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In another big win for the Demons, the club has secured State Government funding which should help kickstart the development of a new home in the city. Melbourne has secured State Government funding to upsize its training oval at Gosch’s Paddock as part of plans to develop a new home base in the city. The Demons have been hampered in recent years by the small size of their oval, which chief executive Gary Pert recently dubbed a “junior-size football oval”. But in a win for the club, talks with Government this year have helped secure the funds to increase the width and length to AFL-standard size.

If you think this is no big deal you’re letting your Melbourne bias cloud your judgement. It is a dumb and dangerous thing to do. It’s a bad look and we are a better team than that. Can’t stand clubs who resort to cheap shots. We won by 98 points. What is the [censored] point of this sort of idiotic aggression?

Why? He deliberately pushed his elbow into the neck of an opponent. It was not accidental, it was deliberate and dangerous. If someone did that to Oliver you would be calling for their head. It is a totally unnecessary act when we try to protect the head. The intention behind it means he will get at least a week. So good luck to him getting back into the side.

Talk about an over reaction, spare me the hysteria mate.

That's a big yes on football and admin. The whole club will be under one roof.

Some significant development. Can someone give summary, it's paywall.

Putting pressure on someone’s neck is dangerous. Full stop. You try having a 90 kilo footballer put their elbow on your throat and see how you like it. Just because no damage was done this time doesn’t mean we should just let it go. It’s absolutely a bad look for a game that is trying so hard to protect the head of players. Tell me this, if a Gold Coast player did that to Gus who has a history of head injuries would you be mad about it?

Melbourne supporters you are getting a hotel built for you Melbourne supporters: "but I wanted the Taj Mahal"

A good win and one to take some really good positives out of it. It was a bit of a training drill and honestly dont mind that we dropped off a little. Still had 7 shots at goal, so not like we just didn't put scoreboard pressure. I'll start with the negatives: Harmes and Viney were simply horrible ( am I allowed to say that @Baghdad Bob? ) the amount of times these two got the ball, tucked it under their arm, put a don't argue and then get pinged. It was absolutely infuriating! I thought maybe after a serious bake at half time that maybe they'll cut the crap out. But they didn't, they kept doing it. It's selfish, and makes them both look like absolute muppets. Does Harmes honestly think he's Dusty Martin? The coaches need to hit these two between the eye because it's simply going to cost us finals and the up and coming big games that are coming up. I would love the club to send a statement and drop one of them if not both, but we know it won't happen. The other negative is that at times we played a bit too much Hollywood. Cute little flick no look handballs over the top etc. Sparrow and Harmes were the main suspects. It's a minor thing that can be cleaned up. Another game where we kicked more points then goals. Guys like Viney, Harmes, McDonald, Petracca all missed simple goals that were in front. How on earth can this be rectified? They do enough goal kicking at training, but it's getting beyond the joke now. Positives Forward pressure and tackling inside 50 was immense. It was evident, and probably the best I've seen it all year. If we could please bring that every week then there's no doubt we can go all the way. I hope this is the confidence boosting game that Brown needed. His workmate was fantastic and there was glimpse of the Ben Broen we've come to applaud from his days at North when he was at his absolute elite. He was on a good defender in Sam Collins who I rate highly. As much as I was hard on Jackson throughout the week, it was a great game to return to form and give him some much needed confidence. It still doesn't change my opinion that heading into finals I'm not entirely sure if he's in our best team. I'm taking into consideration of the low quality of opposition out there, but I suppose you can only play who you are matched up against. Thought Jayden Hunt played another good game. Really loving the dash he is providing and since the GWS game he's really simplified his game. Harrison Petty doesn't get much acknowledgement, but his defending today was elite. Just well times spoils and his closing speed is something that's not really mentioned much. Just a great general defender who now looks comfortable at this level. Oliver was crazy good. The fact that we were still showing enormous pressure in the dying minutes of the game shows we were still not satisfied with our work. Huge few weeks coming up.

Without sounding unreasonably dramatic, but it should be realised - by Jack Viney if no one else, grinding someone’s neck with your elbow right under the base of the skull is tempting injury to the vertebral artery, which can and often does cause an instant bleed to the brain. A mate of mine died 6 months ago from such a vertebral artery ‘dissection’, as did the cricketer Phil Hughes. What JV did, and deliberately, is beyond stupid.

