From a player who shall remain unidentified in a forum which I cannot disclose.

On Ben Brown: "An incredibly nice person, a brilliant story (to come from wooden spoon to premiership team), very calm person, a steadying factor for us".

On Bayley Fritsch: "Very stiff to miss the medal, a worthy second, a ripping fella".

On Luke Jackson: "Played a huge part in turning the game, could be anything that boy".

On Christian Petracca: "Like a big Labrador, incredible development since being drafted, a consummate professional, has learned to re-set after setbacks, may have another level he can go to".

On Jake Bowey: "Very competitive, towelled up Weightman."

On Christian Salem: "Tough as coffin nails, genuine superstar."

On Steven May: "Didn't want to know his scan result, said if I can train, I can play - and did, despite a 5 cm tear".

Thanks for this.

I really wish Robbie was alive to see this. Hopefully he knows about it somehow.

 

Incredible development…. something that was lacking for so many years at our club

Assuming that it’s a current Melbourne-listed player as your anonymous source, then I’ve narrowed it down to the following suspects as follows:

It’s not these folks talking about themselves in third person, hopefully:

Ben Brown
Bayley Fritsch
Luke Jackson
Christian Petracca
Jake Bowey
Christian Salem
Steven May

While some paraphrasing is to be expected, based on the comments on Jackson – “could be anything that boy” and Petracca – “incredible development since being drafted” – I would deduce that it’s not any of our younger players, further ruling out:

Kysaiah Pickett 
Trent Rivers
Tom Sparrow
Toby Bedford
Kade Chandler
Kye Declase
James Jordon, 
Bailey Laurie
Fraser Rosman
Daniel Turner
Deakyn Smith

On Ben Brown: “a steadying factor for us”. Luke Dunstan has been with the club for all of a week, and wouldn’t be referring to the MFC as ‘us’ in past assessments. On a similar note, there’s probably a couple players who would likely feel more comfortable referring to the grand-finalists as ‘the team’ rather than ‘us’, having not contributed much to the season. 

Luke Dunstan
Majak Daw
Marty Hore
Mitch Brown
Oscar Baker    

On the flip-side, I imagine the hard-luck stories who did contribute to our season, but missed out on a medallion through selection, would still be a tiny little bit bitter and not so effusive in their all-round feel-good praise;

Jayden Hunt
Jake Melksham
Joel Smith 
Sam Weideman

I love them all to bits, but our other core midfielders can barely string a coherent sentence together, let alone the eloquence of describing Trac as a “consummate professional”

Clarry Oliver
James Harmes
Jack Viney

That leaves a group of just ten suspects. I’m going to rule out Tom McDonald, on the grounds that I still sense some ideological and dietary tension with Brown that doesn't gel with the "incredibly nice person" assessment, and Charlie Spargo in that he doesn’t seem the type to speak out of school, if at all. Harking back to the Petracca comment, in having learned to “re-set” after setbacks, sounds very much like Goody-speak coming from a more senior leader, so I think Harrison Petty can be struck off too. 

Yet, judging by the array of comments, half specifically referred to the competitive nature of our defenders, including knowledge of and reference to May’s hamstring tear, as compared to more generic comments on others, so I’m going to guess it was possibly someone stationed in and familiar with the back half of the field. The source also felt Fritsch was “stiff to miss out on the (Norm Smith) medal”, which I doubt anyone in the near vicinity of Petracca or Oliver would express, unless they were being magnanimous for some reason or other . . .

Ed Langdon, 
Alex Neal-Bullen 

With Angus not ruled out due to his consistent efforts deep in defence (as well as you having quoted him from the "horse's mouth" in the past), that leaves a pool of only five remaining characters on my Guess Who board, together with Hibberd, Lever, Tomlinson and Gawn. My first question is, does you mystery player have a podcast? 

