Demon Dynasty

Even with all the help there (50) & refusal by the umps to pay Sydney a free (had to be a high tackle there surely) in their forward 30 or so the Blues couldnt get the ball up the field and conceded another goal

Greedy by Papley there

Lmao.....karate chop to the neck in the marking contest.... play on!!

If my memory serves me correctly, history says if you go 3 to 4 goals down by quarter time you only win about 2 out of 10 times coming back from there. Fast Starts = Usually winning footy

Walsh just waltzing around front & sqaure... nobody near him. Awful Swans. At least have someone going with him in that front half to try and pressure the turnover or even better win the ball first!

Goal of the year Buddy!!??

The Blues are just as leaky as the Swans down back.... they just win a heap more of the stoppages and contested, getting it inside alot more (tonight).

Disgracefully one sided. How many times has a blue gathered, taken a few steps then either taken on the tackler / been tackled legally then either dropped the pill red hot and/or not made a realistic attempt yet no free!?? Walsh just then...broke a tackle then fair tackled immediately after but no free!! If you are not going to penalise a team for not playing to the rules of the game then good luck to the other team putting a winning score on the board.

Prevention better than cure i reckon Q. And no better week to pull out the conservative card than this week against Norf eh

Lets hope Melk has his kicking accuracy working (both at goal & kicks coming inside). Without that im not sure what other assets he actually brings as a HF/Mid. If he can't bring that in the next few weeks then we should be getting a few more games into Bedford well before finals IMV. If Melk brings that plus his 2018 intensity then he will most likely have met the role the FD are hoping for. Should be able to bring this against the lowly Norf this week as a minimum.

A super talent. Hopefully not permanently lost to the game. I enjoyed watching him from day one. Hope he manages to sort things out and maybe make a return at some point. Maybe for us!!

Nice. A Narrm flag would have been good as well

My guess is the FD are looking to share the love around in order to keep their preferred next rung of players up and about and at the level (AFL worthy) in case needed to cover off injuries late in the season. Otherwise the preferences (around the middle anyway) would surely have to be Bedders or Dunstan in most cases. The four in the mix seem to be Melk, Weid, Bedders & Dunstan.

Guys can anyone comfirm if training is tomorrow and if so i assume we are still doing Casey due to Gosch's development?

Fabulous addition for this club. The last loss i saw was against GWS last year at the G and had BBB been brought in a week or so earlier for that match i reckon we probably would have won that as well. Our forward line just isnt as effective without a fully fit and firing BBB. Super hard match up for the opp and means plugga gets the 2nd best defender which is real handy for us. Understands the nuances of forward craft also with a deft hand in to spoil the opp, lovely kicks around the corner, short passes to a free player in a better spot on occasions, doesnt get sucked up the ground as often as some recognising the benefit of holding a tall forward deep for the joe the goose or fat side mark on the lead etc. Draws a few extra frees also because of the height factor. What a way to celebrate his 150 against his old mob. Hope he kicks 10!

All good LDC... ED = Effective Disposals ITC = Intercepts

As we know he really stepped things up last season. Appears he may have taken things to yet another level in 2022 with a 31% overall improvement on last year's weighted (statistical averages) score. Has really blossomed into a reliable key role player who makes a difference on most game days assisting other team mates to carry out their roles more effectively. Interesting to note a significant drop off in inside 50s (hence less tackles inside 50 even though overall tackle average is up!) and clearances. On the flip side rebound 50s, intercepts and score involvements are up substantially. His disposal efficiency has also improved substantially and now super close to AFL standard from a pretty low 63% last season. Could this mean a bit of a role change this season where he is being asked to push back a little deeper to help out down back? Also spending less time at the coal face (clearances down) allowing him to get involved in more scoring chains (score involvements up) and put his energy to good use with more accurate disposals in general? My only worry here is...who (if anyone) is making up the drop off inside 50 from a pressure (tackle) perspective which is quite a substantial average differential (ie; down 1.4 tackles each match)? (Note: take no notice of the contested mark % increase as it's coming off an extremely low 2021 average). #30 A Neil Bullen 2021 2022 % Change CP 6.64 7.13 7.3 UP 9.36 11.38 21.5 ED 9.77 13.00 33.1 DE% 62.97 72.86 9.9 CM 0.09 0.25 177.8 Mi50 0.59 0.63 5.9 1% 1.27 1.13 -11.4 CL 1.91 0.88 -54.2 R50 0.68 1.00 47.1 i50 4.00 3.13 -21.9 T 4.55 5.13 12.6 Si 4.32 6.75 56.3 MG 265.09 252.38 -4.8 TO 3.91 3.75 -4.1 ITC 1.86 2.88 54.6 T50 1.91 0.50 -73.8 TOG% 74.59 82.38 7.8 G 0.59 0.25 -57.6 Weighted Score 2.387 3.138 31.5

Spargo climbing the stat sheet..... https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1129810

Spargo climbing the stat sheet..... https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1129810

I reckon he has the 'want/desire' and shows that in patches (AFL) but may just lack the leap/athleticism and agility/mobility to consistently impact? Not AS critical at VFL level, where he brings enough to do very well at times and occasionally gets on a roll attracting the interest of the SC.

