Leaderboard

How this for timing - I literally just opened my four year old son’s new membership pack. On the front of his membership card, it has a photo of Petracca. He’s Henry’s favourite player - Henry thinks he’s a real life T-Rex. On the back of his membership card, it says ‘Consecutive years of membership: 6’. I signed Henry up as a 20 week old foetus - exact full name and accurate (future) date of birth. Pretty confident he’s the youngest official member in the history of the club. He’s already waiting for his signed birthday card from the red and blue T-Rex. I’m relieved he’s committed to this club.

2 year Contract Extension. WELL DONE TRAC!!! ???

What's not to like. And they have 4 Premierships between them.

88 grand final day was in a Cessna 210 force landing (crash) at Shepparton en route from Sydney to Melbourne (all the commercial airlines were booked out on the way down). It’s amazing what you can do in autopilot when you’re in shock. We hired a wagon to get us to the game (pilot had to stay behind of course). Got there despite the injury list; one of us having concussion (although not knocked out), the bloke next to me had broken his ribs, i had torn the muscles in my back. The other two occupants were fine. It wasn’t all bad though, if my memory serves me correctly, didn’t we kick the first point? Then, flying back on Ansett, they’d left some oil on the air conditioning unit so as we were taking off the cabin began to fill with smoke. Next GF we’re in I’m taking the tram!

St Kilda stuffed up SO badly with their first pick. This guy was a no brainer. You can build a list around him. Apparently he was thought to be a bit immature, yet all I see is limitless enthusiasm, loyalty and an unbridled team focus. I absolutely love this kid. I’m pumped about this extension. Super pumped!

I love the use of the plural in premierships. Arrogance and talent can be an exciting mix. Pledging his loyalty to Melbourne, Petracca expressed how important it was for him to remain a one-club player. “It means everything. The club put faith in me as an 18-year-old kid and drafted me, and all I want to do is repay that faith,” he said. “That’s by winning premierships and staying at the club for as long as I can."

A formal leadership group should never be more than 10% of your list/group, otherwise the message gets diluted, as a poster above correctly pointed out. I wasn't expecting this streamlined approach, but it's a great decision. And it doesn't mean that those who missed out don't have a voice.

Champions Data's capability to gather information is excellent. Their ability to interpret that information is dubious.

St Kilda is above us... ...would anyone seriously take St Kilda's midfield ahead of ours?

Ch 9 news reporting Adelaide were into him. Wonder how many other clubs had interests. Oh well crows, thanks for Lever though.

I like it. When there are 5, 6 , 7 leaders, it just dilutes the whole process.

Don’t need a title to be a leader. Go Nev

In round 20 of 1982, me and my Demon mate went to Victoria Park for the first (and last) time to watch Melbourne play Collingwood. We found standing room in a packed outer but soon realised we were surrounded by a seething mob of dirty, ugly, loud, abusive, obscene, smelly and toothless black and white supporters. Almost without exception, they were drunk, smoking like chimneys, swearing like wharfies and even at this early stage of the day fighting amongst themselves. Some of the men were just as bad. We started well with the wind but the Pies had regained the lead by half-time. The third quarter was all ours with eight goals and in the last, we kicked another eight to finish all over them by nine goals. Having kept very, very quiet all day for fear of attracting the wrong sort of attention, the beers (ice-cold cans!) finally got the better of me and this is when I did the craziest thing in my life. As Mark 'Jacko' Jackson kicked his seventh to seal victory, I let rip with a loud "Go Demons!!". Things then went eerily quiet in the outer as hundreds of pairs of beady eyes bored into us. I looked at my mate, he nodded and we turned and ran as fast as we could towards the exit and kept going all the way to Johnstone Street where we jumped on the first bus we found. It didn't matter that it was heading in the wrong direction, we just wanted to get away from that horrible joint. Only my drycleaner will know just how frightened I was that day.

Was searching for a new avatar and stumbled on a pic of the greatest moment in Nathan Buckleys life.

