Lucifers Hero

I doubt JUH would be welcome. The influence on Clarrie would be Hunter Mk 11.

A few key players from their finals team either departed or injured. Stringer is also out. Not conducive to their synergy. Our injury list is much better comprising of less critical players. It is at the G. We will win this!

James Sicily

That should help us but I was really looking forward to watching him play live again.

We countered this in 2021 with Langdon and Brayshaw hovering on the def side of our f50 arc and when the opp got the ball they started rolling back toward our d50 preventing the opp from getting a run and carry game going. It gave our def 6 time to man inside the d50 arc and behind to defend the goals. Opp had to kick over the top where it was often marked or if they got past Langdon and Brayshaw they had to contend with Bowey, Hunt, Rivers and Salem. Some teams got thru by 'running at the defenders' but the above defence worked very well. That also enabled us to rebound quickly when the opp turned the ball over and caught them out of position forward of centre. Brayshaw and Langdon were very good at running both ways. Also, in 2021 Lever often called players back to 'defend the corridor'. The names may have changed but the structure and roles worked and imv we have the players to perform the roles as per 2021. No idea what happened to that (imv, very effective) defence and as you point out we now play a very high forward press including our mids and defenders often only May in our def half. Just too easy for opp to break thru for easy over-the-top goals or fast running with our players chasing. I'm not suggesting we should revert to the 2021 game style in toto but the above was very effective and I wouldn't mind seeing it in our game plan again, at least some of the time.

Yes @picket fence is a master of colourful language and not trigger the censor !!! With the occasional whimsical prose! 😉

On first read of that it sounds critical of my post which was only about Fritsch's (unresolved) weaknesses. Then I realised you generally agree with it - just not sure how that triggered the rest of your commentary rant 🙃

Is this some sort of new quiz without any clues ... Maybe just give us the stats ... Preempting the stats: average stats over a year(or years) aren't helpful when we are loosing Finals or key games due to poor goal kicking. To analyse the impact it is a game by game thing. If we kick more goals than points we win most games.

I understand what we are trying to do. That Hawks succeeded with that tactic does not mean we will and rise up the ladder on the back of it which was the implication of your original, unedited post. We will rise up the ladder but it will be easier if we make the d50 switching and changing angles more effective.

What really hurts us is that opp know he doesn't have, nor has ever shown, second efforts or do the 1% so they double team someone else.

Can't see how that has any bearing on us! What's more I saw little of the run and carry yesterday or in recent years. It was Freo who put on a run and carry master class when at least 2-3 times they went from d50 to score a goal without us touching the ball or laying a tackle.

The difference in the goal accuracy was theirs were mostly within the 40m range (due to their quick transition and our poor defence). Ours were outside that range imv mainly because we didn't present or look for options. I don't know why we persist with taking long range kicks when our set shots accuracy is historically poor. Is it ball movement strategy that we don't take the ball deep into our f50 or do players overestimate their ability? We kicked ourselves out of a Prelim and maybe a premiership in 2023. I don't think I can take another year of those score lines, especially in the first quarter when better accuracy should give us the momentum to win the game. And it is so deflating at the ground to hear so many groans - it doesn't help the 'make some noise campaign'.

The chipping in defence reminded me of the Neeld times. It was slow, tentative, lob kicks. It was a tactic easy to defend/intercept and we showed little confidence using it. It is one thing to switch and make the opp defend transition quite another to be locked in their f50. Asking for trouble. I'm guessing it is to rely less on the 'kick it to Max' tactic that became soooooooooo predictable. The tactic relies on quick pin point passes but I don't know we have the skills to play that way. I don't mind 'switch' and change angles tactics but we need to practice it a lot more and get much better at it.

Bell would want Kozzie, Rivers and McVee in return for Jackson as his opening gambit! Oh and throw in Roo'! Thankfully, Bell left Freo a few years ago who now seem more honest brokers.

