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Repeating that it is Demonland policy to stand behind our club, coach and players. There is to be no discussion on this website about the Ex President or any allegations against the club coach Simon Goodwin whilst they are based on claims that are neither proven nor substantiated in any way, shape or form. This is the MFC Statement in response to the allegations:- "The Melbourne Football Club is aware, through WorkSafe Victoria, that Victoria Laspas has made a complaint about the MFC. At no point has Victoria Laspas been a volunteer or employee of the club. "Victoria Laspas is the partner of ex-president Glen Bartlett who ceased as a board member of the club in 2021. "The club has responded to WorkSafe's requests for documentation regarding club policies, staff training, employee induction and procedures. It rejects any wrongdoing. "The club has also provided WorkSafe Victoria with documents and proof that contradict and refute claims by Victoria Laspas. "Over the last two years, Glen Bartlett and his partner Victoria Laspas have continued to make allegations about historical events that are factually incorrect and baseless”.

This crept up on us. I hope he gets the kudos that he deserves and a bit of media coverage. His 200th match this week and richly deserved with the injuries he had to overcome early on in his career. a premiership captain, All Australian and B&f winner and most importantly a good bloke. Well done skipper and I hope we get the win. Here's some merchandise from the club email to celebrate it. https://shop.melbournefc.com.au/gawn-200/?spMailingID=9824151&spUserID=Mjg4NTYxMzIyNzkzS0&spJobID=1800275706&spReportId=MTgwMDI3NTcwNgS2 Oh and it's Alex Neal-Bullens 150th to.

A literal giant of the game. The best ruckman of the last decade and one of the all time greats. A brilliant captain, a brilliant club person and someone you are really proud to call your own. Everyone loves big Max and he’s given us 200 bloody brilliant games. From the hilarious to the downright insane. Kicking goals to win is a minor premiership, kicking goals to get us into a grand final, and holding that cup after 57 long years. Well done on 200 heart and soul games. Jimmy knew you were special and you’ve shown us all why! Here is to more AA jackets, more giant babies and most importantly more premiership medallions!

We have made the decision, previously expressed, that there is to be no discussion on this website about the Ex President, Glen Bartlett, or any allegations against the Club Coach, Simon Goodwin, whilst they are based on allegations that are unproven. We simply do not wish to go into areas that could expose the site, our posters, our coach or the club in the circumstances where litigation is pending. Please understand and respect this position. If have a post or topic deleted, please be assured that it was deleted for a reason. This goes for all topics or posts that we deem may cross the line. If we are going to err it will be on the side of caution. Our site was established to provide information and support about and for the Melbourne Football Club, its players, coaches and staff and that is where we stand.

I totally love this that you can get in footy - the improbable, and off-the-show best ever. Robbie Flower. Liam Jurrah. Max Gawn. Football has this capacity for amazing us. I don't know if other clubs have this, but following Melbourne is full of stuff that stretches the tiny imagination and lifts us right out of ourselves and our plod. i love it. The fact of Max makes everything about life better, he's a total legend. His marking, his outrageous goals, his never getting upset by the un-umpired abuse he has to take week in week out - all because he's just too good for the opposition.. His genial unstoppable personality. He is the continuation of everything Jimmy Stynes was for our club. He makes us smile and laugh, and be overwhelmingly proud of our club. Explaining to the grandchildren what Max was like will be as impossible as describing what was so special about Robbie Flower, for those who never saw him. We are so blessed! We love you, Max!

Data is from footywire: https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/attendances We do even better when sorted by average home crowd. Bombers might jump us as they’ve got pies at the G in the last round, hopefully we draw a decent 40k against the hawks this week for our last home game.

Just these two points... please understand they are mutually EXCLUSIVE. Totally agree with first point. They were...absolutely. The game was really won in the first 5 mins of the last qtr. ( as things turned out ) However...there is no escaping the reality and plausibility that despite that ( the above ) the umpiring over all was pox...and specifically the adjudication applied to Tracs goal was appalling; and that IT specifically decided the game. It's not terribly often in games that despite an overall judgement that there were umpiring stuffups that anyone will seriously point to one particular event. That's not the situation regarding this game. If ever a game was decided by how a spinning coin fell..this is a serious contender...and mores the point ( npi ) it should never have been uponthe coin's fall. It WAS a goal. And that deserves MASSIVELY lambasting.

