Lucifers Hero

The AFL website is reporting that Joel Smith is closing in on a 2 year deal. I think that will be the longest term he has had thus far so good on him. A month or so ago it was reported that Bedford had been offered a new contract but no news since. Not sure if that means we are waiting to announce it or he is considering offers. After his recent performance I wouldn't be surprised to see Melksham get a new contract. I read somewhere that he would like to stay.

The round 22 Coaches votes weren't published at the time, to ensure the subsequent winner wasn't apparent. They were released last night and feel it is important to acknowledge Jake Melksham's game vs Carlton where he scored 10 votes. Round 22 Votes: 10 Jake Melksham (MELB) 7 Sam Docherty (CARL) 5 Angus Brayshaw (MELB) 3 Max Gawn (MELB) 2 Clayton Oliver (MELB) 2 Lewis Young (CARL) 1 Patrick Cripps (CARL) The Split: 5/5 Melksham 4/3 Docherty 4/1 Brayshaw 3/0 Gawn 2/0 Oliver and Young 1/0 Cripps It is also worth noting that Gus has polled votes in 3 of the 4 games (rnds 20, 22, and 23) since returning to the middle for a total of 11 votes.

Yes, Adam your bias is showing🙂. Grundy may feel he is playing second fiddle/understundy if he joins us. And he may not want to spend a chunk of his time playing fwd. If I had to guess one of the three, all other things being equal: Hawks.

The race for him is gearing up. Reported that Hawks becoming keen to replace McEvoy. GWS interested. Geelong reportedly very keen. Then there is us. Grundy may prefer Geelong or the Hawks where he is THE man now rather than sharing with Max. With this competition Pies should come out of it fairly well.

Tune in around 4.00pm tomorrow @Demonstonepresents his latest brainteaser. That should fill in some time.. Special Request: please don't solve it too quickly😐 And I'm sure he will have summer sequels for us.🙃

They get the first request. The AFL has the final say. They would probably choose Friday because it gives them an extra day's rest before the GF. But hopefully if they meet Richmond or Sydney on that Friday night they will get an extra long rest...until next March!

The good old days, when people could just rock up to the G without much pre-planning.

I reckon it is because they can no longer confidently estimate how many MCC, AFL and Club members and Sponsors will turn up. Ticketek sales aren't a good barometer for attendances. Covid, transport, parking, time slots, ticket issues etc etc have rendered their historical data obsolete, at least for this year.

Many of us experienced the same thing yesterday even tho if was not long after ticket sales opened. I would say level 2 sold out immediately as some premium members used their barcode to buy 10 tickets for non premium members and non members. It is pointless having a 'premium member' ticketing option if anyone can get those tickets.

Pickett, I just knew you would pick out those posts. If there was betting available for it I would have loaded up! But I agree, they were clever and gave me a good laugh! I'm noticing that he is getting a lot more credit in the media of late, which is great.

Agreed. We have changed the way we structure up fwd of centre and i50 delivery. We are now structured around Max and Petracca in the fwd line. I would see TMc coming in if Brown, Gawn or Melksham are out for injury. Given Goodwins desire for consistency and cohesion I doubt he will make selection changes lightly, I'm not as enamoured as some to bring him in, after all he was dropped for poor form not long before his injury. But it is great that he can play VFL and be ready if needed.

...and what was the question? 🤔

Someone did! A page or two before your post.

That is most unlike you Layzie. And here I was thinking you are a kind fellow! 😉

I get the frustration. I feel all members deserve the right to finals tickets. They are 3 game or interstate members for a reason ie they can't get to games but at least they are contributing to the club. My issue is mainly the 10 tickets per member and especially if they are for non members. It should be like the GF: If you have a Category 1 entitlement but want to buy a GF ticket for people with a lower category entitlement, your category 1 drops to theirs and can only book when their window opens. And non members go into the 'Public' ticket time slot. So if a member wants to book them together they go into the 'Public' time slot as they would for the GF. I would generally say that all members should be equally entitled to a finals ticket regardless of level of membership. However, given that there was a 'Premium Members' option on Ticketek that should have been reserved for such members and then ONLY ONE TICKET PER MEMBER so that all members classified as 'premium' could get a so called premium ticket. I see no point of a 'premium member' option if one premium member can get another 9 tickets which could be for non-members ie those who contribute nothing to the club. If it was run properly there may not be a need for a 'premium member' option as there would be no problem getting premium seats if someone wants to pay for them and if the first window of ticket sales was truly members only without the 10 ticket option.

I had it partly ready. Was waiting for their 'official preview' Since requests have been made see

