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I'm eternally grateful that we have so many medical professionals here on Demonland that have reviewed the file of Ben Brown and are able to give us such confident prognosis on his future at Melbourne FC. Because otherwise we'd look like a bunch of amateur, blowhard quacks. Right? 🤔

Upside? Having experienced, senior players around is a key part of developing for the future. We should be thankful that we still have players like Melksham and BBB around. And no doubt the club is.

Thanks to all the reporters loved each update. As it happened. and then the write up at the end of the day average it all out We should get a pretty clear view. From 3 hours away thanks again to all. No snakes ??

❤️

A big thanks to all reporters, special comments and posters a great cross section of DL. Also great that so many supporters turned up to watch the boys on Australia Day PH and of course Demonland for compilation of al reports got to read through them again when we finally arrived home last night, we had a great day out.

Great to see so many numbers show up and watch the boys - I imagine we will be inundated with reports from today. Rufus du Sol and Fred Again were blasting through the speakers as the boys warmed up before getting into 4 periods of match sim. No shows: Oliver, Brown, Smith Present but not involved: Melky, Hunter Running on side: Jefferson, Sparrow, AMW, Petty (Petty did get involved for the last period of match play) A few notes from match sim: There was a focus on changing the angle of the play, very aggressive ball movement Bowey was absolutely brilliant rebounding off half back, often linking up multiple times in the one passage - players were looking to get the ball in his hands As much as people won’t like to hear it, ANB was playing through the midfield and was one of our best On a similar note, TMac was also good down back - competed very strongly in the air, however you still have to worry about his decision making and kicking coming out of defence. Will be competing for that third tall spot Max could do what he wanted today. Manhandled Fullerton in ruck contests and was putting the ball on a platter to the mids. Fullerton not offering a contest at all. Update: Fullerton limped off with a lower leg injury right at the end - the only injury concern to come out of today. I thought Verrall was the most impressive of the backup rucks, at least provided contest at stoppages compared to the others - it is a bit worrying if Max does go down though (touch wood!) Chandler heavily involved in the opening period, both in the link up and on the scoreboard Rivers was great in the B teams midfield, Laurie also competed well in there and was heavily involved Hore solid, and will be fine if needed to come in Howes interestingly started in the A teams defence, however did not notice too much involvement The usuals: Trac makes things look easy, Viney is a gun, Fritsch our best up forward today, Kozzie and Roo got on the end of a few towards the end The wingers (besides Langdon) didn’t get near it today. Billings and Windsor hardly touched it. Windsor appeared to lack confidence out there. He was constantly on the receiving end of barking instructions from players and coaches - an overload of information. Obviously has plenty of time, but the other top few from the draft this year seem to be dominating their respective clubs’ trainings. McQualter seems like a terrific pick up to replace Yze in the coaching ranks, was very vocal out there today My best players today (in no particular order): Trac, Viney, Gawn, Laurie, Bowey, Rivers, TMac, ANB, Fritsch

Deserves to go out on his terms, totally instrumental in our 21 triumph

I actually agree that it would go against the logic of selection under Goodwin, and that right now Hunter and Langdon are proven performers. However, and while I'm a big fan, Langdon was completely dominated by Sidebottom in the Qualifying Final - so much so Hunter had to be moved onto his wing. I thought Hunter actually had a good finals series - but was interested to see how low he finished in the B&F. I just wonder if the club feels that some experimentation is warranted - especially if Langdon and Hunter aren't at their very best. Either way - having genuine competition for those spots can only be a good thing. Cheers

BBB was on a podcast recently called Four Burners. He's had eight knee surgeries (prior to the latest one) starting with a torn ACL in his teens.

I'm sure the club will contact you re Fullerton for your experience on these matter....

@Six6Six I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for your dedication and effort in documenting the history of the Melbourne Football Club. over the last decade. Your work is an invaluable tool for acknowledging just how far we have come as a club. The Melbourne Football Club has a rich and storied history, filled with triumphs, challenges, and moments that define our identity. By documenting this journey, visually, you preserve the legacy. It's not how I would ever dream of spending my time, so thank you for spending yours in this way.

We need a specialist crystal ball gazer to offer their skills to the football department when negotiating contracts. Make sure we offer just the right length of contract to every player. A real bonus would be if they could foresee when injuries are going to happen. We took a risk with BB. HIs knees were a potential issue, but he cost us little trade wise and was a big part of delivering a flag. I'll take that. His contract was worth it imv. Would prefer if his knees were in better shape but life isn't perfect unfortunately. To those whining [censored], would we have won a flag without him? If we had insisted on a 3-year contract and he went elsewhere, would you have been happy with that? Yes, footy is a business. We took a calculated business risk and guess what we have a flag.

