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Attended Friday and probably more of the same points from me. After the first 8-10 minutes we were as hard, polished and dominant as you can be in February. Pies supporter claimed this was due to the quality missing from their side particular the middle until I reeled off Oliver, Viney, Jones and then started to work my way through the rest of the ground. The rule changes had limited affect however I think they will have a a lot more prominence on a bigger ground. I also feel there was a touch of the coaches keeping their wing positioning and kick out tactics up their sleeve for the real stuff. Preuss will play round 1 at minimum and I suspect a lot of the season. The mobility, stamina and defensive pressure that T-Mac and Weid provide will allow this. I found both Smiths underwhelming other than a highlight or two. A three tall set up of Preuss, T-Mac and Weid is my preferred with Melksham as the fourth. The biggest quandary for me is who to put at their feet. Garlett pressured and offers a natural crumb but still wont take contact and both Spargo and ANB were underwhelming. I am keen to see more of Wagner as he had some nice cameos second half and there are small forward spots for the taking. It was great to see Hunt with confidence, AVB with added stamina and Hore look assured. The three will put even more pressure on the roles to be played of both Lewis and Jones and potentially Hibberd at points who I thought had a shocker. Lewis kicked beautifully but cant keep his feet and had 2-3 of his signature handballs over the shoulder to no one. No disrespect to Jones but he needs to learn a wing or flank as his midfield minutes will be limited by the development of our young core, now including AVB and Harmes and the want for increased minutes for Trac and Salem. In saying that there are wings up for grabs with both JKH and Stretch getting reasonable ball but both butchering it continually. They both in my mind lack the class connection we need through those parts and I cant wait to see whether Fritsch and KK can deliver those missing pieces or whether one of our many mids can adjust. Apologies. A bit of a ramble and nothing really new but probably just a chance to gather my own thoughts...

Agree it is bias but it is also based on more than the above for me. A want to play three talls and no less than 2 at a time. I don't think either Smith is much more than planned back up. A want for Weid to further develop by getting a less mature or experienced tall where possible. A preference to minimise any need for TMac or Weid to play second ruck. A belief that the new rules further warrant a true second ruck particularly the ability to grab the ball when locked forward; a want to keep a true tall higher for the longer play from a kick out; and a true tall deeper for the positive centre clearance (and a true one at the centre at all bounces). A want to ensure our number 1 weapon in Gawn is better protected from wear and tear throughout the year. Prefer to see this during game rather than have him rested for games. I am not sold yet but it is my preferred initial set up based on many mounting factors until it proves not to be the case. The concern will be do they get in each others way and do we lose forward pressure and ability to chase out of defence but these are just watchpoints at this time.

If the AFL want us to watch AFLW, and I presume it is in their interests, stop serving up second class suburban umpires. And while I'm at it... stop stuffing around with AFLX and put the money into the women, who have had a legitimate competition for well over a decade!!!

When it's all distilled, I don't quite get what all the discussion about the lad Preuss is about. It's bleeding obvious Goodwin and co understood that Gawn cannot be expected to run the whole race on his own - like he was last year - without an inevitable collapse in output.Hence Preuss. It will turn out to be one of the wisest and smartest recruitment coups in our history. Agreed, Spencer was a handy backup, but - without any condescension to Spencer - Preuss is simply a more agile and better coordinated athlete. Even better, he's a German...I put it to you, the sooner our list gets filled by the Obsts, the Neitz's, the Schwartz's, the Muellers, the Manns, the Nietzsche's, Ditterich's - I could go on - of this world, the sooner we'll vin anozer flag.

Well done our girls on a fighting effort all day in serious heat for two weeks in a row. its always hard to beat a good team especially when they have pillaged all the other teams to create a super team, and then having 3 extra players on your team who have the luxury of being able to blow a whistle every time something goes against them and reverse the flow. Well done AFL and well done umps on demonstrating just how easy it is to influence a game of footy ?

Why do so many here keep making reference to North letting Preuss go as some indication of a potential flaw? When was the last time a non-marquee player who desired to leave a club held to their contract? We actively targeted and recruited Preuss. We also gave them a 25 year-old former pick three who up until last year (when squeezed out of position) had been averaging 25 touches and 10 contested.

