Lucifers Hero

I'm beginning to wonder about our 'we do not rest players policy'. Its admirable but a few players have sustained injuries in the last month: Lever, Max, Petty. And a few played today with heavily bandaged legs. WCE and North were a good chance to give them some respite as we did Viney. Not to mention a bunch had covid which would have taken something out of them. It all adds up to being way off our best physically and today it all came home to roost. While the bye is coming soon I'm not sure that will help players carrying injuries as we get two 9 day breaks rather than a longer break of 13/14 days. Can make a real difference to resting tired bodies and being ready for the second half of the season.

OOps! Try this one. https://www.afl.com.au/video/770136/full-post-match-r11-demons?videoId=770136&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1653732319001

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/1134991/rd-11-simon-goodwin-media-conference

Petty was injured last week and surprised to see him selected. Even then I thought he may be a late out when Tomlison was an emergency. Knowing that Petty could break down and that TMc wasn't there for backup if he did, I was really surprised Tomlinson wasn't sub. It was a risk which backfired and made worse by May going off as well.

In the post game Jonathon Brown said it was Matt Stevic, one of the umpires last night. The umpire on the spot (Howorth) has umpired about 50 AFL games, Stevic about 430 games. Stevic must have been in another part of the field. When consulted he was quite clear and definitive about the free and the 50 m penalty not being applicable. If they were to pay the 50m after the siren then they should reverse it for dissent, especially from Riewoldt also after the siren.

To put his Demon career in perspective: when he joined, Salem was in his second year, Brayshaw his first and, Petracca and Oliver had yet to play a game. He had to sit out 2016 but his impact after that is in the same category as Byrne, Vince, Cross and Lewis. They came at a time when we really needed their respective skills and experience. Without him would we have made the 2018 prelim which gave us the finals experience to 2021 success? He has done his job for the mfc and has earnt the right to celebrate his 200th game which haven't come easy. Listening to the interview shows his humility and how special this is for him and his family. Hope they all have a great day.

Some of the 'infringement'/undisciplined act frees of the last few weeks that look 'soft' appear to be when the players are over the boundary line rather than in play. Not sure if that is a rule of the fortnight...

Let's get behind Melksham: unforeseen-success-melksham-s-role-in-demons-rise “I actually didn’t come to Melbourne for finals and flags and stuff like that,” he said....“The club was struggling – or hadn’t had much success...“It’s been awesome.” While Melksham didn’t receive a premiership medallion in the Demons’ historic 2021 premiership, the role he played in getting the club there should never be underestimated. And seeing some of his best mates achieve the ultimate is something he is incredibly proud of. He has been very good for us, not great now but he was key when we needed some silk and experience while our now stars developed around him. And have now overtaken him. He should be praised for his role in their development and his role for us.

Slowing the vision down it looked like Buddy's fist opened at the end of his follow through. He will still just get a fine: Careless, Low Impact, HIgh Contact is a fine. If they rate it as 'deliberate' then it is a suspension. It won't be deliberate as the argument will be he was aiming for his chest but his hand slid high. If it is rated as 'deliberate' it will be appealed to have it re-rated as 'careless' and every chance it he will get off. It seems that being 'behind play' doesn't feature in the MRO's penalty calculation. Anyway, I don't mind if he plays next week as May will take care of him. It was pretty dumb of Hardwick to keep a new draftee (Gibcus) on Buddy until the damage was done. He kicked 4 goals before putting Grimes on him with just 15 minutes to go. Giving a kid experience is one thing but against the best forward of this generation, they deserved to lose the game on that miscalculation alone.

How does this sound for tips: All the Home teams except Geelong, Lions and Saints😉

Lever says: No! Over may my dead body!! Edit: Changed 'may' to 'my' - bit of a difference eh, seeing we have Steven May in the team 😐

Sydney - Help keep Richmond out of finals Giants - Protects our top 2 spot Crows - Help keep Cats out of top 4 Demons - Cement our top two spot Eagles - Help keep Bulldogs out of finals GCS - Like what they are building Roos - Help keep Saints out of top 4 Coll - Help keep Blues out of top 4 Port - Loathe Ess OK - I know someone teams need to make the top but the harder it is the better.

That is exactly why I didn't start the video straight away!

