RadishDee

6 Koz 5 Gawn 4 Fritsch 3 Sparrow 2 Lever 1 Howes

I think we'll benefit from having the Dockers playing Darcy. He's not fit enough to play big minutes, so he takes up a bench spot and makes the other 22 players more tired. There are fewer ruck contests with the lasso rule in play. When he is on, he plays ruck and Max is smart enough and fit enough to make him almost a non-factor after the stoppage.

6 Gawn 5 Van Rooyen 4 Culley 3 Mihocek 2 K Pickett 1 Sharp

I suppose drills are also practice. Skills build over time and repetition. It's like playing a musical instrument. You might want to learn something complicated and fast, but you start off more slowly and as you learn what you need to do, you build speed over time.

In my also uninformed opinion, I'd say that when we get these opportunities, we need to convert them into quality shots and goals. It's all very well and good having the extra number but knowing how to exploit it is just as important because that's how we turn those opportunities into goals. If we convert 80% of those chances vs 65%, that's probably the difference between winning 12 games and winning 6 games. We can practice a numbers disadvantage too, but the conversion rate of those changes will be low no matter what we do, especially on game day.

This absolutely, and I'd add BBB to that fire. Goes from a bottom team to a mid team and I'm sure there were a lot of people thinking 'He wouldn't get a game at Richmond' (and they'd probably be right). But he was of course integral for the Demons in 2021. You want a champion team, not a team of champions. Maybe Culley's instrumental in a premiership, maybe he's not, but it's not about whether he could slot into the Lions or Cats. It's about whether he can play and execute his role in our team and make everyone better. Every club (yes even the Lions and Cats) have guys like Culley around. What wins premierships is the group effort. Not whether Culley is an A-grader.

Seconded, I wouldn't say letting St Kilda kick what, 8? last quarter goals really shouts 'supreme fitness'.

What does the panel think that King will bring to the table in terms of game style, game plan, position changes? We've seen the trade period and what it's brought, though perhaps the changes were more out of necessity than structure to support the game that he wants to play. Given everything we've seen so far from the King era, what would we expect the game and team to look like come round 1?

For a guy who kicked 31 goals last season (3rd at the club) and an average of 1.7 per game (2nd at the club), Melksham must be pretty stiff to miss in a lot of these lineups.

I think we've got what it takes to compete and soon from this trade period. If you want positivity, you've come to the right place (albeit in the wrong place, aka Demonland) Before I get into my takes on all these trades, my biggest concern for us this year was the defence. We were too easy to score on if teams took us on down the middle. (St Kilda, Collingwood x 2 games come to mind but there would be others too). Our talls were too slow and our smalls weren't accountable enough. This trade period, with Trac and Oliver leaving, there are obviously holes in the midfield, but we have talent to fill it. But that talent leaves more holes in the defence. MCVEE & JIATH I think losing McVee hurts us more than many will realise. We had very few defenders last year who could actually defend, especially with speed. Jiath is a great pickup to replace, he can be accountable in defence and can move quickly. They are even listed at the same height. We lose a bit in disposal, but we didn't have to trade as much out. With Judd obviously leaving before the trade period even started this is good business. HEATH Is basically a nobody in AFL land so no one's paying attention to him. Rucks are cool and fun and obvious at the ground but most rucks aren't particularly important and getting less important by the year. Heath doesn't need to be Gawn, he just needs to be the guy for a bit. Everyone is pretty sure Kalani is the next great Melbourne ruck, but we need someone to play until he's 20 or 21 at least. Dogga was supposed to be that guy and then some. Heath is a year younger than Jackson, and while he's a talent downgrade he's perfect for us. He can learn his craft, he knows he'll be next in the prestigious line of Melbourne rucks, but he can cement a spot by giving it his all. MIHOCEK You need someone to take the best tall defender. He can do that until JVR develops a bit more and hopefully helps JVR develop a bit of confidence. STEELE As many were saying today, he's got leadership at training and on the field. He can do what Viney does but with slightly better disposal. OLIVER & PETRACCA It hurts to lose them, for sure, no question. They'll always been Melbourne greats. But they were paid like top 5 players in the AFL and they haven't been close to that for a few years. There are mitigating circumstances, to be sure, but if we want to be about winning, we have to be ruthless. They weren't earning their wages, so our best move is to move them on. (Was it dumb to give them those contracts? The answer is clear now. Hopefully the club learns from this.) In addition to the draft haul, we unlock a lot of cap room, which gives us flexibility to not only attract FA talent but to retain the key players we have now. We also get a bit of positivity around the club. I think both players have been a negative presence around the club in the last 2-3 years. It's not said about Petracca because he has better management, but his actions last year (and yes the club was culpable too) would not have ingratiated him to the group. You can see some of this at games. Petracca gets visibly frustrated during games and hasn't seemed joyous in a long time. Clarry has perhaps been better on the field, but it's no secret that his presence at the club has not always been positive. How does someone like Bowey or Chandler feel when they're giving everything in a games, not getting paid the massive bucks, they're here because they want the glory and you've got these guys going around the field with the bad attitude getting $1m per year? And we're still losing. Let alone what it does for a guy like Langford. In summary, I'm optimistic, MFCSS be damned1

Here's me on this thread when the notification 'Saint Lands at Demons' comes through on my phone.

Thanks for the podcast this year Andy, Binman and George. It feels to me like in a lot of games this year rather than the 'learning how to win' thing, it's a setup problem. When the opposition goes direct (especially from kick-ins) with the game on the line there is always space in the middle of the ground. Friday night seemed to me like another one of these games. In the last quarter there was always space in the centre for the pies to move the ball easily. This strategy has also worked from the get-go which explains our horrible first quarters this year. So my guess is the structure of the all team defence is just leaving too much space in the middle and we're not able to either congest the centre or turn the ball over and score easy goals. Is that how you see these close games too? The optimistic thing here is that those issues could be fixed with a relatively small structural or personnel change and the impacts would be doubled. We'd concede fewer easy goals through the middle and score more of our own, a potential 12 point turnaround. Yes this year has been disappointing but I don't think we're as far off the top teams as many think.

Some good signs in this game, I was thinking most of the week it had a chance to get very ugly for us. The signs for the future are looking quite good. I'm excited to see what the future holds and the changes that can be made in the team and game style. The attack again was quite good today (though some bad misses on gettable shots). But again, the defence needs more work. As we start to look towards the end of the season, what would the panel like to see from the defence to cause some (albeit not much) optimism? As an aside, Kentfield looked good again at Casey though I hope for his development's sake they keep him there for the rest of the season. Let him get next preseason in and unleash him on the competition pairing with JVR in 2026!

The swings of this year continue to hit hard. Where do we go from here? The most depressing thing for me is that we are looking at significant time to improve if we continue with the current trajectory. The coach isn't changing, so we can't expect any change to gameplan, tactics, selection, or skills improvement. Some player movement is expected but it's not going to make us a better kicking team any time soon because our longer contracted players are our poorest kicks. So we seem to be doomed to endure this for at least 3-4 more years. My question to the panel is what should the club be doing today to bring our next premiership closer? Because I'm not seeing the club pursue anything that's actually doing that.

A good afternoon at the footy! The attack continues to improve, starting to hit goals, hit up teammates, things starting to click. It's nice to see this come together. Strangely, the concern for me at the moment is the defence. We're still giving up a lot of goals per inside 50 and giving up lots of points on turnover. What does the panel think needs to change to improve? Do we bring in a proper mid-size defender? Does AMW fill that gap? Howes? Rivers?