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Info I have and don't ask for sorce as its third hand. is BBB has been having a six week preseason as the club wasn't totally happy with core strength and repeat running efforts when he came into team. He will be ready to have another crack after the bye

He's 11 games into his 4 year contract.. How about we hold off on the "flop" comments for now hey? Ample of time to make huge contribution still. Reckon we'll see him in the 2nd half of the year back to some good form.

Ok so hate to burst bubbles but we are, by all reports, close to the cap. We have just over $13m maybe an extra $100k or so next year. We have the following established stars that would all be on $750k+ from next year or the year after with CP5; May, Lever, Gawn, Oliver. Let’s say ~$800k x 4 = $3.2m Next level down would have to be $600k - $750k; Salem, Petracca, Viney, Brayshaw, Langdon, McDonald. ~$700k x 6 = $4.2m Under that - the above average contract of around $400k-$600k would have; Harmes, Hibberd, Melksham, Tomlinson, ANB, Fritsch. ~$500k x 6 = $3m Jones, Jackson, Spargo, Bedford, Laurie, Bowie, Rosman, Hore, VDB, Jordon, Rivers, Weideman, Nietschke, Daw, Hunt, Sparrow, Baker, D Smith, Pickett, Petty, Chandler, M Brown, Jetta, Declase, Lockhart, Turner, J Smith, Bradtke would be cheaper than average salary right now. Rookies are ~$100k x 20 = $2m and the other 8 on ~$250k = $2m That adds up to ~$14.4m. The OOC players are only in the lower category save for Hibberd, and we have players to retain. I don’t think we are in that hunt anymore, we have our stars and until we lose a slot - we have to maintain what we have and keep our promising (and cheaper) kids around.

t.co/Y8tGle8Kdv How good is this?

Hi all, hope you are all keeping safe and well especially with lockdown restrictions in Melbourne recently. I’ve been paying attention to Melbourne’s trade activity these past few days and delighted to see so many players have signed on for another season or two and looking forward to seeing the new recruits in action too. That includes Sinead & Lauren coming back for season three and two respectively. No surprises with either of them, I had little doubt they’d be returning. This is slightly off the topic of AFLW and some of you may be interested, others less so. Lauren & Niamh have returned to playing with the Dublin Senior Ladies Team in the past three weeks. They’ve played three games so far with three wins. Their next game is a semi final to be played on Saturday June 12th. I’ve attached links for their previous three games if anyone is interested in watching them back. The second and third games are shown here on the TG4 channel which has Irish commentary only so you’ll have to make it up yourself. This competition is the league so it’s not the main championship, that comes in a few weeks. However the density of this season makes every game very important. I would highly recommend watching the second game vs Cork, it was a cracking match. Lauren & Niamh have featured in each game so far, Goldie still recovering from her hamstring injury. Round 1 vs Waterford: How to get Round 2 vs Cork and Round 3 vs Tipperary. - Google TG4 Player. tg4.ie is the right one. - Click main menu in top right hand corner and make sure setting is on English. - Click the watch arrow in the main menu, then press sport. - Scroll down to find the tab “Peil na mBan Beo”. It means Live Ladies Football. The photo at the moment is of Niamh McEvoy kicking a ball so that’s a giveaway. - Round 3 is down as Tiobraid Arann v Ath Cliath. (Tipperary v Dublin) S 21 Ep 4. - Round 2 is down as Corcaigh v Ath Cliath. S 21 Ep 3

Love Mitch Brown Always does his job unspectacularly

Would make a lot of sense. Get him cherry ripe for the business end of the season like barassi did with snake baker at the roos It would also have the added benefit of being able to say to weed, you will be played for the next block of games, relax and go for it.

Yep, I’m 43. Have been told for 2 weeks I can get vaccinated. Made an appointment 9 days ago for this morning. Fronted up today at Prahran Town Hall to be told (like 90% of people there because of the age demographics) that they don’t have any Pfizer, and they don’t know when they’ll get it, and we’ll all have to go home - and hope that when we make our next appointment they might have it then, but they probably won’t. Yet somehow all the politicians seem obsessed with the idea that we need to incentivise people to get vaccinated. How about we just get it right the first time? I can guarantee you that 90% of the thousands turned away today won’t make another appointment now - we all took time off work to do our bit. Meanwhile friends and family in the US and UK have been fully vaccinated for months. The vaccine program has been stuffed up royally - and it’s only the most important public health program of the last 100 years.

