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New bub is healthy and well, and even visited dad at work today, as per MFC twitter. Unfortunately, Jack Viney's little one was also there, and the Viney family don't play well with others, which led to this.

Being known for going to the snow > Being known as drug cheats

MELBOURNE What it does well The Demons’ defensive improvement this year has been stark. The players have got a greater understanding of roles within their team and the structure and expectation that comes with them. The selflessness and trust that is needed for these roles to be played out is a reason as to why Melbourne can win this year’s premiership. Wingers Angus Brayshaw and Ed Langdon are perfect examples of this. They’re getting up and down the ground and pushing back hard to help the defence. It is evident these two players are understanding their roles and the defensive support they must bring. The Dees are the hardest team to score against this year. It’s like defend and support is their mantra. They’re keeping opposition points from turnovers under control, as they’re ranked No.2 in the league for this important facet of the game. They were 11th last year. What it must improve As dominant as you’d think Max Gawn, Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca would be at the centre bounce, the numbers are not stacking up. Melbourne’s total centre bounce clearance differential is -17 for the year, which is ranked 15th in the competition. That means there is plenty of upside in that area. We know all three are super competitive, and are great players, but if they continue to work on better hitouts-to-advantage, they can get better mid-to-forward connections and more territory on the back of having a good centre bounce differential in their favour. If they do that against the best teams, it’ll give their forwards better opportunities to hit the scoreboard. It’s just another layer that can make the Demons more complete. Surprise packet Harrison Petty and James Jordon. Petty has really helped Melbourne’s defensive structure because he’s allowed Steven May and Jake Lever to play their intercept roles really well. The season-ending injury to Adam Tomlinson has given Petty his opportunity and he’s taken it. The 2017 draftee as added stability and cohesion - and that’s so important back there. With his size and mobility, he’s become an integral part of their success to this point. While Jordon is a midfielder who has given the Dees great balance. We know Petracca and Oliver are great ball winners, but Jordon plays inside and outside and is a good pressure and tackling player. He brings a good competitive edge to the side, and is improving and feeling more comfortable every week he plays. Under the pump Sam Weideman. It’s hard to be critical of Ben Brown because he hasn’t been out there a lot, but it’s important that Weideman steps up because the Demons are screaming out for another key forward. They badly need one to step up and own that position. The Demons are a strong territory team so Weideman will get plenty of opportunities - but he needs to take it. A firing Weideman would be another avenue to goal and would take the pressure off Bayley Fritsch, as an undersized forward, to be their leading goalkicker. Tom McDonald is a better player as a second fiddle, and, while we know Kysaiah Pickett has great attributes, he’s not a tall. Weideman must steel his mind when kicking for goal. His set shot goalkicking lacks confidence and he looks jittery at the moment. It must be corrected quickly as it could be the difference between him being a premiership player and not.

James Brayshaw may well have the worst voice in Australian sport. I cannot be alone on this.

A reminder to all of the lucky ticket holders if you even the slightest sniffle or vague symptom on Saturday you need to stay home. And if you do feel a bit off, even a tiny bit, i can help you out and take your seats to make sure we have good representation at the game. The slightest symptom, do the right thing for Victoria and stay home. And i'll volunteer to take the you seat to do the right thing for the Dees.

In the context of the season we need Richmond to lose. Nobody wants them in the top 4.

He was playing full time ruck from the Casey games I watched. I think he is a break glass in case of emergency for if Max goes down or needs a rest.

Looks like we'll be spending the next couple of weeks playing whack-a-mole with teams trying to bob up into the top 8. Time for the Demons to turn some other fans dreams to dust for a change! :D

God I’d love for Richmond to cop what Geelong copped last night. Just as with Geelong, Richmond needs to be slapped down a peg or two.

That team alone would beat Mark Neeld 2013 side.

Well done Dimma on not wearing a mask for a second of this game. Leading by example as a complete [censored] canoe, as per usual.

I couldn’t give AF about the bombers or giants being motivated to win. if we are a proper good team, our motivation and quality will be greater

I don’t normally take too much notice of games, mostly because I get distracted and bored easily but I’ve noticed a few things tonight: Riewoldt falls over a lot and Cotchin is Selwood level dirty.

Team selection ~

I think T Mac’s mind was elsewhere against Collingwood which was understandable. Lets hope for a far better showing from him this week.

More Daisy please.

It really is a load of crap. How Marvel and the MCG have the same capacity is beyond me. We could easily get 35,000 people at the G and have it be a far lesser risk than Marvel. MCG has multiple transportation avenues, so the load on public transport is far lower than at Marvel. Not to mention it is a true outdoor venue and 3 times larger. Insanity with no common sense as per usual.

Sorry, Dazzler, objectively that is simply not true. Max has been incredible this season. Sure he seems to have flagged a bit in the las few games but even in them he has been extremely influential nd the amount of work he does is crazy. One indicator of his level this year is that he is number one in the AFL by a mile in contested marks, which is particularly impressive given how much [censored] illegal spoils and blocks he has to fight though. But better evidence of his level this year is that he is 7th in the coaches award, the best measure of performance in my opinion. Coaches don't give votes to players who have been poor. Here is the top 15 as it stands atm. Some bloody good players in this list, and all in top form: 68 Clayton Oliver MELB 66 Marcus Bontempelli WB 60 Ollie Wines PORT 55 Hugh McCluggage BL 55 Darcy Parish ESS 52 Touk Miller GCFC 49 Max Gawn MELB 48 Zach Merrett ESS 48 Samuel Walsh CARL 44 David Mundy FRE 43 Rory Laird ADEL 42 Dustin Martin RICH 42 Nic Naitanui WCE 42 Christian Petracca MELB 42 Jack Steele STK

When he’s killing it in the VFL and knocking down the daw.

