deanox

23 minutes ago, Undeeterred said:

Nonsense. If you don’t punch someone, they can’t dive. I just don’t accept this 

Exactly. And what's the value of the dive? They get suspended for next week? It just doesn't happen.

49 minutes ago, Gorgoroth said:

Tbh they need to implement it the day after the GF so all clubs and players are without doubt, but I highly doubt anything will change because the don’t want players suspended, unless we get to the litigation point like we have with concussions. 
 

I would be stunned if they did anything remotely sane, but it’s interesting to me is if a Worksafe rep see a game and see someone being punched do they have the grounds to step in, or would a complaint have to be filed. The players call it a work place. I’d love it if some one at worksafe just stepped in and caused all sorts of chaos.

I mean we've already seen that just anyone can make a worksafe complaint and they investigate it...

1 hour ago, tiers said:

Does anyone else believe that the hit on Clarry was a dog act?

Approached from behind and completely unaware. It's not a case of two players facing each other but a coward punch from behind.

Should get at least 2 weeks for the offence.

 

7 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

what makes it worse is that it was off the ball, there was no scrapping, just clarry standing there relaxed and he comes in from behind and hits him with clarry never seeing a thing .   no heat of the moment thing.

 

Agree with this @daisycutter.

As far as I'm concerned, off the ball, out of play hits like this are assault.

They can't be excused as two players being aggressive towards each other and one getting a bit harder than intended, or even the "trying to push off to get separation" argument.

It's just hitting a bloke who isn't looking. As cheap as any act in the AFL and should be stamped out as unacceptable.

4 minutes ago, rpfc said:

Bowey is a premiership winning player. Turner has taken three impressive marks, to good kicks, and one lucky handball.

I was just joking around.

It's an interesting exercise, I'/ think it is meant to be "what our best 22 is, based on past history and the first quarter of the season" but it could equally be interpreted as "our best 22 in 2024 so far".

If Bowey is there, we could also be making a case for Melksham and Brown if fit.

2 hours ago, rpfc said:

I read this as the best Quarter that we have played this season… 

 

Anyway, Petty is not replaced by Turner after one game from the XVIII.

Why not? He played 70% of one game. Bowey's been named and he only played 48% of one game!

Capable, AFL standard, key position players don't get dropped to the VFL when the ly are coming back from injury and are yet to find form unless there are seriously better options firing at VFL level.

There aren't. He'll stay at AFL level until he finds form and fitness.

2 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

For those of you not in Melbourne I can report that after a wet night, we are now bathed in glorious sunshine. From where I am (inner Melbourne) there's not a cloud in the sky. Hope it stays that way for the rest of the day.

It's still raining in Clayton and I've just heard it's snowing on Mt Buller!

1 minute ago, Kent said:

are we too tall for a wet game?

Possibly. Although that would be worse with BBB than Disco.

We could see Disco as sub still, leaving a winger (Windsor), a mid (Laurie), a forward (Sparrow) and a defender (Woey) on the bench.

Have we ever been as excited to see a player who was a mid season rookie draft selection and has played 3 games in 3 years, as we are excited to see Disco?

From what I've seen he looks the goods and I'm excited for him to play! I just reflect on how anti messiah he is.

5 hours ago, Demonland said:

2 Defenders as key forwards. What could possibly go wrong. 😜

That's still more key forwards than we had last year @Demonland!

12 hours ago, Binmans PA said:

Handy with Geelong and Carlton coming up that McAdam looks likely to play in those fixtures. I'd say that's what they targeted for his return from a ways out.

I think with him fit, he's going to add a real potency to our forward half and push real pressure for spots. 

Yeah bringing him back through the VFL this week, if he plays ok I'd expect to see him in for Geelong or Carlton at the latest if he has the fitness levels required.

I am expecting McAdam to play the defensive forward role on interceptors like Harris Andrews, which frees Petty and Fritsch to attack. So even though McAdam will probably replace a Tholstrup or Billings, it's a different role.

12 hours ago, The Swimming Dee said:

Drop one of the Pettys and add JVR

I assumed one of the draw cards of staying at Melbourne was playing with his brother

I don't want to put the mozz on us, but I feel like this kind of advanced discussion around a specific site are usually reserved for "this is going ahead, it's now just about the fine details" rather than "we are floating the idea to decide if possible or not".

5 hours ago, IRW said:

The Melbourne Football Club .

Conflating the Team with its supporters is like sixteen year old girls dressing up as Taylor Swift 

 

 

Genuine nuffy level comment.

