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Apart from the fact Australia held back the tide for over a year. With Victoria crushing an outbreak that allowed every other state to go about their lives as normal whilst the majority of the world suffered huge loss of life and far bigger economic impact. And that QLD, SA, NT and Tassie (and maybe one day WA) got all the way through to 80-90% vaccinated thus saving thousands of lives before opening up. Small minds will conveniently edit history in their favour. Covid zero was a fantastic policy for the original strain pre vaccination. Might've even worked for Delta too but NSW decided they'd mess around and enforce half measures.

Sometimes KB has a way with words... Novak Djokovic is the greatest tennis player ever. Forget Laver, Agassi ,Federer,Sampras,Nadal,McEnroe,Connors and Borg for Novak has won 20 Grand Slams and 87 titles and a billion dollars without us knowing he had a debilitating medical problem.We have been taken for fools. Kb — Kevin Bartlett (@KevinBartlett29) January 4, 2022

Apologies if this has been shared but I couldn’t see it anywhere? Not sure this link will work, may need some IT gurus help. Just when you thought you couldn’t love this club any more. Get the Kleenex ready https://fb.watch/al8RBR1mxT/

The first game of 2022 is near the end of March. Based on the South African experience, surely the Omricon wave will have run its race by then. Assuming we don't get another variant of concerns (a big assumption i know) the 2022 season should not face too much disruption you'd hope. However, there will likely be any number of disruptions between now and then. The AFLW will almost certainly be impacted, particular given most players also have other jobs and so therefore are more at risk of getting Omricon than the men. The lists are smaller too, which will make fielding sides problematic if too many players have to sit out games. And of course the AFLW is starting with numbers super high and possibly not peaking till a fair way in the AFLW season. For the AFL, teams are almost certain to face a range of disruption, for example an impact on the training program because of positive cases in the playing and/or coaching teams. Apart from disruption such as having to isolate groups of players and/or coaches, even with Omricon being less severe, as Kate Roffey pointed out at the Bluey elite athletes do not want to get a respiratory illness. Nor do they want any interruption to their preseason, such is the carefully calibrated program they have to complete. (On the severity of Omricon, there is an interesting narrative developing. All the talk is about Omricon but Delta still makes up a high percentage of cases and as i understand it also a high percentage of hospitalisations. It is still very important to take measures to reduce transmission, one to try and stem the Omicron tide and get to the end of this wave as quickly as possible and two to prevent the spread of the more virulent and dangerous Delta variant.) The AFL teams that manage this situation the best will have a definite advantage come the 2022 season. Any team that can get through preseason with minimal interruption to their training program will have an edge over teams that have interruptions. Good management and luck will play a part, but i reckon a key determining factor will be having a team of young men who are motivated and disciplined enough to keep their eyes on the prize, minimise risks, avoid unnecessary risks and possibly eschew activities they would normally participate in over the preseason (eg nightclubbing, going away with mates, having a drink at the pub, going to parties etc). I reckon the dees have such a group of players.

I dispute your comment IRW that Tmac's form "suddenly collapsed" when he was moved forward. My assessment of the situation at the time was that Tmac's disposal was a real worry turning the ball over too often and at the time we didn't have a great forward line. Before He left Chip Frawley was played up forward and I think it was Roos that gave Tmac a shot at FF/CHF late in either 2015 or 2016 to bolster our attack. We all know about 2018 and 53 goals for Tommy but really this year I believe his first 2/3 of the season were just as valuable and that the injury was the main reason his form dropped for the later part of the season. However from where Tom was at 12 months ago he was still handy up forward as he needed a first or second defender to mind him. He helped out in the ruck up forward snd things like his bullock ing work and goal line strength were very valuable in our Finals. Sgsin he is training well and I expect Tmac to be named as CHF in Round1. Weid goes not compete like T Mac so it will be interesting to see what happens with JVR this season. Also Jacko and Maxy spent more time up forward as the season progressed and both made goal contributions and needed undersized ( vs Max) defenders to mind them or compete in ruck situations up forward. I like to think Tommy plays a role like Mark McClure did for Carlton in their three flags in 1979,81 and 82 with plenty of mediums snd smalls and a Mackay ( Jacko) floating plus a ruck in the mix snd BBB taking his tall extended arm marks that no defence can stop. Lets not fret about Tmac too much who IMHO played his role like many others and look at our scores since Round20 and results. Go Dees back to back or three peat or ??? Who knows.

