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I’m sorry you feel that way. I’m just trying to share news I’m seeing around and give people a thread to discuss it in. That seems to me to be one of the main purposes of this site. Getting past nearly all the major paywalls is absolutely simple and a number of links to chrome extensions that will do it for you have been posted in different threads. DM me and I’ll respond with a link to one. i wanted to paste more content but I know the mods don’t like it and I’m not sure how much content I can paste before it puts them at risk so I opted to keep it just to a couple of sentences that I thought summed up the general gist.

His top 8 prediction is MFC, Port, Dogs, Lions, Cats, Bombers, Sydney, Tiges. So he is being bold this year and has GWS out and Tiges in. His 2021 top 8 prediction was just the 2020 top 8. No changes at all. A few other things from the article. He thinks if the dogs had a ruckman they would be premiers. That's laughable considering they had the 14th ranked defence and no premier has been that bad defensively since they started measuring these things. He thinks the cats will be contenders again based on their bad injury run last year. Fact: They had the second least games lost due to injury in 2021 behind us. He thinks West Coast will be coming for LJ with an $8m 7-year contract

Agreed, we drafted for needs and by the look of it, have come up trumps. JT is future proofing our list with these young draftees. In all my years of being a devoted Dees supporter, and it it has been a lot of years, I have never seen such a deep and balanced list. The fight for spots in the 1's is going to be fierce next year. By the way I am a long time Demonland viewer and first time poster. Very excited about our event at the G this Sunday for the Melbourne faithful. Great times for our beloved club

I hate Murdoch and refuse to pay for his content but I'm desperate to see this article can someone PM me. Said every hypocrite.

Hoping to earn some franking credits, perhaps?

With Jordan and Rodman in the team we will win 72 games next season!

Part 3: A minor dream for the premier team Coming from a position where Melbourne’s initial first pick in the 2021 AFL National Draft was at #33, the club has managed its first post-premiership trade and draft period quite nicely. The year ended with the 23 playing representatives in the premiership match and a number of close contenders for places within that group intact and at the club — a number of them came out with extended contracts. That should be an impressive enough outcome but so is the number of players on its lists who have yet to make AFL debuts for Melbourne: — They are Primary listers in Luke Dunstan, Blake Howes, Bailey Laurie, Fraser Rosman, Jacob Van Rooyen and Taj Woewodin and Rookies, Majak Daw, Judd McVee, Deakyn Smith and Daniel Turner (Category A) and Andy Moniz-Wakefield (Category B). These players constitute 25% of the list at various stages of their careers who add to the team’s depth and development potential. . The club’s list improvement gained early momentum with the addition of free agent Luke Dunstan from the Saints, fresh off an 11 Brownlow vote season. The drafts that followed turned out a minor dream. The Demons turned picks 17, 37, 49 and 57 into the selection of versatile key position player Jacob Van Rooyen (#19) who already has 5 games at senior WAFL level with Claremont under his belt, tall running forward Blake Howes (#39) and father-son prospect Taj Woewodin (#65) who finished off the season impressively in the WA Colts, for his State and at the Draft Combine. For good measure, the club added two rookies, WA junior state representative Judd McVee (Category A) who the club has been eyeing since an outstanding national championships two years ago in the pre Covid era and exciting NGA from NT, Andy Moniz-Wakefield (Category B). The club traded a couple of late draft selections for future picks which could come in very handy next year as some opposition will need them in the drafting process to secure father-son selections. The reigning premiers will head into 2022 defending their new found prized status as league front runners with the following lists. PRIMARY LIST: — Oskar Baker Toby Bedford Jake Bowey Angus Brayshaw Ben Brown Luke Dunstan Bayley Fritsch Max Gawn James Harmes Michael Hibberd Blake Howes Jayden Hunt Luke Jackson James Jordon Ed Langdon Bailey Laurie Jake Lever Tom McDonald Steven May Jake Melksham Alex Neal-Bullen Clayton Oliver Christian Petracca Harrison Petty Kysaiah Kropinyeri Pickett Trent Rivers Fraser Rosman Christian Salem Charlie Spargo Joel Smith Tom Sparrow Adam Tomlinson Jacob Van Rooyen Jack Viney Sam Weideman Taj Woewodin ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY A Mitch Brown Kade Chandler Majak Daw Judd McVee Deakyn Smith Daniel Turner ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY B Andy Moniz-Wakefield

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/news/afl-crystal-ball-jon-ralphs-big-early-calls-for-the-2022-season/news-story/86748afb46281d38bfdcd99a94ecb550 Spoiler for those of you unable to get a peek behind the HS paywall:

In '08, the Cats kicked themselves out of it. Hawks were a bit lucky. They seized the chance put in front of them, but by crikey the Cats kicked badly. In '21, the premiers were clearly the best team all year.

