Dem – Melbourne at sitting 4-2 comfortably in the 8 and are 2-1 v the top 8 sides they have played.

Not sure language like ‘turn the season around’ is appropriate at this point….. making out like they’re bottom 6 (not top 6)!

Players to leave Freo in the past 6 year
Liam Henry
Lachie Shultz
Rory Lobb
Griffin Logue
Lloyd Meek
Darcy Tucker
Adam Cerra
Jesse Hogan
Bradley Hill
Ed Langdon
Lachie Neale
Harley Balic
Hayden Crozier
Lachie Weller

Players Freo Traded in over the past 6 years
Reece Conca
Jesse Hogan (GwS)
Rory Lobb (WB)
Travis Collyer
Blake Acres (Carlton)
James Aish
Will Brodie
Jordan Clark
Josh Corbett
Luke Jackson
Jeager Omeara

Trades have not worked for Freo. Players they have brought in leave quickly. They have gone to the draft and got some good kids (Brayshaw, Young, Serong, Fredrick), but it seems it’s only a matter of time before they walk too. They also traded out of this years draft so won’t be getting any top line talent this year after finishing bottom 6. Peter Bell has a lot to answer for.

“Easy to play come finals time”? Mate they lost by a combined 9 points across two finals and had about 1000 more inside 50s. Don’t think that is ‘easy to play against’. Hearing some of the Carlton players talk post match (Sam Walsh) saying it was the hardest game they have been involved in is testament to this.

I take some of your points however throw away lines like that just aren’t accurate. The Dees only have themselves to blame. They kick straight they win both of those games. Has nothing to do with being easy to play against. At all.

This time of the year this articles get written, the big headlines craved. I get it. But the Demons are not done yet, with a quality list, amazing draft capital and lots of cap space, they will be around for a few years yet.

Hear this every single week with Collingwood. Must be the most sickly team on the planet.

Gawn absolutely monstered Cox and Cameron and was clearly BOG. To the point he subbed one of them out and kept dominating in the last quarter.

Good win to the pies, but please, just stop with the sickness stuff.

So, using the argument of ‘accidents happen’ or it’s a ‘football act’, why do the AFL rub blokes out (See Sicily) for tackles, which are not intended to hurt the opposition player, but have unfortunate and accidental ramifications when the players head hits the ground. Should incidents like this one not be put under the same microscope?
Maynard chose to jump, turn his shoulder and collected Brayshaw in the head. If we’re rubbing players out for accidental tackles, can’t see how this isn’t graded careless and high too. And tackling has been a part of ‘our unique game’ since day dot….
Personally I hope he gets rubbed out for the grand final. Absolute grub and always has been. A real fake tough guy.

All fair comments, except for Johnson. I was at the game on KB and he had a shocker. Big game, pressure got to him and he made a number of mistakes. (according to my many Pies mates!). Interesting with Mitchell – been sub a couple of times now, wonder if that’s how they see his role going into finals or if they are just managing him (without omitting him) now for later. Time will tell!

Pies have done it many times yes, but the question is how sustainable is it? We saw what happened in finals last year. Credit where due, Pies deserve to be favourites atm with a 16-2 win loss rate. But when you factor in what happened in finals last year, being up for so long, a risk and reward game style plus the fact two other top 4 sides have got hold of them, it’s not over like many are suggesting.
You can say Bris are the biggest threat, but they don’t win at the MCG. The only team who have beaten the Pies at the G this year is Melbourne. And that game should have been far more than 4 points. A lot to play out, and based on the top 4 form against each other, it’s going to be a ripping finals series – just hope it’s better than last year!!

Oh yes, my apologies, I must have forgotten that the season is defined by the last 2 months alone. We just discount the first 10 games, right? It’s an interesting game to play just choosing certain parts of the season to make a point, but hey, I guess that’s how some like to see the game. Would you say the top 4 are a bracket above the rest?

Current formline of the top 4 vs top 4 teams couldn’t be more even, FYI:
Pies: 2-2
Port: 2-2
Bris: 2-2
Dees: 2-2

But yes, BOG average and it’s Collingwood’s to lose.

Thank you for proving my point. As stated Cam, Collingwood wins by the smallest of margins more than any other team, yet is praised for it. Often coming from behind at 3 QTR time. Not so for the Demons though! Bog average and ‘comprehensively outplayed’ in those close games, which coincidentally, they won! 😂 In addition, it’s also just glossed over they won all those games (including knocking off first and third on ladder) without their best mid (heard of Clayton Oliver?) and best forward for the final two.

‘Bog average’ would have a team 8th or below, not two games inside the 4. It seems, due to your clear dislike of the club, you’re not willing to acknowledge this and I look forward to your response if they do in fact finish top 4. Or better still, win the flag! Still bog average, no doubt….

Commentary around Melbourne from this author is not surprising….. clearly a team which Cam doesn’t rate or like. See prior article around them being ‘bog average’. Despite Melbourne sitting 4th, they are still apparently in ‘no mans land’ 😂 . Similarly, despite winning two high quality, close games in the past two weeks – the media and writers like Cam continually focus on what the Dees don’t do. ‘Comprehensively outplayed’, ‘almost gobbled up’ examples of the language used frequently when describing Melbourne’s wins. If we flip that and look at Collingwood, the media and authors on this site continually praise them for coming back and winning close games. Melbourne came back from 24 points with 7 mins to play against the third placed team to win by a point and don’t get the respect and praise that Collingwood continues to receive. Makes me sick.

