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It saddens me to read all the unpleasant, nasty comments about Clayton. He is a champion player who has won four best and fairest and has been twice the winner of the coaches award. A higher, more meaningful award than the Brownlow in my humble opinion. He is battling to show his true form at the moment as a result of fitness and past personal issues. He loves the club and was looking delighted when Kynan Brown's debut was announced. I would hope that I am only appealing to a small minority and that the vast majority would agree with me. Talk of trading is ridiculous and an insult to the man. Show some fairness please and give Clarry some breathing space. Negativity does not help his cause.

With Melbourne’s season hanging on a thread, Saturday night’s game against North Melbourne unfolded like a scene in a hospital emergency department. The patient presented to the ward in a bad way. Doctors and nurses pumped life-saving medication into his body and, in the ensuing half hour, he responded with blood returning to his cheeks as he stirred back to life. After a slight relapse, the nurses pumped further medication into the bloodstream and the prognosis started looking good as the next hour ticked by. The patient even sat up momentarily. Suddenly, without warning, the vital signs displayed on his bedside screen went haywire and the patient was again in peril. It took all of the skills of the experienced ER ward surgeons, helped by a team of young interns, to step in and save the day. At last report, the patient was resting in a stable condition but still on life support. There’s a long way to go but he’s hanging on … for the time being. Speaking of hospitals, welcome to Melbourne’s 2024 campaign in the post superstar phase. But it’s not just the fact that Christian Petracca‘s internal injuries will keep him out of the game for at least the rest of this home and away season that are keeping coach Simon Goodwin up at night. Leaving aside the usual media swarm and the naysayers who smell blood when a team’s going through hard times, Goody’s facing attack from all sides in the football world and not just about the unenviable task of mending the midfield in his star player’s absence and the fact that another of his superstars in Clayton Oliver is in a career slump. There’s the potential problem of overworking his skipper and champion ruckman who battles on with little support, the occasional defensive lapses and then, there’s the long-running matter of connection when going into attack which refuses to be resolved and rears its head with too many goalless (and scoreless) quarters and with most of the forwards also in a form slump. Add to this, the fact that a quiet rebuild is going on in the background. Of the teams competing in Round 15, Melbourne fielded the most players aged 22 and under with ten, compared to North Melbourne’s eight. Geelong had only four players in this category; Brisbane, Carlton, Essendon, Sydney and West Coast had five. It’s great to see so many young faces in the team working manfully but having plenty of youth and inexperience in the group also poses challenges in the heat of a tight battle. Granted that you can’t fix all of the issues surrounding a major form slump overnight, there are still some positive vibes out of all of this. The impending return of Jake Lever who is so important in the defensive structure, will help. Steven May kept Nick Larkey goalless in a peerless defensive performance and the return of his partner in crime in defence is timely in light of the do or die contest coming up on Friday night in Brizvegas. Despite the fact that North’s up and coming midfield won the clearance battles, Goodwin’s first effort on the work in progress in this area produced some promising signs. Jack Viney was an absolute beast as he worked hard under the skipper’s gaze and while Oliver was shut out under the close watch of Will Phillips. Into the breach came Trent Rivers who had plenty of time and a reasonable return lining up in centre bounces. Tom Sparrow had some good moments as well and second gamer Koltyn Tholstrup was promising at half-forward. It will be a while before he can be considered in the same light as Petracca but there were some really great signs. And how about that great lifesaving cameo run down by Kynan Brown that virtually ensured the win for his team? Despite the continuing relative dysfunction of the forward line, there was some signs of a pulse with Disco Turner kicking a couple and Harry Petty taking six marks and scoring a goal. Some more consistency and a return to goal scoring form from the likes of Bailey Fritsch, Kozzie Pickett and Kade Chandler are hopefully just around the corner. Indeed, a return to form of the likes of Oliver, Fritsch and co on the big stage up north next week is exactly what the doctor ordered. MELBOURNE 5.2.32 6.4.40 11.4.70 11.4.70 NORTH MELBOURNE 1.2.8 3.7.25 5.7.37 10.7.67 GOALS MELBOURNE Turner 2 Chandler Gawn McDonald Petty Pickett Rivers Sparrow van Rooyen NORTH MELBOURNE Zurhaar 4 Ford Sheezel 2 Davies-Uniacke Simpkin BEST MELBOURNE Viney May Rivers Gawn Sparrow Neal-Bullen NORTH MELBOURNE Davies-Uniacke Wardlaw Sheezel Zurhaar Phillips Simpkin INJURIES MELBOURNE Christian Salem (knee) NORTH MELBOURNE Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil NORTH MELBOURNE Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Kynan Brown (replaced Christian Salem in the fourth quarter) NORTH MELBOURNE Dylan Stephens (replaced Toby Pink in the third quarter) UMPIRES Donlon Haussen Heffernan Wallace CROWD 28,774 at The MCG

I find it incredible that legitimate football commentators and media personalities are more upset with Steven May for pretending to be hit in the head than they are at Brayden Maynard for actually hitting a guy in the head resulting in a premature end to his career.

