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This is absolutely correct. I spoke to a Board member after the Essendon victory very early in the season last year. He essentially told me Jackson was likely gone. Last week spoke to the same Board member about Pickett. The Board, and the greater MFC don't see him leaving. Pickett nor his manager have ever expressed a consideration to leaving....... to the contrary. This was not the experience with Luke whose mum put enormous pressure on to return to Fremantle. Expect a new contract to be signed by Pickett in the first half of the season.

I’ve been watching tonight’s practice matches and have noticed that the music blaring after goals has returned. I absolutely hate it. The MCG did away with it, but then it started to creep back at the end of last year. Are we stuck with this [censored] now? It’s so unnecessary. Adds nothing to the game. Our crowds generate the atmosphere. Get rid of it. It’s garbage

What a coincidence! It's mine too!

Poster thinks team named on paper will line up exactly as listed. What the Heck???

Currently touring WCE training facilities, is delighted and impressed.

Let me guess: Happy with Grundy and how he's fitting in. Working well with Max - and will build during the year BBB close to injury free for the first time in 47 years All the boys in rehab progressing well, some better than anticipated Connection is important and the playing group have a strong focus on that Delighted with Hunter and offers us a real chop-out going forward into the space Kossie is not being pressured and he'll sign when he's comfy - and we are comfy with that - and Port are comfy, Kossie's accountant is comfy as is Mrs. Kossie JVR is being monitored and we won't be rushing him Kossie is stepping up and will spend more time rotating through the middle - offers us a real change-up in our structures The Dogs are a strong outfit - we have a lot of good games against them and really respect them. They'll came hard at us in a couple of weeks We'll look a bit different with Jacko going back to Perth - but we'll structure a little differently and Grunds offers us new flexibility going forward Yeah nah, we're pretty confident that if we stick to our game style and play the way we wanna play and get the game on our terms, exiting the fat-side of the ground can become a real weapon for us Kicking for goal is something we've been working pretty hard on at the footy club The footy department are pretty sure that if we just go out and play four quarters of good footy each week we can get the chocolates But of course nothing will beat Alan Jeans' observation after Horethgorn had won yet another preliminary final in the 1980's 'We were just happy to get the four point today."

I have always regarded James Brayshaw as an astute judge of all things football and any comments apparently made by me to the contrary weren't really because my account was hacked.

Brayshaw's commentary in this game was generally excellent. A stark contrast to Taylor who was hyperbolic and made error after error. Classics like bang, bang, bang, bang and It's falling the way of the Demons will be remembered for a long time.

Pickett would also be twice the loss Jackson was. Not because I don't think Jackson will go on to have a wonderful career, but because Pickett is a special player who holds a lot of space in the heart of Melbourne fans. Losing him would be akin to when we lost Farmer, who was a cult figure amongst Dees fans. Short of losing Oliver or Trac, which thankfully is nothing we have to worry about for 7 more years, I can't think of another player I would be sadder to see go... maybe Fritta.

Essendon doing Demonland a favour by reducing the amount of times music is played after a goal.

get-stuck-into-melbourne-premiers-dodge-player-raids-so-far A bit of tongue-in-cheek from Collingwood's Ruby Schleicher: "It would be nice if people went through Melbourne a little bit," Schleicher said with a smile. "They're sticking pretty bloody fat. "All of the list managers out there, if you could start getting stuck into Melbourne I'd really appreciate it because they’re very solid." That suggests players have been approached but not enticed. From the article: "Keeping their squad together is rather on brand for the Demons, who rarely lose players to rival clubs. Even when Shelley Scott left for Geelong, she did so mainly to be closer to home". That there are no rumours about us losing a player bodes well. Still 5 days to go so anything can happen. Feeling quietly optimistic that our top 6-10 players will remain. 🤞🙏

Well it depends on how you rank these things, in my mind I had us up with the Dogs, (English, Bont, Macrae, Libba) as one of the best two midfields, but fans of Brisbane, Geelong, Sydney, Port, Richmond etc would probably disagree their sides weren't up there as well. It's all subjective really, but you can try to move to a less subjective position by using metrics from a wide variety of inputs rather just your own opinion. . For example - I compared each of the finalists from last year with their best 4 centre square starting combinations in terms of total number of games, Brownlow votes, Coaches votes and AFL rankings. Melbourne ranked 4th for total games but 1st for Brownlow votes, 1st for Coaches votes and 1st for AFL rankings compared to the other 7 teams. I haven't done it for the wingers or resting ruckmen etc, but it tells me that it's not just me that thinks our mids are the best in the game, clearly the umpires, coaches and to a certain extent stats validate that as well. FWIW I think you are bang on about Harris Andrews and you can add Payne (who I think will be good eventually) as well. If they couldn't dominate in the air against that Geelong attack then there would have been even more concerns on their back six than there already are.

