Lucifers Hero

I'm also circumspect on the 3 years. dees-land-international-performance-manager In the article on club website, by Ben Gibson it says: "Melbourne has secured the services of Darren Burgess for season 2020" and he repeats it in the body of the article. That looks like one year to me. He has broken contracts before; he left Port early to join Arsenal. Isn't Burgess originally from rom SA? Could be just a fishing expedition by Adelaide; has there been any other report/confirmation of Crows' interest?

Don't care really. This season died a long time ago for me. I would like the finals to be over so that we can get down to the important stuff like player trades, staffing changes etc. It is going to be a long October...

Plus Matthews won 3 flags at the Lions after one at the Pies. Trying to think of premiership coaches going to another club and not winning a flag (exluding Roos and Sheedy as their roles were set-up/rebuild). Not many I suspect. So not sure the folks that say premiership coaches don't succeed at a second club has a lot of merit. imv, it would be silly to not consider Clarkson on that assumption or his last few years. He simply hasn't had the players and key ones have been injured.

Either the bros fell out of love or GM Football (or someone on high) overruled the coach on who is on his team... As an aside, one has to wonder who is pulling the strings at North - plenty of ex-players putting their bib in. In a world of hurt...

I'm getting a little nervous about the 'talls' being touted as on the table: Oscar, Preuss and TMac. That is nearly all our tall depth!! We need a genuine back up for Max. Kids or make shift stand ins are fine for a game or two but not if Max has a lengthy injury. We also need an experienced tall fwd to help Sam during games and to learn from. A solid case can be made for any of Oscar, Preuss or TMac being traded but we still need depth and experience. The talls we have waiting in the wings: Bradtke (Rookie 0 games), Jackson (6 games), Petty (6 games), Brown (Rookie 75 games). Hardly sufficient or appropriate depth. I haven't heard us being linked to any 'talls' but will wait for the trade period to see which talls we have on the list.

Maybe we are waiting for the soft cap before renewing his contract. Last year Mahoney reduced our coaching and List Management people/budget and reinvested in Fitness which was sorely needed. I've said a few times we may have robbed 'Peter to pay Paul' and weakened our coaching panel. Losing senior and expensive staff (Viney, McCartney, Rawings and Jennings) and only partially replacing them (Richardson, extension of Stafford's role and Lewis part time) would have 'saved' in the region of (guessing) $500-700k to be used for the Fitness dep't etc There is a very good chance a chunk of that went to hire Burgess. Fair to say he cost a lot more than Misson. So speculating that he could be too expensive to keep under the new, much lower soft cap, especially if we are to rebuild the coaching group.

We have a few young guys with development still in them (and are also cheaper) who can cover ANB's roles. After 6 years I would rather put time and experience into them and see what they can do.

It looks to me the club is shedding some more experienced but expensive depth players to dump their salaries from the sal cap, in favour of our (cheaper) younger guys. Its a sensible way to restructure the list and meet the sal cap. And as you say exiting those players will help target a few players we need.

Thanks. I had the worry meter highly tuned and the sarcasm detector failed to activate...

Interested to know your thoughts on why.

We could but trading noises suggest the club has other plans for the wing roles. In some respects he is like his great mate Billy Stretch. Just couldn't find a spot to make their own. Whether that was because they were not given a consistent run, didn't have the ability or our game plan kept changing on them, who knows. I do feel it is in Nibbler's interest to look elsewhere.

I hope Harley feels proud of what he has achieved. To come back from the setbacks of the last few years, the public shaming, overcoming injuries and getting fit enough to play AFL again is a huge testament to his grit and determination. Respect. Hope he can get past his current tribulations and recognise his achievements. Feel for Steven May. They seemed like brothers and am guessing he would be worried for his mate who he helped bring to the club.

