Leaderboard

Love this kid. Three games in and he already looks the goods. Dont forget to smash that Like button if you agree.

The joke ________ Your head

I've been really impressed with his composure. Doesn't look flustered at all and has the ability to make space for himself.

Can’t take any people-management advice from a man who: a) Refers to a player as a ‘poofta’ on air. b) Refuses to alter his version of how a name is pronounced. c) Can’t tell the difference between Sudanese players - even when one isn’t playing. d) Routinely humiliates himself trying to communicate with players in the obscenely self-indulgent ‘Roaming Brian’.

No way. Beating someone up after they know they've had a poor shot on goal just drives more fear and anxiety into the next time it happens. Gawn, Smith, Garlett also missed easy shots. Gawn's miss against Geelong in round 1 was considerably worse. It was closer in, dry ball. Just a shank kick.

You really have no idea do you, deciding whether to pull the trigger when there is another human being in front of you, enemy or not, bears no resemblance to deciding whether to tackle a player or not Footy is a game, which unfortunately these days is analysed 24/7, nobody dies if your team loses, we have a myriad of media, all chasing the next headline, which encourages tge next paragraph Some of the trolling displayed on here, not only against other posters, but also players like Omac and Weid disgusts me Anyone can be a hero hiding behind a keyboard Carlton sacked a coach, you would think with all the media that Bolton was a child killer, he wasn't, he is a guy that failed at his job and was moved on, happens every day in ' the real world', except of course in politics and unions

Moronic comment from an oafish dinosaur with a 1980s amateur footy coach level understanding of what tearing strips off someone for making a mistake does for their psychology. How stupid does he think Sam Weideman is if he thinks he needs his teammates to remind him that missing that goal was a Bad Thing? And why is Weideman’s miss any worse than Smith’s or Garlett’s, or Wagner or Garlett dropping easy marks that should have produced a score? Even Max, who was outstanding, dropped a mark that was far easier than half the ones he plucked throughout the game. The whole team blew it big time in the last quarter. Any player that wants to single out Weideman better do it while staring in to the effing mirror.

Preuss is our backup 1st ruck (as opposed to our 2nd ruckman). We have the best 1st ruck in the competition. Question answered I'd say. On a completely unrelated note, man our forward line sucks. I wish we had some more tall timber on our list.

The triangle of land at the S E corner of Goschs. This can be greatly enlarged by putting the freeway off ramp that connects to punt rd underground. There is any amount of money available for tunnels at the moment so lets go for it. Another solution for those nay sayers ..ie it would be too expensive, well we could do it with pick and shovel. We have 40k members and we could all volunteer, bring a wheel barrow and shovel each, it would only take a a couple of weeks with 40,000 of us singing the club song and digging.

You mean like I metaphor a drink, and she continually laughed at my ideas about footy Is McArtney, Paul's brother, coz that's the way I pronounce it As an ex military person, footy has no resemblance to it whatsoever It sticks in my craw, everytime I see the drivel they produce to advertise the Anzac game An example of 2 great players who 'climbed the mountains' and 'fought in the trenches', but failed spectacularly as coaches, Voss and Hird

@Matsuo Basho if you want to continue posting here you're going to have to stop baiting people. You've already been warned privately.

What a load of rubbish. The issue is 100% a result of the impact of having interrupted preseasons and the flow on effect on fitness, confidence, 'connection' and even skills (hard to practice skills when you can only run laps with the rehab group - or for that matter work on connection and systems). I just can't understand why people don't get this. All of the players Bitters mentions in his post - Oliver, Tmac, Omac, Weid and Brayshaw - had interrupted preseasons. Oliver, TMac, Omac and i think Weed all had post season surgery. All are clearly not up to full fitness and all look hampered by injury as well. Tmac is the best example. Something is obviously up. He can't kick 40 metres or pick the ball off the ground for Pete's sake. And again whilst Richmond have had some injuries (which by the by are starting to bite) they had a strong off season with few players having had surgery and not many in rehab. They got the miles in their legs. And besides they have not been hit anywhere near as hard us in terms of injury. Not even close. We have gone past the tipping point where a system can help mitigate against impact of injury.

Footy commentary sinks to new lows almost weekly. For commentators to dig the boot into a young man like this and on the other hand pretend to be concerned with players mental health is baffling. Go **** yourself BT you absolute moron.

