old dee

On 11/11/2025 at 19:37, Rab D Nesbitt said:

I'm trying hard to keep my apathy in check.

You are not alone Rab

On 24/11/2025 at 08:58, layzie said:

I think 3 or 4 years ago when strong bodied midfielders were the hot ticket you would have banked him to go in the top 30.

You don't need all 22 (sorry 23) to be great kicks as long as there's enough to feed it out to!

And get the ball in the first place.

On 23/11/2025 at 13:02, beelzebub said:

Imho Onley will be among a group coming in that all have a footy i.q. But they're raw and at the start of their AFL careers. I find it no mere coincidence that we've a chap on board with extensive Gippsland knowledge and experience and we've a crop over recent times of some good Power talent.

I think we're building a better capacity and capability to develop such ilk.

Riley will benefit from entering into a system with elite mentoring. King is going to have an inherent knowledge of how to utilise tall mobile utilities. It's now up to the club to take these raw talented recruits and develop them into weapons. This refinement will take a little time. There will be good days and not so good days . Invariably it takes a varying time frame for players to settle, lose the awe of being there and get to tge work at hand.

A lot of "learnings" are going to be crammed into the coming months.

We ( well more than a handful here ) have lamented the dearth of 'intelligent" footy in Melbourne games over recent years.

I think Ron will come on well with suitable guidance.

DEES going to look very different in 26.

So will Casey... and some of these lads will play there initially. Riley like everyone else in Red and Blue has an opportunity to put his hand up..... granted when he does...its higher than most 😉 🤣

Good luck to all

bb can you please not use that "learning's" it is an abomination.

13 hours ago, demoncat said:

Everyone looks better in the red and blue

Hmm, I have thought for a long time that our blue and red makes us look slimmer that other playing strips. I have never liked it to be honest. Compare that to Geelong's horizontal jumpers and we look a bunch of little brothers playing their big brothers. Our traditional jumper is much better not that we see it very often these days.

23 minutes ago, BLWNBA said:

Multitude of reasoning can go into it, but there are list management benefits including being able to be placed on a one year contract and the payments being significantly lower for a rookie listed player. We're in a pretty precarious position regarding financials, so that may have been a partial consideration given Kalani was tipped by most to be a rookie selection and he's probably more of a 'project' at the moment, or at least a selection based on potential rather than a hard baseline of performance (i.e., think the majority of first and second round selections).

I would definitely temper expectations; I think a few on here may have gotten ahead of themselves and some of it is due to the romance of the White name that's synonymous with Jeff.

Spot on BLWNBA.

17 hours ago, Cranky Franky said:

Fully agree. Shows good footy smarts & positioning. Seems to have much better footy instincts than Farris-White, Bradtke & Verrall had.

You have set a low bar there CF.

On 23/11/2025 at 11:33, Port Demons said:

Moves like a taller Angus Brayshaw. Hope he does really well.

I hope in a year or two's time we can comfortably talk of him as being as good as Gus. That a high level you have set for him.

On 23/11/2025 at 12:16, VNightCityLegend said:

Well said. Hindisght is 20/20. Lucas Cook was the prime example of this. In 2010, he was named AA CHF amongst names like Treloar, Libretore, May, Heppell and Gaff and was likened to Nick Riewoldt. A player of his ilk was a clear necessity at the time of his drafting.

There are a lot of variables and sometimes you hit and sometimes you miss. It’s part and parcel. Even someone as good as Jason Taylor has had misses on top of his unbelievable scouting and drafting record.

I watched Cook in his first year at Casey. After the first game I was thinking what were the recruitment people thinking? He seldom played a good enough game at Casey to be in the top ten players. Terrible selection.

On 23/11/2025 at 09:45, Neil Crompton said:

I’m more impressed with his tap work while rucking. Once he fills out and gains strength he’ll be another Gawn imo.

