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Went with a friend to watch training this morning. They have 3 sets of temporary grandstands set up next to the rooms for spectators and get a good view of everything. Fritsch was the only absentee and J Smith was on the bike for the whole session. Everyone in their own numbers except JVR in 44, Kye Turner is 47 and Burgoyne 33. Started off with goal kicking which has been described before. Then an agility routine where where they ducked around ski poles whilst marking short kicks, receiving and giving handballs. Then a couple of other similar groups (of which there were 3 of 15 or 16 players). In one a ball was tossed in with 5 in white tabbards trying to intercept or tackle whilst other team handballed it around. At this stage one of the groups was all the tall players probably 194 or more and their skills below their knees were great. The had to at least bounce handball through the group a couple of times. When you saw 16 such tall players together you realised we are going to be a tall side, even if 6 are at Casey. May's anticipation and tackling stood out. Then whole ground long kicks one way, punch to defend and switch with handballs from defence then run and handball or short kicks to the other end. Very slick movement. It was in this that I saw Grundy on a few occasions just take off and try and get ahead of the play into the forward line. From that and previous reports,I think that is what he is going to do. They then did different versions of match practice which included free kicks, 50 metres etc. In this it stood out just how far the 1st and 2nd year players are behind the senior players Hibberd, May, Lever and Petty work really well together. Of the new players Hunter stood out - just kept hitting targets and got a bit of the ball. Grundy was very mobile but Max dominated. Schache took one good mark but that's all I saw him do. The 2 Turners were OK but a level below the others. Burgoyne was in the match practice but didn't seem to do much. Kozzie was quiet but looked good if that makes sense. Brown was very good, TMac and Bowie were OK JVR was impressive. Chandler and Spargo got involved. Trac, Oliver, Viney Langdon, Brayshaw, Harmes and Sparrow were a level above the rest. ANB was quiet and at one stage came off with maybe a groin issue, but came back on. Thommo did well - looks to have lost weight and moves a bit freer. Salem, Melksham, Jordan, Dunstan and Laurie were quiet. The young ones do well in the skills drills but just don't have the body or presence to impact in the match play. Seston has a body that could compete but a long way behind. Howes is probably the closest but will take him a while.

Saturday Feb. 25 at Yarra Park Not 100% confirmed yet. The only thing that is certain is that the DeeArmy will be putting on a BBQ. No surprise there. Hashtag death/taxes/DA BBQ 😁

No one has suggested that, and most aren't talking about changing the team in the finals, more about gradually managing during the year. Gawn, Salem, Lever, Jackson, Brown and more clearly weren't right during the year. Literally no one has said drop them all for finals and bring in Dunstan and Baker. During the season however, it's pretty obvious it would have served us better to have gotten Brown right, bring in JVR or Weid really we would have not lost anything given how hampered and out of form Brown was. Rotate the rest through for rests, that's the whole point in having more than 22 players on the list. Take out one of Gawn or Jackson and bring in Weid, take out Lever and bring in Tomlinson (or Turner pre-injury), Bowey for Salem etc etc, there were so many options there that could have meant more rotation of players. I mean, if we weren't playing banged up players then what's the reason for our season falling in a heap? Yes, the whole 'Goody's faves' thing gets overdone, and not a season goes by without selection whinges from Demonland, but the management of the players and failure to rotate them when we had the chance is so obviously the reason for our failure in finals and I hope lessons have been learned and the balance is better this year if we go through a similar situation.

I’m surprised at the continual talk of Laurie being a likely contender for a senior spot. He would need to have shown massive improvement at Casey this year before I’d consider him a contender. I don’t think he has shown anything to date at Casey to warrant this chat. Chandler is a mile ahead at this stage imv.

All good points. I think i recall a comment from someone at the club that JVR was close to selection for the finals. But really Chandler, who i tgought seserved a shot on form, and Bedford were really the only players that could have come up. Maybe Tomlinson too I guess. But who would of those 3 players replaced? Bedford and Chandler would have been fighting for much the same roles - nibbler and spargo, neither of whom needed a chop out to freshen up. As nibblers finish in tbe bluey suggests he was zero risk of being dropped. Spargs perhaps more of a chance of being dropped, but swapping him for Bedford or Chandler wouldn't have moved the needle much. Tomlinson would have had to replace a tall defender at the bisiness end and even though Lever looked hampered at times that wasnt going go happen - though I do wonder if he could have been played forward. As you say, disco got a shot, and was injured. Laurie never made a compelling case and noone else was banging the door down. And to be fair to goody, he dropped rivers and bowey and stuck with Hunt, and then later in the year selected melksham.

