Sydney_Demon

I think you're a bit tough on James Frawley. Played 8 seasons and 139 games for Melbourne and did not get to play a final. He was a great contributor for Melbourne in what were almost universally poor sides. He deserved the opportunity to have success at Hawthorn and I was happy for him that that happened in 2015. I feel the same about Jared Rivers although at least Melbourne were a good side in his early years. Personally I can't understand either all the anamosity towards Jeremy Howe. And players aren't supposed to go to successful clubs. Why not? Would you also also criticise Stan Alves & Greg Wells for leaving the Club? I get annoyed with this whole disloyalty argument. These guys are professionals who are playing for a limited period of time and their first loyalty should be to their nearest and dearest. We are fans which is an entirely different thing. Supporters are naive if they think players have the same irrational attachment to a Club as we do. If people want to boo, I guess they will. Not much point calling for rational mature behaviour because there's always going to be a significant part of any crowd that isn't going to be nicely-behaved, regardless of appeals to their (probably non-existent) better natures.

Adelaide beating Hawthorn a plus I think (because Hawthorn were going to finish below Fremantle regardless). Having said that, Adelaide were probably going to finish above Fremantle regardless so maybe the result is unimportant... Agree or disagree?

I think it depends on who's out from the Seniors. Tomlinson is a lock-down defender. He's a naural (although clearly inferior) replacement for May. The problem last week was he was brought in as a replacement for Lever and he can't play that role. So Tomlinson for May, Turner for Lever. Sparrow should stay in ahead of Dunstan imo. Sparrow has continuing upside and Dunstan is pure depth. I think Demons supporters are overreacting. A 12 point loss is not a disaster, given who we were missing. The top level VFL players are crucial as they actually care how Casey perform, they're not playing for their future in the AFL system. Jimmy Munro for me is the most important player in the Casey side, ahead of any Melbourne-listed player. I agree. Clearly after 5 games in the VFL we should write him off as having no future. Seriously!

Really missing Jimmy Munro. He actually knows that offence comes from defence. Too many (basically all) Casey players running ahead of the ball and refusing to defend. That plus attrocious goal kicking and umpiring. It shows even at VFL level if you don't turn up with the right attitude you will lose. On the positive side, Casey can't possibly be any worse in the 2nd Half.

Casey will lose this game unless they actually decide to lay a tackle.

That's a tough draw. The teams Melbourne plays twice are Sydney, Brisbane, Richmond, Carlton, Hawthorn & North Melbourne, and we finished one position above them in 2022! Looks like they're suffering this year from what we received by way of a draw last year. The 2 'weak' teams we were allocated were Fremantle (11th in 2021, 6th in 2022) & Collingwood (17th in 2021, 3rd in 2022). Geelong were worthy Premiers last year but no-one in the media mentioned how they lucked on to an incredibly soft draw. They got to play North & West Coast twice so were gifted 4 games. That on top of the continuing unfair situation where they play Melbourne once every year but it's always at Kardinia Park (naturally unchanged for 2023). I could be wrong but I think you're selling them a bit short. I reckon they're likely to win 3 of the next 4 (losing to Brisbane) and then lose the 3 after that. So maybe 4-7. But I'd definitely accept 2-9 or 3-8. I'm very impressed. Making draft selections 4 games into the Season 😀

Our 2023 draft picks based on last year's finishing positions are: Melbourne 13, 14, 32, 33, 88 I'd be ecstatic if that turned into 1, 18, 19, 38 & ? On Fremantle's revealed form those picks 13 & 32 are going to be a lot higher. I hadn't quite appreciated how easy a draw Fremantle had early. I assume that as they finished 6th their remaining draw is pretty tough. Which 6 teams do they play twice?

Definitely wishful thinking. Fremantle could miss the 8 but definitely won't be bottom. Still, whichever way you look at it Melbourne are well-positioned for the 2023 draft. What does [censored] me off though is all the compromises to the draft from father-son and academy selections.

Not enough reason to hope Richmond will win. Close to my most despised team. It starts with Tom Lynch. He's just one of those players who always taking cheap shots behind the play and then getting favoured by soft frees from the umps. Go Doggies!