Richmond look like a tired side. It happens to all sides who have been up and about. So Richmond it is now time to say to thanks for the memories but you can now go and get stuffed. You owe us 54 years rent for denigrating the MCG as your home ground so pay up or pizz of to Punt Road.

What an appalling deliberate OOB ruling. Then immediately after no 50 against Cotchin who biffed a saint in the neck face. Petulant [censored].

Richmond just don’t seem as hungry this year or as fit. A Saints win would be good for us. If we can win and Bulldogs lose to Weagles over there which is highly likely we can go two games clear of anybody

Sam's copped his fair whack around here lately, but just because he's in terrible form doesn't make him an experimental player. We know exactly what he is capable of and how that fits into the team. Form is the issue, not Sam being an unknown quantity.

W if BB is in need of more fitness after supposedly putting in a pre-season type block of late then i doubt he will ever be ready from a fitness perspective. Form for someone of his experience can be found at VFL for sure but you never find genuine AFL form until you've played a few or more games at AFL level and hit some form. The Weid is a great example of someone looking cherry ripe and hitting form, at VFL level, then failing to find it after pushing up to the big league. If his fitness is up to par (as judged by Burgess/FD KPIs etc) then surely the only genuine trial / test of form is the form BB might find at senior level.

Richmond's 6th worst score in their entire history

She’s the only one who sticks her neck out and offers an opinion

If we're not motivated enough we've got our own problems.

Forget all that. We, MFC, just need to be concerned about OUR games. Keep winning and the rest doesn’t matter.

My thoughts on the matter are exemplified by some of Stock Aitken Waterman's finest post script: Iv'e been waiting months to drop this little gag in.

Don’t delude yourself guys. Richmond will play for 10 minutes in the last quarter and win by 87.

In a prelim final to play an enforcer role and smack around anyone who tries to hurt our star players. Gets us into a grand final, gets suspended for 10 games, goes out a hero!

Waiting patiently for 12pm.... I hope they left at least a few tickets for us home and away Melbourne members with reserved MCG seating. I only need 2 tickets this week, so fingers crossed I can get something.

This is good. I want WC as far away as the top 4 as possible and KP is the last venue they'd want to play Sydney at who have a fantastic record down there.

Well that was the least amount of time I've spent trying to get tickets. Which is strange given the reduced capacity. In and out by 9:03am. AFL Members, level 1 undercover.

Big onus on TMac this week, we'll struggle if he doesn't have a good game.

Yep Scott will complain that people are booing Selwood, that they have to play away from Geelong and that quarters are just too long to get the best out of a team of players eligible for the AZ.

Cats will put the 16 min quarters back on the agenda this week

Would dearly love to smash the dons.

Max was made look very ordinary by young Lynch against Collingwood in the first half and he needs to get back to early season form, because Draper is hard at it and will bang into him for 4 quarters. He’s no mug and IMO along with Darcy at Freo going to be one of the top ruckman in a few years

Viney will not play as if he’s underdone, ultimate professional

This has been my preference for a while now to leave out the other tall. Neither Brown or Weid are playing good enough footy right now to deserve a spot. Jackson has been building nicely this season. He's spent less time in the ruck of late and looks more and more imposing up forward. He's been taking strong contested grabs on the wings and I think the coaches believe this could translate to better marking contests deeper inside forward 50. Max/Jackson to spend more time on ground switching between forward/ruck. This is my favourite mix so far this season. We should see Bailey and Trac more involved as targets as well.

I suspect it's a horses for courses selection. Essendon's backline isn't that tall but has plenty of run. If we had Weideman or Brown (either of them) playing, we could be exposed when the ball hits the ground. An extra smaller forward might help block Essendon's run off the backline. On the other hand, if one of Weideman, Brown or Brown were dominating with consistent mark-taking, they would probably be selected. But as they are not doing so, they become too much of a liability when the ball hits the ground.

Hilarious and ironic that some accuse them of overconfidence....much like they did the Collingwood fans that thought they had a chance Surely we still realise we can lose to anyone on our day with our only losses coming to bottom 4 teams?

This

Yep restrictions ease midnight tonight. Should be allowed a crowd. Not sure of capacity. Probably 26.5% if you’re standing upside down with 3 masks on.

Is that the worst looking forward line on paper of any injury-free mid-season ladder-leading team in the history of football?

Good changes and well done once again for nailing it @Yokozuna

The same people who were kicking them for the first 6 rounds maybe?

I don't really understand why Brown was dropped in the first place & a bit disappointed to not see him in, Game 1: 2 goals Game 2: 3 goals Game 3: 0 goals, with Brown, Weid, McDonald, Fristch all in the same forward line I understand the fitness perspective but surely his output while underdone was more than good enough to persist?

To be fair we have only lost to bad teams this year. This is a danger game! (Hello to anyone from Bomberblitz reading this, I hate your club!)