binman

That would be legit brilliant. Perhaps Demonland can engineer a 'spontaneous' chorus of Freed from Desire at the 20 minute and 21 seconds mark of the first quarter when we play the Dogs for the firts time next year. By the by, i had never herad of that song befire and tried to listen to it th eother day. Coudnlt do more than about 90 seconds. One of the most god awful songs i've heard in along time. The dogs cursed themselves once they chose that to sing post their grand final.

I hope we play them in the first six rounds!

I could not be more impressed with our list management over the last 5-6 years And it continues to be excellent - all seven players are terrific signings. The seven are: Chandler, Oskar Baker, Toby Bedford, Mitch Brown, Majak Daw, Deakyn Smith and Daniel Turner. Arguably, if our injuries are not too bad, only Chandler, Bedford are serious chance at regular senior selection. But all are solid citizens and contribute to the one club mentality. Note: i reckon turner might be a smokey for senior section. Seems a natural footballer, has good hands and i could see him slot into the back half as KPD. Declease is not in that seven , but i think he also could be an outside of chance of cracking senior selection

Media person Dermott 'dermie' Brereton Medium Mercifully only cable television Comment Another contentious nominee, with debate amongst the judging panel about his rating - with anywhere between zero and three peanuts being pushed. The panel was in furious agreement that Dermie has a long standing axe to grind wit the the MFC. The prototypical ex footballer who thinks he is still playing and as such cannot differentiate between the MFC in 2021and the MFC teams he played against during his career. And he continued to grind that axe this season. Case in point was his 'special comments' in the first GWS game. Spent the whole game knocking the dees and lauding the Giants. My oh my. Not long after that game, as evidence the dees were still a long way from being taken seriously, he was given the opportunity to interview Gus Brayshaw. His hard hitting interview included a joking, not joking, question to Gus asking how Oliver gets away with throwing the ball so often. I can't remember him getting another opportunity to interview a MFC player (though could be wrong). The panel was also in furious agreement that Dermie has been wrong about the dees this season more often than any other 'expert'. A remarkable level of consistency. There was a short debate asking if his ability to be so wrong, so often was an indication of a brilliant campaign of Machiavellian misinformation - or all the hits he took as a player and his post match (and career) recovery sessions at Tok H have caught up with him. In the end it came down to the question of harm. And once again the panel was unanimous - Dermie is completely harmless. One of the more philosophical members of the panel put it this way - 'if an expert makes a ridiculous comment and no-one hears it, does it matter? If Dermie makes yet another ridiculous comment and thousands hear it, does it matter? Ultimately Dermie's harmlessness, and almost complete irrelevance, mean that the panel agreed one peanut was an appropriate score. Public Service Announcement You may have missed it with the blizzard COVID information, but the Victorian CHO has recently warned football fans with underlying health issues or at high risk of contracting the FEDMHI (Football 'Experts' Do My Head In) syndrome to avoid listening to any pre or post match 'analysis' Dermott 'Dermie' Brereton is involved in. And as a preventative measure Mr Sutton also recommends avoiding listening to any game 'Dermie' is doing special comments for. Mr Sutton also mentioned there was some show on Fox Dermie hosts, but he doesn't have any guidance on this as it was deemed too unsafe to ask anyone in his team to view it. However, when pressed, Mr Sutton did say that logic and pragmatism suggests it is best to avoid it at all costs. Score

Happy to. It will be a joy writing about 17 more premierships

All good points. I see Dunstan as cover for viney, so very much an inside defensive mid. The way we play must be super taxing, and no more taxing a role than that aged by Jack. It's a long season. Sparrow is in rbe best 22 and JJ is better on the outside. Good to have a jack back up.

I agree with the first paragraph quoted above DS, but with respect, I think your last paragraph is well of the mark. We are the best contested team in the AFL - the numbers and watching us tell us that. Winning contested ball is arguably the very foundation of our game plan and goodies philosophy. It's just that as you say it is now about less players at the contest to win them. So Oliver has to beat 2 or 3 players to win a contested ball. As does every other player, even smalls like kozzie and spargo. Compare us to the dogs who also have a model based on winning contested ball. A key difference is they win lots of theirs by creating an outnumber at stoppages. And on top of the need for players who can beat 2 or 3 opponents in a fight for a contested ball, winning post clearance contested ball is critical to our model. As is the fact we are happy to kick for territory, as opposed to hitting a target, so our games are always going to involve lots of contests and the ball being in dispute a lot - particularly in finals. All of which places an even greater emphasis on the need for players like Dunstan who can win contested ball. I suspect it is why Sparrow got the nod ahead of JJ come finals.