  On 12/10/2021 at 16:38, Skuit said:

Assuming that it’s a current Melbourne-listed player as your anonymous source, then I’ve narrowed it down to the following suspects as follows:

It’s not these folks talking about themselves in third person, hopefully:

Ben Brown
Bayley Fritsch
Luke Jackson
Christian Petracca
Jake Bowey
Christian Salem
Steven May

While some paraphrasing is to be expected, based on the comments on Jackson – “could be anything that boy” and Petracca – “incredible development since being drafted” – I would deduce that it’s not any of our younger players, further ruling out:

Kysaiah Pickett 
Trent Rivers
Tom Sparrow
Toby Bedford
Kade Chandler
Kye Declase
James Jordon, 
Bailey Laurie
Fraser Rosman
Daniel Turner
Deakyn Smith

On Ben Brown: “a steadying factor for us”. Luke Dunstan has been with the club for all of a week, and wouldn’t be referring to the MFC as ‘us’ in past assessments. On a similar note, there’s probably a couple players who would likely feel more comfortable referring to the grand-finalists as ‘the team’ rather than ‘us’, having not contributed much to the season. 

Luke Dunstan
Majak Daw
Marty Hore
Mitch Brown
Oscar Baker    

On the flip-side, I imagine the hard-luck stories who did contribute to our season, but missed out on a medallion through selection, would still be a tiny little bit bitter and not so effusive in their all-round feel-good praise;

Jayden Hunt
Jake Melksham
Joel Smith 
Sam Weideman

I love them all to bits, but our other core midfielders can barely string a coherent sentence together, let alone the eloquence of describing Trac as a “consummate professional”

Clarry Oliver
James Harmes
Jack Viney

That leaves a group of just ten suspects. I’m going to rule out Tom McDonald, on the grounds that I still sense some ideological and dietary tension with Brown that doesn't gel with the "incredibly nice person" assessment, and Charlie Spargo in that he doesn’t seem the type to speak out of school, if at all. Harking back to the Petracca comment, in having learned to “re-set” after setbacks, sounds very much like Goody-speak coming from a more senior leader, so I think Harrison Petty can be struck off too. 

Yet, judging by the array of comments, half specifically referred to the competitive nature of our defenders, including knowledge of and reference to May’s hamstring tear, as compared to more generic comments on others, so I’m going to guess it was possibly someone stationed in and familiar with the back half of the field. The source also felt Fritsch was “stiff to miss out on the (Norm Smith) medal”, which I doubt anyone in the near vicinity of Petracca or Oliver would express, unless they were being magnanimous for some reason or other . . .

Ed Langdon, 
Alex Neal-Bullen 

With Angus not ruled out due to his consistent efforts deep in defence (as well as you having quoted him from the "horse's mouth" in the past), that leaves a pool of only five remaining characters on my Guess Who board, together with Hibberd, Lever, Tomlinson and Gawn. My first question is, does you mystery player have a podcast? 

This is expert level 'Guess Who"

  On 12/10/2021 at 16:38, Skuit said:

Assuming that it’s a current Melbourne-listed player as your anonymous source, then I’ve narrowed it down to the following suspects as follows:

It’s not these folks talking about themselves in third person, hopefully:

Ben Brown
Bayley Fritsch
Luke Jackson
Christian Petracca
Jake Bowey
Christian Salem
Steven May

While some paraphrasing is to be expected, based on the comments on Jackson – “could be anything that boy” and Petracca – “incredible development since being drafted” – I would deduce that it’s not any of our younger players, further ruling out:

Kysaiah Pickett 
Trent Rivers
Tom Sparrow
Toby Bedford
Kade Chandler
Kye Declase
James Jordon, 
Bailey Laurie
Fraser Rosman
Daniel Turner
Deakyn Smith

On Ben Brown: “a steadying factor for us”. Luke Dunstan has been with the club for all of a week, and wouldn’t be referring to the MFC as ‘us’ in past assessments. On a similar note, there’s probably a couple players who would likely feel more comfortable referring to the grand-finalists as ‘the team’ rather than ‘us’, having not contributed much to the season. 

