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I just received this sad news about Laurie Mithen (one of my original Demon heroes from the 50s - # 11) from the Past Players and Officials Condolences to the family. It is with much sadness that we announce the death of past player Laurie Mithen, at the age of 87. Laurie came to the Melbourne Football Club from Ormond, making his senior debut in the first round of 1954. Wearing No. 11, as he would for each of his 153 games (with the notable exception of the 1958 Grand Final), this game against Collingwood saw the youngster receive rough treatment, which bred resilience and toughness in him throughout his stellar career. Entertaining and clever, Mithen could play on either side of his body, and was valued for his kicking and marking ability. In his second season – 1955 – he not only played in the first of five premierships, but was also the inaugural recipient of the Ron Barassi Senior Memorial Trophy for outstanding service. In 1956, Mithen was a member of the all-powerful Melbourne outfit that would later be inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. The ‘Olympic Premiers’ thrashed Collingwood, and Mithen’s contribution was hailed by the club, with the annual report for the season stating that: ‘In Laurie Mithen Melbourne possess a player of outstanding skill and cleverness. In the semi final this year Laurie played the type of amazing game that he alone in our side can play.’ Injuries curtailed the typically consistent Mithen in 1957, but he returned to cement a dominant spot in the centre, along with a third premiership, this time against Essendon. It was Mithen who set the tone for the Grand Final when he took the ball out of the centre. Then it was on to Barassi, who kicked the first goal for the game within seconds of its start. Barassi and Mithen formed a dominant combination within a powerful team, and unfortunately this was part of the downfall of 1958. Up against Collingwood in the Grand Final, the two Demons were among those particularly targeted for distraction and roughing up. The ultimate result was a three goal Grand Final loss, and dismay for all those in red and blue. There was a silver lining for Mithen, however, as he was named Best and Fairest in 1958; an achievement that was followed up by another premiership, and a second Best and Fairest in 1959. Having also represented Victoria, Mithen was celebrated for his achievements, with the plaudits including that comments that: ‘Our “Best and Fairest” winner for 1959 for the second year in succession was Laurie Mithen. Laurie…has developed into one of the outstanding footballers in the Victorian League. His clever and brilliant football now possesses a directness and vigour that only comes from experience.’ That experience helped to take Mithen to a fifth Melbourne premiership in 1960. In 1962, he went on to serve as the club’s vice-captain, before hanging up his boots to become playing coach of VFA side Port Melbourne, helping to deliver the 1964 premiership for the ‘Borough’. In 1966, schoolteacher Mithen headed west, teaching in Perth for four years, as well as playing for WA side Claremont for two seasons. He then spent time as a school principal in Canada, before later returning to the Gold Coast. Throughout his lifetime, Melbourne continued to recognise Mithen for his contribution and status within the club. Named as an emergency in the club’s Team of the Century, announced in 2000, Mithen was inducted into the MFC Hall of Fame in 2003, and was named as a ‘150 Hero’ in 2008. In 2013, he was made a Life Member, as humble and delighted as ever in accepting honours for achievements that are an eternal part of the club’s heritage. We will always value and remember Laurie Mithen as a special part of the Melbourne Football Club, and offer our most heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.

I'll be back with another training report Tomorrow for all u special Demonlanders!! Cheers P.F

I'm old enough to have seen Laurie play and to be taught history by him at Melbourne High. A good bloke, popular teacher and sadly missed.

