Lucifers Hero

Dew gets it: "The priority pick is not the answer, flat out. "Like every other club you've got to work as hard as you can, you've got to improve your list through draft and trade, that's the answer". laughing-crows-leave-a-bad-taste-in-dews-mouth Brave coach to say that after his Chairman was so OTT about demanding a pp. Dew knows what a successful club looks like: premiership player at Port and Hawks and understudy to Longmire. The AFL need to talk to Stewie to see what he wants and the club really need.

At a time when commentators have gone soft on umpiring, apparently under AFL 'guidance', it is good to see Richo call them out richo-fumes-at-inconsistent-decisions "What did we lose free kicks by? A lot I think. I didn't think the umps had a great night...It was as much about the non-calls as it was the calls." Free kicks last night Geel 26 vs Saints 14. Last week North 25 vs Saints 16 and the location of the frees means a great deal as 7 were in front of goal which resulted in 7 goals for North. Richo has every reason to be fuming - the umpiring is terribly inconsistent especially within games and no one is allowed to say anything for fear of offending them!!! Bravo, Richo! Folks, we need to brace ourselves for the umpiring today - Bulldogs are perennial beneficiaries of lopside free kick counts and non-calls of their colloquially called 'slick handballs' ie throws.

Its one of the reasons Matty Whelan' was recruited "... He will also manage the club’s Reconciliation Action Plan, in conjunction with the current working group, focus on the Next Generation Academy, with an emphasis on Alice Springs and the club’s Indigenous/Multicultural pathways, plus build relationships in the Northern Territory..." whelan-rejoins-melbourne-in-new-role The role was created 2.5 years ago but haven't heard anything re talent development around Alice or NT. Hopefully Matty has some players in the wings to unveil soon...

Add Weideman to the list with a calf injury. In the last 12 months we have had typical football injuries (soft tissue, knee, foot) and an inordinate amount of collision injuries (shoulder, hip, broken collar bone, concussion). This has to be more than bad luck and our injury toll should be ringing alarm bells at the club. I don't subscribe to the 'its Misson's fault' hysteria but I hope the club investigates the causes. I'm not talking a 'witch hunt' but a genuine find out what the hell is going on. Thoughts: I recall in 2017 when we lost Gawn, Watts, Jones etc to soft tissue injuries the club had concerns about the Gosch surface. I hpothesised in another thread that our crash and bash style of play could be a cause of the collision injury/surgeries over the last 12 months. When crashing into a player it is hip, shoulder that come into play and they, along with the collar bone and head can come off second best. Do we have the right techniques to reduce collision injury risks. When we talk about 2020 there is an implicit assumption that the injury cloud will lift and we will sail back up the ladder. We won't if we have anything like this year's injury epidemic. Hopefully we have a better preseason. Our luck re injuries might change but I feel something more deliberate needs to happen to ensure they are minimised or the impact of them (games missed) is minimised.

The Dunkley family will enjoy seeing Josh and Kyle on the same pitch. Special day for them. Hope Kyle gets a few decent tackles on his older bro!

Clearly I know frees do not have to be even! Shallow? Why? Sorry I don't buy the 'statistically proven' bit as the dogs had only 10 more tackles and granted a lot more 1%. In other respects the game was relatively even. And, stats can be used to paint any picture to suit a viewpoint eg I could argue the Cats had a better conversion rate than the Dogs: 20 scoring shots for 44 i50 to Dogs 21 scoring shots for 52 i50. Also, neither tackles nor 1%'ers is a good indicator of free kicks. And certainly not for a differential of 28 to 13. Crikey, I would love us to get 2.2 frees for the opp 1.0 every time we win the tackle, 1%, and i50 count! Anyway, my post was a bit tongue-in-cheek.

Free kicks: Dogs 28 to Cats 13.

