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Some absolute junk comments. “100 games for just over 100 goals”? He’s kicked 150 goals in 99 games so ‘just over’ is doing some real heavy lifting there. Of the top 20 in his draft Koz is: #1 for games played #1 for goals, ahead of Cody Weightman on 119. #2 for goals per game behind Weightman, 1.75 vs 1.52. Georgiades is the only other to average >1 per game. #4 for tackles behind Rowell, Serong and Tom Green. #5 on tackles per game as Hayden Young sneaks ahead of him. #1 for goal assists overall and per game. #2 for marks i50 overall and #3 for mi50 per game. He’s elite, and he’s going to get better.

Lets not forget he coached the Eagles to a flag against the pies by under goal. Glorious day. We all should love him a bit

Before the meat market begins, I'd just like to pay tribute to Simmo. 10 years coaching in the west with a flag to his name. Like Goodwin, a philosophy based coach who doesn't like to swing the magnets around on gameday but believed in his system. I don't know what the overall feeling was among the fan base but the few WC members I know very well were right behind him until the very end. He was up for the rebuild and seemed to do the best he could and up until recently it looked they believed in him. Don't know what happened behind the scenes but a good coach has lost his job and that's never nice. All the best Simmo.

“OMG! He’s done it again!” “How does he know so much?” “Who’s his contact, I wonder…” “Handsome and amazing” “He really is the #tradewhisperer” Ok ok.. calm down. Not one to blow my own trumpet, peoples.

I'll never understand what motivates someone to go to the bother of trolling people on a footy forum. Most aberrant behaviour serves some sort of self protective purpose, so i hope you are ok. Be that as it may, better for my wellbeing if I put you ignore. See ya.

I think some underestimate how lucky we are to see a player of his calibre, The much lauded Cyril Rioli kicked 40 goals twice in eleven years of AFL. Kozzie has done it twice before he was 21. Last few years 40 goals, 41, 37 and 25 so far this year in 14 games. He is an outstanding talent that will go down as a melbourne great.

Greetings Demon Dee-votees, Please find below for your viewing amusement, all 49 goals kicked by Angus Brayshaw during his nine-year journey in the red and blue (edited by yours truly)!

Simpson Hey. Can he play Ruck?????

We broke him!

Show yourself out.

I’m expecting a track watcher to report that Max Gawn turned up, threw away both crutches and declared himself fit for Saturday night. Make it happen.

Haven't forgotten him. Just pray the selectors have.

One of the things that excites me most about Windsor is the level of physicality he shows for an 'outside' player. On the weekend, I was sitting second level MCC, directly behind Windsor's wing. He streamed in at a centre bounce like a man possessed and just hit a contest so hard I couldn't believe it. There were a few other contests throughout the day that made me think this kid arguably has the highest growth potential on our list due the fact that his body can't match his level of contest appetite yet. As soon as it does, we're going to have an unbelievably dangerous and damaging player on our hands as he'll be able to break tackles, stick tackles, out-body and break-away much easier. Would love to see him start at centre bounce eventually. Unbelievably exciting.

Allen has knee issues which will need to be managed for the remainder of his career. Buyer beware. Not that I believe there is anything to this rumour

Liam Duggan is co-captain with Allen. He is a Victorian so more likely than Allen who hails from WA. WCE website on Duggan: The highly respected clubman was elevated to co-captaincy alongside Oscar Allen in a changing of the guard at the end of 2023, following several impressive seasons as a tough and reliable on-field contributor. A beacon of consistent effort, Duggan was deployed through the midfield and in his more traditional defensive role depending on need as injuries hit hard, and was rewarded with his first podium placing (third) in the John Worsfold Medal while also receiving Life Membership after notching 150 games in blue and gold. In three of the past four years, Duggan has finished top-five in the Club Champion count and the 27-year-old is charged with helping to lead the young Eagles squad back towards more familiar territory at the higher end of the ladder. At a glance: Junior club: Bacchus Marsh (VIC). Debut: Round 2, 2015. Recruited from: Western Jets (VIC), Brownlow votes: 2. A good candidate for the Brayshaw role, perhaps and cover for other star midfielders. The 'bold' part could be a description of what Gus meant and means to us and how he played. I might add he is OOC this year and is an Unrestricted FA ie can go wherever he likes and WCE can;t match. No trade required. Would be a great get.

If he improves anymore he can probably go first ruck this Saturday.

Harley Reid to captain/coach.

