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Ed Langdon should be included. Best player by far in his position this year

It sounds like they're going to pin everything on the assistants and list manage, have a little clean out and hope that fixes everything. fingers crossed it doesn't help at all and they're a mess for the next 80 years.

Not sure if this deserved a thread on it's own, but it'll be Covid based in a lot of ways, but our last 2 games have been the highest rating TV games for the season! While we might miss out on some gate receipts, having a lot of eyes on us will be great for our sponsors and future sponsors, and what's better we won both playing attractive footy! https://www.afl.com.au/news/628192/huge-ratings-for-2021-toyota-afl-sir-doug-nicholls-round

I'll definitely be turning my television upside down every second quarter.

We got tickets too! My special lady friend and I making the trek up the highway from CBR for the game...my first Big Freeze. Kids (and dogs) will be left at home....fully expect a disaster zone on return.

Got my tickets! Rpfc is off to the SCG with little bub in tow… let’s call him rpjfc… Wife coming too. Go Dees!

Due to circumstances out of my control I was unable to get to Melbourne earlier in the season and also missed last Friday night against the Lions but I’ve secured two tickets to Queens Birthday. Can’t bloody wait.

Death, taxes and opposition fans unequivocally respecting and fearing Max Gawn. Other than Dusty, there's a not a player in the comp given such unanimous regard.

A thoughtful post, well researched as usual Titan. But are you comparing apples? Almost all those KPFs with the possible exception of Riewoldt (Lynch?) are the main targets in their teams. Currently that's TMac at MFC and Weid is playing the supporting role. That was the plan going into the season except that it was meant to be B.Brown playing the key role with Weid supporting, and TMac working out his contract at Casey. So the I think the question is whether Weid is adequately performing his complementary role to TMac and whether B.Brown would do this better because neither are unseating TMac any time soon who is absolutely on fire. B.Brown and TMac worked effectively together against the Swans but it seems the FD prefers Weid's attributes to B.Brown's in this role overall, possibly because they value his greater ground ball capability and forward pressure. I completely agree that Weid needs to start sticking his marks - but his attack on the contest is definitely there, and I agree that he definitely needs to kick those goals - but I know he's a great kick. The forward line is functioning very well and we're rating high in forward 50 conversions. I'm patient to see it play out - but I agree Weid needs to be on an improving curve to hold his spot.

I did a bit of basic measuring on a map and if the Rebels move out to Melton and only one rectangular field is required they could switch that to where the Gosch's oval is now and at a certain angle could put in an MCG sized oval where the rectangular fields are now. This fits in with someone I know saying they saw a group of MFC people with some MOPA and possibly Govt people walking somewhere around those rectangular fields with something that looked like plans. This is directly adjacent to where I think the most likely place is for a facilities building over the existing car park at AAMI Park facing Goschs. So those facilities would look directly over the MCG sized oval. Too good to refuse. To be fair that sighting might mean nothing. But then again it might mean something.

Good little interview with Richo. Discusses his role and how that's been affected due to the soft cap. Also touches on how the coaches box works on game day. He highly rates Langdon and possibly even flagged our intentions with the whole Weids vs Brown scenario

John Worsfold is mentoring Teague. "Here, David. Take a valium.....no, take a couple"

I was simply using the least biased predictor of what our chances of winning a premiership this year were. Specifically I mostly wanted to demonstrate the point that, despite being top of the ladder, the significant likelihood is that we won't win the flag this year. This point was being made against the 'go all out for a flag' argument. Going 'all out' for a flag is fine for a team that is on its last legs and only has one realistic shot left (like Adelaide in 2017 or Sydney in 2016) but is not the best way to win a flag for teams coming into their premiership window, like us. The best way to win a flag is to be consistently very good over a number of years because there are so many variables that are largely out of a team's control. I think that this is what we should be trying to maximise our ability to win a flag across multiple years rather than looking at 2021 in isolation.

To deter people from being deterred, I've had the AZ shot and had no side effects except a possible mild headache for about 1 hour the following day. (I say "possible", because the headache might have been unrelated to the vaccination.) Go get vaccinated as soon as you can, people.

My first thought on seeing this, was "I hope his preferred side is Melbourne, who is making a play for him?". FMD please don't do that to me!!

Welcome back you mean

You are dead right. I've been running with the wrong assumption that McDonald was in the last year of his contract, rather than his second last. ?

If they do change coach, Hands off the Dees Assistants

What's better than a high scoring Blues side that can't win a game? A low scoring one that still can't win a game! ?