Thanks for the stats IT - they make for interesting reading. I had planned to watch last season in order - one a week culminating in the GF just before the 2022 season starts. My thought was to post some short comments about each game - i even started a thread for it! But it took a while for me to get keen to watch them again and once i did have just watched them at random times (ie not weekly). And i didn't feel like over analyzing them and have just been enjoying them for enjoyment sake. So haven't bothered with a running commentary on them. That said, some interesting themes on the tactical front have emerged for me, things I missed or didn't fully appreciate during the season. I'll post some of those thoughts in this thread once i finish watching the season. But a reflection on clearances. Coincidentally, i watched the Dogs round 19 game last night (after a slow start i'm ahead of schedule). It really reinforced my thoughts at the time that Goody was playing ducks and drakes in that game - keeping his tactical powder dry so to speak. One example was our clearances. Goody replicated the round 11 set up in terms of Harmes running with Libba (i'd describe it as a soft tag), not locking down Macrae at all (barely put any defensive work into him) and allowing Daniel to be free behind the stoppage (defensive side) and play his customary sweeper/distributor role. Macrae had a whopping 38 possessions, and with 9, their equal most clearances. Critically, he also had 8 inside 50s and 9 score involvements (and 532 metres gained). Daniel had 34 possessions, 5 clearances, 2 inside 50s and six score involvements (and 415 metres gained). But come Grand Final Goody changed this set up. He didn't run even a soft tag on Libba - just allowed Viney (and sparrow when giving jack a chop out) to go head too head with the him. Libba's numbers were almost the same in round 19 and the GF. I predicted before the GF that Goody would not allow Daniel so much space. But whilst he tightened up on Daniel in the second half, he largely replicated the round 19 approach. And i think he did so because Daniels' influence is over rated. I focused a bit on Daniel when watching the round 19 replay last night and as was the case in the GF, so many of his possessions are just fluff - lateral short kicks that don't facilitate a switch or create scoring opportunities. And they give us time to set up our defensive structure ahead of the ball. In the GF, Daniel had, on paper, arguably a better game than round 19. He had 37 possessions (22 of which were uncontested), 631 meters gained and 5 inside 50s. But critically, he could only manage 2 clearances and a paltry (for a player getting so many possessions) 2 score involvements. Salem's numbers in the GF make for an interesting comparison given they play a similar role. Despite having 10 fewer possessions, Salem had 8 more meters gained (639), 2 more inside 50s and of most significance, SIX more score involvements. Daniel, despite his high numbers, didn't really hurt us in any of the four (inc. the preseason match) games we played against them in 2021. But McRae did. So in the biggest game of all, for the first time, Goody, put a lot of defensive work into Macrea (something i did correctly predict). And it a had huge impact on how effective the dogs were when winning a clearance and indeed their overall fortunes. The numbers tell the tale - 11 less possessions than round 19, 5 less clearances and 144 less metres gained. Reflecting Goody's tactical shift to deny Macrae time and space and limit his impact at stoppages, he had 6 less uncontested possessions - important because of how damaging he is with any time and space. But the key numbers are inside 50 and score involvements. In the GF, compared to round 19, Macrae had 5 less inside 50s and an incredible 5 fewer score involvements. I know there are stats about scores from clearances, but frustratingly i think Champion data lock them up as i can't find any. Really the critical stat is how often a team score directly from a clearance. Macrea is most damaging when the Dogs win a clearance and feed it out to him. We basically took that strength away and as a result really limited his impact. Conversely, compared to round 19 (and indeed all previous 2021 games), we were incredibly effective in terms of scoring from center clearances in the GF. For mine that is in large part a function of Goody keeping his tactical powder dry. He refused to show his hand with clearances and clearly they were working on different set ups and set plays for use in the finals. The employed some of these to devastating effect right through the finals. We were brilliant all season at absorbing pressure and not allowing teams to really hurt us when on top (save a handful of examples) - and responding finally with a goal of our own. What i found interesting when watching the replays in terms of clearances is that often we followed up that goal with another quick one from a center clearance to wrest back momentum completely. There was good example in the third q of the round 17 Port game. I wonder if that is a specific tactic, one that involves going to a particular center square set up that is infrequently used (but practiced throughout the season at training) that is maybe a more high risk, high reward (eg an aggressive set up ahead of the ball) set up/set play. In terms of next season, i agree they will tinker with things in terms of clearances. But there's no value in showing all your cards in the home and away season as opposition coaches will just go to town on them. So i think by in large they will keep the same set up and systems they used in the 2021 and work on their surprise set ups to use as required in home and away matches and dial them up comes finals.

The Old Man mentioned Mithen in reverent tones as being an equal to Barassi at the MFC in terms of skill and class. He must have been quite a player.

Taught at Melbourne High in the early 60s at a time when league footballers had to work for a living. It was a thrill to be a Melbourne supporter at the school at the time although he never taught me. In those days it was not uncommon to see champion league footballers at their day jobs eg. John James (Brownlow medallist 1961) taught at my central school; Bobby Skilton (Brownlow medallist) was a plumber fixing a roof opposite my school; Neil Roberts (Brownlow medallist) was a sport teacher at my primary school; Ron Barassi was an office furniture salesman for Sears Morton in the city; Bill Young (St Kilda goalsneek) ran a sports store in the Village Belle in St Kilda.

