9 hours ago, binman said:

And on the Suns crowd, i was sitting in the Olympic stand in an all Melbourne bay. The seats in the bay next to me, normally the seats for the President's lunch, looked like it had all been sold to Sund fans.

I was sorta surprised to see three Suns fans sitting a few rows back from a bunch of Melbourne reserved seats (including my seat that I'm not using cos I can't sit with my sister there....). But if it is a big game, I'll be using my reserved seat and she'll sit in the MCC members across the aisle from me 😆

There were a handful sitting in front of us in the GA seats. Not many. A couple a few rows behind us. It is a long way from the Gold Coast....

2 hours ago, rpfc said:

Bad cramp.

And don’t agree - I think our style suits his strengths and in the counter factual that he was playing the last two weeks we would be signing the virtues of Jiath.

Hope you're right, I trust the coaches now that if they're bringing him in then they'd have a good reason to.

Mrs ‘Deeoldfart’ and I headed off on a long journey on Easter Sunday morning, to participate in the festivities of Gather Round. We made sure that we were in an area that had decent TV reception on Sunday arvo, and we were ‘over the moon’ when watching the magnificent Dees triumph. We reckon that we might be on the threshold of a new era, for the ‘Team We Love’.

Since the game, our internet reception has been ‘dodgy’ at best, so we haven’t been able to read all of this thread. Needless to say, I’m sure the views expressed here, largely echo ours.

Go Dees ❤️💙

5 hours ago, DemonOX said:

I liked the look of GCs Jed Walter. He is ooc end of this season and would be good fit in our forward line imo.

We could do a double deal for Humphrey and Walter

1 hour ago, thirty-one said:

I was sorta surprised to see three Suns fans sitting a few rows back from a bunch of Melbourne reserved seats (including my seat that I'm not using cos I can't sit with my sister there....). But if it is a big game, I'll be using my reserved seat and she'll sit in the MCC members across the aisle from me 😆

There were a handful sitting in front of us in the GA seats. Not many. A couple a few rows behind us. It is a long way from the Gold Coast....

I reckon there were around a hundred of them in total. They were a mix of the kind of NQR's that wander around town wearing footy jumpers during the week and drop dead stunners which I can only assume were WAG's of their players.

2nd oldest team of the round, is interesting

On the Melbourne website under videos there's a short clip on king talking to the players after the game.

Said that's the standard now & why good starts are important amongst other things.

Hope he enjoyed his glass of red while watching the replay

2 minutes ago, Greg Schneider said:

2nd oldest team of the round, is interesting

Would love to see the median - the average age is getting a prop up from Melksham, TMac, Gawn, and Mihocek.

8 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

On the Melbourne website under videos there's a short clip on king talking to the players after the game.

Said that's the standard now & why good starts are important amongst other things.

Hope he enjoyed his glass of red while watching the replay

interesting tidbit on the couch - windsor is 4th behind richards, bont, and english for winning the ball from centre clearances

11 hours ago, Dee in a Kilt said:

@WheeloRatings, so appreciate you going to the effort to analyse and publish this each week. Awesome stuff.

Some interesting stats and thoughts from such:

• Player ratings show elite 4 quarter effort by Steele, Maxy, Kozzi and just under elite Tommy Sparrow. This is our senior players showing the way for our young talent. Koz and Sparrow are only 24 & 25, but they'e surely playing like they've won a flag.

• So many stats pointing to the dominance of Max and the midfield. Stats show why Hardwick said Max was easily best on ground

• Centre bounce attendances show Petty played an important role. Max had his lowest CBAs in the short season to date, giving Max important load relief. Petty also took some important, strong up-field marks for our super-fast transition. Yet his player rating was really poor. @WheeloRatings, why is this so?

• Perhaps Petty's CBAs provide insight to Kingy's coaching philosophy to focus on speed, athleticism and endurance. Could it be Petty, Kentfield & Heath are playing for the same position?

• The very low hand ball metres gained surprised me. Perhaps there were a lot of backward passes in this game?

• How good is it to see Dees 190 pressure rating in the 4th quarter - highest of the 4 quarters in the game. We didn't see that in 2023 or '24, just fade outs. Isn't it strange we have the same head of high performance yet the team has 2021-like confidence - cockiness even - to run over top of teams in the second half.

Re Petty, I agree that he competed well and probably played better than his rating suggests. He lost points from his ruck work as he wasn't credited any hitouts to advantage (so no +ve points) but a number of hitouts to the opposition. He also lost points from giving away a free kick, kicking a behind, and dropping a mark.

And I commented on the handball metres gained here:

6 hours ago, YesitwasaWin4theAges said:

Clarry won't because we forced him out.

Different kettle of fish with "The Brand"

He forced himself out.

46 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

interesting tidbit on the couch - windsor is 4th behind richards, bont, and english for winning the ball from centre clearances

Not quite what he said. He said he’s 4th for ‘centre bounce impact’, whatever that means… Wasn’t backed up by any stats. I find it hard to believe to be honest, Windsor has had just an ok start to the season

I just heard Sam McClure say on Footy Classified that Melbourne was paying some of Christian Petracca’s wage. I believe this is untrue - will someone call him to account?

Sam McClure has very strong opinions.... about how good he himself is.... absolute NFI as a general rule

He wouldn't believe you even if the contracts were in front him.

1 hour ago, whatwhat say what said:

interesting tidbit on the couch - windsor is 4th behind richards, bont, and english for winning the ball from centre clearances

His last two weeks have been great. If he can maintain that standard with Steele Kozzie and Max in the middle we will be a tough midfield to beat.

