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Weakest is a relative term. Our forward line is ridiculously underrated IMO. How many other forward lines have two players with a realistic chance of winning the Coleman medal next year? The Cats maybe? Not the dogs with Bruce out for almost all of next season. The Lions? Not with Hipwood out. If Fritter and Brown stay fit both are odds on to kick 45 plus goals plus next year. So both are well in contention for the Coleman. Fritter kicked 59 goals from 24 matches last season, finishing only behind Hawkins (62 from 25 games) for total goals for the season. Brown kicked 25 from 13 games. Kozzie kicked 40 from 25 games. And T Mac had 33 and Trac 29. Assuming Brown retains his current fitness levels, he'll improve next season. Kozzie has scope for improvement, as does Jackson (who kicked 16, as did Maxy). And on top of all of that we have Weed who will be busting a gut to get into the team. Hopefully the same is true of Melksham - and Spargo and Nibbler will continue to tick along. Only three teams kicked more points than us in the home and ways season (two barely any more) and from memory we were number one in the AFL for contested marks inside 50, total marks inside 50 and percentage of scores per inside 50 entry. If the forward line is our weakest link, then we are doing ok

It's part of the club's 1970's activation. When you get to g you put your keys in a bowl. And grab some fondue too

I think this is the scary thing for other sides. For the first 15-16 rounds of the season we were still working out our forward line and struggled to kick big scores, but our defence was so good it didn't matter as we would win by 20-30 points by keeping sides to 60 and under. But once Ben Brown got fit and worked his way into our system our forward dynamic really improved, to the point where we kicked 93, 125 and 140 in the finals. With our forward line now pretty much worked out we should expect to be kicking bigger scores for most of the season.

Back in the 70s, I went to a wife-swapping party and it was excellent. I swapped mine for a brand new lawnmower.

Hello everyone! I hope it’s alright by the mods that I use a thread to promote my new Melbourne Football Club Podcast. In the spirit of the many ‘TV re-watch podcasts’, my friends and I have started re-watching all the 2021 Melbourne matches and reviewing them in the context of the season as a whole. We’ve just released Episode 1: Melbourne v Fremantle at the MCG, where we reminisce about the lead-up to 2021, the match itself, review the votes and debate our favorite Demons to wear the Number 1 guernsey. Listeners are welcome to watch the whole match, highlights or simply rely on their memory of each of our games this year. Hopefully a little bit informative… Hopefully a little bit funny… Please follow us on Instagram @ deewatch_podcast Thanks!

I would take some video of Barassi at his front door lifting the cup and appearing to pass it over. Then do the same with say Hassa Mann and a couple of other older ex players creating the impression of them passing it to each other. That would allow Ron to be involved and not breach his isolation. Finally the cup would be passed to Nathan Jones, on the video, who could then join say Brian Dixon, a former great and anti merger proponent, at the ground to present the cup. It would be a form of Olympic Flame relay, that would increase the involvement numbers, firstly on the big screen and then live, making the event even more memorable. Nathan Jones deserves the honour and I am sure he would be very appreciative of the gesture.

Trust all you Vics enjoy the day on Sunday. Can't wait for the cup to get up here in Brisbane. Have a beer for me as it's my 69th on Sunday 5th

I looked at the team and we have got Van Rooyen who was drafted as a forward in the future and Weideman who if he becomes more like his grandfather and less like his father in his attack on the ball would become the forward we need. In the midfield we have added Howes who if he comes along will allow Brayshaw back into the midfield, Jordan and Dunstan who pressure all the incumbents to be better. We have Taj Woewodin and Judd McVee who have a huge upside if they come on. Tomlinson and Hunt want their place in the team. And I believe that Clayton Oliver could do a Petracca and become a goalkicking midfielder. Jackson, Rivers and Pickett have only played 2 seasons of senior football and are still scratching the surface of how good they could be. Bowey, Laurie and Rosman have played very little football in the last 2 years and if the reach their potential then we are in for a treat. Our true weakness is between the ears if we believe we only have to turn up to win, I think that was the attitude when we played the Magpies and Adelaide the first time. In general the premiership is ours to lose if we have lots of injuries and complacency to boot we will allow the contenders to take our prize.

