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When I saw the title, I was actaully thinking haircuts... there are some shockers.

Going back and watching the finals series (a few times) I saw again something that happened often throughout the year. We rarely looked like losing but often in the second quarter we had the opportunity to put the game completely away but kicked points instead of goals. Obviously we took home the silverware so it is hard to be too critical, but the one place I think we could improve to make this team unbeatable is in our goal kicking. Goal kicking must have a huge mental component. Over the years, despite players becoming full time athletes and having access to facilities and resources undreamed of back in the 70s and 80s, goal kicking has not improved at all. The above being true we may see some improvement off the back of the swagger and added confidence that comes from being the reigning champs, but if there was one thing to really put some time into over the off season, for me, this would be it.

It came… it’s real. It’s spectacular.

I do notice it seems a tactic to kick the ball deep to the pockets. That makes it harder to score accurately from marks, stoppages or open play. On the other hand it keeps the ball locked in more often and difficult for the opposition defences to cleanly exit when they get the ball. We do lead the completion for both number of inside 50’s, efficiency for inside 50’s as well as tackles. So we are doing very well. We sacrifice accuracy for weight of entries and scoring pressure. Of course sometimes it works better than others. It’s been about playing the percentages for us.

I went to a function the other night and was lucky to be sitting next to Jack Viney and I asked him who , apart from Melbourne, were the best teams and he said Footscray were and they were about on a par with Geelong. He said the two best teams played off in the GF. He didn't rate Port and said they were there because of a soft draw and felt we had the Lions measure, I didn't ask them of the other teams but I got the impression that apart from ourselves, the Bullies and the Cats, the rest were just making up the numbers.

What ... Abracadabra?

As sad as it was not being at the G...Im glad we didn't have to battle for the flag last year. Sure it was weird seeing a granny in Perth but truth be told it was better than last years one in Brisbane. it was sold out and certainly had a great atmosphere. Also I dont feel anyone can take anything away from us with covid. There were no shortened quarters. No stop start. No 30 games in 30 days,. Other than a few crowds missing and change of venues it was business a usual. Credit to the Afl for all their work. And a credit to all the western fans and those who travelled.

Bruce and Green - what a combination - what great footballers!

I got my premiership flag, the last piece of premiership merchandise I ordered, delivered on friday. I get a lot of people calling out as I drive around town

Both Howe and Frawley made an excellent beer tower with the empties in Bay 13 on Boxing Day. Lets not forget that.

One of my strongest feelings in the 3rd was when Fritta kicked that second goal and the crowd came into the game they were so loud and the banners, flags and signs seemed to have a life of their own and it continued for that last 8 minutes and built into a crescendo over that last 32 seconds I was really bouncing and cheering with my 7 year old grandson. The feeling was like an out of body experience I have never felt those extreme sensations before and I also have never seen such football perfection.💕❤️💙

The Cup arrived this Morning “After 57 years of Pain”

I was told last night that the club ordered 6,000 t/shirts before the GF and they have received orders for 11,000 so they have had to scour the nation to fill the orders, it's been difficult and I can understand that they have had problems. They have also been told by the AFL that they have received more orders for MFC stuff than they did when the Tiges won their first flag, the sleeping giant.

And the media went out of their way to make out that Buckley was a genius for playing him in the backline, totally ignoring he had payed there plenty while at Melbourne.

Well boys and girls, I just had a VERY SPECIAL visitor to my house…..the Premiership cup presented to the players on the night!! A moment I will never forgot! I couldn’t put it down! (Except for this photo)

Im happy with the most dominant finals series I can recall and winning the GF by 74pts. Don’t see this as a big issue fritsch, Trac and T Mac have already improved their goal kicking on last year

CAM BRUCE HAS GONE MAD CAM BRUCE HAS GONE MAD CAM BRUCE HAS GONE COMPLETELY MADDDDDD

Nailed it. Goalkicking accuracy is like umpiring - it's a nice thing to blame when we lose, but in reality doesn't actually affect the outcome of a match all that often. This article explains it fairly well - when shot difficulty is accounted for, we actually rank #6 for accuracy. We are also one of the best teams in terms of conceding easy shots on goal. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/where-every-club-ranks-in-the-2021-expected-accuracy-ladder-champion-index/news-story/001a4914d94d2a07907973ee3376bcdf It makes sense - for all the moaning that goes on, who are our bad kicks for goal? Fritsch, TMac, Brown, Melksham and Spargo (from <45m) are as reliable a set shot as any player in the comp. Trac and ANB have both sorted out his goal kicking. Kosi is probably the most unreliable set shot in our forwardline at this stage, and he kicked 40.28 for the year.

