Traja Dee

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.

148 vs Essendon in 2013, mainly due to the insipid performance of our players. I stayed for the whole game, watching on level 4 with my arm around my 8yo son, wondering why I steered him toward following Melbourne. I remember seeing the Captain Jacks pulling the team into a huddle at the start of 3/4 break, wondering if the had it in them to prevent a 186-style humiliation. No, was the answer revealed in the next 30 minutes. I also remember Big Russian dropping a simple chest mark is the first quarter and thinking that it would be a long night. The heartbreak was that this confirmed how low the club had sunk

Great fun attending Vic Park yesterday. I admit to struggling to engage with AFLW on TV and didn't really enjoy my only previous game, which was Round 1 last season on a baking hot day at Casey. (Casey doesn't seem to work for me, either). Yesterday's game was very entertaining and Melbourne could have / should have won by more. What impressed me: Melbourne's ruck and midfield was so much better than Collingwood's. Melbourne's 2 rucks, in particular, seemed to win every hit out. Statistically, the rucks only won 27 to 24 but none of their hit outs could have been to advantage. Melbourne's structure around the contested ball was superb. Time and time again, Melbourne players on the inside found good handball options. Also, Melbourne player's skills in keeping their arms free in the tackle to lay off was superb. Melbourne's tackling was ferocious, as were our spoiling skills. Areas to improve: Kicking and handball efficiency was rather frustrating. I'm always a bit cautious as I find it hard to judge how much pressure players are under, but the blokes just kick it much better. General awareness was poor at times when players took just a little too long to hand off. Overall, I was very satisfied by both Melbourne's professionalism and the entertainment level. Regarding the disposal efficiency, it may just show how much we take the men's team's accuracy and distance for granted. Go Dees!

I like that Melbourne have given Pat a stepping stone for a new career given that he won’t make it as an AFL footballer or professional cricketer. There’s just one woman on the AFLW team’s coaching panel. Surely we could be more affirmative.

Thanks for sharing. This was the game where Jack Trengove was controversially suspended for his sling tackle on Danger (1h 5min). As a biased Demon, I felt that Trenners was hard done at the time but, looking, back, I now applaud the safety first attitude adopted by the AFL. Interesting to see who was playing for Melbourne that season. Somehow, I felt optimistic at the start of the season but now realise how far off the mark we were, especially compared to our 2018 team. Our 2018 team would have defeated our 2011 team by 100 points, IMHO. Still, I reflect on the potential in 2011. Ricky Petterd, in particular, could have been a star and I likened him to Stevie J. Nice to see Trenners up and about and Flash hitting up so many passes. Jack Watts definitely looked like a 16yo on the loose.

IIRC, his dad had an official role at St Kilda, something like Recruiting Manager.

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