That's a very high std you have set. IMO Max is in the top five of ruckman to have played the game. I believe Max is the best ruckman who has played for Melbourne. If you are drafted as a rookie ( his farther was a 1st round pick ) I doubt you will be as good as Max. No interest from other clubs says it all IMO. If he turns into a useful ruckman I will be happy.

On 20/11/2025 at 19:51, CRomey said:

Building a tight group.

The kid has good taste, nice jacket. I have one the same!

2 hours ago, Redleg said:

My comments are that good they should always be repeated.

How could have missed that!

19 hours ago, Redleg said:

Agree as I dislike the word.

Had never heard it until a few years ago when it started to be used in the AFL.

That makes at least three of us. Like I didn’t know the word existed until I heard Goodwin using it.

19 hours ago, Redleg said:

Agree as I dislike the word.

Had never heard it until a few years ago when it started to be used in the AFL.

Not sure how I got a second Redleg comment.

12 minutes ago, Dannyz said:

I’m told the financial modelling has already been confirmed which is a mixture of State, Federal, Club, Benefactors and A significant naming rights sponsorship. The racecourse trust have given their approvals. We are awaiting on contracts being signed and there is no set timeline for that. This is the announcement we will hear at the AGM, unless something progressed prior too which I doubt.

So in effect nothing concrete no pun intended.

10 hours ago, RalphiusMaximus said:

Knowing nothing about him but the clips in this thread, I'm thinking we have a good one here.

Pros:

• Exceptionally clean hands grabbing the loose ball

• Good below his knees

• Seems to have good judgement with his kicking

• Great burst of speed

Cons:

• Dodgy kicking technique

• Poor handball

• I saw several kicks from the 50 arc drop short (see dodgy technique)

• Didn't see a lot of defensive work

So, he looks to have the vision, but needs to clean up disposal skills to make use of it, and maybe improve his defensive efforts.

We won a premiership with a half forward who struggled to kick beyond 40 metres. You need to know your capabilities and play within them.

So what are the odds there will be an announcement at the AGM? I have gone to the last 6+ years hopeful of a result. Nil zip, zero has been the result. It's a bit like our player drafting results. Hopeful but not confident. Even if a plan is agreed then money then has to be found. I cannot see any coming from the state government they are broke. How much will the Federal government supply? I struggle to see us using it before 2030 at the earliest.

On 10/11/2025 at 20:52, Redleg said:

Panic not ye of little faith.

It's far from panic Mr Leg. It's only taken us half a century with no success. I will believe it when I see it.

On 10/11/2025 at 21:15, Diamond_Jim said:

Was that a line in Monty Python 😎

If it wasn't DJ it should have been. If the boys at MP created an episode about the MFC's inability to lock down a home we would have found it to be very funny. But here we are and it is not funny at all. More like very sad.

1 hour ago, Roy Boy said:

So we draft Latrelle who looks like he’s at least 30.

Then we draft Matthews who looks like he’s 13.

Go figure 🤷

They perhaps don't select on looks?

On 21/11/2025 at 12:22, DeeZone said:

Having looked at all the midfielders thinking we would be looking for replacements for 5 & 13, I was somewhat surprised by Lattrelle’s choice at Pick 12 but now realise that we are on a rebuild, our backline looks pretty damn good with the addition of XT and CJ.

Whereas we have a distinct lack of mid to small forwards to back up the young talls coming through. So a big Welcome to Latrelle Sumner-Pickett another exciting young forward coming into the fold. I am really looking forward to seeing Latrelle, Kozzie, Chandler and now Mathews sharpening us up in our fwd 50. Wahooo.👍😁💕

Hmm after a bit of thought and a look at his stats it appears he is a late developer or lack of oppurntitues. I am hopeful more than confident.

I am not expecting much from this selection. The worry for me is that no other club showed any interest in him. I know he nominated the MFC but if he was showing a lot of promise at junior level there would have been one club to take him. From memory his father was a first round selection.

