poita

Having a 10 game season is just ridiculous. It would be like ending the AFL season after this week and thinking that is a fair fixture. I'm guessing the rationale is that the AFL want to limit the number of opportunities for weaker expansion sides to be thrashed by the stronger established sides. Expect to see Adelaide/Melbourne/Brisbane/Fremantle all playing against each other, and with the bare minimum of games against expansion sides. I struggle to see how the AFL will promote this AFLW season with the early rounds running against AFL finals. You'll be lucky to see more than one game a week on Channel 7, and heading out to venues like Casey for twilight or night fixtures in September is not an attractive proposition. Good to see some more money available to players. Hopefully it allows the stronger teams more scope to keep their lists together.

Hard to blame any of these players for seeking regular game time, particularly when they have come from interstate and uprooted their lives for a wage that is hardly life changing. Hopefully our list management team have some aces up their sleeves in terms of replacements. I'm amazed that none of the expansion clubs have come after our second tier players (Zanker, Mithen, Gay, etc). Or maybe they have and they've been knocked back.

The number one issue the AFL has at the moment is that they are devoting all their energies to a group of people who are only worried about the "experience", and this is coming at the expense of traditional fans, including local and junior football clubs. Yes, you'll get a big TV audience and a few extra hangers on by having a night grand final and providing fireworks and music and gimmicks, but few of these people will ever become members or put money into the game. The people who actually care, who volunteer at grass roots level, who encourage their kids interest in the game, who become members and buy merchandise, actually get turned off by all this crap. We sit in M15 and we are surrounded by people who spend their time playing on their phones and getting up to buy drinks. They come to games a couple of times a year and watch about 10 minutes of football each time. I really don't know what they (or the club) get from the effort, other than a few pictures on their Insta pages.

The next step in the evolution of this competition is to allow for longer term contracts. The stronger teams are extremely exposed having most of their lists come off contract each year. It's not right that you can put years of development into players and expansion clubs can come in and grab them for nothing. At the very least you should be able to offer 3-4 year deals to a small number of players (say 5) Parry has been linked to Geelong I believe.

Steven May has been brilliant over the past three years and deserves every bit of praise he gets. That said, Naughton and Wright both kicked multiple goals against him this year. What is the definition of a defensive 1v1?

Effectively gives Goody three years of security, which is about right. He absolutely deserves a new contract, but you also don't want a situation like West Coast has with Simpson where a premiership coach from four years ago is now fighting for survival. If Goody makes it through 2023 in good shape, I'm sure another contract will be a formality if he is still keen.

Tom has been a super player for this club for a long term and absolutely deserves to play game 200 this week (and many more beyond that). People just don't get how much of his work is done off the ball and behind the scenes. It's no coincidence that Ben Brown has averaged 3 goals a game when Tom has played this year, and only kicked 1 in the other game. Ideally Tom shepherds the Harmes goal through, but most of the blame should fall on Weideman who stood in the goal square and watched the whole thing happen. Weideman has been poor for a month since the Essendon game, although I don't mind him having a run in the ruck to get his hands on the ball as he did on Saturday. If Jackson comes back, Sam should be the one to drop out.

If our man Daniel said it, it must be true.

I can't see how that's correct. Even the most popular team in the competition only accounts for 10% or less of the viewing public. Assume Richmond and West Coast supporters represent 20% of all viewers between them, that leaves the other 80% who would presumably much prefer to watch a cracking game between two top 4 teams wherever they come from

No doubt Shane was badly advised after his Brownlow victory. His management turned the screws on the club that had given him a chance when 15 other teams weren't interested. I agree that he would have had a long and successful career at the MFC if he had accepted a fair and reasonable wage at that time. That said, the decision to trade Shane and how it was played out, caused significant damage at the time to the club, the player group and the supporter base. That is 100% on the club given they accepted and signed the contract. I'm very glad that these issues have now been addressed and resolved.

Saturday twilight time slot, rain predicted, Hawthorn's fickle supporter base = 35K tops, probably closer to 30K. St Kilda on Mothers Day will be 30K at best. Note that St Kilda and Hawthorn only drew 30,926 in round 4 for a Hawthorn home game. St Kilda's crowds have been abysmal this year, even with home games against Collingwood and Richmond.

With so many hangers on at football clubs these days it baffles me that one of them can't give a decent review of Casey games and how our players fared. If we didn't have Demonland, there would be almost no feedback whatsoever.

