Leaderboard

Is that really a necessary comment? The guy was on an AFL list for a decade. He won countless VFL awards too. He wasn’t the best player to ever pull on the jumper, but he gave it his all and set a great example for the younger players at Casey. I wish him all the best in the future.

The greatest travesty of his time at the club was not running onto Optus stadium in the GF when it was in the bag. I understand the ethics from the ‘game rules’ side of things but how about at a personal level? I very much doubt the AFL would’ve stopped it….. 😬

Always liked him. He will play a lot more AFL level football and I wish him the best, up to the traditional limit! I appreciate the courtesy of Twomey referring to him as Melbourne Premiership Player.

We would have been stripped of the flag, 100 years of first and second round picks and fined 10 million dollars. It’s the AFL way. (I’m surprised May’s hamstring didn’t require a last minute sub, with 10 mins left, I’m with you)

Should throw 900 a year at Jamarra Ugle Hagan, or some sort of offer he can’t refuse. Dogs have to sign up Naughton and English on close to a million next year, Jamarra is out of contract next year as well. They have Darcy and now Croft waiting in the wings as key forwards too, that’s too many with Lobb as well. Dogs are after high draft picks this year, pick 5 + whatever else we have could get it done. Don’t see anyone in this draft as talented as him at our pick. Long shot but as Gerard said, shake the tree!

Jeremy Cameron is on $2.2m per year of you include the farm gifted at 1960’s land prices.

Farewell Luke. Just couldn't break into the senior side but give it his all. Dunstan calls it a day (melbournefc.com.au)

Related to this a nasty narrative is developing: “On Monday journalist Jon Ralph revealed “senior figures” at the Demons believe the Brayshaw fallout contributed to the team’s semi-final loss....A strong belief from senior figures still a week on is that the Angus Brayshaw furore derailed their finals pitch,” he said On the Couch. “That the players were shell shocked to witness Brayshaw concussed and laid out cold." Now every media outlet will run with it. Ralph's claim is being talked up as MFC making 'excuses' which is not something we do. From what I saw the KO affected the QF but not the SF. I have no time at all for Ralph and this is a bizarre claim without providing any substance. Just assumption, embellishment and guess work. Click bait at its worst. I'm annoyed that Lyon didn't call him out on it.

A massive coaching blunder on so many levels. Is there another story.. who knows The only saving grace is that we come out of it square. Funnily enough if we had played him in a more successful finals team we may have come out ahead. (Schache... in front of Grundy... smells to high heaven)

Good servant and wish him well.

Very sad to see him go. I rated Jordon. Was coming 4th in our B&F after Round 18 last year.

Fair enough. Rightly or wrongly we couldn't offer him game time. He would be a walk up start in most teams. Sorry to see him go.

Someone stated in the game day thread early on after a couple soft decisions that the "Fix was in." As the game wore on the the more obvious it become. Especially in the last. But at the end of the day, we forked up. The game shouldn't have even been close. Like boxing, if ya KO your opponent the crooked judges are taken out of the equation.

Ok, so not having Gus affected the SF. We lost by 2 points. Gus in JJ out, would we have won? JJ had 2 possessions in the 2nd half. To me it’s an obvious opinion to hold by someone and Ralphy is blowing it up as though the club is using it as the sole excuse for our performance. I am sure that is not the case. Maybe a contributing factor, but not the sole reason we lost both games.

This really is the elephant in the room. No one here will be shocked by this, yet it's our forwards that continually get bagged despite them, as a group, having an injury run from hell. We love those 3 to death, but their 'just kick it' style gets lots of i50's for little gain. Also, as set shots themselves they are poor. To the eye, there seems to be missing that creative handball (like Clarry used to do) that gives the kicker that extra second or 2 to find and hit a target. We have the right core. We just need to change the style and mindset. This is likely a combination of personnel (elite midfield ball users), line coaches and game plan. A KPF would be nice, but is not the Holy Grail. Carlton were missing McKay and May slaughtered Curnow, so that didn't beat us. There's an old saying. It's not the size that counts, but how it's used. Even my wife, who knows nothing about football, keeps telling me this. 🤔

While I sort of agree with Garry Lyon, he could of expressed it more eloquently. I guess football was more important than English class in his younger years at his old town in Kyabram. He is always known as being a grumpy bugger ol' Garry Lyon though! 🤣 It also needs to be remembered that the Melbourne players were quite traumatised seeing poor Angus Brayshaw getting knocked out for 2 minutes by that vile piece of slime Brayden "the Thug" Maynard. Nevertheless, I am sure the Demons will "suck it up" and hopefully use the disappointing exit from finals as motivation for next year. Here is the link with Garry Lyon's comments: https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/suck-it-up-claims-stars-ko-derailed-dees-run-after-finals-choke/news-story/4479e3db7817a98992ad748f28457bc7 I should note that everyone in the football media loves to kick the Melbourne Demons while we are down and out. But you gotta expect that when there are high expectations and you don't meet them. Oh well....better to be criticised for poor finals performances than being Wooden Spooners! 🤷🏼‍♂️

I’ll never understand why our coach didn’t bring him onto the ground in the final 10 minutes or so of the Grand Final. Yeah he got a medallion but it wouldn’t have hurt anyone to give the lad the memory of being out on the green stuff during an AFL premiership win. The game was well and truly iced. There was no reason not to. Pretty thoughtless from Goodwin I reckon. All the best to you James. You played 20+ solid games in 2021 and deserved to be in that photo as much as any bloke out there. You are an MFC premiership player.