I was hesitant about putting up this topic. I’m not a glass half empty person, I think this team is the bomb. By a mile the best demons team in my many years of supporting, and right now, the undeniably best team in the league. Every year you need to find things to improve though or other teams will overtake you. The last two finals games don’t show it as much as we were just so dominant but the QF against the lions and some of the games throughout the year you can see we often dominate early in the game, most often in the 2nd quarter, but we kick points rather than goals. This seems like an area we could focus on for improvement.

I've been thinking that there's plenty of upside to Ben Brown. Last season he came in not-so fit, cemented his spot late and played his role extremely well though without all that many goals of his own to show for it. Next year he'll have had another pre-season in the program to build the fitness and synergy with teammates, and with confidence riding high (surely...) plus other dangerous forwards to demand the opposition's attention (including Gawn and Jackson here along with TMac, Fritta and Weid), i have a feeling we are on for a genuinely dominant year. Nutshell: Overconfidence??? Dunno, I reckon the forward line has plenty of room to mature.

I expected Ben to be a Stay at Home Forward when he came to Melbourne, but he is anything but. During the 3rd Quarter of the GF, before the supercharger kicked in, Ben was working his [censored] off in the Center and on the Wings. He had a great Grand Final, as well as kicking accurately. 4-5 years left in his career if he wants it.

I've been going through the whole season and I agree with you goal kicking was a bit of an issue all year however the finals games weren't too bad especially against top quality opposition. Mark Williams has been big on this with the introduction of his balls to our training. Throughout the year you could see massive improvements in certain players kicking (Ie: Bayley Fritsch, Clayton Oliver, Christian Petracca all vastly improved throughout the year) The second half of the Grand final was especially very clean goal kicking wise We kicked 16.5 in the second half compared to our 5.9 halftime score (3 behinds were rushed for the game) (And Gawn's point in the second quarter was def a goal but we cant count it) In the Prelim against Geelong we kicked 19.11 with 4 behinds being rushed So we kicked 19.7 in the Prelim and 21.11 in the Grand Final off our own boot that totals at 30.18 going at a 62.5% accuracy The AFL average from 2015-2021 in goal kicking accuracy is 48.4% The Brisbane QF we scored 13.15 (but had two rushed) so we sit at 50% accuracy for that game I think we are going to see an improved team next year because they now have undoubted belief that they now have the ability to achieve greatness and the skill improvements we saw across the season to build on from here.

I know exactly how you feel. Without doubt it was the happiest day of my life. ❤️💙

He ultimately turned out to be the player we’d hoped he would be when we recruited him. He will be great next year.

It is with great trepidation that I reply to an acolyte from the Spirit of Norm Smith tree of influence after Mitch O’Neill won South Adelaide’s best first year player award this year, but I will try and help you out. Firstly, there are some incorrect facts in your post. Josh Honey was a second year rookie this year and Cottrell was also a rookie (rendering obsolete your complaint about Carlton’s use of him.) There are some list and TPP mechanics that are relevant but arent referred to in your diatribe. One of the most important is that rookie promotions count towards the AFL’s mandated minimum three national draft picks per club. So by switching players from the relative ‘lists’, it helps clubs satisfy that requirement. In the current AFL world where list sizes are incredibly tight that has a value. Carlton are positioned to have only one National draft pick, perhaps two, this year, so they’ve covered the AFL’s draft requirements with the rookie promotions. We can now move to TPP. To recontract O’Brien they would have to pay the AFL senior list minimum at worst, now they can pay him the rookie list minimum, a saving of at least $30k in actual real dollars. The movement of Kennedy is a counterweight to any TPP benefit most likely but its still a positive financial result for the club. The actual rookie list TPP saving maximum is closer to 100k than the 60k from your post. So the O'Brien for Kennedy switch has at least a real world money saving benefit, plus it has extremely positive list size and national draft implications. In terms of Honey, the National Draft pick factor is relevant, plus Carlton had a huge rookie list last yeat with high retention into this year, so promoting him helps with that, given that the AFL tightened the rookie list screws with its latest list size announcement this year. Him moving to the primary opens the extra slot for one of the delisted players. Im not sure but as a third year supplemental rookie draft player, Cottrell may have reached the ceiling to the amount of time he could stay as a rookie, they may have been forced to either delist or promote. If thats the the case, the former is a more sensible line of attack. The moves are about satisfying AFL rules and dealing with list size issues.

