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I’ve met him heaps of times. Top bloke actually. He doesn’t rate Melbourne as a club, never has. I think that bias comes through loud and clear in these sort of pieces. He would rather invent a reason to put us down than look at the facts. It’s ok, he’s a known known. Doesn’t like us. Move on.

Brereton: " ... they’ll get a good run with injuries this coming year.” How could anybody predict what sort of run a team will get with injuries? Unadulterated bulldust.

Melbourne 28-Day Rainfall Forecast Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 18 Med 19 Low 20 Med 21 Low 22 Low 23 Low 24 Low 25 Low 26 Med 27 Low 28 Low 29 Low 30 Dec 1 Low 2 Low 3 4 Low 5 Low chance of no tears 6 Low 7 Low 8 Low 9 Low 10 Low 11 Low 12 Low 13 Med 14 Med 15 Med 16 Med

May you live 100 more years

I think she dismisses a bit too easily the way the far-right uses these events for their purposes: https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/far-right-protester-charged-by-counter-terror-police-amid-talk-of-killing-daniel-andrews-20211117-p599qx.html "... the far right in Australia had long hoped for an event that would provide a series of hard knocks to the community and foster mass public frustration with governments. “COVID has delivered exactly what they have wanted. It has delivered it to them on a silver platter ... Freedoms and liberties have been temporarily rolled back and it’s been a time of extraordinary difficulty for Australians – and with a lot of real trauma.” However, it was crucial not to conflate hardcore, far-right “white supremacists who have an agenda, with these broader public movements and mass protests”. Demonising all people at these protests as being part of the far right “just makes people feel like they’re not heard and could even push them to those fringes where the actual far right lurks”.

the man is a clown why bother with what he says

Pre-match entertainment: the Western Bulldogs will sing "Free from Desire" in a simulated nightclub setting

Paywalled sorry, can't help

The only protests I've ever been to were the Vietnam war demonstrations in 1970-71. They were truly representative of wide public opinion. Not like that rabble on the steps of Parliament House, which is about as unrepresentative as they come.

Putting aside Dermott's anti-Melbourne bias, picking Richmond to be there when they have lost Astbury and Houli out of their backline that leaked goals in 2021 and put Tarrant in there, is a bit hard to understand. Martin missing was critical to their fall this year, and highlighted the lack of depth and talent. Cotchin is well and truly finished. Nankervis can't jump off the ground any more and Soldo is a poor mans second option. Getting rid of Chol was nonsensical with the injury clouds hanging over these two rucks. Dogs will be back, so will we and watch out for Essendon. Toiyges...nah! Still it's all just an opinion.

Interesting to watch the media pundits stick to what they know. Dermott clearly can’t let go of the Tigers, basing his certainty on effectively nothing. https://www.sen.com.au/news/2021/11/17/dermott-breretons-early-2022-flag-prediction/ So, Asturbury retires, Robbie Tarrant comes in. They lose Coleman-jones and Marbiol Chol and he is tipping them to find their best form next year and win the flag. Besides Martin coming back from injury, I can’t see where the big improvement is going to come from. Certainly not from what they pick up in the draft. They may uncover some gems but they will still need a couple of preseasons to make an impact. I’ve been wrong before but I really can’t see them being at the pointy end come finals 2022. On a separate note, it will be interesting to see whether we have earned some respect from the media yet. Clearly not from Dermie but I’ll be interested in where the flag predictions will go.

Games are won in the midfield and Richmond's midfield doesn't come close to Melbourne's or the Bulldogs. Cotchin is done. Prestia's hamstrings are shot, Edwards is 34 next year and Dusty is coming off a serious injury. The next crop of players are not capable of stepping up.

I'm sorry, I cannot read or listen to anything supplied by a 57 yo man who still dyes his hair blonde Next...

And Carlton finished 2nd in 1994 - but faced a red hot ox in the 1st qualifying final

Progress pic ….only completed bit are Max’s boots, and the fence background (kudos to first respondent on relevance of jumper numbers). Otherwise, some artistic/legacy licence….

Either way whether it’s Richmond , Geelong , bulldogs , whoever…I don’t care … but I’m loving the fact now we are the champs so to the rest of the comp I say

Did they succeed?

please, ffs, this thread is about covid and the afl it's not about extremist groups, violent protesters, politics or posters grandstanding back to covid as it relates to the afl

As a wise Demonlander pointed out to me, if you say the score that Brayshaw's goal brought us to quickly (9.10.64) you get "1964" as well.