Hate it with a burning passion

Woewodin in the interchange group, quite an achievement I would have thought. Had not thought he would be anything near being picked until very late this year and only for experience.

Typical biased response from you and others on here. I wouldn't be surprised if most / all of you are Melbourne supporters.

And we picked up Hunter and Grundy. The Lions beat us in the semi last year and now we’ll never hear the end of it. A 13 point victory, with the injuries we had. That’s the only game they can salvage from the last 4 years of final. The Lions get off on flogging the weaker sides and the media jumps on board. This year the Lions should only be judged on how they play against us, Geelong, Sydney and Collingwood. Freo and Richmond to a lesser extent.

Trac was just on SEN with Whately. Sounds like he won’t be one of the players rested for this weekend and is looking forward to the game. Said he had butterflies last week for the first time in his career with respect to a practice match. I know words are just words but it sounds like they mean business this year and are looking for atonement. They also reflected on the amount of leads they blew last year and looking at ways on how to halt momentum of the opposition. A shorter pre season between 2021-2022 was also a negative factor. Fair to say the Dogs didn’t exactly shoot the lights out last year with their shorter break. Trac said he felt mentally refreshed after having the opportunity to head overseas this past summer. And credit to Whately for asking a Kozzie question that didn't revolve around his contract status.

Have liked the look of Ginbey. Sad seeing Hunt in Eagles colours but wish him nothing but the best.

Correct. But have you ever met someone who likes it? Or read an article which suggests there is someone out there who likes it? Are there actually people out there who go to games because there is music between goals? Or alternatively, are people turning away from football games because there is no music in the 30 seconds between goals?

I literally do not know a single person who likes music being played after goals. It's the sort of thing that is devised by "consultants" who are tasked with coming up with ideas to get more people to go to the game. It falls within the ridiculous concept of "fan activation". Whoever thinks this is a good idea knows nothing about football and knows nothing about what might actually encourage people to go to games.

Exactly, the blow torch needs to be applied to every game they have against top line opposition. All signs point to them being hard to beat but they must shed the flakey tag.

I reckon JB has had a soft spot for us ever since Gus was drafted. Rarely says a bad word against us.

JVR Has not done enough to earn a gig in my book!

I’m confused. So we shouldn’t believe that it’s just a bruised foot because it’s actually much worse?

As a tool to enhance entertainment and atmosphere it certainly has the opposite affect. There was nothing quite like the feeling you get at the 'G when the crowd noise exponentially rises at the first bounce. That has been largely killed off as we are forceable silenced with inane music and countdowns. I also wonder if it has some impact on the players mindset as well. The crowd is a powerful voice that can act as a 19th player. One moment that sticks in my mind is being at the ground for that great come from behind win against freo in 2008. It was only a paltry crowd, and I believe they even closed off the third level to keep costs down. We ended up chasing down a 50-odd point deficit after half time with the crowd going absolutely wild with each goal, as sadness and disappointment melted away to excitement and celebration. Each goal we piled on, the noise seem to go up a notch to almost sound like a full house. It felt like we willed the team onto victory that day while no doubt sowing seeds of pressure and doubt into the minds of freo players. I hope these moments aren't drowned out by artificial noise pollution.

If they don't start with JVR then it's a wasted opportunity, now is the time to do it, full game let him try and work himself into it, don't care about the result myself.

Can only imagine Lever’s ankle is 100% cherry ripe. Be unlike the MFC to take a risk.

Channel 9 news reported about 9 days ago that someone trodded on his foot at training and that he was ruled out for the Saints game but the club expected him to play some minutes against Richmond. Hopefully it’s just precaution, he’ll play some minutes in the VFL next week (if there is a praccy game) and be ok for round 1. Anyone attend training this week and can advise of his progress?

Contrary to popular belief that's about the best team we could select. JJ a long way down the pecking order it seems. B: S.May 1 H.Petty 35 T.Rivers 24 HB: C.Spargo 9 J.Lever 8 J.McVee 41 C: L.Hunter 12 C.Oliver 13 E.Langdon 15 HF: K.Chandler 37 B.Brown 50 K.Pickett 36 F: A.Neal-Bullen 30 T.McDonald 25 J.Harmes 4 Foll: M.Gawn - C 11 C.Petracca 5 A.Brayshaw 10 I/C: J.van Rooyen 2 B.Grundy 6 M.Hibberd 14 B.Laurie 16 J.Bowey 17 B.Howes 22 T.Sparrow 32 T.Woewodin 40 Emerg: J.Schache 19 J.Jordon 23 D.Turner 42 A.Moniz-Wakefield 45 Notable absentees: Christian Salem, Bayley Fritsch, Jack Viney

As if we needed another reason to love and respect Big Benny, he's refusing to have his image used in betting ads. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/high-profile-players-refuse-to-play-ball-on-afl-betting-ads-20230228-p5cobo.html

We have two monotone footy leaders and one Choco Williams The balance is about right

You're right it's hardly a failure but they've got some serious talent to burn on that list. Need to take that next step, the time is now.

