Leaderboard

Bit of an unfortunate story to come out especially this time of the year, but Daniel Tuners folks, Tracey and Rodney 'Rocket' Turner alongside brother Joel sadly lost their home to a house fire in South Albury. Whilst it's unfortunate they have completely lost everything, they did make it out alive with Rod still in hospital for severe burns to his body. Joel's partner has set up a Gofundme page to help the family financially and a few Melbourne boys have jumped on and donated a bit. I personally know his folks really well as they're fairly active in the community here in Albury and you couldn't find two absolute gems in Rocket and Tracey plus his brother Joel is just a legend of a fella. A few of us local footballers and businesses have already banded together and will help with the cleaning up and donating whatever we can during this tough time for the Turner family. Link below. Any small donation will go a long way. https://www.gofundme.com/f/turner-family-home-house-fire?fbclid=PAY2xjawHVzT1leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABpqYWCNckAaHnp8_XQKAkcUBLkZq9ZPk-CChukqNTLJghNFc1PAr-2gBW1g_aem_W1kaJAa0xmSdxghr4wZtPw

On the VFL Rewind Radio Program (I found this on Facebook) The Bayley Fritsch story is a pretty amazing story of perseverance and hard work to firstly get to a VFL list, then onto an AFL list and then climbing Everest and winning a AFL premiership medal. Bayley Fritsch was never picked to play TAC Cup but in 2014 he was playing senior footy at Coldstream FNC in the Eastern Football Netball League as a 18 year old and also having a kick in the clubs under 19’s team. Bayley accepted a offer to join Casey Demons in 2015. Back then VFL lists could sign 68 players meaning Bayley got a opportunity and VFL clubs could take more of a chance on some players. However, he hardly played at all in 2015 & 2016 due to injuries but Casey Demons kept their faith in Bayley and gave him another year. Bayley had a breakout year in 2017 and played 19 games and kicked 42 goals at VFL level. In the AFL draft of 2017 Melbourne footy club drafted him with pick 31. In his first year at AFL level he played 23 games and between 2018-present he has missed only AFL 20 games. The 2021 AFL grand final is the biggest moment to date in Bayley’s career. He kicked 6 goals and had 13 disposals as he went on to become a AFL premiership player. It’s a great story of never giving up and chasing your AFL dream. From local senior footy to the bright lights of the AFL grand final. The Bayley Fritsch story is a very good football story.

6 in a premiership is a huge achievement that will always be remembered

He most certainly is. He’s very keen to rip into Season 2025. Also, this the first time in a while that he’s not got even the slightest trace of a niggle. He’s able to play with the utmost of freedom and with that comes increased confidence.

This isn’t aimed at Demon supporters just a general observation! Aussie Ang P manager of Spurs is getting hammered in the press recently about his job under threat! Out of a squad of circa 25 senior players, he is supposedly missing 10. 1st choice players in keeper, Vicario, Van de Ven. , Romero, ( Davies backup) Odobert, Richarlson, Bentacaur suspended, Udogie. They win 4-3 against United and he is getting hammered because Goalkeeper makes two errors! They lose 4-3 against Chelsea where two of his players give away two dumb penalties- almost equivalent of player 70 meters out in AFL, I’ll push him over to give him a 50 meters penalty! Supporters and press hammer the manager, whenever team loses, rarely is a pragmatic view taken. More hysterical few loses sack the manager versus: - missing 5-6 starters from the team - playing kids and bench super thin - don’t blame the manager, keeper gifted two goals, otherwise it’s a shutout against MU - don’t blame the manager, two dumb penalties against Chelsea The Treatment of Ang provides an example of how supporters and the press all too often ignore facts, for sensationalistic headlines or overly dramatic conclusions! 18 teams in AFL, only win flag winner, last year for the Demons: - Oliver not fully fit all season - Trac gone half season - May ribs carried most of season - Fritsch and Petty foot/leg injuries carried from 2023 - Lever & Bowey injured in season 6 plus weeks - Salem preseason interrupted likely never fit - Brayshaw lost before season started - plus more - Club board & management seemingly a number of dumb things Add up all of the above and 11 wins a reasonable result! Destruction by Dockers twice and poor efforts against Pies are the results that made me want to puke! I would be much more upset if I was a supporter of Giants (choke in QF), Dogs (heartless finals performance against Hawks), and Dockers (not making finals)! Demons looking at 2025, fingers crossed for luck with injuries, a few lucky breaks during the year and a finals spot is ours for the taking!

