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If I see one more Melbourne supporter crying a river for West Coast I'm going to puke. It's really no wonder we're perceived as such a weak club when a team whose supporters have ripped on us for decades is suddenly being cuddled and nurtured by our own supporters. It's their once-in-every-three-decades slump at the bottom. They'll survive. [censored] West Coast.

Does Fox know Jeremy Howe only missed 3 months of football? They are carrying on like he’s been cryogenically frozen since 1928.

If you’re bagging Collingwood for losing 2 finals by under a kick, or ignoring Geelong playing with more quick tempo to win a flag, or ignoring Port this year then you’re just acting in bad faith. We simply have to move the ball faster, with more width, more creativity and a lot more off the ball running or we aren’t going anywhere. Apart from not beating the best sides we’re also deskilling our players. This isn’t the late Daniher or Neeld days, we have defenders who can kick and we have a mature midfield and half forwards who should be capable of hard running. Switch, kick to space, over lap run to receive, get the ball back through the corridor. There’s so much we can do to improve our ball movement that doesn’t require gun key forwards or pinpoint kicking inside 50.

Why do we continually be referred to as the best midfield in the comp when none of the stats back that up whatsoever? We are ranked 10th for clearances in the comp, and only 3rd for hit outs with supposedly the two best ruckman in the game. Any talk of our midfield being anything but average is complete rubbish.

Smith had a good first half until Stewart was put on him. Worth persisting with, even if BBB comes in

Sounds like BBB's manager missed a real good chance to keep his mouth shut. Along with back injuries, having fluid drained from his troublesome knee and VFL form that hasn't been setting the world on fire, why make such a comment?

I think his headband is on too tight.

Realistically we are paying Grundy about 600k - which puts him at about 80. It’s Collingwood who are making him a top 10 player.

I reckon it's inappropriate for a manager to make any such comments regardless. Does his player no good either. Keep it for selling the player to another club at trade time (which will not happen with someone as old as Brown anyway).

There's nothing more annoying and it's not talked about anywhere near enough on this site. Easily the first and most important rule in football and nothing else works well unless that first rule is adhered to I well remember engaging with half a dozen posters here a year or so ago and they were trying to convince me that it's perfectly fine for forwards to play from behind. Astonishing And you're right about wet weather football. Getting in front is even more important when it's wet. Kicks falls short a lot so if you're playing from behind you've got Buckley's chance

I think we are loading.. The club has loaded the players up on the idea that are better than they are.. and the members/supporters loaded up on rhetoric that we are learning from things that keep happening. I think our coaches are loaded up with too much false hope. And if it goes [censored] up again this year, I hope we are loaded up with a new coaching group and an actual forward as a forward coach!

Here we go. Loaders vs Anti-loaders FWIW I’m on the loading side.

89. JACK VINEY MELBOURNE, 29 $600,000-$700,000 Viney – who re-signed until the end of 2025 in 2020 – appears to be a cut-price superstar, given he has won the Frank “Checker” Hughes Award for best-afield on Anzac Day eve and the trophy for best-afield on King’s Birthday. 86. ANGUS BRAYSHAW MELBOURNE, 27 $600,000-$700,000 There was speculation Brayshaw could lob at Essendon or even Fremantle last year, but perhaps the jack-of-all-trades was simply never leaving. Brayshaw – who cut out the wrong ear holes in his helmet before the Port Adelaide game in round 10 – has carved out a cracking career since he joined as compensation for the Demons losing James Frawley to Hawthorn. 82. JAKE LEVER MELBOURNE, 27 $600,000-$700,000 David King once potted the Demons for investing so much cash behind the ball in Lever and May, arguing that in soccer, strikers were more valuable for a reason. But the approximate $1.5 million the Demons invest annually in these two intercepting wizards is worth every cent. 81. STEVEN MAY MELBOURNE, 31 $600,000-$700,000 The mighty Melbourne full-back who played in the 2021 premiership with a badly torn hamstring has been the defensive rock of coach Simon Goodwin’s team. May’s battles with Lance Franklin have been must-watch and he still has two years on his contract to run. Slight form dip in 2023 but still a super stopper at that price. 42. MAX GAWN MELBOURNE, 31 $700,000-$800,000 The Demons skipper who gave the green light to “Operation Get Grundy” shored up his football future with a long-term contract that still has two full seasons to run (ends 2025). By the time the 2026 season starts Gawn will be 34 and it wouldn’t surprise if that is the ruckman’s last contract. 20. BRODIE GRUNDY MELBOURNE, 29 $800,000-$900,000 Grundy’s salary of $900,000 – or perhaps even a touch more – in year one at Melbourne is costing Collingwood roughly $250,000, which is the contribution from his old club that errantly signed him to a monster deal. Grundy was pushed out of the Pies but it was nothing personal and he remains close with several of his old teammates. Can Grundy become this decade’s Luke Ball and win a premiership against the club that didn’t want him? In Ball’s case it was playing for the Pies in a grand final win against St Kilda. 7. CHRISTIAN PETRACCA MELBOURNE, 27 $950,000-$1,050,000 Oliver’s sidekick is the other seven-figure Demon. With Oliver signed until 2030 and Petracca until 2029, the Demons have locked in the AFL’s best midfield for the decade. 6. CLAYTON OLIVER MELBOURNE, 25 $950,000-$1,050,000 Oliver’s seven-year $7 million deal – signed in 2022 – starts next season. But it’s understood he is already a million-dollar Demon. The four-time best and fairest winner is on track to become one of the club’s most decorated players of the past 50 years.

