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Stephen Powell played 2 fantastic seasons for us (2000 and 2002) and is the exact type of midfielder we lack today - a midfielder that kicks goals. Kicked 32 goals in 2000 including 7 over the prelim and GF fortnight. Left the club at the end of 2002 over a finance dispute I believe, which was poor management by us. Can’t make the list due to his brief tenure, but he was fantastic player that was picked up on the cheap (both for us and then St Kilda).

Did he lend his head to Dustin Martin?

He was a great man, Jim Stynes. Keep in mind that till not that long ago every indigenous player was racially abused by opposition players, supporters, a kind of reflection on how they had been treated since Mr Cook and Co brought on Philips' voyage.

Yes, but the 50% pay cut so far is only for a few months, so his $1mill becomes about $850k. Poor guy... thoughts and prayers

Even if it comes back by Queen's Birthday (which is extremely unlikely) there won't be any supporters allowed in negating the benefits of hosting it.

I don't know how they actually do this or even can practice it at training. So let's see if I can get this right... If we have T.Mac, Weid, Fritsch, Melksham, Kossie, and Bedford playing as forwards, then to get maximum match simulation we would place May, Lever, Hibberd, Jetta, Salem and Harmes on them. Trouble is that we are now playing "half-court" ...i.e. it is all at one end of the ground. And we know that the players don't stick in positions during the game. So to overcome this at training , the forwards and backs get distributed to various other positions around the ground, not where they would normally play. If we have essentially a full list training you can get 36 on the ground. ( last year this never happened) But they are playing and kicking to players that they wouldn't normally be playing with and kicking to. So I would imagine the only way that we can actually get as close to match simulation is by using various players at FF, CHF, FP etc and then rotating others into the same roles. It probably gets even harder, when you have new players come to the club e.g. Tomlinson and Langdon. They don't know instinctively where T.Mac or Weid or Fritsch will lead to . They can be told this at briefing, but until you actually do it multiple times in real-life, it won't click. I remember someone who had moved clubs, saying it took at least a year until they knew exactly what others would do and where they would go. It applies to the backs as well, and it is no surprise that the best functioning teams have played together as a team for a long time. Richmond have had virtually no injuries for the past 2 years and that shows in their team efforts. Very similar to the Hawthorn teams of the 80's and 90's. They just knew where to go and what would happen before it actually did. Back to the original question....I don't know the answer. I don't know how the coaches teach it, if they can, other than telling players to do it.

I would have put Brian Wilson in the Centre

No love for Alan Jarrott?

Yes, that’s who I was thinking of. Thought they were related, but this thread from BF confirms they were not: https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/jace-bode.182334/ Funny reading the thoughts of posters there prior to him being drafted

From an early post worth putting back up for this topic. Best recycled players that had to have played at least one game for another VFL/AFL team before being traded to the Dees since our last Premiership.

I remember Jimmy Stynes when president, referring to Charles and the club not supporting him enough when he was injured, something Jim was keen not to happen again.

Jeff White by far the best

Technically the original game was scheduled for tomorrow with a forecast of 16 with strong winds subsiding; turning cloudy and cool with afternoon showers.

Carl?

Steven Icke gave us wonderful service and even won a B & F I think.

Lovett played with Hawks under 19s and Reserves. But they had a strong team in 85 and he was cut. Certainly a good pickup and probably my #1 recycled player. I do like to addition of Ingo. Ingerson was a great bloke, reliable defender, good mark and spoil. Just the kicking was a bit awkward.

brett lovett was a supplementary or under 19s at hawks, yeah? i don't think of him as recycled, and neither do i with farmer - they didn't play senior footy for any other club before ours i don't think... a few of those listed are before my time, so i'll go: brett lovett would be my #1 if he was considered 'recycled' jeff white brian wilson peter moore bernie vince clint bizzell peter rohde darren bennett anthony ingerson brent moloney peter vardy at #11 who comes in if lovett isn't 'recycled'

Langers1971 is looking for VHS versions, perhaps PM him...

I thought Tunbridge could have been paid the mark. Frank Schwabb didn't!

Higher than Jackson (58), Pickett (70) & Rivers (72).

You normally come in here to grandstand, but I think this is a solid point that is worth thinking about for the players. I certainly agree about the "parasites" part.

Get a job fellas!!! ?

Showed promise early on, similar to Lloyd Burgmann. Like so many, able to do some good things but played in a terrible team. The young guys were sacrificed on the altar of mediocrity. So many were Coodabeens.

And thank Christ for that Moon. Even embraced by ScoMo and his mates. Even The Donald. Not a peep from the usual media bottom lickers. Funny how we have half the population who now think that welfare is well.....fair, now they are in the queue or may be. Suddenly free trade can be seen for what it is and protectionism does not look so bad. Economic growth is one thing but humanity is another. If we do not have a society that cares for one another, we do not have a society. Great to hear the AFL and clubs talking as one and supporting the unchanged state of the Clubs.

I used to drink at Adrian Minton-Connell's pub in Fitzroy in the late 80s and he was a lovely bloke. He married Peter Hudson's sister, Pam and they are the parents of Simon (also a top bloke).

Top 11

I think we should have always been aligned with Port Melbourne. Same song same colours and not half way to Gippsland where most of our supporters can't or wont get to.

Still furious we delisted Shane Valenti.

Some on here might not be too thrilled with this decision, but i for one am very happy we have decided to stick with Casey.