I think its a positive development. Not sure why the govt would bother tipping in to increase oval size if not part of a broader plan

He & Tracc decided to share the gold

Funny how preconceived ideas form the basis of a lot of people's changes, although I haven't seen 1 call for ANB to be dropped this week (so far), so that's refreshing. Both the HS and Age had Harmes in the best, yet around half the calls on here have been for him to be axed. No way will he go out, yes cleaning up some disposal and taking the first option would make him a better player, but his defensive skills/efforts (5 tackles in the 1st quarter when it was still actually a game!) go overlooked on here but I'm sure will be noted by the coaches. No change for mine, unless TMac's back is still sore today, then no point putting him on the plane - take and plan for Weid to play, hours on the plane on Saturday and then hours more today could lead to a longer term back issue, so unless he's right today, I hope they take no risks.

Not a great look on the first couple of playthroughs but I actually think Viney has a few arguments up his sleeve here. 1. After completing a solid tackle on Collins, you can see Viney has eyes for the next contest and is in the process of standing up and moving away. Collins then double grabs Viney and pulls him down on top of him. 2. Viney seems to be held into position by Collins with him still double grabbing Vineys jumper. 3. Viney again attempts to leave the encounter as shown by his legs attempting to stand up, Collins still maintains the rage with his double grabbing of the jumper and rolls Viney over and tries to push him into the ground. Not a great look on the whole and Viney should have tried to move his elbow off his head as soon as possible. Will get penalised for the length of time on his head more so than anything else. Still reckon Collins had a big part in instigating the whole incident though.

Silly from Jack but there’s nothing much in this. Players do this at training all the time Collins doesn’t breathe from his ear hole.

He’ll be suspended- his names not Buddy

We've had no development on this front for years. We get at least a step in the right direction and half of Demonland complains about it. At absolute worst it is a positive because it is more than we previously had. At best, as many have said, it is a sign of more to come: I would find it very difficult to accept that the AFL and the government would all stand there today to call a press conference with the MFC to announce these changes, and the MFC would tip in half a million of its own money, if there was even a small possibility we'd long term end up elsewhere.

I think Pert has mentioned a few times that it will be the Victorian Government's announcement and they will decide the timing, not us. I was hopeful today would be the day, but obviously not. Like others have suggested, there is no point announcing the oval upgrade unless it is part of a bigger plan. My mail is AAMI park will be upgraded/extended (in an east direction, over the carpark towards Gosh's Paddock) and this upgrade will accommodate our new rooms, gym, etc. Hope we hear it from the Government soon.

Far too generous on Viney. He was horrendous. 5 free kicks against! I repeat 5! Many of them holding the ball. Must be close to getting dropped now. He plays dumb football.

Oliver - Best since Barassi

Irrespective of what happens from now, this is our most successful Home and Away season in terms of premiership points since 1990 when we won 16 games. 14.5 wins is better than any season since, and that includes our GF season of 2000 (14 wins) and our preliminary final seasons of 1994 (12), 1998 (14) and 2018 (14). Let's hope we can beat the 16 of 1990 and secure top 4.

Did Collins play out the game? is he concussed? Any stitches? Will he play next game? Did Collins contribute to the position Viney was in? Appeal written all over this!

Hopefully the player who was copping it says there wasn’t much force to it. If that was Selwood doing what Viney did he’d be called courageous.

viney provoked by being pulled down and held. wasn't a strike, just a push. can't measure pressure from a video, impact was low, collins gets up and shows no sign of injury or distress not a good look and a bit prolonged but only deserves a fine.....move on

9 Christian Petracca (MELB) 9 Clayton Oliver (MELB) 6 Max Gawn (MELB) 3 Luke Jackson (MELB) 3 Jake Lever (MELB) Leaderboard Votes Player Club 101 Clayton Oliver MELB 94 Marcus Bontempelli WB 90 Samuel Walsh CARL 89 Ollie Wines PORT 85 Touk Miller GCFC 79 Jack Steele STK 77 Zach Merrett ESS 70 Darcy Parish ESS 66 Christian Petracca MELB 61 Max Gawn MELB 61 Rory Laird ADEL 61 David Mundy FRE 59 Hugh McCluggage BL 59 Nic Naitanui WCE 58 Jack Macrae WB 57 Jarryd Lyons BL 54 Tom Stewart GEEL 51 Tom Mitchell HAW 50 Jordan De Goey COLL 50 Cameron Guthrie GEEL

