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Of course we didn't. Just like we didn't hear of any criticism of the medical team or of Misson (not the same thing), when we managed to get Hogan back on the field for 6 goals and arguably his best game for the club just 3 weeks after he'd broken his collar bone. Many of the comments here are just ill-informed scapegoating. No matter who we get in next year, players will still get injured (surprise surprise), and we'll still see vague 4-6 weeks prognostics, or 4 weeks that blows out to 12. And we'll still have comments on our lack of fitness when we lose games, but no comments on fitness when we win them.

When did abusing people become synonymous with enjoying a day at the footy?

No point persisting with him just to be defiant.

His form dropped off at a crucial time 2 years ago and he hasnt played that well since. I hope he leaves this year. Played a part but his best seems well behind.

Me, I was the champion at throwing pieces of chalk into a chalk box at school during free periods - from 20 paces. Nobody came near me. I still throw objects into our recycle bin from 20 paces and yell out, GOAL every time. No, I don't wanna become the Demon Chalkboard accuracy coach, my knees are gone, both of them, Osteoarthritis, Double PKneemonia. I did kick a goal from the boundary line after Laurie Sandiland infringed while contesting a boundary throw in. A perfect Torp. Straight through the high diddle diddle. Trouble was I wasn't trying to kick a goal.

And two Davey girls - if they are anything like Aliesha Newman, sign them up too

I loved hearing from Strawbs. It was great to hear that he's still a Demon. Thanks for the interview guys.

When things aren't going as well as expected, it's tempting to look for a scapegoat. Misson is a soft target in this regard, although we didn't hear this level of blaming when we were winning finals last year.

I have been really impressed with all debutants at AFL level bar Keilty... However Keilty has seemed to play some really impressive footy at VFL level so he would defiantly be worth persisting with.... Can't judge a key position player on what he could provide in 3 games at AFL level. Assuming he is ticking all the boxes internally then I'd say he sticks around on a 1 year deal.

Wow, a bit like how many super stars is enough to win us a premiership Buck? And what are their short medium and long term scores like? The answer is probably as many as possible and for us we probably need half the team reaching 5 plus! I'm joking of course but given our parlous mental state this might not be far from the truth. As you know, stats in general are just a rough historical look at what may have taken place on the day. And as a one off (ie., one match stats only) a very rough look at that! Something that can never capture all the nuances that went down and so many of the public ones are pretty rubbery if looked at in isolation in a one off snap shot. Great example is a mid running with an opponent in a heavy lock down. He probably isn't going to score that highly (or put a score up that he might usually put up) on the day and if doing his job well or adequately, neither is his opponent. When you look back at a weighted score along the lines of what i am putting up or say a supercoach type score, they can be quite deceiving and a low score for the shut down player might result, but yet he we know he did his job and kept opponent X to a lowish output on the day in comparison to most weeks. Everyone who saw the match praises his job on the day and no one looks at the score and says "hey Jim Bob must have played a crappy game he only scored 50 on SuperCoach" or say 1.75 on my composite thingy. That is unless you didn't go to the match or watch it. And that's where stats can be a huge no no when assessing anything to do with sport if looked at in isolation with no context. Same can be said for many defenders vs say a wingmen or mids who might be given a free reign on the day. However, those having seen the match and watched it closely probably have a better understanding of why that score fell out the way it did on that particular day. Some of these anomalies are why i tend to favour at least 3 rounds of data, where possible, in order to get some sort of gauge on a player's comparative form over a series of matches rather than just one and then also compare them to another past period or block of matches to see if anything dramatic or significant is trending, both with a player or the entire team. Having said that who do we look at in comparison? The best from last year in the two grand finalists? And which three rounds do we pick out to assess and score? The two finals and the GF from 2018 seems appropriate yes? May as well look at the best for the year if bothering. Happy to do this and post the results on each player's score & their team scores also! I will also put up the GF result in isolation, just out of interest, to see who was sitting where on the day. We can critique the results and see if the model holds up ok or whether it's complete rubbish and a total waste of time! On the flip side It might also lead us to understand how many players we need to get to elite output of say 5 or higher as you have mentioned. Maybe it's more a team thing with a stack of others lifting into the middle sections (eg., 3.0 plus) vs their usual output which might be sitting at sub par levels, which from my experience is roughly around 2 to 2.5 or less. I can then also throw in our team's best 22 scores from season 2018 as a comparison and see how we compared over the season. Did we get close or still a fair way off those two during 2018?

