mo64

And we have a winner. Gold medal goes to a previous winner in @tilly18. 

16 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

A suspicious number of Essendon names here. Is this a gateway quiz and if I attempt it, I end up swearing on a bible that James Hird was set up by the AFL?

Your initials are MR. Is that you Mark Robinson?

10 hours ago, Witches Hat said:

Geez, Rhino the goat is stiff to miss out.

And I think that Kenny Roberts should have been a lock for this team.

For all the mental torture that the likes of Demonstone have inflicted upon me, I've compiled a quiz. In the scale of hardness, I'd rate it a 'talc', but that's because I know the answers.

What do these players have in common:

Backline        Brad Sholl        Noah Balta        Paul Hamilton        
                                
Half Back        Daniel Cross        Scott Lucas        Garry Foulds        
                                
Centreline        Peter Filandia       Jude Bolton        David Calthorpe        
                                
Half Forwards        Mitch Wallis        Joe Daniher        Jake Riccardi        
                                
Forward Line        Justin Madden        Matthew Lloyd        Ricky McLean        
                                
Followers        Simon Madden        Dane Swan        Tom Liberatore        
                                
Bench        Steve O'Dwyer        Leigh Tudor        Ben Ronke        Xavier O'Halloran
                                
Emergencies        Lachlan Sholl        Steve Morris        Rohan Welsh        James Cook
 

4 hours ago, Katrina Dee Fan said:

I asked Trent Rivers about Kozzie at the season launch last Wednesday, he told me the whole team is working on him to stay.  He seemed pretty confident Kozzie would stay, he said he loves it at Melbourne.  Hopefully Trent was right!

If that's the case then Kozzie must have thoughts of leaving, and there is an element of truth in what Cornes is saying.

And no offence KDF, but the old "he loves it at Melbourne" was said countless times in respect of Jackson. The players aren't likely to say that player X is likely to leave.

25 minutes ago, Demon17 said:

Good call re Dunkley.

Dogs 2022 Best and Fairest won by 20 votes from second.  Must have an impact on midfield quality that we seem to be ignoring.

 

I think you'll find that Bont and Macrae will play more inside midfield time in Dunkley's absence. Bont was forced to play forward at times, and Macrae was played as an outside mid. These 2 alongside Libba and Trelaor, and I think that they can cover for Dunkley.

23 hours ago, Grand New Flag said:

This is absolutely correct.  I spoke to a Board member after the Essendon victory very early in the season last year.  He essentially told me Jackson was likely gone.  Last week spoke to the same Board member about Pickett. The Board, and the greater MFC don't see him leaving. Pickett nor his manager have ever expressed a consideration to leaving....... to the contrary.  This was not the experience with Luke whose mum put enormous pressure on to return to Fremantle.  Expect a new contract to be signed by Pickett in the first half of the season.

I don't take any comfort from this. Why would Pickett or his manager express a consideration to leaving? What's to be gained? And the only contrary position is that a timeframe for contract negotiations are already in place. I didn't get that impression from Richo's interview.

12 minutes ago, ManDee said:

That could be tough in certain circumstances. I would prefer that they cannot leave for a trade of less value than the original draft.

If that's the case then Cale Morton, Jack Watts and Jimmy Toumpas would still be at the Dees.

Seems like Jack Viney is underrated by a majority. He is a big loss, so hopefully it's not long term.

Gus spent a majority of the match sim off half back, so he could now spend most of his time in the middle. And it could also lock in Judd McVee for round 1, and maybe Rivers gets some midfield time.

1 hour ago, Roger Mellie said:

He does some great things when he's got the pill. He just doesn't impact games a whole lot. There was a game at Casey last year where he picked up 30 touches in the middle. At the time I thought...yes, this is why we recruited him! His ball use was amazing and he seemed way above VFL level. I have only seen glimpses of that since. I dunno, he strikes me as bottom-heavy in physique if that's a thing.

That game was against Geelong at GMHBA in the wet. He looked a class above. Unfortunately he went totally missing in the Grand Final.

I'd love to see him shine at Casey, and push the likes of Spargo, ANB and Harmes for a position in the side, because I think he's a natural goal kicker, which the others aren't.

11 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

The major sporting bodies claim that they do. They are arguing that their earnings from broadcast rights will be less if the TV networks have their betting advertising reduced. I suspect that claim is right. So, the question becomes not just a moral one but a business one. Are we as supporters prepared to accept a competition with less revenue which either has to be replaced (eg, higher membership or ground entry costs) or there has to be a reduction in costs (most likely to be borne by reduced payments to players). Or a mix of both, of course.

