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It is a genuine pleasure to watch these girls play live. Went with my daughter and a few of her friends that I coach and you learn a lot from watching this team. They are selfless and disciplined and play their roles really well. Gillard is a rock in defence her ability to spoil but hit it to the advantage of a team mate that is in position ready for the spoil is second to none. Our ability to win the ball on the inside and get it outside by handball and use chains of handball to move it is outstanding. Sometimes they can use one too many handballs but you wear that. We are usually good by foot but I thought we were a bit off there last night. There was a bit of a breeze but didn’t think it was a big factor. North hardly fired a shot after the first quarter largely due to our defensive pressure.Agree with the crowd a bit disappointing and North did not show up at all. After the game the girls went down to the fence and after the team sang the song they go around the boundary and engage with the fans. The girls asked Kate Hore and Banno for selfies and they obliged. But what struck me was that after the selfies they said to the girls “thanks for coming and supporting us” Others that high fives the girls also thanked them for coming.Honestly people get around this team, they play a bloody good brand of football and they are humble and fantastic role models. They make you proud to be a Melbourne supporter which is great as over the last few weeks especially my pride as a supporter has been dented. Go Dees!!!!!!!!!

Was recently chatting to a former Tassie premier about the team and its prospects. They said that the team was effectively no chance to be in place on current timelines. Horrible contracts for Tas government re: stadium build (unviable based on current contract) and ongoing fees to AFL, not enough fed money, variable support from sections of the public who believe the money could be spent elsewhere and only vague backing from the AFL (unlike the northern franchises) who want to look like they are supporting a Tassie team. The opposition (who are the same colour as the fed government that provided funding) have said they will scrap plans and will only go ahead with establishment if contracts are renegotiated. The path ahead is littered with significant obstacles. I don't think we should be tailoring our recruiting based on the framework of the plan for commencing establishment of a Tassie team sometime in the future.

Zero Hanger - 2023 AFL Mock Draft: Picks 1-27 (first edition) https://www.zerohanger.com/2023-afl-mock-draft-picks-1-27-first-edition-144723/amp/ 8 - Sanders 15 - Windsor

Random thoughts Campbell is a natural tap ruck. She is really good at putting the ball to the advantage of the mids. Only got 44% of game time. Perfect development for a young ruck behind Pearce and with Watt as a mentor. Birch still worries me when the pressure is on but thought she was good tonight. She seems to have seasons where she is really good but also seasons where it’s more of your heart in your mouth stuff. The ball doesn’t really get down there enough to know which season she is having this year. Shelley Heath is the ultimate competitor. Love her. After all her perfect 10 coaches votes Jas Garner would be lucky to get any tonight. We knew this before, but for her size Kate Hore is a great mark. We got Purcell from the Cats for Chantel Emonson and picks 15 and 47. Enough said, she is a gun Tyler Hanks is just the best to watch. She does the time slows down thing, glides around a bit and then pinpoints a teammate in a better position. She is also going to go through her footy career criminally underrated by the outside world. No doubt a lot will hinge on the last round V Brisbane, but like pretty much every one where I have enormous confidence in this team

hey monbon, just caught up with your awful news. sincere condolences to you and your better half. sometimes life really sucks and is grossly unfair. i wish you a better future. dc

I took my 8 year old girls last night and echo the sentiments already posted. The way the players engage with fans is just brilliant, we sat right next to the players race and the kids got high fives, smiles and thank yous from nearly every player running off. The kids were beside themselves! I stayed calm cool and collected this time. Agree crowd was disappointing given such high stakes; we attended the R1 game v Pies by way of comparison. Although we were sitting on front of Alyssa Bannon’s mum who has a fair set of pipes on her, she compensated for the missing decibels. It was a hard, contested game and we were fierce with our pressure and tackling across the ground. Hats off to the defence, particularly Gillard, who were just a brick wall. Hanks is gun, clearly a cut above when watching live. Paxy was the usual workhorse. Zanker imposed herself on the contest and took some great marks. Excellent team game against quality oppo. Top of the ladder, baby! Let’s hope we get some home finals at Ikon, it’s a great venue. Except for the hideous ScumBaggers logo, surely they can cover it up for other games?! CARNAMIGHTYFCKNDEES!! ❤️💙

How quickly people are jumping on this being Petty farewell season astounds me. Ignoring the fact he has 2 years of contract a lot can change for him personally and professionally. As can Adelaides interest and ability to pay the price to get him out of final year of contract. As far as defensive stocks, even if the case Is that not why we have D Turner and Adams drafted? If we really want to take swing all of Weitering (UFA), Sam Taylor (RFA) and Charlie Ballard (RFA) are out of contract before we look at trading for someone else in in contract. Additionally plenty of cases of mature key backs filling needs quicker than developing elite mids. I would state confidence we have quality key backs is a lot more than confidence we have our next elite mid. I am not stating we should take a mid at all costs. Take best available but if the difference is a top tier mid or top tier defender its the former for me.