Didn’t know where to post this. Rivers deserves the love he’s receiving here. Just a saw a champion data stat, he’s the best kick in the comp over the last 6 weeks. He’s the 11th highest-rated player in that period, kicking almost 20% above expectation.

We will best them comfortably. Gawn and ANB's 200th and 150 games respectively. Why wouldn't you wanna get up for these two lads.

MFC 2018, the bust will come and we will delight in it

One of the best I’ve seen come through WA in a long time

In 50 years Clayton has been the best Viney has been the toughest Robbie the most courageous and skilfull Petracca the most powerful But no one has come near Max for having the biggest impact on the club. To play and lead as he has done is the single greatest football story in the clubs history. A full culture change in an 18 team comp culminating in a 57 year drought breaking flag and then to maintain the standard is by far the biggest mountain we have climbed. Thanks Max!

I'm giving props to Kozzie who tells the ump when it was touched. When he was the player who kicked it. Bravo.

West Coast aren't tanking. They're genuinely putrid. They're actually worse than we were which is some feat.

Umpires make bad calls both ways. And we didn't lose the game because of the umpires. We lost because we weren't up to it. Even with a handful of Carlton's best 10 players unavailable. I don't remember anyone saying we were lucky to get the rub of the green against Richmond which arguably gave us a hit of momentum which we took advantage of. Can't have it both ways. We lost because we and choose when we want to play our best footy too often.

Who woulda thought 10 years ago he’d be a Premiership Captain and 6 time All Australian - let alone making it to 200 games! Let’s celebrate it with a win this weekend.

Young George Gawn is not quite two years old but is reportedly already taller than Charlie Spargo. Demon fans should also be rapt than George's middle name is ... Oliver! (Nickname GOG?)

I lifted this from Big Footy so can't prove accuracy, but if it is, Dee's are doing a fantastic job pulling the crowds considering: * 3 games where capacity was less than 21K (Hobart, Geelong [censored]-hole and Alice Springs). Not sure about Metricon. * The number of home games we play at the G v interstate sides * The massive leg up the top 4 are given with their fixtures and prime-time exposure (add Geelong next year when their [censored] stadium is finished). Go Dees! I say again. Why are we still playing Geelong in Geelong every [censored] year when the G and Marvel are vacant? Enough of this [censored].

He's been injured or ordinary the last two years. While trying to carry Norf's defence on his back. Prior to that he looked really promising, particularly in tandem with Robbie Tarrant. I've found myself wondering how he'd slot in as May's apprentice and heir apparent. It would also free up Petty to stay at CHF. It's well worth investigating. The whisper is that he's off to Essendon. Surely working with Lever and May at a club in premiership contention would be more appealing from McKay's perspective. Cutting the Druggies grass is an extra benefit in my view 😉

Here are the numbers for our home games excluding Alice: 1. Western Bulldogs 48,103 3 Sydney 42,423 6 Richmond 83,985 7 North 29,455 11 Freo 29,154 12 Carlton 49,872 13 Collingwood 83,578 18 Brisbane 38,030 19 Adelaide 33,122 Average 48,636 Hawthorn to come of course

