sue

I suspect the lack of shepherding these days is because the player disposing of the ball instead tries to run to space to offer an option to receive again. In days of yore, there was more emphasis on kicking it forward asap, so protecting the player about to kick was more important.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-14215413/AFL-Christian-Petracca-marries-Bella-Beischer-Melbourne.html The journos must be on holiday. Where is the story listing all the Demon players who are not in the photo and speculating stating their absence shows MFC is in chaos.

Has the Premiership winner always been great in all phases of the game. Or just great in one, and pretty good in the others? Or even pretty good in all three?

Do you really think the few oddballs at the AGM really represent what has been wrong (or right) about the club and its elected officials? Sounds more like you are just looking for any evidence, no matter how irrelevant, to support your views.

You seem to have so many conflicts of interest that they all cancel out making you the ideal person to get this done.

I've read it and I wouldn't pay money for that. Tells us little except he is tough.

I'd find that much more interesting than what was in the video this week (apologies to those who enjoyed it).

I usually don't comment on highlight reels of new players because that is exactly what they are - poor play doesn't appear. But this performance seems to show the bad as well as the good because it shows him turning the ball over by foot and hand a large number of times and just bombing it. I assume that the BOG awarders and our recruitment team saw enough good to overweigh that.

True, and it may help with us getting Caufield. Pies may 'assist' us to get what they want.

Sadly I think that is the case for many of us. In the meantime we hope he plays well and urges his teamates on.

If my reading of the article is correct, that is not right. It says Petraaca made statements in his first public appearance at a Melb Cup function: In his first public appearance since his disillusionment with the Demons became known more than two months ago, the midfielder spoke positively about the Demons’ culture. Asked if he was happy with the culture at the club, Petracca said: “I think so. Culture is an interesting word. It’s a high-performance industry and for me we’re always trying to improve and get better. “For me, getting people through the door is the right thing. We’ve had healthy conversations and that’s awesome. Like any industry and any club, we’re looking to improve.”

For Petracca watchers too: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/gary-pert-quits-as-melbourne-ceo-20241031-p5kmu7.html

Surely it's the other way around. If you plan to push someone you have plenty of time to line up a replacement before you do the actual push (unless you have to push immediately because they have been suddenly caught doing something truly outrageous or illegal). If you don't have replacement lined up. it sounds more like the person quit without giving much notice.

That's true. (Well to be precise, it's a fact he says he was told.) But on the other hand so many people seem to have a 'source'. No way of knowing how good the source is or even if people aren't just making it all up. We need an impartial scoreboard of who got things right about such things in the past and who didn't. Good luck with that. Binman is right - this is getting unreadable.

Probably not. Ditto for the press you'd think.

No surprise we are lower than the few clubs ahead of us and a bit of surpised we weren't lower, but imagine the hand wringing on here if we were placed low on this list.

The AFL owes us for keeping the AFL in the news during otherwise dull weeks. Sadly, the reward will probably be getting to play Geelong twice at GMBH next year.

Yes it is a fact that we finised 14th and we must accept that, but the point I was making that focussing negatively on the number 14 may not be reflective of the actual situation. Feel free to feel as miserable as you like about things. Each to their own.

It is possible to do both without endless negativity.

You put so much emphasis on the number 14. Whereas anyone who actually thinks beyond that crude number knows that the comp was very close this year and a few close losses and all the other reasons (you'd call them excuses I know) could have made that number considerably less. Even less than 9. But enjoy your misery while you can.

I enjoy posts which start with IF in the first sentence (good) but then in the rest of the post act as if there is no doubt.

I agree with those saying scrap father/son. With players swapping clubs and the professionalism of the game it distorts equalization attempts to make a competitive league. If a club wants a son for stratigic/romantic reasons, let them choose them at a higher pick than they are worth, or trade picks similarly.

I love DL. People hear or read things, then make all sorts of assumptions about what is going on and then reach conclusions as if their conclusion was written in holy writ, especially if it is consistent with their own previous disapproval of a person or the club. How about some "If this is true, then X" rather than just saying "X"? Just occasionally? In this case try insering an IF at the beginning of the sentence: Pert is shopping Oliver around without the knowledge or in opposition to the list managers, he should be sacked. We can vent all we like, but very few of us know anything about what's goig on.

In a world where the actual list management people don't want to get too involved themselves so they get the CEO to vaguely raise the possibility. If he gets some bites, then the list management people get involved. Look I have no axe to grind on behalf of Pert. But it seems to me that there is such hatred/frustration amongst some on here, that they always assume the worst about anything Pert does. (And no, just saying 'but things are bad and it's his fault' will not change my opinion that some here are just super-negative.) Pert may be a disaster, but assuming he is involving himself in list management decisions without input from the list managers is just that - an assumption.

I don't think it foilows that Pert is " making list management decisions ". If this is true (and it's always a big IF), he could be doing it as requested by the people who do do the list management. He may have had no involvement with the decision, just is the messenger boy,