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That's an astue observation. He's clearly fluked the 300 odd games we've given him so far and his selfishness shows out when he seeks glory all day long on the park . Not only that,the contracts he signed when we were wooden spooners nearly every year when could have gone to any other club show what an annoying glory hunter he is . To top it off ,the fact that Jones is in the best shape physically for ages means he should be dropped for Melksham who always plays for the jumper. We dont need Jones taking shots for goal (and getting them) just to show off and feed his own ego beacause clearly he just plays to feed his own ego. Tired of Jones burning team mates and disrespecting the club. Time we dumped him while he is playing well just to show what we think of his attitude.

Completely agree @binman. I don't think this club realises how good these girls are and how we should be promoting them. They're Wonderful role models and could recruit a huge bunch of kids to become Melbourne supporters. Really love watching them play at the moment. Just as much as watching the blokes. They never give in.

I thought given people are having ticketing troubles I'd add a couple of notes on what I do to try and minimise my pain (Future AW: seems I wrote a thesis more than ‘notes’ I added a TL;DR at the bottom. Really speaks to how [censored] [censored] Ticketek is when there are so many potential stumbling blocks on what should be so easy). Most of this is specific to Ticketek but you can transfer the concept to Ticketmaster but we only play 1 more game at Marvel this year and most don’t go there anyway so I won’t waste my time on that. Before I even start I have all my family's membership barcodes saved on my desktop in notepad already formatted so I can easily highlight and copy and paste them all at once every week. I have their names in the same order just so I can remember which barcode belongs to who but that’s not important but if you do that make sure you don’t also copy the names or you’ll have problems. Example: John Jonah Jameson 12345687789 11121687549 12873987456 The Next thing you’ll need to know is which priority your membership is. The Club should have emailed you this info already but more importantly you need to know the lowest priority for the group of members you’re purchasing with. If you’re able to get your ticket in priority 1 but want to sit with someone who is priority 3 you’ll have to wait until priority 3. As for away games, you must have an away game membership but your membership level matter, in away games we’re all treated equals. So for away games follow the following steps as if you are a GA member. Another couple of notes on groups, you can only buy in a maximum group of 6 so if you may need to do 2 separate transactions for bigger groups, plan the split in advance, so you’re not messing with barcodes under a time crunch, maybe have someone else buying the second group, I’ll cover how to maximise your chances of being near each other later. If you want to sit with opposing club members you’ll have to wait to the public ticket window. (Example: Even though I am a member and my Geelong friends are away members. We had to wait until public window to purchase tickets together as my Melbourne barcode got temporarily disabled during the Geelong member’s window) Don’t panic if this happens, you’ll still have a right to your free ticket during the public window (unless the game sells out before then so beware waiting on the ANZAC game in particular, if you don’t secure in our window the Richmond members will likely take the rest). If you're preparing to queue right on opening of your window, do your best to ensure you've logged in to Ticketek and have your username/password on hand to copy and paste (or type if you’re fast). I find the "keep me logged in" checkbox extremely unreliable during high traffic periods so being able to log back in quickly is handy. You probably should be using a password manager to make this easier but that’s another discussion best had with a tech-savvy friend or family member. I prefer to log in about 5 minutes before the window opens, that way the website is less likely to kick me out. (but no guarantee so be ready to quickly log back in, you only have 10 minutes before they kick you back to the queue and you might need more of that time than you think) When you’re waiting in the queue a while, having multiple different browsers open can mean one will get in faster than another, multiple tabs/windows of the same browser won’t make a difference as it treats it all as one session. If you don’t know what means don’t stress it’s only a small efficiency improvement, you’ll be fine with just the 1 window open. I just thought I’d mention it for those who want to know. It’s only really useful come finals time. Once you've got in through the queue you should easily enough be able to find and selected our game. You’ll then need to select your membership type from the 'Date' dropdown (because choosing your membership type from a date field isn't going to cause any confusion...). This guide is for Melbourne memberships, unfortunately I can’t tell you if there are any differences for MCC or AFL members but I’d imagine they’d be much the same, besides, I'm sure you rich folks can just ask the servants for help ?. From here a text box will appear where you can copy and paste your barcodes. If you’ve formatted them properly like I showed above it should allow you to click ‘Unlock tickets’ and move on. From there you ‘choose’ your seats. Choose is a bit of a misnomer as we have very little in the way of choice. The Easiest option is ‘Best Available’ but this comes with some problems. What it actually does is just give you first available tickets, nothing ‘Best’ about them. It may also at times give you issues where it attempts to put you in a seat where you have to pay a seat upgrade fee that could be as much as $80 per seat. What I suggest is select the area (Level 1 Wing, Level 2A Goal, etc) that your membership would normally have you. If you’re unsure