Not sure on the 'AFL traits' argument. He's already played more career games than the majority of AFL draftees. His vision and poise in traffic is first rate when his confidence is up. At the moment, his confidence is rock bottom. He's still a kid.

he's so clearly our best player at the moment it's not funny

To counter that argument. They made him play when he couldn't lift his arm above his chest. Bizarre decision. Was an incredibly gutsy effort to be out there at all. Looks like they damned him for it too. What were they thinking? Almost as bad as what they did to J Smith.

Sam had played a very good game so he has a lot to be proud of, especially for a first game back after injury and being dropped. As a result his confidence would not have been top notch. He was shattered to miss that shot. Leaving him emotionally stranded with the camera focused on him was far worse than being empathetic.

Taylor, like many in the Boys Club that is AFL media, try their best to drag football back to the 80s and 90s comfort zone they long for. The game has moved past the 'harden up', Northey-to-Stynes approach into something much more individualised and productive. Many (most?) players simply do not respond to what Taylor is advocating, and that's why the ability to communicate is paramount for AFL coaches these days. Mind you, Taylor's inability to intelligently communicate has been on display for years, so no one should be surprised. 1.8 is a collective choke, and to blame a single shot on goal is not only erroneous, but potentially dangerous to the development of Wiedeman and his team mates.

Really impressive skill set. Seems to have what a lot of quick players lack, a sidestep and a change of pace. Could be a beauty.

Great post. He was in tears after the game. Don't tell me this won't help make him a better player.

As someone who lost mates during deployments, no, i don't have to get used to it. Neither does Saty. Jog on sad little man, you have no idea what you're on about.

I have no military experience but it certainly irritates me too.

His tap work is sublime, his marking is magnificent and for a guy that is well over 2m tall, he picks the ball up off the deck better than some rovers of a fraction his height. The guy is a freak. Love his sense of humor, love his compeditiveness, but beyond all else, I love his passion and loyalty to the red and blue jumper. Go Maxy - long live the bearded warrior.

This has had almost no media exposure. Apparently 6-8 will be admitted to the HOF tonight. Any likely Dees? A quick search shows Neale Daniher is not in the HOF. Could be wrong. Would be a very, very worthy inductee: Champion player, club captain, Grand Final runner-up coach. Great champion of the very worthy MND cause. Inspiration to so many.

For those that wondered why he came to Melbourne, I can only assume that he will be developed by the best ruckman in the game to take over the mantle in a couple of years. For now, Max is king of the heap. Preuss is no challenger for the crown. Let him develop, get a few tastes, and really get to work on his game so that he becomes an absolute beast. There will be times he gets a run in the firsts with Max, but I think he is still 2 seasons away from really being the ruckman we want. Preuss will be mid-20’s and fit for purpose. Max will be ready to perhaps for the understudy to surpass him. He is also insurance (although, atm , not brilliant cover)

Pruess for T-mac weeks ago was a no brainer. Might have won us the game up north also. Heads our goal kicking averages while Tommy is down to less than 1 a game. Pruess ranked equal 9th in AFL goal kicking averages alongside Ablett, Franklin, Betts and Fantasia but can't crack a call up. Another Goody fail. What a shitty year this is turning out to be.

It tells me: Two different but obstinate game plans with two different but obstinate coaches. It is almost as if he is not receiving one-on-one coach to player communication, practices, training routines. Unjustifiably negligent; he could be turned into such an asset whilst awaiting back-up, in-game ruck duties to relieve Gawn's massive workload. As a rugby player, albeit a modest one, he is used to physical exertion and the argy-bargy rough stuff, as well.

Don't see how you think that is unrelated. Preuss played brilliantly up in Sydney in the forward line. He's exactly the crash and bash tall timber we are missing in the forward line. It's a mystery to me. The whole forward line structure looked the best it has all year when he played before he got injured.

just as likely to re-injure playing at Casey. Would prefer he works himself into form playing in the firsts.

Well, I would not bring Lever in under ANY circumstances. He is underdone and not worth the risk. IMO

Too empathetic - nope I wouldn't say that. But Sam, Max and all our players need to use this to get mentally stronger. They can't go back in their shells. I remember when Gawn was finding his way he stuffed up in the Saints game we lost narrowly with a dumb hit out from the centre bounce. The next week he exploded down at Geelong and announced himself as a star. The Weid needs to respond with something similar. Roos was apparently quite good at having the players backs but knowing when to give them a rev up. Goodwin might have to do the same with Weideman. The Pies will try to get stuck in to him, he needs to be ready.

Yep.... Yet there are similarities.. Both about a totally [insert censored word of choice] contrivance. Both display less class than [censored]. And neither worth watching.