Watched the game 'as live' when I got home from being out. Tough performance. Defensive work was incredible. Good lord, how good is hanks? I bang on about kicking skills, but her game reminded me or the importance of decision making in terms of nor turning the ball over. Hanksy consistently makes such good decisions, including knowing when not to release the ball or delaying a kick to avoid coughing it up - a skill more of the men need to develop. And how about that goal? Class. I am a frequent critic of how men's games are called. On the whole I much prefer the coverage of the AFLW. And credit where it is due. The commentary in last night's match was just about the best I think I've ever heard for any match, men's or women's. Alistair Nicholson combined a great calling voice (remarkable how many callers sound terrible) and first class calling skills. And Kate McCarthy who did special comments was brilliant. Added exactly what that role should - genuine insight, smart use of ststs to help make her points and a deep understanding of the game including game plans and strategies. Fantastic. And best of all she was fantastic at communicating complex ideas without dumbing it down or using footy jargon. Fantastic, and a rare skill (Chloe malloy is simarly good at this) And a bonus was how well they worked together. Really good synergy. It was a reminder that they should only use two callers - caller and special comments. And one boundary rider, who last night was Sarah Ollie who was also excellent. I'd love Nicholson, McCarthy and Ollie to do every AFLW and AFL game the dees played.

I was there to see it too - travelled from Tasmania and attended with my daughter - we had a ball! And beating them on their own turf was special!

Overall it’s great to see the women’s game grow and be more pleasing to the eye in a relatively short time. Some of the handball from both teams today was bloody good and made the game so much faster. I’m particularly enamoured by the work Shelley Heath and Eliza McNamara do in games. Their size belies their grit and strength in the contest. One thing that really took my attention today was the gulf between the two inaugural teams in the AFLW. Ourselves have built and amazing team and program. The Dogs however have gone to [censored].

So the Curtin is coming down.

Picks 1-5 is the sweet spot. It's also usually where stars of the game come from. Not always, but usually. If I've got picks 6 and 11 I'm trying to leverage those picks into a top 3 pick. Ideally, I'll get back a late teen or early 20s pick with the trade and hopefully get another good player. But the best chance of ''great'' is top 5 and even better top 3. Draft Pick Range Players Picked Age Average Career Games Average Club Games Average Brownlow Votes Average Average Years to Play a 20 Game Season Average Years to Get Past 50 Games Picks Needed to Get a 50 Gamer Picks Needed to Get a 100 Gamer Picks Needed to Get a 200 Gamer Picks Needed to Get an All-Australian Picks Needed to Get a Sub-10 Gamer Picks Needed to Get a Zero Gamer National Pick 1 20 17.9 228.0 171.5 57.5 2.7 3.6 1.0 1.1 1.5 2.0 - - National Pick 2 20 18.0 190.9 154.0 40.4 3.5 4.3 1.1 1.3 1.5 2.2 - - National Picks 3 to 5 60 18.2 165.0 117.9 38.2 4.4 5.5 1.2 1.4 2.7 3.3 15.0 - National Picks 6 to 10 100 18.2 133.1 98.4 20.5 6.5 6.6 1.4 1.6 3.1 4.8 7.7 33.3 National Picks 11 to 20 200 18.1 118.7 91.6 16.6 7.4 7.2 1.6 2.2 3.8 5.7 6.3 16.7 National Picks 21 to 30 199 18.5 85.9 63.8 9.3 8.0 8.1 1.9 2.8 7.7 14.2 4.3 14.2 National Picks 31 to 50 396 18.9 78.3 61.0 10.2 8.4 8.4 2.2 3.1 7.2 10.7 3.3 6.3 National Picks 51 to 70 338 19.5 47.4 38.0 4.3 9.2 9.4 3.8 5.5 12.5 28.2 2.1 4.3 National Later Picks 168 19.9 40.5 33.9 2.9 9.0 9.1 3.7 5.8 33.6 56.0 1.9 2.8 Rookie Picks 1 to 10 154 19.7 45.3 32.6 3.9 9.6 9.9 3.3 5.1 19.3 38.5 1.8 2.6 Rookie Picks 11 to 30 292 19.7 38.0 29.2 2.7 10.4 10.2 4.4 6.0 17.2 32.4 1.6 2.1 Rookie Picks 31 to 50 229 19.9 35.0 26.9 3.4 10.1 10.4 4.8 6.7 17.6 32.7 1.5 1.9 Rookie Later Picks 213 19.6 23.3 16.6 1.4 10.9 11.0 7.3 10.1 30.4 71.0 1.4 1.7