I know you've had a number of responses on this and have walked back your initial post (a bit) but I agree with others that he is probably right in putting talks on hold. I'm assuming no-one posting has any knowledge of what the club has actually offered him but as a fringe player probably nothing exceptional. His value is unlikely to go down further from where it's at right now. Melbourne has brought in Hunter to take JJ's wing spot so I understand that he's probably not feeling the love. The fact that JJ's put talks on hold actually shows he thinks he can get ahead of other players, not the opposite. If he continues to show form and the Club doesn't recognise that by selecting him then he should look elsewhere. I tend to agree with you, but with BB not playing TMac has come in as his replacement. Petty will likely still play forward. Pickett has come in for JJ and I guess the thinking is also that Kossie will be playing some midfield which is where JJ would have played. I'll be disappointed if JJ is not sub ahead of Melksham who has disappointed this year. I finally got around to watching the 2022 Qualifying Final against Sydney yesterday and Melksham played horribly (of course he wasn't alone). Disagree entirely. Sparrow is a gun. Not sure whether being named for Casey means much. Still hopefully the fact that JJ wasn't named for Casey means he plays as sub against West Coast ahead of Melksham. When Max comes back I think they'll drop a key forward rather than a small forward as part of Max's role now Grundy is in the side is to take marks and kick goals (the same applies for Grundy). This might be heresy but I'm not sure whether Salem is an automatic selection in our Best 22. Hibbert is in the side if we're playing small but if we're playing tall in defence we've got 7 players (including Brayshaw) competing for 5 positions. Brayshaw should be in defence. Moving him on the ball late last year was one of a number of things the selectors/coaches got wrong.

Disagree entirely. Glad we didn't fight this. I do agree that Buddy got off lightly. Disgraceful that he only got one week. I totally disagree with penalties being partially-based on the severity of injury. Intent should be all that matters. Love Kozzie but did not love what he did on Saturday night.

I agree with other posters. Average age is very limited metric, especially as it covers the whole list, rather than best 22. Including average games played improves things because it's a better indication of quality of the list, assuming similar average games. Having said that it's easier to get a game at a poorer club which inflates the average games for players at those poorer clubs.

So we are trading 3 untried players with potential for 2 untried players with potential. Our 3 first round picks are 13 this year and next year is totally dependent on where Melbourne and Fremantle finish. Say Freo are 6th and Melbourne are 4th then we are trading 2022 13 and 2023 13 & 15 for 2022 4 & 22. I suppose it all depends on how you rate 4, 13 & 22 this year. Normally 4 would be significantly higher than 13 with the gap between 13 & 22 much smaller. I assume Melbourne is after a specific player that will definitely go Top 5, and still think they'll get someone decent at 22. Lies, damned lies & statistics. Why group 1-10 & 11-20? Why not 1-5, 6-10,11-15, 16-20? Having said that, the average games differential is surprisingly close. There are so many other variables but I accept elite talent does make a difference. I would argue everything other than say average games & All Australian Selections is fairly meaningless. We'll find out soon but I don't see the Bulldogs future firsts being any better than Melbourne's. Will Brisbane & Western Bulldogs finish lower than Melbourne & Fremantle in 2023? If there's a swag by definition they all won't go early. If there's only 5 highly talented players and a big gap after that, I agree you don't trade 4 but if you think there's not a huge gap between 4 & 13 then why not? When do the highly-talented players run out? 5, 10, 15 or even 20? Madness! I'm not saying Cal Twomey is infallible but he doesn't rate Davey Top 30. If Melbourne bid for Davey we'd likely get stuck with a player we don't need or want as Essendon wouldn't match the bid.

A great result, particularly for Melbourne. I can't see Brisbane beating Melbourne, especially without the Big O. Sydney will be happy too, although Richmond at the SCG wasn't as big a threat as Richmond atthe MCG. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke. I think it was ridiculous for all the so-called experts to be saying Richmond was a Premiership threat. I accept the pre-Finals bye helps the 5th-8th teams but one team out of those teams have won a Premiership since the current finals system was introduced in 2000. Agreed. Even if Richmond had won, on last night's defensive effort they wouldn't have beaten either Melbourne or Sydney next week. Well, the AFL has come out and said it was conclusive. Over the top of the post is conclusively a point. Clearely Lynch thought he'd missed it.