All the best to JJ. From rookie to playing a role in our premiership year.

jon ralph writes 350 words designed to get people to click it and read it before they go 'there's nothing to this article'

Gryan Miers is the guy he needs to try to emulate next year. Miers is 24, and statistically very similar. Spargo a better user, but Miers had more score assists (best ever in fact) and score involvements. Charlie needs to get his score involvements and assists up. Then he and Trac rolling through there with more dangerous ground level players like McAdam and hopefully a Watson to go with Kozzy, with Fritta's goal sense and Petty's contested marking, that's a dangerous forwardline that allows JVR to grow too.

Is there one Dees supporter that wouldn’t be ecstatic, if the same happened to Maynard 3 minutes into the PF? It has affected all Dees fans, not just an Official.

It could be as simple as a Board member saying he thought the Gus incident greatly affected the Pies game. Then the click bait starts. Of course it affected the game. We lost a versatile 30 possession player, 3 minutes into the game, which stopped Petracca going forward and the replacement had 6 possessions and no impact at all. We lost by 7 points. Of course it affected the game.

After the last few sad days of RDB passing and the last week from Thursday back to now a real chance of a surprise flag to some had also moved on due to the Angus incident and our follow up self inflicted butchering to allow Carlton one more match in their dream run. As a kid in 1958 my best mate at Cheltenham State School (we lived round the corner in Cheltenham from each other) had lured my family through me who wore as a kid No 31 on my back. We lost the flag that year and listened on radio and had fun as kids with RDB's name. Luckily in 1960 we were able to see the last quarter of the GF at my grandparents with the ground being a mud heap due to constant rain but we held the Pies to 2 goals and win by 28 points for our 11th Flag. We had started in 1959 and Dad took me in Round2 to the G we beat the Pies in a replay snd after started as a family to go to home matches sitting in the Southern Stand ( mostly opposition fans) nearest the front row on the high level and saw the Demons ( never called Dees in those days). Of course we kept winning in 62 snd 63 and saw the 63 Semi win and Prelim failure all without RDB courtesy of Roger Dean and a dubious VFL Tribunal result. With another school mate ( Tiger fan) now at High School I saw that game at Punt Rd. Too far from scene to know if any evidence was truthful or not but as no TV allowed in decision it was a word vs another word. In 64 we saluted thankfully Froggy Crompton rescued us and we celebrated that night watching the replay at my Demon mates house after the game. Flag No 12. Very pleased with our Footy side 3 years and 2 Flags!! We had no idea of the next 59 years. !!!!! We had at some stage ( Sorry my sister I believe!!) conned Dad with Mum to drive to Heathmont to see the champ RDB's home! No doubt hoping to get a glance of him. No such luck. Then the killer blow when He went to Carlton but I still wore the 31 on my back!! Tears etc but still loved the Demons. Wilderness followed for many years and 87 and 98 plus 2002 aside with the Reverend and Barass was still in the news at times with Coaching and still winning. Came back in 81-85 and helped set up Swooper ( John Northey) and that magical 87 Ginals series ending agsin in tears.Still no flag. Despite 88 and 2000 teases and more tears. Until '21 and our immortals beat Covid lockdowns and as i had moved to Brisbane in 1993. Great decision making in hindsight saw the bang bang bang etc. after 2 weeks isolation in SA courtesy my SA cousins. RDB saw that Cup so did I snd pride snd emotion followed. Was always grest on the TV with RDB at Dees games in recent years. Sad he wasn't able to be at MCG when we celebrated in Dec. Ironic he passed around the greatest Melb/ Carlton rivalry game since the 2000 Semi Final snd a recent best 20 runs fit the Club this century. Will no doubt meet up with the great msn upstairs in the future hopefully after another 1/2 Flags and dynasty we still can achieve if the tight decisions are made in the upcoming off season. A long journey but RBD there all the way with the Demons. During this I have just balled my eyes out with the emotion snd sadness but thankful for the great footy journey he started me on. Highs snd Lows but let's look forward to 2024 and a new year for the Dees. Go Dees

Absolutely agree with everything in that article. The truth hurts and I hope it burns in the off season and pre season and channel all of that in a positive way…….change has to happen otherwise we are just making up the numbers. We are staying the same and others are catching and going past us.

Go well and good luck Brodie. I personally think you did your level best in the circumstances. I also believe the club totally stuffed this up from day one...and right through. Not Melbourne's finest hour(s). This could have played out much better. Certainly shows which camp has no capacity for lateral thinking. We're not that clever at times...especially when we think we are.

