Lucifers Hero

Thanks...it would help if I had the volume up...

I think he was supposed to be wearing #64 but I can't see him in that footage...did he take his helmet off? A later report on Gus: “(He) came off the ground with an innocuous neck injury. They were very keen to clarify it wasn’t a head injury, but he will take no further part in the game and wasn’t in the rooms at half time." Not being in the rooms at half time or on the bench to watch out the game is a worry. Lets just hope it was neck soreness rather than a knock and that not playing out the game was precautionary. Look forward to some good news for him. Good luck Gus.

Not specifically but , Damian Barrett who also has good sources says: 'If Jake Stringer is the only Bulldog seeking a new home ...then... we'd be very surprised. As we said here last week, not a happy camp. Carnage everywhere, on and off the playing list'. Add that to Denham's 'watch this space' comment and it sounds like a few doggies may be gettable. Other specific WB names thrown up have been: Cloak and Crameri (Bevo was ambivalent when asked about their contracts) and Stringer. Reports this year that Liberatore has lifestyle issues and his preparation isn't up to par makes one wonder about where he might be next year. T Boyd is also having a rough time and doesn't seem to be a coach or teammate fave but doubt they could offload him. Being contracted isn't going to be an obstacle to trades across the AFL this year. WB, Pies etc makes mfc look like the rock of Gibraltar for stability! Nice to see other clubs in the wars for a change.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/afl/clubs-and-players-get-down-to-the-business-of-trading-places/news-story/895d6cefa09d52af59fe2cefd154559b For those who can't get behind the pay wall here is a summary of Denham's story: the only high-profile players Tom Rockliff, Steven Motlop and Jackson Trengove left in the FA pool. UFA Daniel Menzel may also want to move after being shunned against Richmond Adelaide are almost certain to lose Lever. Melbourne leads Collingwood for him. Kelly must decide to accept a $10 million long-term deal to North or remain with the Giants for less money in the short term. Others: Carlton, St Kilda and Essendon, are now out of the equation. Devon Smith appears highly likely to play at another club next year Jake Stringer is out of favour at the Western Bulldogs and will play elsewhere next year - St Kilda and Collingwood are sniffing around and Richmond are poised Other premiership players on rocky ground at the Dogs, who will field interest from clubs on contracted players including Luke Dahlhaus. Watch this space on that front. Mason Cox appears on the move north, where Brisbane have offered a four-year deal. Ty ­Vickery for two years backfired and they would be willing to let him go, along with Duryea. Gold Coast will let go of Brandon ­Matera, who plans to head home to Western Australia. If West Coast want additional draft picks to rejuvenate an old list, they will need to trade out one of two contracted players. They would sacrifice Chris Masten, if there are any takers, but he is contracted for another two years. And that’s just the start. Denham has good sources so there is a good chance these will come to pass. From MFC point of view: Winning the race for Lever. Not in the race for Kelly or Stringer. No mention of Gaff. Some clubs and various commentators have said that this year will see a lot of contracted players change clubs. A few surprises ahead...

...and interestingly next week's Second Semi which should be their Home final is also at the 'G'. Haven't heard them whinging yet but am sure it will come. Friday, September 15. Second semi final: Geelong v Winner of Sydney v Essendon at the MCG, 7.50pm AEST Maybe the AFL is hoping for an Ess win... Bit of a two edged saw for Geelong. Sydney have beaten them the last 3 or 4 times at Kardinia Park and Ess beat them at the G earlier this year. Might be out in straight sets for Geelong! Maybe Scott isn't the coach people think he is. His one premiership, in his first year, came off the back of a well drilled premiership list. A list that was determined to prove that they could do without their coach (Bomber) and their best player (Ablett) who had just walked out on them. Their Home ground advantage gets them into the finals in most other years. But he has now lost 7 of his past 9 finals...not too flash. No wonder they are desperate to play finals at Kardinia Park! Could 2018 be the year when both twins crash Popcorn time?

Balme has been huge for them mainly in list management and game plan. Plus I believe Caracella has totally transformed their ball movement. Last year they were hand balling in circles in their back half until they turned it over. Last night we saw the difference he, almost single handedly has made. We don't have a ball movement coach and other than a couple of key players that is our biggest need, imho. We have about the worst conversion of i50 and not having such a coach is costing us games. I assume Troy Chaplin as 'Offensive Coordinator' is the nearest we have but his ideas haven't worked this year. We talk about having the right balance on the field but Goodwin may need to look at having the right balance off the field as well - they are a relatively inexperienced lot in key areas of the game.

