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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.

Pretty much nailed it, funny how Australian society loves to play the blame game it stems into the workplace, sport, junior sport. I didn't get the job because he/she is mates with the boss we lost because of the umpires we would have won if Hogan and Watts were playing and the icing on the cake is the onfield performance this season is all down to PJ leaving Nobody wants to face facts, we are smashed by injury this year, resulting in depth players getting more responsibility than they should, that can work for a few games but not for extended periods, confidence has been hit and that combined with the form slump has us where weare at. Some positive signs have come in the last few weeks which might have helped us get a few extra wins in the earlier rounds had we played that way earlier but that would have papered over some cracks, which I'm sure the FD is fully aware of and working on As DD has stated and all others have intimated Taylor has found quite a few Diamonds in the rough and his strike rate is pretty good. AVB without injury big game chager for us, Hunt after a poor 2018 showing good signs again. Nibbler by no means a gun but a running machine and good depth, Fritsch is a good decision maker suffering from the injury crisis and having to play where he's not best for the team, Harmes turned into a B+ grade midfielder, Hannan really important and a good player Spargo unlike others I have no issue with him makes very good decisions with the ball in handonce he builds a tank will be valuable, Baker looks like he belongs, Hore getting better every game As others have said Richmonds flag was built around a nucleus which took 8 to 10 years to build, Eagles took time to rebuild after the 06 boys moved on and believe me a mediocre side with their home ground advantage is almost a monty for top 8 We'll turn it around, we have to much talent not to. I'm not saying we'll do a Dogs or Tigers next year we still need a build towards our nucleus hitting 23 to 27years for sustained tilts.

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.

There are good reasons that the 8 in bold did not make it. Thish means 22 of the 30 selected are still on our list so he has a pretty good batting average. And of the 16 on the list last year, 8 played in the finals. Again, a very good batting average. Anyway a bit early to judge the 2018 crop but 2017 selections are looking like a 100% strike rate! I get that you are trolling but a closer look at the selections show you are barking up the wrong tree.

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.

I have bolded these players as guys who last played in the preliminary final. Forget 2018, but out of that list 12/26 players drafted in those years were a game off playing in the grand final. Thats already a huge tick. You also said your top scout is paid to find diamond in the rough type players. Harmes, Hunt, Vandenberg, Joel Smith, Tim Smith, Josh Wagner, Mitch Hannan, Oskar Baker and Marty Hore. All those names have already made significant impact or have shown that they have bright futures ahead of them. All taken late in the draft or rookie listed. You could say that besides Vandenberg Josh Wagner and Tim Smith (28 already) most of those players could go on to play 100 to 150 games for Melbourne. That's another significant tick in my eyes. Taylor is doing a fine job.

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.

8 of your best 22 missing from a match is huge! Our 2 best KPDs, our best intercept marking defender, our small defender (when playing against a team with one of the best small forwards of all time). Melksham was our leading goal kicker before getting injured. Smith could be his depth replacement, but he’s injured. Petty is a depth replacement for Hore- but he’s also injured. Lockhart is a depth replacement of Jetta- but he’s also injured. Was Hannan’s first game back after a very long layoff. AND Saturday was one of the strongest teams we’ve fielded this year.

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.

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

A quickly put together Best 22 with the players picked or traded for a post-first round pick bolded. Pretty handy collection of players taken after round one. JETTA . MAY . HIBBERD . SALEM . LEVER . HORE . FRITSCH . VINEY . BAKER . PETRACCA . MCDONALD . MELKSHAM . HANNAN . WEIDEMAN . HUNT . GAWN . OLIVER HARMES . JONES . BRAYSHAW . AVB . ANB . Emerg. LEWIS, SPARGO, FROST, LOCKHART, PREUSS.

Your posts always appear as if you have been sucking on a lemon all day long.

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.

Compared to what? It's a facile analysis unless you compare his record to other recruiters.

Well you’ve included 2018 of which its not possible to form a conclusive view on those players yet nor expect them necessarily to immediately impact at AFL level. Jordon for example looks like an exciting player but is probably 12 months away. There are some pretty good players in that list and not many complete miscues if you don’t include some of the rookie draft picks. Luck hasnt helped either - Vandenberg and Joel smith were set for breakout years this season before injury interceded. All the same its perverse to blame depth when you have 15 injuries - very few clubs could stay at the same level. Also if you trade one of your best players and are yet to receive any of the benefits due to injury of may, kk and sparrow being a young player.

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!