When that becomes the choice, do people still want greater restrictions on betting advertising? Fair enough if they do, but it has to be understood that it comes with a cost.

My position: I don't  bet. But I also don't have a problem with the advertising. I find it easy to ignore.   

The TV networks probably claimed the same thing about cigarette advertising back in the day. 

I've worked in the betting industry and I'm a keen punter, but I find the betting advertising over the top. The ads aren't directed at long time punters like myself and my mates, they're directed at new punters who are primarily kids. And I've seen the pitfalls 1st hand of underage gambling.

4 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

🤔  His two closest mates? Anyways…

 I can’t imagine any Club, least of all our own, picking up unneeded players for the sole reason of trying to retain one player. Especially given the picking up of any players, regardless of who they are, doesn’t guarantee that he’ll stay. 

Pretty sure the Bombers were prepared to offer the former Dee Kyle Dunkley a rookie spot, as a carrot to poach his brother Josh a couple of years ago.

2 hours ago, BigMacjnr said:

Outside of certain Demandlanders Australian football has a dearth of high-level analysis. In the NBA they use the stat: 'value over replacement player and win shares amongst others. There are a bunch of advanced statistics as well as the 'eye test' to see the value of star players. Clearly a lot easier in a sport where there are only 5 players on the court for each team.

The commentary about allocating value by position is only one element, it is also the value of each players relative to their competition. If Grundy is expected to get back to close to his AA best, where he was arguably a top 20 player in the AFL, vs. an average starting level tall forward...it is not so cut and dry. If Grundy helps augment the value of our other star players in the midfield, in defence providing better defensive pressure on mids and in attack with better overlap run...This is a perfect fit for Melbourne.

Collingwood are looking for a run and gun, overlapping handball game where they counterattack heavily. This requires high aerobic capacity and good athletes and skills across the ground. While they would love to improve their key forwards, their model is actually built around having forwards like Fritsch who are highly interchangeable and mobile as we saw in 2022 to great success. 

I would actually say Collingwood made a mistake. Their forwardline was not their issue, but their midfield was beaten convincingly every week in clearances...if they had better exits from the midfield they would have even better attack and their backline would be in an even better position to create repeat entries. 

I would argue a top 3 ruckman, in the top tier of ruckman is much better than an average starter level key forward. Especially in a Collingwood system that doesn't use their key forwards in the way that Carton for example do. 

For Grundy to get back to AA level at Melbourne, it would mean at the expense of Max. Grundy was an AA playing 90% game time as the ruckman, and was rarely rested up forward. When you consider that Max is a vastly superior ruckman than Grundy, your argument that Grundy augments the value of other players is redundant.

And how do you explain that the Pies have beaten us that 3 times without Grundy? It's not difficult for coaches to plan when they have a losing ruckman. Darcy Cameron and Mason Cox have hurt as forwards, something that Grundy has never managed in his career.

I'll go against the trend and agree with Buckley. McStay is a far better fit for the Pies than Grundy. With Mihocek as their only key forward last year, they needed another KPF.

And I must have watched a different game. Grundy dropped 2 absolute sitters up forward. He's never been a good overhead mark. He won plenty of tapouts, but they are meaningless unless you win the clearance.

Grundy's only value will be if can be an additional midfielder. A forward set-up of BBB, T Mac and either Grundy/Gawn will be a failure. And even more so if Kozzy is on-ball, and we don't have a genuine forward crumber.

Point 4. The board intends to utilise the Future Fund to subsidise the costs of the 3 month election campaigns that Deemocracy are proposing for every board vacancy.

52 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

So we’ve met but didn’t realise it, DZ. I was the one who took your money!

Glad you enjoyed the snags, as well as the day on the whole. ❤️💙

A picture of the catering staff (I'm being kind) was posted on the MFC Instagram page. Are you amongst them WCW?

15 minutes ago, Winners at last said:

I popped in for a little while. Seemed to be well organised, and a very pleasant atmosphere. No sign of Max, Angus, Trac, Viney and a few other A graders when I was there. Perhaps they turned up later?

I had short chats with Kozzy & Langers ... both really nice.

I asked Kozzy if he was signing on for next year. He said yes. I asked if I could record that ... he said no!! 

