Little Goffy

Travis Jonhstone turned it on up at Brisbane too... for a while. Brent Moloney is just a chunkier Travis Johnstone in a different role. Can deliver some great games, looks damn good when it is going right. But also easily exposed by a top-quality opposition team. It's a shame to lose him, and it is a bit shameful that he obviously sooked last year. Meanwhile we made an effort to bring in solid bodies through the draft (Kent, Jones, Viney, Terlich) The main regret is that because of free agency we didn't get anything solid in return, with the AFL officially valuing Moloney and Rivers at the same weight of Pederson, Rodan, and Gillies. That much is clearly ridiculous and the AFL needs to have a think about their bizarre 'secret formula'. Maybe if we'd even known it beforehand, we might have skipped the process and hoped to pick them up in the draft. AFL... lack of transparency... I'll excuse myself before I get onto THAT much-needed rant again.

At this point, the tracked progress goes from 'all-day-disaster' to 'fatal lapses ranging from a quarter to a half'. Is it progress? Being back to about 2008? Are we doing some kind of mirror-image thing? The tactical hole in the corridor and around our CHB area is the part that scares me and shakes my confidence in the coaching panel every time. So obvious, so unresolved. I'm not into mid-season sackings though. Gain little, cost a lot. Don't even think we should have done it with Daniher, back in the day.

Poxy, chicken [censored] thread. No defender could have done well given the way Brisbane were allowed to carve directly through the midfield. That it happened so often is... well, actually, it is the defining feature of our weakness. Keep picking out players who look like they had an individual stinker when they've been exposed by a lack of team coherence, real helpful. And to those still potting at Trengove... ten tackles... if everyone on the team worked as hard defensively as he does, we'd be cruising along happily. His efforts are the definitive response to our weakness.

Thanks for the Casey reports, it is a nice bit of background to know that we seem to have at least a bit of current depth and potential coming through. Get the impression that plenty of the Casey-listed players have good solid football attitudes, too. As for the Toumpas talk.. hmm... Toumpas' long term role is likely to require that he maintain super-high fitness levels, providing the handball-receives and entries into 50, the continuous movement around and through packs that loses a tagger, and the body strength to go when it is his turn, particularly for the run-down tackle. Right now, he's had one preseason. This is a distinct factor for the role he is set to play. If things go well, he'll become a fully-rounded midfielder, and as such, priceless. As for how much we can pin on his first season or two just ask... Lenny Hayes, Nick Dal Santo, Scott Pendlebury, Brent Stanton, Brett Deledio, Travis Boak, Corey Enright, Bryce Gibbs... you get the picture.

Demonland. Abusing eachother seems to be the only way this place takes a break from abusing teenagers. Genuine behavioural issues in play, here. Which would be fine if you'd just move it to your own thread because the rest of us just want to talk footy.

With six clangers so far, early in the final quarter, he goes to the top of the AFL totals for clangers so this season, after being second to teammate Toby Greene last round. Plus, it's not as if those are from an especially high number of disposals. Hell, he has more clangers than contested possessions at the moment. Suns pounding the Giants now in what will be a long stretch of junk time. Ablett doing right by his supercoach fans now. Also, no clangers from him all game. Not one. There is always a new way to be amazed by that player!

That would be an interesting trail to follow. Wilson reports "AFL shocked that Melbourne failed to notify of Dank link" based on information provided when Melbourne notified the AFL of the Dank link. If that circuit actually existed... well... that would be a huge blow for any perception of integrity at AFL. It would basically prove they were hunting us.

AHHHHH! Could it be? We're not liars, Demetriou is a hyperbole-driven reactionary fool, and the club has behaved appropriately at every step, with the exception of what may be a non-issue/non-violation mistake by the club doctor in recommending a cream treatment to a player? Well gosh darn it, things are look'n up! [touches wood frantically] (not a euphemism)

Remembering of course that Worsfold oversaw a three-year program of systematically tanking for draft picks. (2009 was derailed in about round 17 when an imploding Essendon simply could not be lost to, after which West Coast amazingly won three more of their last five games) Not that I am bitter that earlier in the year the Eagles had thrown games against the Demon's and Tigers, creating the scenario of the Jordan McMahon trophy.

