Leaderboard

Re Fritta (if the foot trampling rumour is true), there’s an abundance of caution taken with feet these days. Bruised (trampled) feet that are too early loaded turn into bone stress points, then fractures. Worth remembering that the feet are relatively small structures having to bear enormous loads, multiples of our entire body weight during jumping, landing and sprinting. For some of us, that’s getting up to a quarter or third of a ton! Care is best, particularly pre-season. Otherwise his training exercises as described are very core-glute stability like. Go Fritta.

No they were the first. We are not a tenant, we are the home club. The rest are tenants.

‘Founding tenant’… Imagine the look of MFC people when the ‘founding tenant’ announced itself… Collingwood going for a weekend away “I claim this B&B as the founding tenant!” Collingwood arriving in Jan 26, 1788 in Botany Bay “I claim this land as the founding tenant!” Oooh, see what I did there…

‘Founding tenant’ - first uninvited guest. Like the cane toad was the founding tenant of the QLD cane fields. GFY Kelly, Melbourne FC are the original and only true team of the MCG.

Yes he can. It’s his decision not the fans.

From Lynda Carroll's 1998 book The Grand Old Flag here is a photo of the 1877 Melbourne Football Club team.

The primary objective of the electronic vote was to reduce costs. In the past postal votes cost a fortune, electronic voting is significantly more cost effective. I have to say, HTD, your constant pontificating about how bad the club is being run is getting rather tiresome. Now it's about how many people vote. How about you look at the percentages of other clubs' members voting at AGM and come back to us.

No Turner is much taller than Gary. 194 v 187 cms. Gary was a flanker playing key position. A true Dees great. Brilliant footballer.

So Burgoyne has officially joined Casey. I hadn’t seen that confirmed. So Kozzie has Trent and Byron Jnr to flat with and maybe good friend Henry next year. How could he leave his mates and cousin?

It is reasonable to assume the following: 1. Those who voted in the Resolution, likely also voted for the Directors. You wouldn't bother to do one and not the other given the ease of the system. Thus only probably 10% of members voted. 2. Those 10% are likely to be engaged enough in the issue to bother. Like me. The election process was not an 'above the line' process, so just because someone voted Roffey, (like me) doesn't mean they were slack enough to vote for remaining incumbents or that their vote was then preferenced to the other incumbents. I read the statements and researched, and concluded those new candidates had less experience to be on the Board of a $60M plus business. 3. The electronic process was designed to save 100's of thousands on dollars and move us into the 21st century, a byproduct of more votes delivered isn't related. Look at the last State election. Lowest turnout and informals in history. Maybe Dees fans are a sample of the Vic electorate at large. Logic says this is possible. 4. yes, most members (90% ish) didn't bother. If a candidate can't convince me in 500 words of their background then they miss my vote. Being a died-in-the -wool demon tragic doesn't cut it at Board level. The last thing we want is emotional decision-making on most Board matters. Save that enthusiam for game day like me. And Kate. See you at moorabbin

I hate the filth .... tripplechins .... joffa .... buckley ... their feral supporters ... et al.

Some people on this forum have nothing better to do other than [censored] and moan about the club. It's getting boring.

Casey Fields is too far so let's look at Mornington Peninsula? Seriously?

To be honest I can’t see Brown and TMac not playing Round 1 so unless we decide to go with all 3 or Fritta isn’t fit then I guess JVR will be playing at Casey. I’m bullish on JVR playing this season but I also know how our FD operates over the last 2 seasons. Spots are hard to earn.

All this talk about JVR being ready and primmed, well for what its worth Ben Brown has been in career best form in practice match Sims and I just cannot see how he misses out!

Pointless to get stressed about this. The filth are [censored], always have been [censored] .... and always will be [censored].

Great for the few Casey Demons players to get a run, a taste of the big league (speed, intensity, skill level) can only help them with their season. Would love to see Burgoyne have an impact, and Munro. Hope they all get a run.

That’s a good article. Fingers crossed he can become a solid key forward and as his manager suggests, fill the holes that Tmac and Brown will leave whilst allowing van Rooyen and Jefferson time to develop.

Typical of Demonland. Langdon has been mis-spelled as Longden

The filth are a disgrace. There is only one club as the owner of the MCG and that is the MFC. The rest of them can go and get stuffed.

Obviously it's rough for anyone who has reserve seats in the Ponsford. But largely I do like the idea of keeping most of the ferals in the same spot. Ideally just wall off the Ponsford stand and AFL members for Melb v Coll games and don't let any of them in the rest of the ground.

