Its Time Again

I know it's laughable to make any comments off photos but....... his kicking action in that photo looks like someone who knows how to kick a footy. While he might look skinny from my point of view he also looks pretty cut for an 18 yr old. Skin folds already look pretty good. He doesn't look like he's coming in from a zero base like some other Rookie B's I've seen.

I've never fully understood who actually does the player and pick trading. I think most of us gave Mahoney the credit for it in his time at MFC but is that right was it Tim Lamb doing the negotiating even then. In fact is it Tim Lamb doing it now. I assume JT and team go out and find the talent and then it's over to TL and team to negotiate. Anyone know how it works.

A Talking Heads song comes to mind in response to this post.

Does anyone know how this is going to work when they disagree. Who's decision is followed.

Jeez Picket you must be exhausted from all the warpaths you must have been on over the years if stuffing up picks is your criteria.

Anyone have any idea who the Jefferson and Cadman in next year's draft are and how they compare. Just wondering given we have two first rounders and two second rounders next year in what's regarded as a much stronger draft so plenty of scope to trade up to a much higher pick than this years. Jefferson looks like he's going to take a few years to fill out before he's going to be competitive. Wonder if JT and team would have an eye on that when deciding who to take this year. Wonder if there is anyone next year who could potentially be better.

Believe it or not here's actually science behind this. I worked with a cognitive scientist a few years ago who has worked with some of the top sporting teams in the US. He got them to implement telling jokes before going out to play. He explained that when we laugh we release endorphins which can help to relieve pain and trigger feelings of pleasure. It is also a very effective way of calming nervous players down just before they play and counteracts negative thoughts and fears. The Tigers got on to this a few years ago and you could see them coming out of huddles laughing. They actually specified players each week that had to have a joke to tell in the huddle. I don't know if that's the basis for the girls doing it but it probably is. I'm in awe at the massive leap in their standard of play even from season 6 to 7.

A mate spoke to a players father who said we had 11 injured players playing in the finals. We know quite a few of them like Lingers for instance carried injuries for a lot of the season. Injuries can limit how much they can train which in turn eventually effects their ability to run out games. Might explain a lot. More likely explanation than Cats got conditioning right and we got it wrong.

As Yogi Berra also said "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there."

As Yogi Berra said "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."

rjay I'm interested to know what announcements you and others want from the Club. Roffey and Pert have communicated earlier in the year that the Club is negotiating with around 5 different entities to make it happen and any announcements have to come from the Govt and not the club or they risk torpedoing it happening. I can't think of two better people to be involved in this for MFC than Roffey and Pert given they've both been heavily involved in the past with the entities we're negotiating with. They have advised two very promising developments which make it still worthwhile pursuing. One is that the Govt has spent from memory over $100,000 or hundreds of thousands on feasibility studies with very detailed plans which Pert has seen and said would be incredible for the Club. Secondly that the Govt has just spent, was it $2.3million on Gosch's upgrade for MFC which is clearly a sign they are very serious about MFC staying in the area. What announcement do you want from the Club? They clearly can't say more than this. I'm as frustrated as anyone at the lack of progress and I'm sure Pert and the Board are as well. Unfortunately I suspect that the Govt's decision to get and fund the Cwlth Games has probably put this back several years. As far as I'm concerned I'm prepared to wait as long as it takes to get something within the MCG precinct or until we know definitively it won't happen. The AAMI training facilities may not now be cutting edge but as I understand it they are also not second rate. The Melbourne Storm have remained one of the best NRL teams using them. They are continually funded and upgraded by the four teams that use them. Goschs is now AFL standard. As I understand it the biggest advantage of the new facilities is the plan for them to be ours alone. The other advantages will be more about non football. Like combined Admin and FD, social club facilities, museum etc.

Agree. It occurred to me the other day just how lucky we are that Grundy happened to be available just when we needed him. Imagine what state we'd be in with Jackson gone and no Brodie Grundy. It's such a serendipitous gift.

