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First time, long time. Whilst I believe that Weideman should and will be dropped for one of the Browns, I do think he's worth keeping on our list for at least the next year. Unless he wants out, lets keep him. He'll want 2 years minimum, and that's ok as long as it's on our terms and his manager is reasonable with where he's at atm, which isn't a position of strength. But if he goes, I trust the club to make the right deal. Thankfully, level heads will make the call, we've done well with trades and recruiting of late. I do believe he has the physical attributes and skill to improve his AFL output significantly. Could it largely be between the ears/confidence that are holding him back? Choco and Ooze have only been at the club for about 6 months, those two might just be pivotal in any possible resurgence of Weideman this season. Lets hope so. Go dees!

No disrespect BDA, but none of us on here know anything about Sam for sure, except what is obvious - that he is completely out of form and lacking a shred of confidence. As such, I have every confidence that the Club will do whatever it needs to do to help him find his mojo again. And I also have no doubts that he will do just that - but that part is just my opinion. Talk of trading him, or that he needs to leave the MFC to come good, or that he may need to quit football for his mental health, is, at this stage, just so over the top IMO, and really just reeks of the over expectations our supporters have for anyone that comes to this Club with a KPF label. Look at what happened with Watts, look at Hogan, and look at Sam - and heaven forbid if BBB should play a few bad games. They have far more external pressure placed upon them than any other type of recruit. I would be more worried about Sam if he didn’t show his disappointment at his own form. It shows he has high expectations, and also shows that he knows he has the ability to perform on the big stage - again my opinion. But FFS, we have played 13 games this year without an in-form KPF and low and behold we have won 11 of them. I shudder to think what we will be like when Sam or Ben start to fire.

100% correct. Just as funerals can't be postponed, weddings can't be changed at the drop of a hat. For most people weddings are planned a year or more in advance. To make an announcement on a Wednesday is literally no help to couples due to get married 3 or 4 days later. It takes a lot longer than that for venues, vendors and guests to be organised. And lets not mention the fact that we as Victorians can go to New Zealand tomorrow, but Queensland won't let me in. What a total joke. A bunch of nervous nellies. I bet NSW doesn't go into lockdown and still manage to run their latest outbreak to ground without total panic, because their government is not run by a bunch of bed wetting losers.

It's not so simple. Some great players have either flourished despite their anxiety / fear, or used it to their advantage. Nev Jetta has spoken of the fear of letting his team-mates down being a motivating factor. Glenn Archer was so sick with nerves he sometimes used to throw up the night before a match, even at the end of a long and distinguished career. All he could think about was failing. "I spend a lot of time sitting at home [wishing] I didn't have to go to the game, because of getting nervous." Of course, there's a balance with these things, but those kinds of anxieties are probably quite common in elite sport.

And if it was that easy to just turn it off, isn’t that what they’d do? Clearly it’s not that simple. I’m sure parents of kids who’ve taken their own lives as a result of cyber bullying can attest to that. I don’t know what needs to be done re Sam, but it breaks my heart to hear that he felt sick at halftime during the Collingwood match. ?

Making stuff up? Here's a quote from Taylor and some draft profiles... JT: “With Sam we thought we needed to bring in another key forward to partner Jesse (Hogan). We think he’s going to be a quality player in time and we can be patient with him." AFL draft 2015: Melbourne drafts Clayton Oliver, Sam Weideman "longer term prospect" 2015 AFL draft prospects: Sam Weideman " First year projection: Long-term prospect" 2015 Draft Profile: Sam Weideman

This comment would resonate well with people born before 1970, but the reality is that social media is a very integrated part of life these days for many reasons. Simply "turning it off" has the capacity to make him feel even more isolated than he may already. Hardly a solution.

Sam is no different to any other footballer. If he is out of form and lacking confidence then he should be playing at Casey. He should accept that is best for him atm and concentrate on working to improve those areas of his game that seem off - timing of his marking, body position, leading patterns, tackling etc whatever the coaching staff believe he needs to improve I am not in the camp that its too hard and just ship him off for a second round pick. Its important to remember he had a serious set back earlier in the year and that hasn't helped I certainly think that he should avoid reading outside views on social media - nothing good will come from that

