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Looking at these photos no one can question whether Pickett trained in his time away. Looks really trimmed and fit. AFL 2021 Training Melbourne

Just secured a ticket on level 2 of the MCC reserve Can’t bloody wait

Steven May with footy in hand is the best sight to see out of all those pics.

"News Ltd still need to get rid of Malthouse in the Herald Sun"

LIke everyone, I have had enough of the talk ("the boys are hurting" rinse and repeat). The only thing that counts is wins. Mark Williams, interviewed on the Club's website: (about 7:00min in) "Can't wait to see to see the thousands and thousand of Melbourne fans at the G, waiting for us to show something. It's a bit of the chicken and the egg; you come, you support and we'll deliver" I don't mind that - puts the pressure where it belongs, no talk of "hurting", or "learnings". Just footy. He'd go alright, I reckon.

If I recall my Nostradamus correctly, the old fellow said "in the year of the plague but one, the son of Fos will consort with demons and deliver a flag." For centuries, no-one understood what it meant ... they thought it might be about JFK, or maybe Elvis ... but I'm starting to think it could something much more pertinent.

Melksham, Salem, Viney all training in footy boots.. That's a sign that they are close to playing.

I am OK with Malthouse's observation. Perhaps the players should put this comment on their 'mirrors' and use it as motivation. There is no doubt in my mind that this group have under performed up until now.

After reading through Freo's thread vs Melbourne i tend to agree with this topic of conversation. Freo are worried they are undermanned, but the general consensus is they have a great backline, good mids, severely undermanned up forward. Sound familiar? They are nearly solely worried about Gawn and his influence on the game. 90% of the suggestions are that they rove to Max, almost conceding that their ruck will not be able to compete. The supporters know it and so will Longmuir. I have mentioned this a few times in other threads but i reckon 80%+ of Max's hitouts go over his left shoulder (tapping with the right hand). Generally Oliver is waiting for it there but all midfields sweat on this setup and quite often Oliver handballs to someone close and it is a repeat stoppage or we cough up the ball. It is super predictable. The doggies last year did not even play a ruck vs us most of the day, (Dunkley) and he just acted as another onballer when the ball hit the ground. Team have worked out that they can allow Max to win the hit outs as long as they outnumber on the outside and are set up well. Most teams know we get sucked into the contest like undisciplined kids that all want to get a touch. I really think Max need to hustle and bustle a bit more. He is a huge man but rarely does he influence the next contests by throwing his body around, and clearing a path for our onballers. All of our midfield need to block for each other/set screens, and get moving at the stoppages/clearances. Luke Jackson may be the answer in the ruck. He is like another midfielder when the ball hits the ground and we look more dynamic with him in there. We definitely need to mix it up and i am not writing Max off vs a 2nd year player but i think LJ needs to be there at least 30-50% of time. Have Max forward as he is better than LJ there + we need to kick enough goals to win the game. Really hoping to see variation in our set ups. Yze's influence should see us starting to get more creative in the midfield. Max is nearly always going to get first hands on the ball, his influence from the midfield though is seemingly negated these days. It is his marking around the ground which really makes him a great player. Would much prefer to see him taking his marks forward than back, purely for damage value of those marks within the arc.

He is not wrong MFC Players have not achieved anything yet. Malthouse did.

Kozzies new hair is magnificent. Salem, Melk, Ben Brown and Hibbo all in action.,.. injury list should look a lot smaller soon with any luck.

Blocking is pretty popular ... particularly in marking contests. The Richmond defence are masters at it. However, the gentle art of shepherding seems to have all but vanished. At least for the Dees. How often (over the past couple of years) have you seen a handball to a team mate accompanied by a shepherd allowing the receiver to run off without direct pressure from an opponent?

Have heard snippets here and there. Defensive zoning will be a big thing Adem is pushing. We'll run forward hard and fast, but players behind the ball will be left in no uncertain terms about where they should be positioning themselves to try and prevent the opposition rebounding we're so used to seeing. Gawny will be forward a fair bit. Not sure if that will change once Weid and/or Brown are back, but it's absolutely part of the strategy. Other talls, namely Jackson and TMac will be tasked with getting higher up the ground to make that work. We may also see a bit of a surprise on the wing... I'd give a clue, but then you might pick it. ;)

Best thing the Club did over Summer was get this Bloke. Heard him interviewed last year on SEN one afternoon, talking about his Kicking Classes. The interview was at least 20 minutes. you could feel how passionate he was about getting it right. He is a teacher and we need that

The stats and language is getting jumbled but Jimmy is right. Richmond worked out in 2017 that first possession means little. It’s quality not quantity. For years we’ve won the ball, spat it out backwards or lobbed it up in the air on our half forwards heads. The stat I’d like to know is Clearances that result in an effective kick inside 50 (ie to a forwards advantage or 50:50). Every other clearance is just a negative because you’re either turning the ball over or kicking to a very dangerous spot (ie corner of the square). I don’t care if we win 1 in 5 centre clearances if the 1 we win lands on Fritsch’s chest and the 4 we lose get sat up for Lever to mark.

