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If Fremantle are looking to offload him after chasing him for so long, shouldn’t that set off enough alarm bells?

This was a tough game. It was also after we had already beaten Whorethorn the week before. We had nothing left after this brutal 2 hours We were a dam good side

Really interesting topic, spurred me to start an account to add to the discussion. The earlier talk about pressure acts prompted me to have a bit of a deep dive into the stat during our games this year. You'll be surprised to know we won pressure acts overall against the Dogs 271-231, so its certainly something to take with a grain of salt. Not sure how it goes posting big tables, so I've gone with a summary for now but what stuck out to me was that pressure acts wasn't a particularly good indicator in our wins and losses. Sure we often win when we put on good pressure, but looking at this stat alone changes in pressure acts are often small in percentage terms, and the average number of pressure acts from each of our forwards doesn't seem to change markedly at all. On first glance I'd say that game style of the opposition, time in possession, and weather conditions are playing a big part in the number of pressure acts in a game rather than effort alone. PA (for) PA Diff FWD PA (avg) UP diff Marks diff Season avg 253.5 3.5 10.48 -12.83 -7.66 Win avg 257.5 6.66 10.44 2.33 9 Loss avg 249.5 0.33 10.52 -28 -24.33 Given this unexpected outcome I added a few columns to see if anything else stood out across our wins and losses. Uncontested possession differential and marks differential really stood out to me. We've been soundly beaten for uncontested possessions in all our losses this year. It seems to agree with what we see on TV. The physical pressure is ok at the contest, but as other have mentioned we're off in our spread and ability to guard the space. So where to from here? I think we've seen this season the effects of changing the number of talls, mediums and smalls in our forward mix, but there is an element of continuity missing too. When looking at forward pressure acts I first had to look at who I thought was playing forward in each game....by my count we've run 15 through there this year, excluding resting mids like Petracca. That's surely not conducive to executing our zone in the forward half.

Reminds me a lot of Jeff Garlett's year in 2015. His performance with 40 goals in a bottom team after trading him in for next to nothing. Butler would not have done it at Richmond and he may not have been able to do at any other club. Enjoy his success story; we don't have to flagellate ourselves every time a traded player or draftee plays well.

Humans are trash. If anyone watched the 7:30 report last week they would have seen a young doctor, my friend, who almost died from Covid. 2020 has brought out the absolute worse in people. Racist, civil libertarians, morons... all with a huge platform and millions of bored people at home as their audience.

The person I'm most disappointed with is Gerard Whateley. Most others are 'click-baiters' but he generally seems measured in his commentary. He led the charge with the 'throw the book at ANB' rhetoric. This week he comes out and says "punishments on some recent dangerous tackles are impractical and don’t pass the “flinch” test as the footy world grapples with the harsher assessments...Whateley said the initial suspension handed to Powell-Pepper was “inappropriate”, adding the definition of a ‘dangerous tackle’ had been taken too far...“It seemed like, all of a sudden, any player that tackles another to ground was guilty of a dangerous – and that’s skipping steps,”. dangerous-tackles-gone-too-far No mention of ANB and his stance on him. Whateley has become AFL'd! Its like the ANB suspension has been wiped form the record books. Bizzaro stuff.

don't be so polite, luci. not hypocrisy....corruption the afl keep a tight noose on the media via accreditation and other means

Of course! Cunnington punches Bernie till he throws up, media said Bernie staged. Oliver gets decked by Scofield, right in front of the umpire, after the end of the qtr and media say Oliver 'dived'. Scofield report was thrown out by Tribunal. I have little doubt the media noise around indiscretions directly affects the outcome. They were baying for ANB blood a month ago. Notice no commentator has dared compare the Nibbler tackle with Dahllhaus. Hypocrites, all of them!!

I feel it's a couple of things within the systems - as you have already said @Grr-owl - that seperate our 'best games' vs weaker performances. Midfielders not running both ways with urgency/filling up space/haranguing - so what shifts the willingness to do it weekly? Forwards essentially not doing the same thing Smaller handballs to stationary players - so do all the players around the ball 'feel' pressured and don't want to be he one with the pill caught holding it - essentially playing emotionally safe I think also the oft quoted scoreboard pressure really helps validate that we are doing ok, which feeds in to confidence to continue to be expansive and take risks - rather than dishing it off short (and the 'pressure' goes back on to the other team) - so what if Kossie had got his 2, Melksham etc etc... On that note - that is what needs to be worked on - as it is evidenced that they can do it well - its how do they work through the pressure on them when they have the ball to create better opportunities for each other... On another side note - I dislike the language of 'we only do it on our terms' - essentially all teams do that. You could rule a line through 9 teams each weeks that didnt have it on their terms... that's not the issue at hand.