i think it's not so much a case of us letting it 'slip' but if it doesn't work out, it's not for want of trying we've had three or goes at getting a home base in the last decade or so, and we feel - to me at least - like we are closer than we've been in my lifetime, and probably since the 60s

So you're saying I need to have ANOTHER Coleman bet?!? I have half the team to win the Brownlow already, and the other half for the Coleman. 🤣

I’m in dingley at the moment i agree with this comment

But for Trac would probably have had the Norm Smith...

Personally I'm a believer that if we can fix our midfield we can fix our problems. Our defence remains sound and with depth. Our forward line now has enough to be more than threatening. Our main midfield of Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Rivers, Langford and Pickett, along with the surrounding run of Windsor, Langdon, Bowey, McVee, Salem, Sharp, Spargo and Lindsay should be strong enough to compete at the top end of the competition. It's a big year for the coaches, finding the gameplan that gets the best out of this group. Personally I think we'll see our 21 plan tweaked without major changes. I'm expecting to see full team defence to force turnovers on the fast transition teams and then some clean possessions to an improved forward line. Think of the KB game against the Pies in 23, that's the template for mine but with improved forward movement and goal kicking. We completely shut them down and should have won by 6-8 goals.

Totally understand that Waverley could be seen as an upgrade on our current situation allowing us to bring Admin and the Footy Dept together. But it would really only be a band-aid solution and we’d be in the same position Hawthorn have found themselves in, needing more space and eventually moving further out. IF we can pull Caulfield off we’ll have all the space we need and (finally) our own first class admin / office and training grounds / gyms / rehab areas etc etc all together in the one CLUB. It’s a no-brainer.

B: McVee, May, Lever HB: Windsor, Petty, Salem C: Langdon, Oliver, Sharp HF: Chandler, van Rooyen, Langford F: Fritsch, Turner, Pickett FOLL: Gawn, Petracca, Viney IC: Rivers, Bowey, Lindsay, Tholstrup Melksham/McDonald/Sparrow/Johnson/Brown/Howes/Moniz-Wakefield/Woewodin/Hore all thereabouts. Obviously not a round one team with the Pickett inclusion, just a preference for best. A 5th interchange would have been ideal to include a second ruck like Johnson as a chopout for Gawn. I'm OK with van Rooyen having short bursts, as he's good at it. With others such as McAdam, Spargo, Campbell and Sestan we have more depth this year (subject to injury). Casey should be a lot stronger. I'm hoping van Rooyen, soon to be 22, can have a break out in his 4th year on the list. It's the same year a 21 year old Jack Riewoldt showed what he'd become. I hope Langford and Lindsay show they're worthy of a round 1 berth. And at 22 Sharp should be ready to become a permanent AFL player. It's the same age Ed Langdon broke through at Freo. As a side note, a mate of my Brother is friends with the outgoing Collingwood recruiter Derek Hine. Hine considered Lindsay the slider of the draft. They rated him very highly and had him as a top 5 pick on their rankings. As a second side note, there are 7 left footers in the above team, which I very much like.

Kalani will play for Melbourne. I've no doubt. You don't sign autographs as 34 if you're not on the way. Historically, it's pretty rare for a major father son not to nominate their father's club. Marc Murphy is the only one I can think of. He'll get to Melbourne. Bookmark it.