which you are, hover over the options and they should highlight the bays they relate to on the map. For GA members like me, for some reason Level 4 despite normally being GA has been closed for us in both games, I assume due to low expected crowds. Hopefully we’ll get the opportunity to sit up there at some point but for now we have to simply select ‘General Reserved’ and be put randomly down the bottom somewhere. Once you’ve selected you’re ticket area it will then for some reason make you go through and for every barcode you’ve entered change the ticket count from 0 to 1. Just in case someone wants to enter 5 barcodes then buy 0 tickets with them? IDK. Anyway after that hit next (bottom right of page) and it will pseudo-randomly select your seats from your selected option. (If the next button is not coming up then the most likely problem is Ticketek has logged you out at its own whim, did this to me yesterday. So check you are logged in, and if you’re not feel free to utter obscenities at the computer while logging in again, it made me feel better) Just before you checkout be sure to check the total price! Keep in mind, all the ticket area options will all say ‘from $0’ but if your ticket doesn’t normally allow you into that area it will attempt to charge you for a seat upgrade. It may even be sneaky and say $0 right up to the point when you’re about to proceed to the checkout where it would suddenly go up. Depending on the number of tickets and location it could be hundreds of dollars so be careful. My thoughts on disastrous web design aside, this happens because when you've put in a membership code so the website knows you're tickets should be free but it then does a final check on your membership tier on checkout, the only dumber way to design it would be to do the check after you've already checked out, but I digress. As long as you select a seating area you’re membership normally gives you access to you should be fine. As far as I can tell you can’t avoid the damned $3 processing fee. I’ve seen some on twitter claim they avoided it but I’ve not been able to replicate that. If someone has a reliable workaround I’d love to hear it. After that you should be able to checkout no problem, I assume everyone here can enter their own personal details and payment info. However… let’s say you don’t like what seat it has randomly given you (and this is pretty likely, its selection algorithm is [censored]). There are a couple of options to improve your seat that may have varied success. So take the following options with a grain of salt. If you don’t care about changing seats you can skip a few paragraphs... You can use their ‘random’ algorithm to your advantage and simply re-roll to improve your seats. Be aware that this could potentially make your seats worse. If a set of seats come up for you buy and you reject them they go back in the pool for others to get and chance of getting them again is limited so re-roll at your own risk. In order to re-roll simply click the cancel button directly under the ‘Go to Checkout button’ this will cancel your order and bring up the barcode box again. Simply re-paste your copied barcodes and repeat the instructions above. You can do this as many times as you want but be aware that you only have 10 minutes total including checkout time. So leave yourself enough time to check out, unless you want to go to the back of the queue. The other option you have is to select a bay directly. Unfortunately as far as I can tell this is not accessible to General Admission members (unless you want to pay a seat upgrade fee). We’re stuck with the General Reserved algorithm. But for everyone else after you enter your barcodes instead of selecting ‘best available’ or a specific seat type you can click on your desired bay directly on the map on the left. So for example if you’re a Trident member who normally sits in bay N54 you can actually click on that bay then when you click ‘Next’ it will attempt to put you there. Through pure chance it’s possible you may even end up in your normal seat but the same bay is the best you can guarantee. You can also use this method combined with the aforementioned re-rolling to change your position within a bay if you’re that pedantic. But remember every time you re-roll someone else could buy tickets in that bay and once it sells out you’ll have to find somewhere else. Selecting a specific bay is the most reliable way to sit near people who are purchasing tickets in a separate transaction, but as I mentioned us in GA would have to re-roll the whole General Reserved section so it would require more luck to get that close. The best you could do is have the 2 transactions happening at the same time, requires some tricky co-ordination with someone else (or a second browser) both re-rolling until you’re in the same bay then both purchasing before time’s up but it can be done. ... Skip to here Once you have completed the checkout your tickets should be texted to you but that can be slow or just not work at all. Failing that they will be available in your Ticketek account’s order history. Taking a screenshot on your phone is a safe bet to ensure its easily accessible game day without worry about sketchy internet connections when getting to the ground, but if you like that comforting feel of having paper tickets you can always print out your ticket, it doesn’t have to be on your phone, it will work either way. Most of these tips can also be followed on a phone but damned if I’m writing tips for every different phone OS. This is already an essay far beyond what I originally planned. TL;DR: Save Barcodes in Notepad for easy copy-paste Log in 5min before you’re window opens, keeping login credentials on hand in case you’re logged out Once you’ve selected which game, Copy-paste the barcodes and click ‘Unlock Tickets’ Select your normal valid ticket location If you don’t like the seats cancel and re-roll (repeat until happy-ish) Checkout before you’re 10 min is up Find your tickets in your Ticketek account’s Order history. Take a screenshot or print for reliable at ground access. Sigh of Relief

