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.