Pates

36 minutes ago, Pennant St Dee said:

And yet we had a Dees supporter call SEN during the week with some conspiracy theory regarding Nibbler always being one of the first players to congratulate a teammate after the teammate had kicked a goal. The caller believed it to be orchestrated by Nibbler to just get in the highlight reels.  
Absolutely ridiculous call, the caller even scoffed at Garry’s response in asking him do you not just watch the way he plays his footy and think that’s just the way he is a real team player 

What?! Seriously that guy is either not a Dees fan and just trolling, or he's an absolute [censored] for a Dees fan. I don't know one Dees fan that doesn't love Nibbler and the determination he shows, he's heart and soul.

11 hours ago, Beetle said:

There are no expectations on us this year, with the heavy media emphasis on our “disastrous” off season…they are off us and we are no longer considered the hunted.

Can only be a good thing in my opinion. Hopefully we can continue to fly under the radar and just keep chalking up wins. Next two weeks are crucial, especially if we are without both May and Lever. I’ll be happy to walk away with 1 from 2 and sit 3-2 after round 5 (or 4 according to the AFL fixture).

I'm int he same vein, 1 win from 2 at Adelaide oval is a good result. 2 from 2 would be nothing short of miraculous (and we won't be fly under the radar). 0 from 2 will suck hard. I'm really hopeful that Lever's injury isn't serious and we'll only see him miss a week.

12 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

How worse do you think it could get?

After May and Lever went down they only kicked 1 more goal for the match.

Herculean effort from our defence without both May and Lever.

Well with May and Lever rebounding from defence and Petty finding his feet with marking, I reckon it could've got 3-4 goals worse if we really got going!

Real shame Disco is injured as well, this would've been the perfect chance for him to step in.

19 minutes ago, Bimbo said:

If anyone is feeling a little down, go the Big Footy Hawthorn page reviewing the game.  They are a mite unhappy.

And if that doesnt cheer you up, todays was Hawthorns lowest score against Melbourne since 1960.

After all the pain they inflicted on us for close to a decade, it's time to even the score. Imagine if May and Lever hadn't gone down, it could've been way worse for them.

7 minutes ago, picket fence said:

if you have an ACL, u aint sprinting on the boundary, with the view of getting back on!

Agreed, I feel like players and medicos can see clear signs of ACL and they don't have them testing things out. I suspect if it was a Grand Final he would've been strapped up, given a jab, and he'd be back out there. Players don't interview after the game if they think it's something serious.

There were a few key takeaways from Trac's post-game interview on the ground that stuck out to me. They asked him about his spoil and he had a laugh and a joke saying he's contracted for one D50 defensive effort, but I could still see that doing things like that and the plaudits he got really made him feel like he was walking on cloud nine.

The other takeaway that I thought was great to hear was they're getting back to having fun and enjoying the game again, I get the feeling that after '21 they sort of had a determination that was almost feeding back in as anxiety. There has been almost a fear of failure and I feel like like that has been on show with our two straight sets exits. The last two weeks they look like they're playing with a bit of freedom and enjoyment, yes there's still the determination to win and them working to a system, but it's back to remembering that it is a game. He said he's got the dream job, so why not enjoy it.

I'm not getting ahead of myself as the two wins are from teams that (highly likely) won't be playing finals, but the way we won and the way the players look have me feeling good about our season.

As for our issues with May and Lever, well it sucks. Two players that we absolutely would not want to be without for a long period of time, and there is this sense of irony that they go down JUST as we get back something the resembles a forward line. The bad news, they are top line players that you can't just replace. The good news, we do at least have options. Tommo can come in for at least one of them, we can play Petty as a swing man, and TMac has been showing good form in his old/new role as a defender. Does Fullarton also get a look in if Petty is required down back?

Brown wasn't as good as last week, given his age I can see there being games he's barely spotted, but he was still taking some good marks and importantly takes the number one defender.

Good win, but costly with injuries.