Luke Dunstan
Majak Daw
Marty Hore
Mitch Brown
Oscar Baker    

On the flip-side, I imagine the hard-luck stories who did contribute to our season, but missed out on a medallion through selection, would still be a tiny little bit bitter and not so effusive in their all-round feel-good praise;

Jayden Hunt
Jake Melksham
Joel Smith 
Sam Weideman

I love them all to bits, but our other core midfielders can barely string a coherent sentence together, let alone the eloquence of describing Trac as a “consummate professional”

Clarry Oliver
James Harmes
Jack Viney

That leaves a group of just ten suspects. I’m going to rule out Tom McDonald, on the grounds that I still sense some ideological and dietary tension with Brown that doesn't gel with the "incredibly nice person" assessment, and Charlie Spargo in that he doesn’t seem the type to speak out of school, if at all. Harking back to the Petracca comment, in having learned to “re-set” after setbacks, sounds very much like Goody-speak coming from a more senior leader, so I think Harrison Petty can be struck off too. 

Yet, judging by the array of comments, half specifically referred to the competitive nature of our defenders, including knowledge of and reference to May’s hamstring tear, as compared to more generic comments on others, so I’m going to guess it was possibly someone stationed in and familiar with the back half of the field. The source also felt Fritsch was “stiff to miss out on the (Norm Smith) medal”, which I doubt anyone in the near vicinity of Petracca or Oliver would express, unless they were being magnanimous for some reason or other . . .

Ed Langdon, 
Alex Neal-Bullen 

With Angus not ruled out due to his consistent efforts deep in defence (as well as you having quoted him from the "horse's mouth" in the past), that leaves a pool of only five remaining characters on my Guess Who board, together with Hibberd, Lever, Tomlinson and Gawn. My first question is, does you mystery player have a podcast? 

I wouldn't rule out TMac. They might have some differences but I'm pretty sure he's sung BBB's praises before. And he would be in a good position to have seen Trac's development.

  On 12/10/2021 at 16:38, Skuit said:

Assuming that it’s a current Melbourne-listed player as your anonymous source, then I’ve narrowed it down to the following suspects as follows:

It’s not these folks talking about themselves in third person, hopefully:

Ben Brown
Bayley Fritsch
Luke Jackson
Christian Petracca
Jake Bowey
Christian Salem
Steven May

While some paraphrasing is to be expected, based on the comments on Jackson – “could be anything that boy” and Petracca – “incredible development since being drafted” – I would deduce that it’s not any of our younger players, further ruling out:

Kysaiah Pickett 
Trent Rivers
Tom Sparrow
Toby Bedford
Kade Chandler
Kye Declase
James Jordon, 
Bailey Laurie
Fraser Rosman
Daniel Turner
Deakyn Smith

On Ben Brown: “a steadying factor for us”. Luke Dunstan has been with the club for all of a week, and wouldn’t be referring to the MFC as ‘us’ in past assessments. On a similar note, there’s probably a couple players who would likely feel more comfortable referring to the grand-finalists as ‘the team’ rather than ‘us’, having not contributed much to the season. 

Luke Dunstan
Majak Daw
Marty Hore
Mitch Brown
Oscar Baker    

On the flip-side, I imagine the hard-luck stories who did contribute to our season, but missed out on a medallion through selection, would still be a tiny little bit bitter and not so effusive in their all-round feel-good praise;

Jayden Hunt
Jake Melksham
Joel Smith 
Sam Weideman

I love them all to bits, but our other core midfielders can barely string a coherent sentence together, let alone the eloquence of describing Trac as a “consummate professional”

Clarry Oliver
James Harmes
Jack Viney

That leaves a group of just ten suspects. I’m going to rule out Tom McDonald, on the grounds that I still sense some ideological and dietary tension with Brown that doesn't gel with the "incredibly nice person" assessment, and Charlie Spargo in that he doesn’t seem the type to speak out of school, if at all. Harking back to the Petracca comment, in having learned to “re-set” after setbacks, sounds very much like Goody-speak coming from a more senior leader, so I think Harrison Petty can be struck off too. 