I/C from: Petracca, O. McDonald, Neal-Bullen, Petty, C. Wagner, Lockhart, J. Wagner, Dunkley IN: Lever, Jetta, Gawn, O. McDonald, C. Wagner, J. Wagner OUT: Hore (injured), T. McDonald (injured) No surprises. Interesting interchange. Hopefully the final 4 are Petracca, Dunkley, Lockhart and .... Glad the Big Scary Man gets another gig. Finally we get our best back 6 on the park! For the first time it frees Salem or Fritsch to spend the whole game centre/forward.

Quite often an experienced AFL player with many preseasons comes straight back in after a long injury out, without a VFL game. So, I don't see a problem bringing in Nev with one VFL game. If he comes in he will be ready to play and will perform to his usual high standard.

In 2016 they used pick 4, 7, 9, 10. In 2018 they used pick 2, 3, 6. That is 7 top 10 picks in a 24 month period. They gambled badly in 2017 trade period, trading a raft of high 2nd round 2017/2018 picks to WCE for their 2018 1st round pick (approx pick #20). Incompetent. 2019 #1 and 2 will get them Rowell and Anderson, rated the two best but are also best mates. GCS figure they have a better chance of keeping them if they get both. Hence the pp request. Top picks don't matter if they can't develop them and look after them physically and medically. Apparently O'Meara and others complained about how their injuries were mis managed. Could be deja vu with Rankine (2018 pick 3): Hamstring injury in JLT game. Two months ago had a 'small' setback during rehab and is yet to play a game, anywhere. The AFL needs to put people and resources into development, medical, rehab etc. It is the only feasible option. Priority picks gives GCS no incentive to sort themselves out and just makes them addicted to more and better draft picks only to become a nursery for other AFL clubs. There are 7 games to go and GCS could easily not be last...unless they tank. As we know this will hurt their culture more than not getting a pp.

Thanks for insightful report. Good news re Max. Interesting observation re younger players. Didn't we have something similar a few years ago? Or is it a result of the coaching changes with Macca and Rooke doing what they do best: Development. Lockhart not too effective recently and was looking tired this week. Do you think it is time for him to have a rest at VFL? Having said that not sure who we have fit to bring in...Baker maybe...?

Not sure whether this post is in jest... Sit back and relax is a recipe for disaster for us. Too often in recent years everyone thought 'it would just happen'. Consistent hard work is the only way we will have success (ie regularly contend for a flag). History might repeat itself but it is more likely to be the erratic MFC history than the constant finals playing teams of Cats and Tigers both of which have missed once in the last 6 years.

Tom gets the 10 votes from the coaches and is in TOTW! Rnd 16 votes TOTW Great work for 3 quarters. Big boost for his confidence which he really needed. Shame we have to wait till next year to see him again. Oliver also in TOTW. It was great to see him lower his eyes and kick a lot more this week. He is a very good kick. Roos said last night if he continues to kick like that he will go to another level ?

The change with the most likely short-term impact was Rawlings as forward coach. Three rounds since the bye and I would say it has been really successful: In 12 games Pre bye we kicked more than 10 goals only 3 times with terrible kicking efficiency (118 goals and 130 behinds) and our forward line was a mess. We won 3 of those 12 games. In 3 games Post bye: we have kicked more than 10 goals in all 3 with greater efficiency: 39 goals and 30 points. we have won 2 of the 3 games. Tom Mc has hit great form Petracca is much improved Better forward 'connection' when midfielders aren't blindly flicking the ball over their heads Better positioning by forwards and mids area kicking it to their advantage. Our forward line is more open A real shame Tom Mc is out. Would have enjoyed seeing the fwd line at work with him, Sam, Petracca when Melksham returns. Alas, we need to wait till next year. Good move to make Jade forward coach and great work by him. Hope he stays with us.

I really hope Preuss does well. For him. For the team. For the sanity of all the posters on DL who have been begging for him to play. 'Break a leg' big scary man!

OMG, Yuk! What a terrible dilemma!! Has to be the Pies. Anyone, to keep the AFL anointed/umpire assisted cheats out of the finals!