It is only february and I'm already furious at the umpires.

Why don't North get penalised for putting the ball on the ground all the time, instead of giving it to the Dee player when they had possession of it? It should be 50? It seems to be a tactic to hold up play.

Reckon JKH played his best game for the club just before the finals and got dropped to make way for returning players the following week. Reckon he was abit stiff. Hope he can continue the good form, fridays hitout sounds promising for him.

Get well, Dieter. I'm hoping for the best.

Enjoy ==> https://six6six.smugmug.com/frame/slideshow?key=DjdmJ2&autoStart=1&captions=0&navigation=0&playButton=0&randomize=0&speed=2&transition=fade&transitionSpeed=2&clickable=1

For this season I’ll be sticking with ‘traditional’ Foxtel. I rang them today to get a better deal and after threatening to cancel I settled on paying $29 a month for IQ3, this is for the Entertainment package, Sports channels and HD. If you’re in a similar boat and only have Foxtel for AFL give them a call and save yourself a few bucks.

The AFL needs to inform that second rate, wanna-a-be, suburban whistle blower that the hands in the back rule has changed!

That in the back with 2 mins to go not paid in our defensive square was unbelievable. Several soft frees to North...what's that about? Having said that, a kick in with 2 mins to go when you are four points down goes only one place - UP THE GUTS! Instead the gals went wide and misdirected and coughed up a free the other way. When we regained they ball they refused to do anything but go wide. Killed their own chance. It should be a tough review.

Some shockers by the umps. You know you’ve jumped the shark when even the commentators are talking about it.

[censored] you umps you bunch of fuckwits! If this is the future for AFL umpiring then this game is quite bleak. By far the worst display i have seen in a long time.

Completely shafted by the maggots. Disgraceful umpiring.

Robbed by the umpires! Those 3 dubious frees within 20m of North goals at the 7/8 min mark in th elast Qtr from which they kicked the winning goal. And, the missed frees in our favour all game. OMG! Terribly deflating to have a really good game decided like that.

Of course they should be called out. I would think the Crows have the police and the social media platform the post was made on track the real person. Eddie has dignity, skill and patience. Feel for him. A much respected person of the game. Deserves better. I would be over-the-top livid if this happened to our equivalent: Jetta.

The issue here is that there is no way of knowing if the person making the comments on social media is using their real name. In some comments sections, you’ll find most people commenting are using ‘fake’ profiles. There is, for example, nothing stopping me from creating a Facebook profile with someone’s else’s name, even using a photo of them found online, then making the disgusting comments online. The angry mob wouldn’t then come looking for me, they’d come looking for them.

Alf "Fiery" Fricker! Could hoist a bag of wheat onto his shoulder with one arm. And "Harmful" Harold. Victorian Railways Commission Tug of War champion 5 years running. He used to be our local night soil man. All the kids were in awe of him. Those were the days. Seems like yesterday. (give or take 150 years)

Hunt was the biggest positive after no listed injuries, for me anyway. While it was good to get a look at the unknown, Preuss, Sparrow, C Wagner to name a few, it was great getting back to what we know about Hunt. Really enjoyed his game, first half especially. Seemed confident again with a bit of dash, broke a couple of tackles, lowered the eyes a few times and managed to hit his targets more often than not. If he keeps this kind of showing up he will definitely deserve a spot in what’s a tough back 6 to crack into. On Lewis, I’m sure we’ll have a few conversations about his place in the team during the year for one reason or another, but watching from the same level as the players, even though he’s prone to a few lazy passes, his kicking really is sublime.

May have been mentioned already, but today provided a complete stitch up of Gil’s Absurd AFLX. A fantastic “practice match” match, organised by the clubs - great weather, great footy for February. When will Gil’s clowns realise that trying to recreate an American “game day experience” will slowly extinguish our great game. Give the girls in the AFLW some air and just let the clubs do what they have done for over 100 years build for the real season in March/April. Rant over! Whatever happens, always nice to beat the filth!

