Sparrowsfart

Agreed - no one can fault the recruiting. We're close to best in the league over a sustained period, and our player development is also pretty bloody good.

I think there's probably multiple layers to this, but the reality is that we as a whole club have failed in many ways since the flag. 1) We've shuffled deck chairs in trade with average players out and average players in just to tick the list turnover boxes. 2) Pert et al have not made any headway into a new elite training facility. It's all hot air every AGM about how much progress is being made. We still don't have a feasibility study, let alone any source of funding to pay for a state of the art facility. VicGov aren't going to fund it, the cupboards are bare and there's nothing compelling for the labor party to fund the toffy club's shining new HQ. We ain't Geelong. If we're serious about it, we need a big fundraising campaign among the supporter base. Time to put the hand out. We also need to find somewhere feasible and accessible for a current and future supporter base. I personally don't think the middle of Caulfield race track is that place. If we were half smart, we'd look at location near a suburban rail loop station, somewhere like Deakin Burwood for example, central and accessible. 3) The stubbornness of the football department to not play players in their best positions. Harrison Petty could be an AA key defender. As much as Tom McDonald has had a great year back there, he isn't the replacement for May when he retires. Tom is nearly done. One paced midfield getting smashed at stoppage and terrible centre circle formations. It took Trac's injury to legitimately make some changes to the midfield and bring some pace and run in there. 4. Players like Trac (I'll have a shot at him here) trying to do to much, and the players falling back into the rubbish culture of bagging eachother that they said they'd finally stamped out in '21. There's a fine line here, but the culture among the '21 squad was almost nauseatingly positive and it showed onfield. Consistently we saw levels of effort with strong tackle pressure. These days we only seem to play that way with backs against the wall when we're missing 'elite' talent through injury and can't get the job done despite strong effort. 4) Pissweak supporters - we must also turn the mirror back in our own direction. I don't know about everyone else, but I've been to about 9 games this year and did legitimately have a school event on for my daughter for the GWS game, but I could've gone to the Port game and CBF'd. I hate it when we lose games to teams that we should pants, it's one of my greatest frustrations. But we need to all get better at turning up. The players aren't just saying it, it makes a big difference when they've got our support. Best example this year of the crowd getting the Dees up was the Cats game at the 'G. The place was pumping with loud and passionate Demons supporters and members. We can make noise and we can make an impact, but we have to bloody turn up. For these reasons and more I don't need to continue ranting on about, I think it's been a bit of a [censored] show.

He's rated 2nd best inside 50 kick in the AFL. He's in his absolute prime. I'm on board doing it.

Is he back on our list? When did that happen? Why do you think I mentioned it.. 🫠

I'm guessing you haven't had any/many internal abdominal surgeries. He won't be anywhere near the club until the doctors have given him the all clear. The risk of infection is real and they'd have him wrapped in cotton wool. Adding to that he's had two general anaesthetics within a couple of weeks of each other.. not recommended. Again from personal experience. Really knocks you around, fatigue, mental clarity etc.

Stevic and Gianfagna (delisted) have a particular disliking for MelbourneFC.

I think things really reached a crescendo last year. It seems like it was a combination of a number of factors, injury, breakdown of a relationship, challenges with medication he's on all while having developed some unsociable coping mechanisms (the photo/videos of the pokies were a bit much). I see it as somewhat of a bit of an early midlife crisis, clearly there was a cry out for help and when you're in your mid twenties and have achieved more that most could ever dream in their whole career it's hard to try to put yourself in his shoes. I think it's clear that deep down Clarry has good values and wants some of the things that many of us take for granted in life, good relationships, a family etc. and he's made some mistakes in trying to get there. He needed and continues to need to grow up but he's on the right track now. It seems like he's got a good idea of what the destructive behaviours are and what he needs to eliminate from his lifestyle. The club know the best thing to do is to monitor him and keep him busy. It wasn't a surprise to see him on the trip with Kozzie, McAdam and Goody, smart management from the club and a great experience for Clarry. I think he has turned a big corner and we would be absolutely stupid to consider trading him now. He's got another 5-7 years of elite football left in him and that a full pre season will do him a world of good. There's a great quote from Thomas Watson (IBM): "Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?" Something in that I reckon.

