FarNorthernD

Gawn at 25. Difficult to see any other Melbourne player making the top 20 aside from perhaps Hibberd? 25. Max Gawn Melbourne Ruck Last year's ranking: 17 Official AFL Player Rating: 17 Debut: 2011 Games: 74 AFL Fantasy value: $605,000 It will be a slimmer Gawn who takes to the field in 2018 and his weight loss should help him cover the ground even better. The big man dealt with a serious hamstring injury last year but in 2016 was widely considered the premier ruckman in the AFL, so Gawn will be keen to reclaim that crown.

Im with you DUbDee. I am a traditionalist but that is the best reason I’ve heard so far to justify a twilight GF.

Clarrie is easily the youngest of the top 50 to date, one of three to have played under 100 games (Seb Ross and McGovern) but the only one to have played less than 50 games. Special

It does take time to change perceptions doesn’t it. I still don’t rate Richmond that highly and are confident of rolling them on Anzac Eve and they’ve just won the flag!

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

Can I suggest you re-name thread to include the fact that Nev is on. I assume he would be in nearly everyone’s top 3 list of favourite players. Certainly is in mine!

Nic Nat also has interesting hair. As a comparison Stefan Martin averages 16+ possessions a game and a tick over 21 hit outs but gets about 1/50th of the publicity. It is not his fault but Natanui is the leagues most overhyped player.

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

It’s got me stuffed. How can the AFL be anti pokies while simultaneously vigorously embracing football betting? It seems so hypocritical. What am I missing?

Just to keep everyone updated as they hardly have mentioned it on the telecast, no they are not fixating on it at all, nup keeping it very quiet but Ablett/Danger/Selwood are all not playing. Watching the Cats play the thing we can take from this is that the Cats midfield don’t bat deep. They have been very, very average today

Of your list Ron I admit I’ve flip flopped around a bit. Melksham. I was told by an Essendon supporting friend that he was glad to get rid of him and that he only played one good game in five. His first few games were pretty bloody woeful and that’s what I thought of him too. He has since improved and so has my opinion of him. OMac. He wasn’t AFL quality, hardly VFL, when he first played. He is now. Stretch/ANB. I thought Stretch was going to be the better of the two. Now I’m not sure if he is in our top 24. Harmes. Let’s just say I thought being good mates with Hogan would be one of his big positives in any contract negotiations. Salem. Blind Freddy could see that Christian had all the goodies to make a very good footballer if he got his body right. Of your list though I can only really see Salem and, strangely, perhaps Harmes becoming ‘very good’ (A-) players. The others may have very good games on occasions but will be serviceable to good overall

It was great to hear Drunkn’s views on some of the lesser known players. He is obviously a big fan of Bayley Fritsch, Dion Johnstone and Tim Smith. Most of the media commentary obviously centres on the higher profile players; Petracca, Gawn, Viney, Jones etc. If you have Drunkn on again could you please ask him for his views on Maynard, King, J Smith and Filopovic. I always find it interesting to hear about the up and comers.

I agree. As someone who was firmly in the keep Jack Watts camp you watch that game on the weekend and realise that we now have a team where everyone will ‘go’ when it is their turn. It is easy to see why he was not considered a wanted player. Part of my thing was just hoping Jack would string together a whole season of his best games just to shut up all those who gave him such grief. Not to be unfortunately.

Im going to get this story wrong but I’m relatively sure the broad outlines are correct. The softest tribunal decision ever was when Colin Sylvia got suspended for something along the lines of ‘rough conduct’ when he didn’t actually physically come in contact with the opposition player. I believe the tribunal said he had ‘intent’. Some weeks later Sylvia had his jaw broken and the other bloke got off!!

And our ability to ‘respond’ seems to have no gender bias. The MFC girls were being talked up as flag favourites just a couple of weeks ago.

Yes going into games last year actually expecting to win just upped my blood pressure. Also explains why I have only just got over Rnd 23.

Not sure if anyone is making Brayshaw the new whipping boy. I believe the general consensus is that, given his injury history, we all wish him the best and hope he fulfils his potential but going on Saturday’s performance he may struggle to make the Rnd 1 side.

Nice win. Anyone else think the navy of our jumper was a really, really dark navy. Loved it.

Brayshaw and Stretch will need to improve if they want to be playing Rnd 1. We have depth these days

I really like this idea. Jesse has the ability to run all day and having such a big boy playing as a mid, even just for short periods, will upset the opposition in match ups both mid and forward. Most importantly though the guy has a really footy IQ and it wouldn’t surprise to find out that he could be bloody good around the ball. Jesse is a natural footballer

I had always assumed the football leadership group peer voted thing was a bit like voting for a school captain where the kids votes counted unless they didn’t pick who the principal wanted.

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.

The Demons on top of the ladder and the Pies last. Happy days.