Eagles would do very well if they trade their #1 or #2 pick for two top 10 picks and upgrade some later picks for a late 1st round pick and aim for some combo of Hewett, Gilbey, Busslinger and Broadbent all from WA. That will get their rebuild off to a decent start and save them the trouble and trade cost of trading WA talent back from interstate at a later date. iirc most of their 2021 draft choices were from WA.

Glad I read the comments before listening to the audio! Saved me from enduring 3 of my least favourite commentators.

Quite right, rules for late withdrawl are the same for all 22. And there is no particular significance to being on the bench rather than the starting 18. My musing was about both McDonald and Petty being hampered last week and played less than their usual game time. Petty more so than McDonald. Then having both Tomlinson and Weideman in the emergencies made me wonder if one or both might play. Having said that our policy is players play through 'niggles'/soreness so my throw away line about 'maybe a late change' was just an idle thought.

Unfortunately, I think the ship has sailed for Baker. HIs best year was 9 games in 2019 when we had a massive injury list. 15 games in 4.5 years isn't a great record, through no fault of his. Others have gone past him and with recent draftees we now have better depth than we had in recent years.

I wondered the same thing. He looked ok in the training video but it was only a few seconds. Also wondered if Petty will start. iirc he had some treatment on the bench last week and played only 82% game time which is really low for our defenders. Also not in the starting 18. Maybe a rare late change coming up.

GA tickets just turn up in my MFC Mobile App. Listed as a separate item to my usual ticket. Each ticket then has its own barcode. Not sure if they are the same as guest tickets you are asking about. It seems to be just when we play interstate teams and they don't expect much of a crowd.

A bit of bf focus on the game: I'm breaking out in sweats knowing what's going to happen in that Thursday team. I'm really hoping it's not a blood bath but just heard JLo on the Radio saying some of the boys are low in confidence at the moment If Langdon plays, his ribs should be tested first time he goes for a mark above his head. Melbourne by 35 points. I'm already prepared mentally. The fact that Goodwin has felt the need to manufacture some motivation for the Dee's says he's (somewhat) worried about them struggling in that dept. We've got far too many softish players Let's back them in and I think we can win in the dry. Freo by 15 points. If it stays dry, not sure we have enough firepower to outscore the Dees, but I guess we'll see....... Oh God I can't believe Goodwin is talking up this game. That their players have been looking forward to it. Without our one and only genuinely classy player forward of centre in Switta this will be over by quarter time. We'll be lucky to kick more than 3 goals for the match against their defence. Good test for our defence though to see if they can get their mojo back on big ground. Keep them under 100 would be something. Not Dees Game related but worth including: Ginnavin is a graduate from the Selwood acadamy of ducking for free kicks. The combination of ducker and show pony is nauseous. Building, creating & sustaining a culture sure can be hard work for the fans. My favourite: You almost want them (Demons) to win the tap, so they stream forward, we win the turn over and expose them out the back... ...yeah that's not gonna happen - it will be more like they win the tap, stream forward, we miss the tackle and then they kick a goal.

JKH got off lightly compared to a few other players. I won't mention them for fear of setting off a retro whipping-boy frenzy. The red and blue is sacrosanct imv. Wear it and the player should be respected.

Who are the other candidates? Not Smith - he is listed as 7 - 9 weeks. No sign of Hbbered retiring... We don't have any legit LTI.

^^^ We don't have a list spot. The only likely candidate ito create a list spot s Howes but I reckon the club would want to get a few more games into him at the back end of the season and some finals experience if Casey make it. If there is a player in the MSD that we want and who has previously played AFL/nominated for the NAB draft we can select him in the supplementary selection period later in the year as an 'A' Rookie.

With Freo falling away a bit I reckon spots 3-6 will be very close and Carlton will fall into that range. But those spots won't be decided for quite a while as 46 of the top 8's remaining 96 games are where they play each other. So lots of 8-pt games to mess with spots 3-8 on the ladder order; I have Dees and LIons locked in top 2. Laughable that commentators say we got the umpiring benefit vs North. We got more frees because they played rough and were penalised altho not often enough for off-the-ball strikes.

Given that Goodwin said Langdon will be given right up to the game to be deemed ok, reckon he will be named in the selected team even if he is half a chance. Then we wait.