Lucifers Hero

You are a funny fella, QB!

This is Jan 2024. . While I'm not happy that he can only go for 1 or 2 quarters we need to acknowledge how far he has come. I've noticed his instinct and reflexes aren't what they used to be and if he gets those back maybe his physical condition won't matter so much.

More worrying is the losing margin of 149pts for the last qtr ie 24 goals. Any team will back themselves in to beat us if we aren't about 5 goals up at 3/4 time.

Fantastic! He will enjoy being home. Don't let those pesky Eagles swoop and claim him for their evil nest. They already have Hunt🥹, can't have my next fave ❤️!

He had a very good game a few weeks ago when I thought he deserved a nomination but someone else (can't remember who) got it. Sometimes they look at performance over a few games then make sure that player gets nominated altho it may not be his best game.

Agree with comments about pressure. The transition game is more susceptible to pressure. We rarely play well in wet conditions. My point was the leader's ability to recognise the need to switch styles with weather/ground changes and to execute effectively during the game. All players needed to know and quickly adapt style, in game. I was very impressed with how they did that. It wasn't particularly noticeable at the time. I doubt many teams are mature enough and drilled enough to do that. Don't think we are. So will be watching what we do if there are weather/ground changes.

It will be interesting to see how we play: Transition vs Territory. On Friday McCrae said something like: when its wet you can't play the transition game, you play a territory game which I read as: reduce risk, don't be cute (ie HB) with the ball and get it forward by any means possible. That isn't rocket science but knowing when to switch and being able to execute switch in game is the key. Having the very savvy Pendlebury mastering the troops and knowing when to switch is an enormous asset. If it is wet and we stick to our new transition game we might get trounced.

We will win at least 8 of those 😄

Melbourne v Richmond10 Max Gawn MELB 8 Christian Petracca MELB 6 Jake Bowey MELB 2 Christian Salem MELB 2 Tom Sparrow MELB 1 Thomson Dow RICH 1 Nick Vlastuin RICH Coach split: 5/5 Gawn 4/4 Petracca 3/3 Bowey 2/0 Salem/Sparrow 1/0 Dow 1/0 Vlaustin Top 3 unanimous. Nice for or players to be back amongst the votes!

Very well deserved! Silky is an apt description! afl.com.auSilky Demon earns Rising Star nod after outstanding start...Xavier Lindsay is the Telstra AFL Rising Star nominee for round seven

iirc in 2018 he spent some time in defence to help develop his defensive skills. Not sure that went so well as he was dropped for the Prelim. Being in defence for some games helps explain just 17 goals. Not sure about 2019 as I have wiped it from the memory ! imv in recent years we could carry he not having a defensive impact but not now that we have no ANB and the transition game (even if he plays deep fwd) requires every player to attack the ball/the opp when we don't have the ball. These 'are non-negotiables' for any player in any team. Hopefully, he is reading the room. A handy guide imv for his improvement is the impact of his defensive work eg how many turnovers he creates and how many goal/score assists he has.

The AFL allowed Hawthorn to spread Clarkson's payout over two years of the soft cap. As Mitchell was on a lot less it probably didn't have much of an impact it. Altho tbh it probably won't come to that. Given how we are playing there is no chance anything will happen this year.

Out of interest what was wrong with his foot. Its a long time to have a foot injury - did he miss the 23/24 preseason? Am surprised he didn't miss lots of training or games last year. This preseason?

😄 I didn't see your post. For some reason I'm not getting the pop-up to say a new post has arrived while I'm typing.

I agree they were overlooked. The issue imv is the game plan needs him to play a different role as is evidenced by him being higher up the ground. Without good defensive work it is a dangerous place for a turnover or easy ball get by the opp. Also, the transition game style and not having ANB's attack on the ball and on the opp means Fritsch (and every player) now has to do more of the hard work for the team when we don't have the ball or the ball is in dispute. Fritsch shows only fleeting signs that he will do that work. Goodwin doesn't talk about offence he talks about what we do when we don't have the ball. That is what players are being judged by. The question: is do his 1 or 2 goals outweigh the extra work his teammates have to do to cover his share of the workload when the ball is in dispute because he doesn't. I suspect his teammates wouldn't be too happy about that after a while.

Did we really take our foot off the pedal in the 4th? We kicked 1.4 and they kicked 4.1. So we had our chances even without Gawn and May. We didn't kick straight, they did.

❤️💙❤️

Maybe not as the Saints are lobbying to expand their Dandenong (Stingrays) zone into the part we have. We are lobbying to get some of theirs. If we lose part or all of Dandy zone not sure what we have left with any aussie rules clubs except Alice. Who knows if the AFL decide to give the Saints a helping hand as we have a relatively recent premiership 🙅🏻‍♀️

The AFL is reviewing NGA rules and zones. There is a push to include Pacific Island descendants in the new rules. The new rules/zones will be effective in the 2026 draft. We can still draft him but use a higher pick than we otherwise would. The frustrating thing is this will be the third time in not many years we miss a key player due to on-the-run AFL rule changes. The others: Noah Anderson due to GCS getting pick 2 as a priority pick. He is now their captain. We did get Jackson so not sure we lost out short term but probably did long term. Mac Andrew due to the silly not being allowed to match under draft pick #40 rule. No prior warning. That rule was quickly rescinded. Too late for us. Now one of the highest potential players in the league. I'm not suggesting an AFL conspiracy against us but last year Carlton (F/S) and Essendon (NGA) did a fine job of lobbying for the new bid matching rules to not take effect until 2025. Maybe we just don't lobby enough.

No problem. I would rather believe you and your sources who are usually quite reliable than Morris. Actually I think it quite funny that he has been caught out; hoisted by his own petard so to speak!

There may be some miscommunication/misunderstanding with what Salem said as the post above indicates that something similar to Tom M's X report did happen. What station was Salem on and is their a link?

I had a quick look at 'The Punt Road End' forum. Similar tone to that in the o.p. Found a couple with a bit of humour: Petty coming into form w/out Van Rubber Band and Bailey Selfish playing. Who can stop him? Dow kicked a goal - that'll guarantee him another 5 games at least. I am not buying the Gray love.... Same, raw as sushi. No Dylan Grimes that’s for sure.

Too sensible for me! At least the Pies version of this thread gives us plenty of ammo to fire back. Some argy bargy is good but looks unlikely from Tiggy fans. No fun at all. btw, I tried to PM you some info but received a msg was you aren't accepting PM's

These threads can take a bit of time so really appreciate you starting them up again😁. They are a rather unimaginative lot: No derision. No sniping. No faux arrogance. No humour. Not much for us to push back on! They are no fun at all!🤷🏻‍♀️

Thanks. So the club has lost the sponsorship $ from Darwin and lower gate takings from Marvel vs the G I'm pretty sure our membership cost went up for that extra Darwin game at the G. Taking it to Marvel disadvantages members further as we don't get the Home ground benefits the G provides. Others can advise if we need to pay for a reserved seat at a Marvel Home game. Ok so we play a Home game at Marvel but it should not be at the expense of the hard one Darwin G game. They should take it from another venue. Who cares what Ess and Carlt want - we had an agreement to play 10 games at the G.