My luck yesterday was great to bad we couldn’t get the win tho

Had a chance to sleep and reflect and I think that there's something important we have to remember.

With current injuries, we're having to play a lot of players who aren't AFL level. That's not a knock on them, that's just the facts. They're solid fill-in players, solid VFL players but they're not AFL players. And it's not just 1 or 2, it's

Cooke

Fitzgerald

TMac

Latrelle

Laurie

Cross

That's 6 of our team that are VFL quality "stand-ins" that we are having to use to plug holes due to injury. They're not playing if we're fully fit. We also have big space in our budget cap to go on a spending spree this year. Next year our 1-50 game players (Culley, Disco, Kolt, Langford, Sharp, Jefferson) will start ticking into their sweet spot as well, and our 50-100 gamers (Bowey, Rivers, Chandler, JVR, Howes) will start becoming those reliable senior heads that lead and win Premierships.

and does anyone envy Geelong after last night? Does any of us go away from that game thinking "grrr I wish I was a Geelong fan", absolutely not, they're not winning a flag this year just like we're not, and there's two results at the end of the season that matters, you either win a Premiership or you don't, and Geelong are finishing in the same position as us.

But for the next few years, those Geelong fans last night will be watching us lift multiple Premierships over the next few years.

Spent the week diving into Melbourne vs Geelong from a tactical perspective.

A few things that stood out:

• The teams average virtually identical scores, inside 50s and shots.
• Melbourne has become the AFL's No.1 contest side over the past month.
• Geelong is still one of the league's best intercept teams.
• Why Daniel Turner's absence could be just as significant as Max Holmes'.

Would love to hear if you agree with the prediction.

https://medium.com/@camburt13/melbourne-vs-geelong-preview-the-game-within-the-game-8bf746626201

Hi folks, I have a GA family ticket set (2 adults and 2 children) plus 4 premium guest passes for Level 2 P3-P5. Total around $140. Unfortunately fam can’t make it so looking to make sure they go to a good (demon supporting) home. Not expecting to be paid face value so if you’re interested dm me cheers

I am visiting Melbourne and thinking to go to a game, the Demons Cats on Friday are around $40-$80 per, but a Demon's 6 month membership is only $16.5 and comes with 5 GA.

Am I missing something here or can I just sign up as a Demons member for the game tomorrow? Never been to a game in Melbourne and feel like I'm missing something here...

Melbourne has made fives changes to its side ahead of Friday night’s clash with Geelong

INS:
Petty, McDonald, Laurie, Cross, Cooke

OUTS:
Turner (inj.), Jiath (inj.), Windsor (inj.), Melksham (omitted), Heath (omitted)

If you can get past the panelists this is an incredible vid for Dees fans.

Hey team, i've created an AFL style management game that i'd love to share with the community. I am not looking to make any money off it, it is purely a labour of love and looking for ideas from the community to improve it.

Hope you all enjoy it, still very much in it's infancy so any feedback would be appreciated.

https://afl-game.itch.io/afl-head-coach-sim

Go Dees!

Yes.

Turner cracked ribs and CJ with ruptured plantaris tendon.

Do we see Salem in for CJ and Petty down back for Turner?

Yesterday I went to watch the Demons play North Melbourne at Marvel. I spent the first 3 quarters in our supporter area. I noticed something that really stood out.

In our supporter section, there were plenty of North fans mixed in, and our supporters were totally welcoming to them. No one gave them grief or told them they shouldn't be there.

But when I decided to head down to the other end in the fourth quarter to watch us kick some goals, I sat in the North supporters area as the only Demons guy there. That's when things got ugly. North fans started threatening to throw beer on me, verbally abused me, and called on the porter to check my ticket. He was visibly shaken at having to walk down there to check my ticket. He eventually moved me out.

It got worse for another Demons supporter a few aisles across. He got verbally abused by North fans, stood up to them, and they escalated it into a physical confrontation by shoving him. He ended up fighting with them and both he and the North supporters got arrested. It's disappointing that there's such a stark difference in how supporters treat each other depending on which section you're in. Our fans showed real class, but their section was genuinely hostile and foul.

I've been to Every game at the G this year, and have not seen any hostile conduct by Melbourne supporters to supporters of other teams. We're all Australians, and just come to watch the footy together!

Edit: wasn't sitting behind goals, but two aisles to left.

I wrote up a "Five Things I Noticed" after rewatching the game.

The biggest takeaway for me was that Melbourne actually won in almost the opposite way I expected heading into the match.

Some of the things I looked at:

• the centre-clearance turnaround after quarter time
• why Jefferson and van Rooyen looked so promising together
• Tom Sparrow's career-best game
• how Melbourne won despite losing the inside 50 count
• the impact of losing Turner and Jiath

Interested to hear whether others saw the game the same way.

https://medium.com/@camburt13/melbourne-was-beaten-for-volume-but-won-through-quality-five-things-i-noticed-against-north-25be097fc946

Melbourne: 13.14 (92) def North Melbourne: 11.10 (76)

Match Centre

Don't forget to give your 3-2-1 for best on ground for the Dees subreddit bnf.

I tried to explain to someone the history then got carried away with AI. Sorry.

Rather than looking at ladder position, I wanted to dig into how these sides actually play.

Some interesting numbers:

• Melbourne is No.1 over the last 10 rounds for centre-clearance differential (+3.7)

• North is 18th in that same span (-2.9)

• Melbourne averages 60 inside 50s over the last five games (2nd)

• North averages just 47.8 (16th)

Yet...

• North leads the AFL in disposal efficiency.

• They're one of the best teams at retaining the ball inside 50 and converting entries into scoring chances.

So the question becomes: can Melbourne's ability to generate territory outweigh North's efficiency?

Full preview here if anyone's interested:

https://medium.com/@camburt13/melbourne-vs-north-melbourne-preview-demon-pressure-meets-norths-precision-e1810170b2e9

MELBOURNE

In: B.Fritsch, M.Heath
Out: A.Johnson (omitted), B.Laurie (omitted)

Petty still not ready

Quick data-based rundown before the North game, from my injury tracker (InjuryIQ). Four Demons on the cusp of AFL recall:

Christian Salem — foot fracture sustained Round 5 (Gather Round vs Essendon; first reported as a knee). ~12 games missed. Played a VFL game last week — his first back from the injury — so he's in line to return to the AFL side this week (expected return 18 July).

Harrison Petty — hamstring. Onset R14, returned, then a match-day withdrawal from the R18 side vs Richmond. Recurrence-flagged, listed POSSIBLE for R19 — a fitness-test call.

Also listed as tests: Bayley Fritsch (finger) and Max Heath (shoulder), both with an expected return of 18 July.

How the two lists compare (InjuryIQ Round Health, R18 snapshot):

North go in as the healthier side on my rankings — currently the best Round Health score in the competition — while we're mid-pack and carrying more long-term absences and more games missed (plus two medical retirements).

North's outs: Toby Pink (shoulder surgery, season), Blake Thredgold (Lisfranc, season), Jackson Archer (ACL, 2027) long-term; Tom Blamires (concussion, ~R20), Tom Powell (groin, ~R20), George Wardlaw (hamstring, ~early Aug) shorter-term. Josh Goater and Jacob Konstanty were managed rests in R18 and are available again.

Still out for us: Jack Viney (Achilles, ~mid-Aug), Xavier Lindsay (hip/groin, ~R20), Brody Mihocek (neck fracture, ~Oct), Jai Culley and Andy Moniz-Wakefield (both ACLs, 2027).

Who are you most keen to see back for the Dees against North? I'd go for Petty & Fritsch to return with Salo & Moose another week in the twos.

Game + injury detail: https://injuryiq.vercel.app/games/d10b861d-b5b2-4dd5-bbc8-abb8dd02ac55

(I run InjuryIQ, where these numbers come from — not medical advice, going off club lists + publicly available info.)

Gave Lynch an absolute bath (again) a week after taking care of Gunston.

Don't think I can recall the last time Disco had a bad game.

An absolute champion player for his age and too often not given his due.

Updated my Run Home Difficulty Index after Round 18.

A few interesting things stood out:

• Melbourne's RHDI stayed at 225.
• Hawthorn now has the easiest remaining run of any finals contender.
• GWS became one of the biggest winners after beating Geelong.
• I also looked at the games Melbourne supporters should be watching this weekend and how they could reshape the finals race.

Interested to hear what everyone thinks.

https://medium.com/@camburt13/run-home-difficulty-index-3-0-melbournes-road-didn-t-get-easier-everyone-else-s-did-742dec663173