About 4 years too late, Thank god hes leaving. Now theres real reason for optimism in 2020.

May did a good job on Cox...repeatedly pushed him under the ball without infringing (taking him out of the contest).

He plays ruck at VFL level. Dont care what he does down there anyway, he has produced in he two AFL games he has played for us, and thats what matters.

Really dislike a sore winner. If Grundy wasn't fit then he should not have played! Sounded like an excuse to protect his player's reputation. Should have given credit where credit is due instead of pouting about his player being not at his best.

Shane Warne had crap sheffield shield numbers too.

Was probably tired from carrying 21 men on his back all day

And will not launch either. Last year, and this season, he has been our only player in our goal-square, with long kick coming in... one, or two opponents moving to the ball in flight... and what does jeffy do.? nothing, just stands there and does not try to punch the ball to ground. Just lets them mark the ball. FFS..... ... you have to compete, you have to go... and a jump to punch the ball takes NO courage, whatsoever.! That is a give-up, too-hard signal, to the whole team, who are besting the Rzzzes off.

Chalk that one up to you dieter.

I’ve tried to explain to you all that the western world is/ has been manipulated by thought policing morons who are indoctrinated by a neo Marxist platform that has been running since The ‘70’s, no I’m not joking. They will attempt to control your morality, speech and personal beliefs. You must resist at every opportunity and tell these maggit to eat [censored] wherever you see them, be it AFL, schools, media or the workplace. I expect this comment may even be deleted as some people find individual expression too confronting.

I'm going to beg him to come back and help out.

Great interview with Steve. Nice guy. Thanks guys for a great chat. Pity he didn’t talk about Windy Hill 1990. It truly was an amazing game.

Under Gil's rule the AFL has gone PC mad in all sorts of areas. I don't object to them have responsible community attitudes but I do object them being the social conscience of everything in society. They are a football controlling body not society engineers.

Will be on the Demonland banner too

I like the way you've nonchalantly dropped in the last line. Without explanation, as if it's so obvious nothing more needs to be said.

Looking forward to the leaked video of this.

I think Misson has done fine. the first couple of years we had ~30% turn over each year so barely any continuity. Aside from this year our general fitness and injury levels have been okay/good and a lot better than other teams (Pies/GWS etc) the role and level of influence of these high performance guys is overrated imo

Exactly. I heard about that on Tuesday lucky boy. Another knock and anything could have happened. I don’t envy Missons job. Keeping 45 hard hitting athletes available weekly

Just checked out their website. 100% of the profits of the new Demon beer go to the MFC. 10% of the sales of their other beers go to the Cure for MND Foundation David Neitz is awesome.

Darren Burgess might be available after Arsenal have let him go. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/48614569

The 80s logo looks great too.

And just like that the average IQ in the Collingwood cheer squad doubled

Here are some horrific stats. Last year we averaged 104 points per game, kicking 25 more goals than 2nd ranked Richmond after the H&A season. Currently we average 69 per game. What a monumental fail. It is hard to swallow.