It was a good day at Casey apart from the weather and the wind but fortunately as the players started the match sim both abated a bit and conditions were not too bad. Watching this match sim is so much more informative than the ball movement drills they do at Gosch's as it's genuinely competitive but tackling is very soft and the intensity is limited. Nobody crashes packs for marks much expect JvR who seems not to be able to help himself. There is the occasional tackle but it's more to impede someone than to take them down. In the ball movement stuff on Wednesday's the main players don't seem to dominate and the youngins do well but today was a different kettle of fish. Trac did what he liked and really ruined the game in the first quarter. Gawn, Trac, Viney and ANB were against an assortment of players the most notable being Rivers. But Gawn had no opposition (KFW played forward all day) and the centre group had a field day. Viney is great and looks set for a continuation of last years form, as someone else said ANB was very good and was heavily involved. But again, as noted, Bill was right up there. He's just a very smart footballer who does smart things. One goal in windy conditions from the boundary and another where he dodged the man on the mark and kick truly from 45 were highlights but he was involved inside and dished the ball out with good vision and precision. I'm not sure he'll play because of the logjam for spots but he'd be an automatic selection at most clubs. I know it's easy to get carried away at this time of year so I've got to be careful but keep and eye out for him. Kade Chandler is another to impress. Sure hands, good kick and quick today with at least 2 goals and perhaps more. He ran out of petrol tickets last year but this year he'll be better and better for longer. Problem is he's competing with Kossie, Spargs and a number of others for a spot in the forward line but he certainly put his name forward today. Howes played deep back and started on Fritta. What he did he did well and he looks taller than last year to me. He's got really good skills and seems to have picked up the pace of the game well but of course with the midfield dominating for Fritta's team Howes had his work cut out. He's an interesting choice for third tall because you'd think it means Lever has to play more accountable footy and that's not his go. Another interesting watch. Kynan Brown is also an interesting watch. He certainly gives it his all and can find the ball well. He played the game on Langdon and they were on the side where a lot of the play was (due to the wind). He did some nice things but in a fully contested game he'd be ragdolled I reckon. But his hands are clean, he is quick enough and he's showing a bit. A great Moneyball pick. I was also impressed with Seston. He was involved in quite a lot of play in the wing/back area and found quite a bit of it in one patch. He used it well and was clean, he's clearly made improvements to this game this year although he's not close to best 22 at this stage. But for a smokie he's not disappointing, he's got some really good attributes, his kicking being the main one. Jake Bowey was really really good. His disposal is first class, his ball handling is very good and his decision making was good. He found it a lot today both inside and outside and was a real standout for me. McAdam is a class footballer but he didn't play the whole game. In the third he, Brayshaw, Billings and some others were just running laps and McAdam was the tailender so I think they are still trying to build his tank. But when he was on he finds it and uses it and will be an interesting addition unless his fitness stops him being selected. Rive played midfield for the last part of the game and did well. He just looks to be continuing his confident run from late last year and as I type this I'm wondering if Howes takes his spot if Riv plays more up the ground. Tmac was good today but he wasn't on anyone much. But he found it and much to DL groupthink kicked it well on all but one occasion. By the way, he wasn't the only one to miss a kick. It was a kickout from a point and I don't expect him to take any of them in the seniors. But in my view he was the third best tall back on the field with the caveat that he didn't really have a challenging opponent. Fritta took some really good grabs, Kossie did some Kossie things and Woey looked composed with the ball but struggled against the first picked midfield. The Kolt and Duke had little influence that I saw but Duke played on the grandstand side and I wouldn't have noticed much of his play if he was involved. Best for others to comment. Kolt seemed to have little input and is still picking up the pace of the game. My final point is that the kicking for goal was very good in difficult conditions. As I commented to others, if we'd kicked like that in the finals we'd have won the flag, but enough of channelling Masie. I can't be bothered proof reading this so apologies for typo's and mispellings. @Demonstone will no doubt do that job for me and this report will be covered in red ink.

I was going for an afternoon walk through Ghoshs Paddock and saw Clarry Oliver training on Melbourne's training ground. He was running laps and seemed in good spirits as he replied to me that he was going well. He was there with someone else and they had footballs with them. He looked in good spirits, but I am unsure how far he is behind everyone else in conditioning.