The fact that you appear to not know his name says it all. Selwyn Griffith was head of Strength & Conditioning under Darren Burgess and arguably was as important for our fitness and lack of soft tissue injuries in 2021 as Burgess was. But now of course he's our High Performance Manager he has no idea what he's doing. I'm prepared to accept the Sydney-bashing from Melburnians (it used to be common but thankfully most people don't seem to care anymore). When I first moved to Sydney I received a bit of Melbourne-bashing as well. It's always slightly [censored] me off both ways. Clearly in both cases meaningless. I've always argued they're both are pretty good places to live and it's not a competition. No doubt there are plenty of other nice places to live that are better than both Sydney & Melbourne (and of course more places that are worse than both).

Fair enough. I was born in Melbourne and did catch the train home in my teens regularly, and that was in the mid-70s when we used to get thrashed nearly every week. In my defence I was unlucky enough to visit family and catch both the Fremantle and Sydney losses earlier this year so I have some credibility. And I went to the QB game against Collingwood loss at the SCG but I didn't catch the train though.

Yes, we did. Not because someone smiled inappropriately.

Are you serious? Don't worry about the mocking. It's character building and who cares how Collingwood supporters behave? Pretty much what you'd expect.

You can smile for a whole lot of reasons. Just because someone smiles you can't assume they don't care. Feel free to criticise his shot for goal. That's valid.

Absolute BS.

Ridiculous. It wasn't Goody's fault the players couldn't kick straight to save themselves and Collingwood couldn't miss. Let's not get carried away. Melbourne should've been 8 goals in front at half-time and the game would have been over. Colingwood won by 7 points despite losing every category except the final score and the umpiring. They played brilliantly in the 2nd half but it should've been too late by then. Agree. When it mattered all the decisions went Collingwood's way. Petracca gets a holding the ball decision when he handpassed it. A Collingwwood players lies all over the ball and gets a minute to tap it out. I don't want to blame the umpires for the loss but in a close game it matters. In retrospect it wasn't wise. But it was ridiculous at the start of the game Collingwood try to drive his head into the ground and then 4 players come in to join the tackle after Lingers had been brought to the ground. Naturally the umpire calls for a ball-up. Well, it was 4 goals to 2 in the last. With a bit of luck we could have won. Let's be honest here. Collingwood have won 11 in a row and with just ordinary luck for each team it would be at best 8-3. Well said DemonWA. We won the Inside 50s 65-41 plus nearly every stat apart from the only one that counts. It's frustrating to lose an unlosable game but to all the posters who have decided to vent their spleen just get over yourselves. Collingwood played as well as they possibly could, beat us by 7 points, and Melbourne should have won by 6 goals. It wasn't a disgraceful effort by the Dees. We lost by a narrow margin to a hard-tackling, attacking & extremely lucky opponent.

So, Chris Fagan know's nothing about this 😄 https://www.afl.com.au/news/813304/-news-to-me-franklin-talk-a-surprise-for-lions-coach

Fair enough, but I guess it all depends on how you define major upset. If you have one team at $1.50 (odds of 1 to 2) and it's opponent at $3 (odds of 2 to 1), across all 9 games you would expect mathematically the team at $3 to win roughly 2 out of 9 and those wouldn't be upsets, just averages. Well obviously byes are impossible to avoid if you have an odd number of teams (although I don't know why 4 byes are needed in the VFL this year). I assume currently the AFL could have no byes but they have decided to have one bye for each team staggered over 3 weeks to provide some rest for players. I don't know why they should be seen as an abomination. Well, I wouldn't go as far as to say it should be a rule but I agree you can't have an in without an out. I'd go further. If it's not s straight swap posters should explain explain their proposed positional changes. If Harmes comes in, I assume Hunt would go out and Gus would move back to the backline. Given how effective Gus's move was last week and the role Hunt played, selectors have decided to stick with last week's structure which wouldn't work with Harmes in and Hunt out.

From a Swans perspective, I think it's pretty disappointing that Buddy would move for the money given the length of contract and money the Swans have forked out for him historically. Still, mayne their offer was very low-ball.

So you're saying every $1.35 chance wins? Given the bookie's profit margin $1.35 is actually $1.40+ true odds. If every $1.40 chance won we'd all be millionaires.