3183 Dee

As well as better skilled players, we have to recruit culture setters as a priority, after the loss of Gus, ANB and BBB. I’m not sure who that is, but it is so crucial to provide an environment for all of our young guns to thrive, otherwise they too will be looking elsewhere. Time to put our laissez faire, amateur club days behind us.

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Wow! This is pretty blunt and cuts through the usual bulltish and speculating. To hear King say that the only people at Melbourne he rates/trusts are Goodwin, Max, Viney and the recruiters means that there is a lot of stuff going on that most of us don't have a clue about - those within the footy community do. He says he hasn't believed one thing that Gary Pert has said this season - that is absolutely damning. As an aside, before this whole saga blew up, my thought was that Pert and Roffey have two main objectives over the next few months: 1. Confirm a home base 2. Work out how you get more Melbourne members back to watching the games. There's no point in going on about record memberships, when only 14k are turning up on a Saturday night.

I have to say that Kozzy has been much more careful this year and has stopped a lot of his follow through, that used to get him in trouble. The AFL double standards here are a joke: always throwing the book at the easy targets, to make sure they’re seen as doing the right thing but remain completely sycophantic to the noisy, bigger clubs.

We’ll give the boys a shout for you.

It’s preaching to the choir, but we have a chance on Friday to give a proper send off to Ben Brown and Alex Neal-Bulleen, as well as sticking one up the Pies. Let’s get as many of us there as possible - I have 3 General Admission tickets which I will pass on at no cost for anyone who doesn’t have a membership and is thinking about going or maybe wants to take some friends. Send me a pm - first in, best dressed.

If they didn’t get JJ on in the GF when we were 60 points up, there’s no way Hunter will be gifted a 200th game.

In: 40,000 missing Demons members Out: Getting rolled by the Pies over the last few years The boys should be looking forward to driving a nail into Collingwood’s faint finals chances.

Whether or not you agree with Tom Morris, he says in his interview on Ben Gibson’s podcast that Gus and Yze have been big losses to the club, because of their balanced natures.

I wasn’t being smug - I was firmly in the bulltish camp, but it’s clearly got some substance to it, as he’s doubled down here.

Sometimes the truth is hard to hear 😬

Wishful thinking - the idea is great, but can’t work in practice unfortunately. FWIW, I believe that our downturn in form (post Geelong game) may have coincided with Gus stepping away from the club. Honestly, at the beginning of the season, the team was playing with such lightness and togetherness - remember the reaction to the Petracca spoil at the end of the Hawks game? It may be coincidence but, to me, it suddenly changed at the time Gus left. His loss has been absolutely massive - the biggest blow of all, in my opinion. He’s not only an absolute gun player, but he bonded all the different parts of the playing group together. A super smart guy, absolute clubman and a dedicated athlete - able to relate to all different types of people, therefore invaluable as a leader of the club. A complete culture setter. I wouldn’t be surprised if his departure has had a huge effect on Petracca’s thinking and also weighing on Max: Gus would have been a fantastic sounding board for those guys - someone they respected and admired.

Very well put. Of all the hurdles our club has faced this year, losing Gus Brayshaw is the biggest, in my opinion. It has clearly devastated the playing group as, not only was he an outstanding, brave player on the field, but clearly the glue that bound the playing group and brought everyone together. Add to this, the imminent departure of ANB means that our recruiting team have one helluva job ahead of them: not only to get hold of quality players, but they will ned to be exceptional leaders as well.

Hmmm…wait til Hawthorn hit their straps over the next few years - they will be insufferable. 😂

Yes - that’s just a young guy with a lack of confidence in his own kicking, but eventually you have rip the bandaid off. As we say back home: “Either sh** or get off the pot, me duck!” 😂

It’s why we couldn’t get there in 22 and 23, in my opinion. We’ve got the contest and defence bits right, but what happens afterwards is just a lottery. There seems to be no plan once we are in forward possession, other than kick it long to a contest in the pocket. The obvious problem with the long kick, is that it gives the opposing defence time to position themselves, so that the contest is, at best, 50/50. If we do mark it, its then in the pocket and not somewhere in front, which obviously leads to inaccurate kicking. I just don’t see how you can win games of football like that. Weirdly, it seemed like we started the season playing a much more accurate, free-flowing game style, but then stopped somewhere after the Geelong game.

So annoying, isn’t it?!

I agree - he clearly has ability, otherwise why would his contract be extended? He hasn’t particularly shone in his senior outings to date, but should be given these next few games to get some time under his belt.

Two average teams battling it out in the end. First quarter, we bullied them into making mistakes and were good value for our lead. From the second quarter onwards, we were so inconsistent with our play - lots of silly turnovers (and a couple of shocking umpire decisions) let them back in to the game. GWS are not a fatastic team, but they are quick and because they have had so many high draft pucks over the years, they have some very skilful players by foot. We put the effort in, but we are way too agricultural in our disposal. Also, the same old problem with forward connection has still not been resolved and has to be addressed and the current system changed as a matter of urgency. Aside from all that, we lost ourselves the game this evening, it was there for the taking.. I actually thought Clarke wasn’t bad tonight, although the centre ckearance in the last was poor.

I just don’t see the point in picking up guys like Fullerton and Schache, if they’re not going to play. I get that list spots need to be filled, but surely you would look at proven performers coming to the end of their careers, who could be on call to jump in if needed and, in the meantime, teach the young kids at Casey. To me, it seems that Schache and Fullarton are not likely to make the first team, so why persist with them? I would rather have a Brayden Preuss type, who at least shows a little appetite for the contest.

Yes - it was pretty unequivocal wasn’t it? Whack!

A beautiful little doco. How many of us would love to have the same feeling of family and community that Kozzy has? Also, a great idea to take Clarry along - somebody at the club knows what they are doing.

You could tell at the game that he wasn’t right during the 3Q - he couldn’t follow up any contest and couldn’t run generally.

It’s infectious isn’t it? Disco Turner is the same: loves the contest and loves kicking a goal.

BUMP! I thought he was very good yesterday and has been much more consistent this year - last year, he ran out of steam by this stage. He seems to be Nibbler-esque in his team first mentality and a couple of the younger guys have mentioned him as a role model. His contested marking is excellent for his size: there was one that he took at full stretch on the Shane Warne wing, where he beat a much taller opponent. The highlight, though, was in the final couple of minutes, when he sat Harley Reid down in a crunching marking contest (I’d love to see a replay of that!). Well done Chin - keep it up son.