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Caleb Daniel’s isn’t getting a game. Anyone got a spare Demons guernsey and some paint for his helmet?

I don't think I'm being optimistic FD. I think I'm being realistic and objective. Its a cliche that it's a long season because its true. The media love to pretend that every game is of critical importance and every result is some sort of bellweather for team's chances of winning a flag (or making top 4, or finals, or wooden spoon etc etc). They're not. If they were, then last week the only conclusion that could be reached is that the blues have no chance of winning a flag given they were beaten by a winless, and decidedly average, crows outfit. Or does only this weeks result count? And what of the giants? Everybody's darlings and flag pick. They were cruising, 20 points up halfway through the third and caved, conceding a 7 goal turn around in a quarter and a half. No longer a contender? The swans were similarly lauded after starting the season with terrific wins over the dees, pies and bombers. Such stunning ball movement. Such brilliant kicks. Gulden is a kicking God. Heeney a midfield genius. Then they get beaten by the tigers. Not a contender any more? They also love to pretend each game is played in isolation, a game in a bubble unmoored from other considerations (schedule, byes, high performance programs, how teams match up with specific opponents, injuries, trialling new roles or strategies, conditions etc etc). They're not. Each individual game, particularly in the first half of the season, is a piece of a larger puzzle. A step towards the final prize. Its about winning the battle, not the wars.

This feels like recency bias. We lost our most recent game whilst sides like Carlton and Collingwood won, so it feels like we’re sliding. Go back two weeks to find Collingwood a kick off losing to Hawthorn, Carlton an umpires’ decision off losing to Fremantle (who just lost to West Coast), and Sydney losing to Richmond. We’re two games clear of Brisbane who are winless at home. We’re one game behind two sides who have looked amazing in Carlton and GWS. And we’ve done that despite having had 50% of our matches to date interstate (we’re not the only ones in that camp but it’s equally not like we’ve had some dream fixture run so far). On the first six games’ evidence I don’t think the conclusion is that we can’t match the top 5 sides. I think it’s that we’re still very much in that group.

What i find weird is the lack of conversation about what I thought would be the obvious point about an incident like greenes hit - the need for players to learn a new technique in such circumstances. Because 90% of the footy media is ex footballers they see Greene's instinct to brace to protect himself as a normal football action. Because it always has been. The clear implication is it is ok to protect yourself at the expense of the player about to be smashed in the head. But until the last few years so was going head first into a contest. Now players are getting better at turning the body as they are about to run into each other to avoid head contact. In five years that action will be instinctive. Players need to learn a new action in situations like Greene's hit. Do what they would do at training - put their hands out to minimise the risk of them getting hurt whilst still offering some protection for the opponent who can't protect themselves. If they did, in five years time that would be the instinctive reaction - not risking knocking out a player cold because your safety is more important than theirs. For gods sake, we have had four young men (McCartin, Adams, Gus and murphy)in the prime of their sporting life have to retire and fear CTE for the rest of their lived because of players prioritizing their own safety. It's beyond time to ban the bump. It serves zero purpose.

I can't stand the pies, but to be honest it's more the media sycophantic saturation in the last two years that I really hate (though I'm still disgusted with their fans booing Gus after being concussed).. But really the only team I hate is the hawks. Leigh Matthews knocking Steven Smith out. The prelim heart break. Jarman refusing to come to the dees, and instead going to the hawks. The grand final heart break. The long run of losses. The way they seemed to relish bullying and beating us. Their smug MCC wannabes fans. Their stupid jumper. Jeff Kennett. Jeff Kennett. VFL Park. Go roos.

I went down to Casey fields with my son today for the junior members clinic. What a great day out! The players give so much time to the kids they absolutely loved it. There where hundreds of mini red and blue fans there and everyone got autographs so proud of the club for putting these on, it means a lot to all of us. Thanks Dees

Not sure where to post this but next Saturday the 27th April we have Oakleigh Chargers Vs GC Academy. We have Noah Yze and Kalani White on show. No doubt we will have recruiting staff present.

Warning. I’m don’t hate all the other clubs. “Unease” with Giants and Suns as AFL Sponsored and gifted clubs. Hatred index rising on: Essendon (hate to really hate) Carlton (from absurdly high to volcano high) Collingwood (from absurdly high to volcano high) Geelong (from extremely high to absurdly high)

This gets overlooked a lot. Carlton give up good scores to everyone. They statistically smack teams at the contest, yet still leak big scores. Their next month will tell us a lot about them.

Agree with your concerns FD. How anyone could be certain of our abilities after our last round performance, is just that - sheer optimism, nothing more. If I hear the excuse that we had 3 games in 13 days again I’ll scream. If we were tired, we would have faded as the game wore on. But we didn’t even have one quarter of solid football. We were comprehensively beaten all day. My previous optimism has taken a beating after that performance, so I have no idea how good(or not) we are and where we are likely to finish. And I guess maybe that’s how it’s supposed to be. The old “one game at a time”. So I’m looking forward to the Richmond game and not worrying about any further ahead than that. Four points first and if possible a percentage boost. Then on to the next.

Well, I’m not holding myself up as a great predictor of results - I’ve picked all losers this round so far. But Carlton took care of the previously undefeated GWS, despite injuries. Collingwood looked back to their best. Brisbane lost to Geelong on their home ground in conditions they should be more used to. And Brisbane has beaten us in our last two clashes. It just worries me. I hope your optimism proves justified, @binman.

