Bonkers

Looks like we are kicking with a strong wind in the first qtr,

$2mil as well as 1st & 2nd rounders from 2013 & 2014. They were given an end of 1st round pick in 2014. 3 picks & a $2m fine is getting off lightly. In my opinion they should have been banned for a whole draft & given a $5m fine if not thrown out of the comp. Next year the sanctions will have had barely any effect which is a complete joke & hardly just punishment for systemic well planned & blatant cheating.

On The Sunday Footy Show there was an interview with the Essendon CEO Xavier Campbell. When questioned regarding whether or not they would allow Jobe Watson to leave (if Jobe decided he wanted to) Campbell was very squeamish. From memory he said he was confident Jobe would want to stay, but wouldn't comment on the process of whether if pushed whether or not they would allow him to leave for free as it is rumoured some players may want to. Like you said it will most likely depend on the player to a large degree & what stance the player takes.

Back in next week to play his old side.

Viv & Terlich with two set shot goals. 2.6.18 to 0.2.2

2 points a piece. http://www.3ser.org.au/ link to casey radio if you're game

A week or so back he interviewed Leon Cameron during the game & thought he was the Bulldogs coach. Not the first time he hasn't had a clue.

Harmes could develop into an A grader if he cleans up his disposal & can continue to grow his tank. He is pretty hard at it, can take a mark over head & kick a goal, win his own ball & run to receive on the outside, these are all pretty damaging attributes from a match up perspective. If he can get himself to a level where he runs through the midfield more & is more precise with his disposal he would be a pretty good player. At the moment he kicks his fair share of goals but I think in one or two more years time he could be up there as A grade. All personal opinion of course, hope he does get there.

I think Roos has made comment on our up & down form previously this year. When we have 18 or so contributors we are a good side. When we have less than an even contribution across the side we get found out. I think it really is that simple. On the weekend our forward pressure was down, Kent, Kennedy & Garlett didn't really impact the game & the clearances were halved when we rely on this part of our game to create scoreboard pressure. These are the two areas where in my opinion we have been winning games this year or improved a lot since last year. We are one of the leading clearance teams & were I believe in the top 3 for scoring to Rd 9. Contested possessions have also gone up & it is what they are building the side upon. Too much has been made of the diamond defence. Any defence will look like it has holes in it when the system falls down. If the ball is getting through the forward pressure to easily then its going to create holes in behind, we have increased our scoring heavily because of our press moving further up the ground as well as being able to move the ball more efficiently at times. Where you have gains or risk then sometimes you will also have losses or get found out. I think they need to find a balance with the new zonal defense & press but that is going to come with time & consistency as the players develop. At the moment they are probably struggling to maintain the intensity from week to week. Over the season we have averaged 1 goal more a game against than last year, but our attack has gone up 5 goals a game. I think you would take the pain of the one further goal against to score five more. People can argue that we have only beaten the sides we did last year to this point, personally I have been encouraged in our losses against North & the Bulldogs. We probably aren't a finals team at the moment but that isn't something to be discouraged about. There are visible signs of improvement & we have a group of what I would call elite young talent that may turn into Elite at AFL level. That is something to look forward to. At the moment we are a middle of the road team with aspirations to make the finals, if we don't make them this year so be it. I don't think that means its a false dawn.

I'm not for it, but I can see why the club have done it over the last 2-3 years anyway. The money coming in from these games has been the difference between making a $1M loss or breaking even. When we commenced the agreement we were in a bit of a hole financially. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong here. Hawthorn & the Kangaroos as an example are teams who have benefited from playing in Tasmania as a comparison & been able to make something positive out of playing home games away. The comment previously about net benefit is a good one, we probably are not going to build a supporter base there, however we are currently balancing the books by playing there. If we want the games to be played all at the MCG we need to play more consistent winning footy. We can then start demanding more games in Melbourne versus teams from Victoria to make our fixture more viable & allow us to drop the NT games. I think that is the commercial reality at the moment, until that happens we are most likely going to keep playing there. It will be interesting to see if we play one or two in the NT next year based on how we have been travelling this year & how the admin currently see the arrangement working out. Does anyone have some rough figures as to how much the club would make from a home crowd of 25,000 supporters as a comparison to what we made by playing a game in Alice today?

It's a broad generalisation.

