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Luke Breust and Jack Gunston have both been star footballers and All-Australians. I've watched from afar with envy, as they've both been so valuable in their ability to hit the scoreboard and complement Hawthorn's key forwards (and Cyril) in their dominant premiership years. Neither have ever kicked goals more than Fritsch did in 2021 (Gunston equalled once - Breust best is 57). And it's never been harder to hit the scoreboard than in 2021. Fritsch is only 25 and his best years lie ahead. He is a role player, but tell me anyone who plays his role better. The last two years running Fritsch has taken the 5th most marks inside 50. The last non key forward to do that (top 5) was Steve Johnson in 2010. It's easy to downplay Fritsch but his role is just about as valuable as it gets in my eyes.

The Hun this time of year is clickbait puff pieces about Carlton and Essendon. Most of their supporters are dumb enough to buy the BS. We don't need puffing up.

Just watched the game (family engagement yesterday evening) It wasn’t pretty but it was effective. Resolute defence, 50m penalties and Tayla Harris the difference Pretty even contribution across the board. Paxy was probably BOG. Don’t know why people doubt her Gillard showing great composure for a 2 gamer. Huge game next week. We can absolutely win over there. Freo could barely get the ball out of their defensive 50 for the entire second half yesterday against, it has to be said, an excellent Crows outfit (they’re going to be very hard to stop this year). We are winning big games at the business end of the season. It’s all to play for Go Dees

I can understand the desire to see how the young blokes go in a “real” game. I would like that as well, but… I also think it is more important to “ hit the ground running” and thump as many of our opponents as we can early in the season. We need, if we can, to establish our dominance over other clubs so that they expect to lose to us. Go Dees. B2B in 22

Flash. This must be a dress rehearsal for the first game against the Dogs IMO. Pick as close to our round one team as possible. The rest can show their wares playing for Casey.

Same Mitch Hannan who left a club in the preseason before they won a flag?

What a load of rubbish. If he goes somewhere else it will be for cash. The fact he is a premiership player and played his best game for years in the big one means he will never be remembered as a bit player.

Gary Rohan was in our best players in the Geelong final.

One of the most physical AFLW games I can recall. Our defence and the coach's bench were the difference imo. We 'gutsed' it out well, and the girls seem to have inherited a dash of 'never say die' attitude from our men.

Hey, people. I recommend getting a dees face mask. The club's official masks are pretty tame and understated, but there are websites out there selling demons masks that are in your face. Wearing my red and blue mask on public transport in Melbourne since the Granny has led to the most amazing conversations. Sometimes, it is just "Go Dees". Sometimes it is just snarls from the other teams' supporters. The Tiger's supporters are really upset (for some reason) that Petracca is being compared to Dusty. There have been so many amazing conversations, but my best in the last few weeks was a young bloke (early 30's maybe} who came up to me and said he was a West Coast supporter. Turned out he had met his father for the first time at age 29 (divorce etc) and he and his dad got on like a house on fire. His dad was a mad WC supporter and bought him a membership. Truth is stranger than fiction. Get a demons mask, people, but look beyond the club merchandise. Regards, Rollo (Rumours of my death are untrue)

Mate, I just watched the replay again yesterday. He did not 'come close to destroying our premiership' with this 7 disposals and 0 scoreboard impact.

Personal glory over team success? If he was my son I'd be telling him to stay.

Let me save you the trouble, it's an opinion piece not actually news. Nothing to do with him signing, all about how (the authors think) WC and Freo might offer him huge contracts. Skip it.

Hey, Daz. No, the nursing home is in Melbourne somewhere. I escape sometimes and get to a computer but they always track me down. I have this thing on my ankle which seems to glow when I escape. They have now taped up all the window on my floor, but not the upstairs windows in the demetia ward. It is only an 18 foot drop. Piece of cake. Talk soon, Daz.

Come on Dees Suporters, we are finally a great side and we are only 43000 members. All MCC members be a member of the MFC, and raise our tally. We are going to be a powerhouse of a team and we should at least get to 70000+ members. Get on board the Dee Train Go the Mighty Demons

At this time of the year all new contenders are tipped by has been coaches or journalist who never played a game and are unable to understand that game has moved on from the past. The GF showed that unless you understand that having a deep midfield without explosive players like Petracca, Bontempelli, Oliver, Dangerfield, Walsh and Martin then you are nowhere in the race to the premiership. Look at the premiers from 2016 to 2021 each premiers had the mix of explosive midfielders surrounded by a good midfield. Only the MFC has the luxury of having 2 of these types supported by Viney, Harmes, ANB, Pickett who may become an explosive type in the future, Jordan and Sparrow with wingers like Langdon and Brayshaw. Fremantle has Fyfe who is injury prone but has had no experienced support surrounding him with the result they struggle against teams who have great midfields. I believe the reason PA did not do better in the finals they lacked a player of explosive qualities.