Neil Craig - 0 games Plus, also, isn't he the record-holder for SANFL games? Hasn't he been coaching in one form or another (with a stint in cycling) basically since he finished playing? You'd have to look to Malthouse or Sheedy to find someone with more experience, I would guess. As for the others, it is certainly interesting that for a few positions there we've followed a path of 'professional coaches' rather than ex-players. I'm not prepared to make a call on whether that is the best path or not, but I wouldn't say no if Simon Black and Dustin Fletcher were looking for development coach positions!

This thread. Cow falling over a cliff. If you can tell the difference, you get a prize. Started in good faith I guess, but now it's all 'MOOOOO' and 'MOOOOO' and beef accelerating towards the ground.

One of those issues that keeps popping up in International Development studies. Many people would rather be the king of the slum than just another person in a functioning town. There's also a common kind of dysfunctional loyalty - "I've been a supporter for 50 years, so the club owes me something". Often voices in some variation of the bizarre notoin that they are now entitled to a premiership. Sometimes I got the feeling Moloney had a bit of that - "I bleed red and blue so I am kingsh!t around here and nobody can tell me what to do". Anyway, personally I detest people who run little campaign out of the side of their mouth, and it has been obvious for a long time that there are plenty of 'people of informal influence' at the Melbourne football club who love that kind of thing.

The fundamentals of the MFC are good, in as much as the moment the club is well run and the performance begins to improve on field, everything will be just great! The supporters are the fundamentals! Plus, the rise of the phoenix is always a marketable product! I'd love the job, I'd back myself to do the necessary, challenge those who need to be 'settled' and get some momentum.

As today's ANZAC Day game is showing... David Zaharakis is the man we want. Quick thinking, agile and in the right places when the ball is forward, much the same and certainly fit enough to run through the midfield. Adds a bit of the speed that we're missing as well. 23 years old, too. You'd have to think Zaharakis would be exactly the kind of player that the club is hunting. Contracted until end of 2014, unfortunately, so I guess he would be the final piece of the puzzle that gets our midfield up to first rate, along with Billy Stretch, of course!

Would much rather have a coach who started out hardline and full of non-negotiable items, then gradually accepted more variation as performance requirements were met, than a coach who started as 'player's mate' and slowly realised that you actually need to have fundamental performance requirements. I'd rather a decent AFL coach than a really good VFL coach.

I remember a couple of years back I was surprised to see that Melbourne had two players and only two players with high numbers of running bounces. Aaron Davey (it was his B&F year) and Colin Sylvia. On his good days he really does deliver those brilliant moments of breaking from a pack, two bounces at full speed, kick a goal or deliver into 50. A good spell of good form from him would be enough to push our midfield into the 'properly competitive' grade, backed up by the increasingly consistent performances of Jones and Grimes and what is beginning to look like a refreshed Trengove... things could start to look alright in there.

Noticed him backing into a few packs over the course of the game, too. Nothing builds confidence better than having a chance to be tested, and shown true, at the top level. Good on him, I hope this is the launch point for a good steady Jones-like climb.

You are saying exactly what I have been just hoping about Trengove, but you are saying it in a credible and informed way. Thank you very much.

If 'not yet formally approved for human use' is an explicit criteria for banning a substance, then a few players are in trouble. Max Rooke, Mark Coughlan, and even Dylan Grimes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Wilhelm_M%C3%BCller-Wohlfahrt http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/7324261/germany-dr-hans-wilhelm-muller-wohlfahrta-great-healer-quack-hyperactive-syringe You'd think that seeing a specialist who does 'odd injections' and is also a proprieter of a known banned substance (Actovegin, as mentioned by Monnoccular a couple of posts up) would ring some alarm bells. Meanwhile, Regenokine (Orthokine) remains not approved for human use by the US Food and Drug administration, which I guess also makes it banned... http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/sports/athletes-with-chronic-pain-turn-to-novel-blood-treatment.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 I'm particularly interested in the point in this article where the person delivering the service notes that they are 'careful not to provide anything banned by WADA', as it is exactly the statement of Dank and the Australian distributor of AOD. And both treatments remain unapproved for human use in the USA and several other countries due to insuffient clinical demonstration of efficacy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regenokine Therefore... if AOD is a banned substance then Regenokine also is, by the same criteria... and Adam Cooney, Nick Riewoldt and Brent Guerra (who I assume got it for his hair as much as for his career) will be feeling deeply uncomfortable. And the Australian Crime Commission needs to take a good hard look at it's strategy of vomiting sensationalist half-information all over the media in a blatant attempt to manufacture a 'prisoner's dilemma' scenario, which has drastically muddied the waters and made it practically impossible to develop a clarification of policy and process on what is clearly a key present issue. Because for all we know, Regenokine, AOD, and a number of other treatments are really quite legitimate treatments which help the repair of injured tissue and muscle, and if we arbitrarily ban them for their 'unseemliness' then both sports and general medicine will be missing out.

