whatwhat say what

3 hours ago, BoBo said:

I found the ignore button. Bye bye Picket.

welcome to the club

3 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

It certainly is dumb. With no recorded audio it’s essentially he said, she said. Butters claims to have said, “What was that free for?” Foote claims to have heard, “How much are they paying you?” Who to believe? Personally I believe Butters, and I think Foote misheard him, although the phrases don’t sound alike 🤷‍♀️

it's gonna be VERY interesting to see how the afl go with this - they didn't believe collard re his homophobic slur which oddly seems to have come first one person saying it then another, rather conveniently, a week after the original accusation

2 minutes ago, Tommy_Wolfe7 said:

I've already begun profiling this years draft crop - and it looks pretty good. Lots of variety in player type and quality appearing almost every weekend.

I posted this B23 (with a lens towards building a young side up) in the 'Best Side' thread:

FF: B.Fritsch - J.van Rooyen - L.Pickett
HF: J.Melksham - B.Mihocek - K.Tholstrup
C: C.Jiath - K.Pickett - E.Langdon
R: J.Steele - M.Gawn - H.Langford
HB: T.Rivers - H.Petty - C.Salem
FB: J.Bowey - J.Lever - X.Taylor
I/C: T.Sparrow - C.Windsor - X.Lindsay - J.Culley - K.Chandler

If this is the current best side (Viney would be in if fit), then there's some obviously list needs going forward:

• Key forward to replace Mihocek in time

• Half forward / mid to replace Melksham/Chandler types

• Midfield quality to replace/upgrade Steele, Viney, Sparrow

• Key back to replace Lever

With two first round picks in a draft that looks pretty solid early, Melbourne can likely sort a couple of these out at the end of the year.

no turner? he's the future of our key backs

tholstrup has shown limited ability to play half-forward; he needs a role - be it tagger in the midfield or half back

we don't need a replacement for melksham - we need someone who can provide pace and defensive workrate; chandler is the obvious one here

jiath doesn't play wing - like tholstrup, he needs a role - which is behind the ball; personally i think that if he's in our best 23 we're not a serious finals side

langford's lack of defensive accountability stops him playing inside mid at this point - they're trying to teach him to be a two-way runner but he needs to work a lot harder

who replace sparrow? he's one of few players we have in the 25-30 age group

we lack class across the park - our kids have promise, but nothing compared to our kids of the roos / goodwin era

8 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

Well it’s all out in the open now. The umpire is alleging that Butters said, “How much are they paying you?”

also, is this the umpire that is also a sportsbet employee to provide horse racing advice?

4 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

Well it’s all out in the open now. The umpire is alleging that Butters said, “How much are they paying you?”

i hope the answer was 'not as a full-time professional'

mids, mids, and more mids

our kid mids show promise but nothing compared to that which our previous generation displayed

we have very little players in that 25-30 age range at all, lett alone that is top quality:

we have a a really weird list at the moment with a heap of 30+ and a heap of under 25

other than koz (24) and gawn (34) i don't think we have any a-listers at this point in time

you need stars to win premierships

12 minutes ago, Bang Bang Bang said:

Richmond don’t look like winning a game any time soon so of course they’ll beat us in a couple of weeks.

lynch to return and boot 7 goals 2 instead of 2 goals 7

my mfcss senses are tingling...

22 of their 23 points scored on turnover

We get it in d50 and kick it straight to them at the top of the arc

Lucky to only be 4 down at quarter time

Midfield needs to work a lot harder

It is insane that Rodan’s kid is an nga because of parental birth given that he’s grown up with his dad in the industry as a player then an umpire

1 hour ago, Little Goffy said:

There's a beautiful expression that "the opposite of love isn't hate, it is indifference".

Collingwood are an enemy, a toxic liability to Australian football, a combination of grotty inbred sneering inferiority and the unaccoubtability of the rich moron shielded by family lawyers and devoid of civic virtue. It is a duty of all football supporters to do harm to the Collingwood football club.

Essendon are an inconvenience. With due respect to Ghosty's personal glorious vendetta, success this week is to play our way, earn the four points and move on.

Fact is, if Essendon were dropped from the AFL the only thing we'd miss would be the memes.