Christian Petracca declares his loyalty [Update: that was 2018. In early 2021, speculation begins as to his future beyond his current contract which runs through to the end of 2022]

Not disappointed at all. The scarf goes straight into the drawer and will no doubt end up at the Cat Protection Society's Opportunity Shop once the other half finds it, the fixture goes onto the fridge, the membership card into my wallet and the rest into the recycle bin. Letters are just empty words anyway, and actions speak louder than words.

I like the cut of his jib.

Thanks for that Nostradamus. Got the lotto numbers for Saturday? McKenna was contracted and played plenty of NEAFL games in his time at GWS, had some injuries as well but it's not like he's been constantly injured. In the delisting period as far as I know he was getting better and I think he either made it back to the main group or very close in November before further trouble. You can't delist contracted players who missed 1 year with injury unless you're certain it's an ongoing injury or you just want them gone. He's obviously battling some pretty severe hamstring troubles now but it's still a long way until the end of the year. I have a soft spot for Vanders as a player. I think his physicality and size could be very handy in September style footy. But it doesn't look like things are going well for him. Where our list is at I'd rather take the risk on Vanders than pick a rookie who likely won't play either. Especially in last years draft which apparently had no depth. I think he was our last player recontracted for this year so the club were weighing up options and tracking his recovery.

Yes I saw Stevo’s report on 7 tonight and certainly didn’t see him at the ground so I assume he was at training very early before heading up to the Lexus centre! If Viney was running laps in the first hour before I got there then he has put in a very solid 2 hour session, that is all I can say. He had boots on as far as I could tell for the 45 minutes he was running and kicking the ball with the 4 assistant coaches. As Saty has reported he gives every appearance of being on track for round 1.

Hunt was there today and took part in all the action and was quite energetic and vocal in a couple of the routines. Didn’t standout that much but I do remember he nailed the last routine, the kick on goal from an angle with a torp from 50 m. That went through the middle. Now that I think of it, though unrelated, was noting how vocal Spargo was in one of the routines, yelling at players to get on queue! As a newbie I liked it and it caught my attention. Spargo is one to watch I think.

You cop heaps of rubbish but luv your work. Saty you're much appreciated by the guys and gals that can't be there. And when you report your insights we're much better for it. Thanks heaps,, another old phart!.

Rode my bike past training this morning about 10.30 and they finished at 11.20 so I guess I missed the first hour. Saw Lewis and melch walking off as I arrived and Hogan, Keilty and the Weid arriving late. Did not see Brayshaw, Tracca, Tyson, Stretch, AVB, ANB, Neville, Maynard, Wagner, Or Fritsch, thought I saw TMac early on. Didn’t notice McKenna. they were changing gear when I arrived so maybe the first hour was running drills. The hour I saw was fairly light on, two groups, each split into 4 groups practicing picking up a rolling ball, baulking a coach and short passing 25 meters to the next group one of which would mark the ball, handball to a running player who kicked to a target and so on. They swung it around to kick left foot, then right foot. They then played some game to lighten things up with groups facing each other inside an area with cones. A player would handball to a team mate, another handball then one would do a dribble kick straight at the one of the opposing team. He then had to take the ball cleanly or it was deemed a point to the opposition. No juggling allowed. Oscar Baker showed some very clean hands and quick reflexes. Indeed the few times I have seen him he has ticked the boxes with sure ball handling. i spent a lot of time watching Viney who was working away from the main group with 4 assistant coaches who were kicking balls to on the lead out of the goal square, mark, swing onto his left and snap at goal. Later the coaches were playing keeping off with Viney trying to intercept rapid handballs forcing him to weave from side to side, intercept, then snap on goal. All this went on continuously with little time to recover. Viney looked unimpeded to me and was working at a much higher intensity than the main group. Later he was running laps and repeat sprints. Maybe he is cherry ripe but they need to [censored] him harder so he makes round 1. Finished with everyone lining up in the pocket needing to slot a goal through on the angle with a stiff breeze bending to ball toward the Near point post so you had to aim at the far goal post to have any chance. Most got it through first time but Frost, King and J Smith I think took a couple of goes under a lot of pressure from their peers. And that was it. No standouts that I noticed apart from Viney. I then rode over the park to watch a bit of Storm training, Billy S and Cam Smith looked in good nick.