It started back in the 60s when someone Franked Davis as Melbourne captain.

The irony of clubs following the lead of the premiers is that teams which make it to the top have often done something different from the pack, rather than follow the leader. We employed the two ruckmen model. Richmond didn't really do this (Shaun Grigg anyone?). Whether it was "Clarko's cluster" or Richmond's manic pressure, we didn't just blindly copy what went beforehand.

My guess? Clubs naturally look at what the premiers are doing. West Coast are the outliers since the dogs won the flag in 2016, in so far as the other winners have all been manic contest teams with really strong, combative midfields with game plans that emphasise territory over precision ball movement. This model requires inside mids and contested ball winners across every line. And a key element of both the tiger's and dee's game plans is top line intercepting key defenders and rebounding half back flankers with great kicking skills (the latter is true of the dogs too). I wonder if the other clubs, all playing catch up except the dogs and to a lesser extent the tigers (who needed an injection of young, manic energy - and drafted accordingly), prioritised such players. And conversely had less interest in outside players, wingers and key forwards such as JVR and Howes. We have enough inside mids and contested ball winners. And more than enough top line intercepting defenders, not to mention rebounding half back flankers with great kicking skills. So we can afford to target a key forward AND and winger. And seem to have done exactly that

How many times have you eaten out and wished you'd ordered the steak instead of the hamburger.

I'm starting to form the opinion that there are some on this site who will disappointed if that is the case.

really? you need to back that up from where i sit a qualified health officer gets my attention before an internet random not in any way taking his comment as the last word on the matter either. he did preface his comment with "if it's mild"

Sydney will finish higher than 7th. They'll definitely finish higher than Essendon and quite possibly Geelong GWS to finish tenth is a big call. They'll finish in the 8 (hopefully at the expense Essendon or Geelong)

To be fair Wrecker, it's only their stories about Melbourne Football Club that we care about. I find the posting of links to paywalled items a little puzzling, regardless of which publication they are from. Subscribers can already read the article if they haven't yet done so, while non-subscribers can't read it at all. To me, it defeats the purpose of the exercise, even though posters do it with good intentions and are trying to share information.

Love just how fickle the media are. Start of last season they bearly rated us at all, had St Kilda, Carlton, Freo, Essendon and possibly Hawthorn surpassing us. Now all of a sudden we have a list that is setup to win multiple premierships. To be honest, I didn't exactly foresee last season would go as spectacularly well as it did, but I did think we had the core of a list that could compete for a flag over the next 2 or 3 years at least. Now all this incessant tyre pumping is making me nervous and I just hope we arn't about to get 2019 Mk 2.

It seems that every footy writer has just discovered the word "frank" and has to use it as often as possible.

Dogga is already way beyond being a good back up ruck, he is the nearly 200cm hybrid prototype of a ruck/midfielder that most clubs can only aspire to emulate atmo. As a matter of fact I would also put Maxy in the category of a ruck/midfielder. His clean hands and speed over the ground for a man his size is just awesome. They are an awesome combo that will only improve. Maxs' insistence in leaving Dogga in the centre square in the 3rd quarter was match winning and great coaching, as was adjusting our centre square setup at half time. Mac Andrew may very well get to that level eventually but I suspect it will take him a while. It's a shame he didn't come to us as our Academy player but I wish him well, seems like a nice young man with lovely family.

Just thinking about the propensity for clubs to follow the lead of premiers, i wonder if mac Andrew going so high was related to the effectiveness of the two ruck model the dees employed to such devastating effect in 2021. A few years ago rucks were seemingly out of favor. Now a reasonable question is can teams win flag without a gun ruck man AND a really good back up ruck.

I am into informal training. I am very informal about it.

I have followed the MFC since 1952 and our Midfield has never been in better shape. In previous seasons we had players who were drafted to bolster the midfield frorm other clubs like Tyson and Vince or via the draft Trengrove and Scully. Now we have a mature midfield with a mix of 24-27 year olds who are the core and some 21-23 year olds pressing for spots. We have young players like Laurie, Rosman and Howes all iching to get a first game in this side. As one of he commentators said in the GF the premiers has a midfield in career best form which is the reason that they won.

Viruses tend to evolve to become less lethal. I hope this is the case with Omicron

I think a large chunk of players in the AFL are largely inseparable in talent. Put in a good system with well defined roles and limit individualism and you have the makings of a successful team. You just have to look at the difference in us from the past 2 seasons. We couldn’t kick, score or defend. Now we are the masters of all 3. I think Dunstable will thrive in our environment and he has a point to prove so effort and commitment will not be in question.

Nothing I would like more right now, than the quinella. Go Dees!

Demons with faces…..