I looked into this a couple of weeks back. Most years 15-7 gets you top 4 (West Coast in 2019 and the Dogs in 2016 were exceptions). So that's a 4-6 record from here to finish top 4. As to top 2, in the last three completed seasons a 16-6 record gets you 2nd if you have a good percentage. Here is the top 3 in the last 10 full length seasons: 2019 - Geelong 16-6, Brisbane 16-6, Richmond 16-6 2018 - Richmond 18-4, West Coast 16-6, Collingwood 15-7 2017 - Adelaide 15-6-1, Geelong 15-6-1, Richmond 15-7 2016 - Sydney 17-5, Geelong 17-5, Hawthorn 17-5 2015 - Fremantle 17-5, West Coast 16-5-1, Hawthorn 16-6 2014 - Sydney 17-5, Hawthorn 17-5, Geelong 17-5 2013 - Hawthorn 19-3, Geelong 18-4, Fremantle 16-5-1 2012 - Hawthorn 17-5, Adelaide 17-5, Sydney 16-6 2011 - Collingwood 20-2, Geelong 19-3, Hawthorn 18-4 2010 - Collingwood 17-4-1, Geelong 17-5, St Kilda 15-6-1 You can see that in 8 of the 10 seasons, 17-5 gets you into 2nd. Hawthorn in 2016, Geelong in 2014 and Hawthorn in 2011 are the only times a side has had that record or better and missed. And 2013 and 2011 are the only two years in which 2nd had a better record than 16-6. Based on that, if we go 5-5 from here and don't shed too much percentage, we're a small chance to finish top 2, but if we go 6-4 from here we're a near-certainty.

Further to this All-Australian teams always ignore actual wingman. Langdon is a genuine old fashioned wingman and is so important to our team and is one of the reasons we're in the position we're in at the moment.

Got Mrs IT coming again with me and the boy. And bringing a couple of friends. Went out and bought everyone fresh MND beanies from my local Bunnings up here. Very surprised I could do that up here. Impressive. No one up here would have a clue what they are. This has been the worst 10 days financially in the Clubs history. $1.8mill lost just like that. Seem so absurd not to have allowed QB to go ahead. Thrilled to get to see it up here but appreciate the terrible cost to the Club. Have tickets booked to come down and see the Dons game. Hope it's on. That would unexpectedly make 3 in a row. One of the bigger seasons I've had adding on to the Saints game earlier in the year. How things have changed. I went to that 2nd rounder with a couple of mates and all of us expecting it to be a loss because they were top 4 bound and we would be scrapping to make 8th. Perspective is just a bit different now especially after Friday.

I really hope Clarkson stays on at Hawthorn - 2 years of suffering is not enough. They haven't fully bottomed out yet and have at least 3 more years in the bottom half and are 5-8 years from contending even if things go right. I want him to be part of the misery.

Nope Sam Mitchell is next. Hawthorn’s problem is that Mitchell is out of contract and wants to coach next year, but Clarkson is contracted until end of next year. They’d never say it, but Hawthorn would absolutely love Clarkson to leave to avoid having to choose between sacking a 4x premiership coach and potentially losing their next one.

Following Teague and Bolton, I can't imagine them going with a rookie coach. Their problems are cultural and they'll need someone strong enough (and willing to) stand up to the warring voices and factions within the club. I'd say Yze is safe, from them anyway.

That's a fair argument. I've had a look at some of the arguable second-banana forwards: Hipwood/Daniher (don't know which one is "first" or "second"), Jeremy Cameron, Tom Lynch and Jack Darling. Here are some of their stats for comparison: Score involvements (Weid 4.0): Hipwood 5.4, Daniher 6.2, Cameron 7.5, Lynch 6.5, Darling 6.5 Shots on goal (Weid 2.5): Hipwood 3.6, Daniher 3.5, Cameron 5.0, Lynch 4.3, Darling 4.0 Goal assists (Weid 0.5): Hipwood 0.4, Daniher 0.5, Cameron 0.5, Lynch 1.0, Darling 0.8. Marks (Weid 4.0): Hipwood 5.5, Daniher 5.2, Cameron 4.0, Lynch 5.2, Darling 6.1 Contested marks (Weid 1.3): Hipwood 1.3, Daniher 1.4, Cameron 0.5, Lynch 2.0, Darling 2.2 Pressure Acts (Weid 7.3): Hipwood 7.8, Daniher 7.6, Cameron 6.8, Lynch 11.4, Darling 12.8 So clearly Weid is closer to the mark with this bunch of forwards than the ones I compared him to yesterday (Mackay, Walker, Kennedy, Hawkins, Riewoldt, Franklin, Ben King, TMac), which makes sense and indicates your argument is a good one. But his numbers are either last or second last when compared to these five forwards on all these metrics which IMO suggests we can get more out of the second KPF than we're currently getting out of Weid. It's not a massive gap, so it's bridgeable, but I want to see him bridge it sooner rather than later.