Port supporter here Googling Burgess because I desperately want him back. Can confirm it’s the man that works the magic, he left us his tricks and appointed a team to replace him; in 2014/15 we were in your position fitness wise and we now struggle to run out quarters. He supposedly was in close contact with the team he left and giving pointers, but we felt his loss rapidly when he went to Liverpool. Kane Cornes (yeah yeah [censored] alert) wrote in his autobiography about a random club dinner he went to where a can of Coke was put in front of every player; Burgess had put them there to test the group, and the next day punished the players who drank the cans without thinking. The guy creates a culture and players respect him.

The footy one. The one that says players have tbe right to bare arms. Hence, the unique sleeveless footy jumpers Australian rules footballers can wear

One good full preseason under Burgo and BBB will bounce back like TMac has. We have a bad habit of writing our players off far too soon.

The first lockdown in Melbourne was related to a pretty big stuff up in the hotels, but you are right the quarantine hotel programs around the country have been amazing in terms of the statistically very small numbers of cases that have escaped. Particularly given how ill suited the buildings are for the job. That said it is concerning there are no national standards yet and it seems insane how long it took governments to take aerosol transmission seriously. I should have been clearer. I meant the overall quarantine program strategy, which is the responsibility of the federal government, has been a joke, not the individual programs. Again it is related to choosing to go down the suppression/elimination road. Once the feds, with the full support of every state government (and the majority of Australians i suspect) decided elimination was the strategy then using hotel quarantine as the key plank of the quarantine strategy was clearly a bad decsion. The problem is, is hat as you say it is impossible for the hotels to be 100% full proof. The are not fit for purpose. Which would be fine if we had not decided on an suppression/elimination strategy. If we had decided on say a containment strategy (like the UK, the states and pretty much all of Europe) that focused on stopping the numbers overwhelming health systems, there would always be community transmission and cases circulating in the population. So the occasional leak from a hotel would be of little consequence. But in a zero covid environment where there are no cases and no community transmission even one case that escapes a hotel can have disastrous consequences. Pretty much every lockdown that ash occurred in Australia has been related to breaches from hotels. Think of the economic impact of even a 3 day lockdown, let alone a 2 week or six months one. Lockdowns have cost the Australian economy hundreds of billions of dollars. It was evident from the very beginning Howard Springs type facilities they have belatedly agreed to start building were what was required given the decision to go down the suppression/elimination road. Perhaps not as the only option, but certainly the major one. And the feds should have taken control of that process. Leaving aside the fact quarantine is their responsibility, they have access to crown land, army engineers and enough resources. If they had got on their bike in April last year, and ensured purpose built facilities were built in every state they would have been completed by end of 2021. And whilst there would likely to have still been some leakage, each lockdown prevented would pay for their construction 10 times over. We would also be in a much better position to bring Australians home and increase international travel. I have no doubt the decision to not did not take responsibility and leadership an implement an effective federal quarantine strategy was in large part driven by wanting to shift and risk and blame to the states.

Dean Kent? The guy that can't get a game for the basket case St Kilda? Sheesh that's bizarre