It shapes as an interesting year for bowser. From a good luck charm best 22 lock who only knew winning. To getting dropped in the back of his second season. He didn't appear injured - did he miss a game? - so perhaps it was a classic case of second year blues. However, I have little doubt Salem either out injured or not at his best had a big impact. Bowey was suddenly the main distributor off half back and other teams put work into him. He is a super important player for us, Salem even more so. But almost as important is both playing regularly together. They compliment each other really well and if Salem is fit and firing the opposition is more likely to give him more focus than bowey . Which helps bowey get off the chain a bit more and set up some scoring chains. If Hunter can cement a spot in the best 22, suddenly we have three elite kicks distibuting the ball in that critical half back, wing zone. That's a big improvement from 2022 right there. A question for the track watchers (loving the reports) - how are bowey and salo looking?

People keep saying this, but move on to who? By his own admission, JVR couldn't even run out a game at Casey, yet alone in the firsts. Howes looks likely but had a long term injury. Turner got a run, but then concussion + other injuries kept him out. etc. etc.The idea that we could have gone deeper in the finals playing the likes of Baker or Dunstan is just ...

Buckley's now giving out salary cap advice...

Agree totally with all of the above. Except, I'm not sure hunger is the right word. Implies a psychological issue, whereas I reckon it was physical - they were fatigued.

People think because Laurie was a first round pick that he is likely to make it. But they ignore the fact that he averaged 8.3 disposals, 2 tackles and kicked just 1 goal in the VFL finals series (3 games). Sure he is a decent skilled player but he needs to average 23-25 per game at VFL level to be in the picture.

I found the comments about JVR’s readiness to play at AFL interesting. Particularly, when a lot of posters thought that he should have been played in the ones last season. I saw a few VFL games last year (albeit mostly on tv) and without trying to sound disrespectful, he looked good at times and was extremely competitive, but it was VFL footy, not AFL . I too in the later half of last season was hoping at times that he’d be promoted but at the same time a little voice in my head said ‘maybe it’s too soon’. With benefit of hindsight I’m glad he didn’t play. I would much rather see him promoted on merit rather than on being used to plug a gap due to injuries. He is one year older now and one year footy wiser but still very young. 2023 will be very interesting. Having said all that, wouldn’t it be great to see him not only earn his spot in the ones but become an ‘x’ factor nearing finals tIme, something that takes opposition sides by surprise. I live and I dream…Go Dees

B: Lever May [A] HB: Gus Petty Salem C: Langdon Oliver Hunter HF: [B] TMac [B] F: Kozzy [C] Fritsch R: Gawn Trac Viney Int: Grundy [A] [B] [B] Sub: [B] [A] Bowey Rivers Disco Pig Tommo [B] ANB JJ Sparrow Harmes Spargo Melks Chandler [C] JVR BBB Schache 15 players competing for 8 places (7 underlined as most likely)

Grundy the oldest by a fair margin!

How about we stop the body shaming on here. None of our players deserve this sort of ridicule, particularly Gus. We have no idea what his situation is anyway. Gus has a history of this? That was 7 years ago Daz - would no longer be on his record.

The premiership in 2021 was built on pressure out of forward 50 leading to turnovers that then generated scores. Last year we were able to stop scores but not generate them in return. Key to that was Lever and Salem being injured/underdone. Brayshaw was great at half back but not good enough to provide the immediate rebound they both did in 2021. This year Gawn playing a kick behind will force teams to go around which makes it predictable for May/Lever/Salem as opposed to the options they had this year. If they still go up the line Gawn marks. On turnover, Grundy bolts forward making defenders choose between him, JVR, BBB or TMac, if it spills then Viney (Brayshaw back in the guts where he nearly won a Brownlow with Hunter on the wing), Spargs and Kozzie with the pressure to create turnover. Viney, Kozzie and Sparrow to rotate through the midfield. Only injuries prevent a good run in September IMO

You’re looking at the wrong line of defence then, up the ground defence made our backline worse, front of centre defence last season compared to our premiership year was stark. Pressure up forward, slows the ball down and creates rushed high kicks. We need the 2021 hunger for defence in 2023.