It's hard to fathom that posters think it's hard to fathom that we have similar membership numbers to teams like St Kilda. Really, I don't know how people think sometimes. It's as if they've already forgotten how bad we were and for how long. From 2006-17 we didn't once play finals and many of those years we were bottom 5 with a couple of wooden spoons and several false dawns. We made a prelim in 2018 and then undid all that good work by finishing second last the following year. Two seasons later and we've won our first flag in 57 years. It takes a decade of competitive football, unearthing stars and playing regular September footy to build a strong membership base. Not being a flash in a pan side.

I’ve said this a few times but how far we’ve come… “24/7 professional athlete”. I remember the days of seeing “the boys” out on Swan st, Chapel st and in St Kilda during our dark days whilst “training the house down”. Interesting take re potential of top up players when he mentioned retired or delisted… Jonesy?!?!?! I know totally unlikely but wouldn’t be brilliant. ANB sounds like such a good leader, we’re very lucky and we should all lap this up, look to enjoy these guys/this generation as it’s so foreign to where we’ve been. It sounds like they’re just so switched onto a concept of being the best and leaving the club in a much better state than they found it.

I spoke to my personal horoscope consultant this morning and he told me "The sun shines out of Uranus". He then went on to say that the moon is in the Seventh House and Jupiter is about to align with Mars. The next bit was a bit hard to catch, but I think this is what he said.

Another sad passing from our history, but at least he lived to see us break the drought. Laurie was always hard at the ball and gave no quarter. If I recall correctly it was the 1961 2nd Semi Final where he was dropped behind the play, in what may have been a game changing incident - it was said to be by a Hawk (alleged by some who claim to have seen it happen, one who went on to become a prominent QC or even a judge though my memory may be failing so please don't quote me. Happy to be corrected). No video review in those days so he went on the play in their inaugural premiership.

A nice article about retired Casey skipper Jack Hutchins 100 and out: Why a century of VFL games was enough for Casey star

So do I 😊

I was hoping the Dogs won in 2016 as much as if we were playing but I enjoyed the Swans victory over WC with the Leo Barry You Star Mark. Great Game.

another season or two like the one he just had and it’s a done deal.

It's got a bunch more premiership players in it than any we fielded in 2019 😁

I rewatched all the finals and the preceding games since our last defeat and it is obvious to me the inclusion of Bowey and Ben Brown were the last pieces of the puzzle required that made us a premiership side. Bowey’s clean disposal and clever decision making over Hunts spectacular but often error ridden play made our defence “no weakness” and Browns contesting and ever present danger freed up our forwards and midfield to score heavily which we couldn’t do previously.

My two cents on the Weidemann debate; During my little covid escape from society I embarked on a day of Kayo repeats (as one does) with a focus on specific players and where our improvements and depth lie. Was rather satisfying validating time affected opinions on the likes of Tomlinson, Hunt, Jordan and Chandler to name a few. This lead to some opinions I might bring up in a fresh topic later on. But on to the Weed. I submit this potential sliding doors moment. For anyone with the time on their hands I suggest a rewatch of the first half of the Carlton game, Sams first game back from injury. He had come in more to replace Jackson than as a key forward and battled manfully in the ruck but in actuality played and unrewarded blinder in the front half. Tackled, crashed packs, lead to the right spaces without blocking his fellow forwards of which there were many (at times all 5 of Sam, Ben, Tom, Max and Bayley were present) and should have had 2 goals in that half to match his laser pass inside 50 to BB for an inportant goal in the context of the game. Spargo snuck in front of him and stole his mark in the pocket and Chandler, over eager to impress, flew at the wrong time and knocked the ball out of his hands when he was clear 20m out directly in front. Now as we all know Sam is very much a confidence player and I hypothesise that with that little boost of confidence from a blinder first hald he could have really cemented himself in and taken a huge step throughout the year. Instead, my brain says he went into half time thinking "Far out, i'm playing good footy here and still can't kick a flipping goal" and started questioning himself yet again. Now, more desperate to get on the board he changes what he was doing so well and starts to get in the other forwards way, fumbles one clearly overthinking it and ends up with 0.1 for the day. Do I think he will eventually click and bang down the door on his way to greatness? Hope is the best I can do. But am I confident if we ended up with injuries to Jackson, Brown or McDonald he would be far more than just token replacement. In other words, I wouldnt expect to lose any games because he was playing instead of one or even two of them. So thats not just depth, thats proper coverage