We must never forget that Eddie allowed us to have the QB home game AFTER the MCC rolled over for him with the deal that the Ponsford Stand would be the Pie social club at home and away games. Not so generous as it might first seem. And then, when we started pulling a crowd he wanted the home status to alternate between us.

No one has suggested JVR "is an upgrade" in ground work on our much loved and very classy forward in Fritta. What has been reported and been on show from JVR is that he has strings to his bow with his ground work is very workmanlike and is good for a player of his height and size. And he has great persistence and second and third efforts to offer. I believe JVR could play in the Bayley Fritsch mould and replace him if required but I still think Fritta's all round skills in the air on the ground and kicking or snapping for goal are hard to beat. Let's just see JVR develop his skills and become the best he can and I am sure he will thrill us just like Fritta does each week.

The crying emoji is because I can’t share anything. (If you think the Club don’t keep an eye on DL, think again.) Though I’m sure it’s fine for me to say it’s indeed not too serious. 🙂

A handful of Casey Demons players will get their opportunity to showcase themselves during the six period match simulation for Melbourne against St Kilda at RSEA Park, Moorabbin tomorrow. The majority of the players would be known to Casey fans:- Riley Baldi Matthew Buntine Trent Burgoyne Tyler Edwards Luca Goonan Max Gregory Tommy McRae James Munro Trent Burgoyne from Port Adelaide and Max Gregory from the Dandenong Stingrays will be making their debuts in the colours. It’s good to see premiership player Matt Buntine on board again as there were some whispers that he might be concentrating on Caulfield Grammarians in the VAFA.

That's delicious. I can't wait until the day we talk about Geelong like this.

I think we haven't gone close to seeing his footy talents as yet. He's worth paying big biscuits for. Will be a superstar for sure.

Zelig!

100% agreed. Josh Schache is a bit like Sam Weideman in that he has never shown his true potential. He has the talent but is still a bit too nice in the way that he plays. However, Josh still has age on his side. I would implore Josh to keep "bulking up" in the gym (his arms are still far too skinny) and also consider going to the MMA classes that Jack Viney is doing with Tom Mitchell (the former Hawk now a Magpie) to get better at tackling and have a more aggressive mindset during games.

He could become an absolute bargain. Ball is in your Court Josh. put in maximum application and earn a spot in the side. I remember a game in Ballarat where Schache was playing Half Back. Took some strong marks. He can play, consistency is what counts.

My point is that Eddie's decision was not one of unalloyed generosity...there was a hefty dose of self-interest, but you never heard that from Eddie. We don't need to be naive mugs and think he did us some extraordinary favour solely out of the goodness of his black and white heart.

I fully empathise with you on this. I almost invariably disregard my MFC membership and sit in the MCC, on the wing, middle level, but I remember in pre-redevelopment times the atmosphere in that northern wing area comparable to where I sit now was sensational.

That's how they pronounced it back then.

The other fan sites can't touch us for things intellectual! Scientia propter scientiam

It could be a form of pareidolia where you perceive a particular image within another pattern or object and I guess with low quality, pixelated images it's easier to interpret in a familiar way. The Max one is a dead ringer though.

Question is, is he his own great, great grandfather!? 🤯

it's not worth arguing, however i think you'll find that technically the mfc is defined as a tenant club of the mcg i could provide links but it's not worth getting into a drawn out argument

He is just bathing in his own non importance.Th e bloke is so far up himself they will need a front end loader to get him out.

Fritsch ruled out of the St Kilda practice match with foot soreness as a result of a teammate trampling on it. Club hopes he’ll play some minutes next week Vs Richmond.

Remember the old days (10 years ago) when the Demons bouncing back would be, how do we bounce back from second last on the ladder to maybe squeeze out 8-10 wins? Now we need to bounce back from coming second on the ladder! times have changed! and who's loving it?!