I asked Langers about his rib injury from last year. Supposedly 'bruised'. He said that he had broken ribs ... x 4 !! Which is obviously why his form dropped off so much. 

 

 

Your 2nd question to Kozzie should have been "On which club's letterhead will you be signing on?".

34 minutes ago, Dee Viney Intervention said:

 On paper our forward line is really imposing but doesn’t quite play like it. It is the missing link and if we can get to a stage where we sort out the delivery, the leading patterns ensuring our key talls  have separation and our smalls are in the right spot. If we get back to playing selfless footy there providing blocks etc then I am certain we will break our premiership drought.

 

 

Without Fritsch, and Kozzie playing further up the ground, I don't think our forward line is imposing. Our midfield dominance masks some of our deficiencies. The addition of Hunter will create even more opportunities, but I don't think our current forward structure or personnel take full advantage.

Our high half forwards in Harmes, Sparrow, ANB and Spargo aren't goal kickers. Kozzie is our only legitimate crumbing forward, although Fritsch has the smarts to get crumbing goals.  Chandler seems to have the smarts to get on the end of passes and kick goals, which is why he should be a round 1 lock, in place of 1 of the half forwards.

I don't like our ruckmen resting forward, and competing against our key forwards, when we lack crumbing forwards. And none of them are good contested marks.

We'll have no problem scoring when the ball is in open play, but when the opposition hold us up, bombing long deep into the pockets will be a problem like last year.

I'll be honest, I thought that McVee would be the least likely of the 2nd year players to debut this year. But based on that game, he'll be pushing for round 1. He was excellent 1 on 1, read the play well, and his disposal was neat and effective.

Others to impress were Hunter, Rivers, Bowey and Chandler. If Kozzie is playing further up field, then Chandler should be a lock for round 1. Rivers should be challenging Harmes for a spot in the side. 

The Grundy/Gawn combo went as how I thought it would. Gawn is vastly superior around the ground, and despite kicking 3 between them, neither were effective as marking forwards. Grundy's ruckwork was largely ineffectual, and was cumbersome at ground level.

WH gave out a clue, which by the lack of reaction, seems to have gone through to the keeper.

5 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Is this a clue, mo?

If not, can we please have a clue, @Witches Hat??????

Sorry WCW, there is no clue in my comment.

I was stung into action after WCW worked out Demonstone's last quiz, and I couldn't. 😁

18 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

The following is roughly how he gets in the side:

C; Langdon Petracca Hunter
HF: Viney T Mc  Spargo 
FF: Fritsch Bbb Chandler 
Foll: Gawn Oliver Pickett
Int: DEF, Grundy, Sparrow, Harmes

Overlooked: JJ, ANB

Don’t get caught up on the names but just for an indication without injuries he probably has to pass 2 of JJ, Harmes, ANB, Spargo, Sparrow.

The indications to me are they’re keen to use midfielders (including Pickett) as the HFF. Personally I doubt Spargo gets moved from the other flank given how much the coaches rate his inside 50 kicking.

The criticism for the coaches not picking him last year is a bit misplaced because he doesn’t play the role ANB and Spargo were asked to play. And he wasn’t going to get picked over Pickett. If there’s a reshuffle of Pickett’s role (and Fritsch’s for that matter) it’s a different set of circumstances for Chandler. Not sure it will be enough but it’s different to have him try to do ANB’s job straight up 

 

I don't think that Chandler plays the role of Pickett, ANB or Spargo. But the match committee need to decide whether they go again with an underperforming forward line, or they change things up. 

Pickett is our only true crumbing forward. Moving him out of the forward line for long periods of the game would be disastrous. When he's in form, ANB's role is important, but you can't carry out of form players. Chandler's skillset as a forward potentially offers more than what Spargo does in his role.

I'm with BBP. If given the chances that ANB and Spargo have been gifted at times, his price should be $1.80. But based on loyalties to the 2021 premiership players, his stock price will be $1.

19 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Without giving too much away, DS: I’m not entirely knowledgeable about the thing that links these players. One of your clues alone is what prompted me to have not so much a stab in the dark; rather, a stab in the half-light.

edit: @Timothy Reddan-A'Blew, there’s no clue in the above. But gimme a little time, and with Demonstone’s permission, I’ll come up with one. 

After submitting 2 wrong answers, I'm gun shy from having another crack at this one.

But would Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh and Evelyn Waugh be a suitable line for this quiz?