There is no defence in the league -and probably never will be- that can defend against a well-directed, accurate, fast-paced delivery into the forward line. As I said, in my earlier post, we have been the meanest defence in the league for two years. That speaks for itself.

That's a pretty weird thing to say given Bucks was his head coach when Grundy signed a 7-year deal on $1m per year.....

I think Spargo needs a big 2023. He's the most vulnerable out of the forwards especially as Laurie and Chandler are breathing down his neck pretty closely. Personally thought he was disappointing last year alongside a few others as well.

Great report, thanks stinga. The highlight for me was the use of the word "tabbard". I had to look it up. (Though, I think it might only have a single b.)

Great Post Lord Agree entirely!

All fine and dandy when the ball comes in high and slow. Low and fast and we're in all sorts.

Musing over 2022 during the off-season has been an interesting process. I’m sure all of this has been discussed six ways to Sunday but it’s January and I’ll do anything to spur more MFC discussion to temper the withdrawals. For me, one of the big challenges during 2022 was the number of physically challenging games. Teams were well aware of our strength around the contest, and often tried to get lots of numbers to stoppages and make the game a bruising encounter to have a chance of winning. Ignoring the games against the top 8 (as you expect these to be challenging), there was a few of these against the bottom 10. Round 2 against Gold Coast was warm and humid and the Suns really competed hard. Round 10 against the Kangaroos was similar, with the first half full of fake aggression from them (Langdon had his ribs broken in this game). In Round 16 against Adelaide, they pushed heaps of numbers around every contest to make it ugly and the game was tough. A lot of Dees players looked sore after the game. Round 18 against Port in Alice Springs was an exhausting game on a warm day on that large ground. The game was very end to end so the players looked pretty exhausted afterwards. In the Round 22 game against the Blues, they played man on man the entire game making every contest and stoppage a battle. When the Dees have looked their best during 2021 and 2022 it was when more of our players were getting to the next contest / spill of the ball. But due to small injuries and decreased fitness we were unable to sustain this during the second half of the year. That made more games more physically taxing – either by turnover (forcing more defensive running) or by more fiercely contested stoppages. It's a bit of vicious cycle – due to injuries and decreased fitness, the players were unable to move from contest to contest and win more post clearance possession, which in turn created more physical burden on their bodies leading to new or aggravated injuries and fatigue. This is highlighted in the Round 22 game vs Carlton – that game was a slog because the players didn’t have the fitness to push forward and back to get any sort of outnumber or overlap. Because our few elite level kicks were out of form (Salem, Bowey), having to constantly kick or handball to a contested situation meant our disposal efficiency was down, and turnovers were up. A lot of our goals come from outnumbering teams as we transition from defence to attack, rather than from elite disposal that cuts through a tightly packed defence. My question is – will the coaching team develop a strategy to combat overly physical games to help protect players from fatigue and injury, or will they continue to see contested ball as something we always have to win on the day. There is merit in having a tactic that can be engaged at times during quarters to try slow the game down and/or reduce stoppages. This will give opposition teams something else to consider. I remember two games - Sydney (vs Freo in Perth) and Carlton (first game vs Pies) - where they adopted slow deliberate ball movement to get themselves back into the game and swing momentum their way. If the team is fit enough to play the field position, surge style game play, they’re also fit enough to lead into space to hold possession through short kicks. I know there is a limit to how long you can do this before a long kick to a contest is needed, but given we have very good marking defenders it’s something we can probably repeat several times in a row once we win back possession. The longer off season (compared to 2021) and no longer being reigning premiers will (on its own) increase our chances of not having as many bruising encounters. Teams won’t be quite as ‘up’ for games against us as they were in 2022. But I hope lessons have been learnt, and the coaches have some strategies for trying to protect the players so they are fresher at the pointy end of the season. If we start strong again this year, teams will start to focus a lot of attention of us and I hope we have strategies for dealing with it better than we did in 2022.

