Where Demons Dare

I'd rather Pruess over Campbell if they're our only two legitimate options.

I'd say a 3rd or 4th rounder gets it done if we wanted to trade for him. A second round pick offer is for established players only, which he currently isn't.

I'd be happy to get him in. We need an experienced tall forward after losing Brown and Schache and has only turned 30 a few months ago so he still has a good 3 years left in him at least. I believe a poster mentioned last year he was trying to come to Melbourne, but it never eventuated.

Does the AFL need to introduce new rules to limit contracts to be no greater than 3 years? it's hurting clubs in the long run firstly with Gundry and Treloar who the Pies are still paying significant money too and now Melbourne has to pay out the second last and final year of Brayshaw's contract around $1 million over those two years, which means we won't be able to attract a good player for a year or two while trying to manage our salary cap. Then we have Trac doing all he can to break his contract allegedly with 5 years to go. I just don't see how these long contracts benefit the club other than smoothing out the salary cap a little bit.

Fritsch will be 30 in 2026.

Ben Brown, Schache, Brayshaw and Joel Smith - Retired/Forced retirement Hunter is out of contract but I'd imagine he'd get another year. Still only 29, unless people know something I don't. He's handy depth along with Billings behind Langdon and Windsor as our primary wingers. We might also play Langdon at half forward like we did earlier in the year to cover ANB, which means we'll definitely need to retain Hunter's services. Melksham deserves to go around again and depending on Tomo if he requests a trade then we may look to keep Tmac which I hope we do. I'd like to see Adams push for selection next year. Hore is our back up intercepter if Lever is injured, so I'd imagine he stays on. The rookies I can't comment much on as I haven't tracked them closely this year. Sestan needs a huge preseason but I'm hopeful he stays on. AMW and Brown are developing nicely. Verrall I've heard good things and Kenterfield hasn't been given a proper crack at it yet so he deserves a full preseason to show us what he's got. KFW probably goes as I haven't heard much about him this year. In terms of draft and trading I just don't see why we're chasing Houston. I understand he's a very good halfback but he doesn't play midfield, so he's not really a like for like replacement for Brayshaw, which I'm speculating why we are chasing him. With our current pick 7 in the draft I'd like to go after a tall mid in Josh Smillie (Tom Green) but I doubt he'd last to our selection or Harry Armstrong as a key forward who will be around our selection after losing Brown and Schache. Jefferson and Kenterfield are still question marks at this point.

Not entirely... If we lose to GC and the Saints win they could jump us on the ladder and we could potentially land Pick 5 in the Draft! So we absolutely need to keep playing average football.

Brayshaw and Nibbler born on the same day leaving the club in the same year. A little bit eerie.

Garry Lyon mentioned On The Couch on Monday that Clarry's hand "was shot to pieces". Indicating that he is playing admirably like Gawn through severe pain. Our season is done, it's time to rest our champion players and be ready for one last crack next year!

I'll take Chandler everyday of the week and twice on Sunday. Spargo is a neat and crafty player with good vision. Chandler offers so much more to the side with his hardness, pressure, follow up, marking, goal nous and can kick over 50 metres lol.

Our forward pressure was fantastic tonight. Yes... it was another match that got away, but nonetheless there were signs of optimism going forward. The season is well and truly done so let's put Gawn, May, Oliver on ice for the rest of the season and come hunting again next season, hopefully with another top 6 pick recruit! I'll pass on Houston who will cost far too much, when I know we can get another quality player like Windsor in the draft. What I didn't like about the game was our repetitive kicking inside 50 to the top of the square which were repeatedly soaked up by the Port defence. Use some creativity going forward, hit up short leads and lower the eyes instead of bombing it in and hoping for a turnover. Secondly with our forward entries, we should have blitzed Port in the last few minutes of the 3qtr by peppering the forward line with creative entries, but instead we went into defensive mode and held up play. Port were under siege at that point and were about to break. I found myself screaming at the TV telling the players to get it into our F50. We've become so frustrating to watch because we do so many things well until it comes to our scoring or lack there of.

As long as we beat the Pies in our last game of the season I can stomach last nights putrid loss.

Goodwin gambled this season and he lost. He lost it from the very beginning when Brayshaw and Smith were basically forced to retire. He gambled that we had enough talent to get us through to finals with our A grade mids and nothing underneath. Losing our second string mids in Harmes and Jordon (even Dunstan would of been handy this season) have shot us in the foot and we've had to play kids who aren't ready, but have put in a mighty effort. Anyway I have faith in us next year, the talent is there and a new draftee gun Mid plus Noah Yze will help us back to greatness again soon. Similar to our 2019 disaster of a year... it resulted in some great draftees which launched us to the top of the ladder in 21', I see a similar trajectory and we'll be back in the hunt. Stay the course Demon faithful!

Smith and Brayshaw's absence has hampered our season greatly. We'd most likely be top 4 with those players in the side. add to that Brown who can never get on the park and Spargo's ankle we've been 4 players down all season. While it gives opportunities to our younger players like Howes, AMW and Turner we're doing incredibly well to be in the hunt for finals with no Gawn, Pettracca and a NQR Oliver.

Redemption time Dees, let's get a big percentage boosting win today and keep our finals hope alive!