47 minutes ago, DeeZee said:

Yes on seven news they said Brown was given the news the he is out for Petty.

Strange Sub as he can only play one position 

If this is true I’m absolutely miffed. Just when after last week I thought the match committee had learned their lessons, dropping Brown into the sub after he played a fantastic game last week seems like a really bad idea. 

I do have a theory though, they could be looking at the upcoming cramped fixture and be thinking “Will Petty’s and Brown’s bodies hold up?” If they end up using a rotation of the two to minimise game time that could very well play to our advantage. The other point is that although having pace off the bench would be valuable, imagine a fresh as a daisy Ben Brown coming on after the KPD has played 2 and a half to three quarters of footy already. 

I still don’t like it, but I hope there’s more thinking than just “get Petty in”. 

Petty has to be the sub looking at the bench, and tbh I don’t mind that move. Give him a bit of match practice with the big boys before unleashing him properly next week. 

Big thing that I hope is being drummed into the players is respect the opponent, I’ve got no doubt they want some big scalps this season to propel them forward with their development. 

I would think the starting point would be to look at what teams are “down” now but will have top end talent in the 22-25 age bracket. The next point would be to look at what players are Tassie native or have roots there. It will be difficult to attract those that like the warmth and the beach/surf life, so the lifestyle they’re attracting will be players looking for something different. 

The likes of Kozzy aren’t going to be interested in going down there. 

A much better list would have been to list one from each club. 

6 hours ago, SidVicious said:

Except for the fact that had we drafted Mac Andrew, we would have missed out on JvR so I don't think we were screwed over at all. GC17 did us a favour taking him.

Oh interesting, I didn’t realise that. Yeah I’m happy with JvR over Mac. 

I swear I remember hearing an interview with Jeff White saying Kalani couldn’t wait to be given the opportunity to play for the Dees, that’s he’s a massive fan. Wasn’t there a similar conversation being had about Jack Viney as to whether he would nominate for F/S? How’d that turn out. 

3 hours ago, BLWNBA said:

No doubt we'll be Mac Andrew'd again. 

 

Every time I see Jamara play I get reminded how screwed over we were by that. 

One thing that will always make our crowds look worse than what they actually are is that our fans cluster on the broadcast side of the ground. Like always the MCC area was packed, and the melbourne reserved members next to it was pretty solid. As mentioned the dogs fans don’t turn up to MCG games but we’re in no position to be critical of them, our fans don’t turn up to docklands. 

I thought 44k was a decent crowd without saying it was a great crowd. 

When was the last time both Grand Finalists started 0-2? C’mon Saints next week!

Can I just say to start with, I really enjoyed Sunday arvo 1pm time slot. All those years we wanted to be relevant but being a part of those Thursday night matches that make getting to the game really difficult to get to but Sunday arvo MCG bathed in sunlight, nowhere else I’d rather be!

Plenty of positives to take from today, and really looked all over them for most of the game apart from the very beginning. I thought we got back to the basics of who we are and going hard at the contest, while also setting up well for the interceptions. 

What was really pleasing was to see TMac and BBB play well, I’ll admit I had no idea what to expect from them in terms of output so I set the bar pretty low. I wanted TMac to compete and not get beaten in the air, and I want BBB to lead up and present to demand the number one defender. Both did those things and so much more. 

I was also really happy that Hore has taken his chance and run with it, very strong game from him. 

Apart from that I feel like one of the other traits that looked more like “us” was looking to provide opportunities for each other, it felt like players were more interested in doing team first options rather than blazing away. No one epitomised that more than Clarry when he passed off to JVR for his last kick. I think every Dees fan wanted him to take the shot and kick the goal, but he did the right thing by the team and that’s what we need more of. 

Going to be very interesting to see team selection for next week, do they give Petty another week in the two’s for match practice? Based on that performance you can’t drop BBB, he did everything asked of him. 

On 13/03/2024 at 21:41, monoccular said:

Mmmm?