In a sport like soccer especially, the issue of players being contracted but not being very productive is an old, old story On a much bigger scale to the AFL, soccer has learned to live with contracted players that are past their prime. All the USA sports as well. There are countless individual stories, not just a few It's just a part of pro sports that we're not used to in Australia. Once the money became much bigger and the contracts water-tight, the timing of the contracts became more difficult In terms of value, both Brown & T-Mac have been productive from an overall perspective Both were integral in 2021 when we won the flag. And without that flag, it would be 60 years and counting instead of 57 years So if someone had have said (before the flag) that Brown & T-Mac would become unproductive post 2021 but you'll win the flag in 2021, who amongst us wouldn't have taken that?

2016 Melbourne enters the 3rd and last year under Pual Roos as Coach. For the first time in a while Melbourne had no involvement in Free Agency. The Trade period saw Jake Melksham arrive from Essendon for pick 25, Jeremy Howe departs to Collingwood and Jimmy Toumpas to Port Adelaide for Ben Kennedy and picks 29 and 50. Jack Fitzpatrick was traded to Hawthorn for pick 94. In the first year of trading future picks the Dees traded picks 6 29 and 2016 first rounder for Picks 3 10 and 43 from Gold Coast in an attempt to get ahead of the bombers who had significant compensation picks. Picks 10, 43 and 64 then went to the Giants for Thomas Bugg and Pick 7. Melbourne had started its use of future picks to significantly improve their draft hand. Daniel Cross retired, but stayed as an assistant coach, Viv Michie, Rohan Bail, Mark Jamar, Jordie McKenzie and Aidan Riley were all delisted. The National draft saw Clayton Oliver (4), Sam Weideman (9), Mitch King (42) and Liam Hulett (46) added to the list. The Rookie draft saw Josh Wagner (6) and Viv Michie (24) and Joel Smith (41) added as rookies. Melbourne's list is starting to resemble a poker deck with four Jacks, a couple of Kings and quite possibly a couple of aces. Clayton Oliver, Jake Melksham and Joel Smith are now added to the list of only men still standing along with, Jack, T.Mac, the skipper, Salem, Christian Petracca, Angus Brayshaw and Alex Neal-Bullen. The season saw steady improvement with 10 wins and a rise on the ladder to 11th. Melbourne's future round trade to Gold Coast had given up pick 8 in the 2016 draft (picks 6 29 and future 8 for Picks 3 10 and 43) Enjoy. 2016 - Starman ==>https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-MhQnCP/i-nzqkvQm/A 2015 - Foundation ==> https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-MhQnCP/i-VLMSNqD/A 2014 – New Hope ==> https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-MhQnCP/i-Wkj43BD/A 2013 – Annus Horribilis ==> https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-MhQnCP/i-bWkHdxp/A

It happened at the end of a 3 hour session. That to me suggests it was fatigue based. I’m no expert so could be totally wrong.

I liked this post - it’s a good reminder of how far we have come. Remember when Scully and Trenners were setting the standard in their first pre-season? It’s great that our very high draft picks aren’t the best 2 out there, unlike at the other clubs with top 10 picks 😀

Have noted before that May glides seemingly effortless. Amazing for such a big unit.

Maybe they had an agreement that if he can’t make it to June without surgery, rehab and constant management, then both parties will part ways and we can get a pick in the mid season draft.

(Continued) TRAINING NOTES • relatively mixed teams for the match sim, with the white team possessing the 'probables' defence and the blue team the 'probables' midfield (with some exceptions). • Angus Brayshaw building into his pre-season and will be back in full-contact drills this week. Today, he started in defence & pinch hit in the midfield at times. Was the primary ball user off half back. • Adam Tomlinson and Tom McDonald both in defence for the blue team, while Blake Howes lined up alongside Steven May and Jake Lever in defence. Howes also had a difficult job on Bailey Fritsch, conceding a goal but held himself quite well. • Trent Rivers ran through the midfield, often on Christian Petracca and at times beating him. • Caleb Windsor spent most of the session on the wing, lining up on Jack Billings and had some run in the midfield. • ANB spent time in the main midfield rotation, starting alongside Jack Viney and Petracca. • Tom Fullarton (before the injury) and Will Verrall rotated through the ruck role against Max Gawn, but were no match for him. • Jed Adams played deep forward (although elsewhere here it’s been reported he played in defence). • Steven May received a corkie near the end but played on. HIGHLIGHTS • Christian Petracca comfortably slotted his set shots both during the warm up and match simulation, despite the windy and wet conditions. • Shane McAdam popped up at times, kicking an opportunistic goal & laid some strong tackles early. • A deft kick in traffic from ANB that hit Brayshaw streaming through the centre square, with the switch of play sparking a set shot and goal. • Jack Viney starred through the midfield, winning contested ball and laying bone-crunching tackles ABSENTEES (apart from those already mentioned) • Matthew Jefferson completed a running program along the boundary side. • AMW & Tom Sparrow did their own modified program early in the session, then ran laps. • Christian Salem started the session with the main group but was pulled out about an hour in and sent for sprint work with AMW. • Harrison Petty was pulled out of the session just before the match simulation, instead hitting the exercise bike with Jefferson. • Lachie Hunter ran messages for both teams and called players for interchanges.