We can't afford to have the mindset heading into that game like we did with West Coast thinking it will be an easy win. Yes... the Pies have many injuries, but they'll still be thinking they are a good chance of beating us if they pressure us all day. Our win/loss record to the Pies is an embarrassment!

It's great seeing the young fellas build confidence and getting better each week. Windsor, McVee, Howes and Woey all putting in good performances. It will be tough at selection soon with Bowey, McAdam, Hunter and Salem not far off a return. At this stage I'd swap McAdam for Billings for Carlton next week.

Can we get Hibberd in for the back half of the season? One last crack at another premiership with his best mate Melk, and not to mention reaching that 200 game mark which he fell just short.

People People chill... round 1 hasn't even started yet! let's not get our [censored] in a tangle already...

Many coaches and football experts say a player reaches his peak performance around the age of 29 and we have a great core of players in that 26-29 age bracket like Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Brayshaw, Lever, Salem, Fritsch, ANB and Langdon which will keep us in good stead for finals contention over the next few years. With further improvement from Petty, JVR, Rivers, Bowey, Pickett etc. I can see us pushing for the flag this year and in 2025. I'm not sure we'll be top 4, but that hasn't really helped us the last couple of years anyway so as long as we're in the 8 I'm happy.

Marty Hore for me. Melbourne recruited the 28 year old for a reason so they obviously see a role there for him.

MFC best 22: FB: J.McVEE, S.MAY, A.TOMLINSON HB: C.SALEM, J.LEVER, T.RIVERS C: E.LANGDON, C.OLIVER, L.HUNTER HF: A.NEAL-BULLEN, J.VAN ROOYEN, J.BILLINGS FF: B.FRITSCH, H.PETTY, K.PICKETT RR: M.GAWN, C.PETRACCA, J.VINEY INT: S.McADAM, T.SPARROW, A.BRAYSHAW, J.BOWEY SUB: J.SMITH Casey best 22: FB: M.HORE, T.MCDONALD, D.TURNER HB: B.HOWES , J.SCHACHE, J.ADAMS C: C.WINDSOR, K.BROWN, T.WOWOEDIN HF: C.SPARGO, T.FULLARTON, O.SESTAN FF: M.JEFFERSON, B.BROWN, A.MONIZ-WAKEFIELD RR: K.FARRIS-WHITE, B.LAURIE, M.SZYBKOWSKI (CASEY) INT: W.VERRAL, K.CHANDLER, K.THOLSTRUP, K.SHIPP (CASEY) SUB: K.WINDSOR (CASEY) INJURED: J. MELKSHAM I see this as the predominant best 22 for most of the year other than match ups which will determine whether we go with Fullarton, Smith or McAdam. Fullarton used when the opposition play 2 rucks or if Max isn't 100%. Smith we all know what he is capable of and is a very damaging 3rd key forward or capable defender if we want to stretch the opposition talls. McAdam to play the Melksham role with a bit more speed and creativity than others provide. If our forward pressure is breaking down then Spargo and Chandler will be recalled to create that turnover football. I'd like to see the emergence of Howes, Laurie, Turner, AMW and Woewodin the most this year. I think they've all had long enough time in the system now to be making an impact at senior level so a 5-10 game season for all of them would be a good result as I don't see any of them outclassing their team mates in the 22. B.Brown, Schache, Tmac and Hore will all provide roles when required this season but I'm not focusing on them too much. Jefferson, J.Adams, Sestan, Tholstrup, Windsor and K.Brown I don't want to place any pressure on them this year so just let them develop at Casey and if they can play a couple of games then that will bring great confidence for their 2025 season.

I'm backing Clarry in this year to play 20+ games. He will be ramping up his training soon after recovery from his knee clean out and be fully integrated in the main group by Feb. Let's go!

IMO, Tomlinson fully deserves the 3rd key defender position first up. He made a strong statement coming in first place in the time trial and the coaches will be taking note of that. I'd be more than happy to trial Disco as our super sub who can play forward or back if one of our tall's aren't firing. As for Laurie, I just don't see how he gets in the team when we brought in better skilled forwards in McAdam and Billings. If anything Laurie would be trying to get ANB's/Spargo's spot as that running forward that creates options. Laurie finishing 4th in the time trial is really promising so I think he just needs to keep plugging away in the VFL much like Chandler did for 4 years. I do feel it's time we see what Howes is made of so I'd like to see him get 5-10 games this season and with Hibberd's retirement there may be a spot for him to break into our strong backline. As for Jefferson we don't need to rush him, we have ample depth and I would much prefer to play Turner forward than Jefferson this season as he has had 2-3 more years in the system and should be AFL ready by now. Don't write off Schache this year either it's probably his last crack at AFL this season so he has to show something to warrant a contract extension.

Yes, but we moved up the the draft order to try and get a better player when we could have already got Tholstrup with our original pick 14. If we keep our current pick of 11 and take Tholstrup then we’ve essentially given away two 2nd round picks for nothing. I think the media are hyping up that Melbourne want to pick him is because JT went over and met with his family and Curtins also which he mentioned was only routine. JT mentioned he would take best available in his media segment yesterday. Tholstrup may be in first round contention and certainly will be a good player, but isn’t the best available at pick 11.