It's a lack of nuance in the English language that it has only them and us (as opposed to other languages that have multiple words to describe groups that may or may not include the speaker, the reader, etc).

But if you really want to get technical and claim supporters aren't "part" of the club: as a company limited by guarantee, any paid up member is legitimately a member of the club, with voting rights and other rights under the constitution and therefore can quite correctly refer to themselves as part of the Melbourne Football Club. So "we" is entirely appropriate in most instances around here.

4 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

I'm a little concerned about the thumping of Port by the filth.

Port dominated the game early on but were seriously thumped later 

Okay the pies were fresh from a bye but has it exposed port as not being a top four team? There four wins were from lower tier teams .

And if port aren't that good a side it means our four wins have been from beating lowly sides.

I feel we are not the same team as the last three years and may struggle to make top four again.

 

 

 

At this point we are 2-1 against current top 8 teams and 2-1 against the current bottom 8 teams.

Given the loss against a current bottom 8 team was against one of last year's grand finalists and we were coming off a short break, and we've played interstate 3/6 matches, I think it's a reasonable start for the year. 

A long way to go, but difficult to infer too much given the length of the season. We certainly didn't want to be peaking in the first 6 rounds.

Just now, bing181 said:

Harley Reid. I know we offered two decent first-rounders, and not complaining about Windsor and Tholstrup ... but Reid is a generational talent. Two first round plus a second plus a future first wouldn't have been excessive. It's not just what he does, it's the way he does it and the impact that has on players around him.

, 

@bing181 that's basically what we put on the table out looks like. I'm not sure we could have offered much more. I reckon it needed to be 2 and 3 to get it done.

"Meanwhile the Demons, who have aggressively traded up in the order, put forward picks 6, 11, 42 and their future first-rounder in exchange for Pick 1."

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-draft-2023-west-coast-eagles-trading-away-pick-1-offers-rejected-north-melbourne-three-firstround-picks-melbourne-four-pick-offer-latest-news-harley-reid/news-story/67c96c9c712cb44dc87b3db0c1e06e28

8 hours ago, deespicable me said:

I'm not so sure. Your argument is sound enough and along with Dee Dee on the previous page you cover well the reasons the ground isn't open for training. the other one being the grounds people would prefer as little traffic as possible on the surface, but I still maintain it is very doable and it's your negative attitude that is the same as those in charge and the reason it doesn't happen. As with most things in life, things generally don't happen when there is no financial benefit to the people in charge.

Just open one gate and keep people in one area. Security could be covered mainly by cameras that are already in place and staffing wouldn't need to be a lot. I agree a lot of the training sessions wouldn't attract a lot of people but the lead in to Anzac Day and finals would and it is an iconic stadium, a chance to see players training there would be a very positive attraction for the game. 

I take your point that a can't do attitude is probably the biggest barrier!

What would be the benefit to clubs though?

If Melbourne could use the MCG to train, I reckon they'd prefer it to be a closed session, away from other eyes. The opportunity to test some things in secret and also time to work on full ground zones and positioning that is difficult on grounds with different dimensions.

Interaction with fans would be difficult, there is a large fence and supporters are back in the stands, in one pocket only. Whereas at Casey and Gosh's we can much more easily interact with the fans who attend, run parallel social activities and "fan activations" etc.

Im just not sure what the benefits are apart from "but it's the MCG".

4 minutes ago, Great Northern Summer said:

I cannot remember for the life of me the last time a player playing for a Victorian team requested a trade home to South Australia. Truly bizarre. Maybe Wanganeen? It just never really happens.

Scott Thompson?

I read an analysis last year that actually highlighted how rare any "return from Victoria to interstate" trades were, especially for first round picks.

Jackson is a genuine outlyer. Most are lower draft picks who don't make it at their original club and get shuffled home for a second chance (like Jimmy Toumpas).

1 minute ago, No. 31 said:

Probably. I took my young son to a pre-season open training session at Princes Park earlier this year and reckon there was about 3K attending and that was probably because of the ongoing optimism and good vibes of Carlton's second half of season 2023.

For any club rolling high there is always an opportunity or two for a big turn out.

For each club there may be two opportunities to have a large crowd. Preseason on a weekend. Finals during school holidays.

I just think it's fanciful to suggest that a training in May or June will get more than a few hundred just because it's at the G.

The cost of opening the G and staffing and security and clean up would be excessive, not something that could be handled by a gold coin donation and sales from a coffee cart.