I’m so happy vanders didn’t end up at Sydney, he is such an asset for us

On the 11th of January this year my Dad died unexpectadly of a heart attack. He was a fit and healthy man only 65 years old with everything to look forward to. His mum is still alive at 100 years of age and his dad died at 90. As he lived up the country with Mum, my last three great memories of time spent with my Dad were the Melbourne v Geelong game, the Melbourne v Hawthorn Game and Christmas. Needless to say that video smacked me in the guts hard and had me weeping like a baby. Im really scared about this year, not because I think we will be bad, but because there is every possibility we could be very, very good and if our wildest dream comes true, I will be completly inconsolable for so many reasons. If you see a 6 foot tall, skinny bloke with shaved head balling his eyes out on that one day in September, please throw your arm around him and remind him to enjoy the moment, because his a dad waited 54 years for that moment and will have fallen 8 months short.

GAME, SET AND SCRATCH MATCH by Paddy Gosch I always believe in starting off any report by accentuating the positive and in that regard, as at the time of writing, the Demons have not reported any injuries so that’s my major positive from today’s practice game v the Magpies (albeit that we know the club is somewhat lax in reporting these things so my best wishes go out if any of today’s participants are in intensive care at the Alfred). Another positive was that Razor Ray performed his umpiring duties admirably which is more than I can say about the two other duds who shall remain nameless because I’m trying to stay positive. On that note, Melbourne proved that it can win games against good opposition away from home in front of a 70% hostile crowd (and let me remind you that Collingwood finished 2018 a mere bee’s diaphragm away from the premiership), Angus Brayshaw showed he is already approaching his stellar form of last year unperturbed by the injuries he was carrying late last year and a change in head gear. A fully fit Aaron vandenBerg will also be a major plus over last year. The Max Gawn/Braydon Pruess ruck/forward combo worked a treat and will have opposition defenders struggling as they reach for the footy in stratospheric heights. The 6-6-6 set up will suit the style of the club as we head into a new year and a new day. More positives from the dominance of the midfield despite missing a swag of stars. Promise of some good contributions to come from Christian Petracca, Alex Neal-Bullen, James Harmes and Christian Salem - virtually the secondary midfield and the run of a rejuvenated Jayden Hunt and the enthusiasm of young Tom Sparrow - the Demons’ bird in the hand for the future. Oscar McDonald was great in defence and one asks how good will this line be when Steven May comes in and Jake Lever returns from his knee injury. In the meantime, the club’s mature-age draftee from Collingwood VFL’s Marty Hore looks like a good bet to fill a spot from the get go. Sam Frost was also good. And how about new leadership group member Nev Jetta, who was initially ruled out of the AFLX extravaganza through injury, but recovered dramatically enough to not miss a beat in the game today? The Demons started slowly when they conceded a couple of goals to Jamie Elliot but after that, they moved into positive mode and it soon became game, set and scratch match. Melbourne 4.1.25 5.4.34 8.6.54 11.6.72 Collingwood 2.1.13 3.5.23 4.5.29 7.6.48 Best Gawn Preuss Harmes Salem Brayshaw O McDonald Goals Preuss 2 Garlett Harmes Kennedy Harris Neal-Bullen T Smith Sparrow Stretch Weideman

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Neil Crompton Life Member 220 160 post Posted July 1, 2018 ”Out: - our forward line coach - our backline coach, - our skills coach, - our game plan coach.” I suppose to be fair here Neil you weren’t calling for Goodwins head, just every other coach

Seems like a reasonable knockabout type of bloke.

Some good results last night. Lions ousted Blues from the top two of Conf B. As GF finalists of the last two years Brisbane are so much more deserving of a finals berth. They are also more likely to give Conf A teams a challenge during finals. Adelaide had a convincing win over Freo which really opens up Conf A. Win today by more than a few points and we go to second. Interestingly North are not a high scoring side - their excellent %age is on the back of a miserly defence or poor opposition. In the context of this season North haven't taken a 'scalp' with wins over Carlton, GWS and Bulldogs. They are gettable!! Needless to say, we must win today to stay in touch with top 2.

It's like an abstract quiz: how do you thematically get from Jesse Hogan to Victor Furtwangler in four steps via homosexuality in Hollywood and the television show Spicks & Specks? Next challenge: Victor Furtwangler back to Jesse Hogan via Spongebob Squarepants and a block of cheddar cheese.

