speed demon

I'm with you @Sir Windsor. If Trac wants to leave - at 28yo and coming off a major injury - trade for the right price. That's business. If Oliver wants to stay - as a vulnerable person who seems to be getting his life back on track - keep if he's committed and capable. Trading wouldn't be business it would be an erosion of trust between the playing group and the football department. I strongly doubt it happens.

Yes, it is quite the jump but in my experience it's one that individuals or their family may take during the stress of the event. Unfortunately, these embellishments can be unhelpful - and are worth dispelling - as they enhance the psychological trauma of the experience. In this case, a clearer perception is "could have been fatal if untreated but very unlikely to have been so given access to necessary interventions".

For the reasons you identify, I agree Trac is no longer worth the value of his contract (and that's before factoring in his further degradation in value due to destabilising the club). If he were a committed MFC player, I would wear the loss and support him. As we have with Oliver. If he truly wants out, then we have an opportunity to balance our books, restore unity and regenerate an aging midfield. It feels crazy to be writing this but it now seems a trade is best for both parties. My only concern is the ability to get an acceptable deal done.

Thanks for your excellent training reports @WalkingCivilWar. Love how you compassionately personalise the players. Your insights enhance my enjoyment of following the club and serve as useful reminders that our players are just young people making their way in life.

@58er you are quite correct. These figures are not for 2024. Exact membership numbers for 2024 will not be reported until September. These figures are from the 2022 season. I should have been more explicit about that. I've ran the numbers for 2024 sourcing average game day attendance data (up to and including round 19) from https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/attendances and estimated club membership (as of 30th July 2024) from https://www.aflonline.com.au/afl-news/current-afl-membership-numbers-for-2024/. Interestingly, we again come in third, despite a poorer season this year than 2022. My overall point is that the popular narrative that MFC supporters are fickle and don't turn up is false and should be contested. Of course, there are individual supporters who are fickle and our attendance numbers are lower at night games in the depths of winter etc but this is true of all clubs. On a comparative basis, these numbers not only disprove the stereotype but actually show the opposite; proportionally Demons members are more likely to show up to a game than members of 15 other clubs! * A limitation I've just realised is that the numbers I've used are for average attendance are for all games not just home games as in the 2022 data.

"For every complex problem there is a solution that is simple, clear and wrong"

Moralising about football attendance is absurd. There are endless reasons why supporters may or may not attend games and who are we to judge others we don't know. Media potshots regarding MFC game day attendance is an annual event that plays to a stereotype that is unsupported by the statistics. Ignore. Any ire from the low attendance should be directed at the AFL's scheduling.

I generally agree with this. Though, so long as Oliver abides by team rules off field, I expect he'll be given until next season before his contract is evaluated against what he does on field.

I'd rather the opposite; start with last week's line up and sub in Fullarton if not working. I'm also more interested in seeing what Fullarton can offer at AFL level than Laurie or Billings.

You're right, it doesn't work like that. I come from an athletics background. An athlete can stay in peak racing phase for about 4-8 weeks. In the past week we have seen the big names in athletics start coming into peak form for the Olympics in 3 weeks (e.g. Faith Kepyegon's 1500m WR and Jess Hull's 1500m Aus record). Stay up for too long and the aerobic fitness base degrades and performance drops. Need to start the cycle again. But don't trust an internet random's comments. The DL interview with Selwyn Griffith is so insightful. He describes how the players are unable to do enough training during the season to maintain their fitness. Hence the importance of an excellent pre-season and why Oliver is not going to get back to - and sustain - pre-hamstring injury form this season.

Thanks for this. Watching Jako as a kid, I had the impression he wasn't a great kick due to the number of behinds he kicked (208 goals, 173 behinds). Looking back, I realise I was being too harsh. Disinclined to pass, he took a lot of low percentage shots; 39% of his kicks were scoring shots (not including many OOTF) and averaged 1 handball per game! Moreover, I didn't realise how skilled he was on his left. Would have made him unpredictable to a defender; could turn and snap on left or right from anywhere inside 50m.

Shout out to Turner. Key role in the win; stepped up as the key forward allowing JVR to ruck. Always looked promising but held back by injuries and a lean physique. Now he has the body of an AFL KPF. Contests well, kicks straight and loses his opponent inside 50. Solid long-term prospect.

Great call in the opening post. The rebuild is happening and looks promising.

I'm a doctor with experience managing these injuries. I thought I'd make a few comments to quell speculation. SEN reported Petracca had surgery. That wouldn't be for a "small punctured lung" (that's treated with a tube inserted between the ribs to inflate the lung) or four fractured ribs, so I assume it was for the spleen. It's uncommon these days to need to operate on splenic injuries as our interventional radiology colleagues are excellent at performing a minimal invasive procedure (angioembolisation) to stop the bleeding. That Petracca needed surgery suggests this was nothing short of a life-threatening situation. Surgery in this case is usually via a long incision in the midline of the abdomen. That in itself takes a long time to recover from (eg no heavy lifting for six weeks). Then there is the time needed to re-again AFL-level fitness. As a young and fit person, I'm sure Petracca will be fine in time but it wouldn't surprise me if this was the end of his 2024 season.

Good post. Furthermore, if you do coach in the way you describe, fans will dislike you for not being engaging. You may improve the team but a thread will start on DL "Is BDA the right person for the job" and get thousands of posts. Sponsors will dislike you for not giving their brand more air time. You may make finals but dissatisfied sponsors means an unhappy board. Most significantly, the AFL and media will definitely dislike you for failing to produce content. You will no longer be afforded the privilege to stand or fall by your results and the forces that be will eventually affect the outcome they desire. If people don't like listening to "talk, talk, talk" I suggest you do what I do: don't listen to it. Don't criticise Goodwin for talking, like it or not, he's just performing a requirement of the head coaches role.