4 minutes ago, No. 31 said:

About 6K turned up to an open training session at Parc des Princes last September to watch the Blues train in the lead up to the preliminary final.

Ok so you agree that that number is only feasible in the weeks leading up to a GF?

4 hours ago, deespicable me said:

I think the interstate sides get a pretty raw deal having to live out of hotels and fly every second week, so letting them train at the various stadiums they are going to play at that weekend is a good idea. We have just seen first hand the toll  travel and reduced time for recovery does to the squad, so any advantages given to interstate sides makes sense.

But what I think we should see is the same for Melbourne clubs at Melbourne Stadiums. I think fan engagement would be strong. At the start of each week the schedule for "training at the G" could go out and maybe even for a gold coin donation to charity there are regular training sessions that people could go to. There could be coffee carts etc and the clubs could make a big deal of it. Next week in the lead up to Anzac Day I think if marketed properly you could get 5 or 10,000 attending. The downside is staffing but I'm sure it could be doable.

Further teams should be able to train down at that sh*t-hole Kardinia Park

5k or 10k at training sounds nice but is a dream, unless it is Collingwood in grand final week.

You'd be lucky to get a few hundred at any given session.

8 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Take it to the Benkh?

Top tier.

1 minute ago, Gawndy the Great said:

I know, time to move on and all. It’s being highlighted now how Fagan used wingers and a double team to effectively negate Trac and effectively shut down our main scoring source. This to me is more explanatory of our performance than simply blame fatigue.

Im not great at identifying these things in game but multiple media sources have mentioned so I take it as somewhat reliable intel.

it is clear Goody wasn’t expecting it and also doesn’t have the cattle available to counteract it even if he did. Not having a fit and firing Oliver (and Kozzy and even Brayshaw) is probably what allowed Fagan to pull this off as you would otherwise move Trac more forward.

I think we can now expect this every week from now on. We have won many games with Trac not at his best, but more now than ever has our game plan (reliance on Trac) and midfield depth been thrown to the forefront. 
 

Don’t fool yourself, fatigue was not the issue. 

The best part about having a tactic thrown at you in round 5 is that you have all year to review and make plans to counter. 

I think it's fair to say there can be multiple factors involved. The players definitely looked flat. Was it fatigue or something else? Fatigue makes sense, and it was legitimately all of them. But that doesn't mean it was the only factor and I do think Fagan coached well tactically.

Their forward line movement did a fantastic job of dragging Lever out of position all day, and we just didn't or couldn't find a way to adjust our defensive structure on the day. As a result our overall zone really struggled to hold together.

Some of this could have been caused by:

- Oliver being down on form meaning they were getting easier ball than usual

- Lever out of position meaning we were less threatening on the intercept

- Salem injury meaning we were down on rotations, and also packing a senior leader to Marshall defence (with Lever dragged out of the D50 and Brayshaw retired we are very young back there. And add Bowey out, McDonald in, and the current group of defenders actually haven't played together a lot outside of the Lever/May combo)

- General fatigue meaning we didn't quite cover the ground we usually cover, combined with sub activated early.

We have historically held up well even under stress, so they did a good job to exploit the situation. From early stages the game looked like it was played on their terms.

6 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

Correct and you can only compare Cat B to other cat B. 

Honestly cat B should probably be replaced by giving each state league club scholarship funds to develop a bunch of athletes from other sports, Ireland, the NGAs at a semi pro level, as well as the best guys who miss the draft through bad luck not lack of talent.
 

Some kind of system where you give students and trade apprentices some form of extra payment/allowance and a couple of fitness and skill development sessions above the VFL norm. 

I’d rather give 100 guys 20 grand extra to work on their game than 20 guys getting 100 grand.

Those 100 guys are gonna go do something else though, not take the 20k and need to train 3 nights per week, plus do their own gym program plus play weekends.

VFL has a salary cap of about $220k (standalone, with 28 main players and 12 development players) and $110k (for AFL club aligned). They get paid bugger all, to have any chance of developing them they need to be full time.

1 hour ago, Diamond_Jim said:

More money from the AFL just like GWS and GCS etc.

AFL never makes hard decisions just like politicians. Too much backlash

GWS and GCS make sense as money pits though. They serve a purpose to grow the game in regions where they need extra media exposure. Being a two team town creates a local rivalry which makes the competition feel legitimate too (ie not a Vic comp with a single local presence).

Pumping money into North doesn't serve that purpose at the moment, and North must realise it isnt a viable long term solution.

Banking on the AFL being too weak to make a real decision is a short term solution based on current management,they must know things could change in an instant.