TMac was instrumental in our form earlier this year. Without him we don't win the minor premiership and possibly the flag.

Old man rang me this morning for Xmas. Dad - "I bought you a book for Xmas." Me - "I bought you a book for Xmas." Dad - "Is it Gawnys book ?" Me - "Lol .... Yeah." Dad - "It's great, I read it in 2 days." Me - "Yeah .... I read yours in a day." Apple doesn't fall far from the tree 😂😈

This will help you understand…

Without Victoria bringing in harsh restrictions to contain the spread and drive numbers down it inevitably would’ve escaped at least to neighbouring states if not more. It did escape to a Sydney hotel, but in small enough numbers to be held up. NSW stuffed around with their lockdown and suddenly covid was in Victoria (multiple times), QLD, NT, SA and New Zealand. (Side note; It’s why other states were pleading with NSW to enforce a ring of steel around Sydney. Of course they refused but then sent an army of cops in to West Sydney, because they care about some people’s liberties more than others.) Until Delta covid zero was absolutely achievable because we achieved it. The smaller states achieved it the whole way through. And as a nation from October 2020 until June 2021 there was all but zero covid with no extended lockdowns. For 8 months the country was overwhelmingly covid free and prospering. If the Dees finish 17th in 2022 will you suddenly say the 2021 flag didn’t exist because we were bad either year before and after? I’m not saying the state government hasn’t made some howlers and the feds been even worse. But you have to evaluate each strategy in regards to the aims, the variants and the vaccine status. Bemoaning lockdowns for 5 cases and not 17k is very simplistic and ignores all the other changing factors.

Read Gawny's diary just after Christmas. Entertaining summation of each game. Now onto Michael Warner's The Boys Club - power, politics and the AFL. An amazing eye opener into the corruption and power of Demetriou and McLaughlin. Well worth a read if you are looking for a summer time footy related book.

The knee bone's connected to the... something. The something's connected to the red thing. The red thing's connected to my wristwatch!... Uh oh.

Hotel Quarantine was the state governments biggest stuff up. But it should be noted that quarantine was a federal responsibility until Scotty agreed to let the states take over because he had no plan and no interest in a plan. No plan for economic stimulus until Labor gave him one. No plan for stimulus in 2021. No plan for the vaccines. No plan for rapid tests. Every state also had leaks from hotel quarantine. It was a highly flawed system tackling a once in 100 year pandemic. And as bad as the leaks from quarantine were the states test and trace was awful too. Our leaks became an out break. And the deaths. They came because it got in to aged care and spread from nurses going from home to home. Why - because aged care nurses are causal employees with multiple jobs, because the feds like cheap foreign labour rather than paying professional full time jobs. The health minister got the lemonade and more ownership should’ve been taken from Andrew’s and other senior members. I don’t like Andrew’s. I have a moderate respect for him. I think most of his cabinet stink. Stink nearly as bad as the awful liberal state mps. I’ll still take the guy who’s actually made seriously difficult decisions and fought for Victorian lives and Victorian jobs/businesses with extra support packages rather than Scomo who forgot we existed until he needed a hair cut a few months ago.

She's also kicked the equal 8th most goals (29) in the all-time goalkickers list for the league, which is kind of impressive given she didn't exactly fire last season. For context, Melbourne's next best are Cunningham (25), Scott and Hore (24). All that said, she isn't coming in expected to be the saviour or anything. Pressure's off and hopefully play with some freedom and fun.

Rode past Gosch’s this morning as part of my new year’s resolution to get back in the saddle and lose some kilos. The good news is the works are due to be completed in May this year. Hopefully training gets relocated there from its current interstate location out at Casey! I rode over to the tennis centre and heard someone hitting balls on the practice courts on Swan Street so stopped to have a peek through the fence. A young Chinese woman was hitting up with a not so young male coach and she had