Good news! Any idea what the trade might be?

Bad news: Viney and TMc will not start preseason till after Christmas Better news: Jesse will start normal preseason. http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2017-09-08/viney-and-mcdonald-face-delayed-starts It seems Viney would not have played in finals if we had made it. Lets hope they have his foot problem under control and we haven't jeopardised his full recovery by bringing him back too early. If I recall it was a 4 to 6 and he came back after 2 weeks. He is a tough cookie but sometimes it shouldn't be the player's call. We have medicos and coaches to do that.

In his 'Sliding Doors' article, Barrett says: If Jake Stringer is the only Bulldog seeking a new home ...then... we'd be very surprised. As we said here last week, not a happy camp. Carnage everywhere, on and off the playing list. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-09-08/sliding-doors-finals-week-one Players that have had issues this year and seem to not have the coach's support: T Boyd, Crameri, Stringer, Cloke, Liberatore. Comments like preparation and lifestyle issues have been made regarding a couple of those players. Looks like the reigning premiers have derailed themselves.

Shouldn't this be in the Lever thread as it revolves around getting Lever?

The 2018 FA list: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-09-06/2018-free-agents-lynch-gaff-headline-monster-list Quote: Of the players under 30, the midfield group includes Sloane, Andrew Gaff, Luke Dahlhaus, Tom Liberatore and Mitch Wallis, while the key-position group includes Lynch, McGovern, Tom McDonald, Ben Reid and Dylan Grimes...Elite defenders Brodie Smith, Nick Smith and Neville Jetta are also on the list, along with ruckmen Gawn, Tom Nicholls, Tom Bellchambers and Scott Lycett. I suspect a lot will re-sign and be off the FA list before too long including our Jetta, Gawn and TMc. Likely players of interest to us (that are also gettable) are Lynch (GCS) and Gaff, with both having a lot of suitors. The AFL is planning to throw a few dollars out of its own pocket to Lynch if he signs with GCS long term. So I"m guessing that by this time next year it may be slim pickings.

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2016-10-12/no25-lauren-pearce MFC's profile of Lauren doesn't suggest a family connection, so I assume they aren't but don't really know.

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2017-09-07/vfl-womens-finals-set-to-start The players from our AFLW team well represtented: Meg Downie and Kate Hore (St Kilda Sharks) in the elimination final. Mel Hickey, Elise O’Dea, Karen Paxman, Daisy Pearce and Lauren Pearce (Darebin) and Laura Duryea (Diamond Creek) will play in the qualifying final. Great finals experience for them for when the Dees feature in the 'Big League' finals. Think I will be barracking for The Sharks and Darebin Will be keenly watching how the Dees players/teams progress through the finals. Good luck to the three teams.

Agree he should have been tagged in round 23. Elliot did not play in the previous 3 games when we beat the pies and was a sub in the other game we won a few years back. When he plays, we lose. I haven't checked the details but they have won most of their games when he played this year. Its pretty obvious that he is their most dangerous player. I suggest more oversight than hindsight.

Not sure about them being jealous of our 'more affluent supporter base'. If anything the shoe is on the other foot. They have about 75,000 members and we have 42,000 and as a result they get priority fixtures (FTA slots, MCG games, big club opponents) and sponsors knocking their door down. All that equals 'Power Club'. How I would love that to be us. And as for they wanting us to be a 'dismal failure'...well what an I say... A few weeks ago I was delighted at Rich going out in straight sets but after round 23 I feel no joy in crowing about them if they fail, afterall they have played finals in 4 of the last 5 years and will play at least 2 finals this year while we wallow in our agony. I just want us to succeed and don't care about any other team or their supporters. No amount of failure by other teams will offset the pain of ours so will take no interest in these finals and finalists can all go jump!

I had a look at the 'Deebrief' Page and it said: Jack Watts. Rumours circulating about him potentially looking for a change of club. Discuss. Going by that and its other discussion threads 'Deebrief' appears to be someone who throws a line out there just to see what comes back. I suspect it was made up by 'Deebrief' and found its way to other forums and after a while people start to circulate it. Jack didn't leave when Roos' asked if he wanted to be traded at end of 2015. Can't see why he would want to now.