Lets win this one for Prince Philip, its what he would have wanted.

Hibberd is a better stopper when tasked than given credit.

Are we watching the same game? Yes there are errors but look at the frenetic pace and intensity of the game.

I’m not playing Melksham till he’s showed something more like his best. He’s got 2 years of poor footy to pay us back for, he can start that journey at Casey

Good for you that you can work it out so easily Praha. There are those of an older demographic less tech savvy who just can’t get the hang of it. My mother-in-law, God love her, couldn’t figure it out if her life depended on it. I’m sure our kids will have a chuckle at our expense when we reach a ripe old age but hopefully they will be a little more forgiving than your good self. Thank you AW. You’ve done a good service here.

I'm going to try to get there. If I can make it, I'll do my best to provide some updates.

It's great that these kids can just work on developing their games without being thrown to the wolves if senior footy before they're ready. Such a change from where we've been for a long time

"Do you know the difference between involvement and commitment? Think of ham and eggs. The chicken is involved but the pig is committed!" The Observer 1982 "There is just one thing I want to commend you on and thats the way most of you are going in very hard to get the ball.BUT, he added with an ominous tone in his voice , there are a few of you that are hanging back from intense contact and unless these players show more guts , I won't put you in against Hawthorn" Ron Barassi during intraclub match page 40 "The Coach" Ibid And so it was forseen that in any given game at any given time unless you go hard even in a match simulation you won't get picked. So today as I ventuered out to CASEY FIELDS, The intraclub hitout was just that... Intense, hard, no beg pardons and on display around 35 or so players all striving to get noticed to show something, anything that might propel them in with a shot of the game Vs Geelong on Sunday. Skills , Drills and Manuevers, More or less same drills as desribed in previous posts with warmups, drills specifically attuned to busrting out from defence running in pack formation , canny use of the ground and with skills by hand and foot certainly noticeable. Of more specificity, protecting the ball carrier, creating options, two way running were featured. I certainly was a little concerned when I saw that match simulation featuring Blue probables vs Pink possibles ensued given that this is cause for injury concern , but given Ron Barasi's quote as above if its good enough for Ron then its gotta be good enough for Goody and co. The Match Ups Interestingly a Pink Forward line of Ben Brown (who moved well) Weeds, Majak and Mitch Brown is going to cause the opposition of May, Tomlinson and Lever some Alice Cooper moments ( Welcome to my Nightmare) but the Blues led by Clayton Oliver, Jack Viney, Angus B and Nibbler provided first use to McDonald, Kossie (who again put on a clinic) and Fritta. Others of note were Langdon, Rossman was involved, Chunky, Tracc, and Rivers. Gee Sparrow is as hard as a Cats head and Jordon is certainly improving outa site! Bowey and Laurie also did some useful things. Other than that at conclusion of match simulation players practiced goal kicking into a fierce North Wind but many shots were executed well. In particular Majak Daw hardly missed from a variety of angles. Harmsy ran laps but had no tape or any strapping on his injured Wrist and showed no discomfort. I would almost suggest that the team may go in unchanged from last week. I just cannot see how the possibility of Melksham can squeeze in in place of??? Maybe Hibbo might get a gig but again this current team is gelling well. One other thing gee this team looks fit, I reckon Geelong will find it hard to run out the game given how fit we are at present. Kudos to Darren Burgess! Cheers PF

Dursma did a knee and they were going on about a head injury. Sure he hit his head but he was lying on the ground holding his knee...