It was the usual "flush" session. All 23 from Saturday night there - although Viney was in a tracksuit top, taking it easy (not unusual for these sessions). Spirits were good. Salo did not do the soccer drill, but Lever did - looks ready. No AFL listed players who played for Casey present today. Melksham joined the main group (see above). Hunter and Hore both did some warm-ups, but not the soccer, so neither seem ready yet. B Brown in discussions with physios.

Thanks guys (and all those that liked these posts); really appreciate the support. You have really moved me 🥹

I'm not sure that would be good for his mental health - keep him active and involved. Boredom and disengagement can be toxic.

There’s no way I’d drop Tholstrop , and I really hope Kynan gets a full game

When I monitor the comments about Jefferson I can't help but think; Jye Amiss, who is within 1cm and 1kg of Jefferson, played 3 games in his first season and then in his second season played 22 games for 41 goals. I will continue to raise an eyebrow of optimism for our future tall forward combination of Van Rooyen and Jefferson.

May put a heap of mayo on it, deserves the fine. However, it was not holding the ball. He had no prior and was making an attempt. The umpire should have blown a ball-up quicker, but the incessant whinging from North fans had spooked him. secondly, where was Daicos’ fine for this incident? I haven’t read the outraged media reports: Was he fined?

his going off and being subbed out was a huge part of us dropping our bundle rivers went back to cover for him and our midfield got pantsed for the remainder of the game

Sorry but this gets fined but the countless of other garbage staging we’ve seen for years doesn’t? There is not a day that goes by where I don’t hate the AFL more I didn’t like it and I’m fine with the punishment. Just be consistent tho for goodness sake. Nick Daicos would NEVER get fined for doing the same and worse.

Love your work @WalkingCivilWar, thanks for the updates (and selection scoops!).

I'll come out of Hiatus for one and only one post on this. DON'T DO IT GOODY, NOT THIS WEEK!! I watched him very closely yesterday and he played an excellent game. He knows where to run, clunks marks and yesterday just could not miss with his laser like kicks for goal. I would be very tempted to play him week after Brisbane, vs West Coast but DONT be tempted this week Simon. Stick with Bailey hairstyle and The Heartbreaker, (even though both are playing terribly and should be dropped) if you must, but I'll tell you something else, This kid will be a better long term player than either of them, GOSPEL !!! Also memo, AMW Is good to go NOW, should have been played WEEKS ago, got some mongrel and skills, excellent mover. Finally Fullarton. Mc Adams, and Billings why did we recruit them??? Laurie will also struggle to make it. Verall might. Kentfield is a long way of but with a solid preseason who knows, Shache?? sorry gives little. So cupboard is a little bare at present! End of rant for another period of time! Don't play Jeffo this week Goody that's all I gots to say!

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Agree 100%. He deserved the fine, just as much as at least 6 others this year that were ignored. Another first for the Dees, the first staging fine this year and maybe for a couple of years.. I love the pile on from the media once again, about how disgusting this act was. Really, disgusting? I will tell you what was disgusting, the media defending a thug who ended a player’s career. That was truly disgusting, trying to even blame the victim.

Jefferson has 17.11 goals in his last 7 games in a poor team certainly trending the right direction

Say what you want about clarry, but even in his current form he is a better option than any mid running around at Casey. They're using AFL matches to get him fit. We might still see clarry somewhere near his best by seasons end.

Yep let's trade Oliver 1 year into a 7 year deal during a career worst year and terrible pre season. Thanks Corns and Morris.

Just seen a post from the club highlighting Andy Moniz-Wakefield's numbers on the weekend for casey. These posts often precede a debut in the seniors. It'd be interesting to see what he can do in the ones - Brisbane up there is a bit of a baptism by fire, but if the practice of debuting players as sub is the way of things that could be an option. MFC Facebook post re. AMW

now i kinda want him to play this week

Has any one in the footy media noticed?