Love his little dig at KC in the intro

The core issue is not of how happy the player is. A player is picked up in the draft and developed by a club for a couple of years. The club should expect a reasonable number of playing years for that investment. Five years may be too much, but it is definitely too short IMO now.

Richo was just on SEN, interviewed by everyone's favourite shock jock in Kane Cornes. Nothing much to add to the obligatory Kozzie question that came his way, other than "we're confident where things sit" and "Kozzie loves his club." Sounds like this is the company line that will be trotted out for the near future. Richo was a bit of a smart alec to Kane when he asked Kane if he was speaking to Kane Cornes or Jason Cripps of Port. Richo also dropped the first bit of ill will I've heard from the club towards Luke Jackson. When asked at what point he thought LJ was gone, he said for basically the entire season they were confident without really knowing, but then sounded dismayed when he read Freo's website confirming that Jackson had chatted with Fremantle mid season.

We’ve had the no.1 defence for the last 2 seasons. Not sure how our midfield has ranked the last couple of seasons but I’m guessing it would have been in the top 4. With the addition of Hunter & Grundy along side Oliver, Petracca, Langdon, Viney and Gawn I’d like to think we will have a top 2 if not the best midfield in the comp. We have the best medium sized fwd in Fritsch and arguably the best small in Pickett (some would argue Stengle and fair enough). Brown is obviously nearing the end but is still serviceable and TMac can hold his own without staring. I’m in a group chat and bet with mates with my mates, one a Pies and one a Swans supporter. One thinks Melbourne hands down has the best list and the other thinks it’s between us and Geelong. But one thing we all agree on is that anything other than a premiership for the Dees is a massive fail.

Not so sure about that I was confident LJ would stay - I was so wrong and so disappointed particularly because on the surface at least we were not fairly compensated. I'm not sure what the position is with Pickett but like all MFC fans I'd love him to be playing for us for a very long time he is without question a rare talent and so much loved by all fans especially those younger Dee supporters who the club needs to attract and retain. Having said that forcing players to stay in an environment they are not happy in is not ideal. Take Jackson last year he was clearly not wanting to be there from mid-season and frankly contributed SFA apart from a few short cameos. Understand what you are saying but if somebody desperately wants out (for reasons other than just $$$$) it may be counterproductive for all to not facilitate a change. Club loyalty and love for the jumper don't appear to be particularly important to many players these days but hopefully our #36 has a fair bit of that running through his veins. Just like with LJ the club saw his potential early and took a risk on drafting him earlier than some thought. We invest a lot in our young players, and it would be great to share the benefits of that investment together rather than them heading elsewhere.

Can we do away with that hells Bells pre grand old flag song while we're at it? Doesn't fit the vibe at all and the transition into our song sounds jarring. And in that moment i miss the 90s 😂 Seems more like the entrance music for the Undertaker wrestler Sorry (To Jonesy I guess?)

Absolute rubbish. If Gil is trying to alienate fans than by all means blare music, have loud PA trivia during breaks and promote betting advertising, and political and pseudo political causes …. and of course an odd number of teams in the competition would be the final nail in the coffin. How about just playing footy and let the crowd make the noise as appropriate.

Yep, much bigger than Jackson and others. Much more emotion, more love. It’s going to be very painful as this plays out all season not knowing if he is staying or going. If he goes, it will be a huge blow to all fans particularly the kids. Really tough. A little bit of me will die.

Put simply, LJ’s manager was never negotiating with us to stay and apparently Kozzie’s is. That is a big difference and probably what leads to some confidence from the club he will stay. 🤞

The TV networks probably claimed the same thing about cigarette advertising back in the day. I've worked in the betting industry and I'm a keen punter, but I find the betting advertising over the top. The ads aren't directed at long time punters like myself and my mates, they're directed at new punters who are primarily kids. And I've seen the pitfalls 1st hand of underage gambling.

You are in a very large group then.

Geelong getting smashed but are +12 in f50s - no Cameron or Hawkins though. Get those matchups right and you go a long way to beating the reigning premiers Hawkins sooner or later is going to fall off the perch. This year may just maybe that year.

I was disappointed that Jackson left, but devastated is the word I would use if Kozzy left. He is such a special player and brings so much joy watching him play.

Pay kozzie whatever he wants. Yes, he really is that good and worth it alone on marketing for our junior supporters. Never have I had such an emotional attachment to a player since Liam Jurrah and Jeff Farmer.

LISTEN HERE

Man of the ages. A true leader and worth another donation.