Interesting. I've often wondered whether list managers divide the salary cap into areas of the ground and players get paid accordingly and how that gets effected when you have a player or players who are the best in the comp but in one area of the ground. For instance a few years ago May and Lever were probably our two highest paid players and I'd assume it would be unusual to have focused so much salary cap into the backline. We ended up seeing why and it's probably more than evened out now. Now we have two of the highest paid being ruckmen. I have always been a big advocate of the importance of having a good ruckman but I'm not as clear about it anymore given we've had the best on in the comp and arguably the best midfield for him to service yet it hasn't translated to stoppage dominance. Teams with average or poor ruckman have been competitive and even better. Dogs were interesting for a few years there being the dominant clearance team by a significant margin without having any decent ruckmen. Centre bounce clearances don't have an excuse, I realise some of this in stoppage clearances is due to our tendency to play with one less at the stoppage but still it's an interesting one. Will be really interesting to see what two elite ruckmen do for us. Especially when the opposition has to bring in their second ruckman against one of our two.

I realise talking about Hannan in a Hunter thread is getting off topic but I spoke to him in the preseason after this and told him no matter what happens to him for the rest of his career we'll all never forget this moment. He was thrilled. I asked him what he was thinking as he was getting closer to goal. He said if you have a look at it you can see me glance across looking for a better option. I really didn't want to kick it myself. He said the kick didn't go well off his boot and he was crapping himself it was going to miss. So his initial emotion was relief. Back on topic, I reckon by the end of next season we will be looking back on this trade and putting it up there with the Langdon trade as a quiet trade that turns into a massive bonus.

One of my greatest regrets. I started going every week in Robbie's first year but didn't keep the footy records. Would have loved to have kept the record of the games I had gone to. Also my members card back then which got you into every home and away game. They used to click off the ones you'd been to on your card. Oh well. Unfortunately I remember a lot of them. We lost 22 in a row in my first two years. We had one win to break that run and went back to losing.

O Mac has been delisted

The Age Oct 2019 reported it is a 5 year contract for $500,000 per year. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/dees-nab-tomlinson-in-giant-trade-20191007-p52ygs.html

Fremantle football boss Peter Bell on Rory Lobb "We informed him that due to his contracted status and the importance he for our structure that we wouldn't be able to facilitate a trade for Rory." Youve seriously got to live Peter Bell don't you. He's going to spend maybe $900,000 and sell the house to get Jackson who plays Lobb's role but he's not going to let Lobbe go. So he'll have to of them plus Sean Darcy one of the best rick's in the comp. Either he's playing very silly trade week games or good luck Freo.

Seriously? This is a reference to what all the players were saying about him last year when they were in the bubble. They all loved him being there and he and the other kids made a big difference to helping dealing with being locked in the bubble. They all talked fondly about how full of life and mischievous he was. Not an insult in any way. The opposite.

My theory on Melk getting another year is that pesky son of his who everyone loved so much in the lockdown bubble in WA must have been DNA tested and he's going to be a superstar and we need Melk to get 6 more games for him to be a father/son. Otherwise a bit surprising. But I'm sure I'm right. Smith can't keep getting injured forever can he? Unless he's me. Fully fit he's a special depth player with his versatility and potentially a very special medi sub for that reason. Hibbo earnt another year on the back of one of his best years this year until finals. On Grundy haven't we all learnt not to listen to the fourth estate on this stuff. I'd put money on us not paying a first rounder for him. We're in the box seat. However, past experience has taught me rule no. 1 in trading. Absolutely no matter what do not trade players in or out to or from Collingwood no matter what. I don't need another example to prove this rule.

Of course the other factor here is that Grundy has the total say on whether he goes or stays. If he says he'll only go to MFC and if Pies have to push him out to get whoever in they need then how much they pay of his salary and how low a pick they get back might be out of their hands if they want it to happen. Grundy can turn around and say ok no worries I don't want to leave anyway so I'm staying.

