Lucifers Hero

That report by Browne is wrong. King is out of contract next year but not a Restricted Free Agent until 2026. Before 2016 it needs to be a trade. I read the other day that Coll have plenty of sal cap space 😲 Ess probably also has. Saints will have if they can move on a few of their highly paid recruits. We are the only ones that has the trade currency this year.

Is it? It is the number of memberships (products) actually sold which is accurate and verifiable by auditors etc. We all know that number is greater than the actual number of members but it is not wrong nor inflated.

Besides Buddy the two Sydney additions are interesting; both small/medium forwards. Hall-Kahan appears to not have played an AFL game and Sheldrick (their first round pick in 2021) has played one. Their website says: "Angus Sheldrick (28 disaposals) and Hugo Hall-Kahan (21 disposals, one goal) also feature in the extended squad after their impressive performances in the VFL" Looks like Longmire has a specific plan. Maybe he is going for the high pressure, run us off our feet approach and rely on a small(er) forward line. It will be interesting who comes out for them and for Buddy.

MELBOURNE In: S.May, J.Jordon, J.van Rooyen, M.Hibberd, B.Laurie, L.Dunstan Out: A.Tomlinson (omitted), M.Gawn (knee), J.Harmes (personal reason) New: Jacob van Rooyen Last week's sub: Jake Melksham SYDNEY In: L.Franklin, H.Hall-Kahan, A.Sheldrick Out: None

The title of this thread is 'Membership Tally'. It is not 'Members Tally'. So discussion herein is for the number of memberships, or using your word 'products' sold. Memberships (or products) is the AFL's KPI - it is not something used by mfc or other clubs to dupe the public or other stakeholders. Noone is pretending that the number of memberships equals the number of members. I don't know why you persist in telling us the difference when everyone understands the difference.

True it is harder for Vic players but when a player is out of contract and they want to move, these days a club has no leverage and in the last 5 years players get to the club they want to go to.

No idea of his reasons but it made me think the Hawks may lose a few talented youngsters. A few commentators this week openly called out Mitchell's deep list cull as 'Tanking'. Today's breed of youngsters aren't going to accept ruined careers like some from yesteryear, at a club that is a perennial loser for the first half of their career. It is much easier for a player to move clubs now. I wouldn't be surprised if the Hawks lose quite a bit of young talent for that reason.

This week he has a job to do: help JvR and Grundy even if it is off the bench. He can rest after this week when we play Eagles, Ess, Hawks and North.

Some folks need to look at the GF 3rd qtr again. Jackson was directly involved in at least 5 of the 7 goals in its last 10 minutes. I would go out on a limb and say we would not have had that 3rd qtr run on without him. Sure the run on would not have happened without the mids but Jackson not only did the CB ruck work giving them first use of the ball he also ran with his midfielders to link up play creating goals for them. Would we have won without him? Maybe but it would have been a hard slog to come from 3-5 goals down at 3/4 time. As it was we sailed home. Our run on broke the Bulldogs. We gave Jackson the opportunity to play and develop with us and in that 3rd quarter he paid us back in spades. He doesn't deserve the rubbish said about him in this thread. That is best kept for Freo and Bell; the real protagonists in this.

My read of the article is that we will sign him on the same basis as Chandler and Turner: two years with the first (2024) as a rookie then promote him to the senior list in 2025.

Goodwin on van Rooyed debut: young-demon-to-make-debut-against-high-flying-swans "He's trained with these guys for a few years now, so he's got pretty good cohesion with this group already, and one thing you'll see from big Rooey is his ability to compete aerially," Goodwin said. "He goes at the ball hard, he creates a contest and his follow-up at ground level is exceptional. "We won't be asking him to do too much other than that for us." Nice way to keep expectations of him realistic. JvR effectively replaces Max in our fwd line so we won't need Grundy for that role. TMac is there to help Grundy ruck at CB and fwd 50. And to be our marking target when exiting our d50. It helps that if Ladhams is out, Sydney have no experienced ruckman. We will miss Max's towering presence but reckon we have his role covered.

The last time Viney was stand in captain we massacred the Lions on the MCG. He has his flaws but his 'follow me' style of on-field leadership is underrated on here. Lead from the front and he can leave all the tactical on-field stuff to others who are more than capable in that regard.

There is a bit of fuss about Daisy being in the Winner's change rooms in her role as a ch7 commentator. Richmond and Lions have banned her because of a perceived conflict of interest with her assistant coaching role at Geelong. Good to see Matthew Richardson outline why it isn't a conflict of interest and thinks there is a 'double standard' at play. afl-legend-calls-out-double-standards-over-daisy-pearce-ban

And The Age tipsters are 7 to 4 a Melbourne win which surprises me. Maybe those for us haven't looked at history, not that it is everything. Given how bad the Bulldogs are and our loss to Brisbane, I'm not sure our performances so far are anymore noteworthy than Sydney's two mammoth wins. Still feel they have the edge. But hope the team bring it home for Oliver's 150th!! Edit: Haha, Fox tipsters have it the other way round: 6 to 2 Sydney!!

