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Anyone looking to kill a couple of minutes?

Took this screenshot last night. Is this a sign?. I’ll take anything at this stage.

Still the most naturally gifted footballer I have ever seen in a red and blue jumper. He did things with such ease and grace, having come from literally nothing. Just remarkable what he could do without ever being in a formal training or education system like most draftees. He had vision, he had skills that made no sense, he was effortless on the field. I have no doubt that if he was drafted to Melbourne in 2021 instead of back then, things could have been very different for him. Can't blame him for having a lot of regret. He could have gone on to play some remarkable football if things turned out differently, and that would have changed not just his life but the life of his entire family. I hope his son can learn from his mistakes and forge a successful career.

Really fascinating interview with Peter Jackson around his journey with the Melbourne Football Club. Talks about the period around Mark Neeld era and also the Paul Roos recruitment. Also talks about flying to Sydney to catch up with James McDonald and mend that relationship with him and inviting him back to the club. Said it was an emotional meeting with junior and pointed to having a lot of scarring that need to be repaired. Well worth a listen. https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=905242

Dogs have a really big decision to make around the ruck. English will get monstered in the middle, Martin can't go with Gawn or Jackson around the ground, are they actually going to get enough out of Martin in the side? Gawn is on a whole different planet to Lycett. i've been taking a good look at the Dogs recent form as well, and what i've noticed is in the past 6 weeks, the dogs are kicking very few, bread and butter goals. certainly not enough to score 100 points which they'll need to to win, they've scored 100 points twice, once against Port Adelaide who didn't show up, and had to just attack to try and make something out of the game. and once against a very tired Crows side. on the other hand, our scoring is comfortably the best it's been all year, and we're winning it out of the middle a lot more, so we've improved to the point a melbourne game looks a bit different but we haven't actually lost our strength

In my house, you follow the Dees or leave. At one point of prolonged thrashings, my eldest son - 6 years old at the time - starting noticing Gary Ablett jnr and told me he wanted to follow Geelong. After almost vomiting all over him I asked him "do you like food?" He replied 'Yes". I stated calmly "then you barrack for Melbourne". Fortunately, only a few weeks later we were watching a game and he noticed Liam Jurrah. Melbourne devotion immediately restored! Thank-you Liam Jurrah! Jurrah was a freak with some of the most grace-filled skills I had seen since Robbie Flower. He made you watch him. But I don't think he would have survived a season in 2021. Defensive pressure is the foundation for everything now and that is something he simply didn't have. If his son has enough talent, draft him.

Sorry if I'm breaking the thread of this conversation, but I didn't want to start a new thread and didn't know where else to put it. But I just ran across a photo of Melbourne around the time when we were last winning premierships and I thought it put this Saturday in some context:

We'll be interviewing Melbourne Football Club CEO Gary Pert on Monday 20/9 @ 8:30pm We'll be chatting with him to get some insight into the behind the scenes in the lead up to the Grand Final. If you have any questions you want us to ask we'll take the best ones.

Watching the Jones interview, 1 thing is constantly underrepresented. He was a bloody good footballer. Brilliant at evading in-close attention, underrated goal kicker, could run all day. He was more than a "inspiring figure" and I wish it was mentioned more.

We have to be honest with the stoppage game. If we go into this game thinking "oh we'll lose the clearances but ours will be more effective" we're kidding ourselves. Against any other side that works, but against the dogs it won't - but more to the point, if we can beat them in stoppages they have nothing to lean on to win, as that is their one, two, and thee-wood.

Aaron ‘Flash’ Davey leads club to drought-breaking premiership: https://worldfootynews.com/article.php/20210919215833101

It's probably already been said, but if we had taken Wines, we probably wouldn't have had one of Oliver or Petracca today. Similarly, whilst 2019 was a horrible year, without it we wouldn't have Jackson, and probably not have Kossie either. Silver linings in everything.

The Golden Fist.