Great analysis AoB. A few random reflections/things i'd add: I have only watched about 10 mins of it (i skipped though it and watched random bits) - and the youtube man makes some interesting points. Agree he's not got it totally right, but what i really liked was the vison of multiple center square bounces (not all, despite the 50 min run time) - you can watch, listen and make your own mind up Center clearances are important, and obviously if you can score goals directly from them then even more so. But i'd argue around the ground stoppages are more important for us in terms of their impact o getting the game played on our terms (or not) and therefore the outcome of games. Not as sexy - but more important. Related to the above point, sure goals we score from centre bounces can turbo charge our scoring, but over the journey the pressure we put on opposition mids that you highlight, and the impact of that pressure (eg shallow inside 50s, dump kicks we intercept, pushing the ball and play to the wings etc etc) is actually way more valuable than the galsa we directly score Totally agree on the value of of Max as essentially an extra mid Two ironies come to mind in terms of the advantage we get of Maxy and Jacko being extra mids. The first is that Beveridge no ruck required philosophy is probably predicated on the advantage of having an extra mid at center clearances - philosophy that might work against other teams but not us given how bllody good our rucks are The second irony is that they bring an extra to around the ground stoppages to get an advantage and create more scoring opportunities, which is in effect the advantage we have at center bounces - ie an extra at the stoppage to be fair to youtube man he did point out that English and martin don't offer much after the bounce, envy noting at one point that martin ended up on the ground Finally, i reckon there is one piece of the puzzle you haven't directly mentioned (and nor do youtube man) - with Maxy's dominance we get a huge advantage knowing the likely drop zones. And Jacko often looks to halve contests and drop it at his feet (and is very good at it) - which gives us the same advantage in terms of the likely drop zones

You mean you have LITERALLY told him ten million times not to exaggerate.

One of the interesting things about how we have built our list and our trading strategy is that they have worked hard to mirror the senior team at Casey. Smart because players can train for specific roles and practice those roles in the VFL. And all mfc players in the magoos can get used to the sytem, structures and tactics smoked in the ones. Bowey was a big beneficiary of this model, as was sparrow. Helps explain an interest in a player like Dunstan as he can at the vinwy defensive mid role at Casey. And if called up he is well drilled. Same goes for resigning Mitch brown, who plays a tmac type role. May not end up getting a game, but if nor still plays a very valuable role.

Long term planning by the club? Get him to 100 and get a father daughter and/or father son selection in 20 years time

I reckon we exposed this set up in each of the three games we played against them, in large part because of our defensive pressure, in particular out ability to limit the ability of Libba to extract the ball. But even when they did win the ground ball we are great at putting pressure on the receiver, who doesn't have time and space to run around and has to kick from the defensive side of the contest. Which just plays into or hands in terms of intercepting the dump kick. Other teams struggled to put that same level of pressure on, particularly in the first third of the season, hence why they were so devastating from center clearances. Players like Bont and Macra could receive from Libba on the outside, run and carry laterally and then forward and be super damaging with their beautiful, penetrating kicks inside 50. What was interesting about the vison in that clip is the implication their system is built around libba, Bont and Mcrae. In terms of us getting it out the front of centre clearances, whilst we no doubt set up pretty aggressively (because we are confident of winning the ball back if the oppo win the clearance) i'm not sure that is about our set up as such, more the ability of all three of our starting mids to either break tackles and/or release the ball while being tackled. In that way our system is built around the strengths (skill wise and literal) of Tracc, Oliver and Viney. And of course maxy.

