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The 7 years is correct, however, the $900k per season is well off. Thanks for your support dazzledavey36, as you know from past history, when I post a breaking story it is 100% factual.

BREAKING: Sam Weideman will be testifying for the prosecution.

I've just been into the city and you won't believe what's happening.

What a boring Tuesday night this is turning out to be.

For heaven’s sake man. We’re all trying to keep the lid on.

Now for the survey on EAR SPLITTING ROCK MUSIC and INANE GROUND ANNOUNCEMENTS before games & between quarters.

7-0 7 Rounds played….. 7 wins….. 28 points in the premiership bank. (took me a bit to work out the points total as it is approaching higher maths for me) What a turn up….. Top of the ladder a game clear of second. A strange situation that I am sure not many of us have experienced for a lot of years. Nice feeling though…. I predicted a 10 goal win against the Roos and I was half right… we won by 5. To my mind it was a very disruptive game for us. The game was disrupted in the lead up over conjecture as to where it would be played. There was disruption when Viney was pulled from the side prior to the game with a hot spot (whatever that is). There was disruption in the first quarter when Tomlinson went down with a serious knee injury. There was disruption with Tmac moving back. There was disruption when North out pressured us in the first half and played a hell of a lot better than expected. A lot of disruption. Good coaching and half-time adjustments saw us kick 10 goals to the Roo’s 2 in the second half. In all, while I was annoyed at how we played the first half I liked the way we responded after the break and settled into our structures and upped the pressure. And so, to the Round 8 encounter with the Swannies at the MCG on Saturday evening. I have to admit a soft spot for South Melbourne as a mate of mine played for them for a few seasons back in the dim, dark past. Always gave them some support as long as they were below us on the ladder and were not playing us. However, now they are Sydney based, I do not really give a flying fig about them…… More points….more points… I am greedy for the points….. Gimme gimme gimme. Oops, sorry I got carries away there. The facts: We are coming off a win over the Roos in Tassie, - nothing to rave about We responded to the game situation well and played the second half well – Advantage us They are coming off a tight win in Sydney against the team from down the road. – Advantage them? (not convincing – more like lucky) They are travelling down from Sydney – Advantage us They have one day extra rest – Advantage them Problem areas of the game for us. We have a few this week given the injury to Tomlinson and the suspension of Fritsch I am not sure I like this whole business of being undefeated as I find the lead up to each game just that much more fraught with thoughts about …”What if we lose?” Call it historical conditioning. Being a long term Melbourne supporter has conditioned me over the year to expect the team to find a way to screw up a good thing. Another win will be a step towards a strong belief in the team and coaches. Defence Will need to be as good as can be against the Swans. They were very accurate against the Cats kicking 14-6, 8 less scoring shots and 26 less inside 50’s than the Cats and running out winners by just 2 points. Looks like Buddy will be back in the forward 50 but I do not think he will be much of a factor in the game. We have the structure to close down the Sydney forwards. With Tomlinson as a long term out I would go with Petty to replace him. He was reasonable in the one game he had a couple of weeks ago and with May, Lever, Hibberd and Salem around him, he will learn a lot and get some good experience. Got them covered in defence. It seems that on every line we have the chance to show our depth. In the midfield we have lost Viney for a few weeks by the look of it. Tough to cover someone like him. Sydney have some potentially excellent mids that looked to have low possession games against the Cats. Then again, our mids had a half of gliding against the Roos. If we bring the pressure to the contest that we know is required, I believe we will come out on top in this area. With Viney missing I would like to see Sparrow back. Max played a very ordinary game last week. Not just ordinary by his lofty standards, ordinary by any of the game’s parameters. We need max back to his best for this match where he and Luke will be up against Hickey and Sinclair, not the most dynamic of rucking duos. Jackson to step up another rung and our mids to work out how to clear the ball in the center. Now for the forwards……. (again) The good; we kicked a winning score last week. Fritsch 6 and a week’s holiday The bad; The forward entries The ugly; Now Brown is in the team we can give Fritsch’s hair a rest. With better service in the second half the forwards settled and did their job. With Brown there and Tmac moved back it made for an interesting dynamic. Brown drew 2 and sometimes 3 defenders every time he lead. This opened up the rest of the space for the crumbers and for Fritsch to operate in. It worked well but I don’t think it will be enough this week against the Swans. We have a few questions to answer at selection and who is included will depend on what sort of tactics are adopted and what backup plans we put in place. Dare I say it???? Melksham to the Fritsch role with TMac and Brown as talls. Jackson and Gawn rotating there as alternative talls and Petracca and Oliver in the rotating forward mix as well. Definitely a 3 cheese platter night at selection this week. The Bathwater Express managed to hit a couple of pot holes last week but no long term damage done and all passengers accounted for. The road is flat and straight and flat to Saturday night’s horizon. Will need the head lights functioning for the night game but other than that all is looking rosy. Prediction?.... well I am tempted to go with another 5 goal prediction but I am feeling bullish. The G, Saturday night, a few points to prove… to me it all points to a big response by the team. I am going to go with an 8 goal margin for the Dees…. The Undefeated Dees…. 7-0… Had to write it one more time….

