titan_uranus

Cal Twomey’s article suggests the rationale to cutting it off as early as possible is to allow lower league clubs to know who is actually going to be playing for them, without fear that at any minute their players might be picked up by an AFL club. Surely the end of February/start of March isn’t too early for leagues which don’t start until the end of March? And even if it is, surely today (for example) is practically no different to Friday, but allows us and the other clubs who had their practice matches on Saturday to get in before the cut off?

He obviously can’t given who he’s employed by, but tbh I think he’s conceding as much with the word “quirk”. It was so obviously foreseeable.

The official AFL website is running a fan survey, with a bunch of respectful questions on there, like this one… Guess they forgot the “none of them” option…?

As much as the result is pleasing given we had 10-12 best 22 out and they had maybe 2 out, it was a practice match so the result is largely meaningless. For those who were able to watch, I’m far more interested in our game plan - how did we set up, did we press high, how did we move the ball, etc?

His reasoning was, as usual, not bullet proof. Cornes said he’d rule Port Adelaide out and King said he wouldn’t rule them out because Butters, JHF and Rozee might all go berserk and that might be enough, despite them being weak both in the backline and the forward line. Surely similar logic applies to us with, say, Trac, Clarry and Gawn?

Is it just me or is this clip not doing the rounds on Demonland already?

So it could be be a Cometti favourite - the third of two options (Henderson over both Culley and George)

Pretty damning interview. I applaud his honesty tbh. But it’s abundantly clear that he wants out. I suppose we have 6 months to convince him to change his mind.

The timing of this match is the sort of thing that needs to be raised at the AGM. Why are we embarrassing ourselves and our hardworking volunteers? Is there a good reason? I certainly can’t think of a good reason for a Friday afternoon timeslot in school term. The McAdam injury is devastating given his changed fitness and attitude this pre-season. Only serves to compound the frustration that comes with Pickett’s suspension.

That’s what you took from that? It’s arguably (maybe inarguably) the most open/candid interview he’s ever given. Which may not be saying much given he’s renowned for being a deadpan closed book, but makes the interview insightful all the same.

In part three, Goodwin on Oliver: The Demons have spoken privately with Oliver and admitted he should not have been floated in any trade scenarios with rival clubs last year without telling him first. Oliver, 27, was blindsided when he discovered in the media the Demons had raised his name with Adelaide, prompting the gun midfielder to have his own talks with Geelong last year. The messy saga continued a difficult year for the Demons, but Goodwin said the club had worked hard with Oliver to wipe the slate clean and prime him physically to help rediscover his best. Goodwin said he shared “an incredibly close relationship” with the brilliant ballwinner and was adamant Oliver was all-in on helping drive the Demons forward after a tough end to last year. “It was certainly uncomfortable how things played out publicly last year, but Clayton is really aware of how much I love him and how proud I am of the journey he has been on,” Goodwin told the Herald Sun. “And just how much the whole club loves him and how much we want him to be part of the footy club. “I have known him for 10 years and we have ridden the ups and downs and it has been a hell of a journey. “But right now we are writing a new path and from all of the conversations I have had with him he is as engaged as anyone. He loves his teammates, and he wants to be part of something (special) again. “He holds the pen for the new chapter as we all do.” At his best, the four-time best-and-fairest winner and 2021 AFL Coaches Association player of the year is one of most dynamic clearance-winners in the game. But Goodwin said fans should not expect Oliver to be at full power straight away as he continues to build fitness and touch after a challenging 12 months. He played 21 games last season but did not finish inside the top-10 of the best and fairest, indicating how much ground he has to make up after some personal issues, in part, wiped out last pre-season. “He has missed a lot of footy and a lot of training and this is what this whole pre-season has been about, connecting him back to the game, and getting him ultimately back to his best,” he said. “I think that will take some time, so we need to temper our expectations a little bit in terms of where he will be initially. “There are some challenges, but there are also a lot of opportunities. “We are confident if we keep working with him he will get to where he wants to get to and as part of that it is about being a great teammate.”

On himself: Goodwin married his partner, Kristine Brooks, who is the Australian boss of investment group Milford, in front of family and friends in Bali over Christmas, and said he has “never been happier”. “I feel as light as I’ve ever felt. It’s been a tough period,” he said. “To have the things spoken about me personally has been tough. “I’m (now) happily married. It was an incredible time with the family. “I put myself out there with my (all-white) outfit, clearly. I walked out there (for the wedding ceremony) and my brother said ‘What number are you batting?’ And then I walked a little bit further down the aisle and Bernie Vince said ‘Are you playing bowls for Stansbury?’ (laughing) “So I’ve never been happier. I feel fresh and I’m enjoying coaching as much as I ever have and hopefully everything is all behind us. “Hopefully, in time, people will see the person I am and we can all move forward.”

