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Trade Chandler for what? A late second rounder? In order to play who? Spargo who’s been MIA all year? Laurie who doesn’t have the speed, power or marking game to be a small forward? McAdam, Sesto or AMW who don’t have the tanks. Chandler’s rock solid in his effort each week and a great culture guy, he won’t be traded.

Spot on - on all counts. He's the love child of jackovich and Brett Lovett. i had checked the tracker and was surprised how quick he is (note: average speed in attack is running when we have the ball). And clearly a super hard worker, as evidenced by topping average speed in defence (note: running when the opponents have the ball - the best indicator of work rate and spread).

Runs hard Runs fast (check out his tracker results) Uses footy well Tough Got a bit of x factor But the best you gotta love the curls

Rare match at the G for me. Seeing this young lad go to work in the flesh was my highlight. Topped off with a great post game interview on the ground and in the rooms. What a legend

Gary Pert: Hello, is that the Sydney Swans Football Club? Receptionist: Yes, it is. Who's calling? Gary Pert: It's the Melbourne Football Club calling. We were just kidding about clearing Brodie Grundy to you. Please make sure he's on tonight's flight back home. We'll pick him up at Tullamarine. "Click"

BUMP! I thought he was very good yesterday and has been much more consistent this year - last year, he ran out of steam by this stage. He seems to be Nibbler-esque in his team first mentality and a couple of the younger guys have mentioned him as a role model. His contested marking is excellent for his size: there was one that he took at full stretch on the Shane Warne wing, where he beat a much taller opponent. The highlight, though, was in the final couple of minutes, when he sat Harley Reid down in a crunching marking contest (I’d love to see a replay of that!). Well done Chin - keep it up son.

JVR seems to be gradually breaking out. His form since King's Birthday has been very promising. Should have kicked 7 today.

I don’t get why grundy didn’t want to stay with us and play for Casey all year and then step in for 2-3 games

We haven't had a reason to play Fullarton yet but this is it. He had a full game in the ruck a few weeks ago and played well, then missed VFL this weekend being the carryover emergency. It's time. He cannot replace Max but it might just give us a different look.

Yep. I have seen some posts calling for Sparrow to be dropped. I think what his critics perhaps don't factor in is that he is given specific roles. And far from goody playing favourites he's a best 22 lock because he does the jobs goody asks him to do.

Was still making lung-busting sprints late in the 4th quarter. Key component of the forward line pressure.

apaz he played on one of the likely top selections today (i presume josh smillie), and more than held his own? fwiw, yze was voted 2nd best for oakleigh today, and smillie was not named in the best stats here he's played for oakleigh 6 times and been in the 'best players' in the last 4 games he's played in for oakleigh

Best game so far from Windsor

It's the kids for me that is the story of today. Kolt has swagger and campaigner about him. I have desperately wanted this kind of player since Bernie Vince or Tom Bugg. He's also a very impressive young player JVR will be a our number 1 key forward from next year onwards. He's got it all. Windsor - Enough said, the kid has class and star factor. McVee - All class and silk. His composure right on the members wing pretty dam impressive. Andy Moniz Wakefield - give me a contract extension. The kid is a beauty. Tough, composed and reminds of another #45 who used to bounced off half back. Turner rarely loses a contests. He engages and then brings the ball to ground. He'll only get better with age and experience. Then there is Rivers and Koz who play like 150 game veterans.

with Max out, who knows where Maysie might kick it.

Anyone see the bump between McGovern and Chandler? McG taken to hospital with a suspected rib and lung injury. He tried to strong arm Chandler coming the other way and Chandler took his bump and kept running through him . Magnificent 11:25 to go in the last qtr if you're interested

You do realise he leads contested marks in the club?

Cameron Pederson available? 😁

I’m a general surgeon. I don’t think this would be related, just bad luck.

Imagine trading a sledgehammer for a feather duster. Ridiculous. I think Max King is going to be a good player, and is clearly talented, but Roo is going to be just as good and is much more likely to stand up in a big final given how physical he is. Nothing better than watching him launch at a pack. Love his confidence and his maturity.

