13 hours ago, 58er said:

Brian Dixon  was My first great Melb winger completely different style.

Not fast in running speed just an average floating punt kick ( which he often got to his boot very smartly) about 40m but superb high mark and very competitive.

Usually got 20 plus possessions each week and played tall for a winger of around 5ft 10 ( or 170/3 cm).

Played in our Glory Days (1954 to 1964) and In a number of our flags  then. 
 

Langers is tracking to join our four Other greats Dicko, Alvsey Robbie ( our greatest winger but could play elsewhere) and Stinga. 
 

And he is looking as if he could be only the second of those to have a flag or flags on  his CV, in a season or two. 
 

 

Did Stan Alves win a premiership with North Melbourne? 

Fabulous vibe happening.  Hoping this will take us to a GF, injuries aside and a bit of luck.  Injection of Choco...wow just wow.

36 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Did Stan Alves win a premiership with North Melbourne? 

Yes.  

1 hour ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Did Stan Alves win a premiership with North Melbourne? 

Sorry to derail the thread for a minute.

I was always a bit dark on Stan that as a reigning Captain of MFC he took off to chase a Premiership at North. I spoke to him at a coaching clinic some years ago and that wasn't what happened. Bobby Skilton was the coach in '76 and at the end of the season he said sorry Stan even though you're the Captain we are going to go with a youth policy from now on and you're going to have to retire. Stan was shocked and very disappointed and thought his career was over.

To put that decision in perspective at the end of that year it was thought the Dees were very close to a new era.  In the last round that year the Dees were on the cusp of the finals they just had to beat the Pies (who finished bottom but the next year drew a Grand Final) and Blues who were on top of the ladder had to beat Dogs who were not even in the 5. We beat the Pies and as the players were going off the ground the score for the Blues v Dogs came up on the scoreboard and it was a draw costing the Dees their place in the finals. As the Collingwood players came off the ground and saw that result they clapped and laughed. Thus was born my never swerving hatred of that Club. I fantasise about the one point Premiership win we will have against them with a kick after the siren.

Anyhow back to Stan. During the preseason he got a call from Barassi who asked if he wanted to give it a go at North. By the end of that first season in '77 he'd become a Premiership player and was famously doing cartwheels on the members wing after the final siren.

As a side note Skilton was gone as coach at the end of that year. Joining a long line of failed MFC coaches. 

Back to Lingers and Choco's magical kicking coaching. :)

Edited April 15, 20214 yr by It's Time

A very rough look at some available stats i accrued to Round 21, 2019 vs this Season in terms of Kicking Efficiency. 

Some of the current players weren't around in 2019 or were injured hence the blanks.

If we had access to them, Kick Ratings would be the only genuine gauge given various kicks under pressure / not under pressure / extreme pressure etc eg, out the back circle work by defenders (little pressure) vs under heat through the middle / stoppages & congestion (significantly higher degrees of pressure).

Regardless of the lack of pressure down back for many of a defender's kicks, to have so many of our defenders kicking at such a high level is certainly a strong positive.  I seem to recall Jetta was the usual leader here over the years at around 80% with the others trailing.  Rivers the second best in the team as a rookie...outstanding.  Fritta going from a defensive role back forward likely to have had some impact on his result.

Under much more pressure generally given the positions / role being played vs defenders but Jones, ANB, Tracc & Viney might need to do a bit more work with Choco!

Player	KE% 2021	2021 Rank	KE% 2019#	2019 Rank#	Change vs 2019	Change in Rank
A Tomlinson	82.1	1
Trent Rivers	81.1	2
Neville Jetta	80.0	3	87.2	1	-7.20	-2
Christian Salem	78.1	4	61.3	3	16.80	-1
Jake Lever	78.0	5	67.4	4	10.50	-1
Steven May	78.0	5	73.1	2	4.90	-3
Ed Langdon	71.7	7
James Jordan	68.8	8
Angus Brayshaw	63.0	9	57.9	13	5.10	4
Charlie Spargo	62.5	10	64.3	7	-1.80	-3
Clayton Oliver	61.4	11	54.4	15	7.00	4
Max Gawn	61.2	12	58.1	12	3.10	0
Jayden Hunt	60.4	13	63.7	8	-3.30	-5
Bayley Fritsch	57.6	14	67.5	4	-9.90	-10
Tom Sparrow	55.0	15
James Harmes*	54.5	16	56.2	14	-1.70	-2
Luke Jackson	52.9	17
Tom McDonald	52.5	18	53.9	16	-1.40	-2
Nathan Jones	51.5	19	65.1	6	-13.60	-13
Kysaiah Pickett	50.0	20
Alex N-Bullen	47.6	21	58.3	11	-10.70	-10
C Petracca	45.2	22	61.3	9	-16.10	-13
Jack Viney	43.3	23	59.5	10	-16.20	-13
J Melksham*	14.3	24	47.8	17	-33.50	-7

* Only one match played

#Up to and including Rnd 21, 2019

Edited April 15, 20214 yr by Rusty Nails

Kicking will always look better with a functioning game plan.

And vice versa

On 4/14/2021 at 2:52 PM, Brenno said:

He was a good player for Freo. His 2019 was very good in fact. He was about explode towards the end of that season. 

I thought his 2020 was a step backwards for him but the whole 2020 year was a nightmare for many players. 

His improved kicking and the consistent impact on games this year  has taken him to the level he looked like he was close too at the dockers. 

I think that's a tough assessment of Langdon's 2020.

Aside from the pre lockdown MCG games where he was very quiet against Geelong and Richmond, he had a very good 2020 season and played some great games such as his 2 goal performance against Collingwood. Was correctly rewarded with a 4th or 5th placed finish in the B & F.

The only step backwards he took was kicking way less goals.