Bonkers

Yeh I know mate, I was just answering the previous posters question about the value of picks. 👍

The stuff written about his Mother appears to be wide of the mark. To me based on Luke’s comments today it was always his desire to be at Freo from a young age. He had always wanted to go back there, it was his dream. Our recruiting staff should have known this. If they knew and were willing to take the risk well I guess I can accept it knowing that we won a flag while he was here, but we have lost out on this deal I think purely in terms of pick value at the moment. Of course we won’t know until we see what the club does with the picks, but it’s not a nice feeling at the moment seeing him in Freo colours and would rather him still here at the club. I think our club staff and players probably feel the same. I wish him all the best and hope we make the best of the situation with what we have. Also hoping if the Grundy situation eventuates that it works out to be a better duo than Dogga and Max, fingers crossed.

12,13 & 30 is equivalent to pick 1 in terms of value on the draft calculator. Actually it’s over by 100 points.

I don’t think it’s likely that we will hold onto their picks. Going by previous trade periods I assume we will likely trade out what we get to move up further into this years first round.

Interesting, where did you hear / read that?

I'd be sad to see Harmes leave. By the looks of things we will be shedding a fair amount of salary during this Trade Period? Does anyone have an idea on the value of contracts that Jackson, Hunt, Bedford and Harmes would add up to? I assume they'd equate to over the $1 - 1.2M mark which begs the question who are we bringing in other than Grundy? Or are we looking to make space for a couple of contract renewals?

https://www.afl.com.au/trade/trade-tracker?promotile

Fyfe? He’s finished as a force in the AFL.

Ok, it could be. Tom Browne mentioned it was today, could be wrong of course.

It's assumed/rumoured that he will inform the club of his intentions during his exit interview, which I believe was today?

3 goals down with 3 minutes left in our season Goodwin decides to finally take a risk and throw Petty forward. Changes the game and we almost get over the line. I don’t like to be critical of Goody but he had 12 weeks to experiment with forward line set ups before the finals and to try Petty or JVR. I have to admit that Ben Brown has become a liability. Umpiring was worse than last weeks rubbish. Off season we have to look at the reason we have been in front most games and tanked the last half. It’s a pattern and whether it’s fitness or game plan or both. I don’t know, but looks to me we haven’t been running out games. Feels sad to say this but it feels like we have wasted a year where we could have gone back to back and we’ve shot ourselves in the foot.

Yeh, unless Max is carrying an injury I'd rather Gawn at 50-70% time in the ruck. Dogga can play more forward and provide some mobility to our forward line. Dogga is more handy when the ball hits the ground so is a tough match up for a defender. Once the ball hits the ground when Max is there he's just about out of the game and our forward entries are very predictable lobbing the ball into him or Brown.

If the club physios/ medicos clear him to play and Trac thinks he can have an influence on the game then you play him. The injury is a 6-8 week injury once fully healed. In a scenario that it gets worse during the game you sub him off. I'd rather Trac play if he thinks he is ok to play than omit him based on your 100% fit rule. The reality is that most players are managed week to week and are never 100%, it's impossible in a sport like AFL to have a 100% fit list. Look at TMAC he's come back 3 months early from a 6 month injury to have a shot at playing finals. The lengths these guys go to to get themselves ready to play is one of the reasons why they are paid the amounts they are paid, so you trust them and the staff at the club to come up with the right conclusion whether they are right to go. A few examples off the top of my head where players played with injuries successfully in finals. 1) Ben Brown. He is likely to have never been 100% fit for the entire time he's been at the club, he is likely to be currently playing with significant knee impairment however provides us significant structure and work rate. Are you saying that we would have been better off not playing him in last years finals series? It's likely that every game Ben Brown plays he is pushing his physical limits and pushing his body closer and closer to retirement. 2) Dermott Brereton. How many games in finals did he play banged up? I can think of one memorable game specifically that is by many regarded as the greatest AFL/VFL Grand Final ever. By your measurement Brereton shouldn't have been on the field because he wasn't 100% fit, instead he kicks 3 valuable goals with broken ribs when he should have been in hospital. Those 3 goals are the difference between the 2 teams as it was a 6 point win. That injury could have been a life threatening injury, in hindsight Brereton wouldn't change anything about the decision he made on that day to keep playing. 3) Steven May. He played last years grand final with a significant tear in his hamstring. I'm sure there was risk that he could have torn it even more, who knows maybe he could have torn it off the bone and never been the same? However he got through the game and he was important in us winning the game and the first flag for the club in 57 years. I could go on and on with other examples and I get your point and why you are saying what you are saying. However the ideal scenario of being 100% fit just doesn't stack up, especially in finals. You have to trust the clubs advice around the risk profile of the injury on his career and the player around what he thinks he can achieve with his body and the injury. It can be the difference between a flag and being an also ran. Either sides of the coin have their pros and cons whether it pays off or not.