I don't think it is about how good he is/isn't. If after 6 years a player cannot make the regular 22 he owes it to himself, and a club owes it to him to think beyond contracts. We have players developing that will further overtake ANB's spot in the ranking so it makes sense for him to move elsewhere. He was recruited as a midfielder but is well down the pecking order. A variety of clubs may use his attributes and satisfy his ambitions better than we can. So after 6 years it is best to move on.

Both. (re the bolded part) 1. In the second half of the year Max had some really poor games with centre bounce taps. The taps regularly went to no mans land or to opp midfielders. For some reason Max's taps have become predictable to ops and they shark them. 2. Clubs will often let our midfielders get first touch/possession at centre bounces, force a turnover and beat us on the outside. Many clubs have openly talked about this as 'the way to beat Melbourne' for the last two years. They simply structure up better than us. We are not getting anywhere near enough value from our 'elite' midfield. As a result, I suspect we are low on the scores from centre bounces.

According to the club release /preuss-joins-melbourne 'Preuss will wear the red and blue until at least the end of 2021'. So he has one year left on his contract. Whatever the contract, we don't have the leverage some are suggesting. We said we are open to enquiries for him. So now he looks around will choose a club and we will have to deal with that club.

MELBOURNE "Jack Viney‘s future continues to hang in the balance, with both Carlton and Geelong seeing him as a genuine chance to jump ship. Simon Goodwin is a huge fan of Viney and with the 26-year-old a restricted free agent the club may play hard ball (in true Viney fashion) to force a trade". trade-news-rumours-whispers Based on that, either the club is playing its cards on Jack's extended contract very close to its chest or Viney hasn't signed yet. If he goes for the mooted salary and given his age we would get a first round pick; currently #11. Can't see us getting a better pick by 'forcing a trade' and playing hard ball isn't our style. Also, if Jack chose to go I doubt the club would make it hard. He deserves a clean transition. Jack has until the first week of November (FA week) to decide. Hopefully we know before then so other decision trade can be made. With FA's, the longer it takes for an announcement the person is staying the more likely it is they are not, especially if their chosen club is in the finals.

Am interested to know if that is a Brayshaw or a club initiative. iyv, if we get a draft pick are we likely to go to the draft or use it to trade in a player? Thanks.

Couldn't agree more. The set-up at stoppages, especially field stoppages is one of our weaknesses as there often isn't an outlet player; instead we play 'stacks on the mill'. I agree its a coaching issue; I believe it comes back to the game plan and stoppage structures. Brisbane re-trained Mitch Robinson from the typical see-ball-get-ball inside mid to a wingmen who among other things patrolled his side of the ground and sat outside the pack as the outlet player at stoppages. Mitch is not fast and is not the smartest guy in footy yet he is now one of the best wingmen in the AFL. I think we have the players that could be developed like Mitch was but it looks lie we haven't chosen to or don't know how to.

Apparently, the players voted him out of the Vice captaincy and out of the leadership group this year. Any ideas as to why?

That's a long list of improvements, Ah1 Just not sure Salem is being played in his best position so see it difficult for him to go 'to the next level' until that changes.

Isn't that because of the role he is given: defender and not midfielder. Also most of our field stoppages are taken by the midfielders which would be by design rather than inability on Salem's part. I recall in the 2019 preseason/season he trained/played in the midfield but after a few games he was moved back. imv that was because our 4/5 starting midfielders are so inflexible they can't play other roles (except Petracca) rather than Salem lacking the ability for midfield/stoppages. I'm not sure how he can take the 'next step' you suggest without a positional change. Maybe if we recruit Saad it would free Salem up to play a wing role like Langdon. He could then be the outlet player at stoppages, roam the backline like Langdon and pop up for a few goals.

So much for all the people who repeatedly say Salem is slow. #Salomyths

Another accolade: He is in the midfield for the AFL Team Of The Year.

TOTY makes some AA team selections look quite arbitrary. The AA 'selectors' would do well to add "Players are only eligible for their most-played position" from the TOTY criteria. Stats aren't the be all, end all but at least their is some objectivity to them. Good to see Christian still made the team and Oliver on the bench.

What would you like to see from him?