fixed it for you

methinks twomey's tome has had the desired effect - got clicks, engendered debate, raised the hackles of supporters far and wide personally i would definitely have fritsch in the top 50 players in the competition heading into 2022; he finished 2021 really strongly, regularly kicking bags of four or more goals and at just 24 years old should be about ready to enter his prime as a footballer

What a load of bollocks other players got the ball because of what Pickett did.

cats had a virus for the first four quarters

The girls have always had that attitude. The boys inherited it from them i reckon

She's been very good for the past month or so

Beat Freo (in Perth) next week and we virtually have 2nd spot (and a pre finals bye, Home finals) sewn up. iirc we beat them in Freo this time last year so we can do it again. If we do it will be our best chance at a flag altho Crows will be hard to beat in Adelaide in a GF.

Whatever has happened to Tayla this year by coming home to the Dee's has been a master-stroke. A bit of maturity perhaps, maybe Daisy's influence, maybe a stronger culture around her... whatever changed has been fantastic. Cracker of a grab tonight and just a massive presence for the girls to walk taller. 👌 She never played this well at Carlscum.

Yes, much like the mens team, it is easy to see that roles are being embraced. Unlike the boys I am unsure if we can beat everyone but the girls won’t die wondering that’s for sure

Getting the job done, yep, that about sums up this game up for me. Every player did some small or big part to get us over the line and all seemed very aware and focused on what needed to be done, even if it didn't always come off. I think I wrote in a match report a few weeks' back (or maybe I had to cut for brevity's sake!) that Heath is so clearly a player that loves to have a really defined task and just dig into it. So I loved her role in this one: stop Kearney. And she sure did. If only she'd kicked that goal, it would have been so well deserved!

Stood on the outer wing all day, on the fence. Langdon just in front of us all day, boy can he motor. He also has the one on one skills to match. Had six opponents over the game beat the lot. During the first qtr north kicked it out on the full five times all on our side of the ground. During the game looked at the score board and we were 18 goals we score so quickly at times, north looked slow and hesitant. By the way we need to get the umpires down to training to explain to us where we are going wrong with the rules. The free kick count for the first qtr{ excluding out on the full] was 14 to 1 against us, and 27 to 11 all day. We must be very bad, particularly our tacking only 1 was rewarded. Good team effort and at one stage BBB had scored as many goals as north 5. Venue looked great, a small grandstand on the outer needed but great ground.

Adam Cerra can get a close up look at what he's missing out on

The greatest match up in the history of footy. OMac vs TMac

I thought Harmes was excellent yesterday with 3.1. Goal kicking midfielders are gold.

Rohan really was awful wasn’t he. I sort of wondered if he was actually injured when he got replaced or just embarrassed

Yep, half the commentators call him Fritz. Hudson with his continual yelling drives me crazy as well. I just don't see the need for the continual hyperbolic rubbish. Just call the game and have some decent analysis commentary from the likes of Daisy.

Let us take the grand finalists view of a practice game. Who cares ?

Unless an inside mid has to miss I can't see why he'd suddenly get elevated in to the team

1969 had 20 games. There was two step transition from 18 to 22. 22 started in 1970.

I would love a 350 game player, a 400 game player and a 100 goals in a season forward line player for Melbourne. I would also like another team to lose by over 190+ points in an AFL game. However, I will choose more Premierships over all of these records every time. After a 57 year Premiership drought finally over I think we all would like to see a bit of sustained success by the Demons. Winning Flags is all that matters.

ROUND 3 No stream this week - and to be honest, completely forgot about this game (men's praccy, AFLW, VFLW; it's all happening!). In the first of the VFLW/AFLW double-header at "the Fields", Casey had a third-straight win. Looking at the players listed below, we had all fit players on our main list involved at either VFLW/AFLW level today. A successful day for our women's program. CASEY 2.2.14 3.3.21 6.5.41 6.8.44 NORTH 1.0.6 2.1.13 3.3.21 3.6.24 Casey goalkickers: Caris, Chaplin, Fitzsimon, Johnson, McCrossan, Tarrant VFLW standouts: McCrossan - 1 goal, 17 disposals, 3 tackles Dowler - 16 disposals Hogg - 16 disposals, 6 tackles Fellows - 14 disposals, 3 marks AFLW-listed players: Caris - 1 goal, 14 hit outs, 3 clearances Fitzsimon - 1 goal, 19 disposals, 3 marks, 5 clearances Tarrant - 1 goal, 18 disposals, 6 tackles Brown - 14 disposals, 5 tackles Campbell - 4 disposals, 2 tackles, 5 hit outs Magee - 13 disposals, 6 tackles Petrevski - 15 disposals, 4 tackles

I’m surprised you didn’t list Gary Rohan above Fritsch. You have listed a few players who go missing in finals. Finals should be weighted way higher. Fritsch kicked 12 goals across 3 finals in 2021. J Cameron has kicked 21 goals in 12 finals. Daniher 8 goals in 4 finals. Naughton 10 goals in 6 finals. Papley 15 goals in 8 finals. Toby Greene 20 goals in 11 finals. Even Hawkins is only 48 goals in 29 finals.

