binman

Yep, agree. Its all semantics - I mean we all might define rebuild differently. I guess I would define it as bottoming out and stocking up on high draft picks like the tigers and roos have done. And that's not our scenario. Perhaps a reset, refresh or rebuild on the run? We actually started the rebuild on the run/reftesh/reset a couple of seasons back. Goody deserves credit for that as not only did he encourage us to trade futures to land first round draft picks in Windsor, Kolt Langford and XL, he got them into the senior team early and then played them even when their form didn't nessesarily warrant it. That was particularly the case with Langford, Kolt, XL and even Windsor last season. Given his tenure was at risk if we haf a poor season, doing so was laudable and very MFC first. That game experience is super important, and we're reaping the benefit this year.

That's right - we're not young side like say the Tigers that stocked up on a bunch of young players in the draft. Which is one reason why i was confident preseason that we'd be a genuine chance to make finals this season- ie a good mix of senior players (maxy noted post-game that we have 10 premiership players on our list who are all desperate top get another), players around that key 50-80 game mark and young guns. This is part of what i wrote about our chances this season in this post back in January this year: As for Melbourne, I think it's great that the consensus seems to be that 12th is our ceiling as it means the team can go out about its business without the weight of expectation and fans will enjoy the wins more and be less likely to jump on the club after losses. As I've noted before, there are too many variables this season (eg new senior coach, tweaked game plan, impact of Claz and Trac going, new players, new CEO, new Prez etc etc) to make an informed prediction of how we might go. That said i'd be very surprised if the club did not think the finals were a realistic goal - and i will not be surprised in the least if we do make finals. I think we have a very underrated list, even among dees fans, with some serious talent under 25 years old. In Koz, Bowser, Roo, The Duke, The Bison, XL, XT, Latrelle, Jeffo and the Kolt we have ten players under the age of 25 who were first round draft selections. And I'd argue that Riv (24 - and taken at pick 32) and Disco (23 - mid-season rookie draftee) both would've been worthy first round draft picks. The jury is still well and truly out on Jeffo and the Kolt, and of course Latrelle and XT are yet to debut, but still, that is some serious young talent spread between 19 and 24 years old. We have obviously lost some top end talent with the loss of Claz and Tracc, and it's not unreasonable to argue we are a bit thin for talent in the 25 years and older bracket. But we have the best ruck in the competition, in Fritter one of the most consistently productive forward in the AFL and if Lever, who is still only 29, can stay injury free he is a top line defender (i'd love to say ditto for Steve May, but I'm not convinced he'll get back to his best). We didn't have great first half of the preseason in terms of the number of players in rehab. But against that most players in rehab have had relatively minor injuries and have been able to continue build their aerobic base. Bowser's injury is no good, but he is the only long-term injury we've had thus far. If we have decent Jan and Feb i think we will be in pretty good shape, pardon the pun, come the season in terms of our collective fitness. The other factor is, as i have argued previously, i just don't think the competition is particularly strong outside the Lions and perhaps the Crows. There isn't much separating 10-12 teams IMO, and i think there's a chance we will beat some teams that at this stage pundits have us well ahead of us (eg the Dogs, Freo, Pies and Hawks)

Thanks go dees for letting us now Just checked Spotify, there’s an issue there too - show goes another 10 mins (or should). Not sure what happened but I've let the boss (@Demonland) know. He'll probably blame the new intern

And a little misleading given the average age is inflated by Maxy (almost 35), Melksham (35) and Tmac (34 in September).

He forced himself out.

Alright, cutting of questions here. About to record the pod and then Andy will add the intro etc when he can. But please note he wont be able to upload until tomorrow when arrives at his chalet after his jet setting

Agree. I'd add that Luker is instinctively hyper competitive, and I don't think jeffo is. And all coached love natural competitors. That daid Jeffo probably has more natural talent. I'm not selling my Jeffo shares yet

I watched the replay and we def hanballed backwards and laterally more often than we have been I reckon there's no doubt it was tactical. Despite what they were saying on the commentary, the Suns, as evidenced by theie 300 us metres gained by and, were still using lots of forward handball. But we were super focused on pressing up on the receiver and often stopped or disrupted their forward flow. That was supported by the squeeze we are putting on our opponents, with the defenders pressing right up when the opponent is trying to transition from the back half, and the forwards also squeezing up in that scenario. So often.the Suns found them.in congestion with no great options forward or back. And they are not a precision kicking team like the lions (their game plan is very similar to ours it it's focus on territory and winning contests inside 50). But they couldn't do that to us, which I'd bet my bottom dollar they planned to, because we weren't doing our normal long forward handballs. Instead we often went long by foot, and often to a contest. I reckon that was a tactic, supported really stretching their defence by putting Petty up forward the second half, having Lanford push into the forward line as a marking option, ditto for Culley. We negated some if their key strengths- not only did we frustrate their ability to transition the ball, by doing so they couldn't get their overlap handball going in way that creates space inside their 50 and lots of one on one contests (the one where King outmarked Tmac on the lead was the perfect example of how they like to move the ball from the back half and create space inside 50, a method that had neen.the key ro their high scoring this season - but that King mark was very much the exception to the rule yesterday) In many ways, apart fom how quickly players moved the ball on after a mark, with the focis on territory and winning contests, clearances and stoppages, yesterday was more similar to the method we used in 2021 - 2023 than our method in the preseason and first 3 games.

