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Reminds me of Hibberd at his best, but every week. The Irish connection and willingness to take the game on is what they have in common, and as players they are very different but I really want to highlight how much Mackin has improved throughout the year. I think is her understanding of the play and positioning has grown significantly and on the outside she does a superb job of knowing when to drop back and cover and when to take off to provide an attacking option running by. She must have covered a lot of ground on Friday night and was constantly running 80+ meters just to provide an option (even without being used) and also directional changes from defensive to offensive runs or vice versa to either cover or create the mismatch. I think if we can add Elize MacNamara on the other wing next season we'll have a truly unique set up in the AFLW with elite endurance and outside structure, combined with inside strength from Purcell, West and Hanks. It's very exciting!

Happy to take Hollands, Hewett, Phillipou or Allan with our pick. I reckon at least one of them will be there

For the love of god... 😂

Judging our fitness program given we know now how injured we were is silly. You can plan the perfect program and change it on the go and have the greatest sports science minds in the world but when half of your finals side is playing injured and hobbling around no amount of planning is going to change the result. Comparing to Geelong is also a waste of time. We are different sides who had different luck with injury. on the not blooding enough vfl players theory. We tried a lot of them and a lot of them showed very little. We don’t have the depth some people wish we had. It could be that the bottom six did what they could but given we had a huge decrease in output from those above them due to injury, lack of continuity, short pre season etc they weren’t able to do what they did last year. given time to reflect I think we did exceptionally well to hobble to second on the ladder and it shows just how good our top ten or so players really are that we did so despite not being anywhere near our best.

This sums up the vibe in the crowd for me. Just watching a regulation set shot and then everyone went off. She had every single person in the stadium fooled except perhaps blood relatives: Loved this as well. Great, humble team attitude (and Mithen hamming it up, of course!) Watching the replay I was looking out for what we did to deal with Marinoff. No direct tag but denied the footy (though she made up for it with tackles). And it's a trend: Also enjoyed on the replay how our players handled the niggle throughout the game and particularly in the last quarter. Flew the flag, not intimidated, but no one was sucked in - they did their best to get Harris. And Hore going in to help Daisy (not that she needs it) - bit of full circle stuff there and so much respect.

The examples on this page are existing grounds with club history being re-developed. We haven't got that. I get the frustration but our task is a lot harder, especially as our preference is being close to the CBD.

But why Red? The "squeaky wheel" gets the oil. Are we not squeaky enough? Is our profile not important enough? I thought having contacts and getting funding etc was one of Roffey's strengths. We appear to still be an irrelevant club. I'm not having a crack at you here - I just don't get it.

Max and Brodie article from today's 'Age'. (Ignore the link title) https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/collingwood-skipper-takes-aim-at-aflw-semi-final-scheduling-blues-afl-pair-on-the-mend-20221108-p5bwdl.html

Steven May was huge for us again this year, he held the defence together despite a number of injuries to other key backs and apart from a major off field blunder was unbeatable on field. He is a real leader and competitor on field and I hope he can stay that way for another 2-3 years. I love the way he plays the game and he will enjoy having Grundy and a fully fit Salem out there next year so we won’t be so predictable.

Bowey, Chandler, Bedford, Weid, JVR, Laurie, Tomlinson all could have been rotated through at different times late in the year without costing our system too much. You obviously wouldn't do too much at once, but giving the injured players that extra recovery could have made the world of difference. Cats did it, worked alright for them this year hey?

What would you prefer? ND53? They’ll be helpful next year. Delisted FA? They are keeping out speculative kids that we would have to spend time and energy in when we should focus on our great team and fitting in Grundy, Hunter, and JVR.

A mate spoke to a players father who said we had 11 injured players playing in the finals. We know quite a few of them like Lingers for instance carried injuries for a lot of the season. Injuries can limit how much they can train which in turn eventually effects their ability to run out games. Might explain a lot. More likely explanation than Cats got conditioning right and we got it wrong.

They did have a very easy run home which allowed them to do this.

Agree with this. I would add that there is a danger we have recruited similar style replacements (although Grundy, Hunter are upgrades) and the temptation will be for Stubborn Simon to roll out the same game plan on the basis that we were 2nd on the ladder and were ahead in all games so something must be right. We need to change our gameplan to take account of teams that don't kick long to May and Lever The most instructive games were Collingwood , Sydney and Geelong that completely restructured their game plan to beat us. If we don't learn from that we are cooked.

