Traja Dee

This was compelling reason for someone like me, who started following Melbourne in 1976. Thank you! Apart from saying thanks, I'm making a comment to ensure that it remains on the front page of Demonland so that others don't miss it, like I nearly did. While these rankings are always subjective, I can't say that I vehemently disagree with any so far. I'll be interested in the top 20 as I feel that our best 22 in 2021 was almost our best 22 since 1976. In other words, any other retired player (ex-1976) would struggle to get a game in 2021 by playing in their true position; for example, I rate Max a better player than Jim Stynes. My exceptions up front are Robbie Flower (in for Gus Brayshaw), Garry Lyon (at his prime in for BBB), David Neitz (c.f. Tom McDonald) and maybe the 1994 version of David Schwartz.

... that can’t be unseen!

The absence of opposition fans baying for tiggy-touch free kicks was refreshing. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed watching last night's game, which possibly reflects my preference for high-level skills, athleticism and game plans over crowd atmosphere. Mind you, I was bored after 3 quarters of Richmond getting away with slapping the ball upwards (against the rules back in the day) and their flukey goal kicking.

Mark and Trevor are working for the Demons this year, dealing with elite mindset. They’ve created a company called SALT, which stands for Speaking and Leading Truth. i for one was unaware of this until I saw the photos. Indicates that plenty of stuff occurs in the background that we fans don’t get to see, not that we should expect anywhere near 100% transparency anyway.

My one reservation about appointing Max to the skipper-gig is that he's also often our most important player on the field, hence the double Bluey's. I agree that, from the outside, he comes across as a strong leader and great example on and off the field for the team. On the other hand, he's the player other teams are most likely to target. The ideal candidate, IMHO, is a dependable role player who connects well with the team and set a good example but only needs to play a role on the field. Good examples include Tom Harley (rather than Gary Jnr or Jimmy Bartel in that Geelong team) and Nick Maxwell (rather than Dane Swan). Based on this logic, I'd probably lean toward Jack Viney though admit that his on-field performance in 2019 was disappointing along with his media skills.

I'm OK with this trade: my sentiment is that he'll be worth more to Hawthorn than to Melbourne. In other words, Melbourne attained more value from trading him than holding on to him. To start with, the balance of probabilities suggests that Frosty's value has peaked and now was the perfect time to offload him and for Melbourne to attain maximum trade value. Let's assume that the injury gods smile upon us next season and May and Lever play most games. This would possibly mean that Frosty spends quite a few games playing for Casey. In this scenario, he'd have almost no trade value. Maybe the injury gods will spoil us again, but you tend not to win flags by playing conservatively. My other sentiment is that it's human nature to overvalue what you current possess. I hope that our list management can overcome this bias and have made a balanced decision, based on a wide range of information.

Some time around 1980, 3AW and Harry B had a go at commentating one day cricket matches (the Melbourne ones at least), competing against the very popular ABC Radio commentary. 3AW decided to differentiate themselves by describing fielding positions as the hour on the clock rather than the traditional name. The Age newspaper had a great headline on the day after they introduced this. The headline read "Beitzel makes silly point at 11:30". As I recall, 3AW's experiment didn't see through to the end of that season.

Sad to see the passing of Harry Beitzel, one of the top 3 media personalities when I started following Melbourne in 1975. He was huge! http://m.afl.com.au/news/2017-08-14/hall-of-fame-member-harry-beitzel-passes-away