I enjoyed Wines’ speech at least. Some class in there and thought he was genuinely happy to win it. Good on him even though some of the votes were head scratchers throughout the evening. Liked the bit where he congratulated both Grand Finalists and urged the audience to applaud.

I made the same point on the Brownlow thread, and I’m gonna do it here. It’s fascinating that ‘people’ place any kind of meaning in utterly irrelevant stats like this. I know it’s an MFCSS thing to need to find reasons for failure, a desperate search for some kind of self-fulfilling doomsday narrative, but please, this is just silly. Maybe just find another meaningless stat to balance it out, cos I guarantee there’ll be a squillion of them.

I'm a little surprised this hadn't been posted already... https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/i-regret-it-jurrah-s-mixed-feelings-ahead-of-dees-grand-final-20210919-p58sz9.html

Whether you're 5 or 85, if Nathan Jones isn't your hero, there's something wrong. I'd be interested to see if he wants to stay in football.

Watched it. He was so bloody good. He's such an impressive guy. Seems like a legit great bloke.

Watched it as well. Was brilliant content. You'd pay money to go hear them both talk about how success and culture is built. While I'm watching both Dimma and Clarko talk, my mind is drifting away that one day that could be Goodwin doing the exact same thing in a few years time.

Waiting for One the Couch to start, tuned in to AFL 360 listening to Hardwick and Clarkson talk around how they coach in finals and grand finals. Absolutely brilliant. I haven't paid much attention to either of them over the years, but wow, you can tell why they coached Premierships. Much of what they said was a matter of balancing: player personalities, attack v defence, how much to say... etc...

Referring to the Herald-Sun as "the little paper" isn't about the size of its pages.

I think we have 2 caged bulls in our team who will be released from their cages for this game. Viney and May. I see little worry for either of them in a fear of suspension, if it means winning. Not saying they will king hit anyone, but rather they will play for keeps. Every bump and tackle will be meaningful.

Based on the 2 games during the season there's one thing that may well decide the outcome and unfortunately it's not predictable. Scoring accuracy. We scored 13-9 then 9-13. They scored 8-11 then 11-7. So they had one less scoring shot but it was a 48pt turnaround to them. Our forward line is functioning a lot better now than in those games and they've since lost Bruce. I guess deeper entries on less acute angles will be the one controllable way to fix this. Other than the players kicking better and taking their chances. I remember at one stage Champion Data showed that we had the hardest shots on goal in the Comp. Don't want to do that in the heat of a GF. There will be lots of other keys to this game but this one sticks out as the major point of difference in those two games. Mind you the free kicks in the second game were 25 to 11 and some of those resulted in goals. @binman @A F @Axis of Bob

Off you go with that nonsense please

I like the idea Covid and the fact that tbe GF has to be played in Perth is all part of the Norm Smith curse. The red fox never did things by halves, so a world wide pandemic is def his mo. Win it and the curse is broken. And pre curse normal service resumes - the next dynasty is on our door step. Next year's GF is going to be epic.

My take is that the Norm Smith curse applies to the MCG. Once broken (this week) we will enter a new golden age. We will go on a spree of flags never to be equalled. Covid will be seen as a blessing for allowing us to break the curse. I know it's hard to believe but some people think I see the positive in everything. Over 80,000 at the G next season round 1 for the flag unfurling. I will be there, I will be the one with tears in my eyes.

T minus 5 days boys & girls. At this point I don't know whether work is a distraction or a curse. I think I'd rather be out on the bike or swimming laps than chained to a desk for the next 3 days.

If we take Wines we may not get Petracca or Oliver. Things turned out ok in the end.

I like Chamberlain, he is actually a good umpire. Just likes to chat a bit.

Whatever the result next Saturday, this football team we support has brought me more joy this year than any other year that I have supported them, including’64. The players , coaches and support staff have my greatest admiration and thanks for what they have achieved to date, for themselves, the Club and for us loyal supporters. That sentiment will not be diminished if the worst were to happen on Saturday night. I would also like to state that while I’d love to be able to see it live in person, that fact that I can’t will not diminish the shear joy and ecstasy I will feel if we win. It’s our time, I believe.