Yet, judging by the array of comments, half specifically referred to the competitive nature of our defenders, including knowledge of and reference to May’s hamstring tear, as compared to more generic comments on others, so I’m going to guess it was possibly someone stationed in and familiar with the back half of the field. The source also felt Fritsch was “stiff to miss out on the (Norm Smith) medal”, which I doubt anyone in the near vicinity of Petracca or Oliver would express, unless they were being magnanimous for some reason or other . . .

Ed Langdon, 
Alex Neal-Bullen 

With Angus not ruled out due to his consistent efforts deep in defence (as well as you having quoted him from the "horse's mouth" in the past), that leaves a pool of only five remaining characters on my Guess Who board, together with Hibberd, Lever, Tomlinson and Gawn. My first question is, does you mystery player have a podcast? 

Great effort! But let’s just let the anonymous source remain anonymous.

That was enjoyable, “tough as coffin nails” lol how old is the anonymous player. 

With the assessment of Bowey and having only played 7 games and how good he is 

could 2021 have a rising star be a premiership player <mr mouth guard>

2022 a premiership player be the next rising star 

  On 12/10/2021 at 20:10, Cards13 said:

That was enjoyable, “tough as coffin nails” lol how old is the anonymous player. 

 

  On 12/10/2021 at 11:07, Flower Magic said:

could be anything that boy".

I thought the same with that statement!

  On 12/10/2021 at 16:38, Skuit said:

Assuming that it’s a current Melbourne-listed player as your anonymous source, then I’ve narrowed it down to the following suspects as follows:

It’s not these folks talking about themselves in third person, hopefully:

Ben Brown
Bayley Fritsch
Luke Jackson
Christian Petracca
Jake Bowey
Christian Salem
Steven May

While some paraphrasing is to be expected, based on the comments on Jackson – “could be anything that boy” and Petracca – “incredible development since being drafted” – I would deduce that it’s not any of our younger players, further ruling out:

Kysaiah Pickett 
Trent Rivers
Tom Sparrow
Toby Bedford
Kade Chandler
Kye Declase
James Jordon, 
Bailey Laurie
Fraser Rosman
Daniel Turner
Deakyn Smith

On Ben Brown: “a steadying factor for us”. Luke Dunstan has been with the club for all of a week, and wouldn’t be referring to the MFC as ‘us’ in past assessments. On a similar note, there’s probably a couple players who would likely feel more comfortable referring to the grand-finalists as ‘the team’ rather than ‘us’, having not contributed much to the season. 

Luke Dunstan
Majak Daw
Marty Hore
Mitch Brown
Oscar Baker    

On the flip-side, I imagine the hard-luck stories who did contribute to our season, but missed out on a medallion through selection, would still be a tiny little bit bitter and not so effusive in their all-round feel-good praise;

Jayden Hunt
Jake Melksham
Joel Smith 
Sam Weideman

I love them all to bits, but our other core midfielders can barely string a coherent sentence together, let alone the eloquence of describing Trac as a “consummate professional”

Clarry Oliver
James Harmes
Jack Viney

That leaves a group of just ten suspects. I’m going to rule out Tom McDonald, on the grounds that I still sense some ideological and dietary tension with Brown that doesn't gel with the "incredibly nice person" assessment, and Charlie Spargo in that he doesn’t seem the type to speak out of school, if at all. Harking back to the Petracca comment, in having learned to “re-set” after setbacks, sounds very much like Goody-speak coming from a more senior leader, so I think Harrison Petty can be struck off too. 

Yet, judging by the array of comments, half specifically referred to the competitive nature of our defenders, including knowledge of and reference to May’s hamstring tear, as compared to more generic comments on others, so I’m going to guess it was possibly someone stationed in and familiar with the back half of the field. The source also felt Fritsch was “stiff to miss out on the (Norm Smith) medal”, which I doubt anyone in the near vicinity of Petracca or Oliver would express, unless they were being magnanimous for some reason or other . . .

