The Great Pretender

Official now - his third ACL. Poor bloke.

Daw played four games last year in a club that was fractured and, after a reasonably good start, was losing regularly. By the time, Daw got his chance to play they were pretty much down and out, struggling to perform and with a coach who had lost focus. Not the best of circumstances to attempt a comeback from a debilitating injury that he incurred in fairly turbulent circumstances. Still, it wasn’t a complete train wreck. He filled in as a backup ruck man/forward and managed a goal and a reasonable number of hit outs and possessions in the first three of those games. His last game for North was up on the Gold Coast when the team was destroying by the Suns. He got 9 possessions in a game that was a disaster for both him and the club. His cards with the Kangaroos were marked. Sure, his career might be over but who knows? In a different environment and given opportunities, he might thrive. What do we have to lose by offering a one year contract?

I don’t have issues with small crumbing forwards but it’s very rare that players of 171cm or 172cm make the grade.

That would be a humiliation for club, coach and player.

My understanding is that the figure of $600k would apply if he performs at a high level of achievement through a season and meets all KPIs - eg wins the b & f. The base level of the contract would probably be around $400k.

Do not expect Melbourne to be players in terms of trading players into the club. We will clear Preuss and Hannan once the dust settles around the clubs they are going to. One or two more delistings to come and hopefully we can somehow improve our draft position.

Collingwood’s Ned Guy said that the Pies aren’t interested in TMac. I think that means they can’t afford him.

Season over.

While Collingwood are to be congratulated on making the finals, its worth noting how remarkably smooth their run of games in the second half of the season has been. After losing to Freo at Optus Stadium in Round 9, they’re played only one game away from the Gabba and that was v Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval in Round 11. This week they play Port Adelaide at ... (drum roll) ... the Gabba. That’s one plane trip in all of that time. They also had a bye during the last frenzy period. With the exception of a soft trip to play the bottom side in Adelaide, it was a complete joy for them to not have much traveling in the second half of the season and no games in the heat and humidity of FNQ or NT. Well done Eddie!

If there was one, the club website should have covered it by now.

Not quite tails up. They beat Fremantle and Swans in their first 2 games - both by a goal. I think there’s a fair chance we might have beaten them and Geelong at that stage. I’m not making excuses, just pointing out that the course of the season would have been different and a bye would have been handy at some stage in the past few weeks.

Essendon's Conor McKenna has retired, effective immediately. It was thanks to him that Melbourne’s fortunes started going off the rails in the early part of the season. We missed that game only one week after the resumption and we had a flat start the following week against Geelong. Perhaps, if McKenna hadn’t tested positive we might have had two extra wins plus a week’s respite by way of a bye around this time of year which might have made all the difference?

6. Jack Viney 5. Christian Petracca 4. Bayley Fritsch 3. Max Gawn 2. Clayton Oliver 1. Trent Rivers

Thanks - notice it was just put up now.

Two ruckmen - one the skipper, the other our first rising star in 4 years - under an injury cloud. Supporters concerned. Any danger of a word from the MFC?

I hope our players were taking note of how the Dogs frustrated the Giants tonight.

6. Max Gawn 5. Christian Petracca 4. Clayton Oliver 3. Trent Rivers 2. Christian Salem 1. Ed Langdon

If Jack Viney isn’t leader after round 1, I would be very surprised.

"Joel Jeffrey (Gold Coast Suns) – Linked to the club via NT Brodie Lake (Gold Coast Suns) – Linked to the club via NT" Two players in one year via NT - is this the zone we lost when the AFL gave concessions to Gold Coast last year? Did we ever get compensation?

I have been more than somewhat disappointed that the club hasn’t pursued this avenue in recent times after we were initially the front runner in terms of recruiting players from the Gaelic game and had so much early success with Sean Wight and Jimmy Stynes. I’m pleased therefore to read that we had someone in Dublin for the Combine. I think it’s definitely worth a crack and we have two Cat B vacancies so why not?

2019/20 AFLW off-season review: Melbourne

No - we have 5 vacancies (plus room for 2 Category B Rookies*) Primary list 1. Oskar Baker 2. Toby Bedford 3. Angus Brayshaw 4. Bayley Fritsch 5. Max Gawn 6. Mitch Hannan 7. James Harmes 8. Michael Hibberd 9. Marty Hore 10. Jayden Hunt 11. Neville Jetta 12. Nathan Jones 13. James Jordan 14. Kade Kolodjiashnij 15. Ed Langdon 16. Jake Lever 17. Oscar McDonald 18. Tom McDonald 19. Steven May 20. Jake Melksham 21. Alex Neal-Bullen 22. Aaron Nietschke 23. Clayton Oliver 24. Christian Petracca 25. Harrison Petty 26. Braydon Preuss 27. Christian Salem 28. Charlie Spargo 29. Joel Smith 30. Tom Sparrow 31. Adam Tomlinson 32. Aaron vandenBerg 33. Jack Viney 34. Josh Wagner 35. Sam Weideman 36. - 37. - 38. - 39. - 40. - Category A Rookies 1. Kade Chandler 2. Kyle Dunkley 3. Jay Lockhart 4. Corey Wagner Category B Rookies 1. Austin Bradtke 2. - 3. - * these are subject to special criteria for selection that are outside the drafting rules

I think it’s already been explained elsewhere but we have 5 vacancies so based on your scenario, there would only be one vacancy left if we took 3 & 8, Murray as a DFA and Bennell as a SSP Rookie. BTW, if this happens, the chances of us also pursuing Jack Martin much further are diminished.

Lot of water to flow under the bridge.

I don’t believe that Weightman is in the next 6.