Comments from the earlier 'Unofficial Preview' thread: Melbourne should be more scared of us than we are of them Interesting Melbourne with 11 total games against final top 8. What a s**t fixture. Get every Swan to look at this guys (Gawn’s) face, convince them that it is a really bad idea to kick the ball high to a teammate if this man is also near that teammate. Not worried about him. He dominated last time and we won. It’s the rest we have to fear but I think we match up so well against them. It will drive me insane if we kick it to the big bald bloke all game long Yes we beat them once and at this ground but that was ages ago. We are a different team then, probably better tbf but as they showed over the weekend that when they can go, boy they go. Our best wins and we will need to bring it all game Feeling a career best game from Isaac, reckon he is primed to explode... The Grand Final last year showed this Melbourne team is a finals team. No one can have an off game Not just the grand final. They won all three of their finals by an average of 63 points. And it's no wonder when they have names like Gawn, Oliver, Petracca, May... these are players who will be seen as greats of their generation in their respective positions, especially the first two. Very dominant finals campaign reminded me of Richmond 2017 run. 42 inches of snow cover at Mt Buller. I suspect there’ll be plenty of tickets available. Will we adopt our Freo game style of short kicks down the field to avoid Gawn, May and Lever? We have the ability to not get drawn into their gameplan. The fact we are adaptable is what will set us apart, if we match them at the clearances we should be able to win but if we allow Gawn, Petracca and Oliver to get on top it'll be a blood bath Not really happy with the prospect of facing either Brisbane or Tigers if we don't win this one. Not confident about beating the Dees either, they looked unstoppable before half time against the Brions. Hope we're not out in straight sets... The key will be pressure, even if we don't win first use, we shouldn't allow them the time & space to get easy inside 50s. If we put enough pressure, we'll create that turnover game our defence loves. I also don't care if Trac & Oliver get a ton of possessions because their ball use is pretty average May back for Melbourne is the biggest change from that game. He's really the lynchpin of the demons Break works to our favour. Our Young kids are tiring out and need the refresh. The Dees have awesome form but now have a bye to stop their momentum. Gut running and fitness will be key on the expanses of the G as will breaking even in the centre clearances. I say we win. My favourites It feels really weird to be genuinely terrified of an opponent but also very confident we can knock them off. Even if we lose, I’ll still have Essendon’s comical misery to cheer me up.

Their Official Preview thread started last night is cheekily titled: Melbourne Vs Sydney - Mount Buller Financial Woes and starts with: I want everyone to stop thinking about football for one second and feel for those who are running the resorts and ski fields at Mount Buller, since Covid Melbourne have managed to break our previous norms and become one (rather incredible) football team. So of course instead of spending their hard money on a September ski trip, they are now putting it towards grand final packages and finals tickets (with Damn good reason), this has robbed a key Victorian attraction of a financial resource. So if you have some spare coin, please consider donating it to a Carlton or North Melbourne fans get away, you all know the people of Mount Buller need it. I thought that was rather cheeky but gracious! The Official Preview (condensed version): Where the match will be won: decided not out of the middle, but due to which team can bring greater pressure over the entire four quarters. If Sydney can maintain their manic pressure from some of our recent matches (Not the St Kilda and North matches) this will go a long way to deciding the final outcome. Melbourne have an elite inside game with some of the best contested bulls in the league, but if we can place these players under pressure, then their disposal out of the stoppage could be rushed and will greatly benefit our turnover/ skills based kicking game. Key Battles Mills vs Oliver - Got a gut feeling that this will be a key head to head match-up. If Mills can break even here and hurt Oliver in the other direction we will be immediately put on the front foot. Franklin vs May - Usually when it comes to Franklin match ups it is purely about the opposition somehow stopping him, this week though I have a slightly different proposition. Franklin will need to lead May away from the contest a lot this week and if May is at the contest I want to see Franklin break away then hurt him in the other direction. May being out was a huge loss for Melbourne last game, I would rather not see this repeat again. Team defence vs Melbourne Forward Line - Melbourne rotate a lot of different players through their forward line and outside of Ben Brown (Tom McCartin's likely match up), their players don't stay stationary. We will have to be on our toes and commit to a zone style of defence to break them apart (Which I honestly believe we can do). Final Thoughts If we can weather the early Melbourne storm at both the start of the match and after half time (This is a hard ask), then I honestly believe we can win this match of football. Melbourne have been rather inconsistent over the back part of the year and whilst they were impressive last week, Brisbane were also not the side they were earlier in the year. Final Prediction: Sydney by 23 points Other comments on the 'Official Preview' thread; Great preview Bonz, great to see you back in fine sledging form with your titles! Sh---ing myself. Hate this sport. Very confident. Good to have a stress free week and a bit. Melbourne have had a tough draw in the second half of the year and have been found wanting at times. However, they were pretty good last weekend against the Lions. Will be a tough game and hopefully we don’t start slow after the week off. Sydney by a point. Given that Clayton Oliver had nearly as many clearances as the other 43 players combined in the Brisbane game, I dare say limiting his influence is key. Particularly given our own centre clearance woes. Rowy, meet Clayton Clayton Oliver scares the absolute s**t out of me. He's just this freak of nature who does not stop, and can not be stopped. All you can do is hope to drag him down from ridiculously dominant to just "good". Rowbottom made that happen last time. Melbourne owe us for Paul Roos turning that [censored] around I think their best is still the league best to be honest Wake me up in 4 weeks so I can watch our grand final highlights. My favourite: Given that Clayton Oliver had nearly as many clearances as the other 43 players combined in the Brisbane game, I dare say limiting his influence is key. Particularly given our own centre clearance woes. Rowy, meet Clayton Comments from their earlier 'Unofficial Preview' thread in the next post.

Exceeding 70K will depend on AFL members. We don't have many and that stand is generally rather empty when we play i/state teams. I doubt Sydney have many AFL members. The crowd could easily be 80% demon fans and we will make quite a noise!

It will be one day shy of three weeks when we play the QF so will he not be ok?

Good on Eagles. If nothing else it makes Freo sit up and take notice and devise a decent trade!

dear '55, That gave me a real belly laugh. I needed it after a frustrating day! Thank you.

@dworshipThanks. That is weird. Every time I clicked on an 'available' bay it didn't show what seats were available; it just sent me to some other bay in a whole different part of the ground. Happened about 3 or 4 times. FOMO set in and I gave up trying to get seats in what looked like 'available' bays and took what the computer generated.

There is a hiatus between 2 and 3 pm when Members sales ended and General Public opens.

The map appears on Ticketek but while it allows you to click on a bay when the actual tickets come up they are somewhere else completely. Were you able to get tickets allocated in the bay you selected on the map?