deejammin'

Unless the plan is Darcy forward Jackson ruck?

Love the interview. What’s going on with the pronunciation of “Petracca”, we saw Christian mouth “it’s Pet-rah-ca FFS” at the Brownlow but in this interview Max says “Petracka” about 30 times. Is he baiting him?

I think this is a very simple deathride. Injuries to Brayshaw and Pearce lasting more than 4 weeks and Freo are done. They have a good coach, a good defensive setup and some guns but they fall away after their top five or six players and without Mundy, Acres, Lobb, Logue and a few others there’s a lot of pressure on very few. Lose Brayshaw and a Pearce and it will all fall apart very quickly.

Deemania I was loving the posts and comparisons. I’m excited by all our draftees, the position of our list and our potential to win more flags in the near future. I was enjoying how positive things get about every player at this time of year, it’s only a matter of months and one loss before all the negativity returns. I was enjoying it not lambasting it!

You gotta love the pre-season. The only time of year an unknown recruit playing school and country footy becomes a Gary Ablett Jnr/Leigh Matthews clone in a matter of two or three posts. Thank you to Kev and all the posters for your brilliant training reports they are so appreciated!

Damn, that sucks. Ben has been great in his coverage of both AFL and AFLW, his work on Gus and Gawny and Ben and Lil and has clearly been a huge part of the marked increase in quality and quantity of our online content. You’ll be missed Gibby! Whatever “Bursty” is is lucky to have you!

I don’t disagree. I do disagree that the bulldogs had “average” wingers last year. That was my point.

They lost Dunkley and Hunter, they wouldn’t have looked at Oscar last year, which is the time period we were talking about. I know you didn’t mention Bailey Smith, you just said that the bulldog’s wingers were average and you were worried about Hunter as a result. I was pointing out they have close to the best winger in the game, that two excellent mids(including the eventual B&F) and a number of strong role players pushed him out. I was disagreeing with the idea that the dogs had average wings last year. With the exception of Langdon most of the mids you mentioned and definitely the mids you didn’t mention, would’ve been playing on our wing. We picked Hunter up to play, it’s his spot right now, that’s why he came across and what we pitched him. I’m not a big fan either but he’s an upgrade on what we had. Sure he needs to earn it, every AFL player does, and I hope Woey and Howes go past him, but right now, he’s playing wing round one.

Yikes. Average! Bailey Smith is close to the best winger in the competition at his best, I’d have him on our list in a heartbeat! The dogs had the problem of too many quality mids and had Treloar, Dunkley along with Roarke Smith (who is decent) McLean, Williams all rotating on the wing, that pushed Hunter out, not a lack of quality wingers, an oversupply. The reality is our competition for wing spots is much less than the dogs. Brayshaw and Jordon both did incredible jobs but aren’t natural wingers, Oscar Baker didn’t come on, Woey and Howes were too young last year and will still be developing. Hunter should be aiming to walk onto our second wing if he brings quality skills, application and effort. I’d have Woey a sneaky chance to take Hunter’s spot if he wavers as I really rate his improvement and if he continues his trajectory he’ll be pushing hard. But it’s Hunters to lose atm. The question is what we do with Brayshaw, Jordon, Sparrow, Harmes, Bowey, Salem not all of them will play and while a few of them will be walk up starts I think there’ll be some different roles for them this year.

Brodie Grundy is very quickly becoming one of my favourites without even playing a game. Seems a ripper bloke and the way Bowser talks about his training and athleticism is incredibly exciting. Also, yep, Matt is not short, Brodie appears to be leaning over slightly, but Matt is more than big enough.