That means the player arrives at 10.10 pm (body clock time) after playing some game time and rushing to the airport from Casey to catch that flight. Arrives at a Perth hotel about 11.00pm (body clock time) or if going to Mandurah arrives there about midnight - hardly good prep to play tomorrow (even off the bench) in 32 degree heat. The return trip from Mandurah to their home will take about 7-8 hours. I reckon we should play with 7 off the bench rather put a player thru that for a prac match.

Of the other emergencies for tomorrow (Laurie, Jefferson, Campbell, Brown) which played today? Again, it doesn't make sense to fly any of them to Perth for a prac match especially if they played a full game today.

It must have been a very late decision to take Petty out and let TMac continue to play today. It doesn't make sense for TMac to now fly 4+ hours and play again tomorrow then fly straight out again after the game. After all it is only a practice game and there are more than enough players on the bench. Let Tommy recover properly. Idle thought - could the names listed be an error in communication ... 🤔

McVee!! McVee! 😭

Very strong leadership from Green which is so much more than Pickett. Typical media who create a title that leads to click bait. For those that can't read the Age article, here are some extracts: “People ask ‘has it been challenging?’ I said, ‘no, what was challenging was when I lost my wife six years ago’. And after that period, we had the funeral, and I reckon it was four or five days post that that I really struggled to get out of bed and get on with my life. “But then I thought ‘Well, I’ve got an eight-year-old, I’ve got a six-year-old’. And you sit down and go, ‘in the end you’ve got to get out of bed for them’. Green on Simon Goodwin Green said Goodwin had been “weighed down” by media attention until the club reached a legal settlement in November last year. “He’s a premiership coach. He is Melbourne’s only living [premiership] coach and probably from our members and supporters to the wider football world, we need to give respect and kudos to this guy,” Green said. “We had to do something as a board to help lighten that load because we see a coach just getting buried and buried… On Christian Petracca Amid reports that Petracca was unhappy with aspects of the club culture, Green wanted to hear from the player himself. “I caught up with him when it all was all hitting the fan and said ‘mate, what’s going on here?’ And not once through that was he talking about anything other than Melbourne Football Club and where we can improve,” Green said. On Culture “I think what we found is issues get put into the one big basket, and they become [conflated] into a big pile of [censored], really, and that creates different instances of what they say is culture. But what I believe, and what I know, is this is a very driven, strong, talented group that can can achieve anything they want to. Are the Demons a destination club? Green says Jake Lever and Stephen May are proof that Melbourne remains a place players want to come to. “I would think we are always a potential destination club,” Pickett’s future Discussed in a post above Oliver’s tears He revealed the conversation that kept Oliver in red and blue. “I rang Clarry around the time of the B[est] and F[airest night] and said, ‘This is the situation; you’re not going anywhere. Tonight I’m going up to give a speech and say to our members that our starting midfield for 2025 is going to be Petracca, Viney, Oliver and Gawn. OK?’ And he started getting all teary on me. “He said to me, ‘Please, don’t do that because the B and F night, it’s not about me, it’s about the guys that are going to get awarded for their individual seasons’. I said ‘No, Clarry, it’s not about you, but our members and supporters want to know we are committed in this place and this environment. And I’m just ringing you to say, ‘I love you. We love you and we’re going to move forward with that’.’ And he got off the phone and just said, ‘Love you, Greeny ’.” Friendship, love and strength At a pre-season Kumbaya session in Bright, the players came up with a mantra for the year: “There’s nothing wrong with tough, hard conversations between each other.” A new game plan “He [Goodwin] wasn’t happy with any phase of the game: the way we defend, the way we move the ball, the way we attacked and the contest. People think we’re a contest team, but I think we went from first to eighth or ninth last year,” Green said. Proposed changes to the illicit drugs policy “Let’s look at it, let’s review it. But is being hard and fast the answer? I think the model that we have does catch and help players. Is it a deterrent? People are always going to challenge those things. Can we be harder on it? Maybe. But can we help and save players? Yes, in this model. I reckon if you go too far the other way, I reckon you’ll get less vulnerability in emotion and people being able to help.” Caulfield development Green is adamant a new home uniting administration and football at Caulfield racecourse will happen, despite the Demons needing to raise a further $70 million in funding. “We’ve never had our administration, our football department, in one area. Never, and it’s a disaster. We need all those parties to be in one room because until you do that, you’re not one club. Handing over the reins “I’ve got a young family of a 14-year-old, 12-year-old and a 14-month-old. And I run my own business on top of it, so it’s fair workload,” Green said. “I want stability and succession planning for Steve to take over and, potentially, once my boys finish school after three or four years, I take the presidency back over from him.” For me, the parallels with out 2020/2021 preseason are uncanny when: players met on the peninsular and AdV higlighted the lack of professionalism in how players spoke and dealt with each other. Many then committed to each other and resolved to be 'the best teammate I can be'. Goodwin was stressed and under the pump by former admins and others until Roffey and Pert stood by him. Serious review of game plan. And we know what happened in 2021. 🏆 It is a real shame we lost our way in the intervening three years but I'm rapt we have the ship back on and even keel. Now it is time to 'walk the talk' and I am very optimistic of our year. We let 2023 slip. Don't think that will happen this year!

