deanox

They can have Goshes Paddock once the AFL help fund our new home base...

These things are always a bit odd, but this seems a good cause. If the cheers squad is driving it, I reckon they'll get some crowd support. If it's just some random trying to start it himself, well it'll be over pretty quickly!

If Jake Lever is allowed to be a roaming third man while his opponent sits 80m behind the play, I'm all for an opposition coach trying this strategy. I promise you that allowing teams to play 18 v 17, and hoping you get it out the back to the free man will not work. That being said, I do wonder if the "deepest" forwards should look to play aggressively. Making earlier and occassionally deeper runs behind the defenders to try to drag the defense out of shape. The best forwards move like this, you can see it at the ground.

Todd Patterson, our AFLW List Manager, has accepted a role as Head of List Management and Strategy for the new Tasmanian team. From the article he will be involved with their AFL, VFL, AFLW and VFLW lists. Todd has been with the dees for 8 years, including the last 6 as list manager,so has been a big part of our AFLWs program including building the list that won the 2022 premiership. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-05/tasmania-devils-afl-aflw-list-managers-recruited/105245970

Petty did cop one high early, so it's possible the second impact set him over. I read a study (a few years old now and from the NFL) where cumulative knocks during the same match/training session resulted in the individual impact threshold for concussions ll decreasing (basically after multiple knocks, it only took a small knock to concuss).

I thought this was pretty bad as he didn't seem have eyes for the ball and was watching Viney, and then got him with a round arm fist.

Melksham had eyes for the ball and protected the drop and took the mark. However, Reuben Ginbey pushed Petty directly into the oncoming contest of McGovern and Melksham despite not being in the contest himself. Ginbey had no possible way of marking that ball. He had lost the positioning battle to Petty who could have dropped in front of McGovern to attempt to mark. And when he lost that battle, he chose to simply push Petty to a) stop Petty taking the mark, and b) to make sure that his opponent (Petty) was off his feet/unbalanced while Ginbey remained ready to crumb off the pack. It's against the rules to push a player attempting to mark a ball if you aren't trying to mark yourself. Ginbey pushed Petty into oncoming traffic while not trying to win the ball, resulting in concussion of both McGovern and Petty. And Ginbey has priors for pushing players into oncoming traffic once he loses the contest - it resulted in Lalor breaking his jaw preseason.

Conversely, if Hawthorn beat Richmond today, they will have beaten 5 of the bottom 8 sides, with their only other win coming in Tasmania against the 8th placed GWS. And lost to PA and Geelong.

Reading our annual report from last year, it appears the Casey Demons FC is a subsidiary of the Melbourne Football Club (or something along those lines).

The upside is that we have only one short break in that period, with 7+ days every round except for the PA match.

Reality bus. Fugazi. The list goes on!

I'd rather a CEO who is a fantastic strategic thinker and overall business manager than a big footy person. More than half the staff at the MFC would work in commercial related departments, not in the footy department. Sure the purpose of the corporate services is to support the football department (including raising revenue to allow it to run) but the footy department is a relatively small part of the organisation. In my opinion if the CEO is regularly making football department decisions, then we would likely have a very inefficient organisation.

For all the discussion around lack of pace, according to the AFL app he had the top speed of any Melbourne player last night. I don't know how good those stats are, but my observations have been that it's his first few steps that are slow but once he has some space his coasting speed is ok. He also seems to have a knack for running angles in those first few steps that gives him more space.

He kicked 5 this week,that seems a pretty reasonable return.

melbournefc.com.auPisano plays onAlyssia Pisano has signed a new contract with the AFLW DemonsPisano extends until the end of 2027.

Ive wondered how much removing May/Lever from the backline helped us speed up the transition game as well. I think Lever can adapt, but I'm worried that May is too predictable and slow with ball in hand. I think Fritsch and JVR out of the forward line also helped, because they had been so stagnant they were encouraging the ball to come to them quickly.

May or Adams in for Turner. We need a tall KPD in to replace him. I actually think Howes plays better as a third tall, a bit like Marty Hore. Rather than as a tall small. For a lot of Saturday he was picking up Amiss (from memory), which was probably as a second tall once Turner went down. I don't think McVee replaces that role.

We equalled our highest score for the year by half time.

In the first half particularly, Spargos movement was instrumental in creating space in the forward line. He won't be dropped.

JVR and Petty are miles ahead of Fullarton in terms of skill and quality, and both have way more upside. Remember Fullarton has a lot of exposed form at Brisbane in AFL and at VFL level, and the calls for his inclusion are based off 2 strong VFL performances only. Spargo is a 100 game AFL player who has strong decision making, particularly going by foot inside F50. Sure he is not a superstar, and he isn't a lock selection at all times. But he brings significant attributes we are lacking otherwise and his selection is ahead of players like Laurie and Billings. Sharp has brought significant speed and endurance to the squad, attribute lack particularly with the loss of ANB. Again he may not be a lock but I can see why he is playing ahead of Laurie, Billings, etc.

The way I see it is you can easily rank all players on our list in terms of ability. At some point, you draw a line and the players above that line are AFL quality. Basically they are never getting dropped because they are simply too good for VFL. e.g. Max, Trac, May, Lever. Below that line are a group of players who are borderline AFL. They'll be in the team unless really out of form, and as you go down this list, the less likely you will be of being selected any given week. Then there is another line, and below that are depth or development players, basically players who are not yet anywhere near AFL standard. Now these players have the capacity to play really well at VFL but that doesn't mean they will be able to perform at AFL, the jump is massive. So these players often need to display more than 2 good games at VFL to get promoted. They need a long term, rich vein of form, that demonstrates their skills and characteristics have changed, and they are now worth a try at AFL level. This is why some players come straight back in and others don't get dropped even when out of form.

The next option is a debutant, Jed Adams. Then Marty Hire is an undersized option but he is out with a calf inury. Lever would be in the team if he wasn't injured.

We've played 30 players already this year. After today WCE will have 32 (3 first for the season today due to injuries). St Kilda have played 29, Freo 28 and everyone else is between 24-27. We've played 5 debutants plus Sharp. I'm not sure there has been many other options when it comes to cattle to put on the park.

Pretty hard to circle the boundary down there. It's more like a drag race with two straights either side of the "oval" where the wings should be.

I've been looking to try to work out numbers at the contest and it didn't appear we were doing that on Saturday. When I watched, both teams seemed to play one behind the ball. That being said, numbers around the contest weren't always even (side by side). So it was a bit like both teams were playing +1 at the contest, but on the fat/skinny side. I thought our stoppage setups looked a bit awkward at times, with the loose player not in the right spot (boundary line side). But I didn't watch consistently to see if this was a pattern.