I can't believe people still think Brown and Weideman will play in the same team. The selectors have ample opportunities to try this combination if they think it will work (including when McDonald was injured in late 2021), and we've seen it a grand total of once since Brown came to the club. Even then McDonald still played and it only happened because Jackson missed. Brown and Weideman are basically the same type of player, playing a very similar role. However one is an elite, proven performer and the other is a highly inconsistent and large unproven player. McDonald is a very different player who plays a role that is highly complementary to Brown (or Weideman), and that is why he keeps getting selected even if he is not kicking a lot of goals. The Brown / McDonald combination is clearly our most effective and I expect to see them reunited as soon as Brown as seen as fit enough to play.

Whilst people are getting giddy over our membership numbers, they have to accept that a large portion of these are 3 game memberships so these people are unlikely to be seen at anything other than blockbuster matches. I doubt that most of these people even particularly care about the club, they just want to be along for the ride. Other than that, night games are a major hassle and I don't blame people for not attending when you are almost guaranteed to have public transport problems every second week.

With 56,841 members, is anyone brave enough to predict a crowd of over 30,000 for Saturday's game?

Congratulations to all the award winners. I'm amazed that Daisy won given her start to the year, but well done to her. I would have had her namesake as our best player across the season. The move of Prespakis to Essendon fills me with dread. There are four new teams coming in, plus a few perennial under achievers, who have a lot of money and opportunity to throw around to established players. Hopefully players are allowed to sign longer term contracts once all 18 teams are up and running. To those who attended - was there any hint that players might be considering offers to relocate, or was there a strong feeling that they are going to stick together and try again to win a premiership together?

Fully agree with this. I'm guessing player numbers are down at least 10% from last year, and probably more, given what I see in my local league. I rarely see kids kicking the footy at the local park, and the prevalence of night games makes it hard from them to get to or see games. Junior clubs are not being supported and are really struggling financially and with finding volunteers. I'm assuming the same issues are apparent at junior league level as well.

Because the AFL and it's competing clubs need to do way more to support junior football, and not just at the higher levels. It is too easy to cop out and use the pandemic as an excuse, but participation is down, standard of play is down, volunteer numbers are down, and interest in the game from juniors is down. The AFL and the clubs need to give more back.

Bedford and Chandler have both been on the list for four years now and both still struggle to get more than 10 touches against even weak VFL opposition, let alone kick goals. I don't see any upside in either as AFL prospects and would have gladly delisted them both by now. I haven't seen a lot of Laurie, but nothing stands out to date. I always worry when we reach for players in the draft, particularly when the player isn't filling an obvious need.

Congratulations to the team on an excellent season, but the reality is we have way too many underperformers at present to challenge Adelaide. Ignore the final margin, we have been belted three times by them in the past 12 months or so. Hatchard and Marinoff are great players who never fail to perform. Why our forwards persisted in playing behind all day is beyond my understanding. As is why they won't spread out and give the midfield some options to kick to. Goldrick, McNamara, L.Pearce were very good. Gay, Hanks, West and a few others tried hard, but many of the rest just didn't turn up. Mithen's disposal is abysmal and she was a complete liability. Zanker has regressed horribly and doesn't look like she wants to be there. Scott has barely touched the ball all year. Paxman tries hard, but makes way too many errors. If we lose players to the expansion teams, hopefully they come from this list.

Best & Fairest votes (from Melbourne FC facebook page) Hanks L.Pearce, Paxman D.Pearce, Mithen Hore Harris West, Bannan Congratulations to the 4 Demons in the All Australian team - great effort and well deserved.

I second this request. Also wondering if the AFL players are likely to stay in Adelaide for a couple of days to support the AFLW side.

You clearly didn't go to school with their feral supporters in the 1980s and 1990s. Apart from bandwagon Hawthorn supporters of that generation, they were clearly the most obnoxious supporters. My hatred of Essendon has been raging strongly for well over thirty years.

Harris is a certainty. L.Pearce owed one for last year - hopefully she is named this time around. Birch's form dropped off in the last month, but may go close. I'm a big fan of both Hanks & Heath, but it's a tough field. I can't see Hore getting in. I'm sure the selectors would love to squeeze Daisy in for one last guernsey after her big finish to the year. Could it happen?

I thought we were past playing cute little games with our injured players, but Petty, Lever and Hibberd are now all well outside the timeframes initially provided for their returns. If Lever's injury is really that bad, just let us know and we'll move on.