For the first time ever I have this season taking an interest in the women's game. I have watched 6 games of the Dees this season and a number of quarters of other teams so that makes me an expert! Ha ha. We will not win this game why? Position by position the Roos are superior. They will drop a game sometime after winning ever game for more than 2 seasons. To win we need every player at the top of their game and the Roos to have a game off their normal. Sometimes teams just have an off game. That IMO is our only hope. Having said all that the Roos will win by 5 goals.

11 hours ago, binman said:

On the double ups, I reckon there such was a big drop of between the top 4 teams and the block of teams between 5 and 10 that it's really only last year's top 4 that is relevant.

And really, given the pies fell away in the last third of the 2025 season and their ageing list, you could argue it's just the lions, cats and the crows teams need to get worked up about playing twice (and in any case we only play the pies one).

We only play the 2025 top four once and as I note above two of those games, the cats and lions, are on our home deck which is obviously much better than the alternative.

We of course also play the pies on our home deck, not that has helped us for the last few seasons, and in terms of playing the crows we have a decent record at AO.

Personally, I'm OK with double up games against Freo, Hawks and Suns as, if we are any chance of making finals, which i am hopeful we will be, we need to be competitive with those teams.

I think another positive is getting away to a good start to the season will be critical and we a decent first 5 games - winning 3 of those 5 games is not out of the question.

And whilst I hate 3:15pm Sunday games (you have to wait all weekend and not back home until 7:30 on a Sunday night), and our crowd numbers will take a hit, they are actually really good in terms of getting free to air games and the viewership.

For footy fans, traditionally footy fans knew there was a Saturday night game they could watch on 7 and so for many neutral fans watching that game was part of their weekend routine

That's no longer the case, so that leaves just Friday night and the Sunday twilight games as timeslots neutral fans know they can turn the TV on and watch a free to air game, which is particularly relevant with the cost-of-living atm likely meaning Kayo and fox subscriptions numbers are at best static.

For a big chunk of the year when neutral fans do so on a Sunday arvo they'll be watching the dees, which is great for our sponsors and brand awareness.

Finally, another positive. and I reckon it's a big one, is, as pointed out by a poster above (apologies, I forget who, but it was an excellent point) is our interstate games are spread our much better this year meaning recovering from travel won't be the same challenge it's been for the last few seasons.

I reckon Selwyn G will be very pleased as the travel caused merry hell in terms of recovery and preparation over the last few seasons.

In this the 3rd decade of the 21st century I have often wondered how many people watch games where 'their' team is not playing. Back in the mist of time I would watch Friday night games no matter who was playing. Now I almost never watch a game when the Dees are not in action. Most of the people I know seldom watch a game they does not include their team. Does anyone know how many people watch games that do not include their team? I recent saw an article that suggested that the NRL had caught up to the AFL in numbers watching televised games. It also said that the only stat where the AFL was now ahead of the NRL was the numbers attending games. Does anyone know if the audience numbers for the AFL are static, increasing or decreasing?

On 14/11/2025 at 11:35, Demon_spurs said:

I dont get the reluctance to announce the complete fixture, not just Rnd 0 to 16, Dees have 2 interstate games in the last 4 rounds, makles it difficult to book early for good prices on air travel and accommodation. This farnarkling with the time slots in the last 9 rounds is ridiculous.

It's all about what the media want Ds. Fans who actually go to games run a bad last

13 hours ago, BoBo said:

2026 will be a very interesting year for us.

Aren't they all BoBo?

3 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

Maybe cause Saturday evening is past your bedtime.

If we want this club to survive into the future we need to be able keep the Mobs attention (especially kids).
Play fast entertaining footy or die.

3 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

Maybe cause Saturday evening is past your bedtime.

If we want this club to survive into the future we need to be able keep the Mobs attention (especially kids).
Play fast entertaining footy or die.

Of course it is all selfish. Just saying I prefer Sunday afternoon games to Saturday. Winning is what drives children's allegiance. Do that and all of a sudden we have a lot more of all ages going to games as we saw in 2021 through 2023. People of all ages like winners. Unless we have early wins in 2026 we will struggle to get membership numbers above 50K.