JimmyGadson

The old 'let's stop playing after we're comfortably ahead' never fails to disappoint! Love how Richo said during the week that this was something the boys had been working on to fix over summer. Let's see it then ey.

Hope your day gets better mate x

It's a comedy that we're not under the one roof in 2023. Being the oldest sporting club in the world and representing the city of Melbourne IN OUR NAME it's even funnier. It's equally comical and baffling that supporters think that it's not a big issue. And constantly need explanation as to why it's so important for the continued necessary growth of a brand and sporting organisation in a highly competitive environment. Cue the "yeh but we won a flag in 2021 so it can't be that importanttttt" comments.

Tomlinson is depth. And that is it.

Oath. It's amatuer hour far too often. Some of the messages the playing list and club in general preach are not practiced throughout all departments of the club. If we're holding ourselves to a higher level of accountability on the field, the same should be held for off the field. Including out media team. It's all part of the meta view.

Some boys look like they're in unbelievable condition. Gus Brayshaw isn't one of them!

@Dantemight deserve an apology eh @Lord Nev?

I sure hope so.

Great reports, I agree that I don't want to see Max playing much forward next year. He is so much more valuable behind the ball and the team functions infinitely better. He heavily influences decision making at the top too much for my liking. As a forward he is average and we all know why. Ben Brown, Tom Mac and Fritsch are more than enough to deal with. And as for Gus, I genuinely think he's come back out of condition and they're building him back up. Looks like he's put on weight imo.

A state of the art training facility and homebase is paramount for an elite level sporting club wanting continued growth and success. The fact that we still don't have one and we're the oldest sporting club in the world is nothing short of an embarrassment imo. Flag or no flag in '21, if supporters believe that we haven't been impacted and at a disadvantage over the decades compared to other clubs, then you're completely delusional. Even if that impact or disadvantage isn't much annually, it will add up as opposition clubs continue to widen the gap with upgrades to the facilities they already own. Top facilities attract players, employees, sponsors etc. How anyone thinks it's not an issue in this day and age is simply hilarious.

Hopefully it stops after the first one.

What a strange thread to start on a Melbourne football club supporters forum.

With you. All the best to him, don't think we'll be seeing him anytime soon though given how raw he is both physically and the way he plays.

Biggest factor imo is that their draw will be a lot harder and like us post our premiership year, oppo will be well prepared for how they like to play. That coupled with the fact that they've lost some quality and experience in important positions. Agree with others that I reckon they'll slide, but not too far if injuries don't strike hard. 6-10 I'm hoping.

Glad we didn't do that Essendon trade in the end. Next year we'll have a lot to work with and options will open up. We'll have far more time to formulate a plan to trade up and it'll be a stronger top 10. Gold Coast are a side I imagine we'll target given they'll have a couple of high academy players coming through which they'll need points for.

Toumpas is a clone of Nick Daicos. They have extremely similar attributes and physical makeup. The only differences were that Toumpas was brought into a rabble of a club, played his first year under Neeld with a limited pre-season due to groin issues and the weight of supporter expectations clearly got the better of him too. Can you imagine if he was brought into the side now? He'd have been given the entire first year to develop at VFL level due to his limited workload, he'd be given a defined role in a top two VFL side which has a fantastic culture and he would have been brimming with confidence coming into his first game. I often think of the amount of high end talent we had during those years, and how different it would have been had they been brought in to our club now. Not saying all would have gone on to be superstars but clearly they were at such a shocking disadvantage as soon as they stepped through the door. The comparison to where we are now is crazy.

How can you say such a thing when we haven't even selected a player with any pick received from the LJ trade? Nobody has any idea how it'll turn out. Even if we end up staying at pick 13, you've got no idea who that player will be. Or what we'll have in store for next year's draft. Talk about gun jumping. LJ could do his knee next year for all we know. There's no point worrying about this so early on. It's draft picks at this stage lol!?

It's nobody's fault but our own. Not sure how local government or the AFL are to blame when we have had ample opportunity to choose an area to build a base. The ignoring comes from supporters believing it is others at fault for the predicament we're in. Years of sub-par decision making on and off the field is the reason we STILL haven't secured a home base in our heartland. Nothing else.