In the context of your sentence, that's exactly how it reads. You can argue semantics all you like, your metaphor is poor at best if this was not your intention. I will call out the likening of a game of football to the horrors of war every time I see it because it is a ridiculous modern day sentiment among football commentary I am sick of hearing. Give it a rest.

To be fair our second round pick deals have been awesome... Hibberd and Melksham

We have the leagues best tap ruckman hands down, and we are not taking advantage of it. Its pathetic. Goes a long way to explaining why we are in the bottom half of teams. It all starts in the middle. Winning a tap, clearing a contest, and disposing the ball effectively into the forward 50 - then hopefully kicking truly. Football is a simple game made easier by having a great tap ruckman. Gawn deserves a brownlow for carrying MFC on his own this year.

Oscar will be fine. He was 12th in the B&F last year, is only 23 (young for a big bloke), and is playing in a team that's out of sorts, so as last line of defence, he's always going to be where the buck stops. Though if you want to see what a season looks like when you don't start full training till mid-January, look no further than Oscar. Having said that, we didn't draft Steven May for nothing. https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/tr-melbourne-demons?year=2019&rt=TA&st=1P

I know this is not the way it's done on Demonland, but you can both point out a player's shortcomings AND appreciate their strengths. I like Sam a lot and what he brings - especially the fact that he's a tall who turns into a small once the ball hits the ground, it's almost like having an extra player in the backline. Would be surprised if he's top 6 in the B&F, but would be great to see, all power to Sam.

Just put $10 on him. Bloody advertising always gets me.

Reality OMac played a poor game on the weekend Reality OMac is out of form Reality OMac is not going to challenge for All Australian Key Position Defender but he has performed a role in the past, above his stature. BIG REALITY our midfield applies little defensive pressure with the opposition transitioning through them with relative ease, once the ball is on the outside our midfielders are dusted (jogging behind or to the next contest is not defensive pressure) VERY BIG REALITY our forwards defensive acts seem to stop at the 50 metre arc, while opposition backs link up with their midfielders to run through the center of the ground Little wonder our backs are being slaughtered; remember Jetta and Hibberd were also struggling for most of this year as well.

If you had to choose one player in our current team to take that last kick at goal, I would have chosen Sam.

Silly Carlton, should've done what we did and traded it for two Liam Stockers ?‍♂️ And then used one of those Liam Stockers to trade for a ruckman that never gets a game.

No I dont, I reckon there is something NQR but on present standards if he kicks another 15 + or so he will be our leading goalkicker! Give him another 1 year deal ( with a second year option) performance based same money plus incentives a full pre season ( Remembering his shoulder injury in the JLT) I just reckon a touch of faith is required with this bloke who clearly can play!

Cant believe i liked a Saty post...

Now now, metaphors can mean whatever one like's remember? Sam Mitchell has fought in the trenches, obviously. He's dropped the soap with the boys, got blood on his hands, been around the block a few times, been bent over a few barrels, and even been chewed up and spat out. Dude's had a rough time, gotta give him that. Don't know if it makes him coaching material though!

Oscar is another example of WTF has happened to us this year. I watched Oscar closely in a couple of games last year ( and he played some bloody good footy). I remember posting on Dland how well he played and looking forward to development into a gun defender. This year he has reverted to [censored]. Tom has looked ordinary and seems to be carrying an injury. Brayshaw is a shadow. Weid has gone backwards. Ollie has been inconsistent …… etc etc etc. It is more than Oscar. We have been a rabble. FFS! What has happened??

All things considered, I think Oscar has been quite serviceable this year. His kicking has improved and he does the one percenters as well as anyone. We haven't had the most defensively minded midfield, and I think that's made our 'seconds' backline look worse than it maybe has been. First backline for me at the moment would include Jetta, May, Lever, Hore, Hibberd and Salem. Frost is the unlucky one. Most have them have been missing in action this year. As some of these guys start coming back, would there be any harm trying Frost or Oscar further up the ground? Honestly, I couldn't have imagined TMac playing as a forward a few years back. (I must say though, less optimistic about Oscar up the ground, can imagine Frost though)