Well done on your scoop and I look forward to more good ones from you in the future. Don't be put off by the negative nellies, plenty of us love reading scoops, even if they don't all come true.

You mean this bloke ?

I haven't read through the thread so apologies if mentioned already. On the couch last night showed a side by side of the Dangerfield and Fritta incidents. They looked practically identical. Danger got off. My initial view was we should cop the week and move on but after that seeing that comparison we have to challenge.

The Oliver signing was significant as well, given we heard he wasn’t a happy camper last year. To lose him would be as damaging to our flag hopes as losing Trac would.

I'm crying! He's a lifer. Just like us! Go Trac!

I’m still in shock that the player who hit him behind play didn’t even get looked at.

In a rare case of common sense, it looks like the AFL will return to Thursday night announcement of teams (story on their website) which I expect will be met with widespread approval among Demonland posters. They surveyed 13,313 fans and 94.5% voted for a return to a long-standing tradition in our game.

And while the tribunal are at it, they can reverse the three week Jack Trengove suspension for a sling tackle!

Well done MFC stood up for your man and showed that he is no thug, the kid is a star and great ball player. Good for you Bailey Fritsch.!!!!!!

I'm not a fan of long deals either but there are exceptions to every rule. Trac is a generational player so i can live with it.

For me it is just knowing there is a looooooooong way to go. The Tigers are still the team to beat and by a fair way in my mind and they showed why last weekend. We just have to keep performing consistently to hopefully get a top 4 and then give ourselves a crack at the flag.

Even if we lose the appeal I’m very happy the club continues to do the right thing in my eyes. Dunno what happened to the club I used to know, but the recent version ticks all the boxes.

Can we just ditch the stupid conspiracy theories? He hasn’t copped a week because Collingwood lost, or because someone at Melbourne has incriminating photos of Christian, or because Christian has a vendetta against us. He’s copped a week because the MRO process is horrendously inconsistent and produces unfair results repeatedly due to its poorly designed box ticking exercise, the wide grey areas, Christian’s inability and/or unwillingness to follow precedent, and the fact that these decisions are made by one person, rather than a panel.

I like this quote from the article @dazzledavey36 posted 'Petracca was committed to staying on a long-term arrangement and did not want to eek out every last dollar from Melbourne to the detriment of his teammates.'

So this is what life’s like when you go for a good team...

7 news reporting an agreement is expected imminently, thought to be 7 years at $900K per season

We are appealing it.

Reading the individual players report (Alan Richardson’s) from Casey, he says Sparrow was BOG by a big margin. Sparrow is a pure midfielder....size, grunt, good decisions, good disposal. What we obviously missed on Saturday, where Cunnington’s influence stood out like Kangaroos balls, was Jack Viney, the role player it seems just as obvious Sparrow is modelling himself on. Based on this, I’d be staggered if he doesn’t come in this week.