How about - the weak maggot threw himself forward and exaggerated to whole thing by throwing his arm in the air to attract a false and soft free kick from the umpire. No effort was made to remain in the contest or modify his trajectory once he fully committed to this cowardly act.

Worst part about the eagles loss was that we belted them in Perth only a few weeks earlier and gave the crowd a huge spray on exiting the field. Malthouse openly admitted using that as part of his address before we played them in the 1st Semi and we turned up expecting to win by 10 goals without trying because everyone said we would. The 25 goal loss was mid year to North. Like every year we had a [censored] patch I think we went from 7-1 to 9-6 before winning the last 7 (including Essendon Windy Hill, Eagles at Subi and Hawthorn when Tuck broke the games record and they were fired up for it). Geelong losing from 6 goals up to W.C was one part of the round 22 and the other was we were 10 goals up early- mid 3rd qrt and won by 12 points. Even if we won by 10 goals or more we would most likely have made up the percentage to finish 3rd. In my mind that and 1998 are the 2 real chances we have had of winning.

A Premiership.

He signed a five year deal at the end of 2018 for a reported $3.5 million. Yes I understand contracts can be broken but this one isn’t going to be. Plus, he’s ordinary and I wouldn’t want him anyway.

I can't see a problem with Pert being in Qld. If he were in Melbourne he'd be working from home. At least he's near the football department and can do just as much commercial work there (whether it's about securing a home base or shoring up our finances) as he can in Melbourne at the moment.

16 other clubs overlooked him as well. We aren't going to get every move right. We identified a need with Langdon and Tomlinson, then drafted Kozzie as the pressure forward. We can't recruit everyone.

I think he should be held responsible for what he says whether it's prepared or not. The bloke is the CEO of (arguably) the biggest sporting club in the country. Would have thought bringing up a serial killer is one of the first things you learn not to do when talking to the media (if they don't already realize how incredibly offensive it is).

Forget that ANB is Melbourne. If you just look at the outcomes the disparity is simply staggering. We accept that the process is not perfect and we are not dealing with fine points of constitutional law, and certainly those in charge do not have the intellect of High Court judges, but we are simply talking about the complete lack of consistency and common sense. Staggering.

That's two different offences though. ANB didn't commit a second offence of "dangerous tackling while drunk". He and Dahlhaus did the exact same thing, but ANB got punished more than four times more heavily than Dahlhaus for the consequences. The concept of a worse outcome leading to a more significant punishment is nothing new nor is it wrong. The issue is when, as is the case with the AFL, the outcome is overly important in the matrix. The difference between what ANB did and what Dahlhaus did is not terribly great, yet ANB got 4 weeks and Dahlhaus no weeks at all. IMO, if ANB was a 4 week suspension (and that's arguably justifiable), Dahlhaus was 1 week at a minimum.

I have been a premium member for decades and happily paid money to this club because I love it. This has and continues to be tested every year and frankly I have a trust problem with our ability as a club to deliver us into finals and stay there. Lots of hope, lots of talk, but we still mire in mediocrity. After decades I firmly believe the clubs greatest need is to secure and just get a home base with members facilities. Too much talk and still nothing. Pert is sitting up in Queensland with the team, why I have no idea! Surely his focus and reason for been recruited is to secure the home base and just get it done for once and forever. Our identity as a club will not be complete until this is delivered. I despair when I see other Melbourne based clubs with their own ground, own facilities and government handouts to improve already established home bases. This has gone on long enough, it is subject every season by members, players, media and so forth. FFS, Pert was brought to the club to do it. I’ve got to the stage where I don’t care where it is, just get it started. The MFC will swirl around in nowhere land until this is done. The team still is not complete and we are looking again at a wasted season for the 50th something year. If they want members to stay and be part of something, then give us this home with facilities. No finals, no premiership and no facilities. Are you there Gary Pert?

We did win 16 games that year without even getting a double chance. An underrated sliding doors moment occurred in the last round IMO. Geelong were leading West Coast all day at Kardinia Park and all they had to do was hang on and 3rd place/double chance was ours. Unfortunately WC kicked a couple of late ones to snatch the win and hence pushing us back to an elimination final. Had we finished third we would've played Collingwood at Waverley, the team we had an excellent finals record against in the late 80's.

