Little Richard

I would actually love a Champions League type tournament every year amongst state leagues.

They could play it over the 3-week bye period - get the top xx teams from each state based on results from the past season, maybe two from SA, WA and VIC and the other spots made up from the other states/territories. Play a knockout-style tournament over those few weeks and crown a winner. Maybe the AFL could even dish out some significant prize money to the winning club.

Personally, I think that would be a heap of fun.

3 hours ago, kurtneverdied said:

Not if it's for the long term good of the club.

That attitude set us back years during the tanking saga. We should always be aiming to win, everything else is secondary.

40 minutes ago, DeeZone said:

And yet they have 6 Keith Bluey Truscott’s, 2 AFL Coaches Awards, a Premiership and our only Norm Smith Medal between them. Jeezuz the worm turns quickly doesn’t it.

I still remember when, early in his career, Clarry started kicking (and running) more. He went from an inside handballing machine to a much more dangerous player, and arguably that pushed him up to superstar status. Now he's a shadow of that player, probably due to physical and mental fitness I guess. He looks so far off winning another Bluey it's crazy.

2 hours ago, demoncat said:

Would be all over Lewis if he sought a trade

His body is a concern but there aren’t many near 2m forwards who can actually play

Take the risk and get him fit I say

I'm not sure we have the luxury of taking a risk like that. He can play for sure, but that has serious potential to be another bust trade.

Hopefully that's the game he needed to end his form slump, definitely looked like he regained some confidence. We still need a genuine spearhead to shield JVR a bit and allow him to keep pinch-hitting in the ruck. Where that player comes from, I have no idea.

Great games from Viney, Bowey, Disco and Melksham.

38 marks across Disco, May and Lever is crazy.

The goal review system is garbage.

On 29/06/2025 at 04:12, BW511 said:

I’d be looking at a trade for a strong leader. A Callan Ward type who fronts up and plays their role every single week.

Lever will have his hands full trying to get a game.

Trac doesn’t want to be here and the team first stuff doesn’t come naturally to him.

Rivers needs to get settled in a role and become consistent, long before he can dream of being captain

I tend to agree with a few posts made today, as good as Max has been, he has also papered over a lot of cracks that are now being exposed.

It’s not a united club, pulling in the same direction.

Agreed, good time to do a Roos and trade in a Bernie Vince and Jordan Lewis, if they're going.

3 hours ago, Neil Crompton said:

Just saw this quote about JVR taken from Zero Hanger:

"However, winning a hitout is just half the battle of a ruck contest. The other half is knocking the ball to the advantage of a teammate to gain possession. No other non-ruck has been better at this facet of ruck craft than Jacob van Rooyen this season.

The Demons key forward has rotated in and out of the Melbourne side in 2025, having featured in just eight games with struggles to get opportunities in front of the big sticks. However, when required, he's been much more than a servicable replacement for the AFL's greatest ruckman Max Gawn, hitting the Sherrin to advantage 33.3% of the time. While van Rooyen understandably has one of the lower ruck contests competed in per game with 12.5, he is wildly effective in those contests. In fact, van Rooyen's hitout to advantage rate of 33.3% is not just the best amongst non-rucks, it's the best in the entire league with rucks included too!"

Perhaps we should view him as a forward pocket ruckman rather than a key position forward. Jeffo and Turner as keys, with JVR in the pocket.

Who is he rucking against in those contests though? Might be the other teams part timer most of the time.

Having said that it's a pretty interesting stat and he's a super useful player in that area. At the end of the day we're better off if JVR doesn't have the burden of being our number one forward, at least until he's 25 at least.

Petty has flashes but he's still a natural defender.

Disco is playing well down back but he also looked really good up forward. I think we need to bite the bullet and send Petty back, Disco forward with JVR.

1 hour ago, Older demon said:

For those who mentioned structure, you are right on the money. Fritch is the only natural forward who moves around. Melk can do this, but in the goalsquare, he tries to outmark players a foot taller than him. There is NO forward who leads up the ground and Fritch always leads to the pocket. Not since Ben Brown have we had a leading forward who runs up the ground and makes space behind him up forward. Regarding Petty, he is a good contested mark, has limited forward craft and never leads, and much the same can be said about JVR, who is a mark and kick, but at least he kicks accurately.