Good win by Port in a frenzied final quarter. Great to see Tigers lose again. Sick of them!

Just missed out on the telegram from his missus.

This team would beat North Melbourne.

Can’t ever remember Melksham applying a lot of pressure, which seems to have been our big jump forward this year, and our salvation when we have had a run against us.

In my opinion any time Essendon lose it’s a great result. If we want to be a good side this year we shouldn’t need to be worried about other results in round four.

As a supporter there is no better feeling that switching on the game and knowing your team will give their all. We can’t really ask for any more than that. The coaching team and senior players, Paxy, Daisy et al deserve an enormous amount of praise for creating this culture. It is a rare and wonderful thing. I’m a big fan of AFLW. No ego’s. Honest effort. No bad attitudes. And skills are improving every year. I’ve no problem paying the women more if it allows the comp to expand, extend the season and attracts more talent to the ranks. As for the game this weekend I reckon Adelaide will shade it but I know it won’t be for wont of effort if we lose.

Just back from the shops. Two teenage girls walking just ahead of me. One said how exhausted she was last night after footy training. Women's football is going to help Australian rules football thrive and ultimately become tbe number one sport in Australia. Without Women's footy that would never happen, given its competitors are international sports. It is something worth keeping in mind when talk about pay comes around.

Super entertaining game

Bloody hell Brian Taylor is hopeless. A waste of space and airtime. Who the hell decides he should be employed in any capacity?

Taken too soon.

For everyone moaning about Kelli Underwood last week, have a listen to BT and and James Brayshaw. She’s no different from anyone else calling the game.

loving the positional uncertainty... rosman a wing? back pocket! mitch brown a tall forward? full back! petty a tall defender? named on the wing! bowey a caleb daniel clone? half-forward! smith a rebounding half-back? forward pocket! bradtke a ruckman? rover! quality work by whoever controls the clipboard for casey

A good sign that that pretty much every guy JT drafts or wants to draft has turned into a good player. Let's see how Max Holmes pans out for Geelong - he could be another to add to the list.

so what your saying is, its a simple process?

Im not sure how Jones has gone form fringe last year to best 22 this year. Hes slow, adds no pressure, and is playing for himself with little team first actions. Has burnt free team mates in better positions every game and has instead gone for the glory shot from 50 and missed each time. I agree he'll more than likely get picked but Id play Melky in front of him. Both offer no pressure but at least Melky can hit a target and kick straight. Hibbo comes in to get 2 games match practice before he tags Dusty out of the game ANZAC eve.

I find that with women’s sport in general. Keep their heads down, work hard, few egos and it’s all about the collective not the individual. They’ve had to work incredibly hard to get where they are now and it shows in their commitment and attitude.

Barring a massive form drop, I can’t see Jackson getting moved out of the team. No doubt Ben Brown and Weideman are better forwards, but Jackson can at least compete down there and would be averaging a goal per game if his kicking had been a bit better. But Jackson provides such a tactical point of difference with Gawn it’s a huge advantage for Melbourne. Jackson’s presence enables Gawn to play whatever role is most advantageous on the day and in response to how the opposition is playing. Neither Brown or Weideman can provide that ruck cut out who can double up as an on baller. As rucks they are both like Gawn in style, but far less capable. they are both either forwards or inferior cut out rucks and nothing else, so having both relatively inflexible players in the team isn’t ideal. But Jackson brings something so different in style to Gawn that it’s very difficult for opponents to plan and structure for both Gawn and Jackson. I would assume one of Brown or Weideman will come in for McDonald as while Mcdonad has been ok in a couple of games, I doubt he’s going to explode. For all the talk of McDonald on a wing or going back into defence, I just don’t see it as there are clearly superior options in both areas now. Unless Weideman really dominates in the VFL I’d think Brown would get first chance. Historically he’s a far better forward than Weideman. Fritsch needs to stay in, he’s a really good mid sized forward and can play as a more ground level forward if required, plus provides flexibility in game as he can move onto the wing or even half back. It was not long ago Daw was being talked about here as needing to be rushed in due to tall forward emergency, and now we are at the embarrassment of riches stage. It won’t take much for a couple of injuries or form slumps to get back to only one or two viable choices again.