How good is it when we lose like that and our season is finished and yet we have a week of great excitement coming up and a chance to inflict some pain on our favourite foe. I know we often say it's along night coming up at selection, but I'd love to be on the panel this week just listening to the rhetoric. I have eight players who could come in - four of whom I regard as certainties if they prove their fitness. And yet i've got to say that the performance and run by our mids last week in Darwin was the best we've had all season. My four certain ins are Lever, May, Salem and Hore - all defenders. Three of my omissions come from our defensive group against Adelaide. O.Mac - yes there needs to be a full enquiry if he is not played as a forward in the VFL - that is his only chance to make it now and it's why we recruited him in the first place. Wags - he's actually been quite serviceable in the past six weeks but he's just not quite quick enough to be a gun rebounder and he's not quite tall enough to play as a big and he's not quite a long enough kick to be a linebreaker either. Stretch - He drew the defensive straw last week and I thought his positioning was very good and if it wasn't for the four coming back, then I'd be happy to see him get another go back there as we need a right foot kicking runner coming out of there to break up our predictable left side forays. That leaves seven backs (one off the bench) for the Pies six De Goey (Hibberd), Stevo (Salem), Hoskin-Ell (Frost), Mihocek (Lever), Reid (May), Thomas (Hore) and Varcoe/Pendles (Fritsch) drift. I thought our mids were great on Saturday and I reckon they will relish the challenge against the midfield that many now rate as the best. Oliver will again be tagged, this time by Greenwood and hopefully he doesn't give up like he did against de Boer and shows his maturity and tries to work through it. Hopefully Olly sets himself a target of 10 tackles and ignores his lack of numbers in other areas. I'd also start him on the bench, just to force Bucks into some quick rearranging. Two players must be manned closely - Pendles and Sidey. I just reckon it's time we gave Angus the extra task of negating a player - Pendles ain't quick so I'd be putting it on Angus to negate him. Then a decision has to be made on whether Harmes goes to Sidey or we give the job to the EverReddy battery. It's one for the match committee but given how poor Treloar can be kicking under pressure, then I'd place Harmes on Treloar and risk sending Baker to Sidey. That leaves Jonesy for his old mate Beams and our other super runner in JKH playing on their fittest bloke (Phillips). Viney has a date with Adams as usual. Some will argue that JKH should be dropped but I really liked his run last week and that was his second game back after one week in the VFL. Sure his kicking was a little off in the greasy conditions after half time, but gee he presented well all game and is probably one of the best suited player to keep Phillips honest on our list - our star trio excluded. The Pies defenders are also quite big, so unless it's extremely wet, then we can't just play a bevy of crumbers like last week. Can you imagine the frustration if Moore is allowed to play on Jeffy or Spargo and just peels off and intercepts at will. Moore must be made accountable. That means we must play three bigs, unless it is majorly wet. It would be criminal not to play Weid again after last week's finish and Smith is doing a good job as our Mihocek style lead up man. So one of Jeffy or Spargo has to go. Personally I'd leave out Spargo, although i accept that he looked more lively last week than his previous outings this season. The issue for our selectors is again to decide if T.Mac needs a two week rest (one bye) to get himself speed fit. As I've said all season, he missed almost all the 200m reps at the start of the year and did not do the leg drills he would normally do because of his turf toe and calf issues pre-season. The result is that he has lost all his pace (he never had a lot mind you) and it's cost us for 11 weeks now. T.Mac has amazing aerial judgment but his biggest weapon was his gut running and ability to work back and catch out defences. That's been non-existent this year. Two weeks of speed drills without playing may make a difference. As a result I'd be considering Preuss because we need a player that forces Moore to be accountable and one that punishes a defender that drifts across his flight path. If Cox is recalled, the Preuss is a must because where he can help most is as a back up ruckman. Last year Cox murdered T.Mac when the Grundy/Gawn show was sent backstage. Three other players also have claims for a recall. ANB has been unlucky after his starry game against Hawthorn, Lockhart is a goer but finding a spot for either of them is untenable this week. Jordy is also unlucky and would add smarts, but I can't see a match up for him this week unless Hore is again out. So that leaves: Out: T.Mac (rested to get speed fit), Stretch, J.Wags, O.Mac, one of Garlett or Spargo In: Lever, Hore, Salem, May, Preuss B: Salem May Hibberd HB: Frost Lever Hore C Baker Brayshaw JKH HF Trac T.Smith Hunt F: Spargo/Garlett Weid Preuss Ru: Gawn Harmes Viney Int: Jones (mid), Hannan (fwd), Fritsch (def) Oliver (mid) I actually reckon we are a chance this week, although if we continue to miss shots, then the best match-ups in the world mean nothing.

I'm always amused at number of posters who want a player's return from injury delayed another week based on no insight. It's like scans, GPS results and the player's conversation with the medical team are all valueless. How would we know whether any player's treatment and return date are either aggressive or conservative?

Frost is better than OMAC and has been one of our more reliable backman this year and has won OMAC's job. I agree it is not his natural position, being a lockdown defender but he has shown that he can do it this year.