Petty has been building in his last two matches and took 5 contested marks against Brisbane. That's where we'll miss Max most of all, as a long target. Petty must play if fit.

Sparrow plays the defensive midfield role and his two way running is very important to our structure. He’s not getting dropped the same way those for several seasons ago wanted Nibbler dropped. If stats are low it doesn’t mean a player is no good

Congrats WCW for being the person you are,a total GEM

That is way better camera work than the Casey v Brisvegas game!

"is it true" is a pretty poor way to start a rumour thread. Its even worse than "I've heard a whisper" . Who is Sam Faff for a start. I refuse to raise my hopes. But I cant help it...they've just been frikn raised. Curse you Sam Faff!

Essendons irrelevance the last 20 years has nearly made me forget how much l despise this club. Some of the comments I’ve heard from this mob, from Gawn being scared of Draper to the snow & cheese platter comments has me dreaming of winning without Max & Tracc playing, would make my week. I’m strangely confident

Time to start putting some respect on Simon “Oppo coach career-ender” Goodwin

Above and beyond the call of duty

At the risk of hijacking @Deespicable's future posts I'm going to fast forward to 2024. For several years Taylor has not and shows no signs of using picks after round 2. With the odd exception he has nailed all those picks. I reckon an underrated Taylor talent is his picks of the rookies. Rookies that played on Sunday and could easily be 100+ game players for us: McVee 😍 Turner Chandler Moriz-Wakefield The first three have been or will soon be promoted to the Senior list. AMW may also be on his way to the senior list. That is awesome drafting. And there is a bunch of other Rookies awaiting their chance. I reckon there could be a few more potential Senior list players among them.

I got the flu just reading that!

Fact fans, you may have noticed the site has been functioning like the MFC forward line recently. We've got it back online now but all the images are broken due to a much needed update of the 2009 software update. The design is also a bit funky at the moment and you may find some other strange things that need fixing, but the good news is we can serve you 1978 Under 19s season details again. On that note, if anyone's got info to add or correct please DM me or email [email protected]. Appreciate everyone's support over the last 15 years!

Based on their chumminess, done deal. #Howdoeshekeepdoingit?

Pound for pound the most skilful player on our list. Some of the stuff he does is beyond ridiculous. His consistency is remarkable, not just for a player of his age, but considering how hard that small forward role can be, especially in our sometimes dysfunctional forwardline. He will be one of our all time greats, both as a forward and as a midfielder. There is not another small forward in the game I would trade him for, not even close. Love the pure joy and aggression he plays with. Long may it continue.

Honestly, our priorities are to get some much needed Midfield depth in the draft and I wouldn't be surprised if we put our first rounder on 2025 on the table to secure 2 midfielders in the first round.

No sympathy for this powerhouse club that prior to the soft cap was spending $300k a week more than Melbourne - $15m a year They tanked after their drug-tainted 2006 flag to get the wooden spoon in 2010, were runner up in 2015 won a flag in 2017 and now back on the bottom of the ladder. People have short memories. Long may it continue

I watched his post match press conference after our match and he showed alot of class. AFL coaches are pretty impressive individuals and I always find it interesting to listen to what they have to say and Adam Simpson is no exception.

In: Fullarton, Petty Out: Gawn, Woewodin Sub: Turner Initially wanted to keep Turner in the team, but struggling to find an alternative sub and he provides flexibility forward and back.

Fullarton will be making his debut in the red and blue this Saturday night.

Two premiership players and a third in Hunt who would have been but for injury. I'll take that every year.

That first year he turned a first rounder, a 3rd, a 5th and a 6th rounder plus 4 rookie picks into three 200 game players (Salem, Harmes and Hunt), a good ordinary player (JKH), a couple of mature fringe depth players (Clisby and Georgiou), a whiff (the real Max King) and a Neville Freaking Jetta (Nev, who played 118 games after being redrafted) is an outstanding draft based on the picks he had available to him. We took 2 of the 3 best players in the rookie draft, which is pretty good when there were 53 players selected. To call it 5/10 is hilariously underselling it, like picking up three 200 gamers is just what every team does on average. Particularly with only one pick under pick 40. For context, Collingwood (who Taylor had just come from) had picks 6, 10, 85 and 77, plus a rookie draft pick. They were Scharenberg (41 games), Freeman (2), T Langdon (89), Marsh (15) and Gault (6). If you add them up it's fewer games between them than from 3 individual players we drafted (not even including Jetta), and none of the Collingwood players have been on an AFL list since Jonathan Marsh was delisted by St Kilda in 2020.

