Pinball Wizard

It was a big night for Melbourne with a win in the NRL for Melbourne Storm in a thriller by two points over the Brisbane Broncos 34 - 32.

And a big pointer for next Thursday night’s game in the AFL between Melbourne and Brisbane. 

Next week we get the advantage of the fixture in our favour.

6 Christian Petracca

5 Steven May 

4 Max Gawn 

3 Judd McVee 

2 Tom Sparrow 

1 Jack Viney

I don’t think this one has a firewall.

Brisbane Lions stars have 'split up with their partners due to what happened on end-of-season trip to Las Vegas'

The AFL has released the names of restricted and unrestricted free agents for this year.

2024 AFL restricted and unrestricted free agent list

The Demons have nobody on the restricted list and a relatively small list of players affected in the unrestricted category, mostly players at the veteran stage.

Melbourne

Restricted - Nil

Unrestricted

Jake Melksham *
Tom McDonald
Joel Smith
Adam Tomlinson
Marty Hore *

6 Clayton Oliver 
5 Max Gawn 
4 Steven May 
3 Jack Billings 
2 Christian Petracca 
1 Kade Chandler 
 

Just saw this 

VFL practice match | Top Demons

We will definitely be going into this game with a young side.

On 01/03/2024 at 16:11, Redleg said:

I believe if your namesake was playing in the QF last year, Gus would still be playing and we would have been into the Prelim Final and possibly winning the flag.

Maynard would never have done that if Rodney was out there.

 

Balls is 58 years of age. Do you really think he would frighten Maynard?

On 23/02/2024 at 14:57, Kent said:

	PLAYER	INJURY	LENGTH
	Angus Brayshaw	Illness	TBC
	Ben Brown	Knee	TBC
	Tom Fullarton	Hamstring	TBC
	Lachie Hunter	Calf	TBC
	Tom McDonald	Calf	TBC
	Jake Melksham	ACL	TBC
	Andy Moniz-Wakefield	Thigh	TBC
	Harrison Petty	Toe	TBC
	Joel Smith	Suspension	TBC
	Charlie Spargo	Achilles	TBC
	Taj Woewodin	Concussion	TBC
	Daniel Turner	Stress Fracture	7-9 Weeks

 

 

So the only surety is Turner at 7 to 9 weeks and Kozzie at 1 week

Shane McAdam?

14 hours ago, DeeZone said:

Who else would know??

Bozo the clown?

4 hours ago, Pennant St Dee said:

WAFL Colts GF

Zane Zakostelsky- clear best on ground dominated in the ruck and with his follow up work at ground level. Commentators were a little disengenuous saying he was dominating due to Livingstone being out, but he actually towelled Livingstone up 2 weeks ago in the semi final. Turned over a few kicks and will take time at AFL level 

Dan Curtin - played mostly midfield before dropping back into the backline late in the fourth. Good game without being outstanding. Took some key marks and prominent around the stoppages in the 3rd when Claremont took total control. Copped significant treatment from Perth players at every opportunity throughout the day

Cody Angove - very good early, playing high up the ground and getting involved in transition. Showed how dangerous he is around goal with snap on the run in the second- one to watch next year

Hamish Davis best forward on the ground used his endurance to present all day and to good for Cameron Hall. Kicked 3 and very important in the 4th with his leading patterns and 1v2 wins when Perth were pushing head

Seb Ballard - really solid effort as medium defender. Big bodied player who took several marks and set up rebound from Claremont defensive 50

Kai Dehaviland - strong in and under performance around the stoppages and also some poise with ball in hand when playing forward to set up tea mates

Bailey Banfield - another contested mid who won hardball and was clean with his ball use. Hit Davis with a beautiful kick on the move to set up a goal

Elijah Scoble - Perths best took several intercept marks, hit the contest hard to spoil after leaving his direct opponent. Probably a 3rd tall at next level if drafted but did his chances no harm on Sunday

Aidan O’Driscoll - on fire early kicking the first two goals of the game with the second being one on the run where he showed his explosive pace and skill to kick a snap at full pace. Doesn’t play accountable footy but with that pace, foot skills and ability to impact the scoreboard should get picked up

Jake Watson- found a fair bit of footy as he has all year with his reading of the play. Not as big an impact as normal but was important when Perth threw caution to the wind and he pushed forward more from half back

Oscar Hine-Baston - had his hands full and probably lowered his colours to Angove but showed some glimpses with running handball receives of the line breaking ability he has

How did Sam van Rooyen go?

There was no club injury update yesterday. According to AFL Tonight on Fox Footy the players from the Swans game in Sydney have had a couple of days off before returning to training.

19 minutes ago, slimecat said:

I just had a dream that Clayton Oliver kicked from the pocket to Ben Brown (?) standing right on the goal line who slotted it in to put us 35 points up halfway through the third quarter. MAKE OF THAT WHAT YOU WILL.

Did you have tacos to eat late at night before you went to bed?

You need to understand that Jefferson has been competing with some seasoned key forwards for room as a key forward at Casey. There’s Brown, T.Mac and Schache for starters so Jefferson hasn’t had a regular space in front of goal and yet has probably kicked more than 20 goals so far this year at Casey. I seem to recall that JVR had a better run at it last year and much less competition for space.