EDIT* They've figured out how to stop our clearance dominance. Whether it's sharking Gawn's taps or simply pressuring us harder on that first possession/disposal, our clearance numbers are down and we are nowhere near as efficient or clean as we need to be. And yes, opposition sides absolutely allow us to win first possession and sometimes the opportunity for clearance knowing full well that our downfall is that next possession/disposal.

Which is why I’m a fan of him punching it to CHF every now and then to mix it up.

"The Demons still need to get rid of the mirrors in the changerooms"

He seems like a much better motivator than Goody even from that 7 mins, even his call to arms for us supporters tops anything we’ve heard for a while

I like that Yze is giving Viney advice. He could be the difference for our whole setup success..

Ben Brown not far away by the looks...

I wonder if anyone pulling a 4 week hamstring will hit their head on the way down and be out with concussion?

There is nothing going on in the Footy world outside AFLW. We will always be the easy target for comments like this because of our performance. Only one way to shut the journo's up.

Upcoming Practice Matches Northern Bullants - Saturday 20th Mar @ Casey Fields - same day as MFC plays North Melbourne - Saturday 27th Mar @ Casey Fields - same day as MFC plays TBC - Saturday 3rd - day before MFC plays Williamstown - Saturday 10th April @ Casey Fields - day before MFC plays

And the point I'm making is that there has been very little difference between our strong clearance numbers in 2018 and our strong clearance numbers in 2020, just the number of stoppages that we have been involved in when compared with the rest of the competition. Slipping for 4th overall to 6th overall is barely significant (especially since we were 3rd in between), as it still says we are a top level clearance team. Of the top 7 clearance teams (differential) last year, 4 of them had a negative hitout differential. We were one of those three teams (along with West Coast and Gold Coast) that had both a positive clearance and hitout differential. Based on the stats, we are a very effective clearance team and its is a strength of ours. People think about hitouts like it's 1975, where a dominant tap ruck could feed a midfield. But 50 years ago (even 20 years ago) there was a lot of space around the stoppages so a tap ruck could create more advantage. Nowadays it's far more about the midfielders whilst the ruck is more dominant for what else he can do (ie, mark, tackle, win contested footy). They need to not be terrible in the ruck, but serviceable seems to be just as effective as excellent. The correlation between hitouts and clearances is very weak across the competition, so I don't know whether you can make an argument us being 3rd for hitouts and 6th for clearances represents an issue.

The point I was making using teams ranked by averages was the differential in hitouts and clearances. To me those stats say we are nowhere near as efficient as we should be in that area. Also, in 2020 we were ranked 12th for centre clearance differential. In 2019 we were 3rd. Also in 2020 we were ranked 3rd for hitout differential. So whichever way you look at it, there's a disconnect there between hitouts and clearances.

But we have been poorer at them.. Well coached and drilled opposition sides figured out how to combat our clearance dominance pretty early on in 2018 and have adapted since. Not only that, the better mids in the comp have also learnt to rove to Max, sometimes better than our own players. Take Bont and Macrae from last weekend as the first good example of the 2021 season. It's happened plenty last year and the year before. Other teams have adapted, we haven't. Goodwin continues to want to play his rigid and one-dimensional game style which has ultimately seen the decline of our performance year upon year since 2018.

Apparently the suspension happened because MFC submitted a request for the incident to be reviewed, not because he was reported mid or post game. Wow. edit. The article says the ‘demons’ submitted a review (not MFC) and I forgot Perth were called the demons

i think we saw few glimpses of Yze's influence at least against Richmond. Clayton got moving, give and then really go for the handball receive. Harmes did some great blocking. Petracca also looked dynamic at the stoppages with a balance of blocking and attacking. Expect to see Kossie in the guts quite a bit this season. Mark Williams said he expects him to dominate. Not sure on Yze's philosophy but seeing a bit then hearing about Kossie, we should really be onto an excitement ride. Imagane LJ in the ruck Petracca/Oliver and Kossie. Yikes!

The plan is to do multiple seasons I’ve heard so potentially we could be part of a future season.

800 signed up since Thursday. Probably with skeleton staff due to AFL restrictions.

Don't they need the mirrors to take a long hard look at themselves ? ??‍♂️

Cheers, I appreciate it. https://www.statsinsider.com.au/blog/afl/understanding-how-clearances-shape-the-results-of-afl-games FWIW, this is the best place I've seen dealing with clearances. It gives a good idea (point per clearance, for and against) of some of the issues. I prefer those sorts of articles a lot more than the 'ideas' of what's happening, as AFL is so chaotic that it's hard to really analyse, plus we all get caught up in our own teams and miss whether or not these are issues with us specifically or with the whole competition. I, almost always, try to temper my feelings with the knowledge that things are neither as good nor as bad as they appear, so I'd prefer to have hard data to let me know if I'm in the right ballpark or if I'm completely FOS.