On this year: So, what are the internal expectations in 2025? “Just to get our days right, get our training right and just continue to be open to exploring new ways of doing things,” he said. “We want to build a clear identity in our game style, but we want to be able to win multiple different ways. That is the challenge for every team – to do everything well. “I want our fans to see changes in the way we move the ball but also in the way we defend because the reality is we weren’t good at any phase of the game last year.” But before they could whip the Sherrins out to start the pre-season, Melbourne headed to Bright in north-east Victoria for a bonding camp run by mindset master Ben Crowe. The tumult of the end of last season had to be addressed. When Petracca and Oliver considered their futures for different reasons at the end of 2024, it was unclear if Melbourne was a fully united football club. And any remaining cracks are always going to be exposed when the on-field pressure comes in the new season. Not ducking the question, Goodwin said “there was some healing that needed to be done”. So in the Bright team meetings, players opened up about not only last year, but the past few years, and emotions came to the fore. “It took a lot of vulnerability from a lot of players, and a lot of vulnerability from staff, myself included,” he said. But there is no point in training for football if you can’t start that process of reconnecting and for us, the healing. “Ben (Crowe) had worked with a lot of teams and some elite athletes around the world and he was unbelievable. He has been a constant in our pre-season. “We would do some things differently last year and there have been some learnings we would all take a lot from it. So we were able to express all that and move forward. “There were some conversations that needed to be had, but we can’t live in the past. “We hold the pen to write the next chapter and we will hold that pen and we will write. “That will be our theme for the year.” “But the question is how do we do it? I think we are all excited by that part and the new ideas that we are exploring”.

On the gameplan: But it won’t be the same long-down-the-line tactics that drove Melbourne in 2021-23, and returned for the second half of last year. In the most candid interview of his coaching career, Goodwin said he made an error zigzagging in game style last year, leaving the team “confused”. At the start of last season, the Demons changed up their ball movement in a bid to find the forward-half efficiency it needed to be successful in September. In the 2023 finals series, the Demons had 32 more inside-50s than Collingwood and eight more scoring shots than Carlton and lost both games in heartbreaking fashion. “We would have more inside-50s but lose. That was the consistent theme at Melbourne, which is frustrating because we did a lot right,” Goodwin said. “So you start to scratch for the five per cent extra.” So the Demons changed the game plan for 2024 and enjoyed a strong start, winning seven of their first nine games. But they were belted by a combined 127 points by West Coast and Fremantle in rounds 11 and 13. And that is when the Melbourne coaching staff blinked. To stop the bleeding on the scoreboard, Goodwin brought back key parts of the old 2021 premiership game style after the round 15 mid-season bye. In hindsight, it was a mistake. “In the middle part of the year we got a little bit wonky,” he said. “We lost some personnel and we lost a few games really badly and we were totally uncompetitive and it was un-Melbourne-like. “Belted by Fremantle by 92 points, lost to West Coast in Perth by 35 points. “Similar to players, coaches are no different, we get nervous. We lose confidence. “At that point we asked ourselves, how do we help this team become more competitive? “So we went back to a little bit of what we knew. And in hindsight that (old method) probably wasn’t the best way to go. “We were more competitive yes, but we were still losing games. We don’t evolve. We don’t improve and we don’t get better. We don’t grow as a team, as a group, as a club. “If I had my time again, I would have continued down the path of exploring that different way of playing and that is the learning. And that is really what our summer has been about. Keep exploring, keep looking at different ways, for better ways.”

In today’s second part: “The club has had a heavy cloud over it,” Goodwin said. “Rightly or wrongly, there has been a real heaviness and it seeps into your footy club. “As much as you just want to try to showcase the game and get better, the reality is you are distracted. “That goes for everyone at the footy club. You are distracted by how you are seen externally because of the issues that are going on. “You feel it, you live it. Your friends talk about it. Your family talks about it. You read it every day. You listen to it. As much as you want to avoid it, it is reality. You feel heavy. You feel a little bit sad. You feel a little bit embarrassed in terms of how your footy club is spoken about. “And that is what is great right at this moment, because there is clear air. There is a freshness. “We get a chance to feel the energy in our football club again.” As part of the review recommendations, Melbourne players are spending less time at the club, and are given more flexibility to complete their recovery in their own time this year. There is more trust at Melbourne. More player empowerment. More lightness in the locker room. It has been the most criticised club culture in the AFL, but Goodwin says a fresh start has helped create “a place of belonging” where everyone at Melbourne “celebrates what each individual brings to the team”. “We were all feeling heavy and I didn’t like that environment,” he said. “We needed to make coming to the club more enjoyable and that is why this is a new chapter.”

