Swooper1987

Lamb knows how to handle himself in front of a camera. 18 years as a copper, a former Detective Sergeant, state crime squad. Nothing Twomey or any of the other media throw at him will phase him in the slightest. He'll have been on the receiving end of much bigger grillings from the judiciary than anything these guys could throw at him.

Nah, Laurie Fowler won 3 (75, 79-80) and a couple of other multiples - Wells and Alves. Flower was second in 79, 80, 82 and 83. Missed games in all but 1980, which was one of only 2 full seasons he played, the other being 1978. It's just a flawed system. Geelong had a system whereby the four lowest polling rounds were excluded for all players. That seems a pretty fair way to do it. Allows for games missed through injury to not unduly influence the result.

The Flower effect. Despite being universally regarded as our best player for most of his career, Robbie only won it once. Most seasons he'd miss a game or two. I agree.

Good point. Gawn averaged 19.3 votes per game, Viney 17.7. It does seem low, that our two best players over the season couldn't hit an average of 20 (50% of the available votes). Gawn's season especially was statistically the third best of his career. Seems quite harsh, doesn't it?

Agree. He sounded like a bloke who needs a break, a recharge and a reset.

Viney 407, Gawn 405, Nibbler 402. Both Viney and ANB played every game.

You have to play every game to win it unfortunately for Max. Clearly our best player all year but congratulations to Viney. Not his best season but our coaches obviously rated it. Never doubt his effort or commitment.

Will be a tight finish. Gawn missed two and half games in the back end. Viney wasn't great other than Gold Coast but didn't miss a match. Under the system MFC uses it's almost impossible to win this award if you don't play every game. Probably explains why Flower only managed the one over his career.

Heard the same, from a very well known and highly regarded former player who left the club following the 2021 flag. Gawn and Petracca are very much in alignment over the way the Oliver "issues" have been allowed to fester over a period of time.

It won't be Pert going. If Barrett is correct, and the review has uncovered player concerns about Oliver and his preferential treatment, on top of more behavioural concerns, Goodwin's position becomes almost untenable. The CEO, no doubt with board authority, is acting against the reported wishes of the Footy Department and the Head Coach. I don't see how that situation gets resolved. Or alternatively, most of what we are hearing is rubbish and it all goes away in a couple of weeks!

The greatest Melbourne player I have seen. My boyhood hero and the reason I became a Melbourne supporter as a young boy in the late 70's. As a team, we were a laughing stock, but we always had the great Rob Flower.

Top 10 in the AFLCA Votes for MFC 1. Gawn - 56 2. Petracca - 36 3. Pickett - 31 4. Viney - 30 5. Rivers - 24 6. May - 23 7. Lever - 17 8. McVee - 16 9. Neal-Bullen - 15 10. Langdon - 14

They would be the top 6, I'd imagine. TMac would be up there as well. Gawn should bolt it in but the vagaries of our system (up to 40 votes per game) means missing a couple of game scan be costly. Gawn received the most coaches votes for us by a comfortable margin for what that's worth.

Nah, he wasn't. His stats looked ok but once again, played like a little man in a big man's body. He had no impact. Rowbottom was actually their best player, and by some margin. Grundy just piled up a bunch of fairly irrelevant handballs and took the grand total of one contested mark for the game. The Lions would be stoked with Fort's game.

Impossible to judge the impact of McQualter this season. No Brayshaw, Oliver a shadow, Petracca half a season, much of which was spent forward, Viney struggled for large parts.

Suffered a terrible chest injury at the Demons very early in his career, and diagnosed with T1 diabetes at a similar time. Headed back to SA for very good reasons. Was an absolute stalwart for the Crows, runner up B&F in 2005 and an All Australian in 2006. Both seasons Adelaide were losing prelim finalists. His coaching record has been previously mentioned, needless to say it was highly successful. He'd be a great addition.

Plenty of great players have won it, and even more great players haven't won it. At least last century if you played in the ruck, or key position you had a chance of winning it. That's all gone now.

We would've won anywhere in 2021, and in fact proved it. We actually played in front of crowds most of the season. It was in fact as late a round 18 when crowds couldn't attend when we played Hawthorn in the drawn game. We the dropped one against the Dogs in front of nobody in round 19, then the bizarre game against Gold Coast where we flew up, sat on the tarmac and flew back again to play the GC at Marvel the next day (and [censored] them). Then over to Perth in front of a pretty hostile 32k crowd to play one of the longest games in league history with the lightning strike which forced the delay, then back to an empty G again to play Adelaide and then the final game against Geelong at the empty stadium. Then began the finals series firstly at Adelaide, in front of 14k people, then over to Perth for back to back wins in front of full houses both games. I would argue it was perhaps the most hard won premiership of all time. And the fact we did it so comprehensively in all finals shows just how good we were. Anywhere, anytime - that was the 21 Demons.

Grundy, for nearly all the last half of this season, is just a very ordinary player. In fact, he has really been nothing better than average since 2019. He was poor last night and was comprehensively cleaned up by Sweet. According to Champion Data ratings he is the 16th highest rated ruck in the competition this year. Absolutely do not understand the sense of loss from some on here. Good on him for being part of a GF side, but this Swans team isn't good because of him. Heeney, Warner, Gulden set them apart.

Reid is highly rated - and not just by Taylor. Said it in the pick 5 thread. He would be a great addition if we can land him.

Likely top half dozen in the Bluey this year. Just reward for a great servant.

Compelling viewing. Norm's raw emotion - not something you'd get much of in this day and age. "You went to a public(private) school, I went to a state school but we still spell principle the same way". Love it!

None of the teams they'd be playing in a prelim would be anywhere near as good as the Hawks of that era. If they make a prelim I reckon they make a GF!

They are a strong group of players, playing a very team oriented style and they show great discipline, which has surprised me given their captain has previously been one of the most undisciplined players in the competition. Credit to Mitchell and his coaching team, as well as the recruiting and list management group. They have done an exceptional job. With Day to hopefully return for them, they are a real chance of winning the whole thing. Great admiration for the way young Dear approaches the ball in the air. Those sorts of players are hard to find. Lucky we have one in JVR.

She's done a good job over an 11 year period as a board member. It's a different club from 2013 to now. Green is the right person to oversee the review, and maybe the right person for a longer term presidency. Time will tell.