deejammin'

Your name is painfully accurate for this topic mono, thanks for the info.

That’s awesome! There’s another beautiful stat as well Titan. We’ve never been behind in any last quarter. The closest any team has come to us is GWS getting 6 points behind. Apart from that we’ve had a 12 point buffer in every game. I find it hard to believe as my severe MFCSS makes me terrified anytime a team kicks a goal on us at any time but we’ve really never been seriously challenged this year at the pointy end of a game. What a strange and wonderful feeling!

Great team win! What a start! If you’d have told me in January that we’d be 4-0 with no Brown, Weideman, Hibberd and Viney for a game I would’ve thought you were mad! Incredible stuff! Also I was hearing a bit of ‘Melbourne haven’t beaten anyone yet’ on the radio this morning and I’m ok with that, keep the lid on. But there’s an interesting stat everyone seems to be missing, everyone Melbourne has beaten has beaten everyone the bulldogs have beaten. Geelong beat Brisbane, Saints beat WC, GWS beat Collingwood, admittedly Freo haven’t played North yet, but I think we can all agree they WILL beat them. So the next time a radio host tells you how incredible the dogs are but Melbourne ‘haven’t beaten anyone yet’ maybe cheekily point this out? While keeping the lid on of course... GO DEES!!!

The main differences were that the dogs took the game incredibly seriously and put their best team on the park while they are gearing up for a serious tilt at smashing the season at the start, while Richmond are the reigning premiers who only played some of their best players in the first half and who, like most reigning premiers are more interested in playing young players in preseason and nursing their best team through their shorter preseason than the rest of the competition. Grand finalists are notoriously slow during preseason due to their later start date. I wouldn’t be getting overly excited about the Tigers game, Dusty playing all four quarters would be enough to change that result.

I’m not too disappointed as it’s a practise game and the many, many players we had out make it difficult to judge. However, it is worrying that our pressure and effort were so lax, that our structure collapsed so regularly, that our tackles were broken so easily, that almost all our goals were from chaos ball situations, that our ability to move the ball is still so stagnant, that our skills are still so terrible and that so many players getting a chance to play for a spot were so very ordinary. Bring that type of performance to the first 6 weeks and Goodwin will be gone. I hope for his sake and ours that this was a personnel issue, because if we have really improved so little on all the issues that ruined last season, I shudder to think... Also while the dogs were closer to full strength than us they were missing: Treloar, Easton Wood, JJ (I know he was omitted but jeez, I’d like him in our team!!), Not to mention losing Noughton, Crozier and Vandemeer for much of the game! They may well be one of the best teams and we may well have been undermanned, but watching that game felt far more 2019 than anything we dished up last year. I desperately hope we bounce back against Freo.

I remember that too but watching him this year I thought his field kicking was excellent, his kicking for goal less so.

Stoked about Brown! I think you’re right and this is one idea that hasn’t been mentioned enough, the possibility of rotating Jackson and Fritsch between 3rd forward and wing. At the start of this year there was talk that Jackson was mobile enough to play a Ruck Rover type role perhaps he could play a Blicsavs circa 2017 role as a tall running wingman? If you then rotate him with Fritsch when he rests forward or goes into the ruck you could cause some matchup issues with his height and both are great field kicks. Exciting I reckon.

It’s really exciting to have us landing a key forward but I’m naturally mistrustful anytime Barrett reports on North. He is so one-eyed when it comes to them that he would always be reporting whatever works for North. I hope we play hardball with them, get Brown to nominate us, get him for pick 23 or he walks to the draft, North have basically thrown him out the door they’re lucky to get any pick for him.

I forgot about KK, I’d say he’s definitely going. I think Jones staying on as a playing coach one more year is a good idea and I think Jetta is contracted so unless he chooses to retire he goes around again and I’d back him in if he gets back to his best form, his game against St Kilda was pretty good. The thing about kicking people off the list is having quality to replace them with, Jones and Jetta stay for mine as even if we get three second rounders for OMac, Preuss and ANB (not going to happen) we would already be using four second rounders (and if we had this we’d definitely exchange two/three second rounders for a first round pick leaving more list spots), pick 43 and 62. Then as you say Chandler, Nietzsche and to a lesser extent in my opinion Hore and Bedford can also be delisted if we need more space. Jetta and Jones are more valuable to us than picks 63 and 83 this year and then when they retire in 2021 we’ll have higher picks to bring in as we’ll be back in the first round. I think we’ll be looking to consolidate our picks into 4 second/third round picks using Preuss, ANB and OMac as trades and then if we’re lucky we’ll land a Saad, Smith, Cameron and still be comfortably within our list size without having to turn out too many players. I think Jones, Jetta, Hore and Bedford all have more upside than speculative picks at this stage and we need leadership and professionalism for our still relatively young list. It’s also dangerous to turn too many players over in one year with list sizes reducing again next year.