I don’t think the Tigers will even make the finals. They had an amazing 4 years and could have easily won all 4 flags if not for Mason Cox pulling that prelim out of his backside. Dynasty teams rarely recover after their 3-4 years at the pinnacle. Their best players are old, they can’t rely on their pressing game anymore as their defence is weak. They’re done

I'm very big on Howes. Reckon he is someone Taylor and Goody would love. Massive upside.

Callaghan seems close to a lock to the Giants and rightly so. He’s got attributes to play wing or a flank but the Giants have so much talent it’s possible he struggles for early opportunities. So drafting Howes would be an investment in keeping him around. I also think Howes has genuine claims as a first rounder and would be right in the mix for our pick.

I don't generally agree with Dermot but I also think Richmond are still a threat. They had a horrible run with injury and have the right system to continue winning. If they stay fit, they are in the top 4 mix.

I said before that the GC game was a watershed game for us. We played our best footy for the season after that.

Agreed. Like all aspects of society people can choose to follow the rules or accept the consequences; in this case curtailed opportunities to partake in a large part of our community and its activities.

Yes, we have strayed a bit. The important point from a football perspective is that the players, officials and employees of venues have a safe workspace and that spectators can attend games in a way that keeps them as safe as possible. Let's be clear, though. There isn't really a vaccine mandate. A person can choose not to be vaccinated. What is being mandated are limitations on what unvaccinated people can do. Not being able to pursue a professional sporting career is one as is attending venues such as the MCG. It's really not that much different from mandates that allow employers or venues to prevent people who are intoxicated from participating.

There's been full sized gallows towed to Parliament House where people there attached the noose to a Daniel Andrews effigy. Numerous MPs have had their lives threatened and that of their partners and families. Some 'protestors' have taken to sharing the contact details and addresses of MPs supporting the bill and have shown up at their homes. One speaker spoke about wanting Dan Andrews 'dancing on the end of a rope'. Another spoke of the 'satanic peadophile cult'. Multiple Liberal Party MPs have publicly shared images of Dan Andrews as Hitler. One Liberal MP crashed his car while nearly 3 times over the legal limit - after having a few drinks with a QC who coincidentally had drafted an open letter slamming the new pandemic bill. Media crews have to be protected from attack by police. This all in the last few days or so. But binman's post is hyperbole?

Crikey, binman. Where do you get things like 'bad actors', 'unhinged, dangerous bad actors', 'organising forces' type stuff from? And the 'perversion of the concept of freedom'; 'very real threats to our democracy and freedoms'? Fairly emotive and forgive me for saying hyperbolic stuff. There are a lot of angry people in Victoria for a raft of mainly covid related reasons but as you say they have a right to march and to protest. There is an element of 'rent a crowd' in most protests, as there was with the construction industry a few months ago. Just to clarify, the attack on the Shrine of Remembrance was during the construction industry march not the marches this week. I don't condone any rough stuff or violent intentions in any protest but we need to be careful to not over react to the 30 sec news bites and newspaper headlines or to imply there are evil forces behind every protest. But to be calling people names for exercising that right and raising unfounded fears is a long bow. By the way 10,000 in a protest is a decent crowd by Melb standards. The Melbourne BLM march was about the same. I think it is really sad that you have drawn parallels with the BLM march as that is such an important cause. But it was irresponsible, as at the time we were lurching from one covid outbreak to another and iirc we were in lockdown, and went against the express requests of the government and police. Let people march and perhaps tone down the rhetoric.

Seriously? Fair old contradiction in your statement, Garry had countless opportunities to leave the club, he didnt, good or bad, he has been loyal as ever to Melbourne. Ron just upped and left and went to a rival club. Move on from your Lyon bashing. We won a flag, its bought lots of joy to lots of people. Walk on the sunny side of teh street for a while.

Jones maybe? Be great to keep him around the club.

I just got an email from the club. The 5th will push ahead. Details will be released this afternoon.

And so they bloody well should have.

The bookies odds are probably a fair reflection. I would have Sydney above Geelong and Richmond though.

I think they do get infiltrated by extreme views and violence is often lurking. We've seen it in recent times with BLM and Climate Change. Sorry, I don't mean to water down what I agree is now a very serious situation. ...but I think, and I hate this labelling, but left and right often fail to see the extremist behaviour within their own ranks.

I think the following 5 in order: 1. Weid - hopefully gets a good run at it this year and can push for TMac's spot. 2. Chandler - signed a two year deal and now needs to step up. Could easily take Spargo's spot if he can improve his consistency. 3. Bedford - needs to find more of the ball I think, otherwise this could be his last year. 4. Dunstan - could easily find himself in the side. From the outside looking in, will need to increase his running power and kicking efficiency. 5. Laurie - this one is really just because I want to see a glimpse of what he can do. Would love him to shadow ANB and see the work rate required to make it at this level.

