Pates

All good mate! Glad I’m not the only one who thought along those lines, it’s not making excuses for his poor choices but I feel we’ve missed the opportunity to give him his best chance by having to go into the hubs. Just as another aside, I have zero doubt that had he been living in Melbourne he would’ve had Ross Lyon as someone to go to for help and guidance. It’s not the same over the phone. At the end of the day he made his (bad) choices, you have to own your mistakes and sadly I think we’ve missed out on another supremely talented footballer due.

I think we sold part of an idea of a two ruckman system, plus there was a lot of concern about our lack of depth with ruckman should Gawn go down. Perhaps we also sold the idea that he would be our future. Either way I’d personally say that his value has increased rather than decreased. He’d walk into at least three clubs as their number one ruck.

Part of me can’t help but wonder how things would’ve gone had COVID not happened. He came to MELBOURNE, not just the team but the city for a fresh start with his family. Instead he ended up back in Queensland where everything started turning, in a hub with people he has known for less than a year, and without a second tier league for the club to properly reintroduce him back to footy with. None of these are excuses, as a footy club I really think we did everything we could to help him and regardless of what has transpired and will happen in the future I still think we have been a positive impact on him. He was a free hit, we got his body working again but the mind is a harder prospect particularly when it comes to things like depression and substance/alcohol addiction. I’m absolutely gutted that it hasn’t worked, I think the demon faithful would’ve fallen in love with watching him at the G. This is on Harley and now that footy hasn’t worked he needs to knuckle down and sort his s*** out not just for himself but for his partner and kid(s). Well done to the club, good luck to Harley.

He’s in contract, so I see no reason to low ball ourselves. It’s extremely handy to have back up for Max and we don’t know how long it will take for Jacko to grow into his body to be able to to take first ruck duties for an extended period. If clubs want him they can pay for him.

I recall during the Sydney game the commentators spoke about how Petracca had fallen into old habits of passing the ball to others rather than taking responsibility himself. I think this attitude is something Oliver needs to change as well, he too often will look to give off quickly and a lot of the time he’s in the best position. While he’s not a bull like Trac he does actually have a good burst of speed off his first 2-3 steps and I feel like he has the ability to split the contest. The best thing we can do is give him a license to back himself rather than give the ball off. I noticed that when Trac started doing that he’d generally then get the ball to the outside rather than continuing the “phone box footy” style.

The great things about Christian, aside from all the accolades mentioned (and 100% congratulations to him for all of it) is that he seems to have an energy about him that brings others into the game. His teammates really get around him when he kicks a goal, when someone else kicks a goal he’s a lot of the time the first to really pump them up. It’s immeasurable important to have people like that in your team because they not only pump others up but it actually makes playing with him a joy. He seems to just love playing footy and it shines out of him onto others. It been great watching him get close to fulfilling his potential, he’s got other gears to go to though. I hope he brings others along during his progress, he’s a great example of what happens when talent mixes with application and hard work.

I’d forgotten about that miss, I even remember Huddo making the call of before he kicked it “this is what they brought him to Melbourne for” and then he missed. It was crucial in the match, who knows if it would’ve seen us win but it was big. I think not having a proper second tier competition has been difficult for someone like him. Surely only so much you can get out of a 14v14 Micky Mouse scratch match.

I suggested this earlier in the year and totally on board with it.

I’ll add another trait that needs to improve across the board. The doggies showed it against Freo when the game was in the balance. Pressure!!! We currently lack a desire and hunger for the contest, we don’t pressure, tackle, harass, smother nearly enough. Particularly when the game is going against us. It’s one of the basic fundamentals and something that can actually get you INTO games when you’re not quite there. Bizarrely we actually have players that should be serving us well in this category; Viney, Brayshaw, Oliver, Petracca, AvB, and Harmes are all names immediately you’d think are going to do all those things. I’m sure I’m missing others. I just think back to the sealer against Essendon and it was Rivers, who actually said after the game he’s not the biggest tackler, who laid the important tackle in the middle to set the goal up. Elite pressure wins you matches and it’s also critical to finals footy.

I agree with this, rather than a festival of footy which squeezes the life out of the players crest a consistent time of stretch that has footy regularly being played. Hate to say it but the world has changed and TV rights have become the more important factor (as much as COVID has also shown crowds are important to the atmosphere and spectacle). Better TV rights will give more certainty to clubs.

Hunt has the same knock as Hannan in that he goes MIA far too often. I also agree that he was on par with Melksham for much of the year but Melks got a blessed free ride all year. Hunt looks like the sort of player who’d thrive on the wing, pretty sure we tried it and it failed. I hope Hunt gets retained as a HFF, pick him instead of Melksham.

Do we know the extent of Gus’s injury? If he’s potentially missing a fair bit of footy in 2021 then we will need Jack in the guts. I will be pretty disappointed to see him leave and sicked to see someone with the name Viney going to the Cats.