Demons by 50 with the coach putting the focus on winning every quarter and learning to not let inferior teams get a look in.

in an ideal world i would like about half a dozen teams to finish 11th - not good enough to make finals (nor wildcard round) nor get a top 5 pick to help their rebuild

was inevitable that it would become merely another property the afl could somehow turn into a money-making venture

24 minutes ago, Left Foot Snap said:

Didn't we finish home and away in 2nd in 2022? And then 7th after finals?

officially 6th after finals, i believe

we were cruelled with injury in 2022-23 at the end of the season; by comparison, in 2021 we got players back as finals loomed

it makes all the difference to have a fit list

1 minute ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Anyone have any inside gossip as to why ANB left us, now that the dust has settled.

family reasons was the story at the time

just remember to hit the 'record' button!

here's some generic q's for you to consider...

generally speaking, the perception is that young team's get 'tired' as the season goes on and often drop off - the medja narrative appears to have that as the story for us in 2026, but we're not actually 'young' with a fair whack of experience at the top end and not much in the mid-range of 25-30

so... do you expect us to 'drop off' in 2026?

do you think we should 'prioritise' youth and getting games into the likes of jefferson or kentfield instead of focusing on building team cohesion with the side that we've had for the majority of 2026 which is winning games and playing exciting, attacking footy?

of our senior cohort who are out of contract at the end of this - melksham, plugger mac - do you think they will play on in 2027? (and thus stop milkshake's kids from crying)

5 minutes ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

What a dart from Tex. Best forward entry I reckon you’ll see.

i can't believe how good walker still is

he's about to be 36!

not many key forwards are still performing at his level at that age

1 hour ago, Chook said:

Best on-paper forward line since the days of Ben Brown and Tom McDonald (fwd version).

those were the days!

sideshow bob, plugger, and fritsch was an amazing leading, bullocking, and smart positioning combo that we saw too infrequently

mihocek has been a huge addition in 2026 - such a hard worker and such a smart footballer

6 minutes ago, deanox said:

Agree with this.

One of the reasons he looks dangerous forward is because he often drifts forward from a wing, where he brings his wing opponent back with him: they can't compete in the air like a medium defender would.

His ability to rotate through that makes him a really difficult match up.

i know that daniel hoyne compared langford to the puddy tatts' ollie dempsey, but culley reminds me more of him in his style of play

and the headband, obvs

10 minutes ago, The heart beats true said:

I say argue against all those things! I agree with all of it.

The reality of Australia is that realistically only Melbourne is within driving distance to Adelaide, and the problem with that is that on any given week there’s at least 5 games of footy in Melbourne. Of those I’d estimate less than 2% of the crowd at those games aren’t fans of either team. Victorians have a lot of footy available to them every week - so the concept of gathering to see a lot of footy is made redundant by geography.

I think it’s great for SA, but I think it’s a dud for 95% of footy fans, and I think the AFL is asking a lot of its core supporters in the current economic climate. It’s very nice that self funded retirees can afford to travel around the country at will, but it’s pretty ignorant of the financial reality of a lot of the people who make footy what it is.

I genuinely hope you have a great weekend. My criticism is never of the fans, or the massive contribution SA has made to footy. I just think the AFL hasn’t read the room on it, and the average fan can smell the sales job being done on them. 👍

i think it'd be FAB to be there

but it's quite clearly an invention to get a free pay day from a govt; better that it's sa than nsw as at least they have the infrastructure and passionate footy fans to support it and appreciate it

i mean, sure, why not - easy money, and a great experience for those who live in sa / can afford to be there / work in the industry

Just now, Ghostwriter said:

I can’t believe the ump fell for it. Even Riewoldt said it’s amazing how quickly a forward gets to his feet when a 50 is paid.

hollands JUST clipped him on the back of the head; tex took a massive dive tho to make sure the 50 got paid

crazy pace to that quarter

hard to tell on the teev, but didn't look like there was a heap of pressure

super quick ball movement

if there is one vic i would love to bring back to the mfc from an interstate side it would be josh rachele

fast, flowing footy

good to watch as a neutral

walsh racking it up

11 hours ago, JOHNNY DEE said:

HI Demonlanders is there anybody out there who knows how Ticketmaster works

like a law unto themselves

tex walker is still absolutely key to how the crom go

2 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

losing clearances but the baggers are terrible at just about every other part of the game

i take that back; they're dominant at ground level in f50 in the last 3 mins!