3 minutes ago, biggestred said:

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

Ages don’t show on mobile I don’t think.

We have an interesting age profile. 8 players from Sunday are over 30. But then there was not one player aged 27-29. Just two players are 26 (Petty and Chandler), and just one 25 (Sparrow). The other 12 players are 24 and under. So it’s just over half under 24, a third aged over 30, and a tiny amount in the “prime” ages of 25-29.

6 minutes ago, binman said:

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)

Good point. I wasn’t suggesting that being an older team was a bad thing, just trying to get a gauge on where we’re at and where the club sees itself, this narrative that we’re a young rebuilding side just seems slightly off. To me it feels more like when McRae took over Collingwood in 22’, everyone thought they were at the start of a rebuild and turns out that wasn’t really necessary, he just turned the club around

I think the new ruck rule in the centre bounce is a huge advantage for us. It has resulted in hit outs being longer and a more open clearance.

Gawn has played against four of the best rucks in the competition in the first four weeks and we have been able to dominate the centre bounce. Gawn is able to get first hands on the ball and hit it to Kossie on the move and he is so strong, quick and skillful that we can often score.

It has also meant that we have not missed Oliver and Viney, who are good in the contest but ordinary when the ball is in transition.

15 hours ago, roy11 said:

Apologies if posted already,

Just saw the herald sun voting for best player of the game.

3 K PicketT

2 Melksham

1 Lachlan Gulbin (GC)

Might need to send in a ‘please explain‘

Damien Hardwick: "Max Gawn was by far the best player on the ground"

Herald Sun: 0 votes.

17 hours ago, Redleg said:

Kalani White says hi.

Yes and 2 more would be good.

4 minutes ago, Greg Schneider said:

Good point. I wasn’t suggesting that being an older team was a bad thing, just trying to get a gauge on where we’re at and where the club sees itself, this narrative that we’re a young rebuilding side just seems slightly off. To me it feels more like when McRae took over Collingwood in 22’, everyone thought they were at the start of a rebuild and turns out that wasn’t really necessary, he just turned the club around

Yep, agree.

Its all semantics - I mean we all might define rebuild differently.

I guess I would define it as bottoming out and stocking up on high draft picks like the tigers and roos have done.

And that's not our scenario.

Perhaps a reset, refresh or rebuild on the run?

We actually started the rebuild on the run/reftesh/reset a couple of seasons back.

Goody deserves credit for that as not only did he encourage us to trade futures to land first round draft picks in Windsor, Kolt Langford and XL, he got them into the senior team early and then played them even when their form didn't nessesarily warrant it.

That was particularly the case with Langford, Kolt, XL and even Windsor last season. Given his tenure was at risk if we haf a poor season, doing so was laudable and very MFC first.

That game experience is super important, and we're reaping the benefit this year.

I believe that Kane Cornes is saying that the AFL is at a crisis point because of the discrepancy between the haves and the have nots in the competition. He might well have a point there but looking at the ladder after all teams have played four games, I can see North Melbourne and Melbourne on 3 wins and Port Adelaide in 8th place with leading contenders like Brisbane, Collingwood, Geelong, Adelaide and GWS all out of the eight. Yes, I understand it’s early days and there is the vagary of the fixture to take into account, but it’s definitely not crisis time quite yet.

fwiw, i always think the 'average' age of a list / team is a bit misleading; the median tends to tell you more about where sit in the experience ladder

we have three clear outliers in our side last weekend, with the four (edit: forgot about checkers) elder lads in the side, but they're evened out, somewhat, by the three first- and second-year players who are all around that 20 year age bracket

it's also worth looking at the games-played brackets in the footywire link:

Edited 14 hours ago14 hr by whatwhat say what

13 hours ago, Greg Schneider said:

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

Very harsh.

Windsor worked so hard on Sunday and was a big reason they couldnt get through us.

One thing to take into consideration when looking at performance is time on ground.

