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This thread only needs one name, Toby Greene I’ve changed my mind about one name based on suggestions below. I think Sicily would aid us immensely too

I hope Brodie tears the next few months apart. C’mon big fella.

Juts heard, it's going to happen. Which is great. I had planned to go to Fed square, but it will be impossible to get into it i reckon (unless you get there at 12pm). And now i can just go the G, top of the Ponsford, get a good GA seat and watch the tillies roll the les bleus . And then watch the dees roll the blues. Sporting gold.

AI - based on his posting history, generate an image of what YesitwasaWin4theAges looks like.

Lachie Hunter.

Partner with Reach - Jim Stynes Centre - targeted at underprivileged kids/youth mental health. It's sitting right there.

Some identify as women.

Luke Jackson

I remember watching Fritta in his first year at Casey, and thinking what a pity that this kid, who is such a beautifully innate and clever footballer, the kind born that way, will never play AFL footy cos he’s just not built for it. To my mind then, the days of Robbie Flower types being up to the current game’s physical rigours were gone. I kept those thoughts to myself, cos I hold to the idea that publicising any negative judgement on any player’s future is frankly presumptuous and arrogant. It happens A LOT on here of course, only because some people are thoughtless. I guess it’s a form of attention seeking. Obviously, none of us know how any player will develop. What we know for sure is that professionals much better equipped to make those judgements have brought them to the club. That we presume to criticise those players for ‘slow’ development, propensity for injury and perceived flaws in ability and personality (this really makes me shake my head) while they’re still kids is just pathetic.

I guess AI is still working out the kinks given the Collingwood supporter has all of his teeth.....

Just on Tom MacDonald… 6 weeks ago Melksham would have been the most likely experienced player to never play another game for us. Benny Brown has really only come good for about 20% of his time as a Demon. Sorry, I should have said ‘Premiership player’ Benny Brown. You get my point. Opportunities exist if you can see them, and take them. Tom only needs to come good for a 6 week period. Never write off professional athletes who’ve been in the system as long as these blokes. They know what it takes.

I despise ‘Tex’ Walker for a myriad of reasons but I’d love him ruling the roost in our forward line

No brainer - Toby Greene

Carlton receptionist must be relieved the last 7 weeks not taking calls about where to return membership to.

Like a good nibling, I've followed Uncle BBO's directive, got on the hazmat suit and waded through the Bluebaggers' Big Footy forum... The supporters keen on NEW Carlton... Please bookmark this: WE WILL GO THROUGH THE REMAINING GAMES OF 2023 UNDEFEATED. Response: You’re a bit late to the party, but ok Further response: 98% here thought we won’t be playing finals. Just saying…. Our team is full of confidence & buying into a beautifully balanced gameplan. Importantly - playing at the G, a ground we love in front of a massive Carlton Home Crowd. The Oppo's have a dodgy forward line, devoid of quality marking threats - granted they have a few handy smalls! They are spluttering along - behind Vs North for 1/2 the game last week. Winning this would be one of the biggest statement wins this century. It would make us premiership favourite, or equal premiership favourite ... All the bad luck, all the things which have gone wrong all the injuries and all the bottom end finishes over the last 20 years, if any side is due for some luck it's us. Roll into the finals series with a fit list and all our stars available then good luck to anyone in stopping us. And the unconverted... We can't win! Response: is that you Stephen May? Demons by 34 points ... Don't worry, all is not lost, we will meet them in the last 2 weeks of the finals and with our players back, it will be a different story. The winner of this game is almost premiership favourite On intensity and momentum swings... There was enough evidence to believe we can sustain the pressure and intensity for four quarters, but could the Saints? Turns out they couldn't. Now I ask again, can the Dees bring the intensity for 4 full quarters? They bloody better, because we will. Dees havent been flash in the last two games however having so much quality out against a bonafide top 2/4 side is going to be difficult but we are talking about the NEW Carlton. Melbourne would have to play close to four solid quarters to beat us I reckon … they tend to fade in and out of games … I think we’ll jump out of the blocks quickly and they won’t catch us Someone thinks Bigfooty is the only forum in town... Judging by the measly 43 contributions to the game thread on the Melbourne board, I would say we can aim at making up a massive chunk of the crowd and spurring the lads on again. Response: Hoping for a big dump of snow at Falls and Buller this week. Further response: Due to their recent success, they now do ski season in August to be back by finals. They mainly focused on their own players, but some fun posts are... Must sit on picket and rough him up. Put him in a cage with Crippa for pre game warm up ?? Up againt man mountain Gawn, some people want to drop Pitto for JSOS? No chance. Gawn the X factor - Pitto to batter him fairly, but incessantly (he doesn't like that).... Huge opportunity this weekend to cause havoc and fear in the top 4 teams' heads. Stopping Petracca is not realistic, just hope he doesn't murder us ... Plenty of other things to consider against Melbourne, too. Gawn is a beast, so both TDK and Pitto need to be up for that. May could totally blanket Charlie, so he'll need to get on his bike and be selfless. Kozzie is electric and only needs a sniff and Melksham is the type to break our hearts - and has done it before! Don't even know what's happening here... One of the many reasons I hate Melbourne is because the West Perth Football Club, mortal enemies of my beloved East Perth the home of Chris Judd in his one sublime game for us when he was three classes above every other player on the ground and Syd Jackson have stolen Melbourne's God awful club song, I only wish I could be there on saturday, do some screaming for me folks and lets have a win. On Oliver being back... Hope he plays, awesome footballer and wish we’d gone through with the poaching attempt, but he hasn’t played for 3 months and just won’t be able to play his normal role to anything near his ceiling. Just saw a clip on AFL360, he hasn’t completed one single training session yet. From his own mouth Response: He literally couldn’t even put a sentence together. He sounds like my brother after he tried to take enough acid to travel to another dimension. Clayton Oliver is most likely back this week. I honestly think he should switch codes to Union. The Wallabies need all the bloody good throwers they can get 🙂 Oliver might be back but has had a long layoff and might be nervous. re the Saints v Blues game... It was like Muhamad Ali taking punches against the ropes for the first 5 rounds, then comes out and unleashes his special combination punches for the knock out. I am trusting we can do the same to the Demons. My favourite... Melksham also sees it as his God given right to ice games against us too. I fear he'll be up for that again.