Im not sure where to start with this

A bit wishy washy. It would have been more powerful if he had mentioned the ANB ban.

Therein lies part of the problem. It wasn't the same Tribunal. It had a different Chair and a different panel (ex players) with different interpretations and different instructions/agendas. Remember last year Toby Greene got a week suspension before the GWS/Collingwood prelim final. The Tribunal were nearly all ex-Coll players as (was and is) the MRO. If the AFL can't ensure indpendence for a prelim what hope is there in season. And the Tribunal don't look at 'precedent' and I doubt most of the panel would understand what it means. Also it usually doesn't allow videos of past similar events (altho this is being relaxed these days) which is a perfect smoke screen to say 'each case on its merits' but it really means 'we can do what we like the AFL want us to do'. There is no chance of consistency by Christian and even less so by the Tribunal until they have independent people on the Tribunal and the same people/Chair case to case. Of course it will never happen as the AFL likes to manipulate outcomes.

We love you Kozzy - that's all you need to know. Stay safe.?

That was literally the year that the premiership was anyone's and as usual we squibbed it

How about this beauty from you? "When we win, we win despite Goodwin, not because of him." You're not holding anyone to account mate. You're not inside the club. They're not listening to you. You're on a football forum. It's not match committee.

Reckon we could have a look at Matthew Ling from the Swans. High draft pick. Lightning quick and a precise left foot kick. Has had Achilles and toe problems. Debuted this year. Only 21 and may appreciate a move back to Victoria

Dahlhaus - initial charge is one of careless conduct, medium impact and high contact. Reading the tweets from Fox Sports of the tribunal proceedings ; Gleeson : "The more logical and obvious and natural interpretation of the video is that Crouch's head snaps back up again because it hits the ground and hits it with some force. I'm concluding there was contact and meaningful contact with the ground. Forceful in this context need only be something more than negligible, slight or brushing contact with the ground and that is what the vision reveals. He is not only rotated into the ground, he is leveraged into the ground. "We got lucky here and we're all to be grateful that (injury) was not the outcome, but that level of surprise should not benefit Mr Dahlhaus. The force with which he was brought to the ground would typically result in injury...." "The AFL has taken steps during the course of this season to implement changes to guidelines. The potential to cause serious injury is the very thing that has been beefed up in the changes to this language. You should be satisfied the impact of the tackle had the likelihood of causing serious injury......" Mr Ihle says : "the revised AFL guidelines only broaden the scope for 'rough conduct', it doesn't change whether the head hit the ground and the level of impact.... the vision shows a tackled player who has the opportunity to get rid of the ball. He tries to take on the tackler. Rather than brace himself for any fall he tries to kick the ball. He's contributed to the overall action. I'm not disputing this was rough conduct but let's look at this in the entire context of what happened....Crouch lands on his upper arm and all the force is absorbed by his upper arm. Perhaps it's the bounce of his body...that causes the head to appear to bounce off the ground....." After deliberation; Tribunal Chairman David Jones : Not clearly satisfied on balance of probabilities that the contact was high. They were not clearly satisfied on balance of probabilities that forceful contact with ground by the head occurred as a result of the tackle. Free to play. Fine $1500. Did the AFL ignore their own guidelines? "You should be satisfied the impact of the tackle had the likelihood of causing serious injury." Sounds like members of the tribunal (ex footballers perhaps ) latched onto a petty fact whether a head actually made contact with the ground or not to let Dahlhaus off. What happened to the other aspects of the dangerous tackle? On another note, I was appalled to read David Zita of Fox Sports quote Brendon Gale, who cannot comprehend the "outrageous" scrutiny on premiership forward Tom Lynch, saying the star Tiger is being treated "like he's Ivan Milat." How dare he compare the media coverage or public commentary of a pampered AFL player to the reporting of a vicious serial killer. He should apologize to Milat's victim's families for even mentioning a comparison. Another blunder by this stupid, self important club who have lost the plot this year. They should count their blessings for not being down here in Victoria and shut up.

Agree completely - outcome is a factor but it should not be THE factor. The AFL can say what they like about the importance of trying to prevent head injuries and concussion but if a decision like this is not appealed by the AFL then they're doing no more than paying lip service to it. What this decision is telling players is they can sling tackle without fear of suspension provided the player getting tackled manages to break his fall with his arm. And this after the rules were apparently broadened as to what constitutes a dangerous tackle due to the Burgoyne incident. What a shocking message to send.