Eg, Langford had 10 disposals and 2 goals at 67% time on ground obviously playing a role - that is a job well done IMO.

Harry Sharp at 74%, 388 meters gained, 1 goal, 16 disposals and 5 tackles had a

'cracker' of a game.

5

19 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.

I'm yet to be convinced, that free kick he gave away for running too far and then kicking a helicopter to no one fills me with a little dred. He wasn't corralled or gang tackled. It was a complete brain fade alla Frost.

3 hours ago, Deesprate said:

Ha remember it well incredibly beat the bombers following week. So many drubbings make dats like today special

3 hours ago, Deesprate said:

Ha remember it well incredibly beat the bombers following week. So many drubbings make dats like today special

On 06/04/2026 at 09:57, Ghostwriter said:

You missed the posts about finals because they don’t exist.

We're going to play finals we're going to play finals there's one

On 05/04/2026 at 23:48, BDA said:

This is the first post I’ve seen mentioning finals

As it turned out yes.

I was preempting it in case it happened which surprisingly it didnt.

King and Hardwick in total agreement on the coaches votes:

Gawn 10

Steele 8

Pickett 6

Sparrow 4

Melksham 2

Thought the young fellow Gulbin from GC might have snuck in, but goes to show how comprehensive the win was.

24 minutes ago, Waverley said:

We're going to play finals we're going to play finals there's one

Can you sue someone for using the F word too early?

14 hours ago, Greg Schneider said:

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 might not be addressing the right metric here, but Jack Steele is leading the league for centre clearances avg. 4.3 after 4 games.(Worpol is more but only played 1 game for 5). Next best is Cripps at 4.0 after 4 games.

3 hours ago, In Harmes Way said:

Damien Hardwick: "Max Gawn was by far the best player on the ground"

Herald Sun: 0 votes.

Got the 10 coaches votes. Nice to see that Hardwick and King both gave the same votes. They see the game as good as anyone.

4 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Got the 10 coaches votes. Nice to see that Hardwick and King both gave the same votes. They see the game as good as anyone.

Gives Gawn the lead overall. 29 votes from a possible 40 is supreme. Bont is second on 28, then Butters on 25 and Daicos 24 (from 3 games though).

3 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Got the 10 coaches votes. Nice to see that Hardwick and King both gave the same votes. They see the game as good as anyone.

Gawn also leading the AFLCA award at the moment on 29 votes. He's ahead of the Bont, Butters, Daicos.

He received a minimum of 6 votes for every game so far. Absolutely remarkable.

11 hours ago, binman said:

He forced himself out.

Well yes correct.

He won't be booed by the faithful.

1 hour ago, Bowserpower said:

As it turned out yes.

I was preempting it in case it happened which surprisingly it didnt.

21 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Gawn also leading the AFLCA award at the moment on 29 votes. He's ahead of the Bont, Butters, Daicos.

He received a minimum of 6 votes for every game so far. Absolutely remarkable.

I reckon I'd be happier for him to win a coach's award than a Brownlow.

Aside from a likely hilarious Brownlow night speech, this one would mean more.

50 minutes ago, layzie said:

I reckon I'd be happier for him to win a coach's award than a Brownlow.

Aside from a likely hilarious Brownlow night speech, this one would mean more.

1 hour ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Got the 10 coaches votes. Nice to see that Hardwick and King both gave the same votes. They see the game as good as anyone.

Umm, that is our starting midfield plus Jakey F’n Melksham.

Really good signs considering I thought we would get smashed in the middle against a midfield like GC.

Every now and then I have a thought that there will one day be a Melbourne squad that doesn’t have Max Gawn in it and it makes me legitimately emotional. I can’t and don’t want to imagine it. Wonder if this is how the fans of the 80s felt about Robbie.

A sneaky Brownlow at 34 for a ruckman is absolutely not out of the question on current trajectory. No wouldn’t that be bloody something?