I would like the Coaching crew to spend more time on opposition scouting. ie looking at games coming up and how to play those games, who to try and shut down, how to restrict their movement or free us up to play the way we want to. Back in 2020 and 2021 and the first half of 2022 it was all about getting the game on our terms. If we did that we would often / always win. It's different now as teams feel they have us beaten, they get the game on their terms and we can't shut them down or change the game to our advantage. Fremantle, Collingwood and Brisbane are three obvious examples. I would like to see us with more tactics to get back at some of the teams that have seemingly gone past us. Unless we change how we go about it I don't think we can beat those sides and that becomes your seasons death knell. We play Lions (away Round 10), Freo (at the MCG Round 6) and Collingwood (MCG Round 13 and again Round 24) . I agree every game is important and we need to be winning a lot of our games, but those three games in the first 13 rounds will be critical to our self belief for season 2025. I hope we don't just roll out the same lame stuff as this year.

But is Ang the right guy?

It's really interesting you should highlight this. As a kid in the 70s soccer was a foreign sport, at least for me and my Anglo mates, and I never got into it. I have enjoyed it as a sport since the so called golden era for the socceroos - and have enjoyed watching the Australian mens and women's teams since. But I've never been able to get into epl, serie a etc ' or the A league as i haven't had a team to follow. But I've been following spurs since Ange became manager - not forensically, but watch the highlights and listen to his pressers. I subscribed to bein sports last Friday so I could watch the spurs man up cup game. Super entertaining. And speaking of entertaining, I have listened to a couple of ange's post man u cup game pressers. I was thinking of posting about those pressers, and the ones after the Chelsea loss, rangers draw, southhampton win and Bournemouth loss. In particular I was interested in ange's repeated emphasis after both wins and losses, on how many of his best players were out injured and the impact it has had (and has in general - ie the impact of injury on performance). None of the soldier out, soldier in, no excuses rubbish that AFL coaches fall into. Ange just say it like it is and states the facts - having so many players injured makes it very, very difficult. And not just once - repeatedly (he must have mentioned it 5 times in the presser the day after the man u game - linked below) across multiple interviews. At the same time he has also pumped up the players who have stepped up, particularly the several 18 - 20 year olds he's playing. So refreshing. 'If I lose anyone else I'll go nuts' - ange's last presser here: https://youtu.be/4QFFF6vjEME?si=XSc68DHbiD-Nygx3

Fans including dee's fans need to move on from using injuires to explain unsatisfactory results. Perhaps valid in 2019 and 2022. But in 2023 we kicked ourselves out of a Prelim and probably a flag. Yes, I know there were some injuries and other factors but we kicked 16.28 in two finals! The second semi was 9.17 with leaders having collective brain fades in the last minute and we lost by two points!!! A waste of a season imv. For 2024 injuries might've contributed to missing finals. But not 14th !!! To summarise our 2024, Goodwin: "... right now we aren't great at any phase of the game which means we haven't got an identity..." Believe him folks !! 14th wasn't injuries !! Anyway, lets move on to 2025 where I'm optimistic of making finals and going deep into Sept.

Love his story. Hope he’s hungry for a big year

If they had a disposal accuracy stat (i.e. the kick or handball went straight to a team mate, maybe who was in space) it would be a more useful measure.

Disposal efficiency is a truly terrible statistic for measuring kicking quality.

Yeah, and I suppose the Sherrins are yellow?! - random bloke at the footy in the 60s

A sunrise 🌅

By all accounts it was a small private occasion for immediate family and friends. Much like our home games.

Good luck Christian and Bella Petracca you certainly deserve a fair degree of luck going forward. Glad that you are both still part of the MFC and I am looking forward to seeing you both prosper in the Red & Blue and help the club achieve the ongoing success that we are all wed to.👍😁💕

Well done Dazzle for getting this out there.

Your scraping the barrel here Hawk, wasting your time sewing discontent it’s a done deal.

Load up (responsibly 😁)

Ok thanks, if I get a moment to scratch myself I'll post my side tommorrow✨️

Or more importantly where are the conspiracy theories about Salem and that suit, is Tom Sparrow on the outer, whats with the shades Angus, and who are those faces in the background above Clarries head. (And if you listen to the audio of the GF backwards it clearly states that Tracc will marry in the gardens). Believe it or not. What are they putting in the eggnog these days. All the best Tracca

I see it in 2 factors: 1. Opportunity. 2. Ease of getting to the club. For opportunity, there is no obvious ruckman behind the 33 year old Max and several of our key Defenders are near the end. The Suns have 3 ruckmen behind the younger Witts, with Moyle and 2 others ahead of him at this stage and also younger key Defenders. For ease of getting to the club, the Suns have a number of Academy players they want next year and 2 at least at this stage are ahead of Kalani. A finals placing will restrict them to 2 Academy players, whereas with us, he will walk simply in on a matched bid.