I am not doing that, yet. But if Max and Preuss can work together and give each other breaks from being crashed into, then they could become a great combination for the MFC

In 1868 we played big Alf Fricker and Harold Rutland, and the game hasn't changed one bit since then, has it?

30 years ago we had Big Jimma and Strawbs O’Dwyer They went alright together in the same team (when Strawbs wasn’t getting reported!!)

I agree re Lewis. My Brother made the observation that he's too slow, however, he didn't get caught with the ball and made good decisions with quality disposal. I haven't been including him in my best 22 to start the season, but I'm certain he'll be there.

@dieter took the wordS out of my mouth - I hate tennis too (maybe we are bonding??). The point I'm making is that Melbourne significantly underrated the aforementioned ruckman we let go of. Jolly was a dual premiership ruckman. Carlton gave up a first pick for a ruckman who hasn't every looked like being half the player Jolly was when we let go of him. Martin had played one great season and we gave him up as a lost cause. It's a fairly common phenomenon that ruckman a) take a long time to develop and b) with a few exceptions, tend only to flourish when given the license of being the No.1 man. That's the commonality I see with Preuss, thay he has shown some potential, but has been locked out of showing his worth. I'm hoping we are the beneficiary this time. To some extent, I think it's the nature of the position that limits the number of good ruck players on any one list. The main club I can think of having made two ruckman work is West Coast with Cox/Nick-Nat and Nick-Nat/Lycett and I think that worked out ok for them both times. For what it's worth, I'm not 100% sold on Preuss as being an out and out champion just yet either, but I think he has shown some ready made potential to fulfill a desperate need we have for a Gawn backup/load sharer that adds value to our overall compeditiveness.

AFLY?

Personally, I just can’t wait to see Hogan and Schultz reunited. It’s been a long time.

Congratulations to the AFL for demonstrating that a sows ear can be made from a silk purse.

Here are a few other photos I took. The play for the most part was too far away for my lens.

Mahoney was saying during the last q, that having Pruess would free up players like TMac and Weid from any relieving ruck duties and allow them to further develop as key forwards. He then said, Max also needs to stretch out his season and may be rested forward entire games or rested completely. ....interesting.

Preuss and Vanders are going to have more victims than Fred and Rose.

I can hear the jungle drums....DON'T STAND IN FRONT OF PREUSS!!! Can you imagine dropping into the gap in front of Preuss on the lead. FMD let him have it.

And, the headline is... THE MIGHTY DEES DOWN THE PIES!! Only a practice match you say? Let me repeat: THE MIGHT DEES DOWN THE PIES!! (That's all that matters! GO DEES!!)

I was at the Family day at Luna park in 2014 and saw Nev Jetta standing virtually on his own when picked as a rookie thanks to then new coach Paul Roos. Went up to him and wished him luck for the season and asked for a selfie with him and obliged kindly such a good person with a smile. Said to him Roos sees something in you to keep you at the club Hope all works out for you as he replied thanks with that look of determination. The rest is history as he turned his career around and nothing makes me happier to see such a loyal person be recocgnised and added to the leadership group. Well done Nev as l am sure you have some unfinished business to attend to in 2019.

2018 final v geelong, was like the dam wall breaking after so many years of disappointment. exciting and emotional. otherwise I go back to the 87 finals excluding the prelim.

Seems totally unnecessary. Coaches have the opportunity to talk tactics before the game, at quarter time, half-time and three quarter time. And there are still going to be runners on the ground after each goal.Also there are so called ""leaders"" out on the ground who can issue instructions like they do now. And there will still be rotations, which can be another way to get out an instruction to a player or group of players. Players have enough to think about and do on the ground without having to glance at an LED Board on the side of the ground. They will be glancing across all game as the flow of coaches tactics constantly change. Coaches themselves will be influenced to use the board more often than necessary. Let the players play and gee they may even have to use their own initiative. That would be novel. As mentioned before, players have enough to think about. Sorry Lucifer, it seems just another gimmick and that its purpose is unnecessary, possibly confusing, and will provide more distractions for players and spectators. The game is becoming a joke.