Lucifers Hero

Updated for the much deserved contracting of Joel Smith for two more years. Not many left un-contracted now. Anxiously awaiting news on Hunt 🤔😟😐 Note: the latest table is always shown at the top of this thread for quick reference.

As it is a chant, a hum without words, won't it get drowned out by the noise after a goal and the club song after a win? And the chest thumping will hardly be visible to tv camera's or fans at the ground. I think it works for the players in the rooms but not so sure at a stadium...

I'm really happy for him. He has overcome so many obstacles and has worked his butt off to make comeback after comeback. The 'swingman' we don't have, perhaps. Another string to our bow to tweak our ball movement, maybe.

A lengthy but very good article about how historically the teams that have won the premiership from respective ladder positions at the end of the H&A season. review-analysis-minor-premier-not-winning-flag-favourite-grand-final-tips-predictions If you get to the end of the article you will like this: "All of this bodes quite well for 2nd-placed Melbourne, doesn’t it?" Being too scared of jinxing the team to say it out loud, I'll write b-2-b in lower case and very small small print...

Not sure why they would want it on an 8 day break when it is unlikely to happen in the finals. I would have thought getting into a training rhythm would be the way to go. Anyway, I'm sure the sports science folk had a good reason.

Freinds of mine saw May, Harmes and Hibberd out for drinks a few weeks ago. Hibberd had a little girl with him which was assumed to be his daughter altho I'm not sure he has children. So just because a few mates are having drinks, Watts and others shouldn't assume they are on a bender. I wouldn't be surprised if the players had a team agreement not to drink during the finals, starting about now.

Interesting that they did the full on match practice on a 6 day break. Preparing for shorter breaks in coming weeks...?

Too easy...🤔😟🙄 Glad I went off to cook dinner at 6pm and then did other stuff that didn't fry my brain.😉 Anyway, thanks, ds! Always appreciate your work, time and entertainment.

Yep, full of surprises! Still haven't a clue! Might have to raise the white flag on this one...😟

I thought Layzie spat the dummy and refused to play, claiming illness no less! And then pops up with the answer! Well done, Layzie! And, well done M064.

Does the title or the intro contain a clue?

Depends on match ups: Turner, Tomlinson for talls. Hunt, Bowey, Rivers for small/mid players.

That is my recollection. Tami held meditation sessions for players, often before games; meditation being one technique to assist with 'mindfulness' or 'being in the moment. That was 8 years ago. Not sure if it lapsed for a few years. As an aside, people in the AFL started taking more notice of meditation and being in the moment techniques when Dusty openly talked about the work he did before and scince the 2017 premiership. The evolution of mindfulness for performance at mfc seems to have been more public in the last 4-5 years people. I've read that Viney and Petracca did/do meditation sessions - not sue if that is a continuation of the work Tami did but I would say her work would have been the first in that space at our club. The impression I had it was left to each player to do what they were comfortable with. Our most public advocate is Goodwin when in the 2020 off season he sort out a variety of mentors/approaches for self awareness/self improvement etc, including what I think he called 'energy healing'. No coincidence he chose the song 'This Is Me' as the theme for the team in 2021 and it was played in the rooms before and during the GF. On the lighter side when we were behind in the third qtr of the GF, Williams apparently said to Petracca something like 'you've been doing all this mindfulness work so lets see what good it has done you'. Not long after Petracca kicked his soccer goal from the boundary and came back to the centre with nostrils flaring and a look in his eyes that said: over my dead body do we lose this game. Petracca must have shifted his mindset to whatever his 'triggers' were to be in the moment. It worked. I note Stephen Rendall joined mfc in January this year. So it appears the club is investing more in sports science psychology and perhaps actively encourage players to participate, probably on the back of how effective mindfulness work was for us last year.

Not sure Hibberd will get one. We have a few defenders who need to see some hope of breaking into the team in their own right rather than wait for an injury. It may depend on what happens with Hunt and Tomlinson.

The omens I like is that 4th has rarely, if ever won the GF since we had the current finals structure: Scratch Collingwood 2nd and 3rd win the GF much more often than the Minor Premium: Scratch Geelong. We were an exception last year. Can't find the actual stats but you get the drift.

The AFL website is reporting that Joel Smith is closing in on a 2 year deal. I think that will be the longest term he has had thus far so good on him. A month or so ago it was reported that Bedford had been offered a new contract but no news since. Not sure if that means we are waiting to announce it or he is considering offers. After his recent performance I wouldn't be surprised to see Melksham get a new contract. I read somewhere that he would like to stay.

The round 22 Coaches votes weren't published at the time, to ensure the subsequent winner wasn't apparent. They were released last night and feel it is important to acknowledge Jake Melksham's game vs Carlton where he scored 10 votes. Round 22 Votes: 10 Jake Melksham (MELB) 7 Sam Docherty (CARL) 5 Angus Brayshaw (MELB) 3 Max Gawn (MELB) 2 Clayton Oliver (MELB) 2 Lewis Young (CARL) 1 Patrick Cripps (CARL) The Split: 5/5 Melksham 4/3 Docherty 4/1 Brayshaw 3/0 Gawn 2/0 Oliver and Young 1/0 Cripps It is also worth noting that Gus has polled votes in 3 of the 4 games (rnds 20, 22, and 23) since returning to the middle for a total of 11 votes.

Yes, Adam your bias is showing🙂. Grundy may feel he is playing second fiddle/understundy if he joins us. And he may not want to spend a chunk of his time playing fwd. If I had to guess one of the three, all other things being equal: Hawks.

The race for him is gearing up. Reported that Hawks becoming keen to replace McEvoy. GWS interested. Geelong reportedly very keen. Then there is us. Grundy may prefer Geelong or the Hawks where he is THE man now rather than sharing with Max. With this competition Pies should come out of it fairly well.

Tune in around 4.00pm tomorrow @Demonstonepresents his latest brainteaser. That should fill in some time.. Special Request: please don't solve it too quickly😐 And I'm sure he will have summer sequels for us.🙃

They get the first request. The AFL has the final say. They would probably choose Friday because it gives them an extra day's rest before the GF. But hopefully if they meet Richmond or Sydney on that Friday night they will get an extra long rest...until next March!

The good old days, when people could just rock up to the G without much pre-planning.

I reckon it is because they can no longer confidently estimate how many MCC, AFL and Club members and Sponsors will turn up. Ticketek sales aren't a good barometer for attendances. Covid, transport, parking, time slots, ticket issues etc etc have rendered their historical data obsolete, at least for this year.

Many of us experienced the same thing yesterday even tho if was not long after ticket sales opened. I would say level 2 sold out immediately as some premium members used their barcode to buy 10 tickets for non premium members and non members. It is pointless having a 'premium member' ticketing option if anyone can get those tickets.

Pickett, I just knew you would pick out those posts. If there was betting available for it I would have loaded up! But I agree, they were clever and gave me a good laugh! I'm noticing that he is getting a lot more credit in the media of late, which is great.