It’s a beautiful morning at Gosch’s Paddock. REHAB: Jake Melksham (?), Taj Woewodin (?), Luke Dunstan (Hamstring), Fritsch(hip/back??), Salem (Thyroid), Brown (managed) Everyone is in Blue Guernseys so I doubt there will be match SIMs. Probably just regular training considering preseason is officially over. Joel Smith looks like he is back training with the main group. Fritsch and Salem are not training at all. Salem for obvious reasons. Not sure about Fritsch. Split into 3 groups for wam ups. Mids, Backs and Forwards. No surprises except Kozzy & Smith with Forwards. Gus with defence. Mids Trac, Max, Langdon, Clarry, Verral, Grundy, Viney, Sparrow, Farris-White, Howes, Harmes, Jordon, Hunter Forwards TMac, Jefferson, Schache, Van Rooyen, Nibbler, Chandler, Spargo, Laurie, Joel Smith, Kozzy, Sestan, Brown Defenders May, Lever, Brayshaw, Hibberd, Bowey, Tomlinson, Rivers, Adams, Deakyn Smith, Petty, McVee, Daniel Turner, Kye Turner, Moniz-Wakefield Fritsch now walking knee raisers with arms raised in the air with the medicos. Now doing walking lunges whilst twisting side to side when lunging. Dunstan slow/medium jogging along the boundary. Melksham doing the same at a slightly quicker pace. Split into two groups. Mix of forwards, Mids and Defenders in each group. Ben Brown not training just having shots for goal from different angles and distances. Salem now jogging laps. Trac noticed and clapped saying “Go Salo”. Fritsch walking doing leg raisers whilst the trainer is pulling a theraband which is around his waist. He looks to be in mild discomfort. One of the groups is not doing a half ground match SIM sans contact. Players have reversible training jumpers and that are blue on one side and white on the other for easy changing. Fritsch doing side crab walks while the trainer pulls on the Theraband around his waist. The field has been divided length ways down the middle and there are two separate match SIMs ( for want of a better description) without contact with 2 players in yellow vests playing for both teams. Goal is keepings off down the length of the field to kick a goal. I will note that disposal has been very sharp. Trac’s long kicking is like a laser guided missile. In my non-medical opinion Fritsch may have a hip (flexor) issue. Any physios can you confirm that the exercises I poorly described could confirm this? Kye Turner is wearing number 33. New number perhaps? I’ll echo what other have said about Chandler over the preseason he is certainly putting his hand up for a call up. Trainer is throwing the footy at Fritsch to catch it in one hand whilst he is standing/balancing on one leg (the right one). Brown and Taj playing kick to kick on the boundary. Dunstan jogging between a set of cones set up in a zig zag pattern. Full length ground drill starts with a kick to a one on one contest. If the ball spills a player swoops in and 4 players run down the field almost in a line and kick to a contest at the other end and the drill begins again the other direction. Next drill also starts with a kick to a one on one contest deep in the forward line. When the ball spills 4 players run in from different directions (2 in white and 2 in blue). Whoever won the spill would have a quick snap for goal. Brown and Dunstan have hit the gym as has Taj. Boundary throw in simulation drill with small forwards like Spargo, Nibbler and Chandler also involved with the Mids and wingers. Verral getting a lesson in ruck craft from the Master Max. When the ball spills the ball is swooped on and kicked into a contest (forward on forward) in the forward line. Defenders doing a separate drill. Rivers is in the defenders group as is Brayshaw. Salem jogging laps with Reece Conca. Forwards/Mids/Wingers doing a drill with either the wingers kicking from half forward flank or a Mid kicking from CHF into the forward line to a lead again focusing on if the ball isn’t marked then it is swooped on and snapped for goal or a better option is kicked/handballed to. There is a lot of congestion and chaos built into the drill. Often the wingers will look for a better option at CHF first before kicking into the forward line. @george_on_the_outer noted that if a lead wasn't found we would be kicking higher and longer/deeper to a contest deep in the forward line than we normally do. He may be able to explain that better. Grundy is training with the forwards on that drill whilst Max, KFW & Verral have joined the defenders drill which appear to be a drill simulating taking the ball out of defence ending with a long kick into the forward line to a contest between Kyah Farris-White and Verral (who are just being used as a tall target to kick to). Max floating around as a tall marking option as the ball comes out of defence. Joel Smith & Jed Adams have joined the rehabbers probably as planned as there might be a contact drill coming up for the first time this session. Match SIM has begun with minimal contact though. Lot of loose players. Not really man on man. More of end to end circle work than a Match SIM. Only seen a few tackles. Todays session is more skill and tactical based without the emphasis on defence or pressure. I would assume that they need to learn some of the game plan without the pressure and then in other sessions bring in the pressure/tackling/defence so that they can practice what they've learned under intense conditions. That's my uneducated guess anyway. In case I’ve never mentioned this before Kozzy is just a magician. He scooped the ball up in a one on one ground contest, broke out of a tackle with a nice don’t argue, kicked beautifully into Chandler on a lead who was spoiled in a marking contest but got the spill and handballed to Kozzy who had continued to gut run down the field and had every right to have a shot for goal on a tight angle but he kicked it in board to a free Trac who snapped truly. I know that Ben Brown and TMac have been in great form and are almost undoubtedly around 1 starters but I can’t see how Van Rooyen doesn’t get a call up either. He is a natural forward with great hands and a superb ground ball game. Can we possibly trial 3 talls again? It didn’t work with Weid in the Mix but Van Rooyen is a different beast. Great conundrum to have. Howes is a very smart clean footballer. Was in trouble on the wing and thought his way out of the situation. Granted there is not really tackling but there was pressure in this drill and he had a player in front of him and to the side with another also coming at him from another direction and no options forward and managed to spot a player backwards and found the option. Got kudos from players and coaches around him. Some of the things that Clarry does just cannot be accurately described. Players now doing run throughs to cool down. They’ve been instructed to go slow and not reach their destination before 17 seconds. The way Schache has been training at every session I have been to and from anecdotal evidence from other trackwatchers and from talking to some players at the player sponsor event it is hard to see him not pushing for selection. Granted he will probably have to prove himself at Casey but I think we will definitely see him at some point in the season. He was targeted when Weid left as like for like but I like what I see from the Schack more than from what I saw from Weid and I had high hopes that Weid would eventually make it. I'm more confident with Schache. Just noticed that TMac has his left elbow strapped. Hasn’t appeared to hampered him. I have mentioned this before in my training observations but I really feel for Tomlinson. He trains his guts out and is always encouraging to the younger blokes and is very vocal on the track. Our defence is a hard one to crack into with the big 3 in May, Petty & Lever and I feel that both the Turners might be ahead of Thommo. I haven't seen enough of the new recruit Adams who has just started to join in to most drills but like Jefferson up forward he will do his apprenticeship this year at Casey. In any event our back stocks run deep. That’s a wrap from me. Oh and did I mention that we trained some very sturdy dwellings all the way down.