Preuss - 4 goals in 2 games T Mac - 8 goals in 12 games

Player / Team Stats Form Guide Rnds 10 to 12, 2019 vs Season 2018 Worth noting... T-Mac's dropped even further since the last 3 round block i looked at from Rnds 7 to 9 vs his 2018 average. In rounds 7 to 9 he was 44% down vs 55% in the last three matches (on average). That's another 11% drop! Hunt has dropped off substantially vs Rnds 7 to 9 where he was 56.5% up on 2018. Only 3% up in the last three rounds is a pretty huge fall. Jeffy off even further vs 2018 also. From Rnds 7 to 9 he was -21% off vs this block -29% off. Spargo is up on his earlier block from round 4 to 6 (-63.6%) but still well down on 2018. Hannan only just having returned after a long lay off is off -29% on 2018. Obviously further time needed to regain full fitness and tank. Smith (up 12.5% vs Rnds 7 to 9), Weids tracking similar to 2018. In the mid field Clarry is well and truly on track vs 2018 and not a concern. Maxy & Harmes off the charts vs 2018. However, we fall away from there with Viney, Gus & Jones still way off their 2018 average. Tracc was off 29% in Rnds 7 to 9 and has turned things around nicely in the last 3 rounds to be only off by about 8%, albeit most of that was the last game against the Pies. His best for the year. Jwags, who started off the season very well tracking at or above his 2018 average till Rnd 9, has now fallen away a little in the last 3 Rnds. FristchKreig has had a massive form reversal since Rnds 7 to 9 where he was 44% off his 2018 average to now be up by 12.7%! Has Goody changed his role maybe with more time through the mid field (wings)?

I’m 100% with you on this Skuit. Some people can’t get over the fact the Preuss is not fit. It really doesn’t matter if he plays deep forward like you have said because he will only need to move about 1km for the whole game which suits his current level of fitness. I don’t ever recall Lockett being considered fit, I know Preuss is not a scratch on the great man but as you have pointed out he disrupts the opposition and creates opportunities for our other forwards. Let’s remember he comfortably beat Aliir Aliir who is a super athletic specimen of a human being ???

You see, that’s where I am a little confused. Are you suggesting, in this era of the game being a multi million dollar industry and on the back of that, one of extreme professionalism, that we have a situation where team selection is being compromised somehow??? Because if it is we have a serious issue don’t we? Again, I say that the footy people see something in this young man that most on this site clearly do not

Couple of points from the article: a. Not an AFL decision, so no point criticising them. Richmond Cheersquad decision. b. Still allowed to attend matches, just has to sit somewhere else. c. Was ejected from the Melbourne v Richmond match for homophobic abuse. This is clearly a numpty who has been given a warning by the cheersquad and has beached it. If it was a ‘fan’ being banned by the AFL for only saying ‘green maggot’ then yes, its ‘PC gone mad’, etc. But the cheersqaud members have rules and this person broke them on multiple occasions. Sit somewhere else.

Yes, a brilliant strategy to get his wife to apply for a prestigious position overseas. Why is it that when anyone leaves the Club they get canned? Watts, Hogan and now Mission and that's just off the top of my head. Misso came to MFC when we were a basket case and we are now an elite organization. He's part of that. Thanks Misso. Good luck and thanks.

It could also mean that the bulk of our forwards look/do ok or better when training (non AFL ...match simulation) but their kicking action does not hold up on match day (under fatigue or any degree of AFL level pressure). Time to move a good number of them on at season's end, including some name players, if we are to improve (substantially) next year and for years to come. If not we risk wasting a very decent back 6 and a mid field that still offers great upside.

Don’t want to split hairs, but what Roos said in response to a question asking who is Melbourne’s most skilful player, he replied it’s probably still Nathan Jones. Now, this opinion seemed to totally confirm the conversation they had been having about Melbourne’s skill level being so low across the team.

Well since 1998 anyway Pretty damning statistic and it's no surprise to anyone here that this is our main problem. How do we fix it?

Some comments: Huge game from Max. A tragedy that our team did little with his great work. And he had to do a lot of the work himself: 10 clearances. 9 from stoppages. What were our inside players doing at the stoppages? Wish he would learn to kick for goal. Not a decider but that last kick went left, again! Didn't like Buckley diminishing Max's game by saying Grundy played unfit. Now most reviewers are qualifying Max's achievement by quoting Buckley. Pumping up Grundy for AA ahead of Max but poor sportsmanship in my book. They won. He should have left it at that. It is an immense credit to Max that week after week he puts in champion level performances, sees his great work wasted but soldiers on. Our team are letting him down very badly.