@Ungarieboy I just noticed your parking question was related to the Captain's run at Gosch's Paddock. Parking in Richmond is fine but best at the Swan street end and walk or tram Swan Street, not Bridge Road. Map below shows the tram stops (the green thing) You could try parking in the Cremorne area but those streets are a maze of one way and dead end streets.

The GP is more likely to affect traffic on the MI freeway than to MCG. From Lakes Entrance, consider street parking in Richmond at the Yarra River end and catching a tram up Bridge Rd or Swan Street. Vehicle traffic on those streets is slow. Not many side streets there will have restricted parking. Trams run every 10 minutes or so. Any tram on those streets will go to the G on the way to Flinders St Station. But you'll need MYKI cards to travel on trams/trains (or the MYKI app). The streets in the above map are 15-30 min walk to the G. There are paid parking stations a short walk to the G but more expensive than MYKI travel. Depending on where accommodation is you could catch a train (using MyKi), Btw, the M1 freeway has tolls so if using it. will need day pass(es). Happy to provide more info.

Bays on the wing are reserved for MCC, AFL or MFC members. The General Admission bays currently available near the wing are M54 and M12 on the 50m arc. They are in the Demon fan areas so you'll be among friends. If you get tickets there you can cross to empty seats on the wing as I doubt all MFC members there will turn up. You will have a better experience in M54 as its closer to the Dees supporting MCC whereas M12 is close to what will be empty AFL member areas. Your kids might enjoy sitting with the Demon Army in M4, behind the goals. If so @Ghostwriter can provide info on those tickets. Also, sometimes M5 is quietly 'reserved' for MFC fans and can feel part of the DA and not risk being blinded/blocked by banners etc. Again @Ghostwriter might be able to advise. Hope you all have a great day! ps had a laugh at the autocorrect in your first post of 'boy' to 'bot' for the 'bored youngster'! AI seems to know everything!!

Semi relevant to the above. Quote from President's recent email: I’m also delighted to inform you about a new community partnership we’ve formed with the  House of Darwin Foundation, in conjunction with our  Jim Stynes Foundation. This exciting initiative – known as “Hoop Dreams” will see us rejuvenate the local basketball court in Nyirripi, home to the Nyirripi Demons, some 460 kilometres out of Alice Springs. More than just a playing surface, this court is a central gathering spot for the community and refurbishing it will offer fresh opportunities for wellbeing and connection. Even more special, its mural design will feature on our  2026 Indigenous Guernsey, bringing the spirit of Nyirripi to the MCG. With Jack Viney and Kate Hore championing this cause, we’re reaffirming our long-standing dedication to the Northern Territory – and paying forward Jim’s legacy – by empowering young people and strengthening cultural ties through the power of sport.

HaHa! 🤔 The cottage is old but not moi! Looks like ladies day in the vicinity of Middle Park! What a time to not be alive!

Many thanks layzie. Hope yours is fab. I'm back on DL now that the season is close ... will be a very good year for the mighty dees ❤️💙