Leaderboard

I'm really enjoying watching our women's team. Not only in the way they play but the culture they seem to have created. Not only do they seem really tight together but they also seem to really be enjoying their football and being part of our club. Back on the field for the start of the third quarter, only 2 points up in a qualifying final and they're in a huddle and having a huge laugh together! Two minutes later, they're back into it in a ferocious manner and smashing the reigning premiers. It made me reflect on what seems to be a different culture between the men and the women. Would the blokes get away with having a laugh on the field like that? Would the media make a big storm out of it? I know the blokes are under much more scrutiny, but footy must be a grind at times and this team seems to be really enjoying what they do. This must help build a team first culture. Is there a couple of leaves that could be taken out of the women's team book by the men's team? Mick Stinear and his team seem to have done a great job at building culture and even adjusting game plans from last seasons grand final defeat to how they play now. It's all happened very quickly and even the changes made throughout games seem to be quick and effective (probably a slightly different tangent here I guess or maybe not). Taylor Harris has stated a number of times along the lines of "I'm just happy to be on the field and do what's asked of me as best I can". It's going to be a shame to lose someone like Daisy from our club too I think. She definitely seems to be part of that bond between them all. I reflected on the punch on in a french restaurant last year. Maybe there's an extra level of competitveness and sledging that's (generally speaking) just part of male culture? Maybe some demonlanders closer to the teams can give some more insight. If you're not watching the girls play yet, you really should. They're a team this club should be really proud of.

I think our men's team culture is just as good as the women's. Gawn is an outstanding captain and the players look to really get around each other. I know there was the May/Melksham incident this year, but other than that I think our culture is one of the best in the AFL. Just because we had a bad finals series doesn't change this fact. I'm also loving watching our girls as well btw and they are easily the most skilled side in the women's comp.

Our AFLW list and player management has been phenomenal. It is only 3 years or so ago that we had Daisy & Paxy carrying this team, with Hickey & O'Dea on marquee contracts and doing very little. There really wasn't a lot of talent coming through, although players such as Lampard and Heath have really stepped up. Since then we have added serious talent every year, whilst other teams have been losing top players to the expansion sides. Our drafting has been superb, we've nabbed elite players from other sides and found a few diamonds in the rough as well. The coaching and development staff have been excellent, and it is clearly a great environment to be part of. I think this group realises that they can achieve something very special if they stay together and stay focused.

Great post!!!! While I think the bond between players and coaches in the mens team is good the brand that our women play is a hell of a lot more watchable than that of our men. I do understand with 2 less players on the field does leave more space but it is our intent to attack that I love. Our Mens team is far too conservative in many regards. And yes I am aware that our men won a premiership in 2021 but I strongly believe that our women will in 2022.

Our women's team seems to be always on the cusp of being absolutely unstoppable and having a great time while doing it. A breakthrough premiership could really be the first of many. I also think Alyssa Bannan is in the same 'moment' as an individual player; she is right on the edge of being the outright superstar of the women's game and also making everything around her feel more fun. Ugh, the anticipation is killing me. Damn I want that deeply deserved premiership.

Max has a bit of a history of exaggeration

A few seem to have forgotten the difference between the last 2 months of our season compared to Geelong’s. We had to fight for a double chance all over the country, while Geelong played predominantly at home against much weaker teams. If you want to over simplify the season maybe start there, and not with the bloke who coached us to our only premiership in 58 years only 13 months ago.

Reading this confirms that it's just guess work by SEN and not from a credible source.

Gawn and Grundy to replicate Cats strategy? We have the best two ruckman in the land so we are just going to copy the tactics of two older part-timers? Tactics that will be yesterday's news by 2023! Hope Goodwin has some better ideas...

A second option for Stevie May for the kick ins

Believe it or not here's actually science behind this. I worked with a cognitive scientist a few years ago who has worked with some of the top sporting teams in the US. He got them to implement telling jokes before going out to play. He explained that when we laugh we release endorphins which can help to relieve pain and trigger feelings of pleasure. It is also a very effective way of calming nervous players down just before they play and counteracts negative thoughts and fears. The Tigers got on to this a few years ago and you could see them coming out of huddles laughing. They actually specified players each week that had to have a joke to tell in the huddle. I don't know if that's the basis for the girls doing it but it probably is. I'm in awe at the massive leap in their standard of play even from season 6 to 7.

This is one of the reasons why I love watching this team play, it exemplifies the very point of the OP. These girls are great to watch, they're unified as a team, they love spending time with each other, their fans, they are loved and supported by each other and their supporters.

I reckon Cyndi Lauper was onto something! They're having a fantastic time, and working their butts off at the same time. Couldn't ask for more. It' been great watching them this season, they're playing a very exciting brand of footy.