I agree. What a great watch! Such a team focussed effort, supporting each other with grit, determination and courage. A champion team! Defensively effective over the whole ground! And those fourth quarters - outstanding!

was lucky enough to be at the function in the pavilion; first time i've been to princes park since stewart loewe kicked a bag vs the tigs in 95 - it's a pretty nice ground! it would make so much sense as a boutique stadium for when some of the interstate sides tour and they want to pack out a ground rather than have 12k make docklands feel positively empty for north vs gc17 for women's footy, it seems to work really well - tonite was a perfect nite for footy, which helped to hold a fellow top 4 team to 1 point in the last three and a half quarters is an incredible performance, especially as they looked very good with overlap run in the first ten minutes of the game gillard is a wall

Indeed: got home from delivering a meal to my son's bereaved partner, walked da dog - if you don't know how to do it, I'll show you how to walk de dog - Mick Jagger - and checked and for a while I taut, as we'd say in Island ( sic), I'd been banned again. Then I see the whole post has Bermuderised. Who says there ain't no UFO's?????

Even though I know that my thoughts are irrelevant in the overall scheme of things I am stressing about handing O’Sullivan / Caddy to the opposition knowing that they could have been ours.lol.!!!

It depends on the pick. And I believe we'll only be using two (plus I assume Brown). If we got our hands on pick 3 it's definitely best available. And for me that's Duursma. If we keep pick 6, which will become pick 7 or 8, I'd also take best available, which I suspect would be one of Sanders or Curtin. There's a consensus top 7 in this draft, i.e. Reid, Walter, Duursma, McKercher, Watson, Sanders, and Curtin, and I'd be taking the one left over out of those first 7 - although O'Sullivan also looks very good. In a broader sense, I think we have room on the list for another class midfielder, key forward, and key defender. I think May has still got 3 good seasons ahead of him for one main reason, he still has good speed. Even after those 3 seasons he'd still be younger than Hawkins is now. I know there are not many Hawkins running around but while May still has speed and a desire to compete he should have a few years left. Petty is the worry. If we keep him long-term it will be huge due to his versatility. If not we could potentially quickly have a hole at either end. But while we're a genuine flag chance I'm chips all in on winning another. If that means not addressing a specific need, and I don't think we have many, then I'm going best available early in the draft.

I just had a look at JT’s draft history with talls. It is not as bad as some point out. JVR, Petty and LJ are stand out wins. The only big miss I can see is Weid. The rest have been speculative picks used with late draft picks. Trading in May, BBB, Thommo and Lever and having Max and TMac on the list when he arrived has meant there was little need to draft many talls.

Irrelevant. Matches are won in the midfield and elite midfielders win premierships. We won a grand final with May on one leg whilst Petracca was the match winner. There are other options to play key defence. Pies just won a flag with Moore and Murphy as key defenders. Moore is weak as my grandmother one on one. Murphy is a b grader. Neither had an influence in the grand final. They wouldn't have won the flag however without Daicos and Degoey and Sidebottom running amok. Take the best talent we can at draft, and luckily he's a midfielder also if he lasts until 6.

It all depends on the players available at those picks. In 2001 it was Chris Judd and Charlie Gardiner for Ash Sampi and Richard Cole.

If we don't trade our first pick up higher, Sanders is the best realistic option. We need to replenish our midfield talent. Trac, Clarry, Viney and Bradshaw are all getting on now, and there's no next wave of elite midfield talent behind them. Sparrow and a few others look like they'll continue to form part of a midfield rotation, but the top end needs more coming through. Sanders is the most rounded and best performed midfielder in this draft. He's a classy player and looks like he'll have a great career. Gotta get him in and red and blue.