11-2 13 Rounds played…..11 wins….. still only 44 points in the premiership bank and nothing has changed from last week. We still sit on top of the ladder thanks to a Cats win against the Bulldogs Bit different this last weekend not having any football from the Demons. Still I am sure they have enjoyed a weekend off. And so, to Round 15 and we play the Bombers, the team that suffered a number of player suspensions due to systemic drug cheating. We play them on Saturday night on the G….. maybe. I am not sure what to make of this iteration of the Bombers. I find their list a strange mix of bits and pieces. Some good young talent and some older more experienced guys that tend to run hot and cold. Biggest interest for me is to see what sort of shape we turn up in after the break. Will we be switched on or flat? We seem to be making all the right noises but the time over the white line will tell us what the players understand and believe. The facts: We have the week off – Advantage us Their home match – Advantage them We play at the G – Advantage us They are coming off a win last week against the Hawks – Advantage them (maybe) Problem areas of the game for us. Still the bloody forwards…. Our defenders are well settled and have the first half of the season in form. They did not look shiny and bright in the outing against the Pies but I am looking forward to seeing them re-set and work back into form. Stringer and Jones look to be their main avenues to goal and I see that they have their own version of our Wied in Wright. He is not in good form up forward and would not be surprised to see him ‘rested’. Our defenders will need to be sharp as a number of their forwards apply good pressure and tackles. As long as we stick to our structure and trust in each other we will get on top in this area of the ground. We have the talent in our midfield… I am sure that is not news to anyone. This week I think we will add Viney to the mix and it will all be for the better. Not just a break to freshen up but the return of a fired up Viney to spark the others. Parish is the one we need to shut down he is the one that drives a lot of their scoring ….. Harmes anyone? Merrett and McGrath are his main partners in crime but if we contain Parish we will go a long way to winning this. Max and Luke will dominate the ruck contests, but we need the players at their feet to work off them properly. Essendon will have done a lot of work on our ruck’s tap work. It may be that Max spends a lot of his time either back or forward depending on the state of the game and Luke taking the rucks. Now for the forwards……. The good; Well in the bigger picture we are 11-2 without a performing forward structure. And while we have the least points scored against us so far this season, we are only have the 5th highest points for. The bad; Weid’s form but that may not matter this week The ugly; It could be BBB’s hair this weekend. I really hope that there has been some in depth thought and coaching that has gone into our forward 50 structure. While our delivery into the forwards has improved, I am not sure that the delivers have confidence in where the forwards are going to be. We do not seem to be able to consistently find space on the lead and in static marking contests we lack some weight and strength. Selection will make for some interesting reading this week. I expect Weid to be dropped and for B. Brown to come in. Viney in for Sparrow? Most likely. The Bathwater Express is all polished up and ready for the sprint home. I have not started it up since it has just been serviced so I am not sure how it runs at the moment. Expect it to rumble into life with a power surge come Saturday night. Tough to predict this week. I want to see us turn up to this game a we turned up in Round 1….. Fresh, tough and well disciplined…. If we do that, I believe we will run out winners by 6 goals. Go Dees!!!

What about on World of Sport when Neil Roberts asked Jack “ what do you think about euthanasia? Jacks reply “ kids are the same all around the world “

I suspect the delay is not related to the number of new cases but to finalising the details in the plans submitted by the AFL and MCC. It's even possible the delay is because the AFL and MCC are trying to convince the relevant officials that 50% capacity at the MCG is do-able and that some procedures to allow that to happen have yet to be agreed upon.

Nevermind BBB or Weed Let's just play Max at FF and let Jacko ruck 75%+ of the game lol

Oh FFS as if anything will change tomorrow. Just make a call. Such gutless leadership! I feel so sorry for people trying to get married. Fancy being at the mercy of an [censored] who thinks it's 'easy to push out a wedding', but allows 300 people to go to a religious ceremony!

Those darn South Africans

The only decent win the Bombers have had is over the Eagle and even then the Eagles were well depleted. Otherwise they’ve been flat track bullies in a couple of games and beaten teams at the bottoms of the ladder. Media is way OTT on this mob. We will win comfortably and firm even more as Flag favourites.

pinched from elsewhere "My wife and I had a wonderful time on the French Riverina." "He's loping around the wing like a giant tarantulop." "Bartlett's, he's older than he's ever been before." “The ball's in no-man's land and the loose man's come from everywhere." “Things aren't the same now there are five teams in the four." "An Essendon supporter is a Collingwood supporter who can read and write." "Bamblett made a great debut today and an even better one last week." "He's a good ordinary footballer." (about Carlton's Peter Bosustow) "A bit of bad luck for Bob." (on the death of former Carlton champ Bob Chitty) "I won't say anything in case I say something." “Diamond Creek was a long way away once."

Utterly ridiculous, not much is going to change in the next 24 hours - seriously these people are utter morons.

While I really feel for the couples who have their weddings postponed, on the flip side, for many it could be viewed as a stay of execution.

Nureyev dreams of a comparison with Tulip.