Keep the Luke Dahlhaus footage on file for future reference. It is a farce that the stronger or better clubs can get away with a dangerous tackle. No different to the ABN incident. Actions were the same just didn't knock the sense out of him . Afl said that they were going to get tough on the chicken wing tackle. They did Melbourne copped it because they knew that we weren't going to take it further.. It is only MFC they said, they are easy pickings. How long are we going to let the AFL {censored) us around ?

Been thinking about this. Would he not be better utilised as the outside mid with kicking skills. We are not getting enough from him

Actually you are confusing 2 separate offences. It is an offence to drive a car drunk, even if your driving is ok. It is also an offence to run someone down. It is a worse offence if you run someone down, while drunk. Those laws are well known before you get in a car. You don't know the law when you tackle, because the law changes depending on who you are, what club you play for and to a degree what if any injury the tackled player receives. Then again if you play for Melbourne, you can be suspended for not making contact with a player, if that player thinks you might and hurts himself slightly trying to avoid you. ( Brent Moloney got weeks for missing Bartel ). That has never happened before or since. We did nothing about it. Just like you probably won't re ANB. IMO a statement is needed from our Footy Manager on the harsh treatment of our player for identical tackles which receive no penalty at all. After all he was effectively given 25% of this season for a tackle that others are completely getting off.

We have another one. Your medical degree was from where?

These are faceless ghosts hiding behind fake profiles. The best approach is to delete and move on. Bringing to attention every online troll is pointless. It may actually make matters worse. It is a futile exercise even reporting on this because you won't have anyone vocally speak from their own profile in favour of the comments. You're just preaching to the converted. It just seems silly to say "HEY EVERYONE THIS FAKE PROFILE SAID SOMETHING RACIST. RACISM IS NOT OK" every time some Russian bot profile posts something nasty. My approach would be: 1. Enhanced investment in online moderation. Immediately ban/report/delete online trolls and their comments. Zero exceptions. Where possible, if account/personal identification is available, refer to appropriate authorities. 2. All personal player social media accounts are private. Their followers are cross-checked and anyone that isn't a close friend/relative/colleague is purged. 3. Separate "work" social profiles are created for the sole purpose of promotion, branding and messaging. Additionally, establish a dialogue with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Lead from the profile to help develop and improve moderation mechanisms.

Absolute filth. The only reason people post this rubbish is because they are so devoid of success or fulfillment in their own lives the only way they can feel any sense of superiority is by denigrating others by their physical characteristics. Kozzy is just a kid and shouldn't have to put up with this crap but no doubt it's not the first time he's had to de with it.

This stuff just gets worse. there is a section of the Human Race who believe it Sections of the KKK still do exist, they don’t want to be educated At least now we hear about it

Imagine what will happen when they roll out the vaccine...

Reckon it’s time that social media was regulated or put behind paywalls. Something has to be done to make it easier to identify people, disincentivise the a#@holes.

Watching Mitch Wallis tear us apart on the weekend, I couldn't help but think Harmes was capable of something similar. He is far more suited to a forward role and should be rotated through the middle when opposition mids get on top of us (i.e. Bontempelli). Trent Rivers should be in the role Harmes is playing at the moment.

I believe we're talking about the one in the clip in this article: https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2020-melbourne-western-bulldogs-loss-christian-petracca-fox-footy-garry-lyon-afl-ladder/news-story/38ccaf7a995af7ffe59d01d770fc8ca3 Looks to me like the tap was probably always going to go to Petracca and he wasn't going to be tackled by Liberatore quickly enough to prevent him running forward and kicking it. It's always tough dissecting individual plays like this, but IMO it was a poor choice from Petracca.

Jordon's out for a month and Jones is right to go apparently. Sparrow a month also. Gawn back in. Jacko for about round 18. Round 14 Injury Update | Two youngsters sidelined

One of our problems is a lack of talent. I don't know if his issues are insurmountable but he does have talent.

Has everyone forgotten we had a major football department review and overhaul a mere 9 months ago? We chose to have the coaches we have. Or we couldn't get who we wanted so had to settle for second, third best. Lots of names being thrown around. Looks like wishful thinking. I mean why would the names being mentioned want to come to the mfc. Re Richardson. I was critical of his appointment and I've had a really good look at his CV. I see nothing that says he is a good coach or has been part of a successful club. He leaves the Saints and they now sit 3rd on the ladder. I have yet to see a positive impact of his recruitment to mfc. I hope someone can shed some light on why we hired him.