Clearly the FD rate Tomlinson and Smith ahead of OMac for our second/third KPD. With May, Lever, Tomlinson, Smith and both Petty and TMac who can potentially be sent back I totally understand why we would be looking to trade OMac. All things going well it looks like 42 will be the number for a list this year so our list looks like this: Delist: Dunkley, Wagner, Wagner Retire Bennell Trade: OMac, ANB, Preuss If all seven go through (and I know TMac may well be traded along with some others depending on the offers but these three look likely) then we have 5 list positions to fill and the following picks: 23,47,62,63,83 I would think we would be aiming on pick upgrades with most of these trades and perhaps even packaging them up to a team with an academy prospect for an even higher pick. If OMac upgrades one of our picks in the 60s to 40s-50s we’ll be doing well. I imagine we would be hoping to get a couple of second rounders and a third rounder at least with the three players we have on the table, which would be a significant upgrade on our current draft prospects, who knows maybe we can even get to the point where we package up a couple of second rounders for a late first?

So Goodwin still has a better finals record than Chris Scott over the last three years. Geelong need to get over WC or Collingwood to draw even....? 2018-2020 Finals record: C Scott 1-4 S Goodwin 2-1 lol #straightsetscats

I hear what you’re saying but three years versus four years on a contract doesn’t mean as much these days. If we get to the third year and Jack’s not working out at Melbourne, then a trade will probably happen, hell players have asked for trades one year into a contract, if he’s ruined his body through injury he will retire like a number of other players, if a four year contract gets him over the line I think it’s worth it. I think Jack is a high quality player and individual that sets super high standards in behaviour, training and attack on the ball and that he will make our club and team better. I think he will play well for us, heart and soul for all four years and possibly beyond, but I really don’t think four years versus three will make much difference if things go wrong. Nathan Jones sounds like it’s as much about him coaching from the list as it is about playing, this idea is become common and will get more common with the reduction in the soft FD cap. Burgoyne at Hawthorn, Hodge at Brisbane, Mitchell at West Coast, Heath Shaw to GWS?? it’s a common thing clubs do to get quality people and leadership in-house. Nathan is a club legend, a good person and a good leader who is intelligent enough football wise and emotionally to be a good coach. We’ve all seen the hard way what happens when you let your senior players go elsewhere on mass, Bruce, Yze, J McDonald, Green all left our club at a similar time to be assets to other coaching panels, including premierships, as our list bottomed out and floundered for leadership. We still have a relatively young list with relatively few experienced leaders. Keeping Nathan is a no brainer and if the best way to do it is one year on the list then great.

Gawn didn’t play in the dogs game. Preuss did. And there are two ways to look at that game, one is that ruck men aren’t important and that Dunkley broke even, the other is that we failed to capitalise on this opportunity in the ruck. Preuss and the mids lacked connection in that game, he was constantly hitting it to where our mids were not and eventually Preuss resorted to just taking it out of the ruck and booting it forward, which hurt us as well as we allowed the dogs so much rebound off half-back and freedom in transition. The fact is we should’ve played better in every facet of the game against the dogs and Preuss’s previous game against North was excellent! Good ruckmen are key to Port, Brisbane, Geelong, West Coast and Collingwood and while Richmonds rucks aren’t setting the world on fire they still play them. That’s the top 6 teams all having key ruckman, many would argue Nick Nat is one of the most influential players in the AFL due to his ruck craft! We are a better team when a dominant ruckman is connecting with our mids and unless we bring in some good talls to replace TMac and Preuss we can’t afford to take the risk of trading them both. If we have Gawn, Jackson and Weideman as our only ruck/tall forward options next year we’re taking a huge risk, one injury and the good teams are going to exploit our lack of height, both in the ruck and forward, especially if we keep bombing the ball forward under pressure. If we trade TMac and Preuss we need to be bringing in at least one key forward/back up ruck, and if we can’t, we should keep Preuss for insurance. Unless of course we get a ridiculous offer (like a Brent Daniels) for him and even then we should still be bringing in a backup ruck somehow.

I mean, if we could do that it’d be pretty amazing. Obviously I don’t think we’d be able to trade Preuss for him, but from a whole list perspective if we could trade TMac, Preuss and bring in Cameron and draft a young tall we’d be going well. I’d say it’s more likely we bring in a different less high profile tall forward as everyone is saying Cameron is involved with Geelong. My main point was just if it looks like we will end the trade period not being able to bring in at least one tall for T Mac then I don’t think we should trade Preuss. Unless someone offered something ridiculous of course. We really need talls on our list and while Jackson is great it’s too much to ask a second year player to be both the number 2 key position forward AND back up ruck.