I have been sitting on a theory for years about the tenuous link between Norm Smith and Simon Goodwin. Having read the Red Fox, but certainly not being an expert, part of Norm Smith's strategy during his coaching career was to attack and demand the highest of standards from his best player. During Norm Smith's coaching era, this player was Ron Barassi. Result 6 premierships. When Ron became a coach, he employed the same strategy, and his target was Malcolm Blight at North Melbourne. Result 2 premierships. Malcolm had some of the craziest strategies, but I'm not sure he ever attacked Goodwin the way Barassi did to Blight, and Smith to Barassi before that, you could reasonably argue Goodwin was the best player at the Crows during Blight's time as coach. Result 2 premierships. This legacy has netted 10 premierships. And now, it has come full circle with Goodwin coming to Melbourne, which has never been the same since Smith was sacked. Wouldn't it be great if Goodwin is the man to end the curse.

Just started listening, really interested in his comment about being away from Melbourne is helping the team. I 100% agree with this, all the MFCSS veil of negativity types would be such a drain on the players if they were in Melbourne, so I think it could be the best thing for us.

Thanks Little Goffy appreciate the support but as I have always maintained everyone on this site has and is entitled to an opinion! When I first saw Clayton Oliver at Casey fields and after having seen his highlights reel I thought Shheeeit I love this bloke already🤩FWIW I do watch a bit of footy and look at not just the obvious. Dazzle Davey 36 does it better than most and knows what he is talking about. I DO get carried away on occasions coz I just HATE to lose and I can be over the rop with comments but.... thats me. I enjoyed bringing Demonlanders Training reports from Casey and sought to enlighten and entertain in these Shizen times! GOOD LUCK AND GOOD HEALTH TO ALL GO DEES JUST WIN THE FRIGGEN THING😃

Just thought I would let the LIVE listeners know that I will just be releasing this interview as a podcast rather than playing it LIVE. Tomorrow night (Tuesday 21/9) we'll be doing our LIVE Grand Final Preview Show and I might play the interview at the end of that show. Otherwise you can listen to it via Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts or whether you get your podcasts from.

Honestly if they put English on Lever that is a win for us. The problem with trying to shut down Lever is that he has the support of May and Petty. We lost May last week and our system still stacked up down back. We are a team defence. Yes Lever is important, but if he doesn't intercept it, May will, or Petty will. Oh yeah and this fella called Gawn who goes alright in an emergency. I agree though that Weightman is a worry. In fact, their small players worry me far more than their talls, although I recognise that Naughton is a very very good player who can hurt you. But ground ball is definitely our defensive weakness. It is why I would want Hunt to play over Hibberd. I think Hunt is better suited to play on Weightman. I worry Hibbo doesn't have the zip to go with him to be honest. If he does get off the leash, we can put May on him and shuffle the talls around though. Also need to watch out for Weightman ducking and throwing himself around like a sad ragdoll. He loves a free. Rivers on Hannan for me as Hannan will push up the ground and that suits Rivers. Unless they give Hannan the task to try and shut down Salem. That's what I would want if I was a Dogs fan. Salem is far more crucial to us than Hannan is to the Dogs. Same as I want ANB to literally not let Daniel out of his sight, and if ANB gets 2 touches as a result, than so be it. Who plays on Bailey Smith is going to be fascinating. Do we go head to head and let him and Langdon do their thing? Does Gus take him? Harmes? We match up well on the Dogs around the ground and I think their backline will be at panic stations if we start winning some clean ball in the middle and BBB and Fritta get a run at the ball. It will be a good game. I don't think either team will win by a big margin. It probably will come down to small moments, structures and who can capitalise better on turnovers and in front of goal.

While I hate Scully for many reasons, I sort of understand why someone trying to be a professional footballer had no interest in being surrounded by teammates who had no standards and just wanted to get wasted on a work trip. Our culture was in the toilet back then. It's no wonder so few draftees went anywhere, or went elsewhere.

