B	Darcy Byrne-Jones	Dylan Grimes	Andrew Mackie
HB	Josh Kelly	Jarrad Waite	Blake Acres
C	Marc Murphy	Trent Cotchin	Adam Cerra
HF	Adam Schneider	Charlie Curnow	Murphy Reid
F	Jack Darling	Tom Hawkins	Izak Rankine
Fol	Kurt Tippett	Ollie Wines	Darcy Parish
Int	Will Ashcroft	Jye Amiss	Brent Staker
	Zach Williams
	Coach:      Sam Mitchell

 

It is a new year with new beginnings for all. The perfect time to rake over old coals and wonder what could have been? No! Although many fit the category, this is not in fact a team of players that Melbourne coulda shoulda woulda had!

It isn’t even a feline-themed team, despite the heavy supply of Cats, Tigers, Lions and presumably ‘Blues’ is referring to the adorable floofy domestic breed.

A top of the table team for sure, with epic father-sons and some top pick guns, an all-time Rookie list special and also… um… Kurt Tippett? Oh well, you can’t win on every line.

So, what does this high quality team from across the 21st century have in common?

Answers in private messages only, of course.

Winners get free insurance coverage for houses being trained down throughout January.

@Little Goffy, '...genuinely definitely easy...' is applicable at no more than the level of 'it jumps off the page' or 'Answers below'.

It isn't.

Edited Monday at 03:533 days by Timothy Reddan-A'Blew

p.s. Puzzle setters, please recalibrate teams to 2026 requirements: a bench of 5 is required.

Who's your 23rd, @Little Goffy?

As requested, I trawled through the options and have found perhaps the most "23rd-playerish" of all possible 23rd players.

We all remember him affectionately but nobody is quite sure why - the great Kepler Bradley.

Meanwhile, poor @Timothy Reddan-A'Blew has drawn a neat circle on the target but not the dot in the middle. Pretty sure the main purpose of these quizzes is a personally vendetta against his sanity.

An early and probably useless clue is that there may be a bit of MFCSS history here. Indeed, my research for the team will throw a little light on the conjecture once the quiz is done.

1 hour ago, Little Goffy said:

As requested, I trawled through the options and have found perhaps the most "23rd-playerish" of all possible 23rd players.

We all remember him affectionately but nobody is quite sure why - the great Kepler Bradley.

Meanwhile, poor @Timothy Reddan-A'Blew has drawn a neat circle on the target but not the dot in the middle. Pretty sure the main purpose of these quizzes is a personally vendetta against his sanity.

An early and probably useless clue is that there may be a bit of MFCSS history here. Indeed, my research for the team will throw a little light on the conjecture once the quiz is done.

I'm not so self-centred (or paranoid) as to think the vendetta is solely against me.

Eh, @Ghostwriter?

Eh, @Neil Crompton?

Eh, all you other co(nundru)mmrades?

Edited Monday at 06:403 days by Timothy Reddan-A'Blew

15 minutes ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

I'm not so self-centred (or paranoid) as to think the vendetta is solely against me.

Eh, @Ghostwriter?

Eh, @Neil Crompton?

Eh, all you other co(nundru)mmrades?

A vendetta against my sanity would be a wasted campaign, for my sanity is not fit to put up a fight. My sanity would meekly surrender quicker than you can say ‘not another [censored] quiz I can’t solve’

Got it! They've all got an A or E in their name! Can you make my prize out in cash?

CONGRATULATIONS @Timothy Reddan-A'Blew for adjusting his reticle and pinpointing the answer.

I hope he can rest easy now in the knowledge that his home is fully covered by Little Goffy Insurance Services, with as new replacement on all dwellings reduced to rubble by pre-season training.

Terms and conditions apply. Sometimes at random. Offer excludes ironies such as houses trained down by clubs in rebuild mode.

Meanwhile, @demon-4-life is stalking the same trail as Timothy Reddan-A'Blew followed.

And it is time for a clue!

Those who suffered the worst yet still paid attention to football will have learned the most! A fairweather fan who never knew pain would also never gain wisdom!