No way RGB our 2019 days are way behind us, our group now have so much pride and confidence in themselves and the club we are now very similar to 1955 MFC. Having just finished the Red Fox (750 pages) it is almost like this group of coaches and players are following in Norms footsteps. The selfless team oriented football was his trade mark.!!

Wow big predictions indeed Jon. Typical HS bs trying to generate clicks.

Although, on this occation, at least Flash posted a bit of a summary and key quote.

We were able to do so because JT and Tim lamb have one such a brilliant job getting the foundation prices in place in the last 6-7 drafts.

I never regret ordering a hamburger ☺️🍔

How come teams let us grab Fritsch at pick 31, or Rivers at pick 32? Everyone sees it differently, with picks a scarce resource Draft was supposed to be even between picks 15-40 odd

On to membership year number 15 (joined at the end of 2007)... And speaking of which, I just noticed there's a 'reward and recognition' scheme on the MFC site. https://membership.melbournefc.com.au/reward-recognition Is this new? (I can't recall having seen it before...)

I was watching an interview with Gawny and Trac yesterday where Gawny said Goody was going to dedicate a bunch of his acceptance speech to Jonesy, but never got the chance. Bloody Basil!

So could the ordinary flu.

Will be interesting to see how they change things up next year. I hope we go back to using Pickett in the centre bounces to give him something to aim for. ANB as well, I think it really signaled a level in trust in his game that helped his confidence. Sparrow should be pushing for more. And I'd have no issue sprinkling in a bit of Spargo, or if he gets in the side Chandler who I think is more of a midfield type than a close to goal forward. I think both Harmes and JJ should have their eyes on nailing the 3rd winger spot and pushing for Gus' 2nd wing spot and moving Gus in to more of a wing/forward rotation. Hoping Laurie can push his case and the run of drafting half back flankers in the draft makes me think they're at least keeping an open mind with Rivers or Bowey in to the midfield mix somewhere.

Well perhaps we could remove the 2 goals the bullies kicked in the second.

My word, he is a specimen! no one more driven then our boy Jack

Will rotate with Luke Donston.

Umm. Where to begin? The guy has just played one of the all-time great GF games - replete with superlative kicks, from the penetrating to the precise - and people are debating the dodgy height of his ball drop (so to speak). You couldn't invent it.

The task would have been so much easier if it were Jason Bourne movies The MelBourne Identity The MelBourne Legacy The MelBourne Supremacy (my personal favourite) etc

I watched a lot of Casey this year and this couldn't be more more further to your statement I'm still bemused at people like yourself who are so quick to write off kids straight away after their first year in the system. Not only was Rosman's development this year stifled by Covid but he like many other kids in their first year barely had any continuity. James Jordon is a perfect example why you don't just write off first year players. JJ show much in his first year in the VFL and some were quick to question his worth as a future AFL player. He proved many wrong this year and matched it with the best midfielders in the game. Rosman played exactly how I expect a raw tall athletic player would after missing a whole year of footy due to Covid. He played the first 6 games this year with Casey and he grew confident with each game and was starting to hit some find. After round 6 the season was put on hold until they resumed back again at round 11. He played only 3 games after before it was called off again. How on earth can a kid gain any momentum or form through that? it was a unfair on many young kids starting out in the AFL. Though, i am not surprised that you're once again finding ways to be extremely negative towards the club and how they're handling the list. This is you to the Tee. Here I was thinking a premiership would give many people on here clarification that the club has pretty much gotten it right on field and off.

While we're at it, I thought Oliver's handball to Sparrow could have been a bit flatter.

At any given time, at least 5 of this group need to be on the ground - three in the centre square, two on the wings. Add in Gawn and Jackson who are good enough to play as midfielders (our real superiority over the rest) and of course occasionally ANB, Kozzie, Bowey and Salem and we are well provided. Go dees.

ANB has been playing the same game for many years but has not been appreciated by DLanders until now. Lucky for him and for us the FD did understand and appreciate.

I think this was the sign that was erected during the 3rd quarter at Optus Stadium

I totally agree @Action Jackson and @FarNorthernD Langdon was an absolute steal. I do still wish people would stop evaluating individual trades though. There is no silverware available for the best individual deal. We trade to put together a list which, in its entirety, will win a flag. Individual trades like Lever or Langdon may look like overs or unders on their own but it absolutely doesn’t matter if it contributes to building a team that wins a flag. i understand, when there is no silverware in the cabinet that supporters will evaluate the trades as though they are an end in themselves but now that we have at least one flag from all that trading I think we can look at the work in its entirety and evaluate the list that is currently in place, It’s cost is irrelevant. Every team spends as close as possible to its TPP. Every team uses all its picks every year (and sometimes more). There is no prize for saving $100k or moving up or down the order if it doesn’t get you another piece in the premiership team puzzle.