Also to add, we win on expected score. So if Carlton were generally playing better all over the ground for longer, then it would most likely come through the stats and expected score convincingly i.e. > 10 pts. Its not an exact science but it does tell you the story. In this case it was +2 pts to Melbourne, but that alone doesnt mean we should have won, it just means that Carlton were not as dominant as some have proposed. The other factor is games decided < 2 goals either way are almost always very very even contests and its 1 or 2 moments in the entire game that decides the final score. This game was even statistically on all fronts. Its just unfortunate that the moment that decided this game was in the hands of umpires, which is what infuriates everyone, because it looks more like a goal than it does a point. If Trac had been tackled before he kicked or kicked Out-of-Bounds, then you take the loss and move on. But to have a goal taken away from us, which from every perspective and process should have been granted and to hear the Blues talk about luck and gloat like they had stolen the win and for the impact of the result to cost the Dees a likely 2nd spot is salt in the wound. I applauded the way the Demons played (considering it was wet) and that's coming from a devout pessimist. Look at my previous posts and you will see that i shredded the Dees mid-year given the games we were dropping and the way we were playing. But the Blues were a respectable opposition and could not have played any better with the players they had out. On paper we are probably the better side, but we are not too far off our best as well. As others have said, Carlton would have beaten any of the other 16 sides by 4+ goals with that performance.

Agree with all of the above. If they don't finish top 4 history is against them, but as you say they have the game. As do we. The same one in fact Contest, intense pressure, forward half football has been the template for winning the flag ever since Hardwick's tiger's won the flag in 2017. And one of the truisms of all sport, also holds true in footy - defence wins Grand Finals. And the dees and the blues have the best defensive systems by some margin The game on Saturday night showed how close and how well matched we are. The Blues were brilliant, and deserved the win. But we had the better of the second half and looked fitter and stronger at the end. We were denied the four points by an officiating error, but even leaving that aside the game could have gone either way. As Luke Ball said, the best game of the season - two top teams going head to head and being separated by under a goal. It is only logical that anyone that rates the blues as a good chance of winning the flag rate also rate us a good chance of doing so. In fact if someone thinks the blues are a good chance of winning the flag, the logical extension is we have a greater chance of doing so. Yes they won that game, but I think we are the better team. But that is by the by - the fact remains, in all likelihood, we will have a double chance and they will not. So therefore we have a better chance of winning the flag.

They’re 100% a contender and clearly have the best form and profile right now What’s more is they’re playing a game style that will stand up to the pressure of finals football On that basis, they’re every chance to give the “can’t win it from outside the four” theory a real shake, particularly given the evenness of the comp this year But a month is a long time in football, and without finishing top four they’re every chance to play an interstate semi or prelim final, which will be tough for any side overcome Long story short - if they manage to win the flag from here, it would be one of the most impressive Premiership runs in history But we could just as well be sitting here in a month watching them flame out after an admittedly very impressive few months Time will tell

I said Carlton were brilliant. They couldn't have played better and their personnel changes wouldn't have made much difference. They couldn't have won more inside 50s against us than they did in the first... whereas we can play a whole lot better. The thing that's disappointing about you Steve is you go as mute as a dead fish in our wins, not a bubble for 20 pages on a post game thread, but as soon as there's a loss, you're on here whinging away, flapping about on the pier. I'm fine with supporters venting and I do it myself, we all have different uses for Demonland, but you literally come on to whinge or froth over having draft picks. That's literally all you do anymore. You used to be an insightful poster. It's like you've been locked up by a terrorist for years and finally released, but you're not the same Steve. You're Jimmy... and Jimmy, frankly is a neggy nuffy. What happens if we win the flag?

You're welcome. Helps me get out for those morning walks, via the Yarra and the Botanical. I enjoy that, and the storms young players were having some fullish sims. Beautiful day down here in Melbourne. I thought, maybe the club has changed up its training routine, as it prepares for a finals assault. I will have a sqizz at Gosch's again, Thursday morning.

Eagles fans to their credit keep rocking up

No one will remember this game in 6 weeks time bring on the real stuff

I would be interested to see how supporters would rate the prospects without a draft guide as to where they will go. The draft guess work for supporters is confirmation bias 101. You know they are a high-draft pick when you watch these videos, so it always stands out more. If you just had footage and no guide for the top 30 players, 95% of supporters wouldn't get close to picking the top 10.

Sorry Jimmy - how can you say we were outplayed when the result was so close. If Tracc's kick was declared a goal I suppose you wouldn't have said we outplayed Carlton. They outplayed us for some of the match, we outplayed them for another part of the match. Let's see a glimpse of positivity.

