spirit of norm smith

Medical retirement. Brayshaw Susiension. Delisted. JS29 99.9% guaranteed to retire Ben Brown Likely outs. Schache. Hunter. Likely to look elsewhere. Tomlinson 6 list spots. Promote Moniz-Wakefield. 5 list spots most likely Likely to retire but not guaranteed. Melksham (33) TomMcd (32). Playing ok but don’t want to stretch it too far. Need to keep 3 live draft picks. I think 2024 will be a super draft by the way.

Good timing. I was thinking that we hadn’t had an update and wondered if he was going ok. Thanks for the update.

No. We have the backline sorted with tall options. Lever. Turner. Hore also plays a similar style. Need to find or spend money on skilled fast midfielders.

Hopefully he is recovering. It was quite an ordeal. I thought he might get back to work with younger guys like Kolt on how to position himself and pass on his footy IQ. Or even in recruitment. Imagine Trac and JT coming to meet you and your parents as part of the MFC recruitment.

Any update on Trac?

Kolt & Salem out injured Sparrow dropped. Yes had to happen. Had to happen. He has been very poor. Lever stays in. Just !!! He was horrible last week. Gawn in 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 Woey jnr in 👏👏👏 Laurie in ??????? Why ??! Had a holiday in WA last week !! Kynan Brown absolutely busted himself last week without much support. 24 tackles. Has to be patient but hard ti explain why he’s not in !!

Bowey 👍🏻 is a good pick ; showed his skill through 2021 and still fits across half back He’s a premiership player 👏👏🏆🏆 Laurie 💩 yes agree … why pick another small player He was a smart small forward/mid We had Chandler and Spargo already I’m surprised we have persisted and extended his contract End of 2024 should have been enough to say unfortunately it didn’t work Rosman ❌ had the athletic ability but footy positioning and IQ were lacking. Showed good pace and ability at CHB but injuries impacted him. Delisted without playing a game. Speculative pick really.

Getting back to the 2024 draft @Whispering_Jack 👏👏👏 Langford trained with the Dees over the summer. Definitely would have impressed the club given his strong work ethic and talent. Let’s hope he’s one of the available young midfielders at our pick on draft night. VIC COUNTRY THE STAR: HARVEY LANGFORD A powerful midfielder from the Dandenong Stingrays, Langford finished the tournament not only as Vic Country's MVP but also as a joint winner of the Larke Medal. A hardworking contest star, Langford also has a booming kick when he finds space on the outside and can take a strong mark. He averaged 25.5 disposals, 6.3 clearances and 7.5 score involvements across his four games for Vic Country. "He was superb from the first game against SA," Vic Country coach Paul Corrigan said. "He just carried that form through for us. He pretty much played the whole time in the middle. He was exceptional around stoppages and clearances. "He also found a lot of ball on the outside, but also proved on the weekend he's got that aerial prowess to go forward and mark the footy and hit the scoreboard as well. I just thought his whole campaign was super consistent and really impressive for us."

Marcus Prasad. Dromana. Demons NGA.

Agree that we cannot underestimate the contribution of Todd Viney and Mahoney ( who brought in Lever, Melksham , Hibberd, May, Langdon, Tomlinson, Brown).

Tim Lamb is front and centre to all trade talk discussion around the MFC posts, media etc and the AFL posts, media etc. Definitely responsible and accountable for trades (as well as Goody). https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1453491/list-boss-excited-by-fullarton-potential https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/1232733/2022-trade-period-media-conference-tim-lamb?videoId=1232733&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1664775876001 https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/1454073/trade-period-tim-lamb?videoId=1454073&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1697688629001 https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1023592/lamb Agree role also involves signing up players contracts which included long term deals for Trac, Clarry and Gus.

Outs. Kolt and Salem (inj), Sparrow (omitted) ins. Gawn if fit, K-Brown, Howes

@1964nowMORE agreed. I think Retschko could be the steal of the draft in the 40s. I hope he would be highlighted on JTs list.