Agree. Say goodnight to a big crowd with no school kids. Would have thought the GF replay would have been used to let as many fans go as possible and that is Friday/Saturday night if at night and not Wednesday night. Another wonderful AFL decision.

Wednesday night is traditionally known as "Hump Night", so we'll just have to do that to the Doggies. Again.

We have a business to run in Ballarat and Thursday morning is a big day, Saturday is my one day off. This reeks of the AFL's quest for dollars. Friday night's game goes to ........... Collingwood vs Essendon!

Who would've thought ... "Demon premiership sees a resurgence in DVD player sales!"

It's madness, at this time of year we're all uptight...in a state of panic; how are we going to afford both a MFC membership and the G.I.Joe with the Kung Fu grip?

Overall I think our biggest weakness is still the trade off from our biggest strength. We play so direct and crash and bash that we waste a lot of opportunities to use run and skill and generate easier ball movement and scores. The positive of that is we’re used to finals type footy and eventually there came moments in each finals where we broke the opposition and strung together skilful passages and got easy goals. At its worse it shows up in the dysfunctional forward entries that plagued us all for years and were prevalent for a lot of the year. A fully healthy BBB late in the year straightened us up improving the forward line but also make a lot of bad entries look good or halved. Jason Taylor keeps drafting wingers and skilled back flankers - even with a rookie in Juddy. I’m sure the plan is to kick the ball from the back half more, use Langers and other runners and get it out to more skilful half forwards like Pickett, Spargo even Laurie. If we can keep plan A game strong whilst adding more run and skill to do it a bit easier that’s how you stay ahead of the comp.

I think I know what you are getting at OD and perhaps the debate is between forward structure and "kicking winning scores". We often kicked winning scores but in many games our forward structure was missing. The Adelaide loss which I watched last night is perhaps a perfect example (even though we lost). Kicked 14 goals 11 behinds and lost by a point but the forward line was a mess from a structural viewpoint. (Brown out and Weid in for his first game. Fritsch never looked like it and McDonald floating in and out.) I think we have it under control going into next year with both Jackson and Gawn floating forward and with Brown and Fritcsh. Hard to match up on the new Demons. My greatest fear is that the opposition pack the forward 50 and rely on fast breaks through the midfield using overlapping run and handball.

Thanks @dpositive. Your words are very kind. It’s a pleasure to paint from the heart, which I hope it conveys. Each print will be signed and numbered, with notes attached. I’ll offer full disclosure on costs, which for Demonland I’m only looking to cover, with a smidge extra for the hours spent. I suspect the popular sizes will be ~ A1 and A2. My understanding is that A1 will be somewhere south of $200, A2 obviously less. I’d really like to keep A1 under $200 even with postage. People will be able to pick up at mine to avoid shipping. I’m really not interested in making money from the prints, as I’ll be able to sell original either at exhibition, or privately. more soon….

I am not suggesting we are doing badly but over the course of the year it was our worst area. As you say it is a relative term.

Every team even the premiers have areas they can improve even if the Premiers won every game of the final series by comfortable margins.

If we have room for improvement then the rest of the comp should look out.

It doesn't alter the fact the our forward line was our weakest area over the course of the season.

Correct but taken over the entire season it was our weakest area IMO.

Partner give-aways! I am not sure what that is, or even if I want to know.

Tried 2 JBHiFi stores, for the Full Season DvD. Dandenong and Fountain Gate both said New Release. Supposedly from the 1st of December. Firstly Dandenong doesn't even stock DvDs or CDs anymore and Fountain Gate had none at their store. False Advertising at its finest. At least the lovely lady I spoke to pushed a few buttons on her device to show me Frankston supposedly has them. I better get it tomorrow or my Dad will make me watch the Granny Again.

Yep and it will be away and they will get the "gate". Meanwhile, our home game against the Dogs will be diluted by at least 10% and likely more if it is on Wednesday night.

I’ll be there either way but really Wednesday night is so hard!

❤️Who needs a marketing department?