Clearly we have more interest in the depth of the 2023 draft (where we already have four 1st/2nd round picks, if I recall correctly) than in the 2022. I'd suggest they are on modest salaries, will require very little attention from coaches, contribute to player development at Casey, and be part of the overall weight of demonstration and support for standards for new players. These things matter in the era of tight budgets and footy dept soft caps. Plus, obviously, either of them in their better form is a legitimate AFL level player. I'm not dancing around giddy but I'm also far from being upset. Also, Melksham just needs 6 more games for his premium genetics to become available to us.

Good to see! Great additions and we got the better end of those deals. Both will play 100+ games for us and set standards in how to play to those that drove our flag win

Maybe - work with me here - we just didn't have the alternatives. Oscar Baker for a banged-up Ed Langdon? I'd take the banged-up Lingers any day. People just have to accept that sometimes, for reasons you can't control, things don't work out. True in life, especially true in sport.

I was going to go and check out the oppo. I guess they didn't want my money? Also, I'd be pretty annoyed if I was one of only (presumably) a couple of thousand RIchmond members, and didn't even get a ticket to this game. Way to treat your members. There are problems with venue availability. Apparently, most options have been ruled out:

On Cal Twomeys latest draft video he mentioned Busslinger has received an invite to draft night but Hewett at this stage had not. His comments suggested that invites were directed at top 10 hopefuls rather than for the first round in general.

as opposed to a Bitter one…..

Huh. That's what you were saying this time 100 years ago.

Don't worry dd we will get a home soon!!! I am confident it will be this century.

Hoping Goodwin has a huge mindset change over the summer because arrogantly rolling with the same 22 each week and with the same bland game plan cost us in the end. Us fans could see what was unfolding as the year went on and so did majority of the footy public. Yet, our coaching staff showed not a hint of plan B. Sticking with the same guys each week, who some were badly out of form, sent a complete and utter wrong message to the blokes doing the hard yards at VFL level. Clubs worked us out easily in the 2nd half of the year with our slow ball movement and our consistency of kicking it deep into the pockets. This is what worries me when we make no changes within our assistant coaches. I was a Stafford fan previously but surprised he survived another year. If we're rolling with the same forward entries come round 1 then we aren't winning it in 2023.

Cats likely have 6-8 players older on their list.

Hoping to see Lachie Hunter feature prominently in the 2023 list. Can also use the ball.

Yup exactly this. Was told by a current players parents that we were “pretty badly beaten up” by the time the finals had come around.

How good does that jumper look without all the different AFL and sponsors' logos on it?

Slightly off topic but I hope all listed players get invited to future GF reunions, would love Jake and others to be a part of that

Love this... https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/1245701/aflw-qf-in-the-rooms?videoId=1245701&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1667800644001

And that’s the coach and selectors fault. All year they refused to play Casey players. Goodwin and co cost us massively in the second half of the year. We looked flat, we looked crud yet nothing changed. It was dumb and must have been deflating for Casey players in form watching the seniors struggle.

I'm sure it's been posted a 100 times before, but it never gets old! (Since this video was made they've gone on to lose three further prelims in 2012, 2019 and 2022 + the 2018 Grand Final 🤣)

Mofra is always a good read on Big Footy: https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/mofras-cynical-and-ill-thought-out-mock-draft-top-25.1337832/

I think if May kicks out to the left after each point and we kick to a pack in the forward pocket we will smash it this year!

A bit hard, Smith was the medical sub and wasn't used.

The big-bodied All Australian recorded another podium finish in this year’s club best and fairest underlining his important to the club’s defensive structure upon which its success in matches is so dependent. "Another strong season from the Demons’ backline general, who finished third in the club’s best-and-fairest. Retained his place at full-back in the All-Australian team and was the first defender to hold Lance Franklin goalless this season in the Demons’ qualifying final loss. But he made headlines for the wrong reasons mid-year after his part in a restaurant scuffle with teammate Jake Melksham. Has another year to run on his deal." - Herald Sun Date of Birth: 10 January 1992 Height: 193cm Weight: 101kg Games MFC 2022: 22 Career Total: 193 Goals MFC 2022: 0 Career Total: 23 Ron Barassi Senior Memorial Trophy Third Club Best & Fairest: 473 votes

Depth each year changes and our newer recruits are a year older and after their first real pre season JVR especially is ready for a season start in the big time. Others who should be available during the season are Taj W Bailey Laurie and maybe AMW. Disco Turner is tracking well for a defence promotion esp if Petty can go forward. Dunstan and Tomlinson are reliable back ups and Schache could be the surprise of the season. Fitting Grundy in replaces Jacko and Lachie H on the wing will still have to earn his spot but I have no doubt if his ability. Kade Chandler deserves a go in HFF and to put extreme pressure on Spargs and ANB. Down back or even forward Bowser is ready to star again in the big time. That's 11 players adding to our 22 taking out Hunty and replacing with JJ. Reality is some of our players need to be given a chance to put pressure on one that slipped in 2022 from 2021.