If this is how it falls I wouldn’t be to unhappy with that. For me suits our needs.

That was a well planned and mature performance. After the first quarter, took away their strengths, played with a disciplined structure but ferocious attack on the footy and player, control and even a bit of tempo footy. Every player clear in their role and the team's aims for each phase of the game. A slow start and a few goals left out there, but that's pretty standard! The mids set the tone. Heath, Purcell and Hanks were focused and aggressive. Who said we couldn't shut down Garner? Oh yeah, that was me! Well, that was about as close to shut down as she gets. Watching live you appreciate how well Paxy moves across the ground. A few head in hands disposal choices tonight though not alone there. Credit to Fitzsimon and Sherriff for their forward pressure (7 & 6 tackles) and Zanker for her tireless efforts to always make a contest. As good as bags of 5 snags are, a spread of 5 individual goalkickers has its own value. We made PLENTY of mistakes with ball in hand (telegraphed kicks into the corridor!) but could often mop it up through weight of numbers and sheer will, while also capitalising better on their mistakes. Our attack has got a lot of the attention this season, but this was a great defensive effort, particularly in that 3rd quarter (very similar to the final last season). Loved Gillard's game and Wilson had some impressive one-on-ones. Six to one marks i50, considering North's talls - that was telling. Great Demon crowd - felt like it was just red and blue people and that one North guy calling for a free kick every few seconds! And all after the Lions took down the Crows. That was a better spectacle, a more free-flowing game. But nothing beats a Dees win.

I have never seen a more disciplined, professional, better coached team of any gender in my life. This group blows me away. AWESOME!!!! What I see is, the players attack the contest with purpose. It's not a reaction. but a plan. They seem to know exactly what to do and why. Superb coaching and superior footy IQ from players and Coach.

i just bemoan all my thought provoking, lost ip. uncle

There is already a thread for this.

I had an almost identical childhood. Empty bottles for cash, paper round pay was $6.20 though. Smokes and mags disappearing from paper shop. On good authority i confirm some over zealous boys moved in to first pinching full coke bottles then taking the empty for the refund. One gang allegedly removed a crate of coke bottles from the milk bar and hid them on the local school roof where they hung out. Figuring the bottles would be spotted with ingenuity they removed roof tiles and hid them in the roof space. Following week the school put up wire to stop kids climbing on the roof. Fifty years later the roof and tiles are still there. One day it might be demolished and the workers will likely be amazed as to why their are 24 classic coke 7oz bottles in a box under the tiles.

Same again Monbon deepest sympathies for you and your family.❤️💙

Yes same here to Mon. Sounds like a very tough period. All the best

I watched a lot of TAC Cup and state footy in 2014-15 with a friend who was working for a Melbourne based club as a talent scout. Any comparisons between Caddy and Charlie Curnow are way off. Caddy doesn’t have the explosiveness nor the ability below the feet like Curnow did back then. I thought Curnow was Kouta II. I also thought Harry McKay was a future all-Australian CHB and that Weitering was overrated. Anyway… Not to say we shouldn’t draft Caddy, rather the Curnow comp is not a good one in my eyes.

What happened to the Cultural Issues at the Dees thread? I’ve just finished a quality sesh at a microbrewery in East Brunswick to find it has disappeared?

I wouldn't even trade 6+11 for 3, let alone throwing in future picks. It's not worth losing pick 11 to move up 3 spots. Pick 11 is a good pick and higher than we're likely to have again for a few years if we remain competitive. It will net us a good KPD (O'Sullivan, Murphy) or outside midfielder (Wilson, Windsor) for the next decade. Losing a 200 game type just to have a crack at Duursma instead of Sanders/Watson/Curtin seems mental to me.