Even if absolutely nothing else good happens this year, I hope we rip Essendon a new one to the point where the entire football world calls them out for the pretenders they are, and their rancid, smug fans realise that this is yet another false dawn and that they’re still as irrelevant as ever. Please? I don’t think they’ve suffered enough yet.

Jason Taylor’s draft years It is easy to make comments with historical hindsight, but the following is an attempt to look at whether or not Jason Taylor has been a visionary recruiting boss or, god forbid, overrated. Taylor’s now been calling the shots for us at draft night for 11 years. And invariably we all fall victim to lumping the draft gurus in with the overall list strategy and that’s a little unfair given the list manager (currently Tim Lamb) is responsible for overseeing the entire list strategy and has the right to trade picks before the draft gurus gets a shot at them. Then there’s the often-underrated aspect of player development – the coaching once a player arrives at a club that comes from assistants, fitness bosses and weight room leaders. It is fair to say that we really struggled with our internal developing of players in the Bailey/Neeld eras so some of that poor recruiting is a reflection of our own incompetence on the training track, rather than just poor draft-night judgment. As a semi-regular track watcher, I have to say that from the moment Paul Roos arrived on the Melbourne scene and brought with him some quality assistant coaches things improved and most players have had a chance to live up to their draft number. All of a sudden 150-minute sessions on the track became part and parcel under Roosy for a game that lasts for roughly that length of time. With astute assistants such as Ben Matthews (now gone), players were being tutored better in the demands of the current game. Ditto Choco, who is a great assistant, even at his age with clear instructions - even if they must get a little repititous for the players. It's quite possible that Taylor’s predecessor Barry Prendergast(ly) was overly maligned because many of his choices weren’t given fundamental assistance from their arrival – the Jack Watts, Sam Blease, James Strauss draft of 2008 is a case in point given all three were highly-athletic teenagers who never went on to become greats of the game. Then there’s the case of 2012 when a coach, in this case Mark Neeld, overruled the list manager (Todd Viney) and Prendergast and demanded a certain type of player – hence we added an outside player who had been injured for much of the season in Jimmy Toumpas because we already had a tough inside player in Jack Viney coming in to the club. The fact that Todd and Jack were keen on Ollie Wines (they had him living with them so knew exactly what type of kid he was) will go down as one of our greatest errors. At least the error precipitated the changes that led to Roos, Taylor and eventually Lamb (2018) taking over and heralding our best era since the 50s, with apologies to John Northey’s late 80’s resurgence. Enjoy the read, I will drop a year every few days for the next few weeks – I will avoid game day. And feel free to comment but remember it is easy to be wise in hindsight. 2013 Draft Rating: 5/10 Fair Trades: 3/10 Poor This was Taylor’s first year since moving from Collingwood and undoubtedly all parties were a little unsure of their place and role. Roosy had just been appointed and was keen to get in some quality experienced players, given our list was rated the worst in the league. His arrival meant we offloaded ‘problem child’ Colin Sylvia but managed to get Bernie Vince from Adelaide with his compensation pick along with free agency trades for Daniel Cross and the more speculative Aidan Riley. Viv Michie was a late order trade, but the significant switch that impacted Taylor’s draft hand was dealing our No.2 overall pick to GWS for Dom Tyson. We did get back pick 9, but also lost our second round pick 22 in the deal. Was it Roosy who wanted it, was Todd Viney happy with it, did Jason Taylor give it his approval thinking that he’d still most likely get to draft a quality pick anyway with No.9? Oh, to be a fly on the wall back then. Tyson was runner-up in our best and fairest in 2014 so he was hardly a bust, but ultimately it was a big call – because with Tom Boyd’s flurry of TAC Cup goals in the finals, we could have had Josh Kelly. That’s right, a quality left-footed wingman that’s been missing from our line-up for much of the past decade. There were rumours back then that we thought Kelly wasn’t tough enough – you have to remember back then there was a feeling we were a little bit too soft - that’s why we went with Mark Neeld before the AFL sent us Roosy. So my guess is that even if we kept pick 2, we would have taken Jack Billings (3) who I believe Taylor rated mega highly. I am not sure Taylor would have been willing to promote Bont up the order to No.2 although reports back then were that we were clearly into the Dogs skipper. Once we got back pick No.9 in the Tyson deal, I think we had hoped to use it to obtain Bontempelli, but there was a late rush on the Bont and he jumped right up to No.4. The 2013 draft goes down as one of the best and deepest in history – five current AFL captains were part of it – with 4 Bont, 13 Patrick Cripps, 26 Zach Merrett, 35 Toby Nankervis and 56 James Sicily. So giving up pick 23 for Vince was huge. Bernie did give us mature grunt and won a B&F (2015), so he wasn’t a bust, but it came at a cost on draft night. Looking back - hindsight is a beautiful thing when you talk draft picks - we erred in giving up picks via trades and maybe we should have trusted Taylor’s judgment more implicitly in year one. 9 Christian Salem – we may have missed Patrick Cripps (13) and Zach Merrett (26) but when Bont jumped up in pecking order we went for the best kick ahead of the pacy Nathan Freeman (10) whose dodgy hamstrings ended up restricting his development anyway. Salem has been a very useful and worthy top 10 pick, just not the superstar that Bont and Cripps became. 40 Jay Kennedy Harris – not sure he was the right choice given we had holes in our list almost everywhere and we missed out on Tom Barrass (43), Aliir Aliir (44), Ben Brown (47) and James Sicily (56). Another more like for like was Scotch boy Darcy Byrne Jones (52) or even Karl Amon (68) if pacey/clever smalls was what we were after. 57 Jayden Hunt – Once you get down this far in the order, it is all speculative and Jayden was a very lively player for us, albeit a victim of many who felt his kicking wasn’t up to it. I still reckon we did the dirty on him in 2021. But after 114 games for us, he was a bargain at this pick, and he has also done well at the Eagles – fourth in their 2023 B&F. Only Amon and rookie/academy picks are still on other club lists after this pick. 82: Kept Mitch Clisby – As above, gems are hard to find this late. Trades for Dom Tyson, Bernie Vince and Viv Michie, free agents Daniel Cross, Aidan Riley. There were plenty of picks in the rookie draft and we were one of two clubs (Adelaide somehow stole Charlie Cameron) to find a useful gem – James Harmes with pick 2 and we also re-drafted Nev Jetta as a rookie. Taylor did have a crack at a couple of others in the rookie draft. Max King from the Murray Bushrangers was the first of what has become a growing penchant for drafting the wrong rookie ruck prospects, while Alex Georgiou was a mature-age defender from Norwood who played a handful of games but you are doing well if you remember any of them.