I'm pretty sure the 'being able to laugh' culture was a specific outcome of the men's 2021 culture reboot, has been positively noted by players at various times since, and has been evident in huddles when close-up'd on broadcasts. I stand to be corrected; equally I'd appreciate it if someone out there could track down some specific evidence - interviews, footage, etc. I do agree wholeheartedly with the OP's and the others' observations and sentiments on the women' s team and its supporting staff, noting that where the girls are at in a pre-premiership trajectory has the vibe, for them and us, of the 2021 boys. Let's hope, then, that we have the opportunity to look at them in 'AFLW8', as the 2022 boys, as Premiers!

The women are more daring than the men for sure. I love the boys, not having a pop, just stating a fact. Doesn't always come off for the women but bloody good to watch

Hopefully our Beyoncé game plan of “to the left to the left” is a thing of the past now.

Like so much of the analysis of footy, I reckon this is yet another example, like the old soldier out soldier in trope, of applying 1990s logic to the game. Injury has long been the key determinate of the chances of the genuine contenders of winning the flag. Yet more often that not it gets downplayed as a factor. Im increasingly of the view that almost as significant a determinate is fitness. The game is just so aerobically challenging now that teams will not win a flag if they ate not at peak fitness come finals. Fitness is nor just downplayed, it barely seems to register as a key factor. Of course fitness and injuries are interrelated injuries disrupt training programs, and training programs might result in injury, or exacerbate soreness As an example of the latter, it would appear we were very banged up after the lions game. Yet in the bye week we replicated what we did in tbe pre gf bye in 2021 - all squad, full contact match sim. Tracc was on 360 that week sporting a split lip. No doubt others copped knocks. Maybe a full contact match simulations was a mistake? It's worth considering that there was no pre finals bye in 2021, so if Griffiths was following the Burgess template for his program, which I suspect he was, then the timing of that break was different this season.

Compounding the draw was the fact thst unlike Geelong we essentially played three finals before the finals. The pies and blues games were insane in terms of their pressure, intensity and brutality. The lions game, both teams were playing for top 4 and the do7ble chance, in front of a sold out gabba and was fierce all game, even though we were on top. And the lions came our with a plan to physical target us (did they have intel about our injuries?) No wonder we came into the finals banged up. The cats on the other hand had a dream run into the finals- much like ours in 2021 (we had the one tough game).

The opposition have enough trouble kicking it to Max when he's the main ruck, if he can have even more licence to drop back with Brodie as the main ruck, that could make things very difficult for them. Likewise, the unpredictability of using Max as a wepon forward or back while still having a dominant ruck in Grundy could provide some real headaches. Luke wasn't exactly that much of a contributor in alot of games this season, particularly the longer it wore on.

Too bad they can’t get more than 2,500 to rock up for a final hey

Jeez Max needs to talk less

After the flag, the footy world endured speech after speech from Roffey and Gawn about how good our culture is and blah, blah, blah. It’s no better than the best clubs. That’s what you aim for. It can deteriorate quickly when you seperate yourself from others as ‘special’. The women are great because they are a good team, they have great leaders who are respectful to the (very) different personalities they have below them, and their game plan is based around contested footy as a prerequisite for playing - which is the genesis for respect in footy. The boys can get back to that in 2023 if the leaders focus on it.

If it's not coming from Cal Twomey, it's not worth listening to. Happy to read analysis of players from everywhere, but I reckon Cal is the only guy who has any idea of what teams are thinking.

I agree. If not then we absolutely have to explore other options away from the MCG precinct. Commonwealth games are regional so no help there. Other than that the only things being built in Victoria is hospitals and railway infrastructure. We need to think outside the square and partner up with another party whether it be the Melbourne Racing Club at Caulfield Racecourse a private school, share an elite purpose built facility with the Australian Netball Team or anything but this fixation being at the MCG is holding us back. It really is time that the board gives members a real update of where things are at.

Can't answer that, but wanted to say what a cracking username!!.

That's an absolute cop out of an excuse. So then what's the point of having fit reserves/depth players right there ready to go if we're not going to bother playing them for injured players? It's utter stupidity and arrogance by Goodwin and glad he got found out for it. Geelong rested and managed their stars throughout the year such as Selwood and Danger and brought in depth players to cover them. The players they brought in to replace obviously weren't up to the calibre but they were solid enough to play a role. Why couldn't do that with Langdon? We arrogantly didn't rest players when the opportunity presented itself against West Coast and North Melbourne. We took Lever and Gawn up to the West Coast game after Gawn had hurt his knee the previous week and Lever rolled an ankle. Again, stupidity to play them when they should have just stayed back in Melbourne and rested. Or playing Salem round 1 with his knee completely bandaged up after coming back from a serious knee injury. Bloke last 5 minutes from a normal style tackle. Goody can't be pulling this [censored] again next year.

