Leaderboard

Too much on here now for individual 👍s, so thanks everyone for the observations, insights and emotions expressed. I point the as-yet-unconverted to the 'All The Moments' videos of the last few games, on the club's website. They well support the views of the converted herein. Tim (MFCAFLW Foundation Member #242)

I was sceptical at first 'old dee' but believe me our girls are great to watch. Sure the skills are not at the AFL level but they have really improved. The sense of fun as well as competitiveness from this group along with the x factor of Bannan and the 2 Irish girls Goldy and Mackin is worth it. I've never seen anyone in the mens game do what Bannan has done. Her speed over the ground with long strides is simply incredible. The 6 bounce run last week, not to mention the play on goal, the run down tackle from 50+ metres away a few weeks back. Get on board 'old dee'...

Good to see the President at training.

Girls are looking sharp at training this morning at Princess Park.

I gotta say I’m hoping that when May is kicking in if they are both out there and in position to be there let’s get them on opposite HB pockets to reduce the predictability of our kick ins. Fair dinkum I reckon it was one of our biggest failings through the year and most importantly the finals series. Nullifying Max from taking contested marks went a very long way towards teams having repeated entries. I actually think Grundy could work as a great pick up IF USED CORRECTLY.

Bloody Grundy influence.

One could say you’ve just described Luke Jackson. He’s a big man with small man skills. He’s lauded for agility and ground ball skills for a tall, but ironically his weakness are his big man skills such as marking and using his body in contests. I haven’t seem enough of Keeler to pass good judgement, but his skill set and output seems fine for his size.

I'm not 100% on this, but I'm pretty sure it activates the bidding process in the draft system which is all computerised now. Without nominating, another club just picks him with a pick after 40 and he is theie player/pick. If he's nominated as an NGA when they pick that player in the system, it becomes a bid with the option to match or not. I also think it gives the nominating club the option to category B rookie the player before the rookie draft if he doesn't get drafted in the national draft, like we did with Andy Moniz-Wakefield.

Oooookkkkaaaayyyy, so the women are playing in Carlton on a Saturday arvo. Surely we can sell out that place against another team from the city. Would be disappointing if this great team had less supporters than NM. Get there and be a part of something!

If you’ve seen so little of him, it’s interesting that you conclude that he’s a “small player stuck in a big player’s body” and you wouldn’t take a chance on him as an 18 year old to develop his game. He plays for North Adelaide in the SANFL Under 18s and is 198cm 88kg and has played ruck and key forward roles and kicked goals. Why could he not become more imposing than BBB (a late developer) with some gym work and a few pre seasons under his belt? By comparison, a lot of people around here are salivating over the rangy stick figure key forward Matt Jefferson who is 194cm, 76kg and while he can admittedly take a grab, he doesn’t have much physicality and, at this stage of his career is by no means a strong man?

As a child, Earl, I used to think, and say, that the Princes Highway was the Princess Highway, evidently presuming a missing 's' rather than wondering about an absent apostrophe. Turns out the highway was originally the Prince's Highway (named for Eddy #8 when Prince of Wales) but there has apparently since evolved an 'Australian geographic naming convention' that removes apostrophes, possibly because they 'look ugly' on signage and because 'it can be argued that contextually they don't really belong'. I presume Princes Park went the same route! Thanks, for this, to the 'Google Groups "Aussie Highways" group' (yes, there is such a thing...) p.s. Careful with 'begs the question' (a usage I've never been able to get my head around): you might be fodder for "Demonstone's and Flaubert's English Grammar for Demonlanders 101'! (though I would argue this one is at least Third Year 301!)

So 4 players out of how many? Hardly an issue. What comes around goes around. We got Langdon and Lever in from interstate

The whole of 'Land is a judgement free space :-)

We've had dominant rucks for almost the last 20 years if not longer but we've never had a gameplan that leveraged such domination. Max and LJ added dimensions. Max with round the ground play and LJ with his follow up ground ball play. FWIW I'd prefer to see one of the two rucks on the other side of the ground but say another 20 metres closer to our goal opening up the chip kick to Salem and then the long zone breaking kick to Grundy who should be boundary 70 metres out from our goal. The next kick under the Goodwin plan goes to the pocket but I would like to see it squared up to CHF and then kicked to a leading forward. Worth a try

These words they speak are true, We're all humanity stew if, We don't pledge allegiance to...... Well, you get the drift Old Dee. There is a chasm between Melbourne/Brisbane and the rest. How our women, OUR CLUB, play each week is absolutely stunning. Have you heard any negative comments from anyone who has actually watched them this year? Their matches are incredibly fast, the standard is nothing you've seen before - trust me. They are so exciting, and bloody tough! One day you'll realise how good they are. For your sake, don't let it be AFTER they win their first flag. You will regret it. PS. Apologies to Alice Cooper, who I'm sure would be an AFLW supporter 🕷

I’ve only seen very little of this year’s draftees, but I don’t think I’d pick him with any selection and I would be shocked (given how Melbourne play footy) if he was on our list of potential draftees. As a big guy he has some good little guy skills …. but that isn’t the role we’d need him to play. We need big guys with good big guy skills, players who compete in the marking contest and compete in the ruck contest. He’s a small player stuck in a big player’s body. I’m sure someone could take a chance on him …. but it wouldn’t be me. Apparently not Adelaide either.