Good summing up of our brave, fearless girls Kev. I just love the determination and guts shown. Like having a team of Ron Barassi's. Go Demons on Saturday and Sunday!

Totally disagree. Double newsflash. Of course you have to learn how to handle the wind, but you first have to perfect your techinque so that the ball goes where you are aiming. Then take into account the wind. If you practice in windy conditions and you miss you don't know if your technique was to blame or your failure to take correct account of the wind. I'd have thought this was bloody obvious.

I seem to be on my pat malone in that regard. That’s fine. I hate Richmond so maybe that is tainting my view. The game got better in the second half and am not denying the intensity, but it was an error ridden first half and a large number of mistakes were under no pressure at all. Uncharacteristically so. You rarely see the Eagles or the Bulldogs turn it over for fun like that. I’m not excusing it on the conditions either. The skills were just poor and neither side punished the other for it. . Our pressure this year appears to have gone to a new level. Early days but I don’t think matching that level is beyond us at all. What impressed me most was both sides’ ability to run the game out. When it looked like the Tigers would steamroll them Port found another gear. That’s where and when I think we will get challenged most against the good sides.

If this is so it is an absolute disgrace!! Period. Melksham offers zero pressure, has no form, an outs a player who has done EVERYTHING RIGHT!! I will be thoroughly peeesrd of if this occurs> FFS Goody make him earn it!!?

most people get one in the bedroom, od. statistically it is the most frequent location carry on

it's not always windy and blowing a gale at casey......plenty of opportunity to practice goal kicking without wind or little wind

My straight shots are affected whether there is wind or not.

89, 90, 93, 94 & 95

No changes to a winning team please. Assuming that all current players are fresh and can run out the game. The team is playing with confidence and each player is fulfilling a role. The possible ins are all short of a gallop. I would rather see game time being given to young guys like Sparrow, Jordan and Rivers. They are the future and the players best placed to deliver success over the next 5 years. Players like Milky and Hibbo will play some role but they are not the future. Nev and Nathan are currently playing ok and should be retained until form drops and possible replacements are knocking down the door. But don’t mess with a winning combination. Things may change after Sunday but let’s wait and see.

Essendon look a good side under Rutten. They play a more accountable brand and will knock off some good sides this year. Hopefully not us..

I think deliberate is gone CB....us fans will have to scream ‘insufficient intent’ when the ball gets kicked or tapped out of play. Last night was the first time I’ve heard the umps use those words.

From my perspective each has a "Bag of Tricks" Bowey is hard at it and QUICK and at some piont might oust Spargo, however Spargo is doing all he should so put that away for the time being. Laurie has polish and great football smarts and is sure to feature at some stage. Rosman to me will be "The Enigma" can take strong grabs, kicks freak goals and is elusive. I would think the club would be very happy with these three. Cant wait to see them in Praccy game Vs Willi on Sat

Fair point. The coaches may well feel they can't have someone with melksham's talent sitting on the pine. If they do pick him he better improve his pressure on last year's insipid level

Gary cops a lot of crap from people but you can't deny his passion for the Dees. He is Melbourne through and through.

hear what you are saying but if we are worrying about Sydney's results in our potential tilt, then we are in trouble. We just keep winning and the ladder looks after itself

Easy to forget we are watching an all-time great in Buddy Franklin. Will kick a 1000 goals in an era when it should not be possible. And to add to that, he seems like a nice, down to earth guy how he never won a Brownlow is a disgrace. Best player of the past 20 years imo

So sad to see the bombers lose by 3 points and get shafted by the umps. IT IS SO SWEET!!

Off topic I know but... Wondering how hoth brown and weid fit in. Does Tmac come out? What if hes going gangbusters. Does Fritta go to the wing? Will Jackson get dropped? Its going to be very interesting as surely having them both in is the ideal.

Smokey, I have done these previews the last few weeks and will try to continue to knock them out each week. I do them because I am a Demon tragic and I enjoy it. I find that it also makes me think a bit more about the game. All good really.