You were expecting TMac to have an AA year then I assume? Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Not wanting to single you out jaded, but is a widely held view that, in my opinion does not hold up to scrutiny. The Northern beaches stated with a single transmission and very soon the much vaunted NSW contract tracing team were not able to keep up and lockdown was called for only days after the first case. By the end of the outbreak 151 cases were linked to the cluster and the lockdown had lasted 3 weeks. This despite it being relatively small population, a population that does not move around greater Sydney much, minimal exposure sites and a contained location with natural boundaries. And that lockdown happened over the XMAS period so businesses were smashed and families separated. As anyone who knows that part of Sydney, the NSW government was extremely lucky the outbreak was in the Northern beaches, not say the west of Sydney (which is geographically very similar to Melbourne). Our equivalent might have been an out break on the Morning Peninsula, which could be isolated in a matter of hours if needed. Our current outbreak (which largely came from leak from a SA hotel) is almost exactly the same in number, yet we are out of lockdown in two weeks. And we have huge population, hundreds of exposure sites, a highly transient population in terms of movement around the city and basically no natural boundaries. Really, by any measure Victoria's contract tracing and related responses (eg exposure sites) has been extraordinary in this current outbreak. It is worth noting that we had the Black Rock cluster that was related the Northern beaches outbreak and we only had a brief lockdown. WA had a lockdown as did SA, after very low numbers. The one in WA cost the dockers and eagles millions. People made fun of the restrictions SA put on the pies and cats going into their state, were amazed at the hard lock down WA applied, shocked in the hard line Qld have taken this time to travel from Victoria etc et. That is all examples of very risk averse state governments The NZ government has had a couple of snap lockdowns after very low numbers And the bleating from the Liberal party in Victoria is completely hollow, becuase they would have made exactly the same decision to lockdown if in government. The problem is that as a country we have decided to implement an elimination strategy. Not a suppression strategy, an elimination strategy. I'm amazed Andrews and co have not pointed this out previously, but finally Sutton did so on Tuesday As Sutton said, we can't 'grumble along with one or two cases a day' and live the life we have been living (full pubs, everyone back in the office, 50k at the footy, packed trains. Because the numbers would eventually explode. As they have in Taiwan, a country that is also taking an elimination strategy. In that scenario eventually restrictions have to come into place that as Bing points out has been a feature of much of the world whilst we go about our covid free lives. There is not one example in the world of a country that has been able to effectively implement a suppression strategy. We have called our strategy suppression but that is bollocks. Arguably there is no such thing as it eventually gets away from health authorities. The only two real strategies are elimination or stem the tide/minimise the impact. Even if they are not pure lockdown like we had last year (which in an case lots of countries have had of course), if there are enough restrictions it doesn't look much different. We can't have our cake and eat it too. Enjoy the benefits of no covid in our community and put up with the risk of lockdowns. Or accept living with covid and risk not living covid free (eg masks everywhere, all the time, no live sport etc etc). We have collectively chosen the former. And so have to accept lockdown are likely to occur. Of course the big problem is that it is dead obvious that a key plank of the elimination strategy should have been a war time like focus on national vaccination program with a super ambitious goal to say to vaccinate 80% of the population by Easter, or 1 July 2021 or some such. Call a national holiday to celebrate, once achieved. Which of course would have been hard, but not having covid in the community and all the testing infrastructure in place gave us a huge opportunity other countries haven't. Yesterday Seattle became the first major city in America to fully vaccinate 70% of residents 12 and up against COVID-19. Fully vaccinate - so two shots for everyone over the age of 12. Seattle is not much smaller than Melbourne for Pete's sake! I'll save my anger for the federal government.

Yay, more political talk in Demonland. ? I'm mostly annoyed about how none of the governments are working together. It's all us vs them, nation wide. Vic government have alot to answer for, I have family in NSW, I grew up in NSW and the difference I get just because I cross the Murray River is night and day. 4 times we have gone into lockdown, sick of Vic gov [censored] the bed every time there is a case. We could lock up suburbs only except it takes the government 2 weeks to realise they are in the wrong freaking suburb. Sydney locks up suburbs, they have faith in their tracking system. Vic gov locks up entire states. Mildura is 500km away but goes into lockdown!!! Rant over.

This aligns with what i thought. He had agility and speed off the mark issues. A six week mini program sounds a great way to sort this

Pure comedy gold. Please tell me this is satire.

People I have spoken to reckon he will develop really well based on his desire and attitude. He’s not blessed with size, blistering pace or freakish ability but he won’t be the first or last player who develops through sheer hard work

No doubt our cap is tight, that's why TMac and ANB were on the table last year. IMO no-one big comes in without someone big going out ...