Conclusion: why the hell haven't our highly paid brains trust coaching seen this? JVR & Petty cannot both play in the same forward line: Look at MIhoceck who leads up the ground and takes one on ones on the wing. Cameron at Geelong will wander up to the wing for a kick. Naughton runs far and wide as do Curnow and McKay. Petty just doesn't do this and I don't hold that against him as he is a backman. Neither he nor JVR do enough running up and down the ground in my opinion

Having watched Jefferson learn his craft over 3 seasons, he at least moves like a forward. He can lead is a reasonable kick but has been stifled by the expectation that he must take pack marks in the square from long bombs. And here is a radical one. Will Verral is a better ruck than either Roo or Petty or Johnson, now the season is shot, play him. Who knows he may even kick a few snags

We even managed to turn Brown into a 'kick it on top of his head' kind of forward. His lead-up game was much better at North, no doubt thanks to the fact that they had a proper forward structure and knew how to deliver inside 50... even when they were terrible.

Feeling quite optimistic about this game. I think we can get it done and if we do it'll be a huge statement, hopefully a galvanising moment for the rest of the season. Viney to go ballistic.

Fit Spargs is a really important cog in the machine, need him back at full flight in 2025 if we're going to go far.

Losing Gus and Nibbler was a huge blow to the leadership stocks.

1 hour ago, Sir Why You Little said:

That 2002 Semi Final against Adelaide was the most incredible game i can remember. 
the momentum swings on the field and in the crowd i will never forget. 
i remember being devastated at the end….

Can still remember walking back to the car with my dad, holding his hand and crying my eyes out. I was 29 years old.

8 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

i'd say a mid-late second round, high third round pick

same 'value' as anb, jj

That would be very optimistic in my opinion.

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Trade at the end of next year please.

What do you think we'd realistically get for him Daz? Don't think he has much currency at all tbh.

Seems unable to take that next step to impact games and become more consistent, disappointing because he has some great attributes. 

4 hours ago, Kent said:

I would rather have a good established midfield coach than a loved ex-player Where are his qualifications

I was under the impression he'll be the assistant midfield coach, meaning we'll have someone more senior and with more experience in the role above him. I'm pumped to have Chunk back though, great addition to the wider coaching staff.

Bit of an inconsistent year and looks to be a confidence player. I thought he played a few good games though and can find the ball. Decent depth player at least, but maybe it will click for him in 2025.

Developing nicely so far, hopefully he continues to come on!

43 minutes ago, biggestred said:

youre wrong about spargo OD. best 22 when fit. has been injured most of the last 2 seasons. will be fine with a good run injury free.

How quickly people have forgotten Spargo's value when fit. He was arguably our most important and effective link up player going inside 50 when we were at our peak.

Wow, I thought he was like 24. No idea what they were thinking with that trade. Start from zero next year and please Shane, give us something.

2 hours ago, Sydee said:

Luke Jackson says hi 👋 

Jackson was an anomaly. How many other rucks over the past 10-20 years were virtually ready to go like he was? It's no secret the majority take much longer to develop.

Enjoyed his work at the Dees and he'd certainly have played more games if it wasn't for Maxy's dominance.

Where did you find his weight? I thought they didn't publish that info anymore.

Just now, alpha33 said:

The timing of this thread is impeccable (not).

We're going into a trade and draft period of enormous importance to the Melbourne Football Club and people are attacking our list manager.

Surely, this issue is best raised at the end of November when we can have a look at the results achieved in that time rather than cause more disruption on top of everything we've been put through these past few months?

Fair dinkum - we are our own worst enemies.

 

The importance this year lies in maximising our draft position so that Lamb's impact is limited and Taylor has the best opportunity of unearthing more great youngsters.

I don't think this thread is going to cause any disruption within the club mate.