Having contracted players who are past their prime is part of professional sports. Numerous examples are now being seen where a player (or players) are given an extra year or 2 in order to keep those players Or if a club wants to secure players in trades where offering an extra year or 2 is needed in order to acquire those players We're seeing more and more top players signing long term deals and even average players getting longer contracts And that type of list management is going to continue especially if we see more player movement between clubs So what that means is that in any given year, a club might have 3+ players who end up being depth only. Getting the timing perfect is wishful thinking The AFL is catching up with the rest of the world with regards to list management But if it's right across the board, across all the clubs, then no club is at a real disadvantage So gone are the days where every single list position is a productive one. It stands to reason that type of position just can't happen And players are not going to walk away from large amounts of money. You're a long time retired A way to alleviate the issue is to front end contracts but that's not always possible due to salary cap constraints (in any given year) In a nutshell, having players such as Brown & T-Mac as depth players was always a possible likelyhood. The upside is that we have a couple of experienced wise-heads around to help the young blokes coming through

I can’t believe anyone here actually thought he would play a role this year. Cooked is a massive understatement. Brown, TMac and to a slightly lesser extent Schache are what are commonly referred to as list cloggers. 21 was a long time ago for mine so please don’t roll out the “They helped us a win a flag and deserve…..” Rubbish it’s a business and we’re not playing it hard enough atm. Jeez, I really got fired up!!

2023 Points against 1st St.Kilda 1575 2nd Carlton 1592 3rd Melbourne 1604 4th Collingwood 1656 2022 Points against 1st Melbourne 1483 2nd Fremantle 1486 3rd Geelong 1488 4th Sydney 1616 2021 Points against 1st Melbourne 1443 2nd Geelong 1456 3rd Port Adelaide 1492 4th Western Bulldogs 1501 We’ve been the best defensive side over the last 3 year, our problems lie forward of centre. I think we’re at our best defensively when we play 2 talls plus Lever. Our entries inside fwd 50, lack of separation, goal kicking inaccuracy and at times players out of position (lost count of how many times when kicking to a marking fwd there’s not a crumbing fwd in 20 metres of the contest) has cost us. Fritsch is a gun, great mark, set shot and can prove to be a difficult match up. I’m interested to see what McAdam brings, and hopefully Petty gets back to full fitness quickly. Ultimately we need to take more risks and back our fwds in, quicker more direct ball movement. I think I read in a recent training report that Bowey was delivering the ball inside 50, I would to see us make some changes do we don’t repeat past mistakes.

Money

Having a terrible time finding a reliable supplier of leaded petrol, too! I get mine flown in from Cambodia.

Surely you’d have to have intimate knowledge of his running loads over weeks/months and his body to make that assessment?

We would be stuffed anyway, but yes, we should go get a big 26 year old lug from somewhere.

There’s a firewall behind this so I will do a summary starting with the opening part • Tom Fullarton set to start the season on the sidelines after suffering a suspected serious hamstring injury. Sent off for scans to determine if the tendon was torn. • Others missing were Clayton Oliver (personal reasons), Ben Brown (knee) and Lachie Hunter (calf). • The club expects Oliver to return in “the coming weeks”. • Harry Petty set to resume full training in the next fortnight in the hope of playing in Rd 0 vs Swans. (To be continued)

That was my main take from the day as well. Goal kicking single handedly ruined our finals campaign last year (and robbed us of top 2 with some deplorable home and away scores) so it was nice to see some crisp goal kicking today, albeit under minimal stress. Fritta was automatic from 40-50. Laurie nailed a set shot from the boundary (as did Langdon) and kicked another from 45 after taking on an opponent who was asleep. Chandler kicked 3 or 4 and looked assured in front of the sticks JVR nailed the set shot of the day, 45 out near the boundary. I hope we respect our opportunities on goal more this year.