Umpires cost Adelaide the game.

I love listening to Bucks talking so confidently about how well Collingwood are setting up and their structure. He’d be a great coach for them.

We waste a helluva lot of ball. If we get better with our skills and be more one touch we would win alot more games. Are we the fumbliest team in the comp or what?

Was listening to ABC radio today and BBBs manager was on talking footy with the ABC commentary team. He was discussing Melbourne and he said he can’t understand why we aren’t playing BBB at the moment. Now of course a manger will go into bat for one of his own, but what it tells me is that we are simply not choosing BBB as opposed to him being injured or doing a training block or any other reason. Sometimes players don’t get a great deal of the ball and if you look in isolation at their stats you would say drop them, but some players despite limit stats just make the team better for structural/game style reasons. I wonder if Fritta and JVR wouldn’t be better with BBB in the team. The argument that he can’t pick the ball up from the ground is moot as none of our small forwards are doing that anyway so given you would likely replace a small to bring him in I don’t think we would loose a lot at ground level, but would gain by forcing the oppo to spread their defense a little thinner. Anyway just thought it was interesting.

I may have missed where you addressed the topic, but I’m pretty sure that Isaac Smith spoke about the cats loading program and they had a staggered loading program with different groups loading at different times. They didn’t lose a game after round 9 (14 May), so managed to go undefeated through the loading period. Maybe we need to copy what they did, not what we did in 2021.

Sorry, dazzler, that is just absolute rubbish - as I have already noted at length in response to a similar comment from you a couple of weeks back. The cats, having run out of gas come the pointy end of the season for about a decade, and knowing they had to change something, won the flag copying our program for pete's sake. And please, do me a favor and stop this bulltish about excuses. No one is making any excuses. No one. Not a single person would disagree with the fact that playing that game at Kardinia Park was a FACTOR in our loss. But that's apparently OK to say. But it so triggering to some to suggest fatigue from loading was a factor. I mean, how else to explain how the Cats, who post bye last week ran out of gas completely in the last q against Port, could out run the team with the best 4th quarter record in the AFL. Or how our pressure rating could drop from a crazy high 214 in the third to 163 in the last quarter (by way of contrast the cats, second game post bye, had a rating of 197 in the 3rd, but had enough in the tank to increase it to 204 in the last). Sheesh.

we are lucky we didn’t have one

It’s a very even year because most teams are 💩. Pies are top of the ladder and if you put them against most premiers they’d rate as very weak and a forgettable lucky team like the Bulldogs of 2016. Whoever wins this year will be a weak premier IMO. We could definitely steal another flag.

Cox is the biggest a-hole in the AFL.

Would love the pick apart the carcass of the Eagles. Barrass to the Dees, then we change his name to Barassi

Gawn is much more than a ruck. He’s our captain. He’s also a 6 time AA and one of the greatest ever ruckman. We aren’t paying Grundy’s full wage anyway. Clarry and Trac are frankly bargains.

He may not be, but I'm not going to write off Max until we've seen the entire season as a whole. Also, remembering he's come back from a serious knee injury this season. Kane is as reactionary as some on here.

For Petracca and Oliver - I am pretty sure Cal Twomey or Mitch Cleary reported they are on a percentage of the cap. So as it goes Up during the decade - their salary will go up pro rata. Pretty good value on all of them I reckon.

Still it is quite remarkable that extinct Fitzroy has played there more than Collingwood.

Sadly Charlie hasn’t been the same since he was out with concussion just doesn’t seem to be getting to the action like he was prior when he replaced JJ Thursday night their was an immediate drop off, he had two touches in nearly a half a game of football. He played a lot better Friday night at VFL level and perhaps should stay at that level until he gets his spark back.!!