I agree Kev, I don't have him in my best 23 but I haven't for a number of years. Him getting dropped at the back end of the year showed he's clearly on notice and imo he's not a walk up start as some think he is. Guys like Sharp, Langford and Linsday coming in will only make it harder for him.

Being a ‘good kick, but a bad decision maker’ is incongruous, especially for a mid who is in pressure and contested environments when distributing the footy. If you can’t be effective when you get it, and the team is better placed when you don’t get it - then you are not going to stay in the team.

He signs his name with #34, that says to me he's coming our way. I'm more confident now than I was last year.

Sparrow's such an interesting one for mine. Currently I don't have him best 22, perhaps as sub. Post 21 I though the sky was the limit for him but he's kind of gone nowhere since. On the other hand he's a potential ANB replacement and if he can make that his role he may of just found himself a position in the side. I mean beyond that where does he fit now that Rivers, Langford and even Pickett have become mids? Time will tell.

The land isn’t owned by the MRC, so other than providing input they won’t have a say on the final decision.

Stats say otherwise with Sparrows kicking.

Expect to be set upon and duly pummelled by five Spurs players when next you meet. 😜

Look at the Lions and how they started their season to how they played those last couple of finals. It's do-able. We have the right blend of experience and youth. We need to be able to stay fit and also execute well. Foot skills and decision making. I am so happy that the coach has admitted our style is not up to winning a premiership and we're being very open about fixing it. It's about time. I think the players will relish the change after a year or two of frustration. Go dees

Again, the ‘game plan’ would be overlaid over the three phases of the game. So that last paragraph is essentially ‘the sky is not blue; it’s obviously blue!’

What did he say that made you change your mind??

Yeah, but... wHeN aRe We sAcKiNg gOoDWiN ?!?!11!

Kicking 50m down the line to a contest isn't measured as a clanger regardless of the result but just avoiding a clanger doesn't mean you're good using the footy. I think you're over-egging the omelette here looking for an answer. We were great at multiple phases in 2021 but haven't adapted since (in fact we got more conservative if anything trying to protect what we thought was a winning brand). The game has moved forward while we've been stuck trying to replicate what worked 4 years ago. We are not a highly skilled team, we lack a strong presence up forward who can make your ball use look better and we lack a bit of footy IQ as well. None of these things are terminal and I think the club is trying to address them but the first step to fixing it is admitting what the problem is.

I’d like to see us switch the ball more often instead of kicking long down the line. Our fitness will dictate how successful we will be at this

It’s a huge amount of largely wasted land. It’ll be a real shame if this doesn’t go our way.

Just drove into the racecourse mid field area and it is massive.

I think he said 'are you not entertained'. That made me laugh- quoting Russell crowe in the gladiator.

For those that need the explanation; there are 3 phases. With the ball, without the ball, and in dispute/contest. With the ball we were slow and boring and stilted and bottom 4. Without the ball we are much better but still allowed sling shot goals when we overcommitted forward in the press. Top half but still not as good as we have been. In dispute we have been chaotic. The red mist was back when we did get it and there wasn’t much time or reason for how we would move it. And there were also times when we would get flogged in contested possessions and clearances for quarters at a time. Probably middle 6 ranking for that. So I think it tracks. But you might want to put a link in.

spurs are right where they should be imo - they're an entertaining team to watch, as you never know what they'll do in 10 mins, let alone 90 i do think it's hilarious that one of the most data-lead football back office hired ange, a man who is very much set in his style of playing epl is at least somewhat competitive this year, albeit that the top tier teams are the same as it ever was, which gets...boring that's why leicester city's premiership title win outta nowhere was so good

It’s a beautiful thing when Spurs lose.. Ange is far too good for that Rabble