I love cucumber sandwiches. Just today I had one with sweet baby Lebanese on homemade sourdough adorned with sumptuous organic butter, but augmented it with some aged Italian parmesan shavings and garden-fresh coriander and rocket, dusted with ground Kampot pepper and pink Himalayan salt crystals. It was so delicious that I quickly prepared and snuck in another one when my current life partner ventured out for a brief errand. She almost caught me with evidential crumbs on my shirt, but I fibbed and said it was dandruff! Queen Elizabeth II enjoys her cucumber sandwiches with Norwegian smoked salmon, so I didn't feel too guilty from a purist's perspective for my wild embellishments. And from a Collingwood perspective, I suppose at least it was white bread. I dunno, I feel like it beats meat pies with a regulated 18 percent 'meat' content and four fifths gristle and floor sweepings. But maybe that's just me.

Yes … the numbers are as stated, but how many have been wrong, or even “controversial”?

Frosty. Gotta love his enthusiasm and athleticism, but not his higher cerebral functions. ?

Oh he’s on Frost.

Latest training photos on the MFC website show Jack running around and kicking the footy. Must be getting pretty close if that's the case. My bet is that the club are both playing it ultra safe with Jack making sure he doesn't risk re-injury, but probably also getting him back to as close as possible to full match fittness, so that when he does get put into the senior side, he's cherry ripe, ready to smash some heads and make pleanty of opposition on-ballers cry. Dangerfield, Selwood, Bont, Zorko, his old mate Wines all need to feel the full force of Jack 'The Human Cannonball' Viney come the back half and pointy end of the season.

If you want a coach you've got it If you need a coach you've got. It I won't hide it, I won't hide your coach away

Agree with that, albeit has only played 6 games for us. If you had to choose out of Weid or Mitch Brown at selection night to provide a meaningful impact, you'd be choosing Brown.

This really is the crux of it for me: the lack of leadership and blame shifting. The federal government has avoided taking decisions and actions to get ahead of this pandemic, including investing in quarantine, advance purchasing of vaccines, proactive vaccination communication campaigns, investing in mRNA manufacturing capacity, etc. because it found itself in a political sweet spot where it could blame any outbreaks (downside risks) on states and avoid the optics of failing to achieve actions that would keep us ahead of this thing (the way vaccine targets are now being fudged is the exception that proves the point). Yes, there’s uncertainty with all those actions, but as Binman has clearly outlined the costs of lockdowns greatly outweigh the costs of action. But clearly the federal government weighed up the political cost and benefits differently, and decided it was politically expedient to do little. It’s not how I’d want my football club run and I bet the Dees are where they are today because previous and current leaders took risks, set targets and were prepared to be held accountable for moving this club forward.

School recess.

In fairness you know nothing and just assuming

The big giveaway was the hint about a 45 year career. That means this performer must have started in 1976. The only other musician I can think of who started in 1976 was "William Shakespeare", a teeny bopper type who (from memory) sang Vanda/Young songs. But his career didn't go for 45 years. I think (going on memory again) it was 45 minutes.

Older players at clubs outside the premiership window should be targets. Players like Sidebottom, Breust and Seedsman would give us some outside class and complement our strengths.

When you say the NSW government were "lucky" because of the geographical location of the outbreak, you are putting blinkers on. The NSW government take in the majority of overseas travellers in their quarantine for the rest of the country. Victoria take in a minor share and still keep going into lockdown. There is no luck about it. Dan Andrews is the first premier / prime minister to go missing since Harold Halt. 3 photos so far. You can't possibly tell me the 2nd photo wasn't photo shopped? Look at the neck. The ambulance statement didn't even match the dates with Dan's tweets. They also said at the bottom of their unsigned statement that they would not provide further statement. That was in bold. Until they realised they got the date wrong and made a further statement.

People realise our first pick in the next draft is 30-something right?

They should put a restriction on active wear at school drop offs. Would be more effective than face masks.