This thread is getting tiresome. Most of the arguments have been fully fleshed out and now mostly waffling into other areas. If we are talking about mental health issues and cyber bullying then this discussion is getting out of control. Only serves to encourage more mental demons if there are any to begin with. The club will make the next move on what’s right. Disappointment is is something every delisted, injured, NQR or aspiring un-drafted player has to live with. He gets one more chance or he goes back to Casey to work on his game. I’m sure he will be well supported. That’s all that can happen for now. Too early to talk about career ending moves or leaving the club.

Out of form sports player risks a quick look at social media ...

Whilst the narrative has been around Weid not living up to what we all wanted him to be, It is clear that he is at least better than the form he is showing right now. Confidence and resilience are traits that should be paired together. It is easy to get confidence when you are playing well and everything is working out, but being resilient (or having the grit) when things are tough is often part of ones character that is overlooked and is much more than training hard and doing a good pre-season.

I find it astonishing that we are 11-2 sitting clear at the top of the table and people think we will lose to essendung such is life as a war torn humiliation battled demons fan oh i long for the day when I can trust the MFC to comfortably account for those teams making up the numbers

We don't need either Caddy or Polec. Brayshaw is doing a good enough job on the wing and we have the best wingman in the comp in Langdon. I don't want to see anymore rejects at the club. Go to the draft we have some academy kids and a father son to look forward to.

If we are a true Premiership chance, we expose Essendon for their young bodies and unaccountable defensive gameplan. Lose and we are just another pretender.

What size is this fish? Could it be the elusive big fish we've been trying to land for years? We probably need a riddle here.

Nar his best was describing Rob Flower one day " The Rudolph Nureyev " of football

Should be able to manage a few in the coming weeks cheers PF

If we are the real deal and not just a first half of the season front runner we have to and should win this game albeit against a side who will bring in a youthful enthusiasm and a hunger to beat the top team that will be hard to quell. There are 3 other top eight clashes this week with Brizzy v Cats, West Coast v Dogs and Port v Suns. This is the time to put distance on rivals. This is what teams capable and committed to winning the top prize would do. If we win this week we are that much closer to sewing up a top 4 spot and well favored to finish top 2. Drop this one and we let others in. This is about understanding the competition and what victory means. We should have good plans to stop Essendon, shut them down, get the game on our terms and win at all cost. If we come out like against Collingwood I will be super disappointed. If we lose we are probably still too immature yet to win the flag.

I haven't seen many of these guys other than Lynch play well We draft well and don't need list cloggers We are becoming a destination club too I'm happy for us to continue to build our culture, set even higher standards and keep money in the bank for the right player

I wouldnt be upset to have Daw play. He is a unit. It would be like our own Mumford. Just tell him to jump into the other ruckman and punch the ball into our 50. Or when forward, his leads are straight lines and you wouldnt want to block him whether he took them or not. If it didnt work it would still be entertaining.

Jeez. thats terrible but tbh i'm not surprised. He looks completely bereft. If the pressure to perform is having this impact then I’d suggest he has a good think about what’s best for him going forward, consult with those he trusts and consider whether AFL is worth it. Mental health and wellbeing are more important than a footy career. AFL players have to perform to a certain standard. That’s just the fact of it. If the pressure to perform is impacting health then it may be best to seek a less stressful career. Life is too short.

I know what you mean OD so many times mine changes to "ducking" when that is not what I meant at all!

Nothing new here. All of these journos claiming to know anything are just setting a wide range for social media klout. They can't be wrong if they say "as high as" or "between" and then set a wide range. We all know it'll be less than 50% but above 20%. This government has form when it comes to arbitrary benchmarks so they'll probably set it at 29.879% and claim the supercomputer spat out that number. Footy crowds seem quite triviap next to announcements for weddings and funerals. What is someone supposed to do on a Wednesday for a Saturday wedding if numbers are bumped up? Why not announce it on Sunday to allow a full 5 weekdays for businesses and people to prepare? The argument that a jump in cases could then lead to a change again is irrelevant because that's the case regardless of when the announcement is made. The government is simply playing politics here, an effort in minimising perception damage. ie if they announce on Sunday that weddings can have more people and footy can have more people but then need to tighten up again due to more cases, they look bad. But if they announce it two days before on Weds or Thurs, there's less chance they'll look bad. It's pathetic.

AFL contested mark ladder 2021: Max Gawn (Melbourne) 38 Aaron Naughton (Western Bulldogs) 35 Harry McKay (Carlton) 35 Charlie Dixon (Port Adelaide) 34 Oscar Allen (West Coast) 28 Taylor Walker (Adelaide) 27 Aliir Aliir (Port Adelaide) 27 Harris Andrews (Brisbane Lions) 27 Jake Lever (Melbourne) 26 Jack Darling (West Coast) 26 https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/melbourne-man-mountain-gawn-rising-to-new-heights-in-demons-boom-season-20210621-p582z0.html

You summed up your post in the last sentence perfectly

You delete Instagram, Twitter off your phone. You lock FB down to your friends/family. No whatsapp. You ring people and see them F2F. You don't visit Demonland, Big Footy, skip articles about your form online. Unecessary noise.