MELBOURNE In – Olivia Purcell (Geelong), Tayla Harris (Carlton), picks 44 (Carlton) and 49 (Adelaide) Out – Chantel Emonson (Geelong), picks 15 (Geelong), 32 (Carlton), 42 (GWS) and 47 (Adelaide) That's an amazing deal on the face of it - two mid range draft picks & a fringe player for two potential stars. Well done MFC. Now we're just a key defender away from a premiership team.

The AA Team is all wrong. This is what the team should be ?.

I hope you are not begrudging us Sydneysiders having the opportunity of watching our team play live - instead of watching it from our lounge rooms, as we almost exclusively do? If you Melbournites behave yourselves (covid wise) we may let the team back to play at the G one day.

Loved this: the Dreamons its funny, becuase its true. At least in terms of dreaming of a flag. In the other sense - ie dream on buddy - it did make reflect for some reason that we have had such a great season thus far, and we are so evidently the real deal, that the dream could be a reality this year. And that lions win was actually really important in terms of the dream becoming a reality because it gave us an incredible three game break from the teams all on 32 points, in particular the cats third on the ladder and Lions fourth. If we lose that game, Lions are on 36 points and we are on 40 points and top 2 becomes a little les likely. And the risk of playing the Lions at the Gabba (or perhaps Port at Adelaide Oval) more likely. The Port game in round 17 will have a similar importance. And possibly the Cats in the last round. Top two finish means our first final at the G and the chance of not having to leave the state, even if we lose the qualifying final. A big advantage 2018 had a dream on buddy vibe - we got a on a roll at the back end and tried to surf the emotion to a flag. Different vibe this year. A professional, serious vibe about us. And we will be able to use that vibe and the experience of 2018 and the pain of the preliminary to fuel our finals campaign this year

Jeepers they spend a lot of time at Junction Oval talking about free speech !

Opinions are like farts, everyone else's stinks, they are hard to hold in and when you let one go, at least one person will leave the room.

Great to see him bounce back once again. He always plays with an intensity that I think is helpful to our younger ones - both in example and to help them get out of jams.

How many times in the past have we played a top team, put everything into it, only to be pipped by 2 or 3 goals. Then we'd say: "well, that wasn't a bad effort. After all, they're a top team!" The reverse is going to happen to us now, and already has. Teams will throw everything at us. We're not going to steamroll everyone. Back in the past, sometimes everything would go right and we'd squeak in a win against one of these top teams, and we'd be on top of the world. Same thing in reverse will happen to us, and already has. That's football. Collingwood might win. It's tailor-made for them. But it won't be a trend, for them or us. We're going to keep on winning more than we lose. Enjoy the ride.

Ok, I'll just reiterate this is all unconfirmed so take it with a big grain of salt: Salem and Lever out. One other player out too but not sure who. Apparently one of the brand new blokes a chance to debut as well, I'm assuming Turner as he's a similar role to Lever from what I understand. Again, very very much unconfirmed at this point.

Are there any foregone conclusions you are trying to support?

He’s definitely returned to the Hibberd of old lately, cool as a cucumber when he has the ball.

I have no concerns about what the club has agreed to financially with Tayla. She will, no doubt, easily make that back to the club in sponsorship dollars. Like others though I am a bit concerned about what she offers on the field. She was an ‘elite’ player when the competition started but the new generation of forwards coming through are faster, better below their knees and have a higher footy IQ. Having said that I regard us as a big club in the women’s game who consistently makes good decisions. I trust that they know what they are doing. Go Tayla. Go Dees!

Loyal and reliable five year player with Dees with fine record. Enjoy your retirement Meg.

It's reminding me very much of the way the elite football/soccer teams operate in Europe. To analyse it perhaps crudely, they have the head coach and then the manager. The manager is responsible for the way the team wants to play, personnel and tactics. The head coach is responsible for the fundamentals and getting the players to play to the system laid out by the manager. I just wonder whether we've modelled our coaching set up on this sort of approach. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall during the FD review last year and the plans they put in place that have (so far) reaped such incredible reward for the playing group and clearly the coaching team.

Was not in my best 22 before the season. Oops.