Max’s value isn’t in the ruck, it’s in his innate ability to always park his giant frame at the right place at the right time. We all laugh at Maysie going for him but why wouldn’t you? The opposition always kick it to him more than anyone on our side ever does. Whoever covers him better be prepared to run his chops off, because that’s the requirement.

Melksham looks like he got off without any penalty.

It makes us a really tricky prospect for Essendon because teams know exactly what Max brings and it locks us into how we play to some extent so Max out of the team throws that into complete chaos, it means the mids can just rove to Goldy or Draiper and hunt the ball and makes us much less predictable

IMV, Petty is equal to or as good as Max in the air. That's why I think he's a good replacement for Max this week. As for Max's tap work, let's just say I disagree. Sides read off him all the time and shark him. We're now more unpredictable at stoppage and the opposition becomes more predictable from stoppage.

I think we all knew this would happen at some point this season…surely the club had a plan when our 32 year old skipper who plays 90% ruck isn’t available for a couple of weeks?

Tom Fullerton, Come on down! As big of a loss Max would be, it might make us a bit less predictable.

I'm of the mind that if we stay fit, can get over the suns on the GC, then we're in this up to our necks. The WC and Freo losses rocked my faith and then watching Petracca go down I thought all over. The last few weeks have been very good and I just don't see an unbridgeable gap between us and anyone above us. Put us in a Prelim V the Blues and anything could happen. People criticising Goodwin atm......have they missed the fact that he's just turned over our list mid window? I was pessimistic at the beginning of the season because I didn't see it either and maybe my renewed faith is premature but I'm very bullish on the Dee's atm.