Who do you exactly speaking for? Most of the commentary the last two years has been about Viney playing the rugby league style of trying to run through opponents, and instantly get pinged for holding the ball. If he's not doing that he's running through his teammates and having no awareness of his surroundings. Playing on edge is him giving away stupid free kicks by being dumb about it. This is becoming a constant theme for him the past 2 years. There's playing on edge, and there's being silly by not channelling that properly on the field.

I believe the expression is "one and the same". Sorry! My two cents - it was dumb and unnecessary but doesn't warrant a suspension.

Moronic stuff from Jack. He's meant to be a leader and does this shi*. Not to mention we are destroying the opposition. Needs to get weeks and have a look at himself. I think he's done this out of pure frustration at himself. Has had an ordinary few weeks and wanted to let it out. Either way it's dumb, selfish and just an awful look. The only saving grace is precedent but I don't care if they didn't get weeks. Give him a spell so he learns this is a gross act.

This is going straight to the tribunal?

I think it's the same mutant gene that causes some to look only for negatives in a 98 point win.

No it's $500,000 each from us and the AFL. Explain your disappointment.

Yep, we finished ninth on the ladder last year. It’s a vast improvement. This is all anyone can reasonably hope for, and I hope next season keeps heading in the same direction. I was proud to be a Demons supporter for the first time in a long time this year, and whatever may happen in the finals, I’ll be grateful for this alone.

But if we lost to Geelong, Port and the Dogs it wouldn't matter? At the end of the day every team loses games. It happens. We did it against mostly crap teams plus the Dogs once. Dogs and Geelong lost to more top 8 sides than we have, they just happen to have won half a game more than us in the entire year, so are currently sitting above us on the ladder. If anyone told you pre season we would be pushing for a top 2 finish with 3 games to go in the season would you have taken it? I really don't see the point of crying over the losses. They are done. All that matters now is what we do next. We can go on to win the next 3, or lose the next 3, and only those game will determine what happens come finals.

Pert and Roffey have both been underrated gets for us IMO. Great news.

Jordon to play and Sparrow Moved to sub which is apparently ‘no change’ these days no other changes unless injuries

Ahhh momentum. Unless you've won too many in a row in which case you're 'due for a loss'. #mythsofelitesport.

Viney - Holding the ball!

The pressure will come if there is a cap at the MCG that is less than GMHBA's capacity. Geelong kicked up a big fuss last week for their Richmond game - laying the foundations IMO. Best thing we can do is take the option off the table by going 3-0.

Surely if we’re going to have a capped crowd for finals, having 25/40/50/whatever% spaced out at the MCG is better than the same at Geelong.

If you cannot enjoy a 98 point win you might as well be dead

He was initially but the team weren't allowed to shower him with gatorade as Port Adelaide were going in to the change rooms for tonights game....so he jumped back into line with the rest of the players.

One can only hope ??

Would be unreal to get WCE in Melb. Should request to play it at Kardinia park too.

A lot of people here look pretty silly again this week. The calls for Jackson to be dropped/rested were just a little premature. Apart from his 4 goals it appears the idea coming up to finals is not to run Max into the ground. Jackson took a bit more ruck time today and you can't lay that off to a bit time ruck like Weed or Tommy Mac as some suggested. Win - Goody and selection, loss - Demonland experts... ...by the way can Goody coach this week?

I thought Viney's first half was horrible. His second was good. He needs to be coached from now on, to take the first option, immediately. That will improve his game and ours. We know he is hard at the ball and not great at disposal, but a quick release to another player, will avoid htb decisions and at least get the ball forward quickly, where our scoring opportunities will increase. Harmes needs to be told to do likewise and when he kicks for goal, to not run out to the right. Both of them can be valuable to us, with a little change to their games.