Ed Langdon, 
Alex Neal-Bullen 

With Angus not ruled out due to his consistent efforts deep in defence (as well as you having quoted him from the "horse's mouth" in the past), that leaves a pool of only five remaining characters on my Guess Who board, together with Hibberd, Lever, Tomlinson and Gawn. My first question is, does you mystery player have a podcast? 

Does this person wear glasses?

That’s always my go-to question in Guess Who. 
Anyways, nice work, Skuit! Eat your heart out, Sherlock Holmes. 😆

  On 12/10/2021 at 16:38, Skuit said:

Assuming that it’s a current Melbourne-listed player as your anonymous source, then I’ve narrowed it down to the following suspects as follows:

It’s not these folks talking about themselves in third person, hopefully:

Ben Brown
Bayley Fritsch
Luke Jackson
Christian Petracca
Jake Bowey
Christian Salem
Steven May

While some paraphrasing is to be expected, based on the comments on Jackson – “could be anything that boy” and Petracca – “incredible development since being drafted” – I would deduce that it’s not any of our younger players, further ruling out:

Kysaiah Pickett 
Trent Rivers
Tom Sparrow
Toby Bedford
Kade Chandler
Kye Declase
James Jordon, 
Bailey Laurie
Fraser Rosman
Daniel Turner
Deakyn Smith

On Ben Brown: “a steadying factor for us”. Luke Dunstan has been with the club for all of a week, and wouldn’t be referring to the MFC as ‘us’ in past assessments. On a similar note, there’s probably a couple players who would likely feel more comfortable referring to the grand-finalists as ‘the team’ rather than ‘us’, having not contributed much to the season. 

Luke Dunstan
Majak Daw
Marty Hore
Mitch Brown
Oscar Baker    

On the flip-side, I imagine the hard-luck stories who did contribute to our season, but missed out on a medallion through selection, would still be a tiny little bit bitter and not so effusive in their all-round feel-good praise;

Jayden Hunt
Jake Melksham
Joel Smith 
Sam Weideman

I love them all to bits, but our other core midfielders can barely string a coherent sentence together, let alone the eloquence of describing Trac as a “consummate professional”

Clarry Oliver
James Harmes
Jack Viney

That leaves a group of just ten suspects. I’m going to rule out Tom McDonald, on the grounds that I still sense some ideological and dietary tension with Brown that doesn't gel with the "incredibly nice person" assessment, and Charlie Spargo in that he doesn’t seem the type to speak out of school, if at all. Harking back to the Petracca comment, in having learned to “re-set” after setbacks, sounds very much like Goody-speak coming from a more senior leader, so I think Harrison Petty can be struck off too. 

Yet, judging by the array of comments, half specifically referred to the competitive nature of our defenders, including knowledge of and reference to May’s hamstring tear, as compared to more generic comments on others, so I’m going to guess it was possibly someone stationed in and familiar with the back half of the field. The source also felt Fritsch was “stiff to miss out on the (Norm Smith) medal”, which I doubt anyone in the near vicinity of Petracca or Oliver would express, unless they were being magnanimous for some reason or other . . .

Ed Langdon, 
Alex Neal-Bullen 

With Angus not ruled out due to his consistent efforts deep in defence (as well as you having quoted him from the "horse's mouth" in the past), that leaves a pool of only five remaining characters on my Guess Who board, together with Hibberd, Lever, Tomlinson and Gawn. My first question is, does you mystery player have a podcast? 

Petracca - “incredible development since being drafted” 

does that mean the source was at the club when he was drafted? 

if not I would guess Lever 

 

  On 12/10/2021 at 11:07, Flower Magic said:

On Christian Petracca: "Like a big Labrador, incredible development since being drafted, a consummate professional, has learned to re-set after setbacks, may have another level he can go to".

There is that something about him that he will.  It is a frightening prospect for the competition.  Great for us!

I like the 'big labrador' comparison.  He started as a lovable puppy; all playful and boistrous and now has grown up a little but is still lovable and boistrous.  Great energy for the team.

