Romey

With Joe Daniher reported to be possibly on the market and being courted by the Swans, I wonder if there has been any thought given to luring him to the Dees? He is obviously not without some risk however two years ago, before injury, he played 23 games and kicked 65 goals. He has the height to play back-up ruck, is connected to Goodwin from his time at the Bombers and has a family connection to our club through Neil Daniher. Joe could help us structurally by playing deep forward, bringing our smaller forwards into the game and freeing up Tom McDonald to use his tank and roam up the field. I have heard it mentioned that he has a good character, is popular amongst his peers and a future leader, so maybe good for us off field as well. What do other Demonlanders think? Do I have rocks in my head?

With the Southern Stand to be redeveloped in the next 10 years, I wonder if there is a opportunity for the new stand to incorporate our headquarters / social club and for an oval oval to be built on top of Brunton Ave and the railway lines? It would help better connect the MCG to the sporting district and it would be adding to the parklands which should appeal to residents. Not the cheapest of options but maybe with Government support and lots of time it is achievable. Any thoughts?

Maybe we could also look at the Edmund Herring Memorial Oval in the south part of the Kings Domain near Melbourne Grammar.

If space and inner city location were the key requirements then the Westfield Ovals in Yarra Bend or the Kevin Bartlett Reserve in Burnley should be considered. (Obviously the second option would have to be re-named.) Both spaces are highly under-utilised and are surrounded by bushland so have no locals to upset. That said, it makes them less attractive for a social club to be located.

Given we are down on our precision kickers like Melkshem and Lewis, does anyone think James Jordan might come into calculation for this week? I know his young and underdone but by all reports his kicking is amongst the best on the team and he has been racking up a decent number of possessions at Casey off half back.

Billy had less game time that most last week. (24 minutes less than Petracca for instance.) When you take this into account, his disposal per minutes played were more or less on par with some of our better players. For whatever reason we dropped him I doubt it is because he was not finding enough of the ball.

I think that the MCC/MFC should be more creative with membership options. I am a full MCC member and also donate $87 as an MCC/MFC member, but only get to about 8 games per year. I don’t like cricket so it costs me about $100 per game on average to see the Dees. I would happily forego my right to see the cricket if it meant the Dees received more money and I could pay a bit less on my MCC each year. If there were MCC AFL only and cricket only membership, then the 20 year wait list could be shortened, the MFC and MCC would both be financially better off and I would get much better value out of my membership. I am sure that there are other creative ticket options as well.

Sam McLure on Twitter saying Lachie Neale is now a Lion

I wonder if Sydney Swans are gearing up to make a godfather offer to Hogan? They are apparently in the market for another forward to support Franklin and are clearing salary cap to land a big name. They surprised a lot of people when they got Tippett and Franklin so it isn’t like they haven’t done this before.

It became pick 22 I think. We also coincidently had pick 23 as a compensation pick for Colin Sylvia which we traded to Adelaide for Bernie Vince. Adelaide then used this pick to select Matt Crouch who has gone on to be an All Australian midfielder and win their B&F by the age of 22. Bernie had been great for us however I think Adelaide would be happy with that deal.

According to the AFL tracker Alex Neal-Bullen today ran 17.2 km to make him equal 10th in the AFL for distances covered in a game since this started in 2017. Nine of the top ten records belong to Tom Scully and Andrew Gaff. He also had an equal game high 32 pressure acts. No doubt there are some areas of his game that he can still improve on but this kind of unheralded effort in a losing team deserves some recognition I reckon.

A good read. https://www.playersvoice.com.au/tom-bugg-im-not-who-you-think-i-am/

Great photos. I’d be interested in the thoughts of others on the kicking techniques of the players in these photos. For me the ones with with flawless techniques were Lewis, Stretch, Melkshem and Lever, but I don’t profess to be an expert.

From memory last year that the Bulldogs had the highest possessions per game in the competition at just over 400 and Sydney had the second highest at around 390. Both were all time records I think. Being first in the competition for disposals is not such a bad thing.

Does anyone know why Hannan was playing in the midfield in the first two quarters? Was he tagging? I though we could have done with him in the forward line and a pure midfielder at the ball ups in his place.

I wonder how Oscar McDonald would go in the ruck? He is fairly tall and would be able to hold his own in the body work. This would allow Pederson to come in for Smith.

My prediction is that over the next 12 weeks Spencer will hold his own against the top ruckman in the league and we will be offered a top 20 draft pick for him at the end of the season.

What about Jarrod Witts from Collingwood? He is now third in line there behind Grundy and Cox. Compared to Gawn he is 1cm taller, 1 year younger and debuted 2 years later. Still has plenty of upside and would offer more years of service as a backup ruckman than Spencer who will be 27 next year.

Does anyone know if most of the Melbourne players are still following the Paleo diet? Research just announced by Melbourne University is not very favourable and makes you wonder whether we were a little hasty jumping on-board this bandwagon. http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/paleo-diet-could-make-you-gain-weight-new-scientific-research-shows-20160218-gmy7kp.html

Putting the Essendon situation aside I think there is some merit in a player loan system throughout the season if both teams consent. It could give our players senior AFL games to fast track their development and give us access to players from other teams to cover injuries.

Disappointing news given he fits the profile of the type of midfielder we are hoping to lure to the Dees next year. Does this now make O'Meara or Aish our number 1 target?

Interesting read. I personally hope our players resist reading Demonland and Watts proves his detractors wrong. http://m.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/social-media-is-the-afls-most-damaging-opponent-mark-robinson-writes/story-fni5f0at-1227356430147

Very disappointing experience as a supporter and golden opportunity wasted by the club. I turned up with the extended family at 12pm as advertised and left with a bunch of grumpy kids at about 1.15pm with players just beginning to turn up. We certainly didn't feel like our club was inclusive or accessible today.

Yes I recall him saying this. Would that mean in Roos eyes someone like Watts could be considered as having done a quality pre season even though he has rarely been in the main group?

I'd also be curious to know who the club consider as having not completed a "full pre-season" as I am always surprised to hear how many players are retrospectively referred to as having not done a pre-season 12 months down the track. By the training reports it sounds like nearly all the players are participating most sessions in some form, however many on restrictive programs for various reasons.