Welcome Matthew Jefferson! Very excited for this pick although patience will be a virtue. I’ve been solely AFLW focused for the last little while so read this whole thread in one go and it makes interesting reading. My overall impression is that many are suffering from MFCSS or not remembering where our club is at. Sure our finals were underwhelming but we were right in both games and with a little luck and one of our best players and Norm Smith medalist not breaking his leg in the first quarter of our first final I’m confident we would’ve been in at least a prelim. The dissatisfaction is a sign we’ve come a very long way, tell me ten years ago that we’d be worried about taking the second best tall forward in the draft after a premiership and a semi-final and I’d have laughed at you. The comparisons to Cook and Watts are also strange. Both came in at a time where the club was a desperate basket case with few star players, fewer who would get games at the best teams for the time, terrible leadership and culture, a revolving door of coaches, a recruiting and development team that had almost no successes and the worst financial and facility situation in the AFL. Max Gawn was still smoking on the way to training FFS! Compare that to now, our development is elite, watching our VFL team for the last few years the improvement in our young draftees is marked, do they always tear their way into the AFL side, no, but go back and compare Woewodin, Turner, Chandler, McVee, Laurie and JVR’s first games this year to their finals campaign, it’s night and day! Jefferson will come into an environment with two of the best players in the league (Trac and Clarry) will train against the best defenders in the league (May, Petty, Lever) will watch the best rucks in the league (Gawn, Grundy) and will have to fight his way into a team that had BBB, TMac, JVR, Fritsch, Schache and even Petty all ahead of him as forward options. He’s unlikely to play this year not just because he’s light framed but because there’s at least five forwards a swing man and two rucks ahead of him for KPF spots, and that’s not even including the potential for Smith, Tomlinson to change roles or Melksham to get his round 21-23 form happening. I don’t want to re-open the development vs talent debate but I’d bet that a Watts or Cook coming into this program would get a lot closer to elite AFL standard than they did. Also I have a problem with the way Sam Weideman is, for the main part, talked about in this thread. He was not a total bust like a Cook, he was an almost. Both our AFL and AFLW premiership teams talk about how important the whole squad is and they mean it! Sam was a huge part of pushing BBB and TMac in 2021 and played a big part in our second place finish this season. His games against Essendon as FF, Brisbane as second ruck and the Bulldogs were ALMOST great. He also wasn’t always a terrible contested mark, he was a confidence player who lost confidence and got the fumbles at AFL level. Go back and watch how many almost marks he had this year. Watch his great contested mark against Freo just on half time when we were dominating in round 11. Go back and watch his first game against Hawthorn, his finals campaign in 2018. Watch his contested marks on Harry Taylor and Mark Blitsavs in our first final in donkeys years in 2018 against Geelong. Sam was almost what we needed, he didn’t quite get there, but he was also a key part of our premiership squad and deserves our respect. I hope Matt Jefferson is willing to work hard at VFL level this year and is pushing for selection in 2024, then we’ll be looking very good. My player to compare Matt to is Jhye Amiss, similar height and weight, similar attributes, good kicking, good marking, goal sense. Jhye played finals in a key position at AFL level this year. Those writing Matt off on a weight number should take note. Rip it up Jeffers!

YESSSS!!! So well deserved. Not happy with the lions receiving BOG, the only reason their backs had a chance to be in the game was the excellent work of West, Hanks and Paxman getting the ball forward, BOG on the losing team should be reserved for absolutely stellar performances. Anyway, you bloody beauty! What a performance, beat them away, on a weird new deck, with the umpires giving us nothing. Go Dees!

This is the real crux of the matter. Gaming Brownlow betting is one thing, but there’s been serious question marks on the AFL umpiring department professionalism and integrity growing every year now. We always get told they’re mistakes, or vague justifications of howlers, or blaming technology, it’s too hard to get umpires we can’t make it full time and pay them a good salary, having part timers is fine, nothing to see here. But if an umpire will risk 10 years jail for a few specific Brownlow bets, why not throw a few 50/50 decisions in a game, why not help an underdog stay under the line? Why not miss a few holding the ball decisions? I’m no conspiracy theorist, I think the majority of the time umpires are doing a good job and mistakes are genuine accidents. It’s a slippery slope though, and the veneer of integrity that the AFL relies on is quickly coming off, the lack of true umpire accountability, professionalism and an integrity unit with integrity and teeth means when something like this is exposed, the whole thing comes into question.

It’s also yet another reason to make the umpires 100% professional, salaried and tied to the AFL. To have outside contractors have such influence over the games results and the competitions biggest award is just asking for things like this to happen. It may not completely stop it but at least having someone whose primary profession and source of income is as an umpire increases the incentive not to do things like this. With the number of lawyers who umpire AFL as a side hustle I’m sure this umpire won’t struggle for representation, might even represent themselves 😜!

If Adelaide and Port play interstate teams in this round then the competition becomes even more hopelessly compromised. With the league so even atm it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the ‘magic’ round could be the difference between an Adelaide team making the finals and not. That would be yet another ingenious way for the AFL to lack fairness and integrity. Insane.

I think the AFL should call Geelong’s bluff on the whole home final thing. At the moment they’re having their cake and eating it too by complaining about not having a home ground advantage but playing at grounds big enough for all their supporters to attend. Call their bluff, give them a home final at HMBA but set strict limits on tickets 40% allocation for Geelong members, 30% for the opposition, 10% for AFL members, 20% general admin. Watch Geelong beg for an MCG home final when their members realise less than half of them can attend. As to Marvel for the GF now that both the Gabba and Metricon are unavailable it’s a no brainer. Not only is it the only suitable venue left for the GF it also has the advantage of a roof to avoid the shambles in Adelaide today with crazy weather. Brisbane have strong support in Melbourne, if they make it, and at least one Grand Finalist has to be from Melbourne (it better be us). Too bad Brisbane, can’t get a decent ground, you miss out. Plus there’s a history of playing GF’s in Melbourne regardless of contestants in the mens game, let’s bring that into the AFLW as well. Go dees! Thrash those Kangas!!! (I’m slightly worried about this one, they should’ve beaten us at the G earlier in the year, we’re in better form but so are they, this won’t be as easy as some in this thread think). Go Dees!