I don't pretend to know what players are paid but there are a number of things to take into account. First is the marketing allowance clubs are allowed. Second is your estimate of costs for the lowest bracket are probably overestimated. The vast majority of those players would be on a very low base plus incentives for games played. Not many of those given our good run with injury. Third is the fact that for years we paid the minimum TPP required by front ending contracts. That builds up a "bank" that can be carried forward. This may have run out, who know, but perhaps it hasn't. And finally this team seems to be singlemindedly focused on team success. If you went to the top six or eight players and asked them to sacrifice some dollars to get a very good player in who they believed would significantly increase our chances of a flag they'd probably do it. And as has been stated already players like Tommy Mac and others would extend contracts allowing lower amounts next year also freeing up cap space. What I'm really getting at is there are lots of things that can be done to free up cap space. I'm absolutely confident we would have done our planning and know what we can do to retain our players and identify cap space and I think there would be more than you imagine. But having said all that there isn't much we need, the deal would have to be pretty compelling. Our weakness is small and medium backs. Hibberd is getting old, Jetta also, Bowey unproven, Lockhart unlikely and I'm not sold on Hunt. That leaves Salem and Rivers.

I think that he was both a good and poor coach. He had just come out of playing and had very limited experience coaching when he took the head coaching job at Collingwood. As we've seen with others, this usually plays out badly and Buckley has been one of the very best at it. He started off as a poor coach and that probably resulted in them wasting a period where they could have won another flag or two. But he regenerated the list and created a team that was a legitimate flag threat for a few years, which also could have netted him a flag. I think he's now a good coach. Coaches get better as they get older, generally. I think the next team that he coaches will get a much better coach than the one that got him in 2011. He probably needs to do a couple of other roles in football first to round out his experience, but I can see him coming back again as a very good coach.

I believe the selectors have decided Weid and BB can't play in the same side so M. Brown becomes emegency in case TMac can't play. Case of better mobility.

Why do I get the feeling that the first 4 named on the bench are the ones playing and Sparrow will once again be sub. What more does he need to do and what is Melksham doing that keeps him in

Yep, Cowton's nickname was "Crazy Horse", which is also the name of Neil's longtime backing band. Thanks to all who contributed and I hope it was a bit of fun.

My understanding from chatting with a part time scout for another club is that he’s rated enough to be picked up later in the draft by us as we love his attitude, professionalism, competitiveness and hardness. His overall play/skill set is a bit vanilla and seen by other clubs as a limiting step in his potential. Seen as a HBF type. Sounds similar to his old man…. And blokes like Hibberd who had to ply his trade in the VFL as he was seen as not having the required skills and athletic profile to succeed.

At the moment just enjoy the fact that we seem to have a healthy list, which could change at a moments notice. Most teams win premierships when the best 22 or near best 22 play week in week out.

It's lockdown and you can tell that I'm quite bored and have way too much time on my hands. Below is a team, listed in position from the backline. Some of the names will be familiar, others less so but all played VFL/AFL. Your task is to find the common link. B: John James Chad Morrison Majak Daw H/B: Alex Keath Ted Richards Neville Stone C: Jason Gram Michael Parsons Craig Bird H/F: Farren Ray Rick Davies Rene Kink F: Lachie Neale George Young Gary Cowton R: Chris Bryan Chris Connolly Eric Sweet Have at it Demon fans!

Since we beat them Geelong's only lost once and that was to Sydney when they copped a shocking umpiring call late and could/should have won. They still have 5 games at GMHBA. That gets them to 14 wins before their remaining games (although one of the GMHBA games is next week vs the Dogs). Their away games include North, Fremantle and Carlton, so that's 17 wins. They're a big threat to us, and for the flag.

Isaac Smith is just so smug.

No disrespect to M.Brown, but I can’t understand why B.Brown can’t get into this team. Has to be match fitness or his knee. If we traded for B.Brown knowing full well he couldn’t fit into our forward line or into how we play then we were really stupid. You won’t find another team this year with a 60 goal a year forward who can’t get a game. Weideman does not deserve another game. I’d much rather have M.Brown in than Sam. He’s at least capable of taking a contested mark.

I’d say they’re setting him up for the second half of the year. Richo mentioned on the radio this week that he’s building and increasing his intensity at training so I would suggest the club has just put a timeline in to work on a block of training before they consider him for selection. I’m not too concerned about him at the moment.

It doesn't seem very long ago that footy commentators were wondering if tracc could be our de goey. Gone straight past him