Leaderboard

? Nice reply in the comments by a J Magner.

possibly. But for what reason? I have only heard McGuire lipping on about it He is not a Ch 7 employee The AFL have already killed the Reserves Killed the VFA Comp and for me, Killed the Match Day Experience (as they like to call it) Now the game is being made shorter because a few Suits think its better??

Dustin Martin’s stupid haircut didn’t stop him winning his club a flag. They must be running out of stories.

Not sure whether it was McLure or Healy last night that made the excellent point that he had never heard a fan calling for shorter quarters. It always came from football commentators who they thought were simply bored with the game. Eddie was given a special mention. Frankly this year was one for normal length quarters plus shortened quarter and half time breaks. No need for food/toilet breaks for fans this year.

It's a still photograph ?

I think it looks good - one of the few people who can pull that look off. If anything, the long beard and shaved head was probably more showy than this. Max has already proven himself to be a champion player and strong leader. Nothing in these pictures is out of character or would lower the high esteem that he is held in.

Footy is back. And so is some of the the same nonsense here on DL Round one is irrelevant? After a full preseason and every single key defender available (bar petty who has been ear marked as forward) who does Goodwin select to play against arguably the best forward line, with two of the best 5 key forwards? Omac. On that evidence Goodwin clearly considers him best 22. Omac plays round one and keeps his direct opponent goalless and he barely takes mark. With May, our best defender on the day. We don't play a game between that game and our second game. So apart from training drills and some match sims (which also took place preseason and resulted in Omac being selected in round one) Goodwin has no other game to base selection on. Yet round one is irrelevant. Really? Omac will be selected. Whilst round one is obviously not irrelevant where i do think it might have an asterix in terms of selection decisions is with players who were really poor in that game, not the ones who played well like Omac. The asterix might mean Hibberd gets game. If he does he will be very lucky as he was flat out terrible in that game.

I find the fact we have to travel from Perth to another away game, with only an 83 day break disgusting.

Less supporters if they are not very careful....

Nathan Carroll is back

Must be a slow news day.

Huuuuuuuge story.

the worse take was the velvet sledgehammer's take on the dees in 2020 - he's a moron; seriously one of the worst commentators i've heard, just repeats generic info off the back of last season's stats he might've been a beautiful kick for goal as a player but geez he's a twit

The issue is not so much match ups as structure. Modern defensive units are all built around structure, system (primarily zone - some teams have an aggressive zone other team less so, but all employ some form of zone) and every player playing their role and being totally predictable to their defensive team mates. Synergy is critical, which is why coaches are loathe to make changes to their defensive units. Omac's role is to be the true full back - akin to a goal keeper in soccer. Plays behind the last line where of course usually a big forward also lurks. So takes that player. If his player pushes up the ground (as the big forwards often do) more often than not he will let them go and rely on his teammates to cover them. He then fills that hole behind the line making, 30 or so metres from goal, making a long kick into space ineffective (remember how many goals we gave up out the back in the first half of 2018? - since then we hardly give up any up). He can mop up or if a teammate wins the ball be a switch option, which is why many of his kicks are uncontested. And unlike almost all of his team mates we can rely on him hitting a target with that kick. But if the blues go small then will take whoever plays deep. And yes he might struggle with the speed of a smaller forward but zones work because they block space in the forward half - forcing teams to bomb the ball in and making it very hard for forwards to lead into space. So their speed is negated. The effectiveness of the classic zone was on full display against the Eagles. Their zone forced us to kick high where their defenders could dominate in the air. And to an extent this will always happen with good zones (unless they can be broken through speed of ball movement - as occurred a few times in the match, mainly by them unfortunately). Teams need a true full back. One who plays that role week in, week out. Playing in that position every week. ATM ours is Omac. Sure if his form is not up to it they will look to put someone else in that position but as i say coaches are loathe to change defensive units and it is his spot to lose.

lol, brunswick to city in peak is more than half an hour

Had a bit of a play with how a redeveloped Gosch's Paddock could look. Summary: Collingwood sized oval and running track MFC Facility with Pool / Gym / Offices (and the "Social Club / Function Centre") - 3 stories high. Approx Increased underground car parking Indoor Hall (like the EFC Hangar) towards the end of the facility. Modelled on the Casey Fields hall currently being developed but size increased to fit as much hall as possible. Can be used by Melb Victory / Storm. 2 x Rugby / Football pitches along Punt Road Upgraded running tracks around and between ovals Re-aligned off-ramp from City Link to meet up with Kelso Street intersection. Increased parkland. Common grass area. Small hill for oval viewing in top right hand corner. Upgraded seating, playground, exercise facilities placed around the park. Thoughts?

Judgemental about other clubs? That's everybody. I have heard some Hooray Henry private schoolers among our supporters lording it over the Bulldogs in class terms which frankly gave me the sh&%s, but toothless Tiger supporters, drunken criminal Woodsmen, ratbag brawling Bombers supporters, snooty Hawks...I hear more of that from other clubs. Where did Jim say that?

