Pink Freud

To their credit, we had them on the ropes but they didn’t give up. We need to do better next week.

They always take one or two emergencies up in these cases and in view of the five day break it would be wise to take all three up there and rest them in case they’re required for the Gather Round game. This is especially so after the embarrassing fiasco last year when Melbourne travelled across the Nullarbor to play in Perth, flew back to Melbourne and then to Adelaide with disastrous results.

Big if. Unless he has an outstanding season, Mentha is likely to miss on top 40 because of his size. Look at Kynan Brown - he was one of Vic Metro’s best in the national championships and was very good in the Coates Boys League but nobody tried to draft him.

Significant move at the Doggies James Harms out Oskar Baker in Make of that what you will!

It was not so long ago that we were being feted for our accuracy in front of goal - The stats behind Melbourne’s “freakish” accuracy in front of goal in 2023. After Rounds 1 to 7, the Demons were “ranked first for goals kicked in the competition with 118, but stunningly they’re dead last in 18th for behinds kicked with 61”. That’s a shooting accuracy percentage of 65.9. We were still ahead of the game slightly over Rounds 8 to 10 when we scored 39 goals 35 behinds (percentage = 52.7). However, since then we’ve gone 26 goals 43 behinds for a shooting accuracy of 37.7. A massive decline but hopefully our coaches are saying “let’s work on it and not let it get into our heads”. Accuracy is often one of those swings and roundabouts things - we need to get it back on track for our next game against the Cats.

One bloke who you have to feel a bit sorry for is Blake Howes who is out there at Casey putting his hand up nearly every week for a game and he just can’t crack it for a long awaited debut. I guess you could say much the same for Taj Woewoedin. It’s hard breaking into this team.

8 point game and if we win they will be the best ranked team we’ve beaten

Nothing personal against Junior Rioli but I was a little peeved that he copped a two week suspension (reduced from 3) at the Tribunal the other night. How could they have applied the same punishment in a situation where a player caused an opponent to be concussed and miss at least the following week to one where his club gives him the all clear?

The slipperiness was due to the state of the ground after a heavy downpour on the night before the game. And yes it was humid during the course of the game.

Expect Jefferson to have a big post season at the end of the year and return bigger and stronger and near AFL ready. As it is, he’s the leading goalkicker at Casey so far this year. Ollie Sestan should look different as well after a pre season.

Especially after 46 possessions the week before and no promotion.

This. Daicos is in his second season and is leading many awards and a Brownlow favourite. He’s one of the factors behind Collingwood’s rise from 17th to flag favourite. There are no guarantees with recruiting but the addition of a player of that calibre could be enormous over a long term, especially when added to an already quality list.

For Melbourne - the great Tommy Bugg kicked four goals and for North Melbourne, the great BBB also booted four. I think Brown should forget the haircuts in future and grow his hair back to previous lengths.

Poor old Robbo’s crook this week. Shouldn’t bag him at least over this one.

What if they’re gone and JT and crew genuinely want someone they know will still be available at 20?

I asked the question on the Changes thread and nobody could give a definitive answer. Someone wrote that today is the day on which the 2022 playing contracts are supposed to expire so I guess we’ll know soon enough.

Is anyone concerned that at this late stage we have yet to contract Michael Hibberd or Jake Melksham (according to the Herald Sun subscriber pages):

Good luck to him - he certainly was a talent when he played Under 18s.

Does anyone know what junior club he played for in Victoria before the family moved over to WA?

Whatever happened to the key talls from SA who were so much in vogue earlier this year? Have they fallen away or are the SA clubs hiding them?

Looks unlikely to be taken in the top 40 but does that mean we would draft him?

I can guarantee that when players get 30 touches in a game, a few of those won’t work out perfectly. Some will be due to extra pressure on the player with the ball and some due to the player receiving. If you’ve watched enough of their games, you would realize that Tsatas’ disposal is up there with the best at this level. That’s why highlight reels are basically useless. Fair dinkum, on what you’ve offered up here, most of you wouldn’t have drafted Trac.

Two goals in the first quarter to Max Gruzewski, a 193cm tall key who can play forward and back and who Melbourne has spoken with.

Could be on his way to Windy Hill?

Why not go for both Gunston & McKay? After all, Brown’s productivity has dropped below acceptable of late and we haven’t managed to get T.Mac on the field. Both getting older, slowing down and injured. They might be on their last legs next year.