So this was his plan all year with the greasy long hair. 🤩

I have loved footy and our beloved Dees for most of my long life, and I can honesty say that, outside of AFL premierships and a few other extremely memorable occasions, nothing has given me more joy than to watch the ‘growth’ of our AFLW players and game plan over the last seven years. it’s been phenomenal. A flag is almost within touching distance. I promise you, tears will be streaming if / when we can bring it home.

The man just oozes testosterone and confidence. I suspect he'll keep the man bun and win the Brownlow by roughly 20 votes.

We should be using the best umpires available in the final series, it is looking more like Rafferty’s Rules. The throws are so blatant it looks like the umps have never played footy.!!!

We have played there. On a couple of occasions. I remember we beat the filth there one year.

This one I can tell you, Sunday 27th November. I hope if we win through the powers that be decide it will be in Melbourne. If so Marvel seems the best choice for all involved, we’ve never played there so in theory the turf is neutral, and it’s the best location for fans to get to. Plus there is a strong Fitzroy following in Victoria evidenced from our finals loss.

As I said previously I am happy for all. Enjoy

Ultimately just not what we’ve been doing for the last 18 months, and dare I say it a bit of variety with how we exit from behinds.

Don't be put off, other Puzzlers; my inbox is a judgement-free safe place!

Several clubs very keen on phillipou including bombers at 5. He's the one I'd be after but looks unlikely he will be there at 13.

Each to their own OD. Your loss

One 'hint' I must give you all, having just realised it, is there is a coincidence between one player's qualification for Brian's team and the grand final he played in!

Good to see Salem moving/running like that - perhaps a sign that the o.p that has plagued him for nearly two years might be fixed.

Adelaide's apparent 'lack of interest' could be because: 1) they think he will go in the top 40 so not allowed to match 2) their only draft picks are: 46, 56, and 59 so even if we went after 40 they have limited draft currency to fulfill their draft obligations of 3 draftees/rookie upgrades. They have a full hand of 2023 picks plus an extra F2 (NM) and F3 (Coll) but may not be willing to use any of them to match a bid after pick 40...are they targetting someone better than Keeler in 2023? 3) On a 'needs' basis they think they have enough forward and ruck options and have other positions in mind for a 'needs' basis pick this year. They all look like good reasons to me.

I'm going to be the devil's advocate here. They need to name it Marvel and be done with it. Melbourne and Brisbane both finished equal top of the ladder, with only .3% separating them. Brisbane have already hosted a grand final, they have also already won a premiership. Given the fact we missed out on seeing the men win the premiership in 2021, it's about time we were looked after for a bloody change. And if the interstate clubs want to plead "bloody Victorians", let them - we've been [censored] on too many times, and we need to fight back.

Benny is ace, he's one of the most approachable of the men, and he's so engaging and inclusive. He's fantastic, lovely fellow. Hattie, too.

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.

The challenge for DL today and from now on is when floating the idea of hanging onto future picks or potentially trading for more, to present an idea that extends a bit beyond the simple opinion that 'next year's draft is meant to be strong'. 🙂

This attitude is precisely my point. Unless we finish on the bottom, or miraculously end up with a draft pick haul large enough to trade for a top 3 pick (likely top 1), we ain’t getting Reid. It took the injury season from hell for us to end up with the pick 3 for Jackson. It’s all fantasy stuff, but let the other clubs enjoy having their imaginations run wild with long long shots - I think there is still some horse trading of picks to be done now that the players have all moved, and I think we’ll be aiming to climb the order. My guess at the target: Phillipou.

Agreed, think he’s heading there myself He’s a country boy who has been boarding in Perth for the last few years so used to being away from home and I think will play in 2023 for whoever drafts him

Dons a lock for top 12 now.

Thread title needs to be changed from retires to retries

I also heard that Tom was in full running mode which is absolutely fantastic news.

He was playing basketball with Gawn and Harmes, so safe to say he is good to go. The removal of the metal is just part of the process.

You are on the money as usual Dazzle! In @WalkingCivilWar 's neighbourhood quaffing spewmante by the schooner is considered a trendy wine tasting.

Sounds like a horrible weekend.

To be honest, I just hope the blokes we draft with the picks we got for him are both better than him and play in multiple premierships for the Dees. That will do me.

He playing for the Shockers, how can he get any worse?

It would have to be a moonboot at the slightest flurry of discomfort for him. That injury has been known to flare for considerable time, each time, a great risk would otherwise be taken without its protection. So, he must have made a startling recovery (as the timeframe is rather short for its healing).

It will be interesting the first time Brodie comes up against LJ.

Practice makes perfect, but not dollars so ...... be gone! So transparently greedy by the AFL.

I'll add Gawn and Jurrah. Gawn, because I've never previously seen a ruckman with the ability to tap the ball to all 360 degrees of the compass with either hand and with such precision. And Jurrah because he's the most freakishly talented Melbourne player I have seen. Not the most consistent, not the best at all aspects of the game (tackling and aerobic capacity, for example) but just the most exquisite in aspects such as kicking and marking.

While it is good to see the players hard it at it already I wonder about the wisdom of it. There was a fair bit of evidence that we kept the training up in the 2021/2022 pre-season and even Max said it was like 2021 and 2022 rolled into one long season. This seemed to impact our ability to play out games after the mid point this season.. Acknowledging the short break after the GF contributed to this but not sure we had the balance right last year. Hope this year we have learnt from that and re-balanced the training regimes.