Sorry to argue with you Durango, but Carlton defeated Collingwood (20.17.137 to 7.7.49) on 31 December 1999 in the so-called Who Cares Match Millenium Match. As to Dermott's choice for 2022 Premier, it's consistent with his style of standard contrarian analysis by not taking the soft option of choosing the 2021 Premier to win in 2022 as most media pundits will likely do.

Good call on Bailey. His GF was fabulous, he is now a Demon legend (with a Norm Smith haircut no less) and he is a great foil for bigger forwards, but he must be stopped by the opposition and can't be given the 3rd best defender necessarily. In fact given his class in the air and on the ground, and his footy IQ, he takes a special defender. A doggies friend was calling for Easton Wood's retirement 3 years ago. Fritsch found him out big time and Easton has recognisd reality and is now retired, but Bailey's 6 goals on the lead often had Wood miles behind him. He will need to be prepared in 2022. I'm confident he can do this though and will cope.

There was a coach or commentator who once said 'you don't win premierships in April', so I say 'no team will ever win a match in December'. His opinion may turn out to be correct or way of the mark because no one predicted the MFC was going to be 1st in 2021 in August and Premiers in September. The greatest leveller is injuries and no one can predict that future, look at Fyfe his future is in doubt because the injury was treated but a problem occured during rehabilitation. If both Richmond and Melbourne players remain healthy it maybe a Grand Final worth watching until half way thru the 3rd quarter like 2021 where predicting the result was very iffy.

Pardon me but on what planet did I cite “a national weakness of Sudanese sports people as weak competitors”? WJ questioned Mac Andrew’s tank in a post above and said that the lack of a national championships and combine testing meant that this question wasn’t satisfactorily answered. That’s a point (and I agree with him) but it’s not the one I made that you’re questioning above. Mine is that the rule change is water under the bridge and it’s a waste of time complaining about it 12 months after it was brought in.

BBB is now UNDROPABLE ! Same as BOWEY, SPARROW close!!

I'm going with the after party. Anyone carrying Max around is working harder than my iPad after midnight.

Wow I've never been on a thread where I hit the "next page" button and end up further back from where I was

I’m not certain whether this has been mentioned or not but a bigfooty poster Davo-27 has an interesting perspective on the draft. He ranks players in tiers starting with the elite tier and going down:- Elite: Daicos, Horne-Francis, (Callaghan, Darcy) (4) Top Tier: Hobbs, Erasmus, Ward, Goater, Amiss, Fahey, Van Rooyen, Wanganeen-Milera, M Johnson, Rachele (10) Quality: Roberts, Sinn, Long, Knevitt, Bazzo, Gibcus, Andrew, Chesser, Conway, Banks, MacDonald, Browne, Draper, Sonsie, Wilmot, Dittmar, Clarke, Curtis (18) Quality with some question marks: Molan, Windhager, Ferres, Hough, Aleer, Regan, Brown, Soligo, Owens, Jones, Tunstill, Lohmann, Taylor, Benning, C.Hamilton, Beecken, Rankin, Burgoyne, Jackson, Uwland, Motlop, Rayson, Archer, Willis, Sheldrick, Dib, Williams, Murray, Rossimel, H.Hamilton, Butler, Bergman, Howes, (19 yr olds) Doultree, Trudgeon, Cleary, Gribble (37) This is a good way to look at the overall list of players - there will be some players missing and some disagreements about how high or low players should be ranked but I think it’s a different way to look at the players available to be drafted.

They are horrific images and totally unacceptable. Why were the props allowed into the Melbourne protest? The police should confiscate and destroy the props before they even get into the protest and arrest the perpetrators. There is no place for that stuff in our city or our society. Surely there is a law about provoking civil unrest or similar. Throw the book at them.

Happy for anyone to disagree especially one of my favourite posters like yourself. It was the name calling and a position on threats to freedom that I referred to as 'emotive and hyperbolic' not the whole post. Ok, conjectural if you prefer. But conjecture by definition lacks evidence. Conjecture can quickly become the mother of 'fake news' or misinformation and before we know there is a great hue and cry and the main purpose of any protest is lost. And some very strong descriptions and accusations were made of perfect strangers in a protest. It worries me that people are quick to draw parallels with what happens overseas with what is happening here. A small group of rent-a-crowd attract attention, then everyone is tainted with the same brush. Should we ban protests because there has always been and always will be a rent-a-crowd component? I'll leave it at that as If I add any more we run the risk of getting into politics and then all our posts will be deleted.

A Chinese athlete accuses high ranking politician of sexual assault. And promptly 'disappears' Which is how dictatorships roll.