Hawks sell off 4 a year it's working ok for them.

Winning the hit outs easily yet clearances are being halved. If we win the clearances I think we'll win the game. So far it's not happening just like the Essendon & Saints game. We have to come up with a way to take advantage of Gawns tap work. Viney & Tyson have both been quiet. Maybe time for Vince to go into the square.

Tracc coming up on SEN now for anyone interested.

One thing going for us is that Beams & Rockliff may both be out.

Disappointing news. Hopefully the club look after him & give him a few games off if this is concussion related.

Can anyone confirm if Brayshaw has been concussed again & whether his game is done for the day?

I may be wrong, but as I understand it part of the reason Norm Smith had a falling out with those in charge at the club is that he was asking for change. If a 6 time premiership coach can not bring about change from those he is working for I don't know if anyone could have. That is part of the so called curse IMO that a lot of people talk of, that the MFC were not willing to listen to a club great & willing to sack an immortal of the game, someone who was irreplaceable. Something at the club in that time IMO had become septic. The MCC had the advantage of the MCG being the home of football & as I understand it during our era of dominance we were also paying players more than other clubs were willing to or able to. During the time of 1961 - 1964 we won one flag, the MFC's dominance was waning. Whilst Ron is a man of incredible influence & a person many would have or would follow I don't know if he would have been capable of bringing the people who were running the club along with him. It's all hypothetical but from my perspective (which admittedly is a limited one as I wasn't there & I don't know any of the people in charge of the club at the time) the people in charge of the club were set in their ways & I don't think anything was going to change that. One of the biggest reasons that successes become failures is that they fail to or refuse to adapt to change. It is interesting to learn from those who have other opinions or who know more from being there or involved in it. It would be great to hear what Ron does believe & think about all of this.

Oliver & Petracca are currently averaging over 10 contested possessions a game. They are ranked 3rd & 2nd at the MFC and around 40th overall for the competition. Pretty amazing for young players who have played less than 5 games(grain of salt with Petracca only playing two games but I'm sure it will continue or even get better).

The story of Ron Barassi is extraordinary really. To become one of the games greatest players after being raised partially by his future coach following his dad passing away in the war is something you just wouldn't dream of. Norm & Ron went on to share 6 flags together, that's something that won't ever happen again. Times were changing when Ron left for Carlton & Ron probably did what he thought was best for himself as well as Norm at the time when he left. In hindsight Melbournes era of dominance would have ended even if Ron stayed. The money in the game shifted to other clubs and the MCC / MFC fell behind. I think Ron in a way is a visionary of the game & he probably thinks the game overall is bigger than the MFC. It is a shame that after the club gave Ron so much in his early life that he didn't stay his whole career with us but that's life. He's done a lot for the game & is a true legend.

Bews has been responsible for 3 of Adelaides goals in the first half.

I believe that the MFC is also holding a fund raiser before their scheduled training session. If the Cranbourne Eagles are inconvenienced perhaps some compensation can be paid or an alternative day for their fund raiser could be organised. It doesn't seem to be either clubs fault on appearances just a shame that the ground has had heavy rainfall recently.

From memory there is approximately 25000 mcc members who support Melbourne. The next highest is around 20000 Essendon supporters. If the sign up of mcc members is just under half our total of 38000 that would equate to around 15-19 thousand mcc/ MFC joint memberships. Approximately 2/3 conversion rate isn't too bad based on the 25000.

As last years final against Adelaide showed the Bulldogs capacity to defend on a larger ground can be ordinary, if we can exploit this then we have a good chance. We will also need to win the ruck contest & centre clearances. All of our losses seem to have coincided with Max Gawn's influence in the Ruck being nullified to a certain extent. Whilst we have built a very good contested brand our un-contested footy at times is pretty ordinary & I wonder if the Dogs will have too much class for us on the outside. At least we are in the position to be challenging a top 8 side & going in to each game thinking we can win.

On perception alone maybe he is boring. He seems like a genuine person though. I'd say that it takes character to be able to confront a fan that is going off their dial after a soul destroying loss like last nights. As the Adam Goodes fiasco has shown, perception often doesn't equate to reality. Most accounts of people who know Goodes say you couldn't meet a nicer person, yet publicly he is perceived totally differently by most fans. The saying don't judge a book by it's cover may apply?