The Taciturn Demon

This misses lots of clubs and stops at 2020, but I still found it really interesting: https://thecityjournal.net/data-journalism-2021/afl-memberships-through-history/

This makes sense to me. Telling players "You're going to be delisted... now go and play finals for Casey..." seems like awful management.

Yep. I don't think she has a vendetta against our club in particular and don't expect serious football reporters to be nice about clubs to spare supporters' feelings. This is a silly one, though. Not only is it incorrect, but what would the alternative have been? Let him coach til the end of the season, attend the B&F and THEN pull the trigger? That would have been incompetence of the rarest kind. If they'd sacked him after the final round, would he have been more likely to attend the B&F? I think probably LESS likely, if anything.

I'd love to know what St Kilda are doing, because that's a spectacular result for a team with a genuinely shocking list and a decade of mostly terrible seasons behind them. I can see why North supporters would be hopeful. Although, I'd be more hopeful as a Richmond supporter, and they had a big drop. We flirted with fulfilling our middle club potential and then supporters were confronted with the stark reality that not only was the vaunted "dynasty" a mirage, but that sustained success was completely out of the question. From 70,000 to 58,000 in two years looks to me like the response of a supporter base that feels their excitement was completely unwarranted. Interesting that our home attendances actually went up.

There's two ways the club can go here. One is to seriously look at ideas and suggestions like @poita's above. Be creative. Be fun. Think seriously about what Melbourne fans want rather than what's cheap or seems inoffensive from a corporate point of view. The other is to do what we've done before: blame the supporters. It doesn't work on any level. First, even if the message was getting out to all Melbourne supporters, very few people are shamed into turning up or buying memberships. Second, the message NEVER gets out to all supporters. And the people who hear it over and over again are the die-hards. Wagging a finger at the people who go every week, in every weather, no matter how badly we're playing or how ludicrous the company line is... it's such a bad policy. Of course, the most important thing for building the member base is going deep in finals multiple times in a row. I hope that happens in my lifetime.

HA HA HA HA! That's incredible. That's something I'd expect from Fremantle.

Wow. That's embarrassing.

I think the bye helped get a couple back, but Bob Murphy, Mitch Wallis and Marcus Adams were all well inside their best 22. Jack Redpath wasn't the same calibre of player as those three, but was in the midst of his best season, going at 2 goals a game, when he did his knee. Arguably also worth mentioning: Matt Suckling was comfortably best 22 that year and was named an emergency after an achilles injury. And Stewart Crameri got done for the Essendon doping while at the Bulldogs; at the time he was a regular going at well over 1.5 goals a game. Swans fans were definitely furious about the umpiring. There was a very large difference between free kicks received. The AFL reviewed the game and said it was below the standard expected. But "gifted"? That's tough. They won from 7th with 15 wins for the season and had to beat the previous year's grand finalists to get there, including West Coast in Perth. I thought they played extremely well on the day (and in the whole finals series). The Swans had also spent almost 20 years benefiting from COLA, which wasn't scrapped until a year before the 2016 GF. The Academy had also been running for six years and had produced Heeney and Mills. Anyway, I think your point about what makes a "good" coach being highly subjective is fair. I'm not sure if Buckley is the unappreciated genius some people seem to think he is, but I can definitely see some of the most repeated criticisms are unfair. Or at least debatable.

I agree that Beveridge hasn't got that list to near the top as often as it should have, but I'm not sure everything went their way in 2016. In fact, on the injury front, for example, it was quite the opposite.

Gawn Bowey Pickett Petracca McDonald Chandler Salem Langford Turner Viney

He's taller than van Rooyen.

I don't like last touch between the arcs, but I'm happy to accept anything that makes the job easier for umpires. A lot of people say the between the arcs stipulation makes sense. I find it frustrating because you can essentially kick for touch when blasting inside 50 with no chance of kicking a goal. In the women's game especially, getting a throw in beside the behind post is a boon; most teams find it really difficult to move it out of deep defense. Interesting to see if they go harder on insufficient intent inside the forward 50 in the men's game.

In the press conference after the St Kilda embarrassment, Goodwin was asked why he let Wanganeen-Milera run free. Goodwin said he didn't; he put Langdon on him.

Interested to hear some top tens. Not necessarily how you think the coaches will have voted, but your order from your own observations throughout the year.

It's a great point. Hadn't thought about that. Is there a more unpleasant crucible to have been forged in?

I did think about mentioning that as the exception. What a moment.

I always thought Harmes did make a difference... for the middle part of his time at Melbourne, anyway. He complemented Petracca, Viney and Oliver really well while also being capable outside centre bounces. He wasn't a turn-the-game player, but he made it easier for stars to do their thing.

Belated Harmes replacement?

I've seen some good Kate Hore games. Not sure if I've seen a better one than that.

She's going to be so good when she can run out a game.

Hore Hanks Chaplin Ebert Heath Fitzsimon

Rayner walking off wearing the cheat's rictus.

Absolute certainty. Such a good description. The tribalism of footy can be great fun. But it can also be very dark.

I found it interesting that they didn't show that tackle and what Maynard did immediately after. There were seconds left and the game was done. Pathetic from Maynard.

This is why West Coast supporters furiously applauded Gaff after he went full 1970s sniper and obliterated Andrew Brayshaw's face. Because for some people reason and fairness don't come into it: everything the red team do is wrong, even if it's being a completely innocent victim of abysmal behaviour, and everything the blue team do is right, even if it's doing something universally accepted to be thuggery or bigotry.