I’d wait until we play them all before saying we are a step below. We might well be but a bit early to say.

Not Chris Heffernan.

North determined not to let pick 1 slip from their grasp this year.

Was it a sympathy date?

You should get some award for reminding older supporters of Barry Ough. Picked for 1 match, sat on the bench, wasn't used then left the Club shortly after.

Nah, that was probably me!!

I’m confused about the positive press GC are getting. They’ll be 3-3 at the end of the round and their 3 wins have come at home against bottom 4 sides. I’m pretty sure they could’ve managed 3-3 under Dew.

Two of the most important recruits for Melbourne were Bernie Vince and Jordan Lewis They were at a time when Melb was crud for years and no gun player wanted to come near the club We were in a critical part of our building phase with numerous young players and no one with Premiership experience on the field. Vince was a two time B&F winner and a great teacher In fact there were very few at the club with any Premiership experience until Roos came along. No one knew how to win. And Lewis, with 4 Premierships was possibly the most important because of his stature in the game. Players hung off every word he said and followed has advice. These two with Roos (and Peter Jackson) rescued the MFC. I will be forever grateful.

Just saw McCreery and ex-Pie, now Bulldog Poulter having a coffee. Really wanted to ask McCreery if he would like to come across to the Dees. His pace is a real weapon. Good player.

Genuine nuffy level comment. It's a lack of nuance in the English language that it has only them and us (as opposed to other languages that have multiple words to describe groups that may or may not include the speaker, the reader, etc). But if you really want to get technical and claim supporters aren't "part" of the club: as a company limited by guarantee, any paid up member is legitimately a member of the club, with voting rights and other rights under the constitution and therefore can quite correctly refer to themselves as part of the Melbourne Football Club. So "we" is entirely appropriate in most instances around here.

Ingo was a gun. A few others we picked up from other clubs in that era went all right as well: Peter Rohde Marcus Seecamp

No, not at all.

I think their expectation is that he'll only play three of those positions on any given day.

At this point we are 2-1 against current top 8 teams and 2-1 against the current bottom 8 teams. Given the loss against a current bottom 8 team was against one of last year's grand finalists and we were coming off a short break, and we've played interstate 3/6 matches, I think it's a reasonable start for the year. A long way to go, but difficult to infer too much given the length of the season. We certainly didn't want to be peaking in the first 6 rounds.

Think we thrown all we had. WC knew what we did, and weren’t dealing. If we’d have offloaded Petty, maybe we could’ve snared Reid. But even then, it’s possible WC would’ve still said no. We aren’t the club that should be kicking ourselves. North lost out on Reid and he has the Carey factor.

If you think that win looks bad now, wait until 2030 when McKercher is back playing in Tassie, and Reid is winning Brownlow’s.

Bernie Vince played 100 games for us. Hopefully if he has kids they choose us over Crows.

Lol, Flagmantle!!

The only team that’s more St Kilda than St Kilda is Fremantle

Bloody big joint

Picket fence is on match committee and said he won't play 🤣

I did my hammy when I was 14. Still waiting to get back to full pace.

Maybe you can enlighten. I've often wondered if your moniker relates to our disrupted six-peat as some sort of angst you've been holding onto for 65 years? Like the MFCSS version of long-Covid?

It's just I don't want to believe it.

North were a bit silly in beating GC in round 24 last year. They had Harley Reid secured after the Eagles gifted them 18th spot in round 23 with a Hail Mary win over the Dogs…. However, they (North) somehow put 20 goals on GC in front of a whopping 4,000 people down in Hobart in a game nobody will care to remember. Net result - 17th finish. No Harley Reid.

@bing181 that's basically what we put on the table out looks like. I'm not sure we could have offered much more. I reckon it needed to be 2 and 3 to get it done. "Meanwhile the Demons, who have aggressively traded up in the order, put forward picks 6, 11, 42 and their future first-rounder in exchange for Pick 1." https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-draft-2023-west-coast-eagles-trading-away-pick-1-offers-rejected-north-melbourne-three-firstround-picks-melbourne-four-pick-offer-latest-news-harley-reid/news-story/67c96c9c712cb44dc87b3db0c1e06e28

Harley Reid. I know we offered two decent first-rounders, and not complaining about Windsor and Tholstrup ... but Reid is a generational talent. Two first round plus a second plus a future first wouldn't have been excessive. It's not just what he does, it's the way he does it and the impact that has on players around him. ,

Of course just lIke Brayshaw failing in his duty to avoid #4💩 I recall that we were the beneficiaries of one last week or the week before (Petty). MFCSS And missed out on Duke and Kolt? I guess time will tell. Port and Bears - never put your house on them. 🤔

Don’t do it @WalkingCivilWar I’ve heard weird things about how they role over there.

That's the latest milk I reckon. Take the mark and if the opponent grabs your arms, just fumble it. Seeing more of it now

Zorko dropping the ball like it’s his marriage

That's just the sort of quote where we lose....percentage booster..

Ima taking some 4.20 on Richmond Exactly the type of game we #@^* up

I love this type of close up expose of Harrison being wheeled into the operating theatre, the footage of the Specialist, the administering the anaesthetic, then the long recovery period, etc, like previously mentioned I crave this kind of behind the scenes documentary. Top shelf MFC, Harrison, fitness and coaching staff.💕