He was untackleable as he could hear the opposition coming from a mile away

Remember Sid Catlin? This is from Demonwiki... Catlin started 1966 in the Fourths but by Round 14 he was coming off the bench in the last quarter at the MCG as the second youngest known MFC Player at 16 years, 218 days old on debut After winning five kicks in the last five minutes of his debut Catlin was promoted to first rover for his second and kicked 1.8. He played just one more game for the year and missed all of 1967 after suffering a knee injury in an early season reserves match before returning for a solitary game in 1968. He was again troubled by injury that year. In 1969 Catlin followed Norm Smith to South Melbourne and played fifteen games over two seasons. In 1970 he finished third in the Gardiner Medal for best player in the Reserves competition but left the Swans at the end of the year. Year Games Goals Brownlow 1966 3 1 2 1968 1 0

Hore? Miles off being an AFL player and is unlikely to improve much more. Better to blood Rivers and invest for 2021 and 22.

It was good to see the MFC players practicing the directives about social distancing at the game against West Coast. Pity was that they continued to do so after the first bounce of the ball, as they allowed numerous WCE players run around un-hindered, with not a Melbourne player within 1.5 metres of them! They then found themselves looking at nearly a 5 goal deficit at the first break, which was to be essentially the final margin for the game. It is difficult to judge exactly what is going on when only viewed from an armchair in front of the TV, but there was too much of the “ same old, same old” problems that the Demon fans have been witnessing now for many years……. Selection table: WCE have 3 of the best tall defenders in the competition, in Barass, McGovern and Hurn. If you want to beat them you MUST play 3 equivalent talls, and keep creating contests. We had Brown, T.Mac and ?? Then to make it even worse we use T.Mac as the back-up ruck. Small wonder that WCE trio had 30 marks between them! As a double dose of the failure to have an extra tall, we added an extra small. How do you play Pickett, Bedford, Spargo, and ANB in the same forward line? Pickett and Bedford showed their worth, but ANB ran around and ran around for half a game and then was not sighted, while Charlie kept kicking the ball to the opposition. Forward line delivery: Even if we had a sensible match-up pre game in the forward line, the delivery to those forwards was simply appalling, but much the same as we saw in 2019. Then the excuse was having to play 2nd rate players due to injury, but that wasn’t the case in this match. Again and again the long high bomb into the forward 50 resulted either in the Barass, McGovern, Hurn trio intercepting or a 1 on 1 contest. Bayley Fritsch had no hope of getting his hands on it if he is giving away either 10 cm to Barass and McGovern or 10 kg to Hurn. Goal kicking: Over the summer, the fans were promised more accurate goal kicking. Proof should be in the pudding, but Melbourne kicked 2 goals 5 behinds from set shots in this game. Reverse that and the game would have evenly matched. And according to the commentators we managed to record our first goal-less quarter for 3 seasons in the opening stanza. Nothing to be proud of there…. Slow starts: More of the same, with 5 easy goals kicked by WC before we troubled the goal umpire. Was anyone on Liam Ryan in that first quarter? The damage was being done by the WC smalls. Darling and Kennedy managed only a solitary goal for the whole match, and credit must go to our backs for that, but the lack of commitment and willingness to negate their mids in particular was telling. The result was the match was over barely after it started, but to those that have followed the Demons they are well and truly familiar with this scenario. So what were the positives from this game. It all came down to a couple of great individual efforts and a turnaround with the defensive unit under May. Jack Viney showed what is needed to put this team on a winning trajectory. 34 touches and a return to his hard at it approach and relentless willingness to get the ball filled the fans with pride. Pity was that as a mid, he was on his own. Oliver and Brayshaw did little all day while Max was utterly and completely beaten by Natanui in the ruck. He beat Nicnat around the ground, but the first use of the ball in the centre was all one way traffic for the Eagles. The backline was almost at full strength for the first time. May shut down Kennedy completely who only managed 4 touches for the whole game. Darling, likewise, was beaten by Oscar with only 8 touches and a solitary goal. This left Lever to do his thing as 3rd man up, who just kept getting the fist in to deny those forwards the marking opportunity. If you were told before the game that at full time Darling and Kennedy had only kicked 1 goal between them for the game, one would rightly ask how much Melbourne won by? But there must remain questions around the rest of the backs. Jetta looked well away from his best ( was he on Ryan?) Hibberd kept bombing the ball directly to opposition defenders. Harmes was needed more in his traditional role in the middle to shut down the likes of Shuey or Sheed, but that was never done. What was shown in this game was a repeat of the past failings, but with nearly a full list to choose from, the result was the same. Well with the season effectively finished after one game ( despite what Gil might think), there is a chance for the heirarchy to go away and think about a different approach to who and how they will play the game. If they don’t then more social distancing will be needed to keep the fans away from banging down the doors at the Club. P.S. Is there the slightest chance the AFL can stop putting Western Australian umpires in charge of West Australian games? WEST COAST 5.1.31 7.3.45 11.6.72 12.6.78 MELBOURNE 0.4.4 3.6.24 5.9.39 7.9.51 GOALS West Coast Ryan 3 Ah Chee Sheed 2 Darling Gaff Jetta Kelly Petruccelle Melbourne: Pickett T McDonald 2, Neal-Bullen Melksham Viney BEST West Coast Naitanui Gaff Sheed Ah Chee Shuey Ryan Hurn Melbourne Viney May Pickett O McDonald Petracca Langdon INJURIES West Coast Nil Melbourne Nil Reports Nil Umpires Dalgleish, Findlay, Dore Venue Optus Stadium