Edited October 12, 20213 yr by Premiers

Labs are friendly dogs. Trac has some Lab like qualities but I saw a touch of Doberman in his eyes on GF day.  More of that and he will move beyond "highly respected" and into the "greatly feared" category.

  On 12/10/2021 at 21:13, 1964_2 said:

Petracca - “incredible development since being drafted” 

does that mean the source was at the club when he was drafted? 

if not I would guess Lever 

 

Lever was the first name i thought of. 

Second was McDonald.

  On 12/10/2021 at 23:45, ProperDee said:

Labs are friendly dogs. Trac has some Lab like qualities but I saw a touch of Doberman in his eyes on GF day.  More of that and he will move beyond "highly respected" and into the "greatly feared" category.

It’s a bit counter-intuitive, but I also love how fair he is......you never see him try any Selwood type cheap shots, or wrestling etc, despite being ferocious at the ball. 

 

  On 12/10/2021 at 11:07, Flower Magic said:

 

On Christian Salem: "Tough as coffin nails, genuine superstar."

On Steven May: "Didn't want to know his scan result, said if I can train, I can play - and did, despite a 5 cm tear".

Are coffin nails tougher than ordinary nails?

I'll have to add this to the list of life questions that I'm putting together from Demonland statements, including:

• do fish really rot from the head?
• do cats really have hard heads?
• are snakes more likely to be mad if they are cut?
• is the statement "could be anything" always a compliment?

I'm sure there are others, too. 

Edited October 13, 20213 yr by La Dee-vina Comedia
typo

  On 12/10/2021 at 23:57, 1964_2 said:

It’s a bit counter-intuitive, but I also love how fair he is......you never see him try any Selwood type cheap shots, or wrestling etc, despite being ferocious at the ball. 

 

After he ran down McRae he gave him a tap on the back that looked every bit a "bad luck mate" gesture and without a hint of arrogance.

  On 12/10/2021 at 11:07, Flower Magic said:

On Christian Petracca: "Like a big Labrador, incredible development since being drafted, a consummate professional, has learned to re-set after setbacks, may have another level he can go to".

 

Blumin hell, imagine that!

  On 12/10/2021 at 23:45, ProperDee said:

Labs are friendly dogs. Trac has some Lab like qualities but I saw a touch of Doberman in his eyes on GF day.  More of that and he will move beyond "highly respected" and into the "greatly feared" category.

I remember that.  I think it was after he kicked his brilliant 'soccer' goal.  As he walked back to the middle he was snarling!

Lab playfulness + Doberman snarl = lethal combo!

  On 12/10/2021 at 23:45, ProperDee said:

Labs are friendly dogs. Trac has some Lab like qualities but I saw a touch of Doberman in his eyes on GF day.  More of that and he will move beyond "highly respected" and into the "greatly feared" category.

yes, i'd say a "swashbuckling raging bull" would be more apt

I will give you another quote, said day after GF….

”makes it very hard for young players to return home (to play AFL) when they know they have a 10 year reunion to attend”

  On 12/10/2021 at 18:33, Mickey said:

I wouldn't rule out TMac. They might have some differences but I'm pretty sure he's sung BBB's praises before. And he would be in a good position to have seen Trac's development.

Tmac for me too.

Highly educated so using ' consumate' would be in his vocab.

Had seen trac from the start.

And i think would have had a lot to do with bbb both training and strategy. Brown did not come in in a threatening manner to tmac so i suspect esp now as flag partners in crime might well be close.

 

  On 12/10/2021 at 20:34, Demons rising said:

With the assessment of Bowey and having only played 7 games and how good he is 

could 2021 have a rising star be a premiership player <mr mouth guard>

2022 a premiership player be the next rising star 

Why not. Jackson first rising star to win a flag same year. Bowey would be a mirror image of sorts. Won the flag . Now for the rising star. 

  On 13/10/2021 at 00:56, daisycutter said:

yes, i'd say a "swashbuckling raging bull" would be more apt

or maybe the "smiling assassin"