Ausrak

Peter Jackson must be laughing at the farce. Having turned the MFC from a basket case to on the right path to its first grand final win in 57 years, he reportedly warned the club about Gary Pert (Josh Mahoney being his well documented choice to be his successor) and was ignored. Now the club has turned full circle back to basket case, with Gary Pert reported to be shopping around one of the greatest footballers to ever pull on the MFC jumper in Clayton Oliver. Totally bizarre. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/75468/jackson-to-retire-as-melbourne-ceo https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/125361/melbourne-announce-gary-pert-as-next-ceo

I posted this at half time in the match day thread: "Grundy being exposed. One trick pony (blocking opposition ruckman at centre bounce). Time for him to grow a pair, jump and tap the ball to the advantage of Sydney's gun midfielders. Grundy's centre bounce tactic playing right into Brisbane's hands." And, in response to someone who said he has been the Swans best player, "OK around the ground. Liability at centre bounces. There will be no bang, bang, bang if he keeps just blocking the opposition ruckman!" Fort 19 hitouts (4 clearances), Grundy 36 hitouts (7 clearances). Centre clearances Sydney 13, Brisbane 15. AFL match report. Best Sydney: Rowbottom, Florent, Fox, Gulden, Parker Brisbane: Neale, Ashcroft, Lohmann, Ah Chee, Daniher, McCluggage Grundy was part of the problem, not the solution.

OK around the ground. Liability at centre bounces. There will be no bang, bang, bang if he keeps just blocking the opposition ruckman!

Grundy being exposed. One trick pony (blocking opposition ruckman at centre bounce). Time for him to grow a pair, jump and tap the ball to the advantage of Sydney's gun midfielders. Grundy's centre bounce tactic playing right into Brisbane's hands.

Two key factors when assessing players are ability and competitiveness. The last few years MFC has made mistakes in talent identification. Once you've recruited players, you also need to develop them. Unfortunately, no amount of development will help E graders (non-competitive is non-competitive). It is very rare that a new young player comes in and is an A grader (Caleb Windsor). The others generally start at D until they develop physically and mentally and adjust to the step up to AFL level (speed of the game, team defence, running patterns etc.). The MFC list needs growth from the D and C graders, and hopefully adds another A grader with its first pick in the 2024 national draft. Losing Angus Brayshaw and Alex Neal-Bullen leaves a void at the top end of the talent list. Whoever is in charge of recruitment and development, there is a hell of a lot of work to do. No Name Rookie Ability and competitiveness Notes 11 Gawn, Max A 1 May, Steven A 13 Oliver, Clayton A Underperformed in 2024 due to well documented issues 5 Petracca, Christian A Injured due to Darcy Moore knee 36 Pickett, Kysaiah A 6 Windsor, Caleb A 10 Brayshaw, Angus B Retired due to Brayden Maynard hit in 2023 finals 15 Langdon, Ed B 8 Lever, Jake B 30 Neal-Bullen, Alex B Requested trade to Adelaide Football Club 35 Petty, Harrison B Underperformed in 2024 due to limited preparation following serious foot injury/surgery 24 Rivers, Trent B 3 Salem, Christian B Underperformed in 2024 due to injuries/lack of continuity 2 van Rooyen, Jacob B 7 Viney, Jack B 17 Bowey, Jake C Needs to keep working hard to try to push up to a B 50 Brown, Ben C Long term knee injury. Retired 37 Chandler, Kade C Needs to keep working hard to try to push up to a B 31 Fritsch, Bayley C Needs to keep working hard to try to push up to a B (chasing, tackling etc. = competitiveness) 12 Hunter, Lachie C Soft tissue injuries. 1 more season left? 25 McDonald, Tom C Contracted for 2025. 1 more season left? 4 McVee, Judd Rookie C Needs to keep working hard to try to push up to a B 18 Melksham, Jake Rookie C Contracted for 2025. 1 more season left? 29 Smith, Joel C Uncontracted. Sport Integrity Australia investigation ongoing? 9 Spargo, Charlie C Injured throughout 2024. Fully fit next season? 32 Sparrow, Tom C Needs to keep working hard to try to push up to a B 42 Turner, Daniel C Needs to keep working hard to try to push up to a B 41 Brown, Kynan Rookie D Contracted for 2025. Needs to keep working hard to try to push up to a C 27 Hore, Marty Rookie D Uncontracted 22 Howes, Blake D Needs to keep working hard to try to push up to a C 16 Laurie, Bailey D Needs to keep working hard to try to push up to a C 45 Moniz-Wakefield, Andy Cat B D Contracted for 2025. Needs to keep working hard to try to push up to a C 39 Tholstrup, Koltyn D Needs to keep working hard to try to push up to a C 20 Tomlinson, Adam D Unrestricted free agent 40 Woewodin, Taj D Needs to keep working hard to try to push up to a C 14 Billings, Jack E 23 McAdam, Shane E 19 Schache, Josh E Delisted 26 Adams, Jed U Untried 44 Kentfield, Luker U Contracted for 2025. Untried 43 Farris-White, Kyah Cat B U Untried. Delisted 33 Fullarton, Tom U Untried 21 Jefferson, Matthew U Untried 38 Sestan, Oliver Rookie U Contracted for 2025. Untried 28 Verrall, Will Rookie U Contracted for 2025. Untried