Okay... So did you read the rest of my post which provided the context needed for the useless stat alone? They were facts. Gus played outside roles more often. Facts. There is less pressure on the outside and you're given more time and space to hit targets. Also facts. How many do you want? Or are they all alternative to you because of your unwillingness to see how silly your post was?

Your post highlights exactly why quoting statistics alone is absolutely pointless and the hilarious thing is that the 'myth' actually exists in the heart of your post. Firstly, it's not clear whether or not you're talking about the season just gone or last year as in 2021? If it's the latter, I'm not sure why you'd bother posting these stats at all given Gus played wing the whole year and when you're predominantly outside of where the heat is, naturally you'll have a higher DE by both foot and hand. If you're talking about this year, the same argument applies given his move to the middle (where it's the hardest area to stack consistent effective disposals) came very late in the year and up until then he played across half back mostly, (a position where it is the easiest to stack consistent effective disposals). Supporters who suggest Gus butchers the ball more than he should are absolutely dead on the money. No useless statistics will be able debunk that. Gus was afforded more time, space and less pressure with ball in hand than Trac and Clarry due to the position he played in most of this season and last. Naturally, his disposal efficiency will be higher. However, he still butchers the ball far too often when under little to no pressure. Your eyes will tell you that and not a silly statistic.

Meh.

I'm assuming we tried over the trade period with no buyers. If we can't get a top 5 pick with a swap of futures then there is absolutely no point, especially in this draft. It was harder this year to achieve a move up into the top 5 given the Jackson deal happened relatively late so we didn't know what we were dealing with and by that time oppo clubs would have been busy making plans of their own. Next year we'll be on the front foot from the start of trade period with any bottom dwelling sides who need points for academy players/father sons. Gold Coast for instance have multiple high-end academy prospects coming through so they'd be a good club to deal with. One draft haul can change the future and fortunes of your club and I can really see us using next year's draft period to bring in another crop of super high end talent.

Limited player, plays a role. Hate him in a wing. Goes okay as a rotation through the middle but to be honest, I can't see any huge scope for improvement from him. Physically he doesn't excite, he's not quick and his skills are pretty average if he's not kicking long. Will be interesting to see where he goes from here but will almost always be a backup to our starting inside bulls imo. Swear to God if he's on a Wing next year, I will not watch us.

I don't like the Petty forward idea, at allllll. To me he's a future AA key back and for someone who had next to no pre-season, his impact was just absurd. Reads the ball so well, body work is brilliant, confident in the air and high footy IQ. I don't know why we'd play him forward when we know Gawn will be spending time forward, T Mac, JVR and Ben Brown are there for the second tall post with Fritsch as that hybrid third tall. Petty is too important to our defensive system structurally. Lever doesn't get to play the way he wants without Petty and May wouldn't have the same support either. It's a ripple effect and I don't think people realise the impact it'll have on the entire unit. Tomlinson is just not a like for like and since his injury, he seems completely lost and shot of confidence. And please do not name Joel Smith as a replacement because I won't take you seriously. We won a flag without Petty playing forward, I don't know why people think he is the answer after a poor finals campaign. It's game-plan tinkering, execution of role and consistently executing the fundamentals of the game that will see our forwardline function to its potential. * Edit - Also forgot Schache. He'll be given every chance to cement a spot forward over the pre-season.

I imagine we would have explored moving into the top 5 over the trade period with no buyers. If we can't get a pick to nab Cadman, Wardlaw, Sheezel or Tsatas then there's no point moving up and giving up a future first rounder or our pick 13 for it imo. After those stand-out names, it's all pretty even which is not the word for next year's crop. Country, SA and WA couldn't compete with Metro this year and the Metro squad alone will make up majority of the top 10 selections this year. It's a thinner crop of uber uber talent and that's widely acknowledged. I hope the club see it this way too and have the goal of getting two picks inside 10 next year. Maybe even one inside 5. Operation get Harley Reid.