Lucifers Hero

There is an updated 'Match Day Info' page on website. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/Team/match-day-information Note: Public Transport: Buses will be replacing trains on the Mernda, Frankston, Sandringham, Cranbourne and Pakenham lines this Saturday. See more info on travel disruptions on Victoria's Big Build website. Rod Laver Arena Footbridge The footbridge linking Rod Laver Arena and the MCG will be closed for development until 2023. Fans are encouraged to use alternative pathways such as the Edwin Flack Bridge and William Barak Bridge to get to the MCG. BTW this is our 'Welcome' Game. Donation of old demon scarves and their is a donation box outside Gate 3.

Its never good to see a player be seriously injured. But there is a bit of karma in Rance's knee injury. How many players have his knees seriously damaged? Rance often goes for a mark leading with his knee into a players head or back even when he has no chance of marking. He broke Tim Smith's ribs a couple of years ago. Smith didn't play again for a while. As they say 'live by the sword, die by the sword'. Richmond have been lucky with injuries. This will test them.

While Matt Burgan could be dry and monotonal in style he was very good at getting all the things you mention done and onto the website. Plus, letting Robbo go part-time we get few interviews from him. With Matt gone there is less and less material (In particular I missed the daily stories from the Qld camp covering the off-field banter). Anyone know if Matt was replaced? They are missed.

You picked May correctly - well done. Altho' for mine he hasn't earnt his stripes yet to raise him to the lofty heights of the DL banner.

Have just poured a Heathcote Shiraz? to enjoy with the announcement!

What do folks think? I'm conscious of Peter Jackson's comment in his DL podcast that teams rarely have a straight line improvement like we have. So this year might be a year where we plateau. For mine making it to a Prelim is a pass. That means winning one or two finals depending on where we are at end of H & A games. Desperately hope we make it to the Granny and win it. But I won't be heartbroken if we don't and will be very forgiving of the team.

Dees, I think you have covered it incredibly well. Pretty much agree with your nominations in each category. In terms of most improved player, Mithen would be right up there. She and teammates in defence did a fantastic job all year. I'm not convinced the coach has a winning game plan. This year's game plan was better than the first two years. It certainly isn't a winning game plan at Casey where we lost all 4 of our 'Home' games and its iImperative that we train there more often. The coach has had exceptional players and failed to make the most of their talents for three years! I doubt the club will make a change for 2020 but that has to be his last chance. My angst is that other teams are improving faster than we are and we may be left behind. We have the players, the coach needs to bring it all together. I'm totally against conferences. If we must have them keep them as a fixturing process but the finals should be from a combined ladder. North incredibly hard done by this year. Us to a less extent. We had our chances; we weren't good enough

What a debacle! It has been a PR disaster from the start. Amateur hour. Hopefully they are more professional in managing Jesse's issues. The good news is he trained yesterday and is likely to play round 3. I really feel for Jesse, not only because of his wellbeing but he started with us when we were a basket case, on and off the field and has seemingly gone to another basket case. That can't be a good environment for someone with his issues.

In the middle, I reckon the funny 'ears' are an exaggeration of the skiing gear (upturned collar etc) Goodwin wore at the MND freeze event last year!

The ruck dual will be interesting. Port now have Lycett, a premiership ruckman so shouldn't be underestimated. He and Vardy completely neutralised Max in the prelim with one or other sticking to Max like glue wherever he went on the ground. So our middfield fell away and the defence was under the pump from the get go. Max could more than hold his own quite easily with one of those but not both. Lycett will take WCE tactics to Port. He and Ryder (or Westhoff) shadow Max and wear him out. Hopefully, our mids have learnt to feed off Lycett etc if they get on top of Max. And our backs and forwards can't rely on Max to intercept or mark. Thankfully, Fritsch is in the side to help out at both ends of the ground if needed. I think we will win but it won't be a walk in the park.

Great name!! ?

That isn't as bad as it first looks. Harmes will play this week as will KK (VFL). May back next week. While it would be handy to have AVB, Hannan, Lever, J. Smith and Garlett available realistically they wouldn't all be in the side this week anyway and we won last year without them (except Hannan). Mostly I'm glad that Viney, Jones and Melksham are off that list and will play. All things considered our injury list is in reasonable shape.

Ross tells the media to 'back off' re Jesse He is trying to focus on the illness and quite rightly won't elaborate on it or the other 'behavioural' issues. And he has taken the so sensible 'Rinse and Repeat' approach to media questions. As noted in my post this morning they should have done that in the beginning. Now that Jesse's reputation has been trashed in the national mainstream media they want to put the genie back in the bottle. Too little, too late. The article includes a video by Goodwin where he is incredibly good in support of Jessie. He rightly says it is a private matter and he, the club and players have been in contact with him. Very poorly handled by Freo. They need some new PR people.