Spoiler alert , you will be happy

First of all, thanks again. As I've posted before this is my favourite Board on Demonland and the insights from you and others are fantastic. Funnily enough I have also been watching every game in order. I'm half way through the Suns game. The only game I couldn't bring myself to watch again was the QB loss. I have three takeaways. First is how much the backline structure stood out right from round 1 and how it saved us in a few of the early games. Secondly how disfunctional the forward line was for most of the season and how much that improved right at the end of the season when we got continuity once BBB was settled in the lineup. Thirdly how much the clearance work improved especially late in the season. Interesting what you're saying about different clearances for different purposes. One thing I feel very confident about is that no other team is going to have a ruckman like Jackson with the same post hitout impact. Gawny says he's working on it I suspect we are going to see more work with them creating corridors for the midfielders to clear the ball out. Jackson's work in Bang Bang Bang mostly was no more than doing that other than the beautiful clearance for Clarry. Out of interest do you see anyone possibly taking Gus's wing some of the time to free him up to perhaps do some clearance rotations. It's going to be interesting to see what happens with Tommo now Petty is doing so well in his position in defence.

Didn’t think this was possible. 😁 That’s another great thing about the GF replay on December 5th: because it was only Dees fans in attendance we got to indulge in the song so many times while the boys were doing their lap after the medal presentation. Countless times, in fact. And all consecutively. It was pure joy.

Saw this interesting chart which highlights what a premiership and sustained success can do for a club ... hope we can replicate it https://thenewdaily.com.au/sport/afl/2015/09/06/can-poor-club-win-afl-premiership/

Listening to the Footy on a cold winters day making Spaghetti with my Nan one afternoon she had to ask me what we were listening to.

Surely 40,000 plus e-mails asking about Dogga's contract?

No he is to fat

Membership $ is what counts most - all clubs have quirks that can inflate numbers. The Saints were handing out free memberships to all kids who joined a certain junior league and sold a heap of $1 membership one year, I think the Pies and Tigers have a large pet membership number. The key is the membership $ return, which from memory - I can't find but haven't looked very hard! - we had a much higher $ return from every member than most other clubs. So 40,000 members for us is significantly better than 40,000 for other clubs.

Yet the commentators simplify it for the masses, and assume that the midfield group are only operating well if clean take-aways occur.

Have we got space in the trophy cabinet for this years' cup?

I didn’t know a fait accompli resigning of our flag winning coach beloved by the entire group could bring such trolling beahviour. He is getting an extension to 2025 or 2026 (hell maybe 2027) and that is that. What is the argument about? How quickly he won the flag? Quite quickly actually; quicker than Hardwick and Thompson, a year off Clarkson.

Petracca and Oliver clearances are a quality that make it hard to measure clearance numbers. The come back in 3rd and the start of the 4th had power running clearances out of the centre that lead directly to Fritschs speccie recover goal, the next Brown goal, the Sparrow goal, Oliver’s goal and the first of the last to Brown. Not to mention the stoppage clearance from Harmes that started the music… I think that metres gained from stoppage or scores from stoppage are a more accurate way to measure the impact we are having.

Late in the season he stood under a couple hospital balls and copped knees to the kidneys. I nearly had heart palpitations with the finals looming. Had been our best player for the year as far as I was concerned. If we needed something it usually started with Oliver going to work.

I went to my regular psychic appointment today and it was closed

At 3/4 time in the GF, Oliver looked like he was about to collapse. I dispute that he fakes getting hurt. He cops plenty of savage hits but always gets up even if it’s up to an 8 count. He has remarkable toughness. Reminds me of Rod Grinter who copped heaps but always got up.

First 40,823 emails: "Something something HOME BASE something...."