Port were a tough skilful side and as good and as dominant as they were during the home and away seasons they only managed the one flag. Saints were dominant for a period of time, when Goddard took that screamer in the goal square I thought they’d broken their drought. A week later when the GF was replayed they went missing. As for “Going all out for a flag this year even if reducing the chances of a flag overall “, We gave up picks 26, 33 and a future 4th rounder for Brown so we hardly sold the farm. You could argue we may lose Weideman for lack of opportunities, if he chooses to leave so be it, Hawthorn went on to win two more flags after Buddy walked to Sydney. We effectively beat the Bulldogs and Lions with minimal input from him. Your assuming that Weideman is going to become a consistently good player, he may well do that and we all hope that he does but right now it’s not happening for him for whatever reason. I mentioned in an earlier post that Geelong’s and Richmond’s window is coming to an end and that ours is opening, I believe with the talent we’ve got we can be competitive for years. I always hear two things mentioned throughout the seasons, firstly “defence wins premierships” and secondly “he’s the type of forward you build a team around”. We have the best defensive set up in the competition, after our last two wins you could argue we have if not the best, the 2nd or 3rd best midfield. Now I’m not suggesting that Brown is a Franklin or Riewoldt, but he has managed to kick a truckload of goals three years in a row for side that continually struggled and barring injury has a couple of years left in him. Weid been given an opportunity this year and has been underwhelming, he’s still getting by on potential whilst I thought Brown showed some good form against North then Sydney. I would love to see Brown now get a run of games to see what he can produce when allowed to settle with the team. As always the coaches know more than us so time will tell.

I really appreciate a reasonable well argued argument that doesn’t resort to insults, well played.

The argument for the prosecution rests. The defence, though, would argue: He didn't kick the goals. This isn't a development year, so why are we interested in missed opportunities as opposed to actual production? He didn't take the marks. Ditto. The two goals kicked by those to whom he directly handballed are indeed great, but this season that's above his overall average goal assists figure of 0.5, which is half of many good forwards (Walker 1.1, Kennedy 1.0, Hawkins 1.0, TMac 1.0) and still below others (Riewoldt 0.8, Franklin 0.6) (albeit it is above Naughton and Mackay on 0.3 each) The missed goals could, if kicked, make his stat line look better, but the AFL tracks shots on goal to account for this and his season average shots on goal is 2.5, which is nowhere compared to the best forwards (Mackay 5.5, Walker 5.9, Naughton 5.3, Kennedy 4.1, Hawkins 4.8, Riewoldt 4.7, Franklin 4.5, Ben King 4.5) Another statistical measure of involvement as a forward is score involvements - it's not perfect because it requires a disposal, knock-on, hit out to advantage or kick-in (i.e. not a marking contest), but on that metric Weideman averages 4 score involvements per game, which is again below his rivals (Walker 9.3, Hawkins 8.2, Naughton 7.7, TMac 6.6, Riewoldt 6.2, Kennedy 6.2, Mackay 6.3, Ben King 5.5, Franklin 6.0). FWIW I am comfortable if Weideman keeps playing, but I'd be equally comfortable making the switch to Brown.

He's an interesting player. Good size and speed, attacks it well, decision making and disposal look haphazard at times but often works out pretty well. He'll stop and move in uncertain ways and all of a sudden be in a pocket of space. At this stage he probably reminds me more of a smaller Petracca than a bigger Viney. There's a little bit of Harmes, and a little of Viney all mixed in. I'm keen to see him get a run of games.

Only a Melbourne supporter could identify a "danger period" in the fixture after we're 11-1 lol

This guy doesn't get enough credit. To come back at 31 years old after everything he's gone through, and play the best footy with us since his AA year is an absolute credit to himself. I could easily see him going around again in 2022!

We are an interesting supporter base. The moment I realised I loved the club was when Jimmy ran over the mark in the prelim in 1987 - it was horrible, but solidified my passion. I was 9 and sitting about 10 rows back from where it happened at Waverley. The history of the club for 23 year before 1987, and the 30 odd years since then, has been steeped in heartbreak. That year Robbie didn’t get to play in his grand final, Jimmy went on to become a legend of the club, and we lost them both far too early. Troy Broadbridge, Sean Wight, even the tragedy of Liam Jurrah. All of that doesn’t even take into consideration on the field we’ve massively underperformed, and bitterly wasted generations of players and potential. Our supporter culture has been built on disappointment. It’s important for us to change the narrative about our footy team too. We aren’t perennial losers. We are The Melbourne Football Club, with the longest and proudest history of any sporting club in the AFL. This team is the best I’ve seen - because we aren’t riding a wave, we are grinding a winning culture. I’m excited for us all. As Goodwin said ‘expectation is good. We need to learn to win when the pressure is on us’. Let’s not go to water as supporters. Keep the faith, yell louder, open the gates of hell - like only Demons fans can.