A Farcical League. Too many games being decided by incompetent umpiring decisions. Steven May mark in the last quarter not paid. If it was correctly paid (see mark paid to Oscar McInerney earlier in the game) then we win the game. If Trent Rivers changed his name to Harley Reid or Nick Daicos then his goal would have not been disallowed. We win the game. A Melbourne player is penalised for running more than 15 meters (see above), yet marks are continually paid to Brisbane for kicks that travel less then 15 metres. Collingwood were gifted the Preliminary final last year when the umpires ignored a number of high contact free kicks to GWS in the last few minutes of the game. The executive general manager of football came out after the game and said umpires are not going to pay free kicks that are not there. Despite these worrying signs I made a conscious decision to give A Farcical League one more season, but the pace of decline has only accelerated this year. A fish rots from the head, and the game stinks. No longer worth investing any time/money/effort in it. RIP AFL.

We did not play well enough to win the game. BTW, rules state that "No Player can enter this area". Umpire sees JHF enter the prohibited zone, says "Jason, Jason". Surely that should have been a free kick?

B Graeme Yeats Steven May Matthew Whelan HB Jake Lever David Neitz Brett Lovett C Robert Flower Gerard Healy Stephen Tingay HF Garry Lyon David Schwarz Christian Petracca F Sean Charles Allen Jakovich Kysaiah Pickett R Max Gawn Clayton Oliver Todd Viney I Jim Stynes Martin Pike Adem Yze Alan Johnson Emergencies: Sean Wight (for Graeme Yeats), Neville Jetta (for Matthew Whelan), Steven Febey (for Jake Lever), Jeff Farmer (for Sean Charles), Bayley Fritsch (for Adem Yze). If we didn't get rid of Martin Pike after 2 seasons he'd be in the starting line up in place of Stephen Tingay. Great player, tough and skillful.

Best 22 B Trent Rivers Steven May Michael Hibberd HB Jake Lever Harrison Petty Christian Salem C Ed Langdon Christian Petracca Tom McDonald HF Jayden Hunt Sam Weideman Bayley Fritsch F Kysaiah Pickett Ben Brown Luke Jackson R Max Gawn Clayton Oliver Jack Viney I Jake Bowey James Harmes Tom Sparrow Jay Lockhart Back up/Development B Deakyn Smith Joel Smith Marty Hore HB Neville Jetta Adam Tomlinson Bailey Laurie C Aaron Vandenberg Angus Brayshaw Oskar Baker HF Jake Melksham Mitch Brown Toby Bedford F James Jordon Majak Daw Kade Chandler R Austin Bradtke Nathan Jones Alex Neal-Bullen I Charlie Spargo Fraser Rosman Aaron Nietschke