We'll improve because BB has found his groove and will be more effective next year and because the younger players will all get better, particularly Dogga, Kozzie, Rivers and Bowey I think the only unknown at this stage is the impact of Burgo's departure. I think he is an outstanding high performance manager. Not sure if the new guy will be as good

Just last weekend, I returned by car from two days in Bendigo to wend a wearying path home to my more recent colonial settlement in Adelaide. As a born and bred Victorian, I encouraged my daughter and sons to live/work in Victoria despite my absence (ie: to continue the blessed life to which they were annointed). This also provides me with an opportunity to break free of the shackles so South Australian that they oppress and depress the freed mind - one just has to get out! Regular trips to the 'G during the footy season are cathartic relief for my wife and me. Avid Demons, both. However, last weekend, my experience in crossing the Vic/SA border at Serviceton was extremely challenging. Sent back towards to Kaniva, then on further backwards to Nhill, I found by chance a Covid-19 testing station open on a Sunday, got tested, obtained the result, entered the result on my smart phone and found new words in my lexicon of filthy utterances to aptly describe the SA Police and their Border Entry proficiency, including the object ignorance and 'one-eyed rejection' of certificated double-vaccination achievements and two recent results of Covid-19 testing belowing 'Negative' presented to them for each of the two of us. The delay - particularly the certifications to be entered on the phones - was time eternal - overall, it delayed our 'normal' trip home to Adelaide by around seven hours! It is a journey I no longer wish to enter in the near future with no guarantee of assured, homeward-bound destination achievement; it is like seawater spilling from a hole in your sand bucket before you get back to the prepared moat around your sand castle. So, for the MCG Premiership celebrations, please forgive us for not attending on the 5th of December. For all you lucky people able to go to the event: have a wonderful time, enjoy, salivate, feel glorious, let ya hair down, sing songs of factual cardiac rhythm and rejoice. We will be with you in spirit. 'Carna Dees!

Yep, fair point. The opposition goals are going to come from somewhere and we are brilliant at getting it to ground down back. And i think Rivers improved his defensive work and Bowey added another element that helped tighten up our defence against smalls and mediums

Or we play Petty forward with Tomlinson back, or hope that that JVR is ready to try, or we play Tom Mac at ff and use a more mobile smaller chf like maybe Melksham or even Hunt, or use Mitch Brown or Daw as a fill in. We have options.

I kind of think that was a little overplayed because our talls dominated so much the oppositions best chance was on the deck.

A four-stroke? the mower I mean

Finally got my merch delivered this week! Ordered night of the grand final, so was a long wait. Be patient everyone! I got Hoodie, polo, beanie, scarf, mugs, badges. Already got framed herald sun demon ages ago.

Minor Premiers and Premiers beating every team save a hiccup against the filth. I'll take that every year. Except losing to the filth.

There is a very brief pause on a Blu Ray music DVD I have featuring ZZ TOP playing LA GRANGE when the familiar DA DA DET DET DET DU DA DA DAR DAR DA DET DET DET DU they then stop the holler........... HELL YEAH SO FROM NOW ON THE CLUB IS RENAMED LA GRANGE.FC....... Coz Hell Yeah, everyone wants to go there🤩

If anybody had inside info on that, it'd be you, Stiffy

Ill take samples from Beyond Bank

yep hope Ron n wife get well soon and great call to unfurl the flag next year. what about Neita to hand over the cup??

Needs to be Friday night or Saturday arvo, we will get a bigger crowd in 1 of those slots then what we would get on a Wednesday

Wednesday is a trash idea!

I am about to order all the full seasons games plus finals from Sanity at $144 bucks! The finals are in Blu ray!🤩

GET WELL RDB JOHN NORTHEY C'MON DOWN

i want a jaguar, dagnabbit

Get well soon Ronald Dale Barassi.💕❤️💙

Picked up the blu ray last weekend from JB, handily scored a Black Friday discount to boot. Got a bit of joy from watching with the MMM commentary featuring Luke Darcy. He kept it together reasonably well...

As Mach5 has said Pert is clearly not up to it!!! Robby and his band lol!!! Seriously besides the merch delivery issues and long running home base setup, the club seems to be hitting all the right notes, Pert included.

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.