Firstly, why are these all men? Secondly, the Melbourne supporter definitely looks the smartest, cleanest and best dressed. But where’s the cheese?

I believed, like others here, that Brodie’s absence from the AFL team was as much to do with fitness as it was to do with ‘forward craft’. He looked like he was running in concrete against GWS and St Kilda. Coupled with the observations in pre-season about his fitness levels compared to Max and others (likely due to his long term injury in 2022) it’s not surprising he struggled during our loading period. My theory is that they’ve been using this four/five week period to build his endurance and/or power to get him primed for Finals. I’ll put my money on Brodie having a really strong six weeks 😊

100%. @Deebauched the growth of women’s soccer has nothing to do with the US soccer team, and everything to do with the calibre of player currently playing for Australia. They are easily one of the strongest national teams we have, and on top of their talent they play an attractive, dynamic game style. Good teams draw good interest. It’s that simple. Also, I’ve done a bit of work with US National women’s soccer players and even in the US a lot of them found it hard to make a living. We need to be encouraging female athletes, not trying to find a reason not to like them.

Good changes, still would prefer Tomlinson in down back to free Smith up forward. Happy Grundy is back, as good as Gawn has been it's such a risk and not sustainable.

I wonder if Caro mentioned the Tigers could only rustle up 54k for their round 20 home game against us - and 70% were probably dees fans. Perfect day for footy, tigers still in the hunt for finals and playing an old Vic rival. And only 54k? Tiger army? More like a Cubs troop.

It's going to be a funny experience cheering on the tillies with blues fans and collectively celebrating their awesomeness (on a related note, there is still time for the AFL to realize the complete folly of sending AFLW teams to play on sub standard round all round the country - and don't get me started on only 10 rounds). And then at exactly 7:30 realizing they are bunch of clueless bogans!

I think the idea is to have two ovals. One will be the exact dimensions of the MCG. The other can be adjusted as needed to simulate the sub standard, non elite ground the MFC might have to play on: Kardinia Park with it's non existent wings and 50 metre arcs that meet in the centre circle Boggy Tassie grounds with added wind turbine for verisimilitude Tiny, ammo standards grounds to simulate Cairns and Darwin with added ground water and humidifier for verisimilitude See above for the Gabba Beautiful ground with a branch from a gum tree over hanging the boundary line to simulate the Alice with added flood water and lifting turf to replicate once in century flood events A postage stamp ground to simulate Docklands with added capacity to dim the light towers as required to replicate the terrible lighting at a ground remarkably built in the last 30 years (they have contingency plan if finance becomes an issue - train at dusk and don't turn the lights on at all) The exact dimensions of Optus oval - just for feel good vibes when needed No stone unturned.