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From where he's come from, playing for a team at rock bottom with 3 knee reco's and being busted smoking a dart on the way to training, to taking being a Premiership captain and recognised as once of the best players in the league playing his 200 game this weekend on the eve of another finals campaign. Well done Maxy!

This thread is full of uninformed conjecture. The facts as described to me by an experience and mulit- AFL Grand Final goal umpire is that the goal umpire was WRONG in his thought process as umpires are trained. He did not adjuducate to his training for this example. 1. First, the umpire must decide if the gball went tthrough the goals, and if so was there a deviation? 2. In this case there was not. 3. The Umpire should then have called a goal , but if unsure of touch, call review for a touch. 4. No initai evidence of deviation, which was the case here, means his decsiosn must have been a goal, with a check. That would have shown no deveiastion , thus a goal stands. 5. Gerard Whaelty talked about "..scoreboard integrity.." No such thing in the process and is a party-line approach. Poor umpirring cost Tiges a final last year (that goal umpire had only 11 games AFL senior experinece) and Dees a possible top 2. And the AFL calls itself professional. The Umpire should be stood down, as his approach was that he clearly reacted to Caleb Marchbank's touch claim. Not the facts of the situation.

Thankyou. brodie didn’t kick goals or take Hangers in the Forward Line, i get that. But he still played a very solid game. So many people have not noticed what he did. I would love him to kick a few goals, but he is taking load off Max very effectively. That can still be an asset i hope the Club keep persevering with number 6

He had some great moments and games but for mine one of the most overrated footballers in the past 20 years. Was great at hit outs and follow up clearances in his prime but mostly awful around the ground and a terrible mark for his size. The way the commentators used to go on about him probably skews my judgement, but it was unbearable at times.

it'd be nice if these draft guides that proliferate these days would give that sort of guide... harley reid: ceiling: christian petracca floor: luke tapscott daniel curtin: ceiling: matthew pavlich floor: cale morton and so on and so forth

Couldn't find a thread on him, so thought I'd put it in here. I hope we're into Ben McKay, provided he's willing to come across a bit cheaper. He'd be an upgrade on Tomlinson, serve as May's ultimate replacement, allow May to play higher up the ground and enable Petty to go forward permanently in 2024. We might try and back Adams and Turner, but I don't think either of them can play on that gorilla type and this is what free agency is for. To enable the top clubs to poach good players from struggling clubs. 😉 It could be our Frawley to Hawthorn move.

If you don’t turn up this week to cheer this man on, then when will you?!

An absolute legend of the club. And across many years of high performance, some truly standout, unforgettable ones that we'll never forget.

Mitch Lewis in doubt with a foot injury. Hawks spearhead in doubt for Dees clash due to foot injury - https://www.afl.com.au/news/1009540

One stat that caught my eye from the Blues games was the Contested Defensive One on Ones. As @WheeloRatingsnoted, we lost 21.4% of these, but digging deeper we actually had 28 (lost 6) of these CDOoOs which is a season high! We had 27 against Port in Rd 10 (lost 2) and 26 (lost 7) against Bris in Rd 18 with the next highest being 20 (lost 4) against Gee in Rd 15. Interestingly, the only game where we had to defend more CDOoOs since 2016 was Rd 22, 2022 against...Carlton! A big driver of this is losing the I50 battle: -5 vs Blues (after being down 20 to 2, 20 mins into Q1), -5 vs Lions, -1 vs Cats, -13 vs Power. Unuusal that we were +10 vs Blues in Rd 22, 2022 though. Thank goodness for our defence when this happens. In 2023, we are 2nd best in terms of CDOoO loss %, only losing 19.7%, behind Lions on 19.1%, although they've had 69 less CDOoOs to defend. We've actually had the second highest CDOoOs to defend so far this year: 315 (avg of 15 per game) with only GWS recording more (345, 16.4 per game) and well above league avg of 264 (12.6 per game). There is a reasonable gap to 3rd with GWS on 21.4% CDOoO loss rate and Coll in 4th on 21.8%. With a league average loss rate of 24.6%, other contenders are: Blues at 25.1% (11th) and Power at 32.1% (worst). For May to only lose 1 out of 12 on Sat night is remarkable (wet weather helped, but 11 spoils shows how good he was) and Jake Lever did well also, not losing any of his 3! Player CDOoO CDL CDL% Steven May 12 1 8.33% Jake Lever 3 0 0.00% Joel Smith 3 1 33.33% Lachie Hunter 2 0 0.00% Max Gawn 2 2 100.00% Jake Bowey 2 2 100.00% Judd McVee 1 0 0.00% Christian Salem 1 0 0.00% Jack Viney 1 0 0.00% Michael Hibberd 1 0 0.00% Stats courtesy of data provided by @Fryzigg on Twitter/X. Apoloigies for lots of words, but the current size limit on posts doesn't allow my preferred data visualisations.