@binman, @Axis of Bob, @Engorged Onion et al, I would like to revisit the topic of clearances. If you stand still in this competition you are dead so what changes if any are we going to see this season. It seemed pretty clear as last season went on that there was a bit of a change towards working on winning clearances by the end of the season compared to the first half when it seemed the coaches were happy to concede clearances and rely on winning post clearance possessions. Yze said mid season you don't want to lose clearances because you don't want to concede territory to the opposition. That's a bit simplified but it seems to have been the trend. I've put together this table of clearance stat's for all 8 games against our finals competitors as a starting point for discussion on whether we can predict any new trends for this season. It's a shame I couldn't add in Post Clearance stat's as they are so highly rated by coaches. MFC stats are the first ones. First stand out stat for me is that we only lost 1 of the 8 games v Dogs in the wet when we went through our mini slump. Second observation is that on all these stats it appears the Lions are closest to us and the team we'll have to watch out for the most this season. Stats obviously have to be taken with a good measure of interpretation. For instance I'm not sure how much we learn for this season from the Dogs stats. The second game was in the wet during our slump and if we'd kicked straight we probably would have won anyway. Personally I don't believe the size of the GF blow out is a true guide of their competitiveness against us. We improved our Centre clearances against every team as the season progressed except v Cats in the Prelim where inexplicably we lost them 11-16, only won stoppages by 1 and lost total clearances by 4 yet had our biggest win of any of the games. We only lost Centre clearances in 2 games, the Prelim and rd 12 v Lions. We won contested possession in every game except rd 23 with Cats when we were even. Conversely we lost Uncontested possessions in every game except Rd 12 & the Prelim. The Cats were within 3 Hitouts of us in the Prelim and won Centre clearances 16-11. For what it's worth here's my predictions : I expect to see our Centre Clearance wins improve. Our Hitout domination didn't translate very often into an equivalent win in centre clearances. I expect to see Dogger more in the ruck this season so maybe our Hitout wins will decrease overall however our clearances will probably go up as his post hitout input is becoming so significant and Gawny in his book has flagged that Dogger has taught him to improve this aspect of his game. I expect stoppage clearances to continue to improve. I thought there was a significant improvement by the end of the season compared to the beginning and I think this will continue. As a result I expect to see our Uncontested possessions to increase. I expect the connection into the forward line to continue to improve as we have a more settled forward mix and more time to work together.

I'm still waiting for Bont to be singled out for his head knock on Oliver in the Gf. It's been a while now.

If the opposition gets the chance they forken smash him. And he always gets up. Clarry's as tough as they come.

I look at the above statistics and the question I want answered is when we won or they won the center clearance was it like in the grand final at the goal side of the center or on the defensive side. A commentator basically stated when you win on the defensive side the ball ends up on the half back line as apposed to winning on the attacking side when the ball results in a deep entry on the full forward line or a score. The fact that we were the best defensive side in the competition losing a clearence on the defensive side did not hurt us as much as when we lost it on the attacking side. The game against Geelong in Geelong in the 2nd quarter was an example of the difference when Geelong was winning the clearances at the goal side where as in the 4th quarter we got it going again by winning the clearences on the goal side.

One thing I loved about playing footy was doing and seeing the unrewarded running especially into defensive 50. As you said de, the guys at this age and with Dog teef doing it at his height is something to behold.

I like both the WEG posters and the Mark Knight posters. Although I slightly favour the WEG posters because of the tradition and history behind them over many decades. Fingers crossed the 1988 and 2000 WEG grand final posters get re-used for more Melbourne Demons Premierships in the near future! 🤞 GO DEMONS!!! 👹🔴🔵

They certainly won't announce anything before the vic government does ... take that to the bank

Does anyone actually know what’s going on with his contract or are we playing a guessing game? My guess. 5 years which will take him through to the end (or close to) of our window. Can’t see why he wants to go home in the next couple of years when he has done all the work to get us into a position to contend? Why watch a replacement capitalise on his hard work? I say this as a long time critic. He has earned the right to stay on his terms. The players love him, the footy department love him. Benchmark against Hardwick, Clarkson etc. and pay him the going rate.

I agree DD this group have the potential to continue to achieve at the highest level for a number of years and 3 - 5 years to my mind both rewards Simon for his achievements and provides the incentive to keep building the team into the future for further success.

Currently at 40,823 according to the website (towards the bottom of the page) https://membership.melbournefc.com.au/

Not sure about faking it. He gets more than his 'fair' share of opposition attention. Not sure how you fake a spew...

Please don’t tell me that since the GF wasn’t at the G or even in our time zone that maybe we didn’t win at all - a total Chanel 7 fabrication (like the so called moon landing)🤭

I said "craw", not "craw"!