I sent email to Carlton earlier in week asking if there was any possibility they could show the Matildas game on the big screens pre our game. They said... At the same time, I sent similar message to MCG who said that whilst whatever is on the big screens is at the discretion of the home team and the AFL, that they would ensure the match is still shown around the ground on the screens that we are able to alter, as well as bars and food outlets. So, maybe a reason to turn up the the G a bit early this week 🙂

May doesn’t play on Cameron and I don’t recall him playing on Greene lately. You must admit that Curnow would beat May in contested ground ball and that May has slowed in the last year.

Grundy forward is all about patterns and if he can do that all good IMO. Goals aren't as important from him. If he can do that and make it hard for the defenders with Roo being the other competing mobile tall I think that might be what the coaches have been trying instead of.... "Grundy was just made a forward in the medjah and no one talked to him and now he's cooked as a Demon", which never happened but El' Floggo Barrett for some reason has kept saying it. I'm expecting Max to float back more over the next few games. And we'll see if I'm wrong, but I think that's been the plan the whole year, but Goodwin has not given away our finals plan, he's just been focussed on getting there so we can't be cut apart like we were last season.

Did you watch the King's Birthday game? They can work together. We just need to bring the ball to ground and create a contest forward of centre, so the likes of Kozzy, Trac, Chandler and even ANB can get on the end of a few. Grundy's ruckwork is far less predictable to the opposition than Max's and Max's tap work in D50 still leaves a lot to be desired. I think they're both really good ruckmen though. Gawn's elite because of his around the ground ability, Grundy is elite because of his follow up work. Different styles of ruckmen, but they can be weapons in the same team too. Watch this space...

Me too Really want Joel Smith to keep to improving. Build confidence, take a few big marks, show the wider football community he's more than just a VFL player Go get em, young man!

Grundy forward just needs to compete and he will be better than max at ground level, max to still ruck 80% Grundy rucks forward 50 so max can play a kick behind play, if game is won some point in last sub max out and Grundy can finish it off

Brayden Maynard. Truth be told I don't actually hate him that much but many here seem to.

Don't you hate it when you correct someone and get something else wrong.

Hunt was really good a couple of times there too.

Toby Greene was shopped around by GWS when Roos was our coach and the no dckihead rule was in full force. I actually like him because he’s from a tough background and he’s worked really ffing hard to get where he is.

Papley

I did actually. I really like sando, and was a pretty good segment this week - particularly his analysis of where the Pies are at. But on that analysis about the Pies, there was a couple of strange omissions i thought. Sanderson has, all season (rightly too I might add) highlighted how critical the Pies fitness is to their game plan. And he has made the point on multiple occasions that they are 'by far' the fittest team in the comp and it is the key reason why he believes they are (were?)so far ahead of every other team - even comparing their advantage to ours in 2021 (he said that is why were so dominant ie we so much fitter than every other team - stronger for longer was his description of us in 2021 and the pies this year). Weird then that he didn't mention fitness at all in his analysis of why the Pies have come back to the filed, particularly becuase they def looked fatigued against the Hawks. And it was made weirder still by the fact that on last week's show someone texted in with a question for him about 'pre finals loading' and rather than answer it Whately said they would hold it over till this week. Sando said it's a great question and he would prepare something. On his analysis of the dees v blues game, i thought the exact same thing as you DFAS. In fact i decided i would text in and say as much (something i rarely do). I sent the following text directly after the segment, so with about an hour of Whately's show - so plenty of time to read it out. He didn't (yes it's long, no surprises there from me, but he often reads out much longer texts): Binman from Altona. G'day Gerard. I look forward to sando's slot every week. Fantasic analysis and i always learn something new. But with all due respect to sando, i think he got the dees v blues game wrong in terms of two distinct game styles. In a nutshell, i think the blues have in fact modelled their game plan on the Melbourne game plan. Sando's point about Melbourne playing fast flowing transition football of late is correct, but as Goodwin has said many times this season the Demon DNA is forward half territory football, defence, and win the contest. Just like Voss has implemented at Carlton. Makes sense because the tiger's template model has won every flag since 2017, bar 2018 with the Eagles being an outlier. Another analyst i really enjoy on SEN is Daniel Hoyne. He is fantastic and i am much persuaded by his opinion that the reason for the blues dramatic turn around has not been their improvement in the stoppages and contest, but rather bringing in players like Cunningham and Cottrell to play the high half forward role (that Spargo and Neale-Bullen play at Melbourne) to fix their issues with transitioning the ball and stopping the oppo doing the same. But in terms of the contest, winning stopes and clearances, the demons will be very hard to beat on that front. In their last four matches' Melbourne are averaging north of 50 points from stoppages, which is very high. The blues are indeed in very good form, but so are Melbourne. I can't see the Blues beating the demons in the contest OR on transition. Melbourne will be too strong i think.