A pretty good idea of how the brain works. Hardly convincing. And it doesn't mean you know anything about mine so stop presuming that you! And taking things out of context with selective quotes or splitting hairs over a missing adjective is futile. If you have something to say on the subject of the thread do so. Otherwise I'm not interested if you just want to quibble. Bye!

Really, you know what is in my head and how my brain works? Good grief - how presumptuous! And I didn't profess to know the inner workings of the coaching department - don't know where that claim comes from. Back to what I actually said. I stand by it: I would be very surprised if anyone thought the coaches had not made any blunders and that they won't be doing their own soul searching. No, not a proven fact but they wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't reflect back and see what they did well and not so well and how they can improve. In my book that is soul searching. So, you might think all is perfect on the coaching front and no reflection is required. Fine. Then simply say so rather than take a line out of context of the chain of posts to which it relates and then needlessly criticise someone.

Note: Jack did not play rounds 14, 15, 16, 17 so its a bit rich to say he went missing in one of the most crucial periods for the MFC in the last 5 years. He wasn't there so find someone else to blame for the team's form lapse! He came back and played injured for rounds 18, 19, 20 and was then dropped. So some facts please... ...Maybe we lost form because Jack didn't play in that period and the team missed him.

Yes, it was so sad as he worked so hard to get us back into the game. His desperation was palpable. Despite the disappointment he intelligently went from player to player in the rooms to keep them upbeat which was really important in case we did make the finals. Sam Mitchell did similar on the ground after they lost the Qualifying Final last year. He literally lifted some players up off the ground....he knew the players needed to leave that day feeling positive. It wasn't over. We didn't live to fight another day but Petracca showed a lot of nous and was a champion in so many ways.

Of course it is obvious, Doc. But building a game plan for a flag doesn't mean it should not be modified when circumstances require especially when the coach knew at the beginning the team would struggle with it for the whole season. He expected them to run out of steam, not because the team is young per se, but because it is a demanding game style to sustain. Being flexible is what having plan A, B, C, D is all about. Especially, in finals. Anyway, I wasn't being critical - was making the point that the coach(es) missed a trick. There will be soul searching and they will learn from it and will be the better for it. Even Goodwin's greatest fan would acknowledge he made some significant blunders. But our coaches are relatively inexperienced. They will learn and grow from this year's experiences and disappointment.

Yes, an interesting comment. He said he knew it was a long year for the team to sustain our brand of football and from round 15 (vs Sydney) inconsistent performances increased (more losses and on average bigger losses). One wonders why, if he knew it was going to be difficult to sustain the game style for the whole year, he didn't amend aspects of it during the year or when it became obvious at round 15, especially with the level of injuries and a grueling fixture. I think he knows he missed a trick there somewhere. He has learnt a lot about himself this year and will be do a fair amount of soul searching. Will be the better for it.

That isn't how it works. When a player is delisted he becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent and can go to his club of choice without it giving anything to his prior club. That is how we got Daniel Cross. Hawthorn traded pick 84 for Fitzy because they wanted him to start training with them asap rather than wait until the AFL window opened to get him as an UFA. So Fitzy was not delisted.

I think they have been bombarded with emails asking to hear from the coach. I also sent one last week. So its great they reacted. What I think came from Demonland was for the club to email members and let them know the interview was on the website - something I haven't noticed before. And something they didn't do for the Jones press conf. This ensures all members will have the chance to see it. Kudos to Simon and the club for hearing and respecting the requests of members. Yes, I think closure has begun.

I just received an email to say there is an interview with Goodwin on the club website. http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/2017-09-05/missed-opportunity-simon-goodwin?camefrom=EMCL_1829220_73153980 Not sure I've ever seen an email form the club to tell me there is an article on the website. Usually club emails are about promotions. The club must read Demonland! Makes up for the club not letting members know that Jones had a press conf. Better late than never. As to the interview, I was very very impressed with him and what he said. He was genuine and heartfelt. He is still hurting just like the rest of us. Clearly he is heavily invested in the club. Players wanted to make their own history so are also shattered. Time for us all to move on.