Add in - Zane Cochrane - Oakleigh Chargers and Carey Grammar. Will be a huge chance to get drafted but likely in the 50-60 range. Had an excellent game again on the weekend for Carey (v Wesley). Clearly was best on ground and has improved this year with his running to become an excellent mid who can kick goals as well. I believe on the grapevine that Brighton v Haileybury was a cracker of a game too

2025 midfield recruit … just give him a pencil. 🤣🤣🤣

Yes interesting to see Langford at 18, Travaglia at 21 and Moraes at 27 … all would be welcome to be in red and blue for 2025.

Great news. He’s shown great pace and talent. Dees need to get busy in this years draft and find more young talent. There are more skilled pacy players to add to our squad.

Agreed. Salem has had a good career but it appears injuries are slowing him down. It was spoken about that he could step into the midfield this year. Certainly not the case.

And of course … not sure why BBB pushed on this year. I know he had a contract but he can’t play two games back to back and can hardly run. A sad finish !!! Ben Brown was absent from both AFL and VFL matches due to some knee soreness. “Ben had some knee soreness last week following the game, we gave him every opportunity to be able to play the game, but unfortunately just wasn't able to,” Griffith said. “So, we'll reassess that this week, with our main priority to make sure Ben is able to function to be at AFL level for the back end of the season.”

Koltyn Tholstrup was the second casualty from the Sunday game, with delayed concussion symptoms pushing him into required protocols. “Koltyn had a head knock in the game,” Griffith said. “He passed the initial SCAT (sport concussion assessment tool) and was cleared of anything there. “Following us returning to Melbourne, he had some delayed symptoms with headaches and altered vision and has now entered the concussion protocol. So, he'll progress through that as symptoms settle.”

I remember there were questions when Grundy was recruited. Everyone was puzzled but we kept the faith and hoped Goodys decision might be strangely a good one. It wasn’t? He ultimately called it and bears the accountability for the failed experiment, but the question is, was it the right or smart move in the first place?

We’ve had two years to replace Jackson. Sure we had Grundy as an experiment. It was unlikely to be the answer but Goody chickened out very quickly. Grundy is making a few MFC decision makers very embarrassed right now. The admission that new recruit Tom Fullarton would have had zero impact in the ruck is a total admission of a failed list manager strategy. We already had multiple tall forwards. Why is he now seen as only a tall forward? Bizarre by coach and list manager. We had the chance to recruit Meek at end of ‘22. We had the chance to get Liam Reddy. We indeed could have grabbed Harry Boyd from the SANFL. Instead MFC decided “apparently” to go with Gawn as the only ruckman. Wow. Poor planning or poor list management. Both. I like Verrall and think he has a future. He can be developed but agree at 20yo that he has more physical development needed. Another 12 months will see him get bigger and stronger imv. Max is 32. He has 3-5 years left definitely. Ruckman develop later but can play longer. Goldstein is still going at 36. But Max needs support and cover as he is only human. We know he’s super human but to go without a Plan B for the ruck in 2024 was an obvious fail. We prayer that Max returns from injury this week.

You get assessed on actions and outcomes. Lamb is tracking for a F grade outcome. Fail. Unsure how he would keep his role going forward. Fyi Josh Mahoney delivered excellent trades and success.

AFL.com.au's predicted final ladder* 1. Sydney 2. Carlton 3. Brisbane 4. Geelong 5. Fremantle 6. Western Bulldogs 7. Greater Western Sydney 8. Essendon 9. Hawthorn 10. Port Adelaide 11. Gold Coast 12. Melbourne 13. Collingwood 14. St Kilda 15. Adelaide 16. North Melbourne 17. West Coast 18. Richmond

Clarry is not going anywhere. With the right support and a solid pre season, he will get back to being a premier midfielder. I’d also have a chat about the stupid little 2 metre handballs. “Run and spread and kick” needs to get back into his game.