Back pocket for you Clarry

Also doesn't mention the impact of Gawn as the sole ruck. That has made a significant difference in the last month.

The North compo pick really dictates the early draft. Their list manager (Rawlings) made comment yesterday that 'end of first round or second round compensation is not what we're after', and that they'd rather match the offer as a restricted free agent than lose him for that. They're really pushing for start of first round compo, so pick 3. If they got pick 3, then Eagles are less likely to trade pick 1 backwards and we'd lose access to Reid. Or, if we didn't trade up, our pick drops and we potentially lose access to someone like Mckercher, Curtin, Duursma that we'd targeted. Fingers crossed for us and the whole league that North don't get pick 3. On the potential for pick 3 for the Roos, in no way is Ben Mckay worth a first round pick as compo. On 2023 form, he's lost 41% of one on one contests, which ranks him as the worst key defender in the league. Outright statistically worst tall defender in the league. He's only averaged a bit under 2 intercept marks a game. For context, May has lost 21%, Lever 25%. Tomlinson surprisingly has been our strongest defender in the contest, and has only lost 12% of one on one contests and averages a bit over 1 intercept mark a game, including matches where he's been subbed off. If Ben McKay is worth a first round pick, then so is Tomlinson, and we all know neither are. I'm still hopefully we'll be able to put picks together to trade for pick 1 and land Reid. He looks like an incredible prospect and it would be so damaging and exciting having him form a rotation of devastation between midfield and forward line with Petracca.

Weird assumption. I’d say it’s more to do with the team being pretty [censored] good, with some of the best players in the world.

That was impressive coaching by Goody and one of Steven May's best performances for the season. Curnow barely got a touch. Adam Tomlinsom was on McKay who was experiencing a patch of the goal scoring yips. At the start of the game I thought this is 'A' about but as the match unfolded it was a masterstroke. Curnow, the more dangerous player was totally negated by May. McKay got on the end of a few and kicked accurately but returned to his inaccurate ways as the evening wore on. Joel Smith played as a defensive forward, not prolific but there were some impressive cameos in the general play. Some posters have downplayed the game as an unimpressive spectacle. As my only attendance for the season so far (I'm very much hoping the Demons go to the season decider). I was impressed, the 'anaconda mode' was switched full on (team contest and defense #1). Carlton were starved for oxygen and never really were a threat.

The only skiing I'll be doing is down the gate 5 steps with a Carlton fan under each foot after the game..

We have also have a super record at the MCG this year! 10 wins and 1 loss with an average winning margin of 32 points. The G is our fortress!

No females?

I’ll cop immediately that this is pedantry at its finest but Tracc didn’t say that we’re ready for finals? He states we’ve found our game again and there are still 3 games until finals… if anything he’s saying that ‘we’ve regained our brand and are starting to dominate offensively BUT there are still 3 games UNTIL finals.’ So no, Christian Petracca didn’t say ‘the Dees are ready for finals’ From a journalism point of view this is factually wrong… In saying that, we are absolutely ready for finals, haha

I’d say your mail is good, but so good it is far from ready for announcement. When I asked my friend who would have some insight, his response was simply “Something in the media?” Then went on to reveal knowledge of discussions between the club and the trustees, that it would be a great result for the reserve (unaware of how good it would be for us!) but also that state govt currently has no budget to develop the land. It may be much too early for a reveal, as it sounds quite a bit of water needs to go under the bridge with securing significant funding for any sort of development. I’m not privy to the inner workings of these things, but it seems a bit chicken or the egg. A big commitment for us if no funding eventuates, but a development probably needs the profile of an AFL club to attract such funding. I’d say an AFL club that has just won another flag would be ideal, but maybe one that just had another strong finals showing is enough.

99 problems Clayton Oliver coming back in ain't one. Are these dudes for real?

This is some of the genius thinking we have to look forward to from AI. Pathetic.