Quite an enjoyable chat on SEN radio. Not lacking confidence but seems like a nice kid. Draft prospect has “big shoes to fill” after Martin, Petracca comparisons https://www.sen.com.au/news/2022/11/07/draft-prospect-has-big-shoes-to-fill-after-martin-petracca-comparisons

And playing injured and out of form players was great!

This makes interesting reading against the background of the myriad views of 'Landers on various players: https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1245641/speed-and-endurance-melbournes-best-runners-in-2022 There's a couple of whipping boys in there, and it's fair enough that their contributions with and around the ball also be accounted for, possibly (probably?) more than these 'effort' metrics, but a discussion of the importance of those metrics might be interesting? Over to you all.

The frustrating thing was Casey lost 1 game yet no changes made after losing our first final , Bedford sent a message

I wonder when some of these height and weight measurements are done. The height and weight stats for some players varies markedly, especially for key position players and ruckmen. The player in our range who impresses me is Busslinger. I have the feeling that, provided he recovers from his surgery, he could walk into a key defensive position more readily than a Jefferson into a forward line, even at Melbourne. If the club does experiment with Petty as a KPF then Busslinger might be worth a try.

I wish I could be pleased with this - but I’m not.

Hmm, I see Grundy as a better short term option than Jackson so it might be that Goodwin is licking his lips saying 'now I can really see our strategy working'. He is to me quite stubborn so it wouldn't surprise if he tries to keep the same game plan but with better personnel. And that would be a worry because teams picked apart our game plan this year. 9 times teams kicked more than 90 pts against us vs once in 2021 We were stagnant and predictable this year. Everyone knows we were beaten the same way. And if teams don't kick it long to Lever and May we aren't very good at defending. Our record against Coll and Syd are atrocious. I think it would be a big mistake not to evolve our game plan and introduce some flexibility into it. Grundy will give us options and I hope we build a suite of options for different scenarios

Add to this the sense that 21 just rolled into 22 without enough of a break, both physically and mentally. Not to mention missing key players, especially McDonald and (effectively) Salem. But it was clear that players like Gawn, Langdon and Lever were carrying something, at least for the last part of the season. It all adds up.

I went Friday night, and i have to say it was one of my most enjoyable experiences footy wise for a long time. Just loved it. It was like a throw back to another time (fun fact - the men' team played the last ever AFL game at PP - in 2005 against Fitzroy of all teams). Getting the tram up royal parade, with a stop right in front of the ground (Waverley park says hi). Princess park nestled in arguably Melbourne's most beautiful, and certainly most extensive, parklands (if you include the zoo, golf course and other parks stretching down to Flemington road). The weather was perfect, the ground was in brilliant nick, the crowd was in great spirits, the vibe was awesome and the noise was bearable during the breaks, meaning i could actually talk to my mate and enjoy the breaks. The AFL should progress the idea of making Princess Park the epicentre of women's footy in Victoria. Invest in infrastructure. Put in some permanent things for kids. And play say half of all Vic game there and/or perhaps specific marquee games. And most of all, the game was just so damn enjoyable to watch. Both teams played with incredible spirt and courage. Fearless. I was amazed none got seriously injured, such was the crazy brave energy. And under that pressure, some amazing skills and individual efforts. To top of a great night, i walked out, a tram came straight away got the tram to Flinders street and only had to wait 3 mins for my train. Princess park on a Friday night to my door in Altona in 75 minutes. Gold. Bring on the prelim.

Not that it's ever an excuse and you play who you play, but copping Brisbane in that semi final really did not help us. By that point they had too much film and study acquired on us (especially with the most previous game being 2 weeks previous). It is hard enough for anyone let alone Hibberd to play on one of the league's best small forwards 3 times and come up trumps every time. I also thought Smith was labelled a bit harshly in the 21 QF, there was 1 goal that I definitely thought he erred but little else apart from that. If we take that approach with Smith then the same should be taken with Hibbo. Beaten? Yes, disgraced? No.

Missed TMac. delivery inside 50 too predictable got our conditioning program wrong Too many niggles and injuries at the wrong time

Meanwhile ... the Suns aren't that far off it. They play good footy in patches, and have all the pieces, but they lose matches by dropping their bundle at some point in a match, when the tide is going against them. They pick up their socks but by the time they do, they're too far behind. They then proceed to do that for enough matches in a row to drop off the pace and it's season over. A Scott, Clarkson, Hardwick, or Goodwin would have them in the 8 overnight.

Predicting a premiership window is about as reliable and picking one of these.