Except that even before the virus, the AFL had lost control of the direction of the game. When you have no ideas, any idea seems like a good one.

Like most I think Hutchy is an attention seeker & some of his dialogue is cringe worthy, but I do agree with him on this. Unfortunately we are under the pump big time to perform so the focus from our leaders might be better directed at the footy & winning games rather that how we look. I'm not sure that a captain in his first year who goes out & gets a mohawk is sending the right message to the other players, coaches, supporters & sponsors etc. That's only me though.....

that's a good explanation and I acknowledge that Omac will more than likely play vs Blues, but I myself still think we are too slow in defence when playing all three of May, Lever and Oscar. for example against the Blues, i think Hibberd, while a bit smaller in height, could quite easily take McGovern. they're pretty much the same body weight, and yes he might lose the odd marking contest but that's also why you have players zone, to help out others. and Hibberd can also expose McGovern at ground level more than Oscar ever could. that would leave Lever and May on Mckay and Casboult, and we should be backing in both of those guys to beat those forwards, or else what the hell are we paying so much for? I don't buy into the theory that we need a 3rd tall so Lever can just float around intercepting either, as that's not true. he plays on a man, he just backs his judgement on when to drop off them when they run to place he thinks isn't dangerous and tries to intercept instead. he zones off. before doing his knee again Lever was actually one of the highest ranked key defenders in the game over the period when it was just him and Oscar as the key defenders together. with May, Lever an Hibberd taking those taller guys we can then play another smaller defender like Lockhart to go along with Salem, Jetta, and Harmes as our 7 defenders, as I feel that's the way we usually get exposed and get scored against the most, by oppo small forwards. I just think the 3 tall defence is too defensive on our part, and not needed against most teams. you might lose a bit in the air by playing only 2 tall defenders, but you can also gain at ground level by doing this with better ground ball coverage and also be more attacking with quicker better ball users who can break the lines with run. try and make the oppo forwards work defensively and get the game on our terms instead. as the old saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat. if Hibberd cant get the job done each week as the "3rd tall defender" then drop him for one of Smith, Hore or Rivers who are also all more mobile than Oscar and see if one of them can get the job done. imo Oscar is not quick or agile enough and struggles with the ground ball and in general play. to me Oscar is a full back stopper only, who is behind May in the pecking order of full backs.

Max Gawn has the respect of his peers at the club and that is why he is our captain. He leads by example by giving his all. Hutchy will regret the words he used about us struggling and I assume that will stir the boys a bit as well. Thanks for your kind words Hutchy.

it was a long weekend in the UK and the US the photos of the crowded beaches etc are amazing.... Wonder how long it will be before the Govt's lose the bulk of Australians. The fear message was simply too harsh in light of what happened. Once you have community football going again in July(?) why would the AFL even bother with all the player isolation stuff.

A good organization would be assessing this entire year on a day to day basis. The Spanish Flu had a 2nd and 3rd Wave that was more vicious than the 1st. Once the Cities switch on again, we wait and see...

Casey with no wind. That's novel!

Person unable to work and locked in isolation for 10 weeks due to global health pandemic gives themselves an outgoing haircut. Massive club culture issue that. Get a grip Hutchy you stale peanut.

Assuming no injuries to the following players, I'd go with this line up. B: Jetta May Lockhart HB: Salem OMac Lever C: Langdon Oliver Tomlinson HF: Melksham TMac Petracca Fwd: Pickett Weideman Fritsch Mid: Gawn Brayshaw Viney Int: Harmes Jones Petty Hannan A few notes on the team above: - Hibberd is cooked and omitted. He used to be a great rebounder who'd run then unload precision penetrating kicks to advantage. He earned All Australian selection this way. Fast forward to 2020 and his kicking is now a liability. His fitness has always been an issue, but at his age and with ongoing back and hamstring management, he now doesn't have the dash he used to. It means he takes off, can't go quick enough and then unloads rubbish barrel kicks to nothing as a result. He's probably the biggest liability in our team. I'd be replacing him with Lockhart and rotate players like Harmes and Rivers in future to the back flank. - TMac plays best when allowed to roam up the ground as a CHF. His strength is his fitness. When anchored to the goal square, he struggles to wrestle and has poor agility. His drop off is due to poor delivery, but also not being suited to FF IMO. - Weid to play FF and provide Pickett and Hannan with lots of crumbing opportunities. - Inside midfield rotations to be Oliver, Petracca, Brayshaw, Viney, Harmes. Outside to be Langdon, Tomlinson, Salem, Fritsch. - Jones to play more forward flank and either be the kick inside 50 or taking longer shots at goal. - Petty as the interchange tall who can play either end. - Jackson not ready yet. He's not suited to key forward roles as his contested marking is poor and he's not a natural forward. In practice matches we've seen him excel in the ruck, and be really poor as a midfielder or forward. Develop him in the VFL as a ruck resting forward. When he's ready, he can be second ruck to give Gawn a rest if team balance is maintained.