That Shanghai trip was said to be the beginning of Liam Jurrah's drinking. He kicked the winning goal after taking a monster speccie and the team partied hard. Was also the infamous Gawn-yawn over the sleeping HWMNBN that supposedly cemented his desire to leave MFC

well…I had a dream he did :-)

Absolutely convinced we can/will win, but incredibly nervous

Still a long way distant to the EPIC catastrophe that was Richard Tambling over Buddy Franklin. That was a blunder of historic proportions

from my memory it was more of a surprise that toumpas fell out of the top 3; he was regarded as an elite prospect, and was more highly regarded than o'rourke or plowman who went at 2 and 3 worth remembering that they are effectively finished as afl players as well in fact, if you look at the 2012 top 20 it's a real miss more so than a hit: lachie whitfield - hit jonathan o'rourke - miss lachie plowman - miss jimmy toumpas - miss jake stringer - hit jack macrae - hit ollie wines - hit sam mayes - miss nick vlastuin - hit joe daniher - father-son (arguably a miss) troy menzel - miss kristian jaksch - miss jesse lonergan - miss aidan corr - hit taylor garner - miss jackson thurlow - miss josh simpson - miss brodie grundy - hit ben kennedy - miss tim broomhead - miss nathan hrovat - miss dean towers - miss marco paparone - miss

He's a classy guy and it's not hard to see why Port Adelaide viewed him as captaincy material. very happy Wines got the job done, In a broader sense i couldn't help but feel almost a sense of irrelevance to the award, it seems in general there has been a shift to the Coaches association award being the big individual prize, and i also think the Norm Smith, doing it on the biggest stage are just about the two most prestigious awards these days. I'd like to see the coaches award and the brownlow in the opposite way, the brownlow votes revealed post match and a big night celebrating the coaches votes at the end of season.

1. Melbourne 96 votes ( 11 individuals) 2. Sydney 85 (15) 3. W.Bulldogs 83 (11) 4. Brisbane 81 (13) 4. Port 81 ( 10) 6. Geelong 80 (15) 7. Essendon 79 (13) 8. GWS 71 (9) 9. St Kilda 68 (13) 10. Fremantle 61 (10) 11.West Coast 60 (12) 12. Hawthorn 53 (8) 13. Carlton 52 ( 8) 14. Adelaide 51 (8) 15. North Melbourne 47. (10) 16. Richmond 47 (14) 17. Collingwood 45 (7) 18. Gold Coast 44 (10) Top eight exactly the same as actual ladder except for order. Richmond 16th who would have thought!

Good effort by our boys. Would have loved Clarry to win it, but the coaches’ award is actually a better indication of a player’s value than what the umpires think. The status of the two is the wrong way around.

So, number 13 for the Norm Smith in our 13th premiership., to go with 57 years/Norm Smith aged 57?

Well done to Gawny, who was by far the highest polling non-midfielder. 17th overall I believe.

A lot of things went wrong for the club. But all paths lead somewhere and they led us to where we are today. Wines or not, Port are not in with a chance to win a flag. We are. If we take Wines maybe we don’t take Trac or Oliver. Maybe we don’t finish second last in 2019 and get Jackson. Things have a way of working out. I think they’re working out for us.

This aged well.

He’s gone up a gear in the last few months, that’s for sure. He’s hanging on to his marks again now, and his work rate is awesome. Funny how ridiculous perception of footy players are from the outside. For Brown, there was this perception that he got a favourable run from the umps. Having watched him a lot more closely since being one of our players, if he does draw frees it’s only because at his best he’s so hard to stop otherwise. He’s huge, he’s massively strong and he’s got a high leap. There aren’t going to be many defenders who could match him, so they resort to double teaming and arm chopping. We took a player who was injured and well below his best, for cheap, and gave him the time and resources to get back there. Great recruiting and great management that is now paying dividends.