Melbourne v West Coast (Round 17, 2024) https://www.wheeloratings.com/afl_match_stats.html?ID=20241706 Key Team Stats Stats highlighted purple were won by Melbourne. Stat For Against Diff Disposal Efficiency 73.6 72.9 +0.7 Kicking Efficiency 73.8 68.0 +5.8 Metres Gained 6149 5037 +1112 Inside 50s 49 49 +0 Shots At Goal 28 20 +8 Shots Per Inside 50 57.1 40.8 +16.3 Contested Possessions 129 104 +25 Ground Ball Gets 88 68 +20 Intercepts 64 54 +10 Intercept Marks 15 20 -5 Centre Clearances 8 18 -10 Stoppage Clearances 22 17 +5 Contested Marks 14 10 +4 Marks Inside 50 21 15 +6 Hitouts 28 34 -6 Hitouts To Advantage 10 12 -2 Tackles 56 54 +2 Tackles Inside 50 6 19 -13 Def One On One Loss % 20.0 33.3 -13.3 Contested Possessions For Against Diff Melbourne's Defensive 50 Hard Ball Get 6 4 +2 Loose Ball Get 21 9 +12 Contested Mark 1 3 -2 Ruck Hard Ball Get 0 1 -1 Gather From Hitout 4 2 +2 Free For 1 1 0 Total 33 20 +13 Melbourne's Forward 50 Hard Ball Get 4 0 +4 Loose Ball Get 12 6 +6 Contested Mark 4 1 +3 Gather From Hitout 0 1 -1 Contested Knock On 0 1 -1 Free For 2 1 +1 Total 22 10 +12 Post clearance Hard Ball Get 11 13 -2 Loose Ball Get 52 29 +23 Contested Mark 14 10 +4 Contested Knock On 3 3 0 Free For 7 5 +2 Total 87 60 +27 Pre clearance Hard Ball Get 3 5 -2 Loose Ball Get 22 21 +1 Ruck Hard Ball Get 5 2 +3 Gather From Hitout 9 11 -2 Contested Knock On 1 3 -2 Free For 2 2 0 Total 42 44 -2 Official data on pre- and post-clearance contested possessions are not available. These have been estimated by Wheelo Ratings and should be indicative. Ground ball gets are inclusive of hard ball gets and loose ball gets. 'Free For' does not include free kicks to advantage or free kicks while in possession of the ball as these are not counted as contested possessions. Expected scores xScore Score Rushed xWin % xMargin Margin Swing Melbourne 102.1 112 1 99% +35.3 +54 +18.7 West Coast 66.9 58 2 1% Team Shots Score Accuracy xScore +/- xSc. / Shot Shot Rating Overall Melbourne 28 17.9.111 60.7% 101.1 +9.9 3.61 +0.35 West Coast 20 8.8.56 40.0% 64.9 −8.9 3.24 −0.44 General Play Melbourne 7 6.0.36 85.7% 22.4 +13.6 3.21 +1.94 West Coast 4 2.1.13 50.0% 15.5 −2.5 3.88 −0.63 Set Position Melbourne 21 11.9.75 52.4% 78.7 −3.7 3.75 −0.18 West Coast 16 6.7.43 37.5% 49.3 −6.3 3.08 −0.40 xWin %: win probability based on expected scores. Swing: difference between expected margin and actual margin. xScore: total expected score from all shots taken. +/-: total score above or below expected score. xSc. / Shot: average expected score per shot. This represents the average shot difficulty. Shot Rating: average score above or below expected score per shot at goal. Notes: Expected scores are calculated by Wheelo Ratings. Each shot at goal is assigned an expected score based on the distance from goal, shot angle, and type of shot (e.g. set shot, general play following contested possession, general play following uncontested possession, ground kick, etc) as a proxy for pressure. The model does not take into account factors like the player, whether the ball was kicked with their preferred or non-preferred foot, and pressure on the player when taking the shot. Rushed behinds are excluded from actual and expected scores. Pressure Team pressure Quarter For Agn Diff 1 200 177 +23 2 179 179 0 3 186 162 +24 4 199 154 +45 Match 191 168 +23 Source: Herald Sun Most Pressure Points Note: pressure points are the weighed sum of pressure acts. Physical pressure acts are worth 3.75 points, closing acts are worth 2.25 points, chasing acts are 1.5 points and corralling are 1.2. ( https://www.championdata.com/glossary/afl/ ) Player Pressure Acts Pressure Points Season Average Trent Rivers 23 55 26.8 Jack Viney 