mauriesy

I think Duryea felt one of his tackles. 😃 I noticed how strongly Spargo and Pickett congratulate each other on a goal. Must be some mutual respect and friendship there.

Would have been interesting to see the decision if he'd pushed Bowey into the goalpost.

No wonder Max can play like he does ... he's got four legs!

Signed Spargo #8?

The sale of memorabilia is going to make a huge income and welcome profit for the club. It is the advantage and result of the hard work done to win a premiership. However, I'm disappointed that the club is going so far as to auction off match-day Mascot experiences for kids. Given they are selling for $1000-$2000 per game so far, it means that the children who can be Mascots are almost certainly going to be from very privileged Melbourne families. I'd hope that children from less-advantaged Demon families would be able to participate as mascots, and not be shut out because their parents can't afford the cost. I think the club should reconsider this auction item, or make arrangements for some children whose parents aren't rich.

The youngest players in a premiership side are always going to get one early. And Marlion Pickett got a premiership in his first game in 2019 and by the time he'd played 20 games he had two.

I'd hope some Melbourne players might take a pay cut if it means keeping the group together as they develop and focussed on premierships. Hawthorn did it. As for Cerra, nobody knows what Carlton will achieve in the next 3-4 years. I think they could improve, and Cerra could find himself in a good place. But there's plenty of sneering prognostications being thrown around in this thread that might come back to bite some posters. (Bit like the Goodwin thread from 3 years ago.) fazed

There's 57 years of players who have missed out on a flag.

Yes, be like Tex Walker (on Lever).

Given the crowd at Geelong is normally overwhelmingly screaming for the home side, and empty stadium was probably an advantage.

It really happened. Name now engraved on the cup.

Buckenara's classifications are probably a bit more "general" than what we normally think. I tend to think of A-grade as the "very elite", but he is not quite as strict. A-grade: Elite players on any AFL list B-grade: Top 10-18 player on most lists C-grade: An 19-30 player on a list Developing: Aged 21 or under Future AB players: These are players that will hopefully develop into an A or B ranked player once they turn 22. They might be playing to this level now, but it takes sustained years. Need more time: These players would be a player recently drafted that is still developing and therefore will need more time to see if he is likely to develop into an A or B grade player.

And we should never have recruited Diamond Jim Tilbrook in 1971. MFCSS keeps manifesting itself. Time to move on.

Good luck finding any. They'll have to play above their normal game to beat us.

He rates the Melbourne list as: A-grade: Steven May, Christian Salem, Christian Petracca, Jack Viney, Jake Lever, Angus Brayshaw, Max Gawn, Clayton Oliver, Ed Langdon. B-grade: James Harmes, Michael Hibberd, Jake Melksham, Tom McDonald, Sam Weideman, Jayden Hunt, Alex Neal-Bullen, Bayley Fritsch, Ben Brown. C-grade: Adam Tomlinson, Oskar Baker, Marty Hore, Mitch Brown, Joel Smith, Kye Declase, Majak Daw. Developing Future AB: Luke Jackson, Charlie Spargo, Toby Bedford, Bailey Laurie, Jake Bowey, James Jordan, Trent Rivers, Tom Sparrow, Harrison Petty, Kysaiah Pickett, Need more time: Fraser Rosman, Kade Chandler, Daniel Turner, Deakyn Smith. I think this is mostly reasonable, but I'd easily have Fritsch as A-grade under his criteria, and possibly Neal-Bullen after his great season and improvement. Jackson, Spargo, Pickett, Bowey, Sparrow, Rivers and Jordon are well on the way to B (at least), I think they're already there. If not for his injury I'd swap Tomlinson for Weideman.

Yes, I never make any. It's like betting ... a pastime for the mathematically innumerate. 🙂

Buckenara's assessment of Melbourne is in the Herald-Sun today. At least he starts off with "... Here is the part where I eat my words. Last year, I made a declaration about Melbourne – and it hasn’t aged well."

Here were the Age "experts" picks for Melbourne at the start of the season: Jake Niall 11th Michael Gleeson 9th Peter Ryan 7th Jon Pierek 10th Daniel Cherny 7th Greg Baum 7th Sam McClure 12th The average reader's pick for Melbourne was 12th. So no-one saw Melbourne's significant improvement. Most had Richmond finishing top 1-3. Carlton, St Kilda, West Coast and Collingwood were also predicted to be higher than their eventual placing. They all had Sydney much lower, one had them 18th. The teams most got right were at the bottom: Kangaroos, Hawks, Adelaide and the Suns. By mid-season (July), the same "experts" all had Melbourne in their top 8, but still between 3rd and 6th. Most experts everywhere tend to put a lot of weighting on the previous season's finish and find it had to see improvement in some teams.

Picking the best goal is like picking your favourite child.

He's allowed to have his opinion of who he likes watching. And, of course, you can all disagree and make your own lists. Even though we've just won a premiership, MFCSS keeps popping out of the woodwork in all the usual manifestations.

He didn't say that. The Prelim final AFL360 preview show had Nick Reiwoldt, Jeremy Cameron, Jarryd Roughead, Jordan Lewis and Mark Maclure. Jason Dunstall was effusive in his praise for Melbourne in his post-Grand Final AFL360 review.

I would love a nice polo shirt for golf with just a premiers logo. Seems like they don't cater for old blokes who prefer subtlety..

You'll Never Walk Alone has been done to death.

I could search for "umpires" on Demonland and come up with thousands of results.🤔

Every time I eat a banana I'll think of that Christian Petracca goal.