Lucifers Hero

Now 41,438. About 1,500 ahead of this time last year. And need just 795 to better last year's record of 42,233.? Easily by the end of May...

One of Hird's assistant coaches at the time is now our senior coach...just saying... In the Bigger Boardroom of our State the two highest public office bearers are die hard Essendon supporters. And I recall a shady character 'convincing' witnesses not to show up at the ASADA hearing. And another anonymous character paid Hird's very hefty legal bills/damages. So the tentacles of possible influence extend far and wide.

Bernie gets a $2,000 fine from MRP for striking Darcy Parish. Have been waiting for someone to ruffle his feathers a bit since his pompous game vs us round 2, 2016!

Ch7 are reporting Petracca still in hospital having had more surgery on his finger.? Edit - added this Ch 7 update. Get well quickly! Club is confident he will play vs Saints on Sunday.?

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-04-30/dees-moving-to-lock-away-free-agent-utility Getting closer! "Maybe the next few weeks we'll see more action." "I'd love to get a contract done to stay with the Demons," McDonald said.

The Spargo family makes history https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/spargo-family-makes-history-in-charlie-s-impressive-demons-debut-20180430-p4zcfj.html "His debut meant the Spargo family was the first to produce four league footballers - in a direct line - through four successive generations". Terriffic achievement by the family. Liked his dad's advice on presenting Charlie with his demon jumper: play hard for your teammates, play hard for your jumper. He seems like a feisty puppy with a bit of bite, not unlike Jack Viney. I suspect it won't be long before we have a 'Spargo Made Me Cry' thread. ?

That is what irks me about this thread. It is nearly always 'bumped' by people to put him down and to bait other posters to defend him. It is not very becoming of them. I no longer discuss Jack's games as it is just feeds the trolls. If this thread was locked a new one would pop up within a few days or the weekly 'Non MFC Games' thread would be derailed. Best to contain the spitefulness to one thread.

Definitely, as shown by our excellent record there since Goodwin took over. It also helps that the roof is closed so we play in the dry with no wind. But we only play a couple of games a year at Etihad. As the G is our home ground and the big stage that is where we need to win games. For those that are interested here is a list of dimensions of grounds used for AFL games. Yesterday's it looked like the 'aggressive zone' was modified in the second half and Ess found it much harder to switch play so a less 'aggressive zone' can work anywhere.

A few weeks ago I posted these comments in another thread: I question whether the aggressive zone (or any zone) is suited to the width of the MCG. It is 12 to 30 meters wider than other major AFL ovals. This makes it too easy for opp to get the ball to the outside and out the back. Of the 15 games we have played at the G under Goodwin we have won only 7: In 2017 - Carlton (x2), Coll, Saints, Power, Lions. In 2018 - North. Most teams have pared back their use of zones. Even the Eagles tempered their 'web' after they were demolished in the GF by Hawthorn, a few years ago. We need a game plan that will win on the G! Including ANZAC Eve it is 7 wins from 16 MCG games. Richmond and Hawthorn are brilliant at defending the G. Geelong is getting better at it. Collingwood is also learning (see Qtr 1, rnd 23 2017?) One would like to think our coaches are aware of our performance on different grounds. But in the presser after the Rich game Goodwin was asked if there was a reason we had lost the 4 or 5 of the last 6 games at the G. He said it was a surprise statistic for him. Not sure what to make of his surprise. Hopefully, we can develop a core plan that plays to our teams strengths and is tweaked for the ground each week as each has peculiarities.

JR, each week this thread is nearly always 'bumped' by those who get some weird joy from bagging Watts. They set the bait then lurk for posters to come out and defend him. Some are more open with their bait than others. If the trolls are ignored they will eventually have only themselves and their supporters to wallow with in spite.

Thanks for pointing it out, have now fixed the post. I accidentally edited Freo and Pies out of that sentence who are two of the teams competing with us for a top 8 spot.

Tom Mc seemed to run, jump and turn quite freely which was good to see. Hopefully, he pulls up well. It looks like he played just 69% of the game so that is a good run first up and not overdo it. He picked up game tempo fairly quickly so all in all a good selection.

Hopefully Rich and WCE win as Freo and Pies are the ones we will most probably be competing with to make the 8.

Ideally he would get some game time at Casey. But as soon as Petracca was ruled out I think we had little choice but to play Tom. Ess have Hooker and Hurley down back who can do a lot of damage especially if we persist with bombing it long and high. Last year a tactic that helped us win was that Petracca took Hurley out of the game by leading him deep into the pocket and we played to the other side. Brilliant coaching move. Something similar could happen with Tom - either as a decoy and take Hurley out of the play or plonk Tom in the goal square. Either way it helps ease him back into game touch.

