Go Ds

Did you mean the 3.5-4.0 metre mark? Thankfully Billings still has time to change.

No one's going to ever like watching players miss goals. The club will have gone home with plenty of talking points, a sigh of relief ONCE JVR's back spasms are under control and officially we got thru injury-free and unlike many Demonlanders probably a 'glass is more than half full' attitude about that game. I won't panic about the forward line, kick efficiency or players such as Billings and Chandler at least with a sample of (technically) 1

Maybe I would have but the people going overboard would just sleepwalk through the stats. We lose some games through poor kicking at goal. But it's so convenient and simplistic to just scream out that we need to improve this skill. EVERY team has this problem at times. Every player, kicking enough times at goal, will miss goals they shouldn't. Unfortunately it doesn't matter how much a player practises, how fit they get, how much they 'perfect' technique or however much they discuss avoiding the "yips" with the sports psychologists sometimes players will miss goals, teams will have a disastrous day in front of goal ....even a disastrous FINAL in front of goals. Off the top of my head there was at least North against Adelaide, and Geelong against Hawthorn arguably winning grand finals IF their goal conversion had been merely average on the day. We all want Melbourne to improve their goalkicking. Hell, even if Melbourne (or whoever someone's baracking for) wins 80 games in a row everyone will still want better accuracy. But at times it may well be bad luck where coincidentally a string of bad misses all happen at once. I hope and doubt the coaches at Melbourne have ignored the H&A games and especially those recent disastrous finals ruined by inaccuracy. But what's the point harping on the Freo game? There were all sorts of reasons why we missed goals. Possibly poor coaching/skills training was well down the list. I wouldn't put money on it but with ZERO home and away games under our belt it may still be that actual kicks at goal, entries inside 50 and the forward set-up have improved. To paraphrase a lousy 90's sitcom WE WERE IN A PRACTICE MATCH! i sure hope the coaches don't overdo goalkicking drills now at the expense of other facets of the game. (BTW you can find the stats at afltables.com for one. We kicked at 53% last year (against our opponents at 51% and better conversion than many teams including 3 in the final 8). And as @Bring-Back-Powell said we surprisingly were worse in 2021 H&A season (50% v 54%). You could even use the AFL Tables website to see that as far back as 1897 there were finals where the team with more scoring shots lost. Anyway I look forward to more quarters/matches (no matter when in a year) where Melbourne kick badly and the feeding frenzy resumes on here. *sigh*)

I've just seen the stats of Melbourne's scoring shots accuracy in recent years. Anyone like to guess what percentage accuracy Melbourne was at last year? How many teams were more than 'zero point something' more accurate than the Dees last year? How about in 2023, 2022 and our premiership year? Have things really dropped off?

I sure hope your sister forgave you for doing that to her pig.

What's Casey in Chinese characters?!

What were the expected scores from yesterday?

We're talking small samples though. Did one player miss 6 easy shots? Maybe Billings missed a few. But even he can turn it around if today was the aberration.

Ouch! Sounds like it needs an ointment.

Surely the official training sessions aren't the only opportunities to practise shots. Some players may have put in hours away from the public over summer.

If we kick a bit straighter we win. Every team has the occasional inaccurate day. We have been notorious for bad kicking in recent years. But if we end up top 5 or 6 most accurate team this year worries about today will look silly.

They had a big game against the Indigenous All Stars. If they were a real team that had time to gel as a team they'd be top 4, at least. I suspect that that game was a better 'blowout' than a match simulation against lowly North. On top of that it was hot, we'd flown across the country and virtually were one player down the whole game. ( Was there a sub? I didn't hear) Freo probably should have been fitter.

Some downside. Even more upside. This wasn't a great spectacle and I'd tip neither side for the flag off today's effort. But the formula is pretty straightforward: get into the final 8 - especially the top 4; be fit; be in form and play like demons (pun intended) for three or four games. Both sides could still do this and I doubt we say at 14th.

Like I said it would be preferable. But no one will care long-term about the result a few months .... weeks ... down the track. Look how Melbourne and others dropped away last year and Hawthorn and Brisbane had almost perfect 'half-seasons' after worrying starts.

It'd be preferable. But if Freo thrash us in the next 5 real matches even if we beat them by 30 goals in each pre-season match during that dominance it'll mean nothing. (That said good team and player performance today is preferable.)

Given one in eighteen is a pretty small proportion (rounding down) virtually no team wins a flag. Of course one must win but it's a big challenge and stats suggest flags normally are few and far between. I agree completely with your post. Maybe I could have refused to watch Melbourne again circa 1982 until some alerted me we were 9 goals up in the grand final. But that would mean I'm not a real supporter , or even a footy fan. While there's been frustration the last three years has been among the most three-year periods since the mid60s. Most teams would envy us

Unless the offseason was much shorter there's always gonna be lots of anticipation by now. Unfortunately footy fans want to hear stuff as we approach the first real game. I'm not sure it's a good idea for football clubs to go completely silent over summer. And take note the Goody interview is one of many Ch7 are doing with clubs at the moment. If the PR isn't complete BS I'm fine with it. For at least another week clubs can't 'talk' so this is the main thing they can do. Besides I'm sure more people buy memberships after hearing all the fluff compared to when the last message over summer was "Merry Christmas"

Honestly I get the message and tend to agree with it. But I am reminded of this. https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxRnq4zueuxKLfs1wYoeBhEASrOgjWnJ9N?si=tXQpB6gHdQAJonO-

Yeah.... I'll be loudly protesting outside the president's office. If the beloved McDonald is not un-instated I'll be microwaving my membership card on TikTok.

Hell no. But usually wouldn't Hall Of Famers be first-mentioned when asked about best players?

It is. But I just looked at the team of the century thread. Not everyone had him in their best 18 or even 22/23.

You mean you'd be reading someone's post and suddenly suspect/realise it was actually just AI? I don't want that either. As long as we're forewarned that threads are about AI or dont open threads only to find they're infested with AI responses I'm fine with it

Huh? If you're not interested in jumper numbers you wouldn't click on on a thread called Jumper Numbers. If you're not interested in best looking Demons players ever you wouldn't click on a thread called Best Looking Demons Players. If you're not interested in ChatGPT ....... I guess if 15 topics in a row mention AI I'd agree with you. But unless AI becomes amazingly good at predicting or analysing AFL I think we're pretty safe

It said at the top Chat GPT. Unless you didn't know that is AI why bother with this thread?

Was this a surprise? He was a heart-and-soul role-model kind of player. But wasn't he always at least a rung below the most talented players?