Just came across this article: judd-mcvee-mcg-debut-melbourne-demons-family Quite a realistic view from his father about being in and out of the team. This comment from him caught my eye: "Christian Salem took over his development, Steven May has been huge for him as well and Jake Lever was pretty good there, so he learnt a lot in his first year," he said. That support extended on to the field, Mr McVee said, with Dees midfield leader Angus Brayshaw providing a crucial boost on the day". Interesting that Gus is referred to as our midfielder leader - I guess he takes some of the workload off Lever to marshall the midfielders defensively, especially in May and Salem's absence. The words of a very proud dad: "There's a photo of him with the ball tucked under his arm and he's just smiling, running down the middle of the G, it's awesome," he said.

DEMON IN LINE FOR EXTENSION Melbourne has started talks with defender Judd McVee and is poised to extend the rookie's contract after an impressive debut against the Western Bulldogs in round one. McVee, who was recruited with pick No.16 in the 2022 NAB AFL Rookie Draft, has shown significant promise since joining the Demons alongside fellow West Australians Jacob Van Rooyen and Taj Woewodin. The East Fremantle product played 19 games for Melbourne's VFL team last year and was part of its premiership, graduating to the AFL backline against the Bulldogs, where he did not look out of place. A two-year deal would likely see the 19-year-old move off a rookie contract by his fourth season. Melbourne has been pleased with the skilful West Australian's ability to defend opposition small forwards while also providing bounce from the backline. Once rated an early draft prospect after earning All Australian selection at the NAB AFL Under-16 Championships, he has been mentored by premiership defender Christian Salem. – (Nathan Schmook) When he was drafted I likened McVee to Salem as footy IQ and skills were noted among his assets. It is great to see Salem now mentoring him.

In the last trade period, the club gave Harmes the ok to look for another club. He all but had a meeting lined up with Scott (Ess) who chose not to meet him. He is contracted to 2024 so may look for another club this year. Otherwise he is an Unrestricted FA next year so that may be the time he moves on. Joining his childhood club as a rookie and winning a premiership with us would be all his dreams come true. I doubt he would be on big $ so it would make sense to try and secure his future in both $ and years somewhere else.

Giving them credit. While looking for updates I came across this banter: Removing myself from the desire to absolutely thrash Melbourne this week for a moment, congratulations to Clayton Oliver, who is playing game 150 this weekend. Very few players can say they're a great of the game before they've even played their 150th game. One of my favourite non-Swans and an absolute freak. Hope it's a shocker for him. Hopefully spends most of the game chasing our mids. For me he is just about the best player in the game. An absolute monster in the contest and nearly impossible to stop. Love the match up in this game.. the two current "kings" of the mids in oliver and tracc vs imo the fastest rising stars of the mids in the game in errol and chad IMO he would be the best player in the game, and the only challenger would be his own teammate in Gawn. I suppose over the next 4-6 weeks we'll now find out how much one has to do with the other. Not often Oliver gets praise from opp fans. Good to see some Sydney fans honour him for his 150th. But now that I've given them credit, i hope he burns their midfield, has his best game ever and leads us to victory. Couldn't be a better way to celebrate his 150th than against a team that has the wood over us.

He has but imv he is not their most dangerous midfielder. We can't run with them all.

Not sure about dropping Harmes. We may need a 'run with' player in the middle for Warner, Parker or Heeny. Warner is really dangerous and went under the radar a bit last year. The only swan to really stand up in the GF so potentially their most dangerous. Not sure what happened vs Hawks this week but he was very ineffective. Reckon Mitchell may have put a hard tag on him. It is really hard to tell how good Sydney are as their two big wins have been vs GCS and Hawks. And their end to 2022 wasn't super brilliant: an ok win vs an injury depleted Dees, a one point win vs Pies and thrashed in the GF. My lack of confidence for a win is driven more by our inability to beat Sydney in the past than belief that they really good...

I posted in another thread that Max being out might be a blessing as it will enable us to play an extra small/medium player. They have Reid and Hickey out so they will go in relatively 'short'. Sydney beat us the same way year in and year out. They let us get first possession at stoppages, put on the pressure and we rush a disposal and turn it over. Meanwhile our players have started spreading or moving goalward and are out of position to defend the turnover. An 'extra' small/medium player to replace Max should go some way to countering that aspect of Sydney's game. I will be really disappointed if we fall for that trick again, this week.

Agreed, hence why I think Max out might be a blessing. We can replace him with an extra small/mid sized player while our remaining talls take care of theirs which will be less of a threat with Reid and Hickey out.

As odd as this may sound, Max being out could be a blessing. They have one player over 200m (Ladhams) available who has played any AFL games and then only 45. A key tall fwd, Reid is also out. Hickey is out. With Hickey and Reid out they have no player 195+ cm who has played more than 80 games. So by necessity they will go in relatively 'short'. Without Max we still have an abundance of tall players. Surely their lack of experienced talls is something we can exploit around the ground. Grundy will take care of Ladhams in the ruck. Feeling a bit more optimistic🙃

That article is virtually saying there is no position for Jackson. Lord knows where Freo will hide him or where to play him. As an aside, wasn't it well known he didn't like and didn't want to be a forward? He is used to being protected and lauded at the dees. Over there he is exposed and hunted. The kid must be wondering what has hit him. This trade could be the worst 'own goal' in a very long time: Bell gets the feather in his cap but messes up his team. I wish Jackson well but would love to see Bell squirm!!

True. Hence why I want us to win to get the monkey off our back. It is their arrogance and complete lack of respect for us that annoys me. Hope we show them up.