Channel 7 Reported 80,000 tickets are sold already.

In a hypothetical scenario if Luke Jackson was to nominate for the National Draft he'd be the number one pick by a fair margin. Using the AFL's draft formula pick 1 equates to around pick 5 and 13 combined at a minimum on the points calculated. That's not even factoring in that Jackson is already playing at a good level and has proven to be a good player as a Ruck at the age of 20. His ceiling is high and will most likely become an even better player and potentially the best Ruck in the game in a few years. Based on the offer Freo are rumoured to have offered it has to be a block buster compensation if they are offering $1M per year. Like you said a combination of 2 picks both with a value of less than pick 10 doesn't equate to pick 1 on the AFL's own points calculator. Should the the MFC look at getting decent value according to the AFL's own calculation criteria then the only way this get's done is with a pick in between 1-6 and then another pick from 6-12 or a good player and even then it could be unders as Jackson is a tangible talent whereas picks are still highly speculative even in the top 10. There is no guarantee the 2 picks for example turn out to be a 50 game player let alone a 200 game star which Jackson looks like becoming. I assume that the MFC like in their past dealings will let Jackson leave if he wants to go, however the deal will have to be good and I doubt that Jackson would leave if the compensation isn't deemed adequate. Personally I don't see how Freo get this done based on what we are hearing at the moment. However WCE may be able to satisfy us if Jackson is desperate to get home. It could end up being the case that the compensation package doesn't meet our preference and Jackson whilst wanting to return home is still ok with staying and looking after us and would be willing to look at a trade in the future if the chance arises. Maybe this has been discussed with his management. I recall similar occurred with Hogan and when we were happy with being able to turn the trade into a win win then the club pulled the trigger. I doubt the club will do it if we don't think we can turn this into a win and the way the club has been dealing with players in the last 5 years or so has ensured that the club can deal with the player in good faith and communicate openly so that if everyone comes to the party we all win.

Category 1-4 for public reserve is sold out. Bays Q54-55 & Q1-Q10 look like they are the only remaining seats available and they are already 50% sold too. It could be an 85,000 plus crowd?

Choose the Sydney member allocation, there are still plenty left. You can get more than 5 in a row last time I checked on level 2.

Yeh I don't buy the excuse about email communication not being ticked on your membership form. I get spammed with every other offer from the club via email so I'm not buying it. Good to hear you got it sorted.

I'm yet to receive an email from the club and I'm a trident member, so it's a pretty ordinary customer service experience with less than a business hour to get stuff sorted out if I was reliant on the club sorting it for me. Anyway, regardless, I worked it out for myself. For anyone else that hasn't received an email from the club with your barcode, you can login to your membership account if you have a username and password via https://membership.melbournefc.com.au/. Your barcode will be in there from the membership details tab. Good luck getting your tickets, Go Dees!

Yeah, saw that also. We've gone from being ranked 5th in the comp for ball use inside 50 to 18th. A lot of the issues are easily fixed if they hit up loose targets rather than blazing away to outnumbered contests. The game plan that's been drilled into them seems to be taking away from their ability to play instinctive footy and hit up a loose team mate. It's concerning that this hasn't been addressed as its been happening most of the year and definitely cost us the game Friday night.

Yeh I agree, 30-50% game time as a ruck and 30-50% game time as a mid. With Geelong now playing Blicavs on the ball more it will certainly give them something else to think about around the ground and at Centre Clearances if we played Dogga in that role. If he can work on his endurance he'd be pretty formidable around the ground with a higher percentage of game time. There's no reason he couldn't turn into an old fashion ruck rover, he is good below his knees and a tough match up aerially. Rather than focus on his short comings as a ruck it would be better for us to focus on his strengths and what other line ups can't come to terms with. Lets hope he stays.

Do you have reference to the indicators / current stats? There was an article about the key indicators back in April, they were looking pretty good back then despite us not really looking like we were playing that well and still wining games (IMO). I'd be interested to see where teams are ranked now vs then. Also the uneven fixture can skew the stats a bit so I'm not sure you can read too much into the stats as you mentioned. A good discussion point all the same to take a look at how things are tracking. https://www.espn.com.au/afl/story/_/id/33768562/afl-2022-champion-data-deep-dive-stats-reveal-premiership-contenders-fremantle-dockers-melbourne-biggest-danger

Will the loss Adelaide's Ruck McKinnon play a significant part in the game?

Out or interest what is the meaning or background behind Crom?

I could be wrong but prior to his knee injury last season I think he had hardly lost a one on one contest. It could be that he is still finding his strength etc after the knee injury. He’s come back pretty soon after injury, I’m prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. If Lever comes back in and replaces him in the meantime whilst Smith gets some game time and Tomlinson builds up his fitness that would be a decent outcome.