Gus has said himself that he was never blessed with a good rig and could never get that super toned look some of the other boys have, no matter how fit he was. Not everyone has the same body shape, and the beauty of AFL is that great players come in all shapes and sizes. If Gus is aerobically fit, whether he has a 6 pack or a 2 pack is absolutely irrelevant. Jack Watts always looked like a god out there, but it didn't make him the player we all wanted him to be. Gus has proven time and again that he can play multiple roles to a very high level, and was one of our best players in that third quarter in the grand final just 2 years ago with basically the same body shape. To doubt him now because he isn't sporting a Petracca physique is silly. Ed Langdon is not ripped either, but nobody is having a go at him. P.S.- if only all of us can be this 'unfit' 😅

Someone finally identified how good Fritsch is as a goal kicking forward, only behind Hawkins over last two years, plus 6 in GF. Fritsch all class!

Saw this pop up on my FB feed courtesy of Zero Hanger. Bodes well for the MFC, particularly considering Grundy only played the 6 games in 2022, otherwise he'd probably be the outright leader and the gap to the rest would be greater, although similar could also be said for Witts who played just the 3 games in 2021. Also highlights the quality of Witts somewhat as a ruckman and I recall Max publicly rating him highly on numerous occations as someone he finds challenging to play against. Top 15 Total Hit-Outs Between 2018-2022 3806 Max Gawn 3482 Brodie Grundy 3258 Jarrod Witts 3174 Todd Goldstein 2383 Reilly O'Brien 2174 Sean Darcy 2123 Oscar McInerney 2018 Nic Naitanui 2010 Toby Nankervis 1944 Rhys Stanley 1932 Scott Lycett 1830 Ben McEvoy 1789 Paddy Ryder 1751 Stefan Martin 1684 Rowan Marshall

It's hard to get a handle on his specific role, which appeared to be almost a defensive high half forward role. So its a hard to assess sparg's form in 2022. But I totally agree Chandler and Laurie will be competitors for his spot I have a feeling Laurie might be the main competitor as he has tbe kicking skills to match spargo's kicks inside 50 (a kpi for him no doubt). And they played him back at Casey a bit I sdsume to sharpen up his defensive skills. I hope they use Chandler in a more pure small forward, offensive role. He would work well in tandem with kossie. Like kozzie, super hard at it, a neat enough kick and good pace.

Yep. I could. That would certainly free up a lot of my time permanently. The good news is it's now late May not Sept. So Premiership mission back on track. And marriage. 😎

From what Ive seen from Laurie, I would say Melksham is still ahead.

Biggest loser is the Vikes, I just love the fact that JJ talking himself up as better than Kupp… yeahhhhhhh… Naaaaaahhhhhhh Biggest winner is the Giants, they played out of their skins.

It was a feature of most losing games that we were leading well into the match but ran out of fitness/strength/ideas/steam/puff and were overrun. Without fitness and injury issues, I believe that we would have won most games simply because we were the better team on any given day. If we have the equivalent fitness and injury year like 2021, then with the depth and quality of our list other teams will struggle to keep up. If we develop better forward options and play to our strengths, then other teams will fold before our even, brilliant team. It is up to the coaches to make this work. GO DEES

i don't doubt that... but i wonder what influence griffiths had on fitness suitability of players coming back from injury layoffs and other players playing with obvious niggles. coach (and selection committee) has to listen to fitness staff when deciding to play such players. i guess we will never know how those conversations went.

Exactly, recon all players in the AFL would have a "History" of coming back not quite in shape over their careers.

If injured then shouldnt have be automatic selection in my view, didnt help the team didnt help Salo

If we lost both Gawn and Grundy I think we'd probably go with Schache/McDonald combo before Verall. He's just a project player ATM. I'm still trying to get my head around having the best two ruckman in the AFL in the same team. It will make it difficult for a prospective ruck to get a game, but maybe Verall is far enough away that he only just comes right as Maxy retires.

We are so lucky to have Oliver, tagged every week, seems to never play a bad game, if he starts kicking a few more goals, will go from great to fantastic!😃

Agree, I think this applies to a lessor part with Jackson as a forward as well. TMac was a big loss for his body work and creation of play for BB and Jako. He does not have this protection at Freeo on any level, except maybe with Fyfe. To maximise his athleticism he needs space.

Good ruckman can often studdy and decelop a strategy to take an opponent out of the game, and/or match-up better against some opposition better than others. I agree that having 2 elite rucks would make it so hard for our opposition to take both of them out of the game. One or both are likely to dominate. Similarly, it should give our mids some really good unpredictability in terms of setup for the opersition to counter. Guys like Trac, Clary and Viney don't exactly need much of a head start, so if it gives them additional advantage, we could really tear some teams apart.