spirit of norm smith

Mitch Hardie. Controversial thinking. Draft him in. Late pick. He will walk into our best 22. Know how to play half forward. Knows how to kick goals. Hits targets.

Wish the Dees had a youngster like Cadman. Just looks like a player. A footballer. A goalkicker. Somehow we have to get a key forward one day who just looks like he knows what the game is about.

@KC from Casey Around the grounds last night Corey Ellison kicked 4 goals Dolphins v Port Caleb Lewis kicked 4 gosls Suns v Pies Roy George kicked 2 goals. Port v Dolphins Have to see Jackson Voss in an AFL team next year. His kicking is AFL elite. Gets metres and accuracy. An upgrade on Salem. He’d be great value later in the draft. Shhhhh.

CODE SPORTS Melbourne’s senior players have some currency but it would be a big call to trade leaders like Jake Lever, Jack Viney and Steven May. Lever will be 30 by round 1 next year but was dropped this year as he battles ankle concerns. May will be 34 in January next year and has averaged 2.7 intercept marks a year but also had a poor year by his lofty standards. Bayley Fritsch is contracted for next year and would have suitors but said earlier in the year he wanted to play out his career at Melbourne. Clayton Oliver might have to take a $200,000 pay cut per year to be a trade prospect but even then the Demons might have to pay up to $500,000 of his salary for a club to take the rest of his $1 million wage off the books given a deal of up to $1.7m by 2030.

Spargo. Underwhelming at Casey. Guaranteed he gets the call up. Hit up 2 nice passes but otherwise had little impact and was missing in the last qtr. Fitness? Let’s stop gifting games. Windsor also needs to get played on the wing not half back or in the guts. Woey jnr should come in. He’s been good at Casey and you reward on form and not on name & not on favouritism. Kentfield in for Jeffo. Whilst I’d like to see Jeffo get a good run, last week was so bad. He looked lost. His efforts At times were so insipid. Fritsch and Jeffo together in the same team is a worry. Kolt or Sharp or both to go to Casey. Ins. Kentfield Howes Woey jnr Outs. Jeffo. Kolt. Sharp. I assume Petty will miss to give him a full 2-3 weeks to get over the concussion Footnote, if Lever is not right, then bring in TMCD

Give Judd McVee a 3 year deal and move on. We cannot afford to lose him or any other good ball user in our team.

Tom Morris 💩💩💩💩💩 “He felt he was blindsided, as a result he felt he was disrespected." @tommorris32 believes rival clubs are monitoring the Jake Lever situation at Melbourne, after his 'angry' reaction to being dropped recently. #9FootyClassified | Journalists sorry mud crawlers like Morris like getting into the mud and the negativity

Adelaide v Melbourne10 Izak Rankine (ADEL) 6 Steven May (MELB) 5 Kysaiah Pickett (MELB) 5 Ben Keays (ADEL) 4 Jake Soligo (ADEL)

@Whispering_Jack @durango Not saying we are experts of AFL recruitment but we called out George Stevens multiple times in the 2023 draft thread. He impressed in the under 18s league and for Vic country. Strong and skilled mid. In fact he dominated many under 18 games. Somehow he dropped in the draft to pick 58 and was picked up by the Cats. Ffs. A steal, daylight robbery. He showed that on the weekend.

@binman i know there are a huge amount of stats, but for me Failure to hit targets inside 50…Marks inside 50. Dees 8 (crows 17) Lack of pressure. Tackles inside 50. Dees 5 Lost the Centre clearances 9 (crows 14) Overhandballing 170. Chronic handballing under pressure to no one. Pressure was good except across parts of 2nd and 3rd qtr. Goal conversion in the first was a nightmare. We left at least 5 goals - including bad kicks by Kozzy and Jeffo that went out of bounds on the full Shocking is a mild description of our conversion rate Interception and our tall backs were very good. May and Turner and even Lever were solid and kept us competitive. Questions Do we keep Jeffo in? He was uncompetitive and lacked any physical presence at all. Twice he was exposed for a lack of a chase or second effort. Perhaps Kentfield might get a chance even if he needs more Casey time. Was Goodwin too slow to move McVee off Rankine? Rankine was their winner and goalscorer but we failed to shut him down. Rivers did a better job in the last quarter. The umps were ok but the ARC decision to give Keays goal was ridiculous!!! Goal umpire said a behind. No conclusive evidence to overturn. The review failed to see Mcvee touch the footy. Johnno Brown clearly called it a behind. Why do we always cop the bad calls ?

Kolts draft write up … Blending with Windsor’s class is the grunt and power of Koltyn Tholstrup (pick 13). The West Australian impressed with his willingness to perform roles in Subiaco’s senior side this year, shaping as a character who will only boost the quality of a team’s culture. He plays with great energy and flair going both ways, which should quickly endear him to fans. Even his exploits off the field are eye-catching. While he’ll likely start as a forward, Tholstrup certainly has scope to shift into the on-ball group in future. I just thought we would see a more aggressive style of footy, a young man with real intensity and attack at the footy. Instead he looks hesitant. He fumbles. His kicking is so so. He was poor at Casey yet the Dees have kept the faith in him and have given him more game time.

Kentfield probably deserves a debut game. I think he will compete and give us more than Jeffo as a key forward.

Lots of dumb footy , dumb decisions, fumbles and fumbles 💔 Lots of heart and effort and grit ❤️ Trac needs specsavers - fumbles everything 💔 Goody - McVee got thrashed and he kept him on Rankine 💔 Gawn fights to the end but his kick to Oreilly was just so poor Basically we failed in the real “Moments that mattered” Missed shots in 1st qtr by Trac x2, kozzzy, Jeffo , Langdon, Melksham Fritsch miss in 3rd qtr from 8 metres out Curtin marks uncontested in a pack in the last qtr on 10n square Kozzzzy in the last which was touched on the line Umps give Keays the goal when it was touched

Not looking at stats - which include hopeless little nothing handballs or kicks sideways and then back to you. 6 May 5 Viney 4 Melksham 3 Turner 2 Pickett 1 Lindsay Apologies to Gawn -3 Jeffo -2 Fritsch -1 McVee sadly

Tmcd retire Laurie delist Kentfield promote Campbell retire Verrall give him more minutes Woey he’s a no Mentha keep developing Windsor 2nd year blues

We are the worst tackling team in the comp Missed tackles everywhere

Name a good player Kozzzy for 7 minutes May maybe Then … no one really

Fritsch. Miss from 5 metres out. Jeffo to Kolt. Slow and wide. Sure a free kick but it was poor. Jeffo. Fumbles and stumbles. Trac. Fumbles. Oliver. Missed tackles.

McVee. Won’t need a shower !!!

Up to Half Time: Set shots 11 Goals 4 Behinds 5 Out on the full 2

Hardie is a class above our trundlers Unbelievable he wasn’t drafted last year. Dominates in midfield and kicks goals He would walk in ahead of Sparrow, Sharp, Spargo, Laurie, Kolt etc.

McVee. Stay on Rankine. Not 20 metres in front of!!

Kozzzy Air Kozzzy 👏👏👏👏

Dry No breeze Sunny 1.6 Misses by Trac, Melksham, Langdon. Plus Jeffo out of bounds from the goal line and Kozzzy out of bounds from 20 meters slight angle JEFFO HALF HEARTED AND JOGGING !!

4.11 “We are working on our goalkicking every week”. Simon Goodwin I hear words but it’s all hot air. Pathetic.