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Meanwhile… the Weid was probably at home drinking hot chocolate and reading comic books in his room

I have a degree in Exercise Science and 22 years experience in elite sport and agree roughly with Binman. Peak performance readiness only lasts so long. Teams in premiership contention try one of two (with variations) approaches: - Continue preseason for many weeks into regular season sacrificing peak performance in the interim, banking enough wins along the way (60%/40% is a good result depending on who they play) to keep them in and around top 8, then lightning the load and hitting their straps a few weeks later. This can be followed by a shorter block later in the season (around round 18), with final peaking occurring in finals. This all depends on list/age profile of course. - Train for a double peak which means they prepare to hit the season running and bank early wins (exactly as we seem to have done), before building load prior to and out the other side of the bye rounds (again sacrificing best performance and looking for a 60/40% win loss record) before hitting a second peak in the later half of the year. (Pre finals bye and pre Prelim bye for those top 4 who win first week allow reduction in game fatigue and increased uptake of train stimulus without negative effect (normally in the form of high intensity work like match simulation activities). Don't forget there's different forms of loading which have different outcomes. Aerobic Endurance, Aerobic power, Anaerobic endurance and anaerobic power are all types of prescription which have different outcomes. You can't do all at the same time, but tend to focus on them at different phases throughout the season. Not all have a negative effect on game day performance but all come together in the end (in theory) at the right time. Remember also, not every athlete is the same. Petracca (power athlete) will respond to increases in volume (running and gym reps) different to Langdon (endurance athlete). Hence each will be prescribed different stimulus to suit body type and training background and are monitored via gps for all metrics of volume, intensity and duration. During this time Petracca will likely get slow and heavy (and thus kick poorly), while Langdon is unlikely to suffer the same way and may in fact get better. If you add to that the influence of injury and illness, it can become quite a balancing act to make sure all athletes are doing what they need for their best performance. Sometime an athlete may need to extend their period of increased loading because they were sick or injured for a period during that time and actually dropped load whilst sick/injured. Having worked closely with a S+C coach involved in AFL for 8 years , I can assure you that teams do go through periods of increased training load throughout the season depending on where they sit on the table. Watching our boys in person the past few weeks they sure do look like they have changed training stimulus. In any event it's all speculation really as the club isn't about to come and hand out their IP to everyone by telling them what they are doing, so time and on field performance will reveal all!

He is a leader of the club. He is 29. He is handsomely paid. He is one of our most important players coming off a concussion as we face 2 losses. There is literally no excuse for his behavior. I love him and I won’t hold it against him, and yes everyone makes mistakes, but the club and the supporters have every right to be furious about it. We can hardly afford to have him out for another week. His action might have cost us 4 points which could be the difference between a home final or a double chance come the end of the year. Big big consequences.

I know it's a parody account, but it would be nice to think that Melksham would fire up when the chips are down.

Absolutely had to suspend him. Destroys culture when you don't.

An individual punishing the team by their behaviour.

I’m super disappointed. I love Steven May. He’s everything that our footy club wasn’t for 50 years. Unrelenting, ruthless, ridiculously competitive and tough as nails. He made a mistake, he’ll pay for it, and I’ll still love him - because you’ve gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette and Steven is the first in line to break em. I guess I’m saying he was probably being himself, and that’s what makes him an incredible player. While you can be disappointed in the action you have to see it as part of the entirety of the person. He’ll be livid, as he should be, and now he owes his teammates and the club one. Get behind him.

Is everyone going home today and watch the GF again to get the good vibes back!

People will have their opinions with or without the facts, I really don’t care. But after 2 losses and a lot of negativity around the team’s performance, it’s just so disappointing that May will not be playing next week. Such an important player to the team’s structure and toughness. Bloody disappointing that’s all.

He wasn't drinking, he was just 'loading'...

Super annoyed, but we should acknowledge the leadership from our leadership group, it would have been easy to just be like 'Oh dont do it again you are a super important player and we need you' but culture starts from the top.

The loading must have gotten out of control between 2007 and 2014

And there's the difference in culture. Thank god for ours.

Just give the bloke a fine, not suspend him Hurts the team more than the player. I'm all for doing the right thing off the field but would we suspend him on the eve of a GF?