I really cannot remember any wanting to pot McVee ... maybe I have a poor memory.

I did say “the likes of” 😜. 

On 13/03/2024 at 21:30, The Jackson FIX said:

Re. Brayshaw’s payout;

”Fellow AFL 360 co-host Mark Robinson called for the funds to be taken from inside Melbourne’s salary cap.”

And then he goes on to qualify that with;

“My gut feel is if you sign someone to a long-term deal – I don’t want to be flippant about this but unless someone passes or literally can’t play football beyond circumstances it should go in the cap.”

ummm is being forced to medically retire pretty much exactly “can’t play football beyond circumstances”?

 

the Slobinator really Knows how to push my buttons.

 

 

He has literally been forced to retire. This isn’t like a bung knee that you can have 100 surgeries on using different techniques, or a player deciding his body isn’t up to it. He has been medically told he cannot play AFL. 

50 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

Will teams who have already played have an advantage over those who haven't?

I hope so, I'm hoping that last week blew off some cobwebs while the dogs will still be rusty.

10 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

And undersized and not physical or quick half forward isn’t a great package but we don’t know why he was subbed.

There’s a chance it was more that he ran his backside off. He was first in speed in attack and 3rd in speed of defence and when he came off our pressure only dropped.

He has to cut down on errors but there has to be an understanding that it’s an inexperienced player in a team with no team chemistry and few targets in the trickiest role to play.

Every half forward makes errors. Every Melbourne half forward makes multiple errors when there’s no forwards to draw the ball, create space and make kicks look good. 

Im fine with Laurie getting dropped but I wouldn’t write him off entirely just yet.

I'd play him as the sub this week for two reasons:

Firstly confidence, now we have been hearing for quite some time that internally he's rightly rated. These are the same people that said the likes of Petty, Sparrow, Spargo (I'll admit he has dropped off), and McVee were highly rated while plenty on here wanted to pot them. They see something so I'm willing to back them to a point. Dropping him after a game where there were over a dozen of far more talented and experienced players played like poo makes him the fall guy. I'd rather drop someone like Chandler who for me has started getting comfortable in his selection as a weekly thing or Spargo who is underdone and shouldn't have played last week.

Secondly regarding the sub, it takes the pressure off him and if we were to drop him it's a progression. He should have been the sub vs Sydney with Billings starting, give him that role and when he comes on demand an impact. 

7 minutes ago, BangBnagBang said:

The AFL did nothing of the sort. The AFL sent it to the tribunal when the MRO didnt want to. The AFL wasn't happy with the Turbinal result and have since changed the rules. Apart from appealing the decision the AFL did everything they could to get Maynard suspended.  And when I say AFL I assume it was Laura Kane behind it all.

Fair point, the tribunal is an seperate body. Still reckon the AFL should have appealed it to at the very least make a strong point that they were not happy with their decision.

18 hours ago, Demon Disciple said:

Would we be even considering him if his surname was not Van Rooyen?

Probably not, but as a hypothetical if drafting him as rookie and having him on our list meant older bro was unlikely to leave would he be worth just having a crack at? 

2 hours ago, Gawndy the Great said:

Has Petty even done a pre-season?

Did he do a pre-season in the premiership year? Tommo was our second tall that year from the beginning and then did his knee opening the door for Petty, I just can't recall if he was a factor in the pre-season.

16 hours ago, deebunked said:

Does anyone know the deal with Joel Smith?  The AFL seems to have no clue as usual. Can he play or not.

I'll leave it at, he's unavailable for the foreseeable future. 

17 hours ago, bush demon said:

Did l hear to be listed "available" if successful session on Thursday? (Petty)

 

This is incredible and I don't know how to feel about it. Part of me says get him in if he gets through the session, another part says hold him back a week to make sure there aren't going to be issues. I just think of last season with Oliver and how he pushed himself just that little bit too hard when he was only a week away and set himself back another month.

But as this is the positive thread I'll just say I'm happy to hear he's back on the track!