From someone with experience with appendicitis (mine had perforated) it's a pretty long recovery, I was in bed/resting for about 6 weeks. When you factor in he is still recovering from internal injuries, I'd say no chance he returns this year, they wouldn't want to risk another hit to the spleen area in 2024 especially given the ongoing narrative about our medical team's handling of Brayshaw and Trac. I'd had the same thought that it was be great to have him playing deep forward, but to be frank, that's where he got injured and there are plenty more defenders with pointy knees like Moore.

Dockers have recently smacked us at the 'G too. Really doesn't matter.

I'd be interested in looking at Stengle if he's gettable. Would be nice to have a small forward that can actually crumb, and is disciplined enough to sit front and square. What we'd give to have Toby Bedford back right now.

The Freo games will be tough.. their profile is soo similar to ours and there isn’t any love lost between the midfields.

Agreed - it's a massive game from that perspective. This game and the two games to come against the Pies are the huge eight point games against 3rd and 4th ladder chances. I don't know what to expect from remaining fixtures against Swans and GWS.

I suspect we will see a few changes based on Goody's post match comments. Likely Bowey, Hunter and one other in. I think this will be a tough game - I went to Geelong Carlton and the Blues play a pretty brutal style while lacking a bit of polish. As others have commented, their big boys can kill a game in about 10 minutes, so much will be down to our backs. Our mids are still not quite there, a bit better against the Cats but as mentioned last week, out stars do some to leave a little in the tank for critical moments in the game. That was more evident that ever late in the Cats game. Gawn and Trac really lifted. I think it's going to be closish, unless we have a good night in front of goal and in that case we win by about 3-4 goals.

I was in the Geelong coterie box on Saturday afternoon and word in there was he's 50:50 at best. They will err on not playing him as he's had multiple concussions. It's probably less about Stanley and more about Geelong's smart ball use to avoid Max down the line. That will be one of the deciding factors in the game.

They weren't the ones completely responsible for turning the footy over. Even though Windsor had a couple of uncharacteristic howlers. What I was trying to get across was that our best and most senior players aren't going 100% every week, and they get excited for these big games. We have another level.

To me - result hinges on availability of Tom Stewart. If he plays they'll have a brick wall that we won't be able to penetrate. I went to Geelong-Carlton and the Cats looked great across the ground. Their biggest weakness is Stanley who was deplorable. Max should be able to own the ruck. We should have more explosiveness around stoppage, I'm feeling a big game from Clarry. The other piece that is often overlooked is that our team is very experienced now. We don't fire on all cylinders every week and you can't draw too much from that Richmond first half. My prediction if Stewart plays is flip of a coin. No Stewart and I see a Dees 3-4 goal win and a heap of expectation coming our way for the rest of the year.

Came here to write exactly that.

Will get a week for two reasons: 1) Optics 2) The new potential to cause injury clause Objectively, I wouldn't out him, but it's borderline. Some of the angles don't look good, but the force was negligible. What really hurts Kozzie was that he temporarily went to ground.

You had full panels on both fox and 7 that just can't swallow Melbourne, Leigh Montagna the only exception. Brad Johnson's ongoing saltiness about us is amusing, but it pre-dates the '21 Flag, he tipped Freo to beat us in Round 1 of that year and tipped us to miss the 8 in the same breath. We went on to win first 9 and win the flag in the most dominant way since Geelong of '07. These guys have massive blinkers on and the 'toffy' stereotype means that most of them don't want us to do well.

Yeah the Michael Christian factor is still a disgrace. How he can objectively rule on 'Pendles' last week is so ridiculous. Even Pies supporters would've expected a week.

Usually by COB following day.

Naughton