19 45 59.6 Alex Neal-Bullen 19 44 53.5 Caleb Windsor 17 39 33.3 Andy Moniz-Wakefield 13 35 31.5 Ed Langdon 18 33 30.8 Kade Chandler 13 30 45.4 Koltyn Tholstrup 13 30 37.8 Tom Sparrow 15 28 43.8 Christian Salem 10 28 27.1 Jake Bowey 10 25 16.6 Clayton Oliver 10 23 44.2 Jacob van Rooyen 10 23 16.8 Daniel Turner 9 21 13.4 Kysaiah Pickett 11 20 40.9 Tom McDonald 5 14 20.8 Judd McVee 6 13 14.9 Steven May 5 13 9.3 Bayley Fritsch 6 12 15.4 Max Gawn 4 11 23.1 Taj Woewodin 4 11 14.2 Jake Lever 2 5 14.8 Jake Melksham 3 5 5.0 Source: Herald Sun Time in Forward Half Quarter For Against 1 53% 47% 2 52% 48% 3 43% 57% 4 43% 57% Match 49% 51% Source: Match total sourced from the Herald Sun; quarter values are my own calculations. Score Sources Summary Category Score Against Diff Kick-in 0.1.1 0.0.0 +1 Centre Bounce 0.1.1 3.2.20 -19 Stoppage (Other) 5.1.31 2.3.15 +16 Turnover 12.7.79 3.5.23 +56 Score Source For Against Match Season Match Season * Kick-in 1 2.4 0 2.5 Centre Bounce 1 10.4 20 7.3 Stoppage (Other) 31 23.2 15 19.6 Turnover 79 43.1 23 46.4 * Against season average represents average points conceded by Melbourne across the season, not average points scored by West Coast. Chain start region Note: region is from the scoring team's perspective. Category Region For Against Match Season Match Season * Centre Bounce Centre 1 10.4 20 7.3 Kick-in D50 1 2.4 0 2.5 Stoppage (Other) D50 12 2.6 0 1.6 Stoppage (Other) Centre 7 2.2 0 2.0 Stoppage (Other) Wing 12 12.7 9 9.2 Stoppage (Other) F50 0 5.8 6 6.8 Turnover D50 19 8.8 0 7.7 Turnover Centre 8 7.1 0 7.8 Turnover Wing 46 21.1 23 24.2 Turnover F50 6 6.1 0 6.8 Region For Against Match Season Match Season * D50 32 13.8 0 11.8 Centre 16 19.8 20 17.1 Wing 58 33.8 32 33.4 F50 6 11.9 6 13.6 Region For Against Match Season Match Season * Defensive 50 32 13.8 0 11.8 Defensive midfield 26 19.1 10 17.8 Centre bounce 1 10.4 20 7.3 Attacking midfield 47 24.1 22 25.4 Forward 50 6 11.9 6 13.6 * Against season average represents average points conceded by Melbourne across the season, not average points scored by West Coast. Points from defensive half For Against Match Season Match Season * 58 32.8 10 29.6 * Against season average represents average points conceded by Melbourne across the season, not average points scored by West Coast. Centre Bounce Attendances CBAs CBA % 2024 % 2023 % Trent Rivers 24 83% 16.9% 3.0% Clayton Oliver 23 79% 71.8% 81.4% Max Gawn 21 72% 84.3% 64.9% Jack Viney 19 66% 68.0% 72.1% Tom Sparrow 14 48% 38.8% 44.9% Kysaiah Pickett 7 24% 36.0% 11.2% Jacob van Rooyen 7 24% 13.9% 7.6% Daniel Turner 1 3% 0.5% 0.0% Christian Salem 0 0% 16.0% 0.0% Alex Neal-Bullen 0 0% 13.7% 2.1% Koltyn Tholstrup 0 0% 1.9% Tom McDonald 0 0% 0.0% 5.7% Christian Petracca 55.8% 61.1% Josh Schache 8.3% 0.0% Bailey Laurie 4.4% 0.0% Charlie Spargo 4.2% 0.0% Harrison Petty 3.9% 0.7% Lachie Hunter 0.0% 0.2% Ruck Contests and Hitouts Ruck Contests Ruck Contests RC % 2024 % 2023 % Max Gawn 47 60% 81.4% 57.5% Daniel Turner 16 21% 2.3% 0.0% Jacob van Rooyen 15 19% 14.3% 13.1% Alex Neal-Bullen 0 0% 0.0% 0.0% Clayton Oliver 0 0% 0.0% 0.1% Steven May 0 0% 0.0% 0.0% Tom McDonald 0 0% 0.0% 9.3% Tom Sparrow 0 0% 0.0% 0.0% Josh Schache 13.3% 4.1% Harrison Petty 4.8% 2.0% Ben Brown 0.2% 2.3% Christian Petracca 0.0% 0.4% Hitouts Ruck Contests Hitouts To Adv. To Adv. % (2024) To Adv. % (2023) Max Gawn 47 21 8 26.9% 30.1% Jacob van Rooyen 15 5 1 24.1% 31.1% Daniel Turner 16 2 1 50.0% Alex Neal-Bullen 0 0 0 0.0% Tom McDonald 0 0 0 20.0% Ben Brown 100.0% 0.0% Josh Schache 100.0% 0.0% Harrison Petty 31.8% 25.0% Christian Petracca 100.0% Opposition hitouts Ruck Contests Hitouts To Adv. Bailey J. Williams 61 28 10 Jack Darling 12 5 2 Jack Williams 5 1 0