You're a classist snob

Thanks for the ear-worm Picket.

In this respect, would we want and/or could we get Ollie Wines? At his best I think it would be a reasonable trade for Kosie in the circumstances, but I didn't follow Ollie that closely last season to know how he's tracking. Reunite Ollie with Jack and Vic - a bit if go home comming back our way Sorry That's not even a sensible suggestion. Wines to me other than his Brownlow year does not impact games enough and Viney is a better footballer than him. We would want Rosee or Butters plus a second round pick to get any where near the value of Kossie. He has a decade or more of footy ahead and a like for like is essential in this case.

My unfortunate view on the difference between the Lions win in Round 23 and the finals loss. Some generalisation about our 2022: (1) We were awfully inaccurate in so many games that it cost us wins. (2) We usually dominated first quarters and sometimes first halves, but too often gave little in second halves or couldn’t run out games. This is exactly why we smashed Brisbane in Round 23 and lost the final. - We were unusually deadset accurate in the first half of our Round 23 game, nailing even the most unlikely of goals. Interestingly, the scores after half time were fairly level. We were just so far ahead the game was over. - We were typically inaccurate in the first quarter of the final. If we had have had the same accuracy as the Round 23 game, the game probably would have been over at 1/4 time. So, in a nutshell, if we weren’t deadset (and unusually) accurate in the Round 23 game, our lead at 1/2 time wokld have been much slimmer, potentially opening a door for the Lions to think they were a chance, especially how average our second halves had been (and it was nothing special either in the Round 23 game).

I will be looking at stats around defensive pressure and how easily other teams take it out of our forward line. It was an early indicator that we didn’t have it together last year where we slipped from the top 4 for forward pressure in 2021 to the bottom 4 in 2022. And the way we entered the forward line into the near side pocket was designed to mitigate that problem as it was harder for the opposition to transition out of the populated area. Let’s hope we back ourselves more this year to kick to lead and kick fat side to space.

I mean, they don’t have a team of 100 private eyes scouring DL with a fine-tooth comb 24/7 or anything. But it would be remiss of them to not be aware of what’s happening on forums such as DL. And they must have no problem with DL because if they did, I’m sure Andy would know about it.

Not to be flippant, but they are going to listen to 90% of members who don’t give a fig about this stuff. Also, your last point, will they listen to to 4% or the 3.5%?? Creating your own strawman there…

Hold the line WCW