who would have thought when he was 23yo with 20 games to his name, and two knee recos this could happen. you literally would not have believed he could play 200 games and be AA regular and premiership captain. Bog and kicking 2 goals to get to 100 goals would satisfy me So proud of you Maxy!! you have given us a team to be proud of. you’ve developed into a gentleman and leader.

With a silent F

Jack Riewoldt (Richmond) is the latest veteran to announce his departure from AFL. I never warmed to him but acknowledge that he had an excellent career.

When a team has a good win but has a few players out, doesn't guarantee they can play any better than those that replaced them.

I can understand that Marchbank and the Blues were just so desperate to get a win at all costs. Conning the umpires in this instance is a bit like going up for an appeal, when you reckon it wasn’t really out, but you go up anyway to see what the ump thinks. Worked out for Carlton this time. Made me think what Dee players might have done in the same position. Marchbank might have been injured for this one (odds on at least) so might have missed the example set by Koz:

It’s hard to do anything right or wrong if you cant run to a contest or jump at the ball. There is no way he plays his week.

This rule surprises me. I thought it was compulsory for ruckman to push, bump, block and grab each other, especially at boundary throw-ins!

Give me a spell. We were not 'garbage' for the first quarter and half. The blues were brilliant. Their intensity was off the charts. And we stood up amazingly well. You've managed to insult both the Dees AND the blues (if we were garbage for a quarter and a half any decent team, let alone a tem of the Blues caliber, would have gone into half time with a 6 goal lead) Such rot. On ABC radio after the game, whcih i srted listing to on my way home, Brendan Goddard said the 'demons lost no admirers, they were awesome' (he also went on to say that ARC decision was clearly an error and questioned how they could have made the decision so quickly). Without a word of a lie, i immediately thought to myself, yes they will - but not from any objective person, but rather it will be dees fans who can't see the woods for the trees. This was the pressure rating for the match (note 200 is consider elite, finals like pressure - we finished with an average across the game of 200. That is unbelievable). Team pressure Quarter For Against 1 196 224 2 185 201 3 207 197 4 214 202 Match 200 206 The fact that the blues had an average of 206 is credit to them. Amazing pressure - i would be very surprised if they have had a higher rating in any other game this season. No other team has come close to that sort of sustained pressure in a game against us this season. By way of comparison in our previous encounter both team averaged 170 for the game. And IIRC the Pies Port game, which many have said is the best, most intense game of the season, was aprox the same as the blues dees game. Most finals don't get to those levels. Our GF win didn't. And nor did the Pies Cats game on Friday night for that matter. And before you dismiss the stat, clubs put huge stock in it. It was designed by Champion Data for clubs, not TV. If you don't believe me listen to McRae's post match presser - he promised they would lift their pressure rating ahead of the game and in the presser references their pressure being back to it's very best - 'at 2' (note: the data the clubs get, which Brendan Sanderson has said is shown to players on the bench thru the match, is expressed as say 1.8 for 180 - fox and the herald sun just adds a zero to make it sexier and easier for fans to grasp).

Ummm, I think you’ll find that they actually were very much the reason we lost.