My list changes for 2021: Retire: Nathan Jones, Neville Jetta (both had excellent careers). Trade: Angus Brayshaw (can only play as an inside mid and often turns the ball over by either hand or foot). Trade for another player or a second round draft pick. Looking at the entire current list as "best 22" and then "back up/development" you could make a case for delisting most of the "back up/development" players (we don't bat very deep!). I would have Jay Lockhart, Adam Tomlinson, Marty Hore and Braydon Preuss as game day emergencies for my "best 22". Tom McDonald in my best 22 on a wing. Am I mad!?!? He is supposed to be one of the best endurance runners at the club, so if he was fully fit I'd play him on the wing for some gut running ala Langdon, and use him as a down the line chop out option (freeing up Max Gawn to work more up and down the middle of the ground as an attacking option). If he can't get fit (he looks to have lost some mobility after his knee injury last season) then it could be better to explore trade options. Best 22 B Trent Rivers Steven May Michael Hibberd HB Jake Lever Harrison Petty Christian Salem C Ed Langdon Christian Petracca Tom McDonald HF Jayden Hunt Sam Weideman Bayley Fritsch F Kysaiah Pickett Luke Jackson Mitch Hannan R Max Gawn Clayton Oliver Jack Viney I James Harmes Aaron vandenBerg Oskar Baker Tom Sparrow Back up/Development B Jay Lockhart Oscar McDonald Josh Wagner HB Corey Wagner Adam Tomlinson Marty Hore C Harley Bennell James Jordon Kade Kolodjashnij HF Jake Melksham Mitch Brown Alex Neal-Bullen F Charlie Spargo Joel Smith Toby Bedford R Braydon Preuss Kyle Dunkley Aaron Nietschke I Austin Bradtke Kade Chandler

Some good points on this thread. Point noted about trading out too much depth. 25% list turnover in 1 year is drastic (rebuild!!), so the 12 players I identified would ideally be phased out over 2 years (6 this year and 6 next year, depending on performances and length of contracts etc.) Regarding trading Angus Brayshaw. He gets a lot of the ball when playing in his preferred position of inside midfielder, but is often sloppy with his disposal and turns the ball over. If we could get a first round draft pick for him I’d take it. Perhaps Carlton (support for Patrick Cripps) or Fremantle (join his brother Andrew) would be interested? Unfortunately Carlton’s first 2019 National draft pick is tied to Adelaide’s finishing position! That would give us 2 first round draft picks (our first round 1 National draft picks since 2015 when we picked up Oliver and Weideman). Petracca shows glimpses of his talent but has never really dominated a game, so I can understand people being frustrated with him. I’d stick with him, but if we did trade him and get a future first round pick it could be good business (thus going into the 2020 National draft with 2 first round draft picks). The only untouchables from a trade point of view for me are Gawn, Oliver, Lever, May, Salem, though I’d be happy to retain all of my best 22 that I posted earlier. From a playing point of view I just think we need to be at the pointy end of the draft so that we can land someone like Connor Rozee, Aaron Naughton, Tim Taranto etc. There is always a risk (Morton, Toumpas) but we did well with our last crack at it in 2015. From a football department point of view there are other areas of concern to address, one being our inability to adapt to the new 666 starting positions (a key part of our excellent month of football at the end of 2018 was starting with 1 or 2 off the back of the square). Another is the expectation that winning the contest and winning the clearances wins games of football. It can help but doesn’t guarantee it; at the end of the day football is won or lost on the scoreboard. From what I have seen when attending training any goal kicking practice is performed in as far from match like conditions as possible. Sure you can never fully replicate the pressure experienced on game day, but at least you can replicate some of the physical attributes like a gut busting 100m run to get into a goal scoring position to take a mark and then go back and have a shot at goal.