JJJ

And neutral fans of the game seem to dislike his style of play/general attitude. Not sure why. He’s the best player in the comp. All you need to ask yourself is, would you trade him for anyone else in that top10?

I went along today too with a mate who used to work with a couple of AFL footy departments. He was useful to stand next to … The emphasis was on quicker movement but we will still play wide. I overheard one of the coaches telling a player to “keep it tight on the attacking side”. I think the coaching was directed at Burgoyne as he had held the ball a bit too long moments earlier. Of the younger players, I found Woewodin, JvR, Disco and McPhee the most interesting. Woewodin maybe lacks x-factor but moves well and runs without a second thought for the betterment of the team. I can see him playing 100 games of senior footy if he continues to develop. JvR attacks the ball, the body and the man. Our forward half pressure will lift with him playing. Disco is smart and a neat kick. Size might be his problem in the long run but he looks good in sims. McPhee is a better athlete than I thought. Worked hard and handled the ball well in slippery conditions. He’s behind a lot of good players for a senior spot but he looks better than I remember. Of the next group Rivers, Bowey, Sparrow and Kozzie all look really strong, composed and sharp for mid Jan. Kozzie was the most influential player during the sims in my eyes. Left or right foot his skills were excellent. Defensively roams with a certain amount of menace much like his uncle. Sparrow is just so strong. He can absorb a fair bit of contact and dispose neatly. Special mention to Chandler. He was within the top 3-4 on the field. Covered ground well, tackled hard and hit targets. His intensity was very high in the drills and sim. Some other bits of info I gleaned:- Grundy is 6 weeks behind in his running but will be good for Rd 1. Brown is being managed but they’re not worried. Jefferson has impressed the coaches with his application and has a bit of flair to his game. I must admit, watching him today, I didn’t see the flair. He is a lovely kick though. Expect to see 30-35 players play in the preseason. Club thinks our depth is now a strength.

Slightly off topic but I was watching Pies Vs Blues yesterday with a rabid Carlton supporting mate when he started to rabbit on about how Clarrie is good but Cripps is a footballing god. So I watched Cripps closely, particularly the 2nd half. He was immense but I’ve never seen a bloke stuff up so much by taking the entire Collingwood midfield on by himself. Especially late. He basically tried to stomp on anybody trying to stop him. Admirable but ineffective. I had a bit of a chuckle and told my mate, Clarrie may’ve gone down a similar path of not for a small intervention and some brilliant development. Hence, Clarrie is #1 and Cripps is somewhere in the top 10-15. Probably won’t win the Brownlow for reasons repeated in this thread already BUT Clarrie is the Death Star without a built in critical, exploitable weakness. I hope he receives Norm Smiths and Premiership medallions like I do junk mail requesting bank details and a $5k deposit.

I’ve met him heaps of times. Top bloke actually. He doesn’t rate Melbourne as a club, never has. I think that bias comes through loud and clear in these sort of pieces. He would rather invent a reason to put us down than look at the facts. It’s ok, he’s a known known. Doesn’t like us. Move on.

I’m not sure anyone could argue that he went from All Australian squad level play early in 21, to borderline holding his spot by the end of the year. But he does take a good defender away from Fritsch and his workrate is always elite. Looking forward to Weideman putting some pressure on him next year with a genuine 2nd tier competition in full effect.

Oliver is my favourite player and I think our best player but Max pulled one out of his backside and Petracca played an incredible game in a GF.

Max’s PF performance and Petracca’s GF performance are possibly the 2 greatest games I’ve seen from a MFC player. (Earliest memories are 85-86 seasons) Given the context they’re hard to go past. Max is a supreme leader and calming influence on the group which, given his first 5 or so years, is an amazing leap and his greatest attribute. When he is clunking contested marks and pushing forward, we are hard to beat. 🙇‍♂️

He’s a good player. Plays his role as others have pointed out but he needs to value the footy more and work on those foot skills. People can point to his disposal % but when Gus misses, he misses big. Otherwise, he’s a great kid and important player.

Am I the only person who kept thinking of Eddie Murphy every time BT and Brayshaw call Naughton’s name?

The selling isn’t the problem. The problem is supply.

I agree. He’s been a good appointment. Experienced and well connected. Some of the baseless commentary on this thread is embarrassing. re the merchandise. I believe the forecast by all parties inc the AFL, MFC and suppliers was well under. Which is a slight miss but I think MFC supporters generally don’t wear as much club kit as other Vic clubs.

I know a couple of forward scouts at 2 Melbourne based AFL clubs and I asked them earlier this year about a potential market for Sam. They both told me that their particular club didn’t have him on their radar and doubted any club would trade for him unless it was a swap of late draft pick type deal. Contrast that to the press at the time when Sam was beating up VFL defenders….

Yep I know. I was referring to the players as the ‘voting public’. Could’ve made it clearer i guess.

That tells you all you need to know about the voting public. Petracca above Oliver…

He’d be one of them. His age and experience are irrelevant to our situation right now. We want a premiership and he’s shown the ability to be a match winner. We’ll need that in September. Same goes for Spargo, ANB, Tom McDonald amongst others. They’ve shown themselves to be capable of more. I just hope that they can show it later in the year.

We can strangle teams and come away with wins simply by continuing to do that. But, It’s just one example but look at the 1st qtr last week. We pummelled Essendon but failed to capitalise up forward. We’ve not shown an ability to put teams away and I think media types wonder about our ability to manufacture a score in a hurry or reduce a deficit. I don’t care what they think but I do worry about some of the guys who were putting up career numbers early who have dropped away. Have they been figured out? Are they tired? Bad habits forming from lots of wins?

Spoke with someone in the know as I had this problem. He confirmed there was an issue with people on PC’s. Smart devices were unaffected. After 4-5 minutes I switched to the phone.

I should’ve added, my mate doesn’t expect any teams to bid on Taj at this stage. I just thought I’d mention that we like some of his intangibles and think he’s a great kid. ?? he can get on our list for nothing and turn out like his old man.

My understanding from chatting with a part time scout for another club is that he’s rated enough to be picked up later in the draft by us as we love his attitude, professionalism, competitiveness and hardness. His overall play/skill set is a bit vanilla and seen by other clubs as a limiting step in his potential. Seen as a HBF type. Sounds similar to his old man…. And blokes like Hibberd who had to ply his trade in the VFL as he was seen as not having the required skills and athletic profile to succeed.

His highlight package shows that he can mark and kick at a high level. He’s played against men already in a pretty serious competition. I look at that photo and just wonder what an AFL training regime will do for his body. I see upside.

6 Petracca (4 qtr performance) 5 Oliver (best pure mid in the game) 4 Harmes (super work rate) 3 Gawn (at half time the Lions coaches would’ve been reasonably happy with Big O’s attempt in nullifying Max but he was obliterated in the 2nd half) 2 McDonald (2nd half dominance) 1 Pickett (the spark)

He’s an A-Grader with B-Grade output at the moment. I think your point on his physicality is spot on. He’s a huge man but lacks a bit of presence at the moment. Could be injury or a little bit of indecision/lack of confidence. He’ll get back to his normal output soon I am sure.

Our connection to the forward line is pretty bad still and also impacts our ability to maintain pressure once the ball hits the deck. Although I think our effort level was poor for 60% of the game which compounded our poor delivery. A few blokes won’t enjoy the loss review during the week.

6: Oliver 5: Petracca 4: Langdon 3: Lever 2: Harmes 1: Jackson???? In reality I don’t think we had this many good players tonight, hence the loss.

I was shocked that he came in...