5 minutes ago, lorn said:

I wouldn't mind finishing in the bottom five for a few years because you need a few really high picks to win premierships and we don't have any top five picks.

Geelong have managed to stay near the top for ages without bottoming out. Yes, good FS picks and massive home ground advantage but also something else.

Edited February 7Feb 7 by monoccular

Bottom four imo, but in a good way.

I see it as a development year purely because we're adjusting to a whole new game plan, new coaching structure, complete restructure of playing list and then add long term injuries to Viney and Bowey.

I see this as the year where guys like Langford, Lindsay, Windsor should all play pretty much every game barring injury.

Break out seasons from Jefferson Howes and Tholstrup.

Pickett, Taylor, Matthew, Kentfield, Mentha to all debut.

Two first rounds picks already in the bank will help, especially if we finish on the lower end of the scale.

Edited February 7Feb 7 by dazzledavey36

2 hours ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

I have so much hope for this year, for example; I significantly hope we don’t go 0-5 to start the season again.

Really hope we can knock Carlton off in round 3 as I’d rather not have to go to Gather Round for the second year a row facing an 0-5 start against Essendon.

Edited February 7Feb 7 by Bring-Back-Powell

On 06/02/2026 at 07:55, DeeZone said:

You are right Macca only one pundit picked us to make the eight in 2021.

I backed us for the premiers in 2021. $25 at 25/1. Cleaned up.
However, I'm at a net loss after having lost the same bet for more than 25 years.

4 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

I wasn't surprised.

I was surprised about the embarrassing garbage we served in the Prelim tho'.
Disgraceful.

I'm not sure that the mood around here was similar (with regards to comfortably defeating the Hawks & Cats in the first 2 weeks of the finals)

I reckon the thinking was that we might win a final and therefore play 2 finals. For some (or many) just making the finals was a huge relief

All things considered, winning 2 of 3 finals in 2018 was a decent result (certainly better than 0 & 2, two years running ... 2022 & 2023)

And we got stage fright in the PF against the Eagles but that loss and the finals experience in 2018 was invaluable

3 years later 🏆

*2018 > 2022 or 2023? I say yes. I look back at 2018 with fondness, not regret

1990 was the one that got away and perhaps 1998 as well (we got stitched up with the more difficult PF in 1998)

Edited February 7Feb 7 by Macca

2 hours ago, lorn said:

I wouldn't mind finishing in the bottom five for a few years because you need a few really high picks to win premierships and we don't have any top five picks.

In effect, we started getting back into the 1st round of the draft (with multiple picks) following the 2023 season. So we're already there

I'll give the club credit for seeing the writing on the wall and at least acting on that thinking

But will Windsor, Kolt, Langford, XL, XT & Latrelle all become stars? Let's hope so

*And right now, we've got another 2 first round picks in the 2026 Draft. I wouldn't rule out garnering another 1st round pick for the 2026 Draft

Edited February 7Feb 7 by Macca

Ive started keeping receipts.

46 minutes ago, Macca said:

In effect, we started getting back into the 1st round of the draft (with multiple picks) following the 2023 season. So we're already there

I'll give the club credit for seeing the writing on the wall and at least acting on that thinking

But will Windsor, Kolt, Langford, XL, XT & Latrelle all become stars? Let's hope so

*And right now, we've got another 2 first round picks in the 2026 Draft. I wouldn't rule out garnering another 1st round pick for the 2026 Draft

Where does coughing up two first round picks for Houston come into that? I don’t buy that idea at all. When you can’t attract talent from other clubs, you have no choice but to go to the draft, it’s worked out thankfully, but with who we have behind the wheels, I’m not giving them credit for this being some master plan

8 minutes ago, Greg Schneider said:

Where does coughing up two first round picks for Houston come into that? I don’t buy that idea at all. When you can’t attract talent from other clubs, you have no choice but to go to the draft, it’s worked out thankfully, but with who we have behind the wheels, I’m not giving them credit for this being some master plan

I reckon we went cold on Houston early. And there's always a fall back position anyway. I'm not sure we're big on Humphrey now either

There's a lot of talk but a lot of talk is bs

I'll take the 8+ first round picks over 4 off-seasons and if you reckon we didn't plan for an outcome like that, fair enough. But it's a lot of picks

