Pates

I wouldn’t say he’s wrong about our culture, in 2018 it had appeared we had managed to change that with us playing tough uncompromising footy that actually made teams fear playing us. Now I feel like our brand is a fake tough, in that we have bash and crash players but when it comes to laying tackles and doing the one-percenters it just doesn’t seem to happen. Time and time again we’ve watched Melbourne teams coast through seasons of mediocrity. I agree that it has to be player driven but it can’t just be Max. Max is a great leader at pushing training standards and excelling at your choosing position, but he can’t be expected to create a new culture. The whole team needs to be want to buy in, work for each other, sometimes be willing to take a supportive role if your teammate is on fire that day. As for not dropping people of importance; Jones, TMac, Fritsch, Jetta are just to name a few that have been dropped. Melksham and AvB (most agree) somehow continued to get a pass last year.

Very close to my exact thoughts. All well and good to have a target, when that target failed I just can’t work out why they didn’t then turn their attention to Phillips who surely would’ve been keener to play for a club more likely to be competing for finals this year rather than a club going through a rebuild. He would’ve slotted in perfectly and certainly better than any of the options we have tried so far. That said we’ve made our bed so now to lie in it. I’m not sure if he’s got the fitness for it but would Petty be an option? The more likely option would be to send Petty to cover Tomlinson and give Tommo another crack. Baker doesn’t seem up to it, BUT if the club believes he’s a serious option then play him for 3-4 games and tell him to own the responsibility. No use in giving him one game to sink or swim. TMac is not a winger, play him in the forward line. It’s where he needs to be.

I was JUST about to say this. With AvB showing very little in the pre-season I would love to see Viney line up on the half forward flank as a pressure forward designated to nullify the opposition run out of defence. He is actually a decent mark as well and I vaguely remember Gawn nominating him as his guy to kick after the siren. With our heavy mix of “bull” midfielders I really hope the FD is looking at multiple ways to use them.

Good luck to him, sounds like he earned it.

Welcome to the Dees, good luck to him.

Good luck to Majak, interesting that Goody said “we’re going to take our time with you”. Indicates to me that we aren’t expecting him to be in the side any time soon.

It’s interesting that he still played in the VFL practice match (kicking one of our few goals as well). I hope the club does look at ways to keep him in our system to keep an eye on his development. This doesn’t have to be the end of the journey for Kobe and the Dees.

Bold move putting captain and one of the competition’s best ruckmen at FF. I’m not actually against it for a couple of reasons. Firstly it seems that even with him there seems to be this ability of the oppositions on ballers to rove to his taps, which given the quality actually gives them a comfortable ride. I would like to see Jackson given closer to 35%-40% ruck duties and challenge him to impact the second contest as well as the ruck taps. Gawn as a forward option could be a headache for the defenders given his longer reach, but please let’s not just assume he can beat all and do the no-look long bomb.

I haven’t seen the game but if this is the case I’m at a loss as to what our strategists are paid for. It’s been such an obvious issue for us since 2019, why not have a bit of creativity about it to try to HURT the opposition? Seems our aim is to get it out of the 50 for a stoppage or pluck a contested mark. Sides figured this out in early 2019 ?.

Jeez no matter where he gets injured it seems serious! Poor bugger.

If we’re going into matches undermanned without our best SKILLED players, there has to be an attitude of ensuring we out-pressure the opposition. The dogs are one of the best at it, we need to become better.

Haven’t watched any of the game and I recognise we were without Viney, Oliver and Brayshaw (three of our main clearance players). But this line from the match report is frustrating reading. Melbourne captain Max Gawn registered 32 hitouts compared to the Dogs' split of 23 between Stefan Martinand Tim English, however the Demons had no answers for the Dogs' clearance smashing (48-24). Are we ever going to find a way to actually use the dominance of the most consistent (and best) ruckman we’ve had since Jeff White? It’s not the result we wanted but we did choose to go in with several main mids down. Reading Demonland the worries seem to be that the more things change the more they stay the same. We may have bolstered our coaching department with experience (particularly with skills development) but disposal and decision making is still an issue. Not to mention it also sounds like pressure on the opposition is still really poor. This was an area in particular I really hoped we’d improve because it really seems to be the difference between finals contenders and pretenders. A win would’ve been nice, you learn more from losses. Looks like there’s still plenty of learnings to be done ?.

I’ll be honest that I don’t think choosing a male-members only club is a great look for location choice. I find it incredible these clubs even exist anymore. That said I always felt that coterie clubs were almost separate entities to the footy club so while it’s associated with the MFC, it isn’t necessarily a club decision.

Yep when he can produce that in the H&A season then that will be his coming of age and potential. If we get that for the next 100-150 games we’ve got genuine star power through the middle.

Might be eventually but he needs to be more damaging, doesn’t hurt the opposition enough with his use. That’s not calling him a dud, it’s just something he needs to go from where he is now to being able one of the competitions elite. For me Trac has got there, Clarry not quite yet. I also agree that I’ll sleep better once he’s signed for us!

Sounds like a type that we actually need so it begs the question, why wait until now? Has Choco been mentioning him for a while or has this come on the back of Neita’s ACL? It doesn’t provide him with much time to stake his claim given the other players have been training with the squad for longer. Perhaps a bit of a chance to show something ahead of the mid season draft to give him things to work on in the meantime.

Can you imagine if we play Carlton this year with TMac at CHF for us and OMac at CHF for the Blues. That would be something to behold! ? Well done to Oscar, hasn’t done his chances any harm.

Very true, I’d be interested to know if Montagna made his fitness based comments on having seen him train and speaking to our fitness staff, or just off his gut. Let’s see how he goes on Monday.

I would’ve thought if they’re playing him at CHF they’re trying to find out if he has versatility. For me he works as a second defender if you have the right mix of intercept and strong number one defender. Good luck to him.

Not that it was in doubt but great news!

I confess I would’ve expected one of the “experts” to have a bold prediction of Melbourne finishing close to top 4. I suspect a lot of them see us finishing in the 7th-10th region again. If we don’t get some wins on the board early I think the Yze to senior coach predictions could well come to pass. Then again I like the fact that we’re a bit under the radar with few expectations.

Good news about Gus and Kozzie, I personally had Pickett outside of the team for round given the lack of training with the squad. This is more to do with him not being able to practice set ups, stoppages etc than anything else. If he’s able to get a game or two at VFL to press his claim than I’m happy with that. I’m not overly surprised by the situation with Viney, and Goody makes a great point that there’s a fixation on round one. Hold him back until he’s right and in the meantime we have depth in that area. Well done to Goody with how he’s felt with Neita and his third knee reco.

Agreed the alternative appears worse than the current, McLachlan in particular regularly gets players wrong and Brayshaw's voice is one of the most annoying sounds on TV. I think I'm in a minority here but I don't mind Basil Zempilas, I think he's a bit more of a "just call the game" commentator. I know there are ways to do it but I wish you could have the option on smart tv's to change the audio to be other radio stations.

I wouldn't say I've been a fan from afar with Daw but last year was a particularly tough year for him in many ways. For him to even get back out on the park was a bloody good achievement. I would suggest that clubs were cautious about where his mind was at and whether AFL was what he really wanted. If he gets his chance with us I see him as coverage, but who knows!

Thanks for the report Pickett, sounds like you're a fan of some Majak!