Lord Nev

We have nailed the art of the lifeless corporate speak as a club. From the top down.

Selections from an article in the Herald Sun... The Demons have shown some interest but are unlikely to part with more than a late draft pick to nab the speedster. Melbourne is also not prepared to overpay for Polec who signed a bumper deal to move from Port Adelaide to North Melbourne at the end of 2018. Melbourne is in the market for some more speed and polish to complement its hard nut midfield brigade as Simon Goodwin’s men attempt to break back into the top-eight next season. Polec could help improve the Demons’ delivery and finishing skills in the forward half of the ground but Melbourne haven’t made any promises to him. It means that while Polec is on the Dees’ radar, he is not seen as a must-have in the November exchange period. The Demons are likely to try and meet with Polec and establish his intentions for next season and seek feedback on where things broke down at North Melbourne.

Did he really just say 'the learnings we've learnt....'?

Maybe I'm a classic Melbourne supporter, but hearing him mention Melbourne as part of it actually made me MORE interested in what was going on...

Both have seemed like really hard workers and well liked teammates. Feel like it might be more these 'middle of the road' players that pay the price more for the list reductions. IMO priorities will be stars and then cheap backups.

Watson on SEN: Speaking on SEN Breakfast, Watson was confident that Merrett would be a Bomber next year. “I got a call yesterday in the afternoon that concerned me a little bit, but I’ve been assured that he’s not going anywhere, he’ll be staying at Essendon, he does have a contract of course,” he said. “People read into this, the fact that he got left out of the leadership group and maybe he’s still unhappy there at Essendon, but I was told categorically that he would not be going anywhere. “There has been some scuttlebutt out there that he might want to go to Melbourne or Melbourne is really interested in him and he’s got a great mate in him in Michael Hibberd and obviously he was coached by Simon Goodwin as well, but that’s not going to be the case as it was put to me yesterday.”

I thought it was great. Well made, good insights, and absolutely wasn't trying to sell some kind of comeback story. But then, I actually watched it so what would I know...

@deanox found it! We're 17th for tackle differential. Can't find a stoppage per game number anywhere there, which would be interesting in the context of what you brought up.

15th for uncontested possession differential. 12th for tackles inside 50 differential. 18th for least opponent turnovers. Couldn't find a tackle differential ranking, but we're 18th for tackles and 9th for opponent tackles. All paints a picture of a team that isn't applying much pressure.

https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/th-melbourne-demons 15th for clearances per game, BUT weirdly ranked 1st for least opponent clearances per game. Maybe it's partly about game style? As in, our games don't feature a lot of stoppages? Personally, I'm more worried about being 18th for tackles and 17th for giving up uncontested possessions.

Based on what exactly?

From what I heard, it's an ankle problem that has bothered him all year. Every time he played he was playing in pain.

Like it mate. Doesn't kick a ton of goals, but tackles a lot so Goody would like him. Out of contract too I think?

There's A LOT more context to this whole thing that people here or in the media don't seem to care about. We're in a time where media, social media and forums like this tend to only bother with short and sharp judgments and comments when in reality things are way more complicated. A bunch of family issues, including his Dad's illness, are just part of a bigger picture of what Harley has been dealing with. Not making excuses for his mistake of course, and all the 'hubbed' players are struggling, but people need to try and treat this situation with a bit more patience and compassion IMO.

Hawks basically forced him to stay last year. Only way they were letting him out was if he got the Adelaide job (there's that clause in assistant contracts where they can break it for a promotion). He's gone from pretty much Clarko's number 2, to being behind Mitchell and Bolton in the pecking order so definitely has the ears open. Perfect strengths for us as far as targeting an assistant goes. Kicking and strategy.

100%. IMO we have one of the weakest assistant setups in the comp atm. The challenge will be making sure Goodwin actively listens to them. That's where the review and Mahoney's role come in to play.

Likely big changes among our coaching setup coming soon. No idea who at this stage, but apparently pretty extensive.

Yep, first round pick. There was a couple of free agent compos and a father/son pick, so he went pick 21 classed as first round.

Just gut feel or saying you've heard something?

Not defending it, he's absolutely done the wrong thing and it could potentially end his career in the circumstances, but just saying the reporting of the details has been pretty overblown as far as I've heard at this stage.

Yeah sometimes we hear the number and think it seems huge, but would definitely not be surprised to see as many as 10 changes.

The more reputable journos have suggest list sizes will come down by about 4-5, not double digits. So we need to balance that with our current draft hand which is (as it stands right now): 23, 47, 62, 63, 83... And players we lose/gain to trade or free agency. Hypothetically would suggest pick 23 and TMac gets us Saad. Another 'mystery' player or 2 going gets us say late 2nd/early 3rd rounders, let's guess and say 36 and 40 (for the sake of hypotheticals). Would then add to that some kind of key forward free agent. That would leave us with say 3 players out, 2 players and 2 picks in. Draft would be 36, 40, 47 (and I would say we wouldn't use the picks after that). So that's net 4 players more in, 4-5 list spots from the reduction, so we could be looking at 8-9 delistings (including any retirements) potentially.

Keep sharing what you know mate. Easy to pick out the ones who start feeling insecure because others hear things about a footy club that they're apparently here to talk about. Be a much better forum if more of the talk was about the footy and not each other.

Nowhere near as bad as has been made out by a rabid and not very factually concerned media who only care about being first. Bloke has made a mistake and owned up, story has been overblown though.

Time to move on champ. If you get so triggered by things I post, just put me on block. Do all of us a favour. It's pathetic seeing you follow someone around on the internet like this. Stick to your same jokes every week and stop getting upset that other people hear things about footy. Oh and don't email me threats again after this.