I was just comparing the incident to all the other innocuous incidents that ended up with a 1 game penalty Personally, I didn't think there was anything in it But by the law of averages, given that the AFL are paranoid about head trauma, I thought the consensus might have been that he'd miss a week So I didn't want him to get a week if that's what you and others were thinking By the way, as much as I don't want to, I've come to terms with the AFL's directive with regards to sling tackles and bumps where the head is involved They are hellbent on punishing innocuous incidents and I can't see that changing The players are just going to somehow adjust ... don't ask me how

because the Pies draw big crowds and we don’t it’s a manipulated fixture to earn the most money is this new information?

Swing Gawn down back rather than forward and keep a genuine forward (BBB) up forward?

We play Geelong at their hoe ground every year. Collingwood haven't played there for 24 years. Their last game there was in 1999. The AFL don't treat team fairly we should stand up to them and demand a fair go.

Personally thought it was a great tackle that should have won a free, not the reverse, but at least there's no longer term penalty. https://www.afl.com.au/news/954595/match-review-fritsch-learns-fate-for-tackle-star-cat-fined

Heard about this bloke but never met him. Word on the street is that he is 'a colourful racing identity'.

Thought i’d pop this here for context of accuracy. We're top 3 for goal accuracy in the league at 50.5% , league average is 48% Further we are top 4 for shots a game - averaging 27, with Port 30.1, Adelaide and Brisbane on 28.8 and 28.1 respectively. League average 25.4 a game. @loges asked about the last 4 weeks. 8.15 8.18 8.13 10.12 34.58 or 41.46% - 6.5% behind league average. Last 4 rounds across the league up until this morning- 846 goals and 846 points. 50% accuracy. So on the form of the last 4 matches - we are 9.5 goals per 100 shots short. That's effectively 2.5 goals a game (as we have around 27.5 on target shots a game).

If it wasn't deemed a dangerous tackle then why wasn't it a free kick to us in front of goal?

Wow... expensive rucks.. Not entirely sure its worked either.

Quite honestly the demise of West Coast is a joy. Hunt aside, who I do really feel for, that entire arrogant organization should suffer.

Because the same argument applies to every Melb-based club and particularly Collingwood, Richmond, Essendon and Carlton. They have to play some Melb-based clubs at GMHBA (they currently have 9 games there and can’t host all 8 interstate sides so there are 2-4 games a year for Melb-based clubs to play). It routinely means it’s us, St Kilda, the Dogs or North. The AFL continues to let them play two home games at the G. I don’t know whether that’s the AFL forcing Geelong, or Geelong asking for it to make money and/or get more games on the G. Regardless, until that ends and Geelong plays all 11 home games in Geelong, which is what should be happening, we will continue to be overburdened with trips down there to offset the absence of the bigger sides. In the interim, it beggars belief that Hawthorn, in some respects a smaller club than us and currently a weak on-field club, gets to avoid the trip. They should be down there next year. So should Carlton and Essendon, two sides who haven’t succeeded in finals in a decade.

Beggars belief doesn't it. Can only think his manager is on a percentage of Brown's match payments

He had fluid drained from his knee two weeks ago. Wtf is his manager suggesting? That we play a guy with a busted knee?

They have never honoured a BB lead( which is his game) he's doomed to contests in packs. Dumb coaching or dumber players Probably a bit of both

I would like to know who is responsible for game day moves. I would also like to know why Petty wasn’t moved forward, probably on to Stewart, when Cameron went off. I would have thought it was the obvious move. Did we instruct the players to play wet weather footy and if we did, did they address it at breaks, given the players clearly weren’t listening? The Cats played wet weather footy with more kicks than handball and constant aggression at the man with the ball and often without it. They kicked it off the ground whenever possible to gain metres, rather than try a chain of risky handballs. I would also like to know what the rationale for Spargo as sub was and then, why we didn’t take off a ruckman. Guess I will never know the answers. We need to get back to reasonable disposal and goal kicking accuracy asap.

You know they beat Geelong in Geelong a couple of weeks ago? This won’t be a walk in the park at all.

This should be a MUST.

There's an interesting nugget among that bucket of opinion. You might not lije Milkshake but he has and can make something of nothing. Ar times he can be that one to pick the ball outof the air 40 out..and yes sometimes theyre in the junk zone of quarters. Tbh...thats fine by me as we are very poor , imo, at capitalising on those periods.

Nine marks is good enough for me.

disagree, he's playing like a 19 year old key forward. I think he's doing just fine.

May is playing well. Max will atone. BBB ran freely last night and imo will be back soon. Grundy had a head knock. Kozzie imo has had the flair coached out of him and is now trying to imitate ANB and do nothing but pressure. He is often in the wrong position and has caught ANB’s fumbles. He should be set alight and told while pressure is important, so is his flair, other than trying to take mark of the century. He at least kicked a couple this week and that will give some confidence. Next game in the Alice could start his revival.

Possibly the worst free against us for the season. A great tackle …and it ended up in a goal for Geelong. Still angry about this one.