Are the wheels falling off at Pie-land? An undisciplined lot: Stephenson bets on himself and his team. Beams reportedly deep into gambling problems. Now De Goey is fined for using-phone-while-driving. Their is talk of unrest among young players over the club treatment of Stephenson. Coach is frazzled. Players look disinterested. Suspect their poor recent form is much more than a few injured good players. It will be bitter sweet if their season implodes: Sweet that they fall. Bitter that ours is worse.

If we beat an undermanned Carlton I do not want to see the OTT euphoria from coaches that followed the 4 wins so far against mediocre teams. We have achieved nothing. We are 4/11. There is work to be done. Respect and pride to be restored from the games to come. If we win, yes be happy but the OTT celebrations are out of step with our performances.

The blowtorch will come when Collingwood play better and there are no big club woes for click bait. All other Vic clubs are up and about; only the Saints and Demons left to create dramatic headlines. Then the media will not hold back: soft, unreliable, inconsistent, awful skills, poor game plan etc etc. Even if we don't win many more games, I hope we play well enough for the blowtorch to not be too scathing. I don't want our club to be 'burned' in the media as we don't need the negative exposure. It feeds on itself then extends to members, fans, sponsors, TV etc. Prefer we go under the radar externally but Pert and Bartlett turn up the heat internally. I have little doubt they already have. In one interview Pert said the mid year changes were a whole of club project and that 'Mahoney will own the outcomes'. The spotlight is shining squarely on the whole football department, as it should. Patience - we will hear more in 4-6 weeks when assistant coaches need to be told if they are being retained.

Adelaide kicked themselves out of the game in the first half with 4.11 Second half scores Port 9.9 vs Adel 0.2. A shellacking. Gee, we bemoan the lack of on-field leadership of our captains but at least they put their bodies on the line and go for it. Tex shows neither leadership nor courage. Would have to be the worst AFL captain.

The Age's description of the Pies last night: "Fumble after fumble was followed by turnover after turnover. Any type of structure was absent, with connectivity forward of centre often replaced by rushed dumped kicks forward". Sounds like the 2019 Demons!!? Doubt the Pies will make the top 4 ??

I think this year is an aberration so lets use our top picks this year and future trade 2020 1st round pick for that 21-25 year old skillful outside runner. I think we will be bottom half of the 8 next year so it will be a very good pick for whoever gives up that player. Best of both worlds.

If we put the cue in the rack I will be really angry. It is 'loser mentality' and we have suffered from it for too long. Time to exorcise that demon from the club. Play to win every game. Play with the 2018 ferocity, regardless of who is selected. Sure experiment with game plan. But please no setting out to lose. The teams above us will win more than we do so we will end up bottom 3. Nothing to gain. We don't need to add 'giving up' to the poor attitude and hubris of last preseason.

Oh, the ole AFL trick of making up rules as they go! Rules aside, I prefer we use a 2019 1st round pick or it will be 4 years since we drafted a young top 20 player. It looks like our recent #25 to #40 draft picks will be B grade players at best. So, trading out of the 2019 1st round will hurt our young talent profile. Also, this year is a 1 in 5 year opportunity to get some elite talent with picks #2 to #3 and #18 to #20. Would rather we keep those and trade out our 2020 1st pick which (if me make finals) will be in the the low to mid teens. Back to Brad Hill. Geelong seems keen on him so if Kelly goes West they will be in the box seat.

Thanks. The article was written before the 2018 Draft so has some ambiguity. I'm reading it as: 1) In 2018 we could do what we wanted with our 2019 pick. We kept it. 2) Need to trade in an extra 1st round 'this' (2018) or 'next' (2019) year. We didn't trade one in, in 2018. So it reads like we need to trade in another 1st round in 2019 if we want to trade out 2020 1st round pick. It looks like we need to use a 1st round pick in 2019. That doesn't mean we can't trade down our allotted pick to a lower 1st rounder. Of course, my interpretation of the article could well be wrong.