Take them both off! Only half jesting. Didn't GWS play with 15 player after injuries vs Carlton as JTL games are meaningless. (Carlton still lost ? ) Also, I recall Hardwick benching his top 4 players in the last quarter of a preseason game and went thru the motions till the siren. Should have done the same with AVB. JLT games just don't matter.

Freo haven't handled this well. They should have said that Jesse has been diagnosed with clinical anxiety, will take some time out, ask for everyone to respect his privacy and there will be no further comments. Images would have still surfaced on social media but it would be difficult for mainstream journo's to dredge up stuff and add innuendo and hyperbole. Freo's response could be: No comment, please respect Jesse's privacy. Rinse and repeat! At least this would lessen the public pressure on Jesse. Instead they muddied the waters with alcohol issues and poor decision making. While true it didn't need to be made public. Now its a media free for all. An interesting article suggesting Freo haven't put the support system in place for Jesse event tho they new of his problems before recruiting him and there have been red flags over the summer. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/respected-afl-figures-criticise-fremantle-s-handling-of-jesse-hogan-20190318-p515am.html Can't imagine the detrimental impact this is having on Jesse. Someone at Freo or the AFLPA need to monitor developments closely. It wouldn't be the first time the AFL have asked mainstream media to back off.

"...the Demons should not be too self-congratulatory, for one could argue if their environment didn't cause Hogan's issues, it didn't shrink them much either..." That is a really cheap shot by Jack Niall. The environment Jesse had: a few months with Neeld in 2013 then PJ/ Roos/Goodwin/Mahoney. A greater period of stability our club has not known. Our culture wasn't great with Neeld but it changed rapidly. Our club worked really hard to give him time out and protect him and his privacy through injuries and personal/family issues. Its a long bow to say our environment contributed - at least he wasn't getting into serious strife. Who knows, had he stayed his off-season troubles may never have happened here. Poor form by Niall to not recognise this.

Great news! Now we need to sign up Josh Mahoney. Don't know when his contract expires but would guess in the next year or two. He is a critical part of the team. An excellent media performer who is solid, stable and engenders confidence.

A promo video from the club https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/2019-03-19/together-our-hearts-beat-true So many spine tingling and delightful moments. The best is the Hannan goal. Also love the take down of Ablett, Dangerfield and Selwood. Reckon those 3 were in a bit of physical as well as emotional pain for quite a while after that final. Go Dees!

Man in the middle: Goodwin then Petracca (or Elise O'Dea because I doubt DL would leave out AFLW team member), Gus, Max, Fritsch and Jetta.

^^ Its really unfortunate The Age has published that video. It is undated so could have nothing to do with recent events and could only have been included to embarrass Jessie. It is not helpful to Jesse's predicament and could make his anxiety worse knowing such private times are now public. Very low of The Age to publish. Verging on gutter journalism. There is a limit imv to 'click bait'. Time for the media to leave him alone. I hope they take that video down soon. Best wishes, Jessie. Life has dealt you some cruel blows but hope you get strong and can overcome the setbacks, regardless of what happens in football.

When did the silhouettes on the right sneak in?... The far right is Max? and on his left is Gus. Revisions to my earlier post: Centre - Tom Mcdonald, next is Elise O'Dea.

6th form the left: Gus. Edit: on second thoughts this could be one of our AFLW captains: Elise O'Dea?

Re the 666 rule. In the WCE vs Cats game a free was given at the centre bounce for a player breaching a starting position. It then took about a minute or two for the free kick, while the umpires had all players reset back to their designated 666 starting positions. But by the end of the JLT the reset to the 666 after a centre bounce free kick wasn't an issue - not sure if the umpires didn't bother with the reset or players knew the rules and quickly went back to their 666 positions. The reset after a centre bounce free kick is, imv a good rule. It stops a team deliberately giving away a free kick so their players can flood the forward line. This will become a 'set play' and abused by some coaches. While the episode in the WCE vs Geelong looked chaotic I would like the 'reset' rule stay. If it doesn't the player receiving the free kick will need to dispose of the ball at lightning speed before the forward line is flooded, especially in close games. I haven't seen anything in the media in the last few weeks about it so wondered what is happening. Anyone seen anything official on this?

I suspect that is the mids but the forwards will relish not having one or two extras in defence at the bounce of the ball. Maybe our mids will start liking it when their bombs into the forward line start going to our players rather than the opp extra.

We had 3 'home' games at Casey and lost all 3, albeit 2 by less than a goal. However, we don't train at Casey so effectively we have no 'Home Ground' advantage. Casey isn't geographically convenient for training but It has some unique conditions which we haven't capitalised on. We need a game plan that works there. If we want to make finals imo we need to have some in season training sessions at Casey and increase our preseason work there. On a different note, this is not good for local fans, especially kids who only see us lose at Casey. The area is supposed to be our growth corridor for all red and blue teams so we need to win there to maintain their interest and attract other fans.