I think part of this is probably that Preuss wants game time and so the club is checking what they could get for him as a matter of due diligence. The reality is if we trade both Preuss and TMac we are leaving ourselves exposed for talls. Sure neither has set the world on fire in the role we really need to fill, that of tall key position forward, but we were relatively lucky for injuries this season, I’d be very worried if the only tall forwards on our list were Weideman, Jackson and Brown. That leaves us very thin on the ground should one of them get injured or if Gawn goes down. From a list perspective we need a tall forward anyway, trade both Preuss and TMac and you really need to be bringing in at least 2 talls, at least one of whom can play ruck. If we trade both Preuss and TMac and don’t get talls in one long term injury to Gawn, Weideman or Jackson and it’s curtains for 2021. We can’t leave ourselves that exposed. This deal only gets done if we can find a way to get a Cameron type forward.

If only Demetriou had called Bomber to let him know the cops were onto him... he could’ve destroyed the evidence and relied on being a hard done-by good bloke to get the lowest possible penalty....

The idea that so soon after such a massive scandal that brought the sport into disrepute, threatened to ruin 3 seasons, was found by the head WORLD anti- doping body to have been against the rules of world sport, that [censored] off, frustrated and bored the fans to no end and that may still have a large amount to play out with regard to the health of the players involved and their families long term, (let alone the impact on the integrity of the competition during the period doping players were aloud to play)... the idea that so soon after all of this the AFL would even consider letting Hird have ANY official role within the sport is beyond astounding, the fact it is a coaching position is just beyond stupid! What an immoral farce this league has become.

Perhaps Jobe's Brownlow is in a storage facility with the extensive documentation of Essendons drug program, fully filled out ASADA forms listing all the "legal" substances taken and letters to Bruce Reid asking for details on Thymomodulin?If only Jobe had looked for it earlier this all could have been avoided! .....Alternatively perhaps Jobe is an unrepentant drug cheat.

Happy to have different views mate. I tend to think CAS has more integrity than Essendon and the AFL and nothing I have read, heard or seen makes me think Essendon are anything but guilty. Im a diehard Melbourne man however and now he's here I'll be barracking hard for Melksham as I do all our players.

Saty I think it's disgusting that the whole thing has been reported and discussed in such a biased way that the whole issue has been distorted and an obvious attempt to cheat has been treated with sympathy rather than the objective view it deserved. I don't think or mean that anyone is disgusting, sorry if I offended or upset anyone and I'm sorry my words could be interpreted that way mate. I would have been better served by saying "distressing".

I also think they are guilty clearly. And I understand that the younger players faced a tougher circumstance than players like Jobe. But the treatment of this issue in the media and by some on this forum, being so desperate to excuse the players at every turn, never admitting to any of the facts of the case, has been truly disgusting. Its interesting to note the difference in the way our media has treated the Essendon players who couldn't come forward for fear of senior players and club champions versus Russian athletes whose families are threatened by a dangerous regime. Those poor poor Essendon players.

I can imagine it. But ultimately it's the same argument as the Nuremberg trials, doing something you think is probably wrong but accepting it and doing it because those more senior tell you to is actually not an excuse. I don't doubt the younger players were more naive, or heavily influenced by those senior players, but ultimately when it comes to drugs in sport if you take the substance and don't report it you have no leg to stand on. A lot of Essendon players could have been saved a lot of time and money if just one player had been brave enough to report. Some players clearly said no, look at Zaharakis. (Sorry Ted tried to quote you and got my own)

Interestingly none of the Essendon players managersor the AFLPA were kept fully informed by their players on the program at Essendon either. So while I see your point, the players only have themselves to blame, they were fully able to fill out their ASADA forms, speak to Bruce Reid or speak to their managers but chose to maintain secrecy for a competitive edge, that is not innocent behaviour and I don't see why so many are so keen to excuse it.

It seems to me young AFL players say no to their bosses all the time. They say no to contracts, they say no to staying if they have a better offer, they say no to giving the club an idea of their intentions, some really talented players say no to different roles, they say no to staying an hour away from their hometown, we had one who lied to a club champion who was dying of cancer for a whole year to take a big contract. The good ones say no to booze with friends, unhealthy food, staying out late, etc etc. But when it comes to saying no to taking an enormous amount of injections that contravene your ASADA/AFL training, aren't administered by a doctor or nurse, aren't told to the club doctor or put on ASADA forms before matches it's all of a sudden impossible to say no. I think you should get your hand off it.

Wow, you are a hair splitter aren't you. CAS the worlds leading authority and top arbiter of doping in professional sport found to a "comfortable satisfaction", CAS's determinant of guilt for all its cases that "all players were significantly at fault" for violating the code by taking a nominated banned substance which was Tb4. You can argue legal wording semantics all you want but the result is the same. All doping cases worldwide are judged by comfortable satisfaction, this is the standard by which guilt is judged in doping in professional sport. Tb4 was the substance the players were accused of taking that violated the code. The highest court in the world on drugs in sport found to the worldwide standard for the leading code in drugs in sport that Melksham and his colleagues took TB4. Melksham= Banned drug cheat