mauriesy

Libba is not slow, but he did go ball hunting and lost defensive position, allowing Petracca et al to get out of the front of the circle. That wasn't anything to do with speed, in fact he ran pretty hard trying to catch them once they were past, but they were too far gone.

I doubt those age gaps made much difference. You are really only talking about Liberatore as a difference. Most experienced players don't decline until after about 30. In fact since the effects of experience and training are cumulative, they should still be getting better. Sides like Geelong are a different story.

Watch how slowly the Bulldog's players run forward after that Naughton mark though.

He hasn't left yet. He's just said he might, or is willing to, stand down earlier than when his term expires in December 2023, two years from now.

If there was no horse racing, no one would breed the horses.

We will be like the adventurers who once they've climbed Mt Everest, go on to climb K2, all the world's other 8000m peaks and traverse Antarctica!

We had eight players under-21 in the grand final who are only going to get better. One acquitted himself really well in only his 7th game. We didn't have a player with 200 games experience and only one player over 30. Players like Jordon, Hunt, Tomlinson, Daw, Melksham, Weideman, Mitch Brown and Smith are there as role-playing back-ups. Of course injures may happen to key players, but the "law of averages" therefore says to me that we are not going to get worse.

Why? If we continue to improve, more players will have "career best years". Depth, fitness and good management can take care of injuries unless they are really numerous and/or severe.

But never rule anything out. Who knows what will happen in the future? David Neitz was an AA CHB in 1995 before going forward and becoming Melbourne's leading goal scorer. Tom McDonald spent years in the backline.

Gee, what a shocking nickname. Surely we can do better.

Anyone can lose their place if they lose form and another knocks on the door, but I'm not so sure Petty (and a few others you have mentioned like Sparrow and Spargo) are still "fringe".

If I were a Dog's supporter, I'd have to suck it up. Never seen an umpire change their mind.

Unless it's for a specific role like Ben Brown, I think we are well past needing to acquire players like Polec.

Waiting for durango to tell us he'll need to improve to hold his place. 🙂

According to the umpire it was 15 metres. That's the only decision that is needed!

That would be us.

Leave the last century to the last century. Just have a best 21st century team.

I live in the "regions", and there's no way I'm going to spend $500 for the whole family to go to an event like this. You have to wonder where celebrating a premiership ends and price-gouging begins.

Try $2.1 million.

Unrealistic? Fritsch would have marked that ball if Gawn hadn't got hands to it first.

Congratulations to Easton Wood on his career. There are only two Bulldog's premiership captains, Charlie Sutton and him. Although I think his decision may have been prompted by finding himself five metres behind Bayley Fritsch on a number of occasions! (It wasn't a free kick to Schache. Brayshaw's action actually punched the ball.)

Langdon and Brayshaw helped re-define Melbourne's game, with hard running from defence to attack and back again, constantly throughout games. Opponents found them hard to keep up with and match, and they were a huge part of our success (and badly-needed outside run). Here's to #positivewingers!

❤️💙

There are some good stories of players who have come from other clubs and are now Melbourne premiership players ... Lever, May, Langdon, Brown. Hibberd is one of them, and he would never had reached that achievement staying at Essendon. It was great to see him become a premiership player towards the end of his career.

This year I haven't even given one iota of thought to trading or draft picks.