We’ve lost 2 of our last 4 matches to bottom four teams. The concerning things in both those games was our structures fell apart and we didn’t handle pressure. It was all a mental thing, which has long been our issue. Even in the wins we had, as pleasing as they were, we didn’t play four quarters. We switched off for a half and ground out wins. We’re not in great form, but on the flip side we’re 11-2 and have heaps of improvement still. Earlier in the year we were playing four quarters and we were a much better team. We scored more freely and had a mobile forward line. The three talls up forward hasn’t worked, so I’d like to see the coaches drop Weid and try the mobile forward line again. Bring the speed and pressure! I hope we are switched on against the Bombers this week. They’re playing well recently and have the talent to beat us if we don’t bring our A game.

the % varies greatly depending on age quoting an overall % can be misleading

My point is that its a double edge sword as social media is the number 1 way people stay in touch now. So he may get away from negative commentary, but also distance himself from his social groups at the same time.

Ben Brown kicked a bag of four goals against Essendon in his 9th AFL game, from six marks. For good measure, he followed up with another bag of four from six marks against Essendon in his second AFL season. After his 49th AFL match, Sam Weideman has yet to kick a bag of four, and hasn't taken more than five marks in his past sixteen appearances - some of those considered the best games of his career. (Brown took six against Sydney). Ben Brown averages 2.9 goals (and 4.2 scores) against the Dons and six marks per match, 3.2 of those marks taken inside50. Sam Weideman averages 0.6 goals/scores and 0.3 marks inside50 vs. the same team. These are of course selective stats, but one of these blokes is a proven consistent performer at top level (and let's not forget BB only entered the AFL two years before Sam). I'd rather it was him in the team building fitness and form.

Sometimes a person gets to a point where you cannot see the forest for the tress rpfc. From my personal experience when that point arrives in spite of your best efforts nothing change until you change your surroundings. If he has a viable option outside of the MFC let him take it. The most important thing at this point is his mental health.

If Jv comes in it will be Sparrow out. Will the club bite the bullet and drop Weideman is the big one? Will it go back to Melksham or roll the dice with one of the Browns? This will be an interesting selection. Im hoping its Bbb and he comes in and does what he used to....kick bags of goals on a reguliar basis for the rest of the season. If he recaptures his form then I will much more confident about winning a flag. We can still win games without him but it certainly would make a difference having a third tall that can hit the scoreboard and hold marks. Come on Bbb.

It’s time we let him find a new club and some clear air.

Never mind social media, he only needs to come on here for a daily fix of vitriol. ?

Ouch! The 2 wins there though, without question, our best this year - v Doggies win an absolute statement, v Lions win - a GTFOOH statement! Confident we were all just gassed on QB. My mind is all about our Port game the following week & making it a royal-flush on all this years contenders. Us by 11 points this week, 1 point the next.

OD, depending on your spell check, being vaccinated might reduce your chances of not: losing weight changing the color of your hair making hippie inspired t shirts croaking

Thankfully Brian Taylor isn't on the Saturday night roster for Ch 7. Whilst we've had our fair share or FTA games lately, we've also had more than enough of BT.

Only two, 20-minute quarters. Hardly a big workout and not a lot of goal scoring. Four in total if the scoreboard told the truth, but I was a few minutes late and missed some action. Weed did himself no favours and barely touched it, if at all. Sad but he is going to have to be relegated to find some confidence. Brown kicked a couple of goals that I saw, missed one, and marked a few. De Class looks very likely and was noted in heavy traffic and was included in post-match boundary throw in drills. Daw rucked well against Gawn in the same boundary throw in drills. Red headed kid Bowey was busy. In the first quarter the teams were probables (including Weideman) in blue and possibles (including B Brown) in red. Think of your first choice team and they were the blues: Jones and Jetta for example were among the reds, although so was Petty. May, Lever, Hunt, Langdon, Gawn, Gus, Clayton all blue - get it? For the second quarter Weid and Brown exchanged places. Melksham was also a possible (red) in the first term and a probable in the second but I did not see who he swapped with. Annoyingly some random passer by insisted on engaging me in conversation so I found it hard to concentrate even though I tried to ignore him, so I don't have much more to offer. The most promising element was De Class who really looked at ease. Oops. Late edit: should have added Viney was with the reds - don't know what it means, if anything.