I'll give credit where credit is due but we've also done a lot wrong which isn't necessarily related to list building or recruiting

Edited February 7Feb 7 by Macca

If we're to get to 10 or 11 wins and therefore a possible spot in the finals, we're going to have to start the season reasonably well ... we can't be 1 & 5 or 2 & 6

Senior players need to lead the way if we are to have any chance of being 5 & 6 or 6 & 6 at the half-mark

It will also be exciting to see the development of the young players but the expectations are tempered. We can't expect the young players to win games for the club, that's the domain of the senior players

And the only way is up, as the last 2 years have been abysmal in terms of the output of the senior players (as a collective) They need to lift!

As much as Goody was talking out of his [censored]… he was not wrong.. we weren’t far away last year… we did a load wrong, sure, but we also did a lot right.

If we can fix the wrong and keep the good, we might be quite surprising to the nay sayers.

19 minutes ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

If we can fix the wrong and keep the good, we might be quite surprising to the nay sayers.

We're already behind the 8 ball on the "keep the good" part. Out of our top 10 in the Bluey last year we've lost Petracca (second ...) and Oliver (7th), plus likely to be without Bowey (4th) and Viney for a good part of the year. Add to that McVee who was 7th in 2024 (his 2025 was seriously compromised by injury.)

There's no way we're covering those holes, not in the short term anyway.

3 hours ago, biggestred said:

Ive started keeping receipts.

Anyone predicting Melbourne to finish 15th is being more than fair IMO.

44 minutes ago, bing181 said:

We're already behind the 8 ball on the "keep the good" part. Out of our top 10 in the Bluey last year we've lost Petracca (second ...) and Oliver (7th), plus likely to be without Bowey (4th) and Viney for a good part of the year. Add to that McVee who was 7th in 2024 (his 2025 was seriously compromised by injury.)

There's no way we're covering those holes, not in the short term anyway.

Alright there, negative Nancy.

1 hour ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Anyone predicting Melbourne to finish 15th is being more than fair IMO.

We'll see. As for spoon...

After an injection of Botox to my red and blue heart, my lay up shot to the pin is 10 wins, a great year would be 13 wins.

We'll be 1-0 after Round 1

I think we'll start poorly this year due to adjusting to the new game plan but will come home with a wet sail and finish 11th or 12th.

I'd like to think we'd have some really strong performances in the back half of the year that will excite our supporter base although I'm wary of how much we can improve in 2027 unless Kalani or others can show some huge signs in taking over Max's spot.

6 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

We'll be 1-0 after Round 1

The Saints already having one game under their belt will make them a tricky opponent. The one thing we have is that they have a terrible MCG record against us.

Stars are not aligned, $$$balls sAints swinging in the largesse of the AFL FIXturing breeze. Nasiah Cockatoo-Collins expected to reprise his infamous Docklands perfromance. Media, sAints fans and the wider footy ‘hood baying for more Demon blood. Question is can King Canute (Steven 1-0) reverse the tide?

Edited February 8Feb 8 by Tarax Club
1 game at a time edit

3 hours ago, At the break of Gawn said:

The Saints already having one game under their belt will make them a tricky opponent. The one thing we have is that they have a terrible MCG record against us.

Yeah we’ve beaten St Kilda by 38 points in both of our most recent meetings at the MCG - 2022 and 2024. Although St Kilda beat us the previous 2 times there.

I was surprised to see that we didn’t win a game against St Kilda at the MCG between the 1988 and 1998 home and away seasons although we did finally beat them in a 1998 final.

St Kilda have won 3 of their last 8 games at the MCG but one of those games was terrible win over Richmond late last year.

3 hours ago, At the break of Gawn said:

The Saints already having one game under their belt will make them a tricky opponent. The one thing we have is that they have a terrible MCG record against us.

This killed us last year when it looked to me like GWS ran all over us in the fourth quarter, having blown the cobwebs out the week prior.

Relegation to VFL

We’re obviously not a top 8 side at the moment but bottom 4 is a bit much. I haven’t been this excited since the 2022 pre season. I think something a lot of people are missing is there are a lot of middle of the road teams which we could beat this season.

If Culley plays we will be top4, without Culley top 18.