True. He had Adelaide, Nth Melbourne and and Essendon instead.

He may be right. But that doesn't mean he isn't a total jerk.

There will be a big list overhaul come season end. Jones, Jetta, Hibberd, Mitch Brown, Vandenberg are already on my retired list. That's 5 already gone, not even counting the delisted players as well. I was surprised we weren't as ruthless as I thought we should have at last year's trade period. Is it blind faith? Who knows. But going into 2022 with this list raises a fee too many concerns for my liking.

We’re also getting in to the conundrum of Gawn. Rucks don’t try to beat him. They defend space that makes him hit a certain way. He can’t leap like Nic Nat so he can’t hit 360. Then they assault our mids with heaps of pre-tackles. He can smack it forward, but then it’s a contest at half forward with momentum of the players running away from goal. He can pluck the ball from the air, but the other team catches on and tackles him and from hand to ball is a long way. There’s creative options: 1. Max learns to gather and spin and kick with his left to throw off tacklers. 2. Our on ballers hit the contest with more speed or dispose by punching the ball away - a second hit out that changes the shape of the contest 3. Max hammers an opponent with the biggest possible knee to the chest etc 4. Max punches the ball 20m sideways to Oliver on a wing. Or backwards to Hunt etc 5. Max takes less centre bounces

I wrote an email to the club this morning and will post their reply. By the by, in my email i acknowledged that there is a review of the game on the Casey page on the MFC website, which is a real positive: https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/879287/casey-makes-amends-from-monday

Is this a joke? They are seriously bringing back the sub. One of the most unsuccessful rules the AFL ever brought in. And there is a long list. If a player gets knocked out, take him off. Same as any other injury

Goodwin made a successful change of defensive system last year. Defending deeper and being more comfortable conceded inside 50’s. We have a new midfield coach, a clear sign the club are aware of issues. I would’ve made list changes - out Brayshaw and/or Viney, in flanker, Rivers/Salem on ball. But we never get the inside word on what deals were available or even know who makes those calls. It’s largely semantics but I don’t think Goodwin isn’t aware of problems, he just can’t fix them. It’s still his responsibility- the list and skills aren’t where they should be. It’s just there’s no easy fixes. Our best fixes last year were Melksham on ball for more kicking. Melksham was the answer! And pissing Oliver off so much by coaching him to do better, which by reports had him thinking of leaving.

Got mine Level 1. Only 5 more sleeps!!!!!!!!!

Doubt it

I agree that it would be nice if we received a completely honest appraisal but our club isn't unique. All the players from all the clubs are media trained and the messaging is designed with the intention of helping protect/motivate players, to give them the best chance to perform. It seemingly works for the team's that win and is a perceived disaster for teams that lose but it's the same strategy - listen to any pre or post-match interview from any player in the league - it's the same cookie-cutter answers.

We are miles off it IMHO. While there's a few exceptions. May & Clarry in particular. To a somewhat lessor degree Big Maxy, very good player but a little too nonchalant for mine. There are still too many pretenders and Hollywood types who look the goods when all is going well but turn up their toes too easily or just go missing completely when the chips are down. That's been the case at the Demons for decades, bar the period mentioned previously between 87 and 94. The never-say-die ferocity, serious hard edged 1%er footy, elite skills to finish off the good work and a selfless culture on the field continue to elude the Demons 56 years on. We have been a destination club for the near retiring and NQR for as long as i can remember and the team often feels a little like a shadowy poor cousin image of the St Kilda "play hard but party up afterwards / couldn't give a FF" era. At least they had a sprinkling of some genuine stars throughout that period to enjoy however, such as Buckets, Plugger, Riewoldt, Milne and Harvey. When this changes it will be apparent for all to see i reckon. P.S. VERY strong leadership combined with a genuine champion or two will be needed before this club turns the corner IMHO. Does this exist in the current list? Not really sure at this point. With the MFC it always feels like we're a bridge too far.

Seriously disadvantaged.

Oh wow. So they'll be angrier than after 2019 when they didn't fire a shot. Which was angrier than after 2018 when they grabbed their ankles for WCE. In turn angrier than after 2017 when they let Collingwood give them a lesson in pride and spirit. Angier than after 2016 when they gave Carlton a taste of what it must be like to play on the winning side of 186. Can a man be that angry and not have his head burst? That small mountain you see behind me is made of all the grains of salt I took this latest mission statement with. Don't [censored]ing tell us. Shut up and play. The scoreboard will tell us how "angry" you are.

it's all BS, od the melbourne club male-only rules is BS the reaction to the coterie club booking is also all BS it's all BS about being outraged over political correctness and the misguided power of social media by a noisy minority seeking significance and craving attention you can participate in the BS or ignore the BS but it's still BS beware of what a society you wish for.....we are headed for idiocracy