With Clark and Dawes possibly both coming back through the VFL at the same time, and Hogan thumping along at Casey too... Best 2s level forward line ever?

Every season, 22 players play 22 games (for simplicity's sake, anyway). So that's 484 games experience added 'naturally' each year. Remarkably, way back since 2007, the Demons have continuously reduced the total games experience on the list, almost every year. I've thrown together what I've been able to quickly find, with games played where possible. I set aside less-than-50 gamers for simplicity's sake. From my figuring, the only time we increased our total experience on field in the last six years was going from start of 2011 to start of 2012 2007: Brown, Ward, Bizzell, Godfrey, Ferguson 2008: Neitz (306), Yze (271), White (268), Holland (191) 2009: Robertson (228), Whelan (150), Wheatley(135) and picked up Joel MacDonald (80) 2010: Bell (66) McDonald (251) Miller (133) Johnson (67) Bruce (224) 2011: Warnock (55) note: other delistings were under 50 games. Added Mitch Clark (85) 2012: Out: Moloney (145), Rivers (150), Martin (52), Bennell (57), Petterd (54), Bate (102), Green (254), Morton (72), Bartram (102) In: Dawes (71), Byrnes (110), Rodan (175) Wow, it was a little bit of a shock to see that Morton had more games experience than Dawes. And a quick bit of maths will tell anyone that our trades/free agency tangles at the end of 2012 actually reduced our total experience, far from 'stacking the list with older players'. In fact... In: 356 games out: 988 games Net: -632 games So Melbourne's list is actually a LOT less experienced starting 2012 than it was starting 2011. By a whole 'season' worth of games and then some. Next remarkable thought - Dunn, Macdonald and Davey are 3 of our 9 players with more than 100 games of experience, and all look shaky to play on in 2014. So unless there is another successful recruiting effort (we all crave a class midfielder, of course) then the club will barely be more experienced in 2014 as it is this year. So there y' go. Melbourne is less experienced in 2013 than in 2012. Let's be clear I'm not in 'excuse-making mode' here. I'm just plinking a misconception about the Demon's list.

Hogan must be in serious contention for VFL leading goal-scorer. Has he had a poor game yet?

Yep, in two of the cases Goal Umpire Roffey was ready to make the call but a review was called for by another umpire. In both of those her original call was upheld. In the third review, the 'did it touch the post' call, she was set to call it a goal but acknowledged uncertainty and the review gave a correct answer. So, Goal Umpire Roffey's performance on the day was actually right on the money. All that, and a uterus too!

6. Jones - did what he does, and was essential 5. Grimes - all day all day 4. Howe - most impressed by one of his less spectacular goals, in the last corner, create by sheer workrate to lead back toward goal again 3. Byrnes - Kept bobbing up and being effective 2. Evans - what a special last quarter 1. Gawn - did well in each role he was asked to do, and it mattered Most impressive team behaviour for me was that our defenders were looking to take marks. a really visible change of behaviour and confidence compared to just a couple of weeks ago where they were spoiling things which clearly should have been defensive marks. Really important change and CREDIT TO NEELD for turning around that loss of confidence.

So, if the club statement released now is true, then the club statement in the first place was true. Dank never employed by the club, never had contact with players, only role was recommending a clinic to Bates. Possibly also recommended certain treatments to Bates. Still has a little stink of dodgy to it. But the club really needed to get a visible 'talking head' on television underlining that key point - Dank never administered or prescribed anything to any player, coach or official at the Melbourne football club. Or, y'know, they could have a meeting and release a one page statement and go quiet. I can only say, there had better be some kind of brilliant counter-punch coming up soon.