I believe he kicked over 60 in 1972. Was probably his peak. Pretty sure he still holds the record (or did until recently) for most marks in an VFL/AFL game with 24. His kicking style was certainly unorthodox.

Haven't seen enough of JVR yet to say who he is like. TBH i think he is probably so early in his development we may be seeing a young fella who is only about 50% to 60% formed in terms of his style/skills & methods around the big sticks. Still learning his craft and working his way through things. Early days and will probably be his own man, but does remind me (just a tad) of the late Greg Parke. More so than the Ox. The Ox is a tough comparison. Such a natural talent. Had a nice leap, very good overhead mark yet also incrediblly mobile at ground level. Bit of a bull with ball in hand. Beautifully balanced & capable of easily gathering the loose ground ball & finishing on the run even from 40 to 50 out. Quite adept by foot on either side which made it very difficult for the opp to counter. Would have/should have been one of the great CHFs of AFL had he not been crueled so many times. His 1994 finals efforts were something to behold and i really thought we were a show for the Cup that year had Jakovich not been injured. Regardless if JVR ends up being near or at the level of either of these Demons we'll have something very special to look forward to.

Summary of some selective stats from Jack's H&A 2021 season vs this season (up to & inc. Round 9)... The stand outs for mine are... 1. Effective disposals up a massive 34% 2. Disposal Efficiency a lowly 60% last season to now pretty much AFL standard! 3. Uncontested possessions up significantly by 23% (a sign he is able to cover more ground and running more freely?) 3. 1% percenters (ie; ability to impact / effect a contest) up 50% 4. Rebound 50s (indicator of running capacity & ability to get back & help out in defence) up a massive 142%. Contrary to this is less inside 50s (off 31%) and less tackles inside 50 (down 36%) which may also indicate a slight role change vs 2021? 5. Intercepts (again ability to cover more ground and possibly more quickly?) up by a significant 44% 6. Turnovers down a substantial 26% Overall weighted score up a very substantial 29% vs 2021! #7 J Viney 2021 2022 % Change CP 10.33 10.88 5.3 UP 10.50 12.88 22.6 ED 12.33 16.50 33.8 DE% 60.32 73.63 22.1 CM 0.00 0.00 - Mi50 0.25 0.25 0.0 1% 1.50 2.25 50.0 CL 4.33 4.13 -4.7 R50 0.67 1.63 142.5 i50 3.83 2.63 -31.5 T 7.42 5.88 -20.8 Si 4.92 5.13 4.2 MG 266.58 247.88 -7.0 TO 4.75 3.50 -26.3 ITC 2.25 3.25 44.4 T50 1.58 1.00 -36.7 TOG% 77.17 77.88 0.9 G 0.33 0.63 89.4 Weighted Score 3.170 4.084 28.8

Weighted Average Scores up to & including Rnd 9, 2022 vs H&A Season 2021 Player 2022 Score 2022 Rank 2021 Score % Change vs 2021 2021 Rank Change in Rank vs 2021 C Oliver 5.119 1 5.258 -2.64 1 0 C Petracca 4.553 2 4.041 12.67 2 0 Steven May 4.164 3 3.926 6.06 3 0 Jack Viney 4.084 4 3.171 28.79 8 4 A Brayshaw 3.797 5 2.836 33.89 12 7 Ed Langdon 3.636 6 3.092 17.59 9 3 J Harmes 3.431 7 3.520 -2.53 6 -1 Jake Bowey 3.358 8 2.881 16.56 11 3 L Jackson # 3.288 9 2.355 39.62 21 12 L Dunstan 3.238 10 - - - - Max Gawn # 3.228 11 3.439 -6.14 7 -4 Alex N-Bullen 3.138 12 2.388 31.41 19 7 T Sparrow 3.131 13 2.023 54.77 28 15 J Jordon 2.778 14 2.908 -4.47 10 -4 Jake Lever 2.768 15 3.661 -24.39 5 -10 T Rivers 2.494 16 2.658 -6.17 13 -3 H Petty 2.092 17 2.086 0.29 26 9 T Bedford 2.038 18 - - - - C Spargo 1.992 19 2.068 -3.68 27 8 K Pickett 1.959 20 2.378 -17.62 20 0 Joel Smith 1.957 21 1.375 42.33 32 11 A Tomlinson 1.956 22 2.475 -20.97 16 -6 Ben Brown 1.946 23 1.855 4.91 30 7 Jayden Hunt 1.931 24 2.597 -25.64 14 -10 Bayley Fritsch 1.867 25 2.155 -13.36 25 0 T McDonald # 1.863 26 2.516 -25.95 15 -11 J Melksham* 1.825 27 1.853 -1.51 31 4 S Weideman 1.710 28 1.055 62.09 27 -1 Average Team Score - Top 22 68.20 67.23 1.44 # Hit outs to advantage not captured * Only played one match not an average score Stats courtesy of footywire.com

Dunstan (if not injured) for Harmes (inj). Bedford (medi sub) for Chandler (susp)