8 hours ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

Lloyd, for a so called expert, has minimal insight. @binman and I commented on this last week. It's usually the last thing he saw or heard someone else say, becomes his great analytical piece for that moment. And his delivery, after 20+ years, is still amateurish. He wouldn't have put up with that from his midfielders when he played, yet we are subjected to it week in week out.

Makes you wonder about some folks, don't it....

Melbourne has finally built the Very Fast Train, our transition is BOOMSHAKALAKA, the speed we move the ball is insane. I personally am glad I lived to see this, we (the club) have really gone and built something special. The club has a 2018 feel about it, not perfect but very exciting.

The May conference call disappearing into the rear view mirror of the media.

And best of all, we still have gears to go through, is not like we have peaked early, we have injuries and key players out, there is still capacity for more improvement.

I had a call from a Hawks mate (merde stirrer extraordinaire but astute judge of cattle) who watched ElJeffe in the Magoos , and he had high praise for how Jeffo was hitting the contest, said he has the game, and Luker seems to be building as well, the fight for spots is on.

3 hours ago, Greg Schneider said:

2nd oldest team of the round, is interesting

And a little misleading given the average age is inflated by Maxy (almost 35), Melksham (35) and Tmac (34 in September).

7 hours ago, binman said:

And a little misleading given the average age is inflated by Maxy (almost 35), Melksham (35) and Tmac (34 in September).

Still a fact though isn’t it. You’ve also got Mihocek (33) Steele (30) Salem (30) Lever (30) and Langdon (30), combined with the names you’ve already mentioned, that’s eight players over 30, so it’s definitely not a young side.

11 hours ago, Greg Schneider said:

2nd oldest team of the round, is interesting

Not remotely true though

https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/afl_team_selections

Brisbane, pies, Hawks, cats, blues, swans all older than us

22 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

the 24k that came out to see us on easter sunday are the hardcore

that's the baseline of our supporter base

and wow do we go off

The Wonnaemirri Nucleus. The people who were there in Round 7, 2008 to watch a club that would finish last win one of only three games against a club that would finish third last... and went absolutely nuts in the last quarter.

9 minutes ago, biggestred said:

Not remotely true though

https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/afl_team_selections

Brisbane, pies, Hawks, cats, blues, swans all older than us

Have you sent the right link? All that is is team selections? Can’t see anything about age. Apologies if I was wrong though, did hear it during radio commentary though

43 minutes ago, Greg Schneider said:

Still a fact though isn’t it. You’ve also got Mihocek (33) Steele (30) Salem (30) Lever (30) and Langdon (30), combined with the names you’ve already mentioned, that’s eight players over 30, so it’s definitely not a young side.

No, that's right - we're not young side like say the Tigers that stocked up on a bunch of young players in the draft.

Which is one reason why i was confident preseason that we'd be a genuine chance to make finals this season- ie a good mix of senior players (maxy noted post-game that we have 10 premiership players on our list who are all desperate top get another), players around that key 50-80 game mark and young guns.

This is part of what i wrote about our chances this season in this post back in January this year:

As for Melbourne, I think it's great that the consensus seems to be that 12th is our ceiling as it means the team can go out about its business without the weight of expectation and fans will enjoy the wins more and be less likely to jump on the club after losses.

As I've noted before, there are too many variables this season (eg new senior coach, tweaked game plan, impact of Claz and Trac going, new players, new CEO, new Prez etc etc) to make an informed prediction of how we might go.

That said i'd be very surprised if the club did not think the finals were a realistic goal - and i will not be surprised in the least if we do make finals.

I think we have a very underrated list, even among dees fans, with some serious talent under 25 years old.

In Koz, Bowser, Roo, The Duke, The Bison, XL, XT, Latrelle, Jeffo and the Kolt we have ten players under the age of 25 who were first round draft selections.

And I'd argue that Riv (24 - and taken at pick 32) and Disco (23 - mid-season rookie draftee) both would've been worthy first round draft picks.

The jury is still well and truly out on Jeffo and the Kolt, and of course Latrelle and XT are yet to debut, but still, that is some serious young talent spread between 19 and 24 years old.

We have obviously lost some top end talent with the loss of Claz and Tracc, and it's not unreasonable to argue we are a bit thin for talent in the 25 years and older bracket.

But we have the best ruck in the competition, in Fritter one of the most consistently productive forward in the AFL and if Lever, who is still only 29, can stay injury free he is a top line defender (i'd love to say ditto for Steve May, but I'm not convinced he'll get back to his best).

We didn't have great first half of the preseason in terms of the number of players in rehab. But against that most players in rehab have had relatively minor injuries and have been able to continue build their aerobic base.

Bowser's injury is no good, but he is the only long-term injury we've had thus far.

If we have decent Jan and Feb i think we will be in pretty good shape, pardon the pun, come the season in terms of our collective fitness.

The other factor is, as i have argued previously, i just don't think the competition is particularly strong outside the Lions and perhaps the Crows.

There isn't much separating 10-12 teams IMO, and i think there's a chance we will beat some teams that at this stage pundits have us well ahead of us (eg the Dogs, Freo, Pies and Hawks)

Edited 53 minutes ago53 min by binman

3 minutes ago, Greg Schneider said:

Have you sent the right link? All that is is team selections? Can’t see anything about age. Apologies if I was wrong though, did hear it during radio commentary though

Yeah the ages are listed under each team. All good. We might have the 2nd oldest list though?