Richo Richo man, I wanna be a Richo man...

It's been too good, too much of a relief to have broken the drought, with too much spectacular finals football to revel in to indulge in schadenfreude. Until now. Yesterday I felt just the slightest twinge of guilty pleasure at the plight of the Magpies, with JdG in strife yet again and possibly to be axed sometime next year, when I thought of Jeremy Howe. As a Demon, I loved the spectacular feats he produced, and I was genuinely disappointed - and told him so in person - when he talked himself out of the place by believing his manager's BS about how much he was worth. That's the truth. He made it impossible to keep him even though, as well all know he ended up in the same role at Pie Park that he had with us, and for much the same dough. I say that acknowledging that his disposal was problematic although no worse than Nat Jones and correctible, had he stayed, by Mark Williams. Instead he finds himself at an ailing club, full of its own BS, with its premiership window slammed shut and the pain of a 13 possession 6-point Grand Final loss for consolation. And he can look on his former teammates with the big medals around their necks. Those who played alongside him include Salem (22 times), Harmes (8 times), Viney (49 times), TMac (82 times), Brayshaw (21 times), Gawn (49 times), Neal-Bullen (11 times). Others on the list this year who were teammates with Howe but without the premiership medal include Jones, Jetta, Van den Berg and Hunt. Petracca did not debut until after he had left, but was a training mate in his last season, 2015. I know this is small minded of me but it's nice to remember that slur he threw at us when Covid locked fans out of stadiums. He knew what it was like to play to empty terraces because "I used to play at Melbourne". Maybe if he had not said that I would not have posted this but I did think he was graceless and unappreciative of the club that plucked him from the obscurity of Dodges Ferry. His win loss record with us was 22 wins and 78 losses from 100 games, which goes some way to explaining why he might have wanted to go. But TMac at the same time had 18 wins and 64 losses from 82 games and stuck fat. Ditto Viney, 10 wins and 39 losses from 49 games while Howe was with us. All around the 20%-22% mark. I guess some of his old teammates would not hold it against him but it's the fans job to hold on to grievances. So Jeremy, in the quiet times, when it's late at night and you are alone, ponder what might have been.

Set shot goal kicking was an issue from the first game versus Freo, but I don't think it is our major flaw. We won the flag so can't complain too much, but if I look at the 3 defeats and the draw, or even the periods in the finals games where the momentum was with the opposition, the same weakness was dominant: i.e. lack of defensive pressure through the middle of he ground, when we didn't have the ball. At a turnover, or at a stoppage where the opposition won the ball, or even at our half forward where the opposition took an intercept mark, if our mids, wings and half forwards were too slow to respond, goals were kicked easily against us in runs of multiple goals. After the round 19 loss to the Bulldogs, there were very few games where this defensive slow response hurt us too much, but I reckon other teams will try and exploit us on the turnover, because it is - as far a I can see right now - our only weakness.

Such a beautiful flag

Yeah, it’s interesting isn’t it? Maybe it’s about him having backloaded the contract and being on Rookie money this year with the bulk of his new contract in 2023 when he’s upgraded to the senior list? From a list spots perspective it’s largely academic 3-4 main list + 0-1 A rookie vs 2-3 main list + 0-2 A rookies. There seems to be some clever rookie contract money at play otherwise I’d have thought he would be elevated this year. I’d imagine if we have any long term injuries or intend to pick someone up in the mid season draft he may be elevated during 2022 like JJ was this year. The only other really strong reason to keep him on the rookie list this year would be if we intend to use all 4 draft picks or Delisted FA for main list spots, which would be exciting.

It can improve. The sports scientists killed it based on the myth that if you kicked too much you would pull a hamstring. If anything, Burgo now thinks the opposite so hopefully that’s left a mark. It’s also interesting that Simpson did not believe that and allows his players at West Coast to practice as much as they want and their accuracy average has led the league for a number of years.

If I buy any more merch I will have to build a pool room.

https://mosaicmemories.com.au/ check this out great team and individual framed product

I first saw that used in the film, Event Horizon. Sam Neill was wearing it on his suit...