You're probably right. The funny thing is Claz probably won't, and really, Claz deserves more Demon angst than Tracc. Sure Tracc wanted out, but we got 3 first rounders in the trade and his massive salary of our books. And its not as if he didn't play well for us last season. I always loved Claz, but bottom line is pre his hammy related melt down, with his off field stuff he was super high maintenance. And once injured, he was totally unprofessional in how he managed it for the rest of that season (before being kicked out of the Anglesea preseason camp and told to go away and decide if we wanted to play AFL football) Yes, I believe he was struggling with mutiple issues, and I think the club did the right thing by supporting him to address them. And he did seem to do the hard yards to get to netter place, played pretty well too in his last two seasons. But he's gone, we got nothing for him tradewise and have to pay half his million dollar salary for the next 5 years.

🍿?

Agree, we have to be switched on, though I'd be beyond disappointed if we weren't (and very surprised) - we're a long, long way from being in a position to take any team lightly. I expect we'll come out firing. Maxy in his interview on the ground after the game mentioned the bombers beating us the last 3 times in Gather round and that we owe them. By the by, we're ay at Adelaide oval, which is aprox the same size as the G

I'm sorry picket, but as a card carrying member of IPS (International Pedant Society), I have to say that makes no @$%@&^ sense! The Nova? Sure. The Astor? Absolutely. Village? OK. But Home Theatre System as a play on Cinema? Nup. I mean a home theatre is almost literally the opposite of a cinema!

Conversely rhe crowd noise by dees fans at the ground was incredible given there was only 24k there. I watched the replay last night and the noise really came accross on the TV, particularly the booing, so much so the commentators mentioned it several times. On booing i heard a few people around me say they would have booed tracc, which to be honest surprised me a bit (ie the angst towards him). With the mood the crowd was in he may well have copped some serious booing. And on the Suns crowd, i was sitting in the Olympic stand in an all Melbourne bay. The seats in the bay next to me, normally the seats for the President's lunch, looked like it had all been sold to Sund fans. The next bay along was all Melbourne reserved. Means the Suns fans were smack bang in the middle of loud demon fans going off. Welcome to the G.

I might have missed them, but had there been many posts seriously discussing finals?

Thanks @WheeloRatings . Is the handball metres gained for us right? If yes, points to clever coaching by King I reckon as our forward handball has been a notable feature of our game this season, averaging high 200s metres gained by hand coming into this game (Suns are #1 average something like 420 metres gained by hand) We only had 63 in this match, which had to be due to an instruction an tactic

I wonder if Matthew Lloyd thinks were still a 'poor side'. What a peanut

Yep super evident at the ground. We pulled apart their defensive structure and made it really hard for them to transition the ball and enter 50 cleanly. And they were gettimg very frustrated

Agree. And I can't stand him. Explains why they lost/we won in the first couple of minutes super clearly. Contest, clearance, stoppages. And the dees aree good team with a blend of good senior players and talented young players, playing a difficult to defend game plan that is reconisable

Even Williamson?

I dont want to be Debbie Downer, but jeez that bloke is a dead set plonker. Always seems to crucify, but that might be confirmation bias But my big issue with him is its like he always wants to impose himself on the game.

I just heard that excerpt - what a stupid question given that it followed King saying senior players suggested the meeting and that it was well intentioned. Why would there be a trust issue? Perhaps raises some convern about competence od the FD, but trust? Nah. If there's Amy trust issue it would be players and partners wondering who they can't trust to keep things in house and not leak to Tom Morris (who by the by, I don't blame for running with the story)

Yes they appear to have breached May and his partners privacy, but litigation seems unlikely i would have thought, or at least civil litigation in the form of May and his partner suing the club (i guess there could be some workplace law they could get pinged for). What would they sue for? Can't be defamation as they would have to prove harm which would be hard given no specific details have thing has been reported on, and the information that has come out was not leaked by the club.

I don't think he heard you picket

Pay that

I could see that happening, but i suspect Laurie might come in. What we really need is our medium utilities (HF, HB. mid, wing etc) kicking more goals. We've seen some improvement in this space with Langdon, Chin, Sharpy, Culley and Langford last week all bobbing up for goals this season. Kolt is perfect for that role as he won't have to be asked twice to have got and goal and he is excellent, accurate kick