FarNorthernD

DD do you think we would have more paid up members now if we had of played finals last year?

You would imagine there are a few members still sitting on the fence at the moment. Round 23 would have broken a few hearts and, like it or not, Jack Watts’s departure would have dismayed the marketing department even if not the football one. Win a few games and you would think all would be forgiven but you can’t expect all supporters to be as rusted on as us lot.

Dead set freakiest of freaks. I’ve always maintained that Ablett and Carey are the only two players I would pay to go and see if Melbourne weren’t playing

59 years! And there is the definition of insanity. Congratulations and commiserations to you MT. I wonder if there are any other Demonlanders who can claim more than 59? Does the MFC do $1 memberships at 50 years like the MCC does?

Congrats to Mitch. He has the lovely habit of making goals out of nothing. With his leap and ability to play at ground level he can be a difficult match up for the 5th or 6th defender. Will also add to our midfield depth. Good on him PS. I do like the way that even though it feels like Viney has been around forever and he is co-captain of the club when he comes out of contract at the end od 2020 he will still only be 26

And then Brayshaw, O Mac and Harmes who, going by training reports and AFLX form, is set for a good year.

You would think most players would want at the start of their careers to finish as one club players. Most humans are loyal (long term, paid up MFC members being ‘elite’ examples) and would rather have success with the club that chose them as a 17 y.o. Of course it doesn’t always work out. Twelve of our 44 players started at different clubs meaning a tick over 70% are one clubbers. I have no idea what the league average is but 70% feels about right. Lets hope the core of our young group stay with us. Let’s face it there aren’t too many reasons to leave.

Coming into the 2019 season Viney and Wines will be just 24 y.o, Petracca 23 and Oliver 21. Seven years of fearsomeness to follow.

The thing I find interesting is that I haven’t seen this thread for many months but now that I have I find my dislike for Essendon is as strong as ever.

Thought this maybe an opportune time for a happy bump Harrison Petty. Strengths:Intercept markingReads the flight of the ball earlyTakes marks at highest pointClean at ground levelEffective ball userComposure with ball in handRate of improvementStrong performances from limited exposure I am very much looking forward to seeing how this guy develops. Big upside

My father was a passionate supporter. At his wake the last song played was the Grand Old Flag. All my cousins and their kids barrack for the Dees. As do my sister and her kids. My niece married into a Melbourne supporting family last year. At the wedding their were perhaps 150 guests and it was a struggle to find someone who didn’t barrack for the red and blue. Again the night closed with a couple of rousing renditions of the song. It was huge. My nephews wedding next year will be similar. The only family disappointment is my brother who is a football philistine who, I think, believes he is above all that nonsense. Fortunately his oldest inherited the Melbourne gene. For all the years of pain and disappointment I love being Melbourne

He sat out the combine due to a shoulder injury. Source afl.com

If we keep getting A.A squad players like Lever we should give up first rounders forever

Apparently has the nickname The Ginger Ninja. Should draft him on that alone.

And Juddy

I was thinking along the same lines. Unlike a few on here I’m not sold that T Mac will be capable of being a long term forward option for us. I can see him returning back to defence and could see either O.Mac or Lever given a shot up forward.

Using the AFL points system and assuming no great ladder improvement from us next year we have effectively given up pick 4 for Lever. I think everyone here would do that deal. Hopefully that is a worst case scenario. If we improve like we expect and Adelaide falter that could translate to pick 5-6 Also whilst next years draft may well be very good whatever player we would have got would take at least 2 years in the system before we got significant results. That brings us to the 2021 season. Lever will be lining up round one next year.

And Lever also has very similar stats to Rivers after the same number of games. Means little at this time. Weideman, by the way, has kicked more goals than Hudson at the same age.

Really? For better or for worse Jack is contracted by the Club for two more years but in its dealings has made it very difficult for him to come back to the fold. They asked him to explore his options and pretty much the least they can do is let him go where he feels like he may have the best chance to succeed rather than what suits the MFC.

Fritsch: "What role am I playing today coach?" Goodwin: "Well today we are playing [insert team name here] so I want you to be booed and sworn out by all their supporters and a vocal and vociferous minority of your own supporters too. If you do well you can expect the same treatment next week and the week after that. Expect to be pilloried in the media and your own Club will admit your mere presence puts them under pressure. You will run the game out to the end but I will infer to the press that your preparation was lacking. All your teammates will make fundamental school boy errors; failing to kick to targets 20 metres away, handball to players feet and missing goals from 35m out but we are setting new standards now and elite finishing skills are so very 2016 which was, coincidentally, when we signed you to that 3 year (non binding) contract. Fritsch: "Oh, I’m playing the Watts role"

I’ll admit I haven’t seen a lot of Lever but what I have reminds me of a slightly upgraded version Jared Rivers at the same age and number of games. I liked Rivers a lot but anything more than our first round pick is too much. To me uttering Lever’s name in the same breath as Rance is silly.

Why would the Crows start with an offer to Lever of $300k? That is madness particularly to a bloke who is perhaps thinking about going home. You are basically saying we rate you as a very average player. I know it is just an initial offer but it is so far off his worth it is dumb management

I would be surprised if this was the case. Josh’s Dad is Phil Kelly who played on the opposite wing to Keith Greg for North in the late 70’s.

I don’t know if anyone else saw player manager Paul Connors on Open Mike during the week but he comes across as a seriously impressive individual. He deflected a lot of his success to the people who worked for him seemed genuinely interested in his players. From what I could work out his advice to Kelly (who is one of his clients) will be to stay for Premiership success at GWS and then reevaluate offers at the end of the next contract. If Connors was only interested in the cash he would advise Kelly to perhaps take the humongous North offer. If I had a kid looking to an AFL future I’d be pretty happy to have him managed by Connors

K