Sure, I get it, one here and there is one thing, 11is another. Chandler, Bedford could have offered a change up, Disco in and petty forward another. There were options, some might have even worked, at worst it rewarded good form at Casey and allowed out of form senior players to go back and find form or at least have to truly fight for their spot in the side. And really other than Gus to the guts and spargo to the wing, what was tried?

https://www.womens.afl/news/114399?_ga=2.159347065.231243073.1667858888-1696772815.1667858888 Hanks and Purcell in the squad. No room for Bannan!!??? McNamara, Heath, Hanks & Zanker were in the previous squad, Hanks & Heath made the final team. Zanker misses out on this season's squad because she turns 23 on Thursday.

So would the club, but Toby wanted out. C'est la vie.

Personally I reckon Max just made this comment for something to say. There's no comparison to the 2 scenarios and the Stanley/Blicavs model wasn't why they won the flag anyway. Swans were next to useless and outcoached and played injured players. But Max got us on the back page so well done to him. Think of it this way: 2 players worth combined $2.0M a year have a coffee and decide how to play together. - coz that's what he was saying. Yeah, good one Max - don't you just love the guy.!

I've been waiting for this review, to pop this Halloween picture of Trac here... https://www.instagram.com/p/CkW-BXkOpGy/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

We had well and truly started dropping off before the last month of game though. We had lost 5 of the previous 8 games before that last month. We didn't all of a sudden struggle because we came up against top 9 teams in the last month. The whole point is managing the year with an eye to peaking at the right time, and it seems from the outside we absolutely got that wrong and came into that last month and then finals banged up and not ready. Besides all that, Geelong were managing players half way through the year, they didn't just start doing it in the last month once they thought they had a good run home. For us, the ship had pretty much sailed by the last month came around.

My preference would be that my name is pronounced with true Italian purity, given it is claimed that proper Italian is based on the work of my author, Dante Alighieri. I think of him as the Christian Petracca of 14th century Italian poetry. Or not.

Actually I’ll make it easier for you. In the last month we played 3rd away, 5th away, and 9th (fighting to stay alive) and 4th at home. Geelong played 12th away and 8th, 10th and 17th at home. I guarantee if we got that soft a draw we would have rested players.

I'll throw P Moore in the ring and love Stevie May

Me when they give us next update on our home base.

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.

Not one defender named from the competition's statistically best defense? Birch and Heath should be both be in the squad. Harris, Hore and Purcell should all be certainties, but midfield spots are particularly tough to win. I would be highly surprised if Paxman makes it, although it would be a great story.

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.

Hibberd partially saved our bacon in the 2021 prelim when May went down, giving mature defensive support when most needed. Lucky to be there but he did a great job, the defence never looked unsteady, and although he was a bit player supporting Lever and Co I'm forever grateful for his efforts and pleased for him personally to make the Flag team. Sensible call to give both these players 1 final year which won't be a waste depth-wise.

You're ruling him out as a player based on 2 minutes of loosely brought together junior highlights?

i'd keep 4 interchange, no subs and reduce interchanges to 50 this would reduce 2-way running and congestion, opening the game up more and allowing the more skilful players to entertain us with their skills. ball ups would be reduced. tackling reduced and scoring increased. the game would be a better spectacle. coaches would initially hate it but they'd soon change and embrace it.

Max says we’re only paying half of Grundys salary. Is this new info? Had heard/assumed it was greater on our part?

Best in my lifetime. Jeff was great, but Steve May was a key plank in taking us to premiership glory and I think that tops Jeff's very respectable contribution. Him still wanting to bury the Bulldogs with minutes to go in the final quarter of the GF speaks volumes about his competitiveness that helped get us there. Jamie Shanahan and Anthoney Ingerson were also pretty decient recruits down back from other clubs, but May is bloody awsome. Elite.

We have already been left behind.

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.

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

'Take the game on.', 'Be aggressive.', 'Speed on the ball.', 'Swarm', ...Lethal... all terms you hear about MFC game style, whereas the WCE and Geelong game plans (pre '22) are dead, Geelong adapted, WCE did not, so that beautiful kick/mark football game of keepings off (yawn) that prioritised efficiency was found to be less useful than what Richmond, then us have been doing. This means more booboos from players who are ball winners like Gus, but high risk brings high reward. This playing style also leans on our superior fitness and run (relatively speaking) and team ethic. Gus consistently gets to where he is needed and puts it on the line and is a brilliant exponent of team first mentality. I can live with the booboos as they don't kill us on the scoreboard. I feel like people who criticise Gus are the same who yell 'kick it long' at the footy...