I have watched about 10 minutes of it, but will watch the whole thing at some point. Love the effort he's gone to. I'm not sure if he mentions it, but i reckon a feature of our center square clearances system in the last four games or so has been to take any opportunity to knock the ball forward, often instead of trying to collect it, particularly when jacko is in the ruck. The toe pock from Viney in the run of 3 goals in the third is a good example of what i mean. With Jackson, and Gawn for that matter, being so mobile we basically have an extra mid to run onto any loose ball. Looking at his page he has doe similar analysis of a Portland footy match, so i'm guessing he might be doing some coaching? That and streaming role playing video games. I'm amazed there is so little of this sort of stuff - basically none. I'm convinced there is market for it, albeit a niche one. There is a whole eco system of this sort of video analysis in US sports - from the amateur right through to really sophisticated pro level quality content. For example a video analyzing down the ground video would be great. I'd love to watch a whole game form that angle as in the micro clips fox deigns to show in various shows it is really revealing in terms of structure, set ups etc etc. How hard would it be for say the AFL (who i think own that vison, and share it with the clubs, as part of their deal with Champion data)to offer that angle on their website given they obviously have it for Champion data purposes? I mean it's just vison, not ASIO secrets (which would would probably be easier to get hold of!) Someone like Craig Jennings could make some money from this sort of stuff i'm sure

Awesome, thanks Garbo

Webber please be advised that the binman media awards are narrow in scope and relate to the coverage of the Melbourne Football Club, with a focus on the degree to which a nominated 'expert' has demonstrated a clear pattern of being wrong about the Melbourne Football Club. Ms Wilson La Dee-vina Comedia, please see above note. Webber and La Dee-vina Comedia please note, as previously advised, no further correspondence will be entered into in relation to Ms Wilson's peanut rating.

I agree on Gray. It's funny you should say you can't think of anyone, other than a dees player, who would get me through the gate, so to speak. Box office in sen speak. None readily comes to mind either. Perhaps Toby Greene, who leaving aside being a prize fool, is an out an out star. Plays like a kpd and has the skills of small. The giants have let him down though. Tbey should have refused to go in to bat for him with the umpire charge. (And of course he has let them down a million times)

He's trolling demonland!!!!!

All good points. Brisbane would be a good option actually. In the premiership window and he would vale add to their forward line. And Fagan would have the experience and gravitas to manage melk

Sorry Ms Wilson, the panel have advised no further correspondence will be entered into. Two peanuts it is.

Media person Caroline Wilson Medium Print, Radio, Podcasts Comment Much argument amongst the judging panel her as to the rating - with anywhere between zero and three peanuts being pushed. Debate centered on the definition of axe to ground and how harmless she is. Also how much to bring old Caro grievances into the mix and whether there has been a continuous, unbroken chain of wrongness since her attacks on the dees in her coverage of the tanking saga (and arguably even further back). The fact I stopped watching Footy Classified 2 years ago makes assessment harder. That said has been relatively benign in her 3AW slots as it it pertains to being wrong about the dees. But Caro's old fashioned pre grand finals beat up by claiming on FC that the dees had instituted a curfew on its players earned her a nomination. Totally made up and an attempt at creating some unnecessary, albeit pretty harmless, fugazi. The clincher was two fold. One - despite the club never using the term curfew, in fact explicitly saying it wasn't a curfew, she backed up her beat up by claiming 'players' had said it was a curfew. Implied multiple players and that she had heard from them directly. Two - she gave Ross 'I'm withdrawing my interest in the Carlton coaching job, despite there being no interest' Lyon the platform to claim the dees are treating their players like children, not adults. On Ross 'the Boss, defence wins finals (editor note: but only of you can also score more than 30 points)' Lyon, he has been nominated for an award and i'm confident he will receive one. Update The judging panel has received multiple submissions criticising the decision to only award one peanut to 'Caro'. Several of these came after her appearance on Offsiders on the Sunday after the Grand Final where she once again raised the tanking saga. I mean why try to diminish our glorious victory? And once again she drew a false equivalence to the Essendrug saga. I mean c'mon, how could they be considered equally morally wrong or any way comparable (other than both being forms of cheating). For one thing, there is no suggestion the players were involved in the tanking saga. For another thing, no players health was put at risk. And lastly tanking was widespread in the AFL, so whilst wrong it was par for the course. Injecting your playing list thousands of times with performance enhancing drugs and breaking (smashing?) the WADA code was decidedly not widespread. So, after considering the evidence supplied in the submissions, and the fact Ms Wilson's post GF comments created a continuous, unbroken chain of wrongness with her attacks on the dees re the tanking saga, the panel has decided to change her score to two peanuts. The panel have also warned Ms Wilson that it is only the fact she has become relatively harmless that has prevented her being awarded three peanuts. Score

I think it is more about cover for viney. The inside defensive mid role has become a specialist role, with libba and viney being the template.

A terrific site.