I didnt even know they got Gulden through the academy. what a joke! So Mills, Heeney, Blakey, Gulden etc all gifted to them. Never using a top 10 pick. The most blatant favouritism in the league. They would not be near finals without the academies

Why is it nonsense? I don’t think it’s controversial to say that he’s out of form and struggling.

I am not at all defending what Steven May did because it was clearly staging, but far out, there are dozens of incidents every single game that fall into the catagory of staging ignored. blokes raising their arm to draw high contact, diving forward to draw in the back, throwing their heads back. if they're going to issue fines for staging i completely support it but it just looks ridiculous when there was probably 100 staging incidents this weekend and they've fined 1. Some blokes would probably end up in the negative by the time they paid all their fines if it was officiated consistently.

As Paul Roos once said, "Every player is tradable" If the right player and offer was there for us then I have no doubt the club would look at it. No one is going to take the lengthy contract hovering above his head but.

Indeed. We have struggled pre and post bye since burgess was made high performance manager (well, from 2021 - we didn't get a proper bye in 2020 because of covid) 2021: post bye we could only manage 68 points in a scrappy 11 point win over an average bombers side. In the lead up to the bye we had two 'uncharacteristic defeats' in our previous four matches. 2022: post bye, we came out running on top of the ground, and in a shock result flogged the lions by 62 points at the gabba. It was a shock because prior to the bye we had been in terrible form, losing 3 on the trot (having won our first 10 games) - freo flogged us at the G by 38 points, the swans rolled us the g and we could only manage 56 points against a very average pies team, who won by 26. 2023: post bye, in a super scrappy match, we led the cats by 7 points at 3 quarter time (6.11 to 5.10), but stopped to a walk in the last quarter and gave up 6 goals to go down by 11 points. In the four pre bye games we lost to Port at AO (but played well), lost, again, to freo at the g, had a scrappy win over the blues (who were 15th at that point) and a good win over the pies. 2024: after our first bye we we were woeful in the first half, and not much better in the second, in a scrappy win over the tigers. After our second bye, we again stopped to a walk in the last quarter and were lucky to hold off the lowly roos. In the 3 pre bye games, we played pretty well in our win over the saints, we were woeful against freo and better than the scoreline suggests against the pies, but still very scrappy. For context, it's important to note that in spite of (arguably BECAUSE of ) of those performances we finished top 4 in 2021, 22 and 23.

You've all lost me at Fritsch out.

What a horrid trade.

What happened to the horse thread? quality banter, just gone is nothing sacred?

Salem could have been an absolute star of the game if his body wasn’t permanently letting him down. Such a shame. Also great that Viney has a sore foot. Our midfield is absolutely loving life right now 🫠😭

With Leigh Matthews on this one. It's a joke. Sure he milked it a little. So what? Whose to say he didn't wrench his neck slightly in the tackle and holding his head was an instant response? Either way the AFL has caved to media pressure. Highly doubt the MRO would have picked this up otherwise. Finally, does May have a staging record? Methinks not. Multiple other culprits have gotten away with far worse. The fact that Tom ' The Tool' Morris is outraged at May's actions is all one needs to know.

Ten players 22 or under is very sobering indeed but it will be a real lift if they all make the grade at some point.

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Gee glad I didn't come on here today.. To see one of the better and solid contributors to DL get torn down for stating a perfectly valid opinion is embarrassing. This is why so many including myself are limiting their time on here, it's really sad how many great posters aren't even on here anymore. It's not changing anytime soon so enjoy the toboggan ride.

I’m furious about this. We keep getting made an example of when this happens every round. Take a good look at teams such as Collingwood and Carlton - I can guarantee their players will never get sighted and they do this on a regular basis.

half back so if salem is injured and they want to keep rivers in the midfield - which you'd hope we do - then moniz-wakefield would be next up i'd personally be dropping bowey for him

I was present today and AMW can do nothing more to earn an AFL debut - and it wasn't just today - the so-called "body of work" is now there. Woey took a heavy hit and that may explain his reduced output in the second half. A much inproved performance by Jefferson today but I am not sure I would throw him in against the Lions. Another good VFL performance next and perhaps he could be considered for the Eagles at the G.........perhaps.

I’m ok with this as he did stage and got a free out of doing so, tbh I think the fine should be much more. Now watch as no one else gets done for staging.