Reckon Gil had a press conf ready because he thought the AFL Commission would just rubber stamp his request. Good to see the AFL Commission has formed its own view and not just rubber stamped what Gil wants. Not fussed what time it is. However, not impressed with the idea of extended half time break just so they can have 'entertainment'! No one will say how long Half Time will be extended. Can't imagine they will give up seats to set up a stage and it takes time to get equipment on and off the ground. Could see the break being stretched to 30+ minutes. Someone should remind Gil that the Grand Final is the entertainment! He should keep the gimmicks to before and after but leave the game time and breaks as normal. After all that is what teams train for all year.

He was pushing his luck after the 'Goodwin/camp fiasco' and 'McCartney banished from the coach's box' stories. 'Leaking' the Petracca omission story yesterday was probably the final straw. Let's hope that whoever inside the club is feeding him stories, stops! Or he will still get stuff to write.

AFLCA Votes: 10 Lambert (Rich) 7 Edwards (Rich) 4 Houli (Rich) 3 Castagna (Rich) 2 David Astbury (Rich) 2 O.McDonald (Melb) 1 Hogan (Melb) 1 Martin (Rich) Rapt for Oscar to get some recognition. He is OOC this year so am hoping he doesn't drag out his contract negotiations. Great to see Jesse get some votes. This game, last year was the last his very ill dad watched him play and was special enough for Jesse to have the words 'do it for dad' written on his wrist bandage. Damn shame the team couldn't bring it home for him.

Get ready for another 'awesome marquee' game tomorrow night: Carlton vs Bulldogs. I kid you not. Did they not notice that Geelong plays Sydney. Ch7 deserve crap ratings for stupidity! ...beggars belief really.

It does sound serious: “But by today, that infection had gone into his bone and gone down to his finger joint – at the top of the finger.” “... the doctor actually wants him to stay in hospital over the weekend, just to make sure that the infection’s gone.” http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2018-04-26/petracca-to-miss-due-to-dog-bite Thankfully will miss only one game.

I suspect the club didn't say anything to not let it out before team lodgements. The less Ess knows beforehand the better. ? Would clubs have lodged their teams with the afl by 5.00pm? If not our own demon supporting reporter, Tom Morris, should keep that stuff to himself until lodgement time has passed! He could still have had his scoop.

Bump. There was an interview with Tom on Ch9 on Sunday and he was asked about his contract and said his injury has delayed talks as he hasn’t been able to see (and show the club) how he goes as permanent forward. Nonetheless he has put an offer to the club and they have come back with one so talks are continuing. Last time he put off contract talks to see how much we improved. In Sunday's interview, there was no hint of him looking elsewhere or delaying contract talks. Said he expects to play forward this season unless a key back is injured or in short bursts down back if needed. As an aside he said he expects to play this weekend but not sure if VFL or AFL...we will find out in a few hours. Edit: could mods add a question mark to the title please. I can no longer edit it.

Tammy Roos ran a meditation/mindfulness program for us for several years and I recall some players saying how good it was for them especially the sessions before a game. Dusty has credited meditation as a significant factor in his improvement in recent years. Our current coaching panel seems to prefer the macho commando style camps for mental toughness. This was cancelled last December. So atm it seems we are doing neither for mental development. Intuitively, the 'mindfulness' approach (which is much more than meditation) seems better suited to today's 'millennials'.

Definitely. Other ball-movement issues remain: field positioning, bombing it forward, kick outs, tempo, switching etc. In addition to good midfield spread, Richmond have a cohesive end to end ball movement chain where players immediately know where to run depending on who has the ball. It may not always work but it is there and players know their role and work hard to make it happen. As someone else said they are very well drilled on their role within their game plan. We on the other hand work very, very hard but seem less certain on where to position and what option to take when we have the ball - on Tuesday night it was like a hot potato for some players. It is sad as we are not getting the reward for all our hard work.

I think you have hit the 'secret' of their turnaround from 2016 to premiers in 2017. At the end of 2016 Richmond recruited Blake Caracella as Midfield Coach - spread and ball movement. He has been credit with transforming their game plan from hand-balling backwards and in circles to a slick forward ball moving team. It took a while in 2017 to fine tune their spread and ball movement and it really came together in September. In our coaching structure we do not have a Caracella role. I assume it falls into Plapp's role as midfield coach with buy in from other field coaches. Our overall plan is players to the contest and we don't seem to have a spread and ball-movement plan so we look stagnant and our players look uncertain. The big question is: how do they fix our ball-movement problems quickly.

If you have an issue with the claims other posters make take it up with them. I'm really not interested in derailing this thread with what you think of my posts. So lets leave it at that.