Both are a couple of seasons away from being able to cope as full time inside mids, particularly Jordon who needs to build his strength a fair bit.

We are now a true destination club. Sure Dunstan would get more minutes at the Suns, and probably more coin, but he is zero chance of playing in flag there. Staying in Victoria AND having a chance of playing in premiership team would be a very attractive combination to many players i suspect. No doubt a factor in Weed signing on again.

You'd think that opposition coaches would be immune from from being influenced by outside noise, particularly given they more than anyone know how much rubbish the footy experts spout. Be that as it may, i'm sure goody was more than happy for that sort of shut down lever, shut down the dees misinformation guff to swirl about. Same goes for the shut down Maxy, negate the dees guff. The discussion on Lever was funny because it centred on the idea of either putting a defensive forward on him or isolating him one one one with a key forward. The experts were banging on about Schahe's role on Allir as if it was a masterstroke. And suggested he might play similar role on Lever. Allir still had 15 odd intercepts possessions. But with the ball coming inside 50 quickly with no pressure on the kick he was always gong to struggle to be the damaging AA rebounder he had been. And the experts pointed out the dog's efforts in round 19 to engineer a match up on Naughton. Lever still had 15 intercept possessions and Naughton only kicked 2. But more to the point, in the two previous finals - and the round 23 game against the cats - Lever still got his intercepts but played a more traditional one on one role. And he is so much better one on one than he was last year (i suspect he is stronger and more confident in his knees). So goody would have been more than happy for the dogs to waste energy trying to engineer a match up for Lever. Same goes for efforts to negate Maxy. I know maxy told Goody to leave Jackson on the ball in the third, but I have no doubt goody always planned to use Jackson more often in the ruck than he had previously. And doing so really muddled the Dogs tactically i think. Leaving aside the 3 quarter goal blitz, Jackson rucking allowed Maxy to drop back into the dog's half and made it super difficult for them to get a contested mark inside 50, or an uncontested mark for that matter. It also helped May defend Naughton (who King said would be the dog's most damaging player). And the experts told everyone to watch out for Daniels and flagged the need to shut him down. It was actually quite interesting from a tactical perspective how they managed Daniels. In the first half he had 26 possessions, and by in large they let him run free. I thought he did very little with those possessions and i only counted one effective inside 50 kick (English marked it - and the proceeded to kick it into Petty on the mark). Despite that Goody sent Sparrow to him (i think) in the second half and completely shut him down. Maybe that was always the plan (ie let him go in the first half, shut him down in the second) as not only did we take him out of the game , we ran off him as he tired and exposed him for lack of pace and run. Meanwhile, coming into the game, the experts didn't really highlight the danger Salem posed. He was our best player in the first quarter i think. Or at least our most damaging. And that is when we won the game. He was allowed to sit free forward of center and he had some crazy amount of inside 50s and score involvements. Why wasn't he tagged? All week the media were banging on about Beveridge being a tactical genius able to spin goaled from thin air. Throughout his coaching tenure Goody has never been given credit for his tactical acumen by the experts, and many dees fans i have to say. That script was followed in the two week lead up with barely word said about his tactical ability. But i reckon Goody smashed Beveridge tactically. Beveridge had no strategy to deal with Jackson in the ruck or Maxy dropping back. He let Salem run wild in the first quarter. May was clearly hampered yet he didn't try to make him run or stretch out - for example by playing Naughton higher. Yes it's how they defend, but surely he had to tell his defenders to stop setting up 5 metres in front of their opponent as we exposed that all day. And most of all they needed to be aggressive in the third quarter, for example try going thought corridor, throw caution to the wind, and get that lead out to 5 goals if possible. Goody, on the other hand, used Jackson brilliantly, isolated their defenders, didn't worry about the Lever match up (more than happy for Petty and rivers to be the attacking interceptors), had Salem playing super aggressively, shut down Daniels, negated Libba, shut down Naughton and shut down Mcrae (25 possessions for a player who averages 35 or something crazy). He also completely shut down two of the key players in the Port game in Smith and Hannan, rendering the latter basically a spectator. Despite all of that very few experts gave Goody any credit for winning the tactical battle. And i didn't hear a single expert criticise Beveridge for his performance, othe rthan questioning why he didn't do more to stop the goal blitz in the third. Which is ironic, becuase there is not much he could have done, if anything about those center square clearances - they were all on their players.