At work but will be there for full session on Wednesday, complete with uninsightful comments on training drills, gossip, gun and rig watching and blurry photos

The one little snippet I found, MELBOURNE star Christian Petracca has pledged his future to the Demons, adamant he wants to be a one-club player for the duration of his career.

But Richmond's is worse. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-champion-data-sydney-ranked-as-the-leagues-best-midfield-group-for-season-2018/news-story/f12fdceb85cb9c77cffe93dbe950ad9b CHAMPION DATA’S 2018 MIDFIELD RATINGS 1. Sydney 2. GWS Giants 3. Collingwood 4. Western Bulldogs 5. Adelaide 6. Port Adelaide 7. Geelong 8. St Kilda 9. Hawthorn 10. Essendon 11. Melbourne * 12. Richmond 13. North Melbourne 14. Fremantle 15. West Coast 16. Brisbane 17. Gold Coast 18. Carlton * We were 18th last year so we're on the rise.

I’ve never heard that one, and it just sounds outright ridiculous. Adelaide’s list manager inquired into Petracca as part of the Lever trade. I heard Justin Reid state this on trade radio. He said Melbourne and Petracca’s manager swiftly declined.

That’s a bit of a myth.

And in other news Jones (C), Viney (C), Gawn and Lewis form the Leadership Group for 2018.

I cause he sign up he is Italian, what u Skips don't understand is as Italians are the most loyal people on earth, Italian AFL players really leave there first club

Someone should tell Champion Data we just won AFLX.

As for our midfield. I expect Gawn to bounce back and win or draw most weeks in the ruck and just as importantly I expect our stoppage set ups to utilise his advantage far better than last year. It's hard not be excited by the idea of Oliver, Petracca and Viney together and if they work with Gawn then we're off to a good start. I'm confident Jones will find his spot playing a mix of inside and outside footy and his form before injury last year was as good as any of his career. I find elite a silly word in footy but those 5 guys are by any definition above average players. I think there's really only a bunch of truly elite midfielders - Martin, Dangerfield, Fyfe, Pendlebury, Selwood, Josh Kennedy. The difference between the 10th and 30th best midfielder at any time is form. A fit and in form Viney is far closer to 10th than 30th. The question will be what happens with the last few midfield spots, especially given we couldn't find a good game plan and stoppage set ups that really utilised the wingers last year. Tyson, Stretch, Brayshaw and Harmes probably compete for 2 spots in the midfield mix and maybe a forward spot. The ability of those guys to contribute each week will be important in taking us from a middle of the road midfield to an above average one. The final spot is pencilled in for Salem and I hope he gets an extended run of midfield footy to see if he can make it as a mid. He's the quality player to take the midfield group up a level.

I laugh that a statistical analysis company comes up with ranking lists based purely on the number of players ranked in the 'elite' and 'above average' categories. I'd think you'd start with rating the individual players with a numerical value relative to a replacement level player, then place a grading on last years important stats - be they clearances, contested possessions, tackles, disposal efficiency, score assists etc and then make some projections based on age, additions and subtractions and so on. Maybe Champion Data do all of that but they sully their brand by releasing crap like this to the public.

Actually I am in awe ! I can't keep one relationship together let alone three.

I'd agree our mids are run of the mill, but in 2 years time when Oliver has 3 years, Trac is playing in the midfield, Viney has taken it up another notch, Brayshaw hopefully is playing consistent football. At the min Oliver and Jones are our best two mids and Jones isn't an A grade mid, Oliver on his way there same as Viney.

I'm not a fan of giving the new kids a run in the JLT (aside from Lever), we should play our top 24-26 fit players (what ever the extended bench allows) with the intention to nail downs structures and roles, and to build momentum to hit Round 1 fully primed. So would prefer to see Lewis and Vince playing both games over Spargo, Baker, etc... While many focus on our Round 23 performance as to why we missed finals, early season losses were, obviously, equally damaging to our cause.

