Lucifers Hero

essendon-richmond-to-play-dreamtime-in-darwin-in-round-13 "The remainder of round 13 is likely to be announced next week with the chance more games could be played in the Northern Territory on that weekend". Our season is done so travel/short breaks etc don't matter anymore so it would be good for the club's financials if we play in Alice.

We also gave 4 or 5 year contracts to May, Lever, Langdon and Tomlinson. For them and the players you mention I can see the logic was to keep or get a wanted player. Tomlinson can't get a game. TMc is rapidly not best 22. We have too many inside mids and some fans want to trade TMc, Brayshaw and possibly Harmes. Lever has yet to deliver on his promise. The bad news is they are all in contract until 2022, 2023 or 2024. 4/5 year contracts should be for bona fide stars otherwise it is too easy for the lesser lights to rest on their laurels and go along for the ride. Terrible contract term management by Mahoney and co.

Thank you. WOW. That really shows how predictable we were going into our f50 and out of the d50. They knew the kick-ins would go long, to the left, to Max so they made damn sure the ball would stay on the boundary line. There was no room. It was comical at times watching us hot-potato the ball on the boundary line. There was little long range camera work so not sure if I interpreted the play correctly. But it seemed that Port guarded the corridor and formed a wall parallel to the boundary corralling 8-10 players right up to it and let us fiddle with the ball until we turned it over and they were off. A simple tactic and credit to them as it is another way to neutralise Max's field work and stop our flow on game before it could get started. The mass corralling was a method I hadn't seen before. They did their homework. We didn't or else the dog ate it before the game and no-one thought to take a copy!

With you all the way on all those points, binman. Like you I don't care if there are issues at the club. I expect it to be grown up, sort it out, shake hands, have a beer then move on. It is the dismissiveness and belittling of posters who dare to speak of behind the scenes stuff, that annoys me.

You trot that out whenever someone posts on internal issues at the club. It may be news to you but all organisations and families have internal issues form time to time. It is how and how quickly they are resolved that is important. So, why is it so inconceivable that mfc might have issues among players or staff? Or that mfc staff, their families or player families might be demon fans or talk to demon fans. And that they read or, heaven forbid actually post on DL. I could probably list 5-6 DL monikers that do. But I certainly will not. Posts like the above are belittling and uninformed. Sometimes I wonder if you are an mfc 'plant' trying to dilute negative posts. It is tiresome so unless you know for a fact that comments are conjecture then please refrain from discouraging posters. I can add that the DL posters that have links to internal people, some quite senior, don't comment when internal issues are raised on here. They just let it roll. Take a leaf out of their book!

Oliver undoes his good work by his poor disposal. These two stats for 2020 are telling: Ranked 4th in Total Turnovers Ranked 2nd in Total Clangers He is great to watch, a ball magnet, clearance machine and as brave as they come. But if his i5o's bounce out again, his disposals don't reach team mates and he doesn't kick goals then I'm still of the view that his impact is limited. And, I'm beginning to think he is a poor decision maker. I think he is a victim of the 'see ball, get ball' indroctrination he has had for 5 years. He is still a kid and his flaws can be ironed out. But he needs someone to teach him to open his eyes and stay calm when he gets the ball.

Quaffers! Hardly befitting refreshments at The Manor, being as it is near the heartland of some fabulous Shiraz country?.

Absolutely they should name and shame them all! Very sorry to hear about your friend hope he recovers soon.

Of course it is. But my posts were about the media naming and shaming of individuals who broke the rules and spread the virus in Qld but not doing so for individuals from the hotel quarantines who spread it in Victoria. Your point opens a whole different and nasty can of worms. As @La Dee-vina Comediaposted above they need to name and shame "all idiots and not just those with the least power and influence".

AFL WILL HAVE ‘NO ALTERNATIVE’ BUT TO GIVE GF TO QUEENSLAND. The figurative odds of Queensland hosting the 2020 AFL Grand Final have seemingly shortened, with the league reportedly putting in “logistical plans” to host this year’s showpiece game in the northern state. With the MCG increasingly unlikely to be able to host this year’s game due to a coronavirus spike in Melbourne, 7 News Perth’s Ryan Daniels reported the AFL had made accommodation and venue bookings until the end of October. Daniels reported on 7 News Perth that Western Australia had “not been included in any such plans” around accommodation and bookings, suggesting: “Optus Stadium now appears certain to miss out hosting Australian sport’s marquee event.” updates-covid19-protocol-breach-gold-coast-richmond-carlton-grand-final Also in that article: — North Melbourne’s alleged breach concerns a group of partners that attended a football game. Questions that must be asked: How did they get from Hub to venue? Who let them into the venue? The relevant players must have known; they should be be suspended.

Our plan assumes Max will win the hitout so we take attacking positions at stoppages but we have no plan B to defend or block the exits if the ball goes to ground. Without a plan to counter the op dominance on ground ball gets at stoppages it will be Sunday all over again: win hitouts, lose clearances. Various teams beat us this way. Port is one of them. Would really like to see some of our mids on the defensive side of their op. Port had +1 at stoppages vs Lions and were beating them (except on the scoreboard) until Lions astutely evened the numbers at the stoppages to stop the exits.

Ok but then they should out the hotel quarantine security guard(s) who started it all. The government knows who he/she/they were so a fair chance the media do.

