Lord Nev

The problem has been for a while though that the ruck dominance hasn't been translating into clearances.

Goodwin in an article today: "He looks like he's on track to be back around round three or round four, but we won't push that" Why injured recruit 'can become an even better player' at Dees

I don't even have a twitter account, but it's not that much harder to go to the MFC's twitter than it is to go to their website.

Far out guys. It was a VFL practice match. Settle down. Plenty of updates pointed to by the club.

Definitely hear what you're saying mate, and I'm the same in that regard. I think that kind of autocratic way of doing things went out of AFL clubs during the colorful 80s, or at least that's when it began. Personally, I think having people like Matt Whelan and Mark Williams involved (and previously people like McCartney, Cross etc) shows we try and take a broad view of player management and the different approaches needed. But again, to me I see player management as a separate thing from culture. Individuals with a collective mindset and selfless attitude towards achieving their goals is how I would define culture.

I think people conflate 'culture' with things like people management, off field behaviour and the like when it's not really what it means. You've read into the story by Jordan Lewis that culture is about 'obedience' and 'generational management', but to me it's more an indicator of how little things like the state of the dressing room can be an indicator of the overall attitude of the group. To me, it shows an attention to detail, a care for others and a sense of togetherness. Those are good indicators of a selfless culture in my opinion. Culture is in no way linked to any sense of 'totalitarianism' or 'individual freedom'. A group having a collective mindset does not mean that group can't have individual personalities and individual management styles.

Win 4 flags...

Dug up an old quote from 4x premiership player, former Demon and current MFC assistant coach (that relevant enough?): "When I got to Melbourne, that difference in environment was really evident. It was so ingrained at Hawthorn that we almost took it for granted. I would walk into the locker room and it would be a bit messy, but I’d come from a place where there was not allowed to be anything showing. It gave off a feeling of professionalism, and that was one thing I picked up on. You try to voice your opinion, but if they haven’t had it ingrained in them, people go, “Well, how is a clean locker room going to help me perform?” That’s hard to get across to a group that hadn’t really had that around for a long time. It took a bit of transitioning." Culture shock: How to get it right on and of the field

I reckon we've seen every emotion other than anger from this group over the last few years. Viney and May possibly aside, the only thing you ever see from our players is either jokes and smiles or head down sad sacks who come back a day later full of promises again. We get it, they have to say stuff, articles have to be written etc, but these words just ring so so empty to Dees fans.

I think captain's day is today, so that would possibly explain no Max.

Not a fan of the bloke, but hard to argue... “The problem is the culture’s all wrong. Which is the biggest-name player that’s ever been dropped at Melbourne? I can’t think of one. Because it’s soft, a soft culture they’ve got. “What’s got to happen is if the actual coaching staff and the people on the board don’t stand up and start to build a culture of this football club – it’s been 50, 60 years since they’ve won a Grand Final … and they’re still the same. Have they improved? Or have they got worse?” Asked who’s responsible for helping flip the club’s fortunes, Maclure said: “I think the players are. If you want to play at that footy club, you’ve got to stand up and set some standards for yourself. “Max Gawn is the captain of this joint – why isn’t he doing it? Why aren’t the senior players getting together and talking about it and actually putting your hand up if you made a mistake instead of actually running away from mistakes and saying ‘that’s just Melbourne’?” ‘Stand up and set some standards’: Mark Maclure urges Dees players to help fix ‘soft culture’

Depends how they judge it exactly. 12 days from the time he got injured in the Dogs game would take us to after the end of the Freo game if they count it in that way.

"I can't believe the woke 'cancel cultured' my ability to keep slaves, imprison homosexuals and beat women!" - All the triggered snowflakes in this thread probably.

Go to bed.

TBF if they even do judge it like that it's only out by a matter of hours. Incredibly unlucky if it happens.

12 days would take us to about 5.30pm Saturday 20th. Our game starts at 1.45pm on that day. Reckon he'd miss if it was concussion.

More bad than good as a big picture, but IMO the positives would be: - May continuing his great form. - Lever looking like he's about to peak. - ANB some good moments as a linkup player and among the goals. - Chandler managed to snag one. Chance for round 1 maybe.

Beating the premiers not good enough for ya? Far out, bit less caffeine for some of you blokes I reckon.

I know we're footy starved, but let's keep things in perspective given it's a preseason game with a ton of our best players out. Not time to panic, yet anyway.

Kid just lost his Mum, has come back from interstate and playing his first bit of footy for the year. Shut up.

Yes, "toughen up" is working out great as a life philosophy for the over 2,500 men who commit suicide each year.

Yeah, definitely a long shot, and agree he might not have the tank for the wing, which is why I'd would just try him out high hf with some periods on the wing. We've been bemoaning our forward delivery and long bombs for so long and I understand we had back half turnovers to worry about too, but the backline feels safer now so would be keen to get some of Salem's short kicks going inside 50, particularly once we have Ben Brown in there leading hard.

Managed to complete your day pretty early today mate. Kudos.

Still got (albeit slim) hopes of seeing Salem used maybe high hf/sometimes wing, so keen to see how the backline goes today without him there.