poita

Busy day Demonstone?

Spargo, Laurie and Schache - how bad is our depth if they are next in line? Hopefully Tomlinson plays, and Harmes and McDonald can find some form for Casey.

The better team on the night won, but I'm not convinced that Petracca's kick was touched. So many of our players just cruise along at about 70% - Salem, Hunter, Langdon and Grundy to name four. Salem was especially poor. I'm not convinced Hibberd was a good sub choice. We need impact in the middle, not a defender getting two nothing touches. I'm also worried about Bowey - he is clearly the weakest link in our defence. Ultimately we lost because we gave up soft goals at the start of the third and fourth quarters. We can't afford to do that in the finals.

Any chance we can play some height in the forward line if we're going to bomb it in?

Definitely appears to be the case.

Really? My son's junior football is on Sunday, and the older teams are playing after lunch. I'd much rather Saturday afternoon games, especially when you don't get home until after 7pm on a Sunday night after a 3:20 game.

https://www.espn.com.au/afl/story/_/page/Subway2023Brownlow/afl-2023-ultimate-brownlow-medal-predictor-tracker-leaderboard-odds-every-team-every-player-every-vote Petracca is within two votes of Daicos on the ESPN tracker, for what it's worth. Bontempelli currently second.

You need to commit to buying a 2024 membership to get access to the $1 memberships. I've seen plenty of worse ploys from other clubs.

Signing a 7 year contract on huge money comes with a significant amount of expectation and pressure. It would be fair to say that Grundy hasn't come close to performing at the level that that contract requires over the past three years. If he signed for five years at $700K, I reckon he may well still be at Collingwood, but he and his manager pushed for maximum value. Ultimately the next move is his. He can stay at Melbourne on his current deal and fight for a spot in the senior side, or he can agree to terminate his contract and look for another club. I'm sure plenty of clubs would be interested, but he might have to price himself at $600K for three years. What's worth more to him - the security and money of his current deal, or being a number one ruckman again?

As far as I can tell Jordon has played predominantly as a central midfielder over the past two weeks, for 11 possessions on each occasion. For all the talk about the lack of opportunities that James received earlier in the season, he has been given a massive opportunity here and he has been very disappointing. He simply doesn't impact centre bounces in any way, and he was clearly opposed to Martin for a number of Richmond's clean centre breaks early in the game. He is clearly not an instinctive player, and you can see the wheels turning every time he receives a handpass or a short kick and is required to make a split second decision. Given his lack of improvement over the past three years, I see Jordon as handy depth but not someone I'd be rushing out to resign if he gets offers elsewhere. I think we can replace him through the draft pretty easily if required.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/north-melbourne-kangaroos/afl-draft-2021-trade-news-north-melbourne-rejects-offer-for-pick-1-adelaide-offers-three-firstround-picks-jason-hornefrancis/news-story/c04e020fec2fe228597559746741b62c They were stupid enough to draft a player who made it pretty clear he didn't want to go there. They only have themselves to blame.

A couple of practice matches locked in: Saturday 12 August - Carlton v Melbourne at IKON Park, 12pm Saturday 19 August - Melbourne v Hawthorn at Casey Fields, 2:05pm https://www.womens.afl/news/121126?_ga=2.225260698.1412232811.1690420280-113156352.1690420280

Our forward line finally starts scoring with some consistency and we drop Brown. 🙄 If we're judging purely on goals and marks, then clearly he is struggling. If we're judging on how the forward line has been functioning as a unit in the past fortnight, then the decision is just plain dumb. Petty at least is a reasonably straight swap, although his form and fitness are a major concern. Smith for Brown would represent yet another structural change, which is getting ridiculous at this time of year. I too would have liked to see Dunstan get a run, even more so now that Sparrow is out. We can't keep asking Viney to carry this midfield each week, and Dunstan can at least share the load. Our midfield looks very light on now, even if Harmes does come in. I called for Hibberd to replace McVee earlier in the week, and hope that change happens. I can't see any reason to bring in either Grundy or Spargo, either now or prior to the end of the season.

Congratulations to Kate & Tyla, some big shoes to fill, but I'm sure both will be excellent in these roles.

There is some speculation that Tayla may have a facial fracture as a result of this fight. I'm all for players having interests outside of football, but not one that can potentially cause serious injury a month out from the start of the season.

The hardest of hard passes for me. I don't care how good he is against players his own age, you'll never convince me that a 170cm player is worth a high draft pick. That's especially true when we have no young midfielders coming through, and ageing KPs and rucks. We have far bigger needs.

I've been able to understand the voting in most games this year, but not so this week. There is no way we win that game without Viney.

Hunter has been diabolical for weeks, he needs a fair amount of time at Casey. Maybe Jordon back to the wing, because he is completely ineffective as a central midfielder. I'd still love to see Dunstan get a chance whilst Oliver is out. I thought McVee may have been wearing concrete boots yesterday. He has had an excellent season, but looks due for a rest. Bring in Hibberd for him this week and reassess. I really like Woewodin as a player, but he's just not getting enough football. Time to bring Harmes back. As much as it would be great to see Brown taking 8 marks and kicking 5 goals, that's just not where he is at right now. But our forward line looks significantly better with him in it. We do need another marking option, because it is asking too much of Melksham to be that player consistently.

The bigger concern than having suitable picks for Kynan, is the number of available list spots. Perhaps Jordon, Harmes and Tomlinson leave, but the club is just as likely to recontract Hibberd and Melksham, and then we're back where we started.

You could hardly blame Adam for looking elsewhere given the way he has been treated this year, but our key defensive depth would be critically low without him. Turner may end up being a decent player, but he doesn't look like a replacement for May or Petty to me. I'm not sure what happens if one of those two is unavailable and Tomlinson is no longer on the list.

Jordon's problem is that we have already offered contracts for 2024 and beyond to a number of players who are lesser players than he is. Spargo, Laurie, Schache and Smith are four obvious examples, plus arguably Harmes given that he is currently out of favour.

https://www.womens.afl/news/120862?_ga=2.6926130.1607083853.1689569774-109191650.1689569774 Melbourne play 6 of 7 finalists from last season, the most of any team. Fremantle and West Coast play 3 of a possible 8. I agree that we are better off playing quality teams than beating up on the also rans, but don't forget that we missed out on a home GF last year by a single goal. Could the extra game against a weaker side for Adelaide or Brisbane end up gifting them a home GF?

Only if we revert to a top 6 with teams 5 - 8 playing in the wildcard round. Anything else just rewards mediocrity.

So we play 6 of last year's top 7, missing only Richmond who were eliminated in straight sets last year. Meanwhile Carlton don't have to play any of Melbourne, Brisbane or Adelaide - that sounds fair. The 5pm Friday fixture in Frankston in round 4 and 6pm Thursday fixture in Geelong in round 5 remain. Bad luck for those players with other jobs to think about.

A ten week season is a joke, but I'm glad for the players that they will soon be able to start planning with certainty. There were rumours of some terrible fixturing decisions in previous draft fixtures, such as games being scheduled for 5pm on Friday nights. Hopefully these have been removed.