What a fantastic result in this match. Playing the then 4th side in a match where the winner would go to top of the ladder, with only a couple of games remaining. Really, really telling for me was that this win was after coming back from a 6 day break, after travelling across the country and having played in 30+ degrees. In one sense it was not surprising that we only managed 2 goals in the second half, but our defenders were magnificent to keep North goalless after the mid point of the 1st quarter. ...a team challenging for top spot! Most of all I love our mids. Liv Purcell, who nobody seems to notice racks up 28 touches, and just monsters the opposition. Tyla, of course everyone notices and she is just sheer talent. But also a shout out to Eliza West who provides so much grunt in there and doesn't stand back at any point. Then the tackling and tagging provided by Lily and Heater against a player like Jasmine Garner who only managed 2 clearances for the game, neither from the centre, when she is the one of the league leaders in this area, was exemplorary. The best part of watching the mids, was if one didn't do damage, the next would step in, then the next, then the next. They were relentless, which is exactly what Adelaide did to us, and what we need to bring the next inevitable game we will play against them. I thought we would struggle with rucks this season, with LP having knee issues in the past, but Georgia Campbell has really blossomed, and held out Rhi Watt this week from selection. The other one who has shone unexpectedly has been Tahlia Gillard, who had a blinder in this match, and is developing into a real problem for oppositions as she has gained confidence, and certainly knows when to punch and when to mark. Can North do us another favour next week against Adelaide as we finish the season against Brisbane, and those results will once again shape the top 4, but more importantly, where the finals especially the GF will be played.

Can't see us picking a key forward with our first pick 3 years in a row. We've got JVR, Petty, Jefferson as our tall forward mix, with Schache as support. However, I can see us going after a key forward FA in 2024 Hopefully Sanders with 6, and we trade 11 and F1st for 7 or 8 (O'Sullivan)

Doesn't really have an aerial game like Melk Hes competing with guys like Spargo and Chandler I reckon. Best case scenario he can be a similar link man to Charlie but finding the pill 20 times a game compared to Spargo's 12

Who wants to comment on this post? I will only say that there is a similar saying for females - but I’m too much of a gent to post it.

Is a kid originally from Launceston with all his school mates and Sandy Dragons mates in Melbourne really going to be significantly more likely to move to Hobart than any other player? Id say the odds are in favour of him staying. Same goes for Curtin. I’d only overlook guys who don’t want to move to begin with. Sanders isn’t even moving!

Both Curtin and O'Sullivan can play the key forward role better than Caddy can. he's not a key forward, he doesn't quite fit into any of the traditional player catagories, he's not good enough to be a pure mid, and he's probably a 3rd tall as a forward which we already have covered with Smith/Fritsh/Melksham/McAdam

Petty is a contracted demon and Curtin is an interstate player from WA and just as likely to go home as Sanders or Petty? We've also got pick 11 and I dare say we can get a decent KPD there, but less likely to get the elite mid.

Forward: Petty, JvR, ?J. smith, ?Jefferson Backs: May, Lever, D Turner, Adams, ?K Turner I think we can replace veterans with cheap depth pieces. But we have a decision to make in the draft whether we target talls with the doubt hanging over Petty or if we think we can land a trade target if/when he goes as a like for like. I think these picks are too important, especially pick 6 to bring needs in to the equation. We need quality, we can address the needs as they come

If Curtin is looking as though he may be available at 6. West Coast should do the deal for 6, 11, and our FF. If they don’t, then just take Curtin ourselves, pick a good slider at 11, and retain our FF.

Is Petty leaving? Has May announced his retirement?

Players like Jefferson typically take 3 years to develop at a minimum. Give the boy some time

So they were the ones behind the mystery thread culling. Just another example of driving two once thriving threads into the ground in their relentless pursuit of productivity & profits. Bloody corporates!

Yes this is a really well thought out walk through. Can’t argue with many inside the top 15. If we got Sanders and Windsor, imv it would be a big win for the Dees.

Re my third option: split for a later pick to get Brown and a future pick. That was before Lamb said we would take two picks to the draft. Agree there is not enough room for that option unless upgrading 6 and 11. It all suggests ND42 will be traded out or split at some stage. We will know more in the next few weeks if Brown nominates mfc which he would only do if we agreed to take him at some stage or the ND/Rookie process. Edit: just checked the F/S nomination end date is Oct 31.

Tough times ahead and wish you all the best. Speaking of Mick Jagger, anyone who says Paul MacCartney can still sing is only looking not listening. His Adelaide shows are on you tube and he has lost his great voice, which is natural in your 80’s. Think he should have called it a day. He doesn’t need the money and better to remember stars at their best.

A better comparison is Jake Stringer, i don't think we will take Caddy unless he is there at pick 11. there is no universe where he's a better player than Riley Sanders

indeed. an off season of disappearing threads

Top spot and $1M on the line - no pressure!