I think the best is yet to come.

I'm quietly optimistic that if selected Fullerton will put in a very good show. I suspect he has been given the same message the club gave Pederson in 2017, something like "stay fit as he needs to be ready when the team needs him". In his WCE post game press conf Goodwin mentioned the coaches did a great job of giving the young players a simple message on their role in our game style. Reasonable to think the same will be done for Fullerton. We don't need anything fancy. He just needs to follow instructions and play his role.

Can't recall a game that we have won where you didn't see the name Viney, Gawn Oliver or Petracca among the best Bodes well

Depends, will it help or hinder a potential pursuit of Harley Reid in two years?

Good question. Maybe travelling around the world in a vain search for the River Styx

I am sure he is trying to get back for Saturday night too. The man is unhinged. Doubt they'll risk him.

This is the full list of (vaguely) AFL standard key forwards selected after pick 14 in the draft prior to 2022. This ignores those that were mature players redrafted (eg, doesn't include a 27 year old redrafted Mitch Brown but does include Ben Brown, Brodie Mihocek and Jake Ricciardi). 2021- Jacob Van Rooyen (18) 2020- None 2019- Mitch Georgiades (21), Harry Jones (30), Harry Petty (37), Jake Ricciardi (51) 2018- Jacob Koschitzke (52) 2017- Oscar Allen (21), Brodie Mihocek (Rookie pick 22), Joel Amartey (rookie pick 28) 2016- Todd Marshall (16), Nick Larkey (73), Mitch Lewis (76), 2015- None 2014- None 2013- Daniel McStay (25), Rory Lobb (29), Ben Brown (47), Matt Taberner (70) Over this time period there would have been about 1000 draft pick made, of which there were only about 15 decent young key forwards drafted outside of the first half of the first round. What you see here is how rare it is to draft these types of players successfully without the best picks. Van Rooyen isn't the norm, he's an absolute exception and one of Taylor's best ever draft picks. If we get a long term forward line out of Van Rooyen and Jefferson from late first round picks then they should build Jason Taylor (another) statue.

The key position/rucks Taylor's drafted with picks inside the first 2 rounds: Weideman (9), Petty (37), Jackson (3), Van Rooyen (19), Jefferson (15), Adams (38), Whilst it's too early to judge the success of Jefferson and Adams, the strike rate is really good. Everyone will reference the Weideman pick, which wasn't the best (albeit he's had a nearly 10 year AFL career so far) but the other picks have been unbelievably good. If Jefferson continues to develop then we'll have been able to get a 10 year forward structure out of two late first round picks, which is an absolute coup. There were really only about 4 or 5 talls worth picking in the 2021 draft, 3 of which were taken before our pick, and we got arguably the best one at 18 (Van Rooyen). Outside of that we really haven't even fired a shot at taller players in the draft. We clearly don't really rate talls in the back end of the draft and haven't really tried. Each of these players were taken early in Taylor's tenture and Oscar was probably a win, whilst the others weren't. You could argue Rosman was a tall but he was really drafted as a wingman. Late ND picks: Oscar McDonald (53), Mitch King (42), Liam Hullett (46) I would argue that Taylor has bee very successful drafting talls. however many supporters have tunnel vision because of how the Weideman pick played out. It'd be an interesting exercise to see if there are key forwards drafted after pick 15/18 in Taylor's time that could eventually be considered more successful picks than Van Rooyen and Jefferson.

Kozzie is a terrific example of player development and talent recognition. We drafted him much earlier than his expected position (presumably because we didn't want to miss him). Then we stuck with him through his first 20 games or so when spent much of the time running around like a headless chook. Now we have a gun small forward/mid who can perform show stealing miracles and who has another 200 games to go !!!!

Max out not ideal , but put it behind us mentally and don’t worry about who we haven’t got just worry about who we have got. Positive side is the injury is early in the week and gives us plenty of time to review footage, prepare a plan and go in with that plan.Nullifying Merret will be a big plus if we can manage that

I can abuse and belittle better than most deever ! ( my time in rehab testifies to that ) I just can't [censored] be bothered anymore. The amount of [censored] on Demonland nowadays is overwhelming. PS. This comment does not refer to my civilised discussion with Binman's PA. PPS. I mean self righteous bull [censored] from both the over sanctimonious Pollyannas and the loony chicken littles. P