deanox

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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".

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.

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.

@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

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".

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).

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.

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

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.

Top tier.

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.

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.

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.

Saints 2-3 Adelaide 1-4 Hawthorn 0-5 Bulldogs 2-3 North 0-5 For comparison we're 4-2 and our opponents are 13-17. Swans 4-1 Bulldogs 2-3 Hawks 0-5 Port 4-1 Adelaide 1-4 Brisbane 2-3

It's tough and if it was us I would have been screaming and now I'd be broken. But you're right. 1 or 2 too many teams in Victoria for long term. And bringing in a Tassie team kills their Tassie connection, and their sponsorship including the AFLW opportunity. I would like to know what their strategy is to stay viable.