Viney Vidi Vici

The year of the schache-attack. maybe. hopefully. please.

I was shocked by the odds yesterday?! They're missing Adams, Parker and Mills from the midfield and were still tipped against us strongly... Feels like everyone has bought into the "melbourne is a dumpster fire" narrative this summer. Time to prove it wrong i guess!

New rule- If you or your manager use the word 'homesick' at any point, you can be dealt to any club in that state.

My guess is our top 2 picks go to players closer to 'ready' than 'development', and then we pick a depth ruck and mid from delisted players/rookie, whatever mechanism fits. Maybe Sam Hayes, not sure about the mid delistings out there, but I'm sure someone's around who could have a crack.

I must have missed it when Schulz made the A-grade. Good player, but heck he's been built up this trade period.

good cheap move you'd think. I wonder if we're looking to bring in a more A/B grade talent this year or next based off this move. it'll be interesting to see.

Talked to him earlier this year, and back then there was a definite sense he was ready for the next stage of life. It's got to be hard to be not quite there continually. Thanks Luke

Especially first half I felt the fwds had no leading patterns. Can’t remember how many kicks were squeezed down the pocket because there wasn’t anything decent and Smith and JVR weren’t providing much presence. T-Mac has got to come in, and I think smith would have been the man out before melkshams knee. I liked turners game, so hope he sticks around, though hibberd would be an upgrade. Wait and see around Bowie obviously.

in: Oliver, Grundy out: Harmes, Petty. Petty is out for the season minimum. Gotta try this Grundy action, otherwise we'd be trying to get Mcdonald or BBB back in I'd imagine. I think Smith is offering exactly what the coaches want in the def, so I think they'll hold fat there. Another potential out is JJ, as his inside mid time will drop with Oliver back I'd imagine. I think they like him in there over other roles, so might be a watch.

lis franc/mid-foot's are horrible. They need to get the diagnosis right otherwise it can be years. I'm a year on from my own and just starting to jog last month.

think it's time to confess. Me too. He's telling my story, an early Saturday morning and the two-hour drive home got me, so I had to ride the last quarter over the radio wondering what I had done.

I would think his skills are replaceable really, but the 2024 depth would be of concern to the dees. If that happens we'd likely have to find another depth player. After JJ I'm not sure what our next inside mid would be, James Harmes and who? Dunstan won't get a run and the other starting miss in the Vfl are scorpions players. Interesting one. but long and short, go get a game bud.

a 10th team getting in based off one game doesn't add up. play-ins in the US have some merit at least as it's a multi-game series so there's some credibility to a series win. a once-off game just isn't representative. There's so many examples of lower teams having one-off decent games and getting a win this season, and then haven't looked like finals contenders otherwise.

I didn't have great views of the other end of the ground on Friday, and it seems a lot of Judd action happened down there! I pretty surprised when I saw his highlights package, firstly his positioning smarts on Charlie, and then his cleanness to take it first time and charge out of traffic was remarkable

Regular listener of AFL Daily, generally appreciate it for the fact that I know Damo generally is pretty close to the mark when he's reporting on afl admin and bigger stories. I did find it funny over summer when the show went down to the training of every team besides Dees, but that's an aside. What's got me this week is that historically he's made it very clear that he leaves 'football opinions' to those who know better, but this week he's gone incredibly hard on how Grundy 'will not be a forward'. Fascinating how he has the ability to surmise the dees tactics and training plans better than Goodwin, Yze, Richardson et al combined. I'm thinking we need to offer him a coaching contract as he's seemed to have worked it all out.

The one thing agreed upon in all the comments so far is that there's not much consensus on what we do next. Which is fair, I've changed my mind 12 times since Saturday night. To the comments on Rivers and bowie, I don't remember the mistakes, but I do remember the quality chains out of defence from them. Their chemistry together is really something I hadn't realized till seeing it live. We need run as we're not clunking the contest marks like we have previously, I'd be surprised to see them dropped. maybe another defender in can help free them up to be more attacking and get their creativity in the front half? I do feel that our forward line movement is marginally better with BBB in it, and I would have said Grundy is shocking for movement. But then, he was getting frustrated as when he did lead they were hesitating and then bombing it on his head. In the rub, he's a better footballer at this stage than JVR/Schache so maybe it's the delivery that there's tweaks? Kozi is my real worry with his lack of confidence. But midfield is where I really think we'll be exposed. Grundy to viney connection is obvious, but beyond sparrow and Jordon is no sure thing, leaving a lot of pressure on viney. I'm even wondering about Dunstan in for pure clearance work. So in saying all that.... I've got no idea and with absolutely no conviction on anything. Except I think I've convinced myself Dunstan should be in there.

looks like most here have a negative view of this. I actually read it as a positive for the club that its leaders are taking responsibility for losses. Sure, selection committee should have pulled them out earlier maybe, but I'd rather senior players make a call then not make a call. They are senior players, basically on-field assistant coaches, they'll know they're not doing well. A few weeks out, a bit of a training block and one or both will probably make a difference later in the year.

We have no idea how decent our reserves miss are but we'll lose them if we don't start moving them into the fringe positions held by Harmes. It's a tough choice but one needed for sustainability.

Dunstan injured, running but not full training yet. I think Salem coming back in will release Brayshaw and Rivers will have JJ back in the twos and those two into midfield stints, meaning fwd stints for the trac and likely viney/Oliver. I think the fwd support will be there without Melk in there as well, in saying that, he did get 5 on a slow track in Wonthaggi the other week. Coaches won't have forgotten that.

I never like reading 'mid-foot'. It's a complex region that can be minor or serious. Hoping it's the minor end. I think it's an admirable thing from Petty to take on the challenge of going forward and learning the new role. A selfish player could have just said, 'nope- I'm happy doing my role down back and im not letting anyone take that spot from me'. Instead he's taken the risk, giving it a real go and competing. I don't know if it was coincidence that we started to lose momentum when we lost him for the third quarter. His marking and contest was an exceptional out for us on the wings and was stretching the defence. I'd think Mcdonald might be the better contested mark chance, but I really don't know. wouldn't be shocked to see them go for Schache again.

made this backseat-coaching fan very happy to see this happen for a full game. Been wanting to see this for two years. Not perfect, and like someone said, a little low on confidence understandably, but the last quarter would have gave him a good feel. Between him and van Rooyen, defenders are going to be sore by the end of the game. I think if Brown is out injured you'd want some experience replacing him with Mcdonald, but otherwise I'd be happy to see Brown, van Rooyen and Petty given a run at it till Gawn is back. With Turner coming in down back if needed, though Hibbo does play over-sized.

knowing a little bit on this one, T-mac will be managing the foot in general post-lisfranc pretty closely. Lisfranc is a total putz on the rest of your foot, there'll always be little complications.

We got support- got priority picks, even 'tanked' for it, got financial bailouts, got afl support to get Jackson and Roos. stuffed most of that up, but we've got something out of it in the end, and man, doesn't it feel amazing to be able to be on the winners side. So wouldn't it be a good thing to see some lads trying their best, and a coach putting in the ridiculous hard work get some reward? They're are good people trying hard. Just because you care about Dees doesn't mean you also want others to fail. Speaking on my own behalf at least.

So I went on my belated honeymoon this week to the Whitsundays and got covid on day 1. I thought though… at least I’ll get to watch a drubbing on Saturday. so screw Jackson, I damn well expect a drubbing. jump high young Mbrown. dees by 12 goals.

Haha he’s still shredding it for Phillip island