I'm in the camp that we load throughout the season at different times, and that it directly influences performance. I am not saying it is the ONLY thing influencing. Anyway, it appears it's a polarising topic. Here is something I just googled, which confirms my view (and what I have been told from someone who would know0 that the wider AFL system (particularly those in finals contention, ramp up their training). I happily accept that I search for info that confirms my beliefs, and refute anything that disproves it on this particular topic. Maybe semantics are important - loading (up training), volume vs intensity, development blocks, etc etc... Whatever we call it, and however we interpret what we call it, nonetheless, there are still fluctuations in the intensity and volume of training during the season. This is on a Brisbane Lions thread in 2020. This last 3-4 weeks have been pure magic for our teams development because it is an almost perfectly designed training block. All training improvements come from progressive overload. Start with x load, increase by 10% for a number of sessions then pull back and rest to allow the muscles/aerobic/ to develop. This diagram shows the process. Overload can be by intensity or volume (eg gym = increase weight or reps) and applies across weeks, months, seasons... During a season it looks different - it's maintenance and recovery, but finals teams include additional development block prior to September. Playing finals with their increased intensity also acts as a overload training block. Up until the giants game we were cruising in normal season recovery/maintenance mode, then the dramatic increase the volume acts as progressive overload. Other teams have also had the increase in volume but longer breaks, byes and swapping more players means the overload is not as effective for some teams. It is one of the reason we need a strong seconds competition and why our seconds players are struggling once they get a game - they have been left behind. This week rest is supercritical, then we will see a big uplift in our performance. As long as injuries don't escalate this season is only going to get better for us.

Standards won us a flag. We can't afford to let them slip.

So one match for drinking while on concussion protocol, nothing for punching Melksham 😀

In other news... I bought my wife a Narrm scarf and it arrived today. It's luxurious! 100% Australian wool and made in Melbourne, I had assumed it was going to be the same junk as the members scarves.

The dees were ahead of our time. We loaded for two decades in the 70s and 80s, tapered in the 90s, noughties and right up to round 16 last year And won the flag in 2021.

Not sure I've ever seen the Herald Sun and fact checking in the same sentence before. It's not the way that particular newspaper (for want of a better word) usually operates.

I won’t eat there again. They are just trying to capitalise on this now. Why would you go out of you way to publicise that footballers fought at your $$$$ restaurant? If you are looking for French in the area Bistro Gitan is romantic and very charming, or their sister restaurant l’Hotel Gitan is more relaxed and does an excellent traditional chicken rotisserie special on Wednesday nights. I can assure you at both locations any punches thrown at the table will be handled discreetly, and the respective wine lists are very good.

This is the kind of knowledgeable, well written, industry specific insight that kills the fun for those of us who rely on speculation, gut feel, and third hand rumours overheard at a coffee shop in Casey. How dare you. 🤣

The club was going to suspend May for 2 games for drinking under concussion protocols, but reduced it to one on learning that he’d actually landed one on Melksham. Also, there was a recent Age article discussing research from Monash Uni, and it was suggested players should have a 28 day break from contact sport after a concussion. I just see Steven May as being at the forefront of medical science.

Serenity now. Serenity now. Serenity now. Serenity now. Serenity now. Serenity now. Serenity now. Serenity now. Serenity now.

Can't remember the last time I had dinner with friends and got into a fight after it Clearly not drinking enough

Punishing the team for an individuals behaviour.

Managed to get a small snippet of the CCTV footage.

The Club and May have released a video. Not of the fight but a video never the less.

The big news here isn't even that he was drinking and that they had a scuffle. It was that they immediately self reported and the club was pretty swift in deciding action. It shows strong leadership and self-awareness. A blip on the radar. Dees by 8 goals.

The Heraldsun quotes that there were up to 12 players at the dinner. The blame and responsibility is on May, but surely some of the other players present would have known he shouldn't have been drinking? True leadership is another player at the table ensuring May didn't drink, when he may have wanted to. If the altercation occurred because Melksham was having a go at May for drinking, then I have respect for Melksham.

It is for Collingwood these days!

Absolutely have to suspend him. MFC has worked so hard to build standards and culture and by not suspending him will just undo all of that.

And yet DeGoey lands himself in a New York clink and Collingwood don't suspend him from any games.

Can we give Melksham 3 weeks, and May a warning?

The holy grail of fitness and form coming together at the same time is not sustainable for long periods of time. Absolutely no doubt that AFL clubs mix up loads depending on periods of the season. Fitness and motivation roll along in peaks and troughs throughout a season, we have been 'up' for a long time, a lull was inevitable. What matters is that the players are getting the work done now to make sure that magical form/fitness period is late September. I'll also add, we have had a very disrupted start to 2022. Continuity has been a real problem with lots of injuries

Backing out of the room slowly as I love Entrecôte and I suspect stating that might do nothing to help the perception of us as a supporter group. Cheeseboard anyone?

Can mitch cleary get suspended for a week for that egregious misuse of the hyphen in "one-match"?

Players and coaches from teams that lock in finals early have openly talked about heavy training periods done in season for many, many years. Sometimes they directly call it "loading", other times they call it "heavy training blocks". It's definitely no secret. It is a luxury that teams that bank wins early have and is why teams that have some poor performancess in the middle stages of the year come out and smash teams in finals that have had to fight all the way just to make finals. Flirting with form comes with risk, as does the increased risk of injury, but if you are in it to win the major prize, not just make up the numbers in September, it is well worth the risk.