We have 12 days between practice matches, so there is no reason not too play our best team in both. I certainly wouldn't be playing anybody who is not a chance to play round 1.

My thoughts exactly - stick to a captain and vice captain only: the older and more experienced players should be leading by example regardless and should provide a sounding board for the captains, if required.

Honestly RN I care about as much as I do about our clash jumper. As long as the team has good training facilities then I am happy. Do I need to have a supporters area ? No What I really need is a side that is a power club that wins 80+% of its games and plays regularly deep into the finals. I would like the Dees to be around and relevant in 2050. The rest will happen as a result of winning lots of games and having a larger supporter base.

Red, I saw that you and your family disembarked at Eden. How was the drive back?

A lot of rough stuff was dished out by Freo in this game and 4 Freo players have been given reprimands http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-02-19/aflw-bans-for-star-blue-crow-and-magpie Freo targetted us after quarter time to upset our rhythm and it worked. At the weekend I noticed that Carlton and especially Collingwood also played rough. They will follow Freo's example and come after us in the coming weeks. Umpires need to start paying frees for all the head strikes, jumping on top of players on the ground and other acts designed to injure. But we also need to return fire when roughed up. We can't continue to 'play nice'. vs Freo we tried to keep up our fast, skillful game and it didn't work against a fairly constant physical barrage. They knocked us around then ran off with the ball.

I went to the semi-final in 2002 and had a bin full of trash thrown on me. I can still remember the smell.

Not sure how the rural voters will judge him Jara. I mean they recently voted him in with a 65% primary vote in New England despite his efforts as Water Minister presiding over the wholesale theft of taxpayer funded environmental water from the Barwon River uncovered by Four Corners. This was water theft on an industrial scale by primary industry corporations often foreign owned! All this at the expense of hard working farmers downstream and towns that nearly ran out of water last year. Barnaby’s response off record was to joke about whinging greenies! National party voters never cease to amaze me, the ordinary struggling rural voter is of limited interest to the Nats who look after the big miners, irrigators and frackers.

Regardless of whether he is in the leadership group or not, Nev has been and always will be a leader on the field. Perhaps, as he does in the media, he flies under the radar at the club?

A common trait amongst most of the power teams if the past from the baby bummers, through to the Swans, Cats and Hawks is that they retained most of their best young players all the way through their successful era. Although individuals will only naturally seek what is best for themselves, successful teams share the spoils from the best players down, each sacrificing something for their team, and their team mates. Max is on board, Viney was never in doubt and Clarry appears to want to stay a Dee. If CP5 can hold fat with the club talking about his career, it sends a thumping message to all the other younger players. Ultimate success although not certain, would be at the very least a realistic goal within 3 years. I am certain our player management are acutely all of this. Gee, at one function l attended even Chris Connolly was mapping out the contracted players 5 years ahead of time. Maybe, at that time we needed to worry more about the here and now instead of the future. Most of his list are now long gone. Good luck thisTruck, you are one of msny important parts of our side and our future.

The craziest I have done and continue to do is when overseas on holiday, get my photo taken in my Melbourne jumper in front of famous landmarks. At the colosseum whilst in my mfc jumper a shout came from a group of tourists GO DEES. It was unreal in that spot. Once I get home I have the photos printed on an A4 page and signed by No 13. Clarry signed my last one yesterday at the Casey training day. He was good about it after a bit of a laugh. Until my next holiday, Hawaii next February.

Yes D77, the dividend (which was a substantial figure) is minus the bonus bet amount. One final catch ... The winnings from the bonus bets can't be withdrawn until he bets the total amount again! But he can now bet the 'winnings' any way he likes (Tri's, Multi's et al) Sounds complicated but he'll be smart enough to turn his initial winnings into quite a decent profit (He is, after all, another dyed-in-the-wool Demon supporter) Everyone else I know had a lousy weekend on the punt! But they'll all be back Australian Group & Listed Races

Just chuck it in the Yarra

6.0 to 4.7 says it all....