6 minutes ago, Lord Travis said:

Think Mckercher will wind up at North with pick 3 if they get it for McKay…

If someone pays McKay enough money to warrant him being classified as a pick 3 compo they would have to be certified.

6. Max Gawn 
5. Christian Petracca 
4. Jack Viney 
3. Kysaiah Pickett  
2. Angus Brayshaw 
1. Jake Melksham 

5 hours ago, Clintosaurus said:

Casey playing a scratchie against St Kilda this weekend. Sandy I'm guessing? 

Thanks for the heads up. Wonder if anyone has an idea of exactly where and when? Possibly Casey rather than Sandy IMO because of the ground size or alternatively, at RSEA Park, Moorabbin where they sometimes play the Under 18s comp games.

VFL Player Focus: Harley Reid (Carlton)

Are we going to see a mea culpa from Kane Cornes?

On 4/30/2023 at 9:32 AM, Demonland said:

On a sodden ground and in humid conditions, the Demons looked weary and managed to escape with the points against the improving Suns.

MELBOURNE 3.1.19 9.1.55 12.5.77 12.10.82

GOLD COAST SUNS 2.3.15 6.5.41 8.7.55 10.9.69

THE TEAMS

GOLD COAST SUNS

B:  D.Swallow 24 S.Collins 25 S.Lemmens 23
HB: R.Atkins 2 C.Ballard 10 W.Powell 27
C: J.Sharp 20 T.Miller 11 - C B.Ellis 4
HF: N.Holman 7 L.Casboult 30 J.Lukosius 13
F: S.Flanders 26 M.Chol 1 B.Ainsworth 9
Foll: J.Witts 28 - C M. Rowell 18 N.Anderson 15
I/C: A.Davies 5 B.Fiorini 8 C.Graham 46 A. Sexton 6
Sub: D.Macpherson 44 Emerg: J. Corbett 19

In: R.Atkins S.Flanders

Out: 

MELBOURNE

B: A. Tomlinson 20 S.May 1 J.Hunt 29 
HB: T.Rivers 24 J.Smith 44 J.Bowey 17 
C: A.Brayshaw 10 C.Oliver 13 E.Langdon 15
HF: K.Pickett 36 B.Brown 50 J.Harmes 4
F: B.Fritsch 31 T.McDonald 25 A.Neal-Bullen 30
Foll: M.Gawn - C 11 C.Petracca 5 J.Viney 7
I/C: L.Jackson 6 C.Spargo 9 J.Jordon 23 T.Sparrow 32
Sub: T.Bedford 12 Emerg: J.Melksham 18 S.Weideman 26 L.Dunstan 27 

In: T.Rivers 

Out: C.Salem (knee)
 

Considering this was only a couple of games after a premiership there’s been a fair turnover of players from then till now. Expect a better performance from the current team with a much stronger defence.

43 minutes ago, deejammin' said:

That may be the rule. But it’s not the rule if you literally never pay it. I’ve watched close to every game this season (love Kayo!) and I can point to hundreds of examples of this. Watch the highlights of Florent’s kick against Port, there’s two players in that area, there’s countless other examples of players doing that. To the point that players had forgotten this is the rule. This is THE problem if you only pay it once in a hundred times it’s an enormous disadvantage to the one team it happens to.
the AFL wants to enforce that, fine, send out a memo at the start of the season that they will be harsh on this and pay it consistently, the whole time. What they did was cherry pick it once, six rounds and seven games into the season and have a huge impact on the game (reversing a point to a goal).
It’s the same as the Coniglio free a few weeks back, if no-one is paying it and you pull it out once and say it’s the rule, but never do it again, no matter how much you justify it it’s a huge disadvantage to the one team who cops it. 
The narrative coming into this season and last was that they were going to be lighter on the protected area and only pay it when it blatantly effected the ball carrier as the fifty was too big a penalty for indiscretions that didn’t affect the play, same with the stand rule being loosened.

I watched the free again and I think Lever was on the borderline of 5m behind the mark. To apply a 50m penalty in those circumstances was ludicrous. 

It’s time that we had a dedicated thread where we can discuss the people in the football media.

First cab off the rank is this man who already has his eyes on the supporters’ Media Fool of the Year.

Ch7 commentator Brian Taylor goes too far, is complete laughing stock

4 minutes ago, Sydney Pennski said:

Well … we might know a little more in 2 hours time when the squad is reduced to 22 players plus the 4 emergencies 

As a matter of interest, when is the Casey team expected to be announced?

7 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

My only worry is Sydney defenders will double team Brown due to not having another solid senior body up forward.

This was certainly a worry in the latter half of last year, when we weren’t fully fit and had some important players carrying injuries. 

It’s going to be different on Sunday. If they double team BBB then we’ll have someone loose and if the ball is brought to ground, then … BANG!

6. Clayton Oliver 
5. Jake Lever 
4. Angus Brayshaw 
3. Bayley Fritsch 
2. Ben Brown 
1. Lachie Hunter