I probably lean towards preferring TMac stays forward but your comments are ludicrous. This is elite level football. You don't fail for 7 years. He was very close to All-Australian as a defender in 2014, achieving that as the number 1 defender in an awful side. Don't get me wrong, his move forward was a stroke of genius, but calling him a failure as a defender, is just blatantly wrong and fails to take into account how difficult playing in that defence would have been.

The filth were pretty confident they had him at the start of the year. They are a rabble. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

Fritsch is free! My grandson reckons that's nothing ... he's four.

Had we been told in 2019 that come 2021, we would have experienced a worldwide pandemic and the Demons on top of the ladder after 7 rounds, it wouldn’t have been the pandemic that would have surprised us the most.

Our best chance here is to appeal the medium impact, on the basis of the player on the receiving end playing out the game without issues. If that gets downgraded to low, he's off. Intentional/wreckless/accidental is going to be much harder to prove. Or we can just show Dusty and Danger doing the same thing 100 times and not getting suspended and go with the "We are on top of the ladder" defence.

may god have mercy on his soul.

THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!! Sorry, I'm @picket fence level excited.

Yep. Was always worth challenging Well done MFC. We just learnt to put a line in the sand. Many people will disagree with this decision But we may win our 8th game for the year. Their was no concussion, both players can play next weekend

If dropping 1 game derails our season after a 7-0 start, then we aren't ready for September success, plain and simple.

I'm not for the Goodes comparison. Goodes was a linebreaking, power athlete who played ruck at certain times because he wasn't being exposed by him opponents. His best ruck year was comfortably 2003, and he only averaged 12 hitouts a game that year whilst his back up ruck Jason Ball averaged 15. Playing Goodes in the ruck was the equivalent of playing Joel Smith in the ruck, if Joel Smith was a superstar. Also, Goodes was a straight line runner with immense power. He broke into open space and, once he got there, he was devastating. Such a good player to watch. Jackson is more like a ballet dancer. He's all twists and turns, dancing feet, doing his best work in close confines. There isn't really a good example of him in the game, I don't think. The skills he has are unique, especially in a player of his size. It's hard to know just what he'll end up being because there isn't really a great reference for him.

Luke Jackson has set a new career high disposal numbers, three games in a row:

We missed Brayshaw on the wing terribly on Sunday. He might not be a natural winger in terms of skills or speed, but he’s intelligent and he’s had continuity in the role. Baker did a few nice things, but he didn’t know when or how to defend the way Brayshaw does and I think it hurt us. We’ve got plenty of other options on the inside to cover Viney such as Jones, Harmes or Sparrow. Leave Brayshaw playing in the role he’s now used to, where we need him and where we’re skinniest for options - the wing.

If this is the kind of thing which draws a suspension from the AFL, then it's also about time they start looking at the number of fists to the side of the head during marking contests? Max copped an absolute barrage from Richmond the other week. Jack Riewolt's backchat to the umpire after giving away the free kick "I was punching the ball" - such utter BS.

At least I didn't mention Jordan, in my defence

Burgo confirmed he had the operation today. Hopefully he will be ready for a full pre-season and back on the park for Round 1 2022 to defend our premiership :)

Hate to be depressing but I think reality is about to drive through our top of the ladder party. This is the 3rd time they’ve sat at the top since 2004 , the first 2 were fr just a single week and i’m afraid it may be the same in 21. we’re missing Fritsch, arguable our most important fwd, viney a midfield bull and gun and tommo. Tommo on his own isnt a gun like the other two but his abcense throws out of the dynamic of the strongest part of our game. So we will be unsettled both back, fwd and perhaps in the middle . This while we take on the side placed 4th , with 2 of their real guns returning, coming off a major win. I hope i’m wrong but i see a 5 goal loss coming. The coaching panel with the additions of Yze and Choco has rightly gotten many accolades this far. But they’re about to face their strongest tactical challenge in 2021. we’ll soon see how much or how little has changed in our culture when the winds are blowing hard against us.