3 hours ago, Go Ds said:

Got it! They've all got an A or E in their name! Can you make my prize out in cash?

Small beans, @Go Ds . You've got to clear the full A.E.I.O.U, the classic Habsburg dynasty latin motto which translates to 'Go big or marry your cousin'.

(Full credit to Useless AFL Stats)

Second place has been claimed by @demon-4-life.

Prize is full cover in the event that his home is damaged by players blowing the roof off.

41 minutes ago, Little Goffy said:

And it is time for a clue!

Those who suffered the worst yet still paid attention to football will have learned the most! A fairweather fan who never knew pain would also never gain wisdom!

Nice quiz, LG!

Your 'clues', not so much 😄

51 minutes ago, Little Goffy said:

Small beans, @Go Ds . You've got to clear the full A.E.I.O.U, the classic Habsburg dynasty latin motto which translates to 'Go big or marry your cousin'.

(Full credit to Useless AFL Stats)

But my cousin, Marylouise is gorgeous! We tried to be abstemious but now we have a little boy, Aurelio, and girl, Sequoia. (And I'm not being facetious.) 🤣🤣🤣

11 hours ago, Go Ds said:

But my cousin, Marylouise is gorgeous! We tried to be abstemious but now we have a little boy, Aurelio, and girl, Sequoia. (And I'm not being facetious.) 🤣🤣🤣

A gorgeous cousin AND you can keep the inheritance safely in the family?

Commendations for a very well-chosen name, Sequoia, for a family tree that is just a big straight line.

1 hour ago, Little Goffy said:

A gorgeous cousin AND you can keep the inheritance safely in the family?

Commendations for a very well-chosen name, Sequoia, for a family tree that is just a big straight line.

So it looks like an ..... unmentionable? And are you or are you not 'cousinable'? Anyway I have no idea of the right answer. I reckon nearly any list of 23 or 4 items , whether foods, chemical elements, musicals or anything else would stump nearly everyone nearly every time.

I've been away attending to 'baby in a Sydney heatwave' management issues, apologies for the delay. Baby seems content at this time!

Let's be clear on one thing, the quiz is not related to Habsburg inbreeding or anyone else's.

Time for an actually good clue.

All these players have something in their trophy cabinet which connects them to the Melbourne Football Club.

A few may have tossed it out to make room for other, much more impressive, tokens.

No it is not the X series runner up trophy.

@tilly18 has come through overnight for the third prize, which is to have your choice of current Demons (of those eligible for the rising star award) to come to your house and brush the cobwebs off. For a small additional fee your stuff will get too carried away a bit early and all left out on the field.

And the answer to the teaser is, of course, obviously;

All the players received a rising star nomination against the Demons.

As for the dark times and good times? In 2012 an amazing four players earned their Rising Star nomination against us in a single season, with five more coming across '13 and '14. In contrast, in 2021 not a single opposition player earned a rising star nomination against us.

And recalling a classic debate of the MFCSS academy -

Aside from those particularly gruesome years, and oddly enough 2002-3 which saw seven nominations in two seasons, we've been mostly normal for the rate of rising star nominations against us, which statistically should be a bit over 1 per season.

But where we do seem to have an irritating quirk is letting young players break open our defence, with a surprising host of forwards getting their nomination against us, even w Including, since 2020;

Murphy Reid (eventual winner 2025), with 1 goal 2, and 8 score involvements.

Well, at least we weren't the only ones with Reid, but...

Ashton Moir, 4 goals, which is a third of his goal tally from 11 games.

Jye Amiss, 3 goals, and three running bounces if you don't mind.

Logan McDonald, 3 goals (of just 15 for the season) and 9 score involvements.

Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, 5 goals of 18 for the season - for the rest of that season his numbers were Weidemanly.

Izak Rankine, 3 goals 3 behinds, a quarter of his score for the season.

Mitch Georgiades, 3 goals, with his other six games for the season tallying a total of five more.

Justin McInerney, 2 goals, 2 goal assists and 2 contested marks. The first time he registered any of these stats.