That will be AFL House Reasoning, i agree. But Hollow. There is nothing in it Red Time (Time on) is often when the game is at its most exciting. These [censored] Clowns ? have no right to do this, This is another McGuire agenda. He has been banging on about this. obviously still doesn’t sleep after the 2018 GF

Hutchy is in no position to talk about hair

Good question. Two possible answers: 1. Because shorter quarters were used in Round 1 and it keeps the game format the same for the whole season 2. Because at some time during the rest of the season there might be a need to schedule games with shorter turn-around times My own view is that I don't believe (1) above is relevant but (2) might be, although the game could be played "full length" now and shortened should the need arise.

I think Max was channeling this dood.

MFCSS dictates that Martin will now kick 50 goals

Are they confusing cause and effect? Teams like RFC and WCE presumably have the ball in their forward 50 more than (say) GCS. Does that mean all you have to do is get the ball into your 50 (by any means) as much as RFC and WCE do, and you will then automatically score as much as them? The stats don't lie! The other way around is, if you have a functioning game plan, and a forward line with an effective system, you will get the ball in your forwards' hands more, and as a consequence the ball will likely be in your forward 50 more than a team with a primitive game plan and dysfunctional forward line. Round 1 showed a team playing to a system very comfortably putting away a team executing high energy chaos. When their system clicked, they put the match to bed in 10 minutes, then put on their jammies and slippers and waited for the clock to run out. When ours clicked, we slogged our guts out for minutes on end for each score. Yet we beat them easily on inside 50s. Must be baffling for our brains trust, when the stats clearly show that high inside 50s correlate with high scores.

I think a modern Social Club would be something along the lines of what Carlton have at their ground. They have a Cafe area that opens to the ground to watch training. Anything beyond that would need to pay its own way in function bookings and not just rely on drinkers after our home games.

There was a golden example in there of what Frost does when he is on the liability side of things. Gave up a stupid free kick directly in front to give them level, takes a mark and immediately coughs it up. I was sad he left but we have enough liability players.

I would love it if he actually tried to pinpoint a pass rather than kick helicopters

It takes 45 hours to get to Casey, even from the next suburb

How lovely for them! They'll get to see parts of the world they've never seen before.

The Weed has to be picked to play as he was hard done by the selectors in the 1st round. The preseason game played in the ruck and held his own with close to 20 touches . A very useful game it was. Remember that at the time we had injuries to Gawn and Preuss . He deserves a chance to prove himself early in the season and should have been given first crack as a key forward in round 1..

The problem will be whether the Demons can handle the 83 day break.

The irony is that if the power clubs travel interstate this year they will be compensated next year by home games with massive dollar paying crowds. A wonderful pea and thimble trick

Are there 2 Weidemans on our list? Weed has regressed to double grabbing even uncontested marks and really needs to turn things around quickly. Finding a reasonable amount of the ball would be a great start.

Thanks, you don't appreciate your health until it changes.

Tonight I toast a single malt to old dee's health. You were much missed on here and I hope you're back to your insightful best, mate. Cheers Mr Old!

Such an exciting time... if we lose however I'll be wishing for a second wave of corona infections, so we all go into lockdown and they shut down the season again. Absolutely 0 excuses to lose this one. They have key injuries, we appear to have almost a full list to pick from. If we are serious about making amends for the disaster that was 2019, we absolutely cannot lose to Carlton.

Don't want to see Lever's game being that of filling in for OMac and thus, losing its rebound advantage from his intercepts and freeing up (unmanning) another two opposition forwards when the ball is in that vicinity. This is what happened to Hibberd, Jetta and Salem in the past, week in, week out - leaving OMac to be 15 metres behind the play running into empty space (slow as a tortoise). Lever needs to work with May, not on behalf of OMac.

If Bennell plays I'll eat my hat

That is a bit simplistic. This is how I see it. When you play a WCE, who are probably the masters at intercept footy, you don't kick the ball high to two Eagles on one Demon, which we did continuously. How often did we kick it to Fritsch, who had McGovern and Barrass/Hurn on him? That is just lazy and stupid footy. For a start we have a loose man in that situation and we ignored him. We also had some pace down there in Kossie and Bedford and you a least give them the chance to get it, by either finding them with a kick, or by kicking it wide of McGovern and his mate, which would see the ball on the ground, giving us a chance to get it and score. I am astounded at how dumb some footballers are to keep doing what is clearly not working, over and over again. I don't know what the Coaches are doing or teaching them, but if it was me Coaching, I would tell them that the next bloke who kicks to 2 on one as above, is going for a run after the game. Get the message across to them. The other problem we have is a general lack of skill with the ball, which sees us miss passes and handballs. That is a killer in today's game. Having 2 big blokes down forward is not the panacea to our problems.

I tell you our next biggest problem, potentially worth its own thread, the playing of James Harmes as a defender. Watching the 2018 SF against Geelong this morning on Fox. He is a gun midfielder. Gets forward and kicks goals too. It is a criminal act to be playing him back. It will NOT work. He is an attacking player. You see how lost he is trying to find an opponent on transition. Another of Goody's dumb experiments that has potential to suck all the confidence out of one of our most improved players.