Hear me out, if there was an opportunity to bring either onto our list next year as a player to then transition as a forwards development coach would you take up that opportunity? A Jack Riewoldt or Tom Hawkins would have been such a huge upgrade on Tom McDonald in both finals series. Tom Hawkins played 20 games and still kicked 49 goals this year. Remarkable effort. Jack Riewoldt played 21 games for 33 goals this year also. Could you imagine the leadership and development impact this would have on JVR, Petty and Jefferson?

In 2022, Jordan was one of our biggest momentum killers on the wing. Never played on, even when he had no pressure on him. Enabled the opposition to get back to our forward line in large numbers, making it very difficult to score. He's not the only one that did this, but certainly the most noticeable in my eyes. His influence in 2023 was minimal compared to 2022, given lack of opportunities. Didn't make the most of the opportunities he had though. Hunter at least tries to move the ball on. He doesn't come to a complete halt with no pressure on him. His main issue is a lack of penetration in his kicking and lack of ability to kick the ball far.

How did Goodwin treat him poorly??

i believe he only got delisted as the afl rule at the time was you had to take three 'live' picks into a national draft? in a choice between him and sparrow for the 'next man up' midfield role in our afl side, i'm choosing sparrow good luck to him; be interesting to see if he can be more than a role player elsewhere

Geeze we are going to have some turnover this year. Casey are going to struggle next year

No surprise there.

How did you go at the top level?

Back to Back VFL team of the year and won a flag with Casey. Unlucky a little bit with selection and sad to go out with an injury.

I'd be a big fan of a godfather offer being made to Jamara.

none of the footage shown on the 7 telecast shows conclusively that it was touched. For them to overrule on that basis is unbelievable. Two games we have been dudded and 7 times Carlton have received the benefit of the review in the past 4 games. The AFL is corrupt to the core. Cripps didn't even have a concussion test until after the game. Nor did Weitering yet he was staggering around like a drunk

Yze has been great for us and last year I was fearful of him leaving. This year I feel we almost need the change...and thats not putting any blame on him either. It just feels like we cant just go around again after 2 years of straight set exits. Fresh voices and ideas needed.

The family have accepted the offer of a State Funeral.❤️💙

think mick is pretty happy as a senior coach of a premiership winning, currently undefeated aflw side

The decision to recruit Grundy and the non-selection of hin these past few weeks are two different things. It bugs me how it appears he wasn't even considered for selection because his papers were stamped. If anything that was just another distraction for the team. Regardless of what was happening and where he is/isn't going, we had this guy healthy and at our disposal and did nothing.

Conversely, players can significantly improve over time if they are prepared to put the work in and they receive the right coaching. Russell Robertson was a player who clearly improved his goal kicking over the course of his career, and went from being a below 50% kick to a very reliable set shot. In his case I believe it was just sheer hard work and repetition that did the job. Todd Viney was an ordinary field kick for much of his career but was much improved in his last couple of years, deservedly becoming All Australian in 1998. I'm yet to see any indication that our current group are willing to do this sort of work.

Who are these senior figures??? Ralph is a massive FLOP. Fanning these stupid non-stories, and shame on Garry who always seems happy to sink the boot in.

Why are you in the rumours thread if you don't like rumours?

Miers also also kicking it to more consistent forwards. Wonder what Spargo stats would have been like if we had a well oiled forward line.

I totally get this was a wasted year but in the same vein, if we were as terrible as the pundits say then we overachieved making a Semi. We all know that the biggest determining factor in winning a flag is a healthy list. Nobody can argue we had this at almost any stage in the season. We got slaughtered by injuries to key players during the year and that above everything I believe cost us the flag. We can turn it around and I hope we are aggressive during trade week and the draft.

Garry loves the dees but he’s also always the first one to put the boot in. Contrast that with Cornes or Buckley or Damo . He speaks from his grumpy self but it would be good if he could be a little protective as well in the times when it’s needed. As in now.

And this is why I just avoid football media. The wrist slashing and insane hyperbole doesn't help. Everything these so called experts are saying, our club is internally very well aware of. The pile on does nothing but create a narrative that we are a soft club. Honestly the out and out hatred of our club in the media is so obvious. They all could not wait to see us fail so they can stick the boot in, including ex Melbourne captain Lyon. What he is saying might be partially true, but as always these commentators pick the flaws and offer absolutely no solutions. I trust the club is going to work hard to rectify the problems.

I agree with Lyon. We coughed up both those games. Yeah we were dealing with some adversity but there is always some to deal with. Better to avoid the the excuses and focus on fwd connection and goal kicking conversion.

A lot of people here talking down Grundy’s forward craft, and completely overlooking how little he was offering defensively too. My take is that this latter factor played a very large part in the abandonment of the “Gawndy Experiment”. But my main takeaway from this fairly embarrassing blunder was that Goodwin made a poor call in deciding to recruit him in the first place. A bizarre attempt to fill the Luke Jackson-sized hole with a player who was never going to provide the same qualities, and who would neither have been comfortable as a rucking understudy. The lack of vision is concerning. The final crescendo in this symphony of mistakes was placing him in the grandstand for a semi final where his presence could have made all the difference. Or at least a helluva lot more difference than the inactivated-sub that was Schache, another player who’s recruitment makes as much sense to many here as Chinese algebra. None of this exactly fills me with faith. The end of an error.