Cheers, for me since we got both Rivers and Pickett I’m pretty comfortable with the trade. Pickett’s biggest issue for me is his finishing, got himself into good spots plenty of times but failed to put it through the big sticks.

I admittedly can’t be bothered trailing through the thread to get the explanation, we traded Pickett for our future 1st rounder (ie upcoming first rounder) didn’t we?

Sad to hear he’s retiring. He gets to go in a group of top draft picks from Melbourne that showed plenty but through various reasons never reached the heights expected. I think we failed to provide the best opportunity to develop him, and there were choices made on his end that also held him back. Shame that he isn’t retiring as a demon, or more importantly as a Melbourne great but he gave us some fantastic moments and I can only say good luck to him for the future. As a random aside, if he comes back to Melbourne (the city) could a part time role as a kicking coach be something offered to him. Far and away one of the best kicks we’ve ever had.

Given that the Wagners and Dunkley all got told they would not receive contracts does that mean there could still be a little hope for Harley? I would've thought if they knew he wasn't going to get another shot next year then the COVID breach would be the final straw. I don't think there can be any doubt there are multiple issues going on with him, question becomes is it worth us persisting with him with the risk of relapses into his old ways still being probable.

I initially thought "why didn't they wait until they're back in Melbourne" but I realise there are so many restrictions that there's no telling when it could happen. I think the flatness comes from the fact that end year ended on such a sour note with finishing 9th again, the inappropriate touching, and the cherry on top being Bennell's COVID breach. Everyone is over it, and it shows.

The thing that Tredrea doesn’t mention is that not only is May a lockdown defender but he marks the ball, he doesn’t just knock it out or away. I will say that May had a slow start to the year and had a number of games where for whatever reason his kicking was diabolical. I just can’t believe he missed out on the squad.

So first off, big congrats to Petracca. Outstanding year from him and he still has more levels to go to, I really hope he reaches his ceiling. If he does, he could be one of the best, if not THE BEST player in the league. Secondly congrats to May, he had a diabolical 2019 which was largely his own fault. He owned his mistakes, and sought to rectifying it. 2020 was his best season ever and it can show how much of a difference a proper, professional pre-season can make. Thirdly congrats to Langdon, he’s been a fantastic recruit and he’ll get better. Coming to a new club can be tough to jump straight in and make an impact. He’s done that. Well done to him and well done to the club for getting him. Finally congrats to Oliver and Viney, both have been regular top 5 B&F places/winners. That they are there again is a credit to them, no matter what your personal opinion of either of them. On that last part with Viney finishing 3rd. Yes it is a surprise to me as well, I would’ve definitely had Oliver above him, but what this also tells me is that there are things/roles in the game that we don’t see. I hope he stays, if Jones retires we will be losing a true Red and Blue warrior, to lose Viney as well would hurt our culture. On a negative, seeing Melksham finish so low annoys me because he underperformed for almost the entire year but somehow managed to keep his spot (and even captain the club!!!). Extremely poor year from him but got free pass after free pass. I hope he gets given a rocket up his bum over the off season.

I’m not using it as an excuse but same day travel for that Cairns game was so clearly a disadvantage to us, while also an advantage to both the Swans and Freo (who got the chance to acclimate before their game). I’m also not a fan of the 4 day breaks, particularly if one team has had say 6+ days rest. Seems like it’ll be another chance for the AFL to create unfair advantages to some.

Also time called on when the ball touches the ruckmen’s hands, would prevent two seconds being wasted by bad bounces being redone and actually give players a chance to do something if there’s 5sec left in a quarter. I think time off for field marking is too difficult.

I remember his speech at the end of 2018 thinking this is a guy that doesn’t accept mediocrity. Hopefully some of his teammates start to take the same approach.

1. Trac 2. May 3. Oliver 4. Gawn 5. Langdon Langdon has a bit of an iffy period early in the year but once he got going I think he’ll poll well. Gawn’s missed matches will drop him down a bit. May and Petracca have had outstanding years but I think Trac’s form has been so consistent and at times match winning it’ll see him get his first Bluey.

Early in the year we were killing teams in the centre bounces and around the ground stoppages. Somewhere along the line (I think the Brisbane game) teams worked us out, and I think a lot of it was so to with almost allowing us first hands on the ball but ensuring there was no way to exit. The pounded us with pressure and got it to the outside where they had the better players ready to take the ball away. When Max got injured but still played against Adelaide I said leading up to it that that was the perfect opportunity to put it back on our midfielders to learn how to scrap for the ball. He played, we won the game but he got injured. I was filthy at that call because it was a great opportunity missed. We need to have multiple different approaches rather than just the basic tap down because teams are too wise to it. We are losing in one area of the ground we should be killing teams.

May - All Australian Snub