TheWiz

Interesting to read Voss’ comments this morning about their heavy loading over the past 4 weeks, and that their strategy has been to effectively use the early bye as their season starter. Wonder what our strategy is?

Quite contradictory… this year Kate is asking us to be loud like Collingwood, but last year asked us not to boo Baker at the Bulldogs R1 game - that’s the most Collingwood thing I can think of!! “Roffey went on to explain that her remarks should be interpreted as a call to arms for Melbourne supporters. In 2023, the Demons had 70,785 members to Collingwood’s 106,470, while the two clubs’ average crowds, including finals, were 43,860 for Melbourne and 64,429 for Collingwood.” On the above numbers, Melbourne has an average crowd turnout to membership ratio of 61.96% and Collingwood has 60.51%. We’re actually slightly ahead of Collingwood. So the club wants more if you want more bums on seats then grow your membership base. Maybe improve your media department, preserve brand image (particularly for families), and - I can’t stress this one enough - stay out of negative media headlines… “She prefaced the comment by stating that she didn’t “want this ending up in the newspapers”, which usually means it will end up in the newspapers.”

It’s a very fair question, and reflecting on it I deleted my original post. I agree, he was a solid contributor. I should have recalibrated my expectations from his previous elite performances, but nonetheless this was good enough. Cheers

Come on. 3Q thoughts: - McVee you little rippa. Silky smooth. - Windsor looks comfortable at this level. Cheeky little side step shows his confidence but bought time on a nice kick which shows his footy smarts. - Chandler has the yips continued from the Carlton practice match. - Gawn hasn’t had the best, but appreciate it’s against someone he’s worked with for the past year who is also an AA. Fair game. - Grundy to Rivers to another turnover… I sculled my beer. - Our bottom 3 players (excl subs) and are Spargo, Schache and JVR. JVR needs to lift. - I haven’t really had an opinion on ANB, but he and Viney are the only ones lifting this game. Good on him.

Too many passengers. 2Q thoughts: - Thank goodness for Windsor - Oliver looks undercooked - Gawn doing well - ANB, Salem and Howes playing well - Laurie and Schache having a mare

Settle Dees. 1Q thoughts: - Viney, great as always - Sparrow, inspired - ANB, good 1% ers - Spargo, would rather Billings - Schache, don’t know if he is AFL quality

And then when we win…

Congratulations Tom and great job on extending. I honestly think he can be the future Viney engine room, and can’t wait to see him take the next step this year… and hopefully add another 🏆 Go Dees

Hmmm that’s really interesting… particularly for my SuperCoach team 😬

Venue: Sydney home ground advantage. No rain forecasted and good weather. Midfield: With Parker and Mills out, it will be interesting to see the results of Adam’s knee scans and if they have to rest him. Gulden and Warners are absolute jets, but I’d say we have the midfield advantage with more consistent structure. Ruck: Was also interesting to see Grundy and Ladhams share the ruck in the practice match. Even draw here given G&G’s history. Defence & Forwards: About even. I’d say we have an advantage with our defensive structure but I don’t think we have a clear solution to Papley and Heeney. In terms of our forwards I think if we can continue with the great forward entries against Carlton we can run over them. Absolutely cannot wait. Dees by 36 points.

Final score CAR 10.3.63 MEL 15.11.101

Really well said and great point about workplace health and safety

If the AFL and Players Association are serious about creating an environment that puts players safety and welfare at the forefront, then for a medically retired player the balance of the contract should be treated outside of a club salary cap. If not, what would this mean for future contracts for players with concussion histories and would clubs be prioritising medical observation?

Great idea WCW, like other posters have commented, is it possible to include on a banner?

I’m with you Jane. The moment I heard them booing when he was still down I vowed to never go to another Collingwood game again. This would be even harder on the players, and I hope the club can use this emotion as a positive force this season. They had an opportunity to against Carlton and didn’t. This is their chance to do it again. Do it for Gus.

Congratulations on an amazing AFL career Gus. Decisions like this are always the most difficult, but you have the whole of your life to enjoy and well done in prioritising that. You’re forever a Dees legend 🏆🔴🔵

Im struggling to understand your point. You’re saying it’s irrelevant of our drafting to cover Gawn, then you use an example where if Gawn didn’t play we would have had Grundy - which from the other rounds he covered - we would have been fine?

I think Lloyd is right in a few instances. - have we been playing too safely? Yep, fair call. Couple of questionable calls last year and there seemed to be a reluctance to change any strategy part way through games. For example I think we all felt the frustrations at the continuous and predictable kick outs. - have we relied too much on Gawn? No. We drafted for this need with Fullerton, and last year we drafted Grundy and mixed up our forward rucking. Sure he is aging, but unfair to say we’re relying on him when we’ve actively drafted against that. - uncertain on how we’ll perform this year? Yep, ok I can see that. My personal view is that we will finish top 4 and win the granny, but I can see how others see our injuries (particularly forward injuries) as a continuation of last year and that it’s been a few years since our last finals win. I wouldn’t say this is ground breaking journalism, and nothing for us to get our knickers in a knot about.

My thoughts on today’s intention wasn’t necessarily strategy, it was more being able to play players in new roles and give rookies an opportunity to play in a higher standard and see any gems - like K Brown. For example I don’t think we could say we were looking to shut them down this way or play this way when we had a 19 year old rookie ruck at the bounce and Max on the bench! It’s a scratch match! I think we’re singing from the same hymn book, and Carlton’s community match should be a better indication of pressure, strategy and intent.

Watching on TV. Could see Trac on his haunches and looking a little bit uncomfortable early in this 2nd term and haven’t seen him since. Can anyone at the game see him? Update: He has come back on around 24:00 and moving fine

Been impressed with Billings. Clean on hands, pretty accurate inside 50 and has stood up well in tackles.

Excited to see Windsor, how Billings will be played, who will be more suited to backfill Pig’s role out of Tomlinson / Howes, any opportunities for Verrall, and from a game play perspective how we enter forward 50 and our accuracy. For Richmond I’m interested to see Yze’s style, and also keen on seeing McAuliffe - apparently a jet. Go Dees

As much as I hate this type of commentary, they’re right - we’re incredibly frustrating to watch. We are so much better than some of our results, which for a number of reasons (injuries, inside 50s, sub decisions etc) was what it was last year. The only way to silence everyone is to win games. I really hope we take that step forward this year and win it again. I honestly believe we can. Go dees.

They’re going through a lot of change with a new ruck and new midfield, so potentially might not be clicking R0.

To all the haters…