Great day out to watch. Ground is in fantastic condition. Lots of lines on oval at both ends at various angles to goals. It's part of Williams set shot kicking where they stay on the line in approach over dummy on mark. Rained half way through but didn't appear to affect ball handling. Great to see so many spectators, especially so many young kids. About 6 Casey players there to make up the numbers especially in match Sim which had proper umpires in control. The Casey boys were not as clean but still did some nice things and the rest of the group made sure they were involved. A lot of the run through drills prior to the match sim were at a high intensity with reflex give offs. I suggest anyone going to watch to take some binocculars so you can pick up players on opposite side of ground. Before match sim they went inside the rooms and could see through the windows doing close in drills in the indoor kicking area for about 15 minutes, but it was all possession and handball, close contact stuff and no kicking. Petracca is so far in front of anyone else, it's not funny. Kozzie was great and his run down tackle had the whole crowd applauding. Verell will be the back up ruckman - along way ahead of KFW, Fullarton and Schache Feel sorry for Laurie as he really impressed, but basically has to take ANB's spot and he was good as well. Hard to see taking Viney and both smalls into the midfield. Howes, Hore and Turner all did good intercepts TMac and Thomlinson also did but the other 3 are more nimble and could play on smaller opponents. McVee was very good. Brayshaw marked Tholstrup for a while and they are both similar body shapes. McAdam for me is the pick of the recruits. Just so quick with every thing he does. I don't know who the fitness guy is, but he spent a lot of time with the guys doing boundary runs. All the coaches being very involved. May was the most vocal and giving directions to everyone. I think Lever did the whole match sim and looked ok. Fritsch and JVR were the best forwards. The main forward line looked good and you still have Jefferson, Brown, Melksham and Petty to come into consideration who didn't participate. Didn't notice Schache at all. Noah Yze has a big build already for a young kid. Looks like Rivers will play midfield. I hope Bowey gets a licence to go through the middle of the ground wherever he plays as he is so dangerous. Quick and brilliant disposal. Midfield looked good and still didn't have Oliver, Sparrow and Hunter involved. Billings spent a lot of match sim doing boundary runs with fitness guy. Tholstrup and Windsor showed enough although only a few touches. Just hope they hold them both back for a while. Spargo covered a lot of ground and hit up some good passes. Woewodin did a couple of nice things but not much else. Langdon covered a lot of ground and got a bit of it. Chandler was lively and kicked a couple of goals but missed an easy right foot snap from end of goal square. AMW ran laps after some short kicking at the start. Sestan hardly noticed, but you can't see everything. Seems to second guess himself instead of doing.

Maybe the club has decided that it's a bad day for waving chinese made flags emblazoned with the British union jack? 😜

Very impressed with Laurie today. 2 nice goals and been heavily involved. My tip for most improved this year.

Look, I have a huge soft spot for Benny B and love the way he conducts himself off field especially with his work within the community (nominated for Jim Stynes award). From an on field perspective, I wish he retired on his own terms last year and I know that there was certainly talk between the club and his management. I get that he is contracted for another year, but I'm sure the club and Brown would have come up with an agreement on a settlement deal for a payout on his last contract (very common in today's AFL caper). I'm just amazed Brown did not see the writing on the wall with his body constantly breaking down due to his knees. It was a sad sight in his last game against the Crows last year where he hobbled around like a guy with a 60 year body who could barely bend over and pick up the footy. He was getting the bronx cheers all day until he got subbed off. I thought by then that was the last we'd had seen from him. I have now lost count the amount of knee surgeries he has had since he has been at the footy club. Not only that, he hasn't played a full AFL season since 2019 which was 5 years ago.. I just wondered whether had he retired, that would have given us a great opportunity to use that list spot on another developing tall forward or another developing/mature ruck. Right now, I would have been happy having a young key tall developing away at Casey playing games and gaining some quality experience then a guy that's going to be on the injury list for probably half the year. I also understand that there is the off field perspective in helping out, but we honestly have enough senior heads in that position to do that lead by Greg Stafford and then followed by the likes of Melksham, Petty, McDonald, Gawn, Lever who would be providing just as much support as what Brown would. Wishing him all the best in his recovery and at least he goes down as a 2021 premiership hero and life member of the footy club.

afl site says back to full fitness in 6-8 weeks .... lol

I'm surprised theres such a strong reaction. He signed a 4 year deal with a degenerative knee condition. A lot of us on here knew at the time that anything we got in the fourth year would be a bonus. It was a shame that we couldn't get what we needed out of him last year when we needed it. He was a 200cm proven key forward who was available. He got a 4 year deal that we knew he probably wouldn't see out to the end. We got a kpf for a good price when we needed it. He was very important in 2021. Its worked out to be a pretty good deal for both parties. He has had a fantastic career, he is a fantastic person.