“Kysaiah Pickett has been texting his mates who play for Fremantle telling them he will be in Dockers colours next year. That is a fact as he prepares to head west for the frenzy that will be created by his Indigenous All-Stars appearance next week. To suggest anything more is pure conjecture as multiple clubs try to get to the bottom of the enigma that is the 23-year-old Demons’ matchwinning premiership player. Fresh from a fourth placing in Melbourne’s best-and-fairest last year, Pickett has been in Darwin in recent days – a city he would ideally call home, if only the city had an AFL team. Instead, Pickett lives in Melbourne after spending his childhood across two states – an early stint in Western Australia before living with relative Byron Pickett in Adelaide, before being drafted to Victoria. Once again this summer, Pickett has been at the forefront of headlines over a move to the Dockers, fanning the flames after liking a social media post about a potential move. Melbourne is used to this predicament – Pickett spends time with rival AFL players outside Victoria during the off-season; they whisper sweet nothings about him playing alongside them. Last year it was Port Adelaide that came hard, given the links to good mate Quinton Narkle, after the Cats’ midfielder was signed by the Power in the 2023 mid-season draft. Only time will tell whether 2025 is Groundhog Day or something much more substantial. Narkle has since moved to play with Fremantle. Pickett is also friends with new Dockers recruit Shai Bolton and Michael Walters as well as his Demons’ premiership teammate Luke Jackson. Narkle’s partner, Taylah Cubillo, is the sister of Pickett’s partner Ardu Cubillo. Both couples have been blessed with children since August 2023, which has only strengthened the bond. But there is no guarantee Narkle will be at the Dockers in 2026, with both couples keen to end up back in Darwin post-football no matter where the players finish their playing careers. Fremantle and West Coast have made clear their interest in Pickett across the years – and recently – as the Demons rebuffed any trade prospects when the small forward told coach Simon Goodwin he was, at times, homesick in their exit meeting last year. So Melbourne will wrap its arms around him with support again and hope when his three-week AFL suspension expires, he again falls back in love with the city and the club. If the season turns pear-shaped, there is some chance he could officially ask for a trade, but the Demons could just as easily rebuff it. There are no guarantees. He shares a strong friendship with Goodwin, but the senior coach is not certain to be at the club past this season. He is hugely motivated for the Indigenous game in WA, but that three-week ban is problematic because it is hard to get up for a season in which his first game for Melbourne is on April 4. The very best-case scenario is Pickett helps lead this team towards a deep finals run that allows the Demons to hold firm on a contract through to 2027. But Melbourne has perhaps its three most talented players in Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver and Pickett all under a degree of doubt about their futures past this season. Oliver and Petracca seem motivated to prove their critics wrong and Melbourne would reason that Pickett has always performed despite uncertainty about his future. So that flurry of texts to his Dockers mates could mean everything or nothing, depending on how the Demons’ season of reckoning pans out across the next eight months.“

Not sure what we can take out of a Youtube video of highlights of a January match sim, but surely I’m not the only one who watched that and thought I saw a totally different Clarry to the one I saw in 2024?

I don’t really understand why this is being reported now. However, it’s not entirely surprising, although every time it comes up there is a report about how much he loves living in Melbourne. I suppose the best we can do is have a great year (off-field more than on-field tbh) so that he feels like he wants to stay.

Damn it, entered holiday mode last week and forgot to do my tips, after finally a year in which I did OK! Bengals, Chargers, Vikings for this week.

Lions, Rams, Vikings

It's largely available in an unlocked article on The Age: AFL 2024: Melbourne Demons would not have returned Christian Petracca to field after King’s Birthday Clash "Richardson said there were lessons for the competition when asked about the club’s response to the incident at the Demons’ annual general meeting on Tuesday night. “The athlete has a fair bit of say in what happens there. I reckon that will be something that probably will get looked at, not just from our footy club but in the AFL going forward … they are just competitive beasts who want to get out and play and that carries a lot of weight. How much weight should that carry?” Richardson said. “My understanding is that incident will continue to get investigated … we will want to get better as an industry, not just from our football club... “It was a really difficult situation for our medical team. It has basically never happened before. He then went to the next hospital and they didn’t diagnose it properly. So that gives you an understanding of how difficult it was... “The doctors, with the evidence they had at the time, did the right thing. In hindsight, would we do something different if we knew the extent of the injury? Of course, he would not have gone back out on the ground,” Richardson said. “We will always put player safety first from a coaching perspective … we just get out of the way. That’s the doctor’s call.” And then Goodwin: Coach Simon Goodwin said he had been “blown away” by how Petracca had returned to the club. “He is really connected with his teammates and is driving really high-quality training sessions,” he said.

Agree - Peter Ryan has developed what I think is now a habit of being condescending towards us (Andrew Wu is another Age journalist who seems to be going down that route). The reference to "a couple of Gawny darts", the Jordan Lewis "joke", even the last line which invites us to "Pop the question" as if Hawthorn are sitting there waiting for poor old us to go over and ask them to the dance or something. All completely unnecessary but seem to be par for the course with certain journos now.

Chiefs, Bengals, Ravens

Saints, Bills, Bengals