .

His Oscar came in the big dance of 21 but since then has seemingly shunned the limelight and performs increasingly enigmatically.

I seriously wonder at times if his true passion is actually football .

Happily trade him.

Drop Fritsch?

What would be left with?  Right now, a small forward who doesn't kick a lot of goals along with other forwards who contribute very little

What we need to do is change the way we play, so as to give forwards like Fritsch a chance to excel

As we saw on Sunday, bombing it in long is often now resulting in an opposition intercept mark ... we're creating a situation where we need our tall forwards to spoil (and right now, our tall forwards can't even get to contests)

I was surprised how many tackles he had in 2018. If he wanted to, he could obviously apply more pressure when he doesn’t have the ball.  It’s almost like pressure is not one of the non negotiables in our team.  It should be. Forward pressure creates turnovers and easier scores (including for Fritsch). 

the mark and goal at the end of q1 on sunday - when we had fritsch, jvr, and jefferson all clattering with one another alongside their opponents - is the first time in a while that i've seen him take a contested mark in quite some time

still think we're wasting his greatest ability as a high half forward

Here's a thought, rather than trying to play Fritsch up the field, why not play him where he plays his best footy?

While we're at it, maybe we could play Lever as an interceptor rather than as a 1-on-1 defender?

Also, how about we play Langdon as... you guessed it... a [censored] wingman?

Riv off half back maybe?

List goes on.

Put it this way, if I'm building a house I don't employ a finish carpenter to do my framing. Nor do get a sparky to do my plumbing. Etc.

Edited March 25Mar 25 by gs77

"Melbourne mercurial forward Bayley Fritsch has been named as one to watch throughout 2025 as his future at the Demons has been thrown up in the air."

https://www.zerohanger.com/rivals-tipped-to-pursue-clinical-finisher-159950/

Edited March 26Mar 26 by bing181

15 hours ago, gs77 said:

Here's a thought, rather than trying to play Fritsch up the field, why not play him where he plays his best footy? ...

So, just play players where we've always played them and do what we've always done - or at least since 2021?

Just checking, sometimes it's hard to keep up on Demonland.

15 hours ago, gs77 said:

Here's a thought, rather than trying to play Fritsch up the field, why not play him where he plays his best footy?

While we're at it, maybe we could play Lever as an interceptor rather than as a 1-on-1 defender?

Also, how about we play Langdon as... you guessed it... a [censored] wingman?

Riv off half back maybe?

List goes on.

Put it this way, if I'm building a house I don't employ a finish carpenter to do my framing. Nor do get a sparky to do my plumbing. Etc.

Not a good analogy. There are times where swapping positions works and times where it doesn't. Right now 'punching bag' Rory Lobb is being lauded as a new backman and Kevin Sheedy famously won matches by moving the 'magnets' round.

We certainly need to see how we can get Fritsch back into form and I'm happy for Langdon to never play midfield again. But sometimes position swaps are masterstrokes that can just about win flags. Also it was all of yesterday I read comments here complaining how Goody's game plan is boring and he never tries anything new (!)

6 hours ago, bing181 said:

"Melbourne mercurial forward Bayley Fritsch has been named as one to watch throughout 2025 as his future at the Demons has been thrown up in the air."

https://www.zerohanger.com/rivals-tipped-to-pursue-clinical-finisher-159950/

This is just an article quoting the Tradies podcast. Remains the same “source”, McClure.

On 26/03/2025 at 09:17, beelzebub said:

Tbh I've  never quite figured this guy out ,as a player.  If he were an actor I would describe him as quite talented,  has shown his craft in a handful of 'roles' but for the most part just pops up in cameos .

His Oscar came in the big dance of 21 but since then has seemingly shunned the limelight and performs increasingly enigmatically.

I seriously wonder at times if his true passion is actually football .

Happily trade him.

Name a name BB. Dennis Quaid? Maybe Joe Piscopo?

Edited March 26Mar 26 by layzie

McClure Just continuing where he left off last year. 
Bailey is clearly dejected and is not buying into his new role at all. 
As much as I’d hate to lose him maybe he needs a new club to respark his output. 
At 28 his attitude can have an impact a young forward line both ways. Right now it doesn’t look great.

A 2 round pick though is a bit ridiculous though in terms of value. That is equivalent of McAdam value, which he certainly is not. 

On 25/03/2025 at 21:23, DeeZee said:

Watching his highlights before his 150th game made me realise how far he has fallen.

He used to fly and take some brilliant marks , which I haven’t seen for a long while.

Only 10 months ago he kicked a GOTY contender against the Cats and was leading the Coleman race

I'm confident he can get back to that once we have at least one firing key forward and some decent ball use

On 26/03/2025 at 09:17, beelzebub said:

Tbh I've  never quite figured this guy out ,as a player.  If he were an actor I would describe him as quite talented,  has shown his craft in a handful of 'roles' but for the most part just pops up in cameos .

His Oscar came in the big dance of 21 but since then has seemingly shunned the limelight and performs increasingly enigmatically.

I seriously wonder at times if his true passion is actually football .

Happily trade him.

Can't agree with this, especially the bolded bit. I went on a long rant about Stafford's forward structure and system a couple of years ago so I won't rake over those coals again. But I reckon what Fritsch has achieved and the consistency that he's performed at under that god awful system has been nothing short of remarkable.

Agree that he's struggling at the moment but he ain't Robinson Crusoe

1 hour ago, layzie said:

Name a name BB. Dennis Quaid? Maybe Joe Piscopo?

Well Dennis has starred in quite a few...

So maybe Joe 🤔 😆 

Change the coach, change the assistants and change the gameplan before we entertain trading out a gun fwd. 

3 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

This is just an article quoting the Tradies podcast. Remains the same “source”, McClure.

Exactly. Sam McClure. Enough said. 

On 26/03/2025 at 10:50, whatwhat say what said:

the mark and goal at the end of q1 on sunday - when we had fritsch, jvr, and jefferson all clattering with one another alongside their opponents - is the first time in a while that i've seen him take a contested mark in quite some time

still think we're wasting his greatest ability as a high half forward

Agree wwsw he’s a forward pocket specialist with a license to roam up the ground then get out the back, I would throw Langford the high half forward role he is a good mark, has good footy IQ and is a damaging kick. Give the Bison the role to make his own. Fritta has been cruell’d by injury over past couple of years, let’s get him back to what he does best, play with freedom and kick goals.

Clear the forward line out, move the ball quickly and deliver low and hard to a leading Fritsch with Pickett on hand to mop up any crumbs.

Fritsch will kick 60 goals a year in that scenario and Pickett will get 50 if he avoids suspension.

Expecting Fritsch to outmark taller and stronger opponents in the middle of a pack as at present is ludicrous.

Cal Twomey saying he thinks Fritsch is gettable at the end of the season and that the likes of Hawthorn, Collingwood and Brisbane are sniffing around.

He was pretty firm post game last week that he’s got no interest in leaving, and I’d be sad to see him go unless we got something silly for him. We’re hardly blessed with natural goal kickers on the list…