How it feels to be a Demons supporter these days

What's "community" about the Docklands stadium? Surely this can be played at princess park or Casey.

Was a good hitout for the team after the short pre-season that they have had. Looked to me that they were just in second gear for much of the first quarter and took their chances when they presented. They then stepped up a gear or two and instead of waiting for the chances to present themselves they went out and hunted the opportunities a lot more. Still a few more gears to go through for them. Players like Petracca, Oliver, Gawn, Salem and May will always perform. Even when they are a bit out of form they will still manage to produce some quality. I watched the game and will watch the game next week to see how the other players are coming on. Loved the look of Sparrow's game. He is going to seriously difficult for opposition teams to match up on. He is behind Petracca, Oliver and Viney in the pecking order and I can imagine there are plans in place by the coaching panel to bring him into the game when one or two of the others are wearing tags. J Smith and Tomlinson are looking good. I have not been a wrap for Smith but will go with him if he is selected by the match committee. I see his good bits but he has just missed so much consistent footy that I have trouble evaluating he skills and quality. Tomlinson looks fit and driven and I think he will carry that through the season. I liked the job Petty did but he might find it difficult to reclaim his spot if Tomlinson works hard. Chandler, to me, is the Almost Man. He fits between Kossie and Spargo in my mind. has a spark but not as bright as Kossie. has the defence but not as tough as Spargo and, on the limited time I have seen him, is behind both on skill of deliver into the forward 50. Hunt has grown into a good footballer. I loved the way he runs and connects through the wing with Langdon, Brayshaw and Salem. There was a real connection growing there last season. It showed the way that the team wants to play with quick turnover reaction and layered overlap running to receive or position. Next week against Carlton I expect we will see a R1 preview team and we, and the players will know the situation with the contest for spots on the team sheet.

His one on one against JJ in the GF was outstanding.

Will be interesting to see what the club does. I have a bias because I just don't rate Smith but I can't imagine he would replace Hibberd in the team if Hibbo is fit. You're a long time retired and I don't expect Hibberd to just make way for someone to take his spot, he'll be scrapping and fighting tooth and nail to keep his position now that he's back in the 23 (as of GF day anyway).

Pretty offensive to Oliver.. Oliver is 10 times above the talent of Cripps. Other then that, a good summary.

Watched the replay last night. There wouldn't be many, if any, players out there who are better on the non-dominant side than Kozzie. I'm sure we recruited him in 2019 to mainly fill a specific need, but he's going to be so much more than that. His impact can't be measured on statistics. I also think Bowey was better than he was given credit for. I think it just comes as a massive shock when he actually does make a mistake. Won't hold my breath on Joel Smith staying fit, but he was really impressive. Tomlinson seems to be back way earlier than expected? Not suggesting any corners were cut, just pleased to see him out there and playing well. When he first went down in Tassie, you could be forgiven for thinking 2022 was a wipeout for him in terms of playing good footy again and yet here we are.

I reckon Dangerfield is massively overrated

I think the 3 for me are Lever, Trac and Brayshaw. Gus i think would be a great captain, he's a team player through and through But geez Levers voice, direction and leadership on game day, and at training is as good as i think i've seen, so he'd be my bet.

Yep. Relax when you retire. I am so happy this Attitude has finally infiltrated the Great Melbourne Football Club i banged on about it for years, and honestly thought it wouldn’t happen We must be loud and proud. More Cups on The MCG

A few years ago I thought Christian was too lazy to fulfil his amazing potential. More to the point, that his two way running was inadequate. He did not have a tank. However, in some sportsmen’s lives there comes a moment in time when they get it. Some are born with, some never get it, and others like CP develop it. All athletes have ability. The ones at the top have more than the rest. However, to take that big step forward takes a lot more. It means being fully committed every day, completely goal orientated and sacrificing all manner of things. In particular social life and other distractions. The best athletes are single minded and focussed. They may be modest but they have enormous self confidence and ambition. Never taking half measures and always seeking to improve. There are a lot of people that have contributed to CPs improvement but at the end of the day it has to come from within. Hats off to him. A future Captain no doubt. But this guy will go a long way in life due to his attitude and strength of personality. And he has a few mates in the red and blue.