I think this graph shows how enthusiastic crowds tend to be in their team’s first year. With the exception of Hawthorn (who have many problems ATM) the top 3/4 are new expansion teams whose audiences are enthusiastic for their first year. You would think their numbers will fall a little next year as we get a realistic idea of their true believers. This makes it a remarkable result for MFC as we continue to have the strongest non-expansion crowds and clearly have the strongest support for AFLW of any club. The teams high profile players, excellent play and strong amount of AFLW content on our platform all contribute. It’s also our super dedicated supporters who have been their since the beginning at MFC. It’s even more remarkable given for a lot of our supporter base Casey is so hard to get to (I drive an hour each way to go)! Hopefully we can get a flag to go with it!

Just another reason to hate Collingwood. Great win girls! Bring on Adelaide!

Yep, it was pretty clear that us, Adelaide and Brisbane had the toughest. This fixture grading also doesn’t seem to take into account where we play, I think if it did ours would be the hardest, Adelaide in Adelaide, Freo in Freo, Gold Coast at Metricon. We’ve travelled a lot. We did lose to Brisbane at home, though that was less about fixture more about the ridiculous Taylor Harris suspension. I love AFLW and have been on board since the exhibition games but until the administration gets serious and has every team play each other once per season it will always be deeply compromised. We’ve been through conferences, lopsided draws and this years insanity where almost half the comp don’t play each other. If the AFL admin cared about integrity (which it shows again and again they don’t) they would’ve held off adding the final four teams and instead had a 13 game season + 3 finals with everyone playing each other once. It would also help all teams get experience and challenge all to raise the standard. Alas the almighty dollar wins again.

Fantastic win, fantastic day! A great even team performance with a lot of room for upside. Paxy BOG, my favourite Heater putting a blanket on Prespakis in the second half while providing dash herself, Bannan electric, Kate classy, Harris killing it in the air and doing the team things, Gillard starring for a first year player, the engine room of Loz, Hanks, West, Purcell and Mithen excellent although perhaps a bit scratchy and overusing it a bit in the first half. A great, if very windy day at Casey fields, the only thing getting smashed as hard as the bombers was the tornado spuds wagon which sold out half way through the third. Next week we will at least know the target before we play, that’s an advantage. Hoping the pies kick 5+ goals and stay close at least. Then we’re a shot. Whatever happens we’ve locked away a home QF, a home GF would be nice though…

That’s a very, very good side. How do we fit Gay, Ivey and Duffy in next week? Let alone how we fit Colvin and McNamara back in next year? Building nicely.

Exciting prospect. List coming together nicely. If we can snag one more ready made ruck as a rookie and draft a KP we’re looking very good.

Thanks for that Poita. Looking forward to this game. The AFLW injury list link you posted has an asterisk next to us that says “current as of October 12”. Given that that is 8 days ago I wouldn’t despair or worry on Lauren Pearce just yet. I think the numbers are just out of date (which makes it weird Gay, Sheriff and Goldrick aren’t on it 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️). It’s also missing McNamara and Colvin 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️. I’m still relying on Mick’s presser, that Loz, Sheriff and Goldy are all a chance, Gay still a week away. EDIT: Injury list just came up on the MFC site. Goldy in, Pearce and Sheriff tests, Gay one more week. AFLW Injury Report | Dees could strengthen for Dons clash… https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1239278

Unfortunately we won’t go in to 34, if Brisbane use 34, 35, 36, 38 (receive a late pick back for this) to match the Ashcroft bid we move up three but also get pushed down one place (the extra place where Ashcroft is taken, for example pick 1 would push GWS’s pick 1 to 2 etc), so that would have us at 35, then if Brisbane match the bid on Fletcher inside 35 with 55, 56 a later pick and some 2022 deficit (this is the only way I see them doing this) we likely get pushed back further to 36, then if Essendon have to match a bid on Davey with their pick 22 we stay at 36, if Davey slips down below 22 they will likely use their picks in the 50s and beyond to match, maybe even go into a small deficit and we will slide right back to 37. Long story short our pick will be 36 at best or 37 not any higher unfortunately.

I’d go for all of those except McGovern, he’s a strong back man but he’s 30 and May is in better form and fitness. They will be retiring around the same time so I don’t see him adding much to our list. I’d add Sonny Walters as the type of player we don’t have many of and could improve our team.