Spot on. There were a series of failures in the system this year that culminated in easy controlled i50's against us and away from Lever and May. For some reason I don't know we started to lose contests and clearances which is the starting point for our Game plan. (Our pressure rating dropped from 3 last year to 16 this year and 3rd for clearances in 1st 10 rounds and finish at 13th.) Once we lost these particularly in our forward half we seemed to have lost last year's brilliant defensive transition by the end of the season we were only better than North and the Eagles in stopping teams going from their defensive i50 to forward i50. That's a mind blowing drop off. Plus in losing those contests we were put under pressure which resulted in a lot more turnovers and statistically we ended up being right at the bottom for scores against from turnovers. Swans kicked 11 goals from turnovers. This loss of contest pressure was also evident in trapping the ball inside our own forward 50 so a lot of the transition started from there. I don't know why we lost our setup behind the ball especially in the second half of the season but my guess is we aren't set up for losing contests and that meant we didn't have time to setup behind the ball as other teams attacked ahead of us. Nathan Jones on SEN made a couple of interesting points. He mentioned how teams were easily scoring from our turnovers. Also mentioned that our inability to run enough to defend was not caused by lack of fitness but lack of efficiency. Someone else I heard also mentioned that you get a lot more tired chasing and not getting a result than you do running ahead of the ball and scoring. I guess the inefficiency includes how much we get it inside 50 but then fail to score so we have to expend a lot more energy to score than other teams. That might also apply to our inability to kick straight. For instance Trac went at 27% in Swans final and 39% v Lions. This can be partly explained by his injury but he hasn't been great all season and of course his kicking for goal has gone off a cliff. At one stage he was 19 goals 31 points and 17 out on the full. His percentage accuracy on goal was 28% which is the worst for the top 50 players. (These stats are coming from Robbo in the HS so take at your own peril) I reckon nearly all of that is a matter of some fine tuning not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We're not that far off. Have a proper break this off season unlike last season. Come back fit and refreshed. Fix the forward system of delivery and leads although I hope getting Grundy doesn't signal that Goodwin's bomb it in strategy is going to continue by freeing up Gawn to stay down there even more as a bomb it in target rather than a leading target. Also hope they change this strategy to match BB's strength which is marking on a lead rather than being forced to try to mark in packs which was never his strong point.

I can't understand Weagles determination (if True) not to give up pick 2 for him. He's been in the system 3 years, proven himself under the ultimate pressure of a Grand Final. Won a Rising Star. Has 3 years of physical development and tutoring by the best ruckman in the comp. And he's only 20. Compared to what at pick in the draft. There's never a guarantee a pick 2 is going to prove to be worth the pick and then they have to be developed for 3 years or so before they will be a major contributor. Plus they desperately need to draft a ruckman to replace Nic Nat. I'd be grabbing the opportunity to get him with pick 2 with both hands.

I won't be able to listen live tonight. But I am looking forward to listening to the whole pod tomorrow as I am a captive audience from Melbourne to, you guessed, where else for a Dees supporter, Buller. But I assure you I will be back in Melbourne in time for Friday's game. Having watched T Mac on the weekend come back in and be pretty effective straight away although a bit underdone does anyone think he might be a sneaky chance to get into the team by the GF assuming we're there. Personally I think it's really unfortunate they have a bye this week which I think probably rules him out as he won't get enough game time to sneak in if injuries opened a spot up. If BB goes down you'd have to consider it though wouldn't you.

You're right . I'm sorry already I'm going to miss it. I did make it to Perth. So have to be thankful for minor mercies. But nothing will be better than watching those feral animals being put to the sword. Hope they are ahead for the first 6 minutes so they think they're going to win and then we put the pedal to the metal and obliterate them. Not that anyone needs to worry about denting their percentage which is the lowest top 3 percentage anyone can remember.