With virus spot fires popping up all over Sydney, landed in Brisbane and hub families taking their protocols lightly one wonders if we will even get thru the season. Qld Premier is facing an election in Oct so will go heavy handed on any risk ala closing borders to Sydney and totally blindsiding her counterpart. She is in a 'take-no-prisoners' mood. Even if we get thu the season, the AFL may need to truncate the Finals series if it can't get the teams in/out of states with closed/semi-closed borders. So I wouldn't be surprised if it abandons the traditional 8 teams/5 week finals structure. We need to get up the ladder fast just in case!

I'm all for the legal process taking its course and deal out punishment if appropriate. However, I deplore Ch 9 for naming them and now their photos are on main stream media. The soicial media abuse they will now receive is unimaginable. Their naming is the equivalent of the media outing the quarantine security guard(s) who caught the virus, transmitted it to families which has now spread all over the state. Lots of angry people here in Melb and if his/her name was released we could see lynching mobs come back. Irresponsible and dangerous by Ch 9. Back on topic. With the virus now spreading around Brisbane and families in the hubs treating their protocols lightly one wonders if we will even get thru the season. Lets hope we get up the ladder quickly in case the AFL abandon the traditional 8 teams/5 week structure. We need to be up there to get a look in.

That aside, my concerns about a new structure disrupting team balance and cohesion are still valid. Chopping and changing a fwd structure every few weeks is unsettling and risky. From what I recall of the pre-season training reports and pre-season games, 3 talls didn't come into the conversation, unless it involved Max resting fwd. If we were 5/2 instead of 3/4 I wouldn't be so concerned. We would be well on our way to making finals. So experiment away, I say. As this is virtually our last hoorah to ensure we get to finals, not 9th and not miss on % imv it is not the time to be taking these sort of risks. But I do hope it pays off.

Like others I'm a bit concerned by the 3 talls. Yesterday Goodwin said (paraphrasing) re the fwd line: "...3 talls is something we have never looked...we may try it at some stage...never know you test and learn..." Experimenting, again! Vs Geelong and Richmond we experimented with a one-tall structure. I was surprised as it was a high risk plan when it hadn't been trained and we hadn't banked many wins. This year the fwd structure has had: 2 talls for 2 games (with several months between games) 1 tall for 2 games 2 talls for 3 games 3 talls this week That is a lot of chopping and changing. Generally settled line ups give teammates predictability and confidence in the i50 and going i50. Our i50 understanding and fwd/midfield cohesion is improving but still embryonic and quite fragile. Our midfield was just starting to find fwds in good positions. To experiment with a never-tried-before 3tall structure without having trained it nor banked many wins is again a very high risk plan. I just hope each fwd understand their own role and each others roles and don't get in each others way. And hope the unselfishness they have played with over recent weeks continues.

Silly me! Read the team list too quickly. Glad that he is in again.

Not good news for Jones to not hold his spot. Sadly, he may not get too many chances.

Delighted to hear that! The official word. "Melbourne will now be the designated 'home' team. Melbourne play at Adelaide Oval in round 10 and will remain in Adelaide for the four days leading into the round 11 match vs North Melbourne". afl-moves-roos-dees-clash

Good question! Yes that would help.

Yeah, we aren't a club with any leverage. I recall when this block of games was released Goodwin said they would look at staying in Adelaide a few days and go straight to Hobart for the North game. That idea didn't age well. iirc in an interview before the Lions game someone (Ben maybe) said they travelled to GC and stayed in a hotel the night before the game. That game was at 6.10. Presumably we will have to lay over in Brisbane to catch the early morning flight, twice in 5 days. Madness. Overall, staying in Adelaide vs returning to Maroochydore is close to cost neutral so to me there is no sensible reason for not staying. It is no improvement on travel and disruption from it not being in Hobart.

That is insane as our hub is a few hours from the airport so it makes for a very long day, especially as we have done that trip a few days earlier for the Crows game,, whereas North will be fresh from the previous game in Qld.

That just seems daft! Why fly both teams to Adelaide... We sure are being messed about and not getting any breaks at all. I guess we will stay in Adelaide after the Crows game. No point flying back to Qld and a long road trip to Maroochydore and do the same in reverse a few days later for the North game.

GWS and Syd are scheduled to play each other in Perth at Optus in round 12. GWS then play Freo and Eagles. Syd play Freo. Syd could play another team there from the next group to hub in WA or return to the east coast. Given that Syd has played Eagles and is going over to play the NSW Derby and Freo the AFL could do the same to us. They could send Ess to play Eagles but that is unlikely as they seem to get a dream run from the AFL. The fairest thing to do is to send teams yet to play both Freo and Eagles: North, Bulldogs, Richmond and Saints, especially as they have hubbed in Qld from the start and had precious little travel/disruption. This might be my MFCSS but we can't rule out a horror stretch in rounds 13 to 16.

Sydney and GWS evacuating to a Qld hub tomorrow. Will then hub in Perth for a few weeks. Its hard to see the smaller states relaxing the border quarantine requirements so it looks like all bar SA and WA clubs will hub the rest of the season in Qld. AFL will there work cut out to fit in NT games, Tassie games and Cairns games into the last 6 rounds still to schedule.