Yep, kicking for goal just is not good enough and a myriad of ills are being attached to the process - it is important but it neednot be a psychological challenge. A shot at goal - either in haste or more properly set up - is the confirmation of the right to be able to score from good play in those and from those seconds to get the ball inside goal range. There simply cannot be adequate time and focus on goal-kicking practices. Think back in our own footy histories. If we had a problem with accuracy, we did something about it, working on a selection of techniques to effect improved accuracy and reliability. We discarded that which did not work and practised and practised those techniques that worked for us. Professional footballers owe it to their supporters, instead of leaving scoring opportunities and consistencies to the fates of the moment, Here endeth the diatribe.

The one thing I picked up on all season is that very team we played "except Gold Coast" went into the game believing they could beat us. Most teams have always believed we fold if hit early. That won't happen next year.

I am so keen for Dec 5th, the atmosphere will be incredible

Players when they get to the end of their careers want to play in a premiership team because the bond lasts forever and it is a connection with the club for a life time. Players like Jetta and Jones who are now retired, were at the club but did not play can at least look back at their careers and say they contributed to the premiership during the season. There are players who chase premiership and have bad luck to go to the wrong club or expect the team they go to is in the premiership window and for one reason or another they don't get the premiership they craved. Look at the MFC players like Trent Rivers, Luke Jackson, Kysaiah Pickett, Tom Sparrow, Harrison Petty and James Jordan have played less than 50 games whilst Lynden Dunn had played 198 games and never played in a final let alone a premiership. Then you have Ben Brown who crossed from NM to the MFC in hope of finals and ended up with a premiership. Wayne Treloer played for GWS then crossed to the Magpies believing their list was better than Richmond and they won 3. Then was dumped by the Magpies end up going to premiership hopeful and favourites until round 20 of 2021 for the premiership.

I had the lovely guy I sold my tickets to send me pics from the game and even days after….

I got one of these as well $44 bucks worth from A.F.L shop Fountain Gate, but check sizes as they are a small fit.Im usually an extra large but needed a 2XL, and you wouldnt say im overweight! They are rolling out the Demon clobber, with lots of good stuff albeit expensive.

I said I wouldn't look at these kids pre draft this year but getting pick 17 has sucked me back in. I really, really want Sinn but it looks like he will be gone about 3-7 picks before ours. Wilmont is intriguing as he is so young. 1 day younger and he would be forced to wait till the 2022 draft. Phantom drafts have him around our pick. Reads the play so we'll and could be the long term Hibberd replacement.

I thought Gil was bad making up rules on the go. But this thread takes the cake. Actually I lie, i still have no idea what the [censored] this thread is about.

Coz Norf are Nuff Nuffs! Can I just say that outside of Oliver, Max and Tracc he was our most important player late in the season including Finals and Grand Final🤩

Ffs

I suggested to one of the committee that we should have a Demons Picnic Rug and he thought it was a great idea and would look in to it. I can't believe we have cheese platters, cheese boards and no picnic rug.

Very easy question to answer . . . Bid up if it's any interstate club, Colinwood, Carltank, Horethorn, Essendrugs, Jeelong. All other clubs play fair.

That put us up by 42 points and I’ve read other posters saying that’s when they too thought ok we’re gonna win. For me it was the following goal (Langers) that did it. I don’t remember this but my son told me I was standing in front of the TV with my hands up to my face and almost whimpering “48 points, we can’t lose from here. Surely we can’t lose from here.” He said it was one of the saddest things he’s ever seen. And he’s seen some sad sh**it in his time (ie. me, watching just about any Dees game 😆)

"We always knew that if Ben could get his body right, his best football stacks up," Brown said. "You don't kick 60 goals in an AFL season by luck, and it was disappointing that some parts of the media wrote him off and didn't give him credit for what he had achieved. "He wasn't getting lucky goals - if that was the case there would be a heap of us running around on an AFL ground. "He's got something pretty special with his size, his hand-eye co-ordination and footy nous. "We're really pleased he could get back to this level, and while he had to go back to the reserves to work hard and re-evaluate a few things, Melbourne has been awesome in their support of him. "They continued to give him time and said he was a four-year player for them, not a one-year player, which took a bit of pressure off him and allowed him to work on some little things. "When the final siren went, it was the culmination of a long journey for Ben, but the last couple of years have been a real rollercoaster, so to have that all come to a head was pretty emotional for the whole family.

That’s my name, my mate got it for me.

I didn't mind getting Angus Brayshaw for him in compensation, worked out ok ;)