If Port beat the Pies this week, the top 4 form against other top 4 teams is as follows:
Pies, 1-3
Port, 3-1
Bris, 2-2
Dees, 2-2
Yet, the media (and betting markets) have the Pies as runaway flag faves with one hand on the cup. Amazing what influence the media can have on the general thinking in AFL circles.

With Jackson leaving, the Demons had a plan to replace him with, low and behold, another ruckman! So they go and get Grundy, because they didn’t have another ready made ruckman aside from Will Verrall who is not AFL ready. Max and Grundy have played 12 games together and I think we can all see that Max needs to be doing most of the rucking. Experimenting isn’t a bad thing. Grundy has been as successful as Jackson was at this point last year, kicking more goals and having a better average in hitouts. Melbourne was willing to pay a lot more than 600k for Jackson to stay. Whether it works out from next season onwards, we’ll have to wait and see. But to say the Demons were dumb for getting Grundy to replace Jackson, they are no worse than last year – if not better – and have a ready made ruckman in waiting to launch into another finals campaign.

Good to see four of the 5 tipsters reference Melbourne playing GWS at the MCG, when they’re actually playing at TIO in Alice Springs…

Your defence was troubled by the Melbourne fwds as recently as August last year, on your home turf, to the tune of 8 goals. ….

Why is everyone talking about the G game last year? Are we just happy to forget the last game the two teams played (which was like a mini final), where Freo folded badly at their home ground? In a game that actually meant something….

One very interesting sub-plot to this game is the fact that Freo are handing Melbourne their first round pick this year, which all Melbourne fans will be watching with glee. Put the nail in the coffin Dees.

And comparing Walters to Oliver in terms of importance 😂

“I’ll put my hand up and admit my call for Clarkson and Fagan to be sacked when the allegations against them first came to light was excessively emotional and came without the required caveat that said allegations needed to be validated – many readers strongly opposed my viewpoint, and on entirely reasonable grounds”.

Well done Tim. Only took 8 months.

I didn’t do either of those things Homer. Go back and have a read… oh wait, you can’t. LOL. But you keep living in your own diluted world atop that high horse.

People who can’t take another point of view without calling the other person a ‘crackpot’ are the real problem in society these days.

Careful Yawn,

Homer and Tim will delete comments and call you a crackpot for this rational comment!!

Absolutely spot on Damo

The report would have been referred to the AFL regardless of serious allegations.

It was a third-party ‘self assessment’ of the club and its culture, something that all clubs are doing in the wake of both Adelaide and Collingwood fiascos.

If the report came out with glowing references and accounts from indigenous players, staff etc, you can bet it still will have made its way to the AFL.

Spot on.

And that is fine. My point is that the general public (on public forums like this) have a tendency to get up in arms well before knowing all the facts.

All we know now is there are allegations made in a report.

Until the report is validated, and action is taken, everyone could use a deep breath and wait to see what transpires. What if Clarkson and co come out and deny the allegations? Who do you believe then?

Because the media have never run a story, named and shamed only to be proven wrong…

Let’s just wait and see before we all blow our lids and remember innocent until proven guilty. Too often in the past few years the public will take anything written or run on TV as gospel before actually checking facts. If true, repercussions will occur. But we’re not there, yet.

Not sure they’re a damned club. This team isn’t the same as yesteryear.

Winning a flag interstate, while not traditional, is no different to every interstate team Premiership team having to do it outside their home state, at the G. Most fans can’t get to the G on game day but still revel in the win. Melbourne, while wanting to win at the MCG for sure, still take that flag to the bank every day of the week. More opportunities should present in future. Not damned at all.

Good article, agree with many of the points. It’s impossible to fully understand where or how the team that was #3 for most quarters won this season and was in front for 71% of game time (#1 in comp) goes out in straight sets. Going from hunter to hunted. Teams breaking down your gameplan over the offseason to pick you apart. Injuries. Fitness? What is it?
Without over-engineering it, put simply, it’s football. It’s really hard to win a premiership, and it’s even harder to go back-to-back. If anything, I think losing in this fashion this year will see the Dees perhaps refocus and understand that even though you have a quality list, it doesn’t just happen. The comp is so even. Everyone lauding them premiers after being 10-0 won’t happen again.
Thinking back a few years when they had had a player in a similar boat to Jackson, Tom Scully. He ended up going to GWS and the Dees landed Jesse Hogan in return. They were a bottom four side and traded in a player who was almost expected to change the club overnight. Fast forward to 2022, Jackson will leave and the Dees will demand similar in terms of compensation. Yet, whatever pick and/or player they receive in return will be topping up a team that finished second on the ladder in 2022. I’m tipping them to be around the mark for a number of years yet, whilst acknowledging that nothing is guaranteed in football…. they’ll be thereabouts.

Haha I did think his name may have come into it! 😂

Fair enough re summary – think both are built of defence which usually brings silverware, however need to sort out their avenues to goal to go all the way this year!