Pates

Lynch didn’t exactly apply a lot of pressure tonight, getting tackles and second efforts from your big men are good but they aren’t necessarily expected. Need high pressure from your small/mid sized players which is why we need more of that from the likes of Melksham, AvB, Pickett, and Fritsch. Plus any midfielders that push inside there. That’s the basic expectation from any premiership winning team, high intensity around the ball. Brown (if he makes it here) will be expected to mark the ball and when he can’t make sure he brings it to ground for our smaller forwards.

It’s funny this is the first one and already it just doesn’t feel right, there’s something about the last quarter hitting just as dusk is coming that brings out the best atmosphere. This year, with the music between the goals as well, feels like some Micky Mouse version of footy. Still I’m sure it’ll be spectacular with fireworks and stuff at the final siren. The game has been super high pressure, now that it’s opening up it looks cleaner and some great pieces of skill. Dusty has dragged Richmond back into it, he is a freak.

I can’t work out why when Melksham was having such a poor year and AvB doing very little we weren’t giving Harmes a run as the defensive forward giving him roles on the dangerous half back. He’s been so poorly managed this year.

Probably wrong but I actually though Hunt came third when he ran.

Much more than a part, I would love nothing more than for them to lose by 100+ points and be utterly humiliated.

Nothing will ever beat the titles "Hotter than Hell" and "Dynamic Demons"! Speak to any filmmaker and they'll tell you that titles can be one of the hardest, most subjective things to get right. Thinking of the target audience it's a bitter title to take as nothing other than a premiership will truly bring us back from the hell we've been through. I don't think it was them getting ahead of themselves, the "back again" was the journey back through pre-season to bring the football club back together READY for the new season. Call it "Melbourne Football Club Pre-Season Documentary 2020" and people will probably say, "wow that's really unimaginative".

It was a good watch and gave a really good insight into the inner workings of the pre-season. The Bennell stuff is sad in retrospect given in one episode he says he’s done with alcohol and really wants to put his best foot forward. Congratulations to all involved.

Along the same lines of Brock McLean leaving us because of the tanking fiasco only the go to the club that mastered/started it. ?‍♂️

This is quite possibly (if there is one) the issue between Jack and Clarry. In terms of what it does for the team it most certainly is an issue because I could actually remember there was one point that I'm pretty sure our players would almost end up tackling each other to get the ball. It's great to see that hunger but it needs to be channelled better.

Bloody click bait BS.

Tom McDonald is the obvious one, is there someone else we would look to move on to make cap space? I’m personally a fan of us trying to get Brown, as much as he annoyed the hell out of me when he played the Dees he’s a proven goal kicker who had a lot going on this year to suggest this was an aberration. He would take the number one key forward role and Weed slots into the second role which takes pressure off him, if they work in tandem then they can both be valued forwards on the day. Fritta can move into a more HFF role with moves deep every now and then, and I can see Weed being more of a CHF role. The question of Jackson fitting in is fair but I could see him getting more development on the ball next season as well.

It’s a little sad, I think he would’ve been frustrated at seeing Melksham constantly getting games despite average output but I understand him wanting to go to the doggies. I could actually see him doing ok there, I hope this means we re-sign Hunt though. Will always be remembered for that goal in the finals!

I hope he’s able to get healthy, wonder if we may look at bringing him into the coaching department for the women’s team as a football role (as perhaps a way of learning a skill for the future). Bit annoying he still stays on the list, means we can only really replace him with a rookie draftee I believe.

I think something that was suggested earlier is a good idea (though very unlikely to happen), make the top 4 teams exempt from being able to participate in free agency. If they want a player than they have to do a deal. Limiting it to top 4 means that there are still the fringe clubs that might just be missing that key ingredient still able to get a player with minimal fuss. The only thing I’d say is perhaps create a separate category called veteran FA, these are the guys that are nearing retirement and best years are behind them. They should be totally unrestricted. But blind Freddy would’ve seen what was going to happen with Free Agency.

I hope we offer him a year contract, he’s worth persistent if with but something has to be done about him going completely missing in games.

I think this could be a good summary of him, Goodwin said he could be the tallest midfielder to play the game and I think this could well happen because the way he almost glides when he picks the ball up and goes is so unique. For next year I think (assuming we end up recruiting the second key forward we need) I see Jacko rotating through a HFF/midfield/ruck role. Which will hopefully help him develop the variety in his game.

Definitely not saying this as gospel but I thought there were some cheeky deals done somewhere along the lines with real estate a little while back while Bomber Thompson was coach. If they have been able to make salary cap room for Cameron, given their already high amount of "stars" at the club, it's quite an achievement of book keeping. I'd love us to go hard after him, but I suspect he's looking to go to one of the big clubs.

If you could've chosen from the top 8 the two teams I least wanted to make the grand final it would've been these two. I'd love to see the Tigers absolutely destroy the Cats by 100+ points, give them a little bit of humiliation on the biggest day of the calendar. Failing that a 1 point loss with the Cats being denied a goal by the review system at the end. EDIT Also with Dangermouse also missing 4 easy shots at goal.

Steps forward but he’s still not reaching his potential. That said there was a point when he first came in where he was clunking marks in a way I haven’t seen him do before, and regularly. He should’ve had bags of 4 a couple of times, like Fritta he missed some very gettable goals. I’m not sure he can hold down the number one forward position, I think as a number 2 he is very dangerous. There’s a lot he needs to work on but I felt one of the biggest failings by the FD this season was keeping him out as long as we did. Hopefully a disappointing end to the season won’t hurt his confidence into next year, get him a solid partner up forward and I think he can kick 40-50 goals for us.

Why’s that? What’s the bad blood between them. Just on the Richmond discussion I think their best trait is purely teamwork driven by a good system and game plan. I think they also have a strong “squad goals” mentality where everyone who comes in just does their job. I hate them but I have so much admiration for their determination. I dream of the day Melbourne will show that much fighting spirit consistently.

In that area I would say we might actually be slightly better (staggeringly).

If Brown were to nominate someone else that I would chase Jesse down to come back to the Dees. I don’t recall there being any bad blood about his leaving, he had been intimating for years that he would probably go back to Perth at some stage so it wasn’t a massive shock and I think the club had felt that the journey between club and player was over. I think he and Goody had a good relationship and I also recall Harmes being one of his best mates. Viney spoke to other clubs before re-signing so if anyone is going to accuse him of disloyalty they only look that far. I think with less baggage and more runs on the board Brown is the better option but I would be all for getting Jesse back as long as Burgess thinks his foot problems have (mostly) healed. What he did in 2018 wasn’t a fluke and I saw a few of his late games towards the end of the year, it wasn’t the Jesse of old but he just starting to show glimpses. I also think the Red and Blue faithful would welcome him back with (socially distant) open arms.

It’s a sliding doors moment, if the umpires had have noticed the other Melbourne players that had played better against West Coast and Scott West (more deservedly IMO) won the Brownlow how would his career have gone? He really did have a cracker of a year, was it Brownlow deserving? Perhaps not, but it was crucial to our GF push. I didn’t like the way we traded him out, definitely could have been handled better.

Well I guess on the results of the year our coach is 9th so you’ve got your wish. ?‍♂️

It's hard not to roll your eyes at some of the things he has said in the past but whatever you think of the bloke he should never have been given a clearly racially charged nickname. Reading that story about Robert Muir you realise that there have probably been hundreds of cases where minority players have been given nicknames that they feel denigrates or humiliates them but they stay silent because they don't want to be "that guy". If Lumumba actually went to the Pies to complain about it (which he claims) and nothing was really done then they have done themselves no favours and deserve everything that comes their way.