I don’t think he did anything wrong, but I think Goody will go with Petty who has been on the improve and is a stronger contested mark IMO. He’ll take the main tall defender McKay. Tough at AFL level but I think that’s the call Goodwin will make, or with the Essendon forward line he may throw one of them down back, which IMO would be a mistake given the way we moved the footy today

Shout out to Chandler for his hard running and work rate. Doesn’t get huge stats but fulfills an important role.

To quote the great Jack Dyer, “he made a great debut last week and an even better one today”.

Optimism = we will make the 8 Pessimism = we won’t make the 8 Realism = we have a chance of making the 8. The pessimists believing they are the realists is the misconception of the ages.

I hate essendon.

I think the best is yet to come.

Grundy in

No-one will ever have 100% strike rate, most of his misses seem to be around key forwards (Weidemann, Hulett, hopefully not Jefferson). His strike rate would be one of the highest in the comp.

I don’t think we’re playing Brisbane this week??

pity Chalie Spargo is unavailable

Yeah, Phillips and Draper kicked 5 between them and dominated Grundy. Be interesting to see if they bring back Goldstein to further dominate our rucks at the expense of a runner. Or whether they leave Goldstein out because Draper will dominate on his own and keep that extra runner. And will we bring Fullarton in or have a committee of ruckman in JVR, Petty and Turner. One thing we should not do is make our best forward play 70% or more in the ruck.

Really liked his game yesterday. Kept working hard up the ground and took a career high 8 marks (the late one on Reid was a particular highlight). Lines up for game 50 against the Bombers this weekend (alongside Kozzy for his 100th).

In addition, his post game interview tells us so much more about the impressive young man. His eloquent answers about the genuine love he feels for the club and his teammates are heartwarming and believable, certainly mirroring the joy he shares openly with them I’d go so far as to say he’s future captain material

For a bloke who hasn't played since last year and after a huge injury at his age....to step back in ...he played a very good game. Good make a huge difference to a struggling fwd line and our finals chances.

Binman made a great point on the postgame or pregame thread that if AMW can prove to be a guy to take the dangerous small forwards then Judd McVee can move further up the ground where his great foot skills and ball use can be utilised even further. With crisis comes opportunity and the chance is now there for younger guys to gain exposure in the middle. As crazy as it sounds, could Trac going down end up being the best thing that could have happened for us in terms of re-shaping our midfield?

Realistically Jvr could have kicked seven. Have the feeling we will be talking about this player for years. He is a star in the making.

Merrett is their linkman, their heart and soul, their playmaker. Stopping him will limit their kick-to-kick game around the boundary. Also, he has a lethal left foot so deny him that side. Stop Merrett will stop Essendon.

Funk and Wagnall was I believe made popular by frequent references in Rowan and Martin's Laugh In