Opinion Are the Demons heading for finals or bottom 10 in 2025?

[Pomsta]

What's your prognosis, Doctor ?

Common sense not your strong suit?

 

[Trav 20]

Common sense not your strong suit?

Not overreacting is.

It's one cracked rib. I'll treat it in isolation to his previous injury, which he'd fully recovered from.

Or is that too much common sense ?

 

[Mr Meow]

I was a tad too harsh saying that Marshall was ''terrible'' in ruck contests, but I'd argue he was below ''fine'' and at best middling to poor.

If you look at the raw data, he and Gawn contested approx. 80 ruck contests per game. On average, Gawn was 25-30% superior from such contests. That's a significant discrepancy. Those metrics include winning the ruck contest, hitouts to advantage and percentage hitouts to advantage.

When one factors in that Gawn averaged double the contested marks then that's a pretty big win across the season in the stats that rucks are mainly judged on.

Marshall's all-round game is great, but so is Gawn's and there's not enough disparity to get Marshall to Gawn's level when one considers the discrepancy in the actual ruck arena.

All well and good.

None of it means Melbourne are going to shoot up to top 4 like you claim.

 

[Trav 20]

All well and good.

None of it means Melbourne are going to shoot up to top 4 like you claim.

What did you think you were reading ?

It's an evaluation between Gawn and Marshall and their respective worthiness as an AA recipient in the ruck ?

Ladder position wasn't mentioned.

Do you just post for the sake of posting ?

 

[Mr Meow]

What did you think you were reading ?

It's an evaluation between Gawn and Marshall and their respective worthiness as an AA recipient in the ruck ?

Ladder position wasn't mentioned.

Do you just post for the sake of posting ?

I'd rather hear you elaborating on all of the reasons the Demons are headed for top 4.

It's a far more relevant topic than whether Marshall is a good tap ruckman.

You obviously need a bit of guidance to stop you simply gushing over how good Gawn is - that isn't where improvement is going to come from in 2025.

 

[Trav 20]

I'd rather hear you elaborating on all of the reasons the Demons are headed for top 4.

It's a far more relevant topic than whether Marshall is a good tap ruckman.

You obviously need a bit of guidance to stop you simply gushing over how good Gawn is - that isn't where improvement is going to come from in 2025.

It was a separate discussion regarding Gawn and Marshall brought up by another poster, i.e. not me. You're now criticizing me for responding to said poster.

You'd know this if you had any semblance of comprehension.

 

[Mr Meow]

It was a separate discussion regarding Gawn and Marshall brought up by another poster, i.e. not me. You're now criticizing me for responding to said poster.

You'd know this if you had any semblance of comprehension.

I'm helping you get back on topic now - a 10 page discussion on Rowan Marshall's all round game isn't needed in this thread. There's been many posts questioning Melbourne's inevitable rise to top 4 in 2025, so now it's time to deal with those. That is, if you have any semblance of comprehension.

 

[Trav 20]

I'm helping you get back on topic now - a 10 page discussion on Rowan Marshall's all round game isn't needed in this thread. There's been many posts questioning Melbourne's inevitable rise to top 4 in 2025, so now it's time to deal with those. That is, if you have any semblance of comprehension.

You seem to have Kevin Rudd's attention deficit syndrome. Post your own thoughts rather than salivating over mine.

There's no ''inevitability'' about Melbourne returning to top 4 and if you believe Bigfooty's sheep we'll be bottom 4.

I've already given my reasons for optimism.

 

[Mr Meow]

You seem to have Kevin Rudd's attention deficit syndrome. Post your own thoughts rather than salivating over mine.

There's no ''inevitability'' about Melbourne returning to top 4 and if you believe Bigfooty's sheep we'll be bottom 4.

I've already given my reasons for optimism.

Salivating? You're one weird unit.

Really all you've said is "our former AA level players will return to their best and everyone is an idiot for thinking Melbourne could continue to stall". As much as it makes you feel like a big man labelling everyone unintelligent and coming up with unbelievably cringeworthy put downs, it reeks of insecurity.

Melbourne's defence and midfield aren't what they once were and their forward line still hasn't lifted to the required standard. The trajectory doesn't fit with a slingshot to top 4 and potential premiers in 2025, but this is that time of year where a few supporters embrace being completely delusional. I'm all here for it.

Getting expectations too high is only going to make you lash out even more later though.

At least I finally stopped you crafting 30 essays about Rowan Marshall in a thread about where Melbourne will finish. Happy to help you out again if you stray off topic later.

 

[Rich01]

Sydney, Brisbane, Fremantle, Carlton, Collingwood, Geelong, GWS, Port will all be better than them.

They could sit in the same rung as Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn fighting for a spot to jump into the eight.

But more likely they are around the mark of the next tier of clubs in Gold Coast, St Kilda and Essendon.

Only a disastrous year would see them finishing in the lowest rungs of the ladder with Adelaide, North, West Coast and Richmond.

I’d have them finishing 9th-14th.

 

[Trav 20]

Salivating? You're one weird unit.

Really all you've said is "our former AA level players will return to their best and everyone is an idiot for thinking Melbourne could continue to stall". As much as it makes you feel like a big man labelling everyone unintelligent and coming up with unbelievably cringeworthy put downs, it reeks of insecurity.

Melbourne's defence and midfield aren't what they once were and their forward line still hasn't lifted to the required standard. The trajectory doesn't fit with a slingshot to top 4 and potential premiers in 2025, but this is that time of year where a few supporters embrace being completely delusional. I'm all here for it.

Getting expectations too high is only going to make you lash out even more later though.

At least I finally stopped you crafting 30 essays about Rowan Marshall in a thread about where Melbourne will finish. Happy to help you out again if you stray off topic later.

No wonder you have double my posts in less than half the time. You post meaningless nonsense.

We'll see whose crystal ball is better in due course.

 

[Mr Meow]

No wonder you have double my posts in less than half the time. You post meaningless nonsense.

We'll see whose crystal ball is better in due course.

Oh wow, post metrics! What a sick burn. Anything else you can drag out of your bag of lame tricks?

Bolded is complete projection. If someone shouts too loudly that everybody else is a moron (61 morons to 8 geniuses by your count, according to the poll), there's a good chance they don't have a lot of mental faculty themselves.

Now that your extended meltdown appears to be coming to a close, we can let the adults discuss Melbourne's prospects for 2025.

Good riddance.

 

[demondavey]

Yeah really?
Thats the point Gawn is 33, Trac is coming off a huge injury, and Oliver is a question mark after a very poor last season and a half.

Gawn was an AA in 2024. Don’t think Oliver is a question mark. Petracca will be fine. Got a broken rib again but that’ll heal quickly.

 

[demondavey]

Just argue your points instead of going on the attack about how stupid everyone is.

You'll look like a genius when Oliver wins a Brownlow and Melbourne win the grand final by 10 goals, but until then everyone who argues otherwise isn't automatically thick.

He isn’t wrong by labelling posters dullards. A cracked rib is ok.

 

[demondavey]

I'd rather hear you elaborating on all of the reasons the Demons are headed for top 4.

It's a far more relevant topic than whether Marshall is a good tap ruckman.

You obviously need a bit of guidance to stop you simply gushing over how good Gawn is - that isn't where improvement is going to come from in 2025.

Gawn
Petracca
Oliver
Lever
May
Fritsch
Pickett
Viney

All match winners or excellent players and proven so. Not done yet.

Rivers
Langdon
Windsor
Petty
McDonald
Sparrow
Turner
Van Rooyen

A second tier group capable of being incredibly supportive to the stars if and when the coaching and game plan is set correctly.

Honestly, it’s coming down to the coaches this year. List is still there.

 

[rye]

its all well and good to talk about the stars on melbourne's list but i dont think most people who feel that melbourne will continue to struggle in 2025 have the cattle as the main issue (although the likes of gawn, may and viney are getting on).

the game has completely gone past goodwin's gameplan. 'contest defence' only gets you so far, and last year saw a melbourne side that not only struggled to score most weeks but increasingly got opened up defensively. why not actually put some emphasis on quick ball movement and let the likes of petracca, fritsch and pickett score freely in an open forward line? it was embarassing watching melbourne's 2023 finals campaign with collingwood and carlton being given all the time in the world to flood the forward line because there was zero emphasis on attacking football.

 

[Gethelred]

If every team that this board says were going to come bottom 4 came bottom 4, there would perhaps be three sides making finals every year.