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This guy doesn't get enough credit. To come back at 31 years old after everything he's gone through, and play the best footy with us since his AA year is an absolute credit to himself. I could easily see him going around again in 2022!

Thanks @Rodney (Balls) Grinter Have been dealing with a family issue and had to head out of town so only just saw this. Here’s an update on my night. I had previously mentioned that Mrs IT finally joined me for an MFC game. First time 28 years. Plus our kids came too. Half way through the first quarter she’s not looking anymore and says I didn’t come out here to see them play badly. Half wat through the second she said she was going to leave. I politely told her that won’t be happening. I said they’ll come back and have a famous win. By the end she was screaming louder than anyone else, embarrassing our daughter no end. On Saturday morning I listened to her singing the song to herself in the shower. She remembered about 3 words and tra lala’ed the rest. Had a big laugh to myself. She’s coming to QB now. Go Dees. One of the great wins. I still can’t believe we got to see it live.

Got some notes from the practice match yesterday: - Chandler was phenomenal. Had ridiculous numbers with very high possession and kicked 4 - Jones played well and is a class above at that level - BB was good without dominating - MB very quiet The games were joint teams from Pies, Bombers and Blues

Melbourne- Tom Sparrow Melbourne’s first pick of the 2018 draft has had an interrupted start to his career, including a season-ending knee injury in 2019 and a broken collarbone last year. This season, he has featured as the medical sub on multiple occasions. But with full game time on Friday night, the 21-year-old combined 19 disposals with five tackles and a goal.

If they'd done their homework they'd have realized it was with 59% game time. A great effort.

He was interviewed post-match on ch 7. Comes across as a ripping young man. Exactly as my mate (a Crows supporter) who taught him some 5 years ago, said he was. For those who missed the interview Tom said he was rapt to be playing on the likes of Fyfe and Neale. I think (and hope) he'll be with the MFC for quite a while. He's skilled and tough.

And yet the teams he has been an important part of have kicked 94, 95, 87 and 97 points, including against 2 of the top 3 teams in the league. Often it's not about possessions. AFL ranking points? These clearly favour high possession players over low possession players. It says that the top 3 players in the league are Jack Macrae, Touk Miller and Mitch Duncan. It says Chris Mayne is a better player than Nat Fyfe. It says that Jarman Impey is better than Dustin Martin. It has Jack Darling as the second best key forward in the league. Weideman also currently has a higher AFL rating than Ben Brown this year. The point I'm making is that 4 games of AFL ratings is, at best, a pretty poor representation of a player's value to his team.

Viney has certainly tweaked how he plays since he started. He would attack every football in sight in his early years and won B&Fs as a ball winning mid. With Oliver becoming our number 1 midfielder, Viney's possessions have dropped off but his B&F finishes are consistently at the top end, especially when considering the time he's missed. He won the ball fewer than 20 times a game last year and had lower stats nearly across the board .... but still came 3rd in the B&F behind Petracca and May. That's why I'm always interested in the B&F results (and selection) because it gives a great insight into what specific players were being asked to do. Remember how Oliver won the ball like it was going out of fashion last year? He won it 25 times a game (shortened games) and came top 10 in the Brownlow. He finish 5th in the B&F, 2 spots behind Viney despite playing fewer games. Demonland members nearly burned the website down when they saw that! But it's clear looking back that Oliver was attacking too many contests that he didn't need to and we were suffering as a result. Ironically it's now allowing him to win more footy, more contested footy and more clearances. More importantly, if you're looking at role changes from last year, he's averaging nearly 5 times the scoring shots, 60% more rebounds, 45% more inside 50s and his team is 11-1.

I appreciate his effort but for once we're trying to win a flag here, can't just wait all year for his game to click. Brown was rusty against North but still kicked goals, good against the Swans, then ordinary against Carlton in conditions that didn't suit him. I'm not ruling out switching back later if Brown doesn't work but unless there's some deeper tactical element to it that my pleb brain can't fathom I want to give the proven performer a chance.

Yep. Playing the Neville Jetta lock down role and doing it just fine. You talk about sacrificing your game well Hibberd's done that this year. On form, he goes again next year.

I expect this from Oliver now and I almost don't think about it, because he does something like this every week. But something I did notice that is the very Richmondesque was the Salem kick and Rivers kick earlier in the game. It hasn't been overly evident, but we've been doing these sort of kicks for a while now. It's the Richmond blueprint, where the kick goes high up, almost rugby-like, so that crumbers can get to the fall of the contest. I love that we're getting smarter with all these little things. Even the little paddles, kicks off the ground and taps to surge it forward. As our confidence is growing, we're seeing a little bit of Hawthorn, a little bit of Richmond and even a little bit of Bulldogs circa 2016 with that chain of handballs that led to McDonald's sealer. One of the other things that we're doing really well all over the ground is not getting sucked into the contest. We're holding our shape on the outside. A few of the footy shows talked about us "trusting the tackler". This was noticeable again regularly against Brisbane - particularly in the second half. There was a contest in the third that Oliver would have previously charged in for, but instead left for ANB, who ended up giving away the free kick, but the idea was right. If ANB wins it, Clarry is on the outside to receive. The situation you refer to with Salem's kick is similar. All the Brisbane players get sucked into the contest and they get smashed on the outside. This is part of what makes them look slow and part of what made us look slow for years. Conversely, if you're receiving in space because you've held your width from the contest, you always look a lot quicker bursting away from the contest. This is Ed Langdon's game to a tee.

Last Friday's outcome with Weid was 2 goals kicked directly by players that he handballed to after groundball gets under maximum pressure. That's rare stuff from KPFs 2 goals kicked directly after marking contests that he got first hands to There were also 2 goals he would normally have kicked from marks but his kicking was a bit off - normally he is a beautiful kick and there is not a structural issue with his kicking. He also got his hands to a number of marks that just didn't stick - he did stick his last mark at full stretch but couldn't finish with the kick at goal Two Fwd 50 tackles that resulted in stoppages That's decent output and, if he takes all his chances, it's dominant output.

This is the most important difference between being a consistently top team and not. It's the 'trust' that top teams develop that if you do the right thing and hold your structure, rather than winning the ball like a hero, then things will work out. This is so hard to do because it so counter-intuitive to how a footballer thinks about football. You become a good footballer by winning contested football, so holding your position when the ball isn't coming near you is really difficult to do. If something doesn't go your way or you're not getting the ball the instinct is to do something to fix it because it's hard to trust that, overall, you're better off not doing something. It's hard to hold back, see something go wrong which costs a goal, CV and have the discipline to do golf back the next time. But good teams do it, win and then have the win reinforce the value of doing it. It one of those things that is really, really hard to do at first, but if you do it then the winning makes it easy to keep doing it.

Mate, seriously? I'm not shouting about it at all about this topic. I have been measured in my response around my concerns with Weideman on the back of his performance this year. If I am not allowed to express that on here then I'll happy close my account for good. Read the response. All discussions have been good and well written out by everyone.

Their honesty Outside of a one-point loss to the hands of the Crows at the Adelaide Oval, the Melbourne Demons could not have started this season much better than what they have. It took some convincing, but the football public has seemingly come to terms with the fact that Melbourne, unusually, just aren't that bad of a side anymore. Just think putting Lynch up against Gawn we might see him disintegrate before our very eyes. You could lock Gawn in now for the three votes if he’s up against Lynch. SCG: Save us going to watch us get Deestroyed Live. Not expecting much from this one. If we get this game down to a goal or two in the end I'll be impressed. Watching Carlton [censored] the bed against WC yesterday was made somehow less enjoyable because it was at the SCG. Such a crap oval. Their tactics Roughead will again have his hands full, likely facing off against the meat-eating-machine, Tom McDonald. Moore should take Weideman or the resting ruck. I would personally play Maynard on Fritsch, Quaynor on Pickett and Noble on Spargo. Our Mids should Rove Gawn's Taps like other teams done to Grundy. Cox has to come in. Lynch was okay but Cox can nullify Gawn and play forward. I assume Pendles might have to take the Oliver job. Maybe Crisp for Petracca. Is our dogs breakfast game plan [strangle-ball] better suited to SCG in this instance, as opposed to attempting a shoot-out, or even keeping pace with Dreamons on the MCG? Their anxiety Kosi Pickett a worry. McCreery needs to shut down Salem. Play Pendles on Gawn when he rests forward? We kicked 1 goal after QT against Sydney on this ground a few weeks back. Gawn and Jackson duo is a big worry for us if Grundy can’t get up. Playing top side in the comp —what are our chances folks? Their delusion We can win this. I just can’t see how we lose this game. Who stops Petracca though? A shame we delisted Wills, he would have been perfect for that role. Their schadenfreude Hurts Melbourne in their wallet = tick. Their trolls It might have been a good chance to pilot playing this fixture at Mt Kosciuszko, with a view to putting it at Hotham Heights when there is no pandemic - it is a Demons leg-up game, after all. Poor Deeeees fans, the MCC toffs, cant have their usual chardonnay, Pimms, brandy lime and soda, plus their cucumber sandwiches, in their usual plush surrounds. Pressure all on Melb, nobody will take us seriously, so maybe an upset brewing, Crows did beat em. Love to beat this mob, then their fans, being in Sydney, can head to the snowfields of Mt Kossie, which is obviously be a lot closer than the usual ski chalets of Mt Buller here.

There is no doubt that his game against Geelong was out of the box, he was close to bog in a final. But the mistake I think is to measure all his games against this game. In a block of 9 games last year he kicked 18 goals as our only big specialist forward against the oppositions best backs where he was often double teamed. He ran out of puff but so did a lot of the team. That block of games in difficult circumstances and against good opposition has shown he's got the attributes to play good AFL footy and contribute and whilst he hasn't kicked a lot of goals he's been part of a forward line that has been very effective. We embrace team footy and role playing this year but some don't seem to extend that concept to Weideman. In addition, as has been stated, he is our future. I think he'll hold his spot in the team regardless but BB getting back has been complicated by a poor last game for Casey and not having played since.

Melbourne has beaten every other team it’s played against in the top eight but it’s efforts against the lowly clubs have been somewhat shabby. Adelaide beat us a few weeks ago at their own dung heap and we struggled against then winless North Melbourne and even Carlton. Over the next month, we have three games against teams outside the eight - Collingwood, Essendon and GWS Giants. We will have to take our best game into all of these matches which I classify as danger games. An inexperienced Collingwood did to Adelaide last Saturday, what we couldn’t do - beat them at the Adelaide Oval. Demons beware!!!

Is Weideman the right guy?

Votes Player (Club) 8 Christian Petracca (MELB) 7 Zac Bailey (BL) 7 Clayton Oliver (MELB) 6 Max Gawn (MELB) 1 Tom McDonald (MELB) 1 Eric Hipwood (BL) Leaderboard Votes Player Club 68 Clayton Oliver MELB 60 Marcus Bontempelli WB 55 Darcy Parish ESS 50 Hugh McCluggage BL 49 Max Gawn MELB 48 Zach Merrett ESS 48 Samuel Walsh CARL 47 Touk Miller GCFC 46 Ollie Wines PORT 41 Dustin Martin RICH 41 David Mundy FRE 40 Christian Petracca MELB 38 Nic Naitanui WCE 38 Taylor Walker ADEL 37 Jarryd Lyons BL 36 Jack Macrae WB 34 Rory Laird ADEL 33 Jacob Hopper GWS 33 Christian Salem MELB 33 Jack Steele STK

When little is going wrong with the team holistically, it makes sense that we turn our focus to our handful of perceived weaknesses right now. SW is certainly that. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. SW has not had a kind career to date as far as development from continuity goes. Most players of his brethren have played an entire seasons more games than him. I think a lot of people underestimate the effect that can have on a key position player. I'm not in the camp of defending SW's current output by any means, but all I would say is I'd rather us be patient and give him as many games as possible. There's little doubt that he has the means to become a very good forward, something just needs to click. You just know if we traded him he'd start having 40+ seasons pretty quickly, and at age 24 he has plenty of them ahead. I don't know if I'm alone here, but BB so far as been pretty uninspiring. To rock up to the two's and get embarrassed with a 4 touch game and no goals tells me everything I need to know about him - he ain't gonna be the one to rip apart the finals for us. Not saying SW will be either , but what I've seen from him to date tells me he is close to being that player, while BB has proven to me he definitely won't be. SW had a cracking 2018 finals campaign, so at least we know he is capable of it on the big stage. Bottom line from me is - be patient. We're 11-1 and beating the best teams, so the fact is we can afford to bide our time playing SW until it clicks (and of course it will, you're an [censored] if you don't think he's going to come good). If it starts effecting us winning games, I'll reconsider my position, but until then we should be pumping as many games into the 24 year old long term KPF prospect as possible.

You're comparing the very best young key forwards in the game to make the point that Weideman isn't making an impact. Those things are completely unrelated to each other. It's like saying that Neitz didn't make an impact on the game because there are guys like Wayne Carey around. Or "I'm watching the likes of Matthew Rowell, Noah Anderson, Trent Rivers and Andrew Brayshaw speed right past him in terms of talent and impact on games". They aren't related events and has nothing to do with whether they are worth their place in the side.

There were rumours that the current government weren't keen to work with Bartlett. No progress made while he was there. Roffey (who has good relationships with key decision makers) comes in and not long after it seems there may be genuine progress from a government support perspective.

There is a bore there HB, let’s hope it doesn’t run dry. Santa Teresa is a community close to my heart, am friends with many in that video and have a deep love for the place. I saw the oval last Friday with the MCG goal posts, it looks amazing. I was invited to the opening, but due to work, couldn’t attend, but hope to get out there for a game soon (not this weekend though, Finke desert race is on! This effort by our club is just brilliant, so many teams make token efforts towards supporting indigenous communities (see Collingwood and Yuendumu) but to make a 4 year commitment, to create such a wonderful ground (right in the centre of the community) is just [censored] awesome, even converting someone like Nicky Hayes (Australia’s first professional indigenous skateboarder, ST local and founder of Spinifex skateboards) to AFL and the hordes of kids that worship him, it is just brilliant

My favourite moment from the match. Who wins the footy? The 4 stationary Lions blokes close to the ball? Wrong. The ginga ninja that’s about to flash through the screen. What a freak

It's not as much fun to read the opposition fans' sites now that people are taking us seriously. Where's all the "who have they beaten?", "Pretenders!" posts gone? I'm also getting a bit sick of my non-MFC friends saying stuff like "well, if my team doesn't win, I hope you guys get up this year". I want us to be hated.

The other thing that probably need to be said is that it's not just about this year. It's easy to say that Brown is better right now so we should play him. But what if Weid no longer sees opportunities here? Then we go into next year, the year after or even 4 years down the track without the riches we have now. Are we a better chance of winning the flag in 2023-25 with Weid at the club or with him at another club? And the easy answer to that is "we're trying to win a flag this year, so who cares?". Well the current chances of us winning a flag, according to the bookmakers, ($4.50) is about 25%. They are really good odds. And, say for example, that Brown playing increases those odds from 25% to 27%. That's still vastly more likely that we don't win the flag that we do. The difference between Brown and Weid is very small. But let's say that McDonald takes a big payday (hypothetical) at the end of the year, so our odds for next year are about the same with Weid and Brown (25%). But if Weid also leaves because he doesn't see a future here, then we've got Brown playing alone, and our odds drop to 15% and so on for the future years because now our structure is messed up. And this scenario would continue all the way through our premiership window without spending huge to pick up another mature key forward to pair with an ageing Brown. All of this for a possible (very minor) incremental benefit to this year when we are unlikely to win a flag anyway. The best way to win a flag is to be consistently good over a number of years, allowing the odds to work in your favour over time. If we are a 25% chance of winning the flag for 5 years, our chances of winning a flag are 76%. But if adding Brown increases our odds to even an unrealistic 40% this year, with drop offs in future years, we would only be a 69% chance of winning a flag overall.

Only a Melbourne supporter could identify a "danger period" in the fixture after we're 11-1 lol

Another top kid just waiting his turn to be a regular in the team, has the skills, pace, courage and footy know how to slot in when required. I really like Tom Sparrow.

I think the endurance base is probably the most on show about our runners. The ability to run at high speed more than the oppo. I was amazed at this stat against the Lions. We covered almost 6km more than them at high speed.

Yes I rate Dermie, along with Billy Brownless, as the dumbest footy commentators we are subject to each week. You can put Tony Jones in there as well. But then again, Channel Nine always goes to the lowest common denominator.....

Yep, totally. It's almost that reprogramming that you (or maybe it was someone else) was talking about with regards to how McCartney would coach our mids, versus how they're coached now. Oliver's natural game and instinct is to go in and win everything, just like Viney and Harmes, but it's making Clarry's game so much more rounded as he's getting it on the inside and outside, and is able to burst away and use his explosiveness from stoppage. I could be wrong, but Harmes and Viney have tweaked the way they play too. Given our guys are such dominant contested players, the trust can be built easily and it elevates our entire midfield group. Petracca, Oliver, Harmes and Viney are all difficult to tackle. It's a bit of a nightmare for the opposition. If our guys are all switched on, this will be a dominant midfield group for the next 5 or so years.

hope that wasn't a freudian slip.....lol

I don't really think we are fast, more we are now making fast decisions and have the endurance base to run teams off their feet, rather than being a team of fast runners with a high top running speed. I think it's Hunt, picket >> daylight>>> petracca and the rest fall in around here (I think May is pretty fast too and Hibberd looks like he could be).

He was a pick 9 in a draft that's now been seen as one of the quality drafts to be seen. Same draft as Hipwood and McKay mind you. Both those players are performing to the standard the should be now. The club has invested a lot with not much in return. I'll steal a quote about Sam Weideman that I stole from another Melbourne forum thay was discussed on First Crack last night. I don't know how much clear cut it's needs to be made out. He's simply not performing to the standard he should be. They had a stat on First Crack last night. Weid has never scored average or above ranking points for his position relative to his age. But more to the point, as a 24 year old KPF, this year his ranking points average is almost 60% worse than the average for his position.

This seems like a pretty half-arsed result to me, if you'd even call it a result

I watched Collingwood on the weekend. They played a completely different brand and took the game on much quicker through the corridor. The same way Adelaide beat us. This game isn't a walk in the park. No game is. Bring that game style again on the weekend and Collingwood are a chance.

Another win that builds genuine self-belief in the playing group. Brisbane were excellent in the first half and I was genuinely concerned at half time. Really impressed with the way we came back, especially the overlap running. Bring on the Pies.

He IS impacting games consistently, but he's not getting the personal rewards as yet. he's a bit like Angus Brayshaw, he was directly involved in a high % of our scores on the weekend, at the moment it's through bringing it to ground, but he's also great at blocking and making space for others. he allowed Pickett and Tmac the space to take marks virtually unopposed at times. every bit of his game is there but the stuff that people look for in a key forward like huge pack marks and goals. and i'm incredibly confident that is going to come. it's all confidence for Weid now, the battle for how good a player he will become in time is in his mind, and the club can give him the best chance by rewarding what he is doing well, which is significant, and backing him in

My mole in the kremlin in Danistan reckons that $2.75m will be released by the end of this financial year for Goschs upgrade.

This is the crux of it: "It is understood the Demons want to increase the length and width of the oval at Gosch’s Paddock. And in a positive development the Victorian Government announced in its 2021/2022 state budget that funding could be made available to the Demons for the training ground upgrade. “Funding is provided and held in central contingency for a range of AFL/AFLW and VFL infrastructure and community projects including Gosch’s Paddock upgrade,” it said. But the funding is dependent on the scope and cost of the project which the Demons are working though." "An announcement could be made in the coming months about a feasibility study into a facelift of the AAMI Park facility which could help give the Demons more room." Interesting timing if you're a conspiracy theorist... ;)

He's labelling body parts??? Talk about getting on the front foot for alziemers!

He’s probably got a few more weeks to get going. The FD probably want to make sure Weed sticks around for the health of the list over the next 5 years. However, when it gets to the spiky end of the season - Ben Brown is a better option for 2021. Sam has a few weeks to change that view.

Surprised no one has mentioned Michael Hibberd's game on Charlie Cameron. I know he kicked 2 goals but he was completely shut out of the game and never looked like he he was going to threaten. Well done Hibbo.

Raised by @Hannibal on BF - "young Lions" is a myth: Average Attributes Melbourne Attribute Brisbane 188.0cm Height 187.9cm 86.5kg Weight 87.0kg 24yr 9mth Age 26yr 2mth 88.9 Games 111.8

Spot on. I would play May on DeGoey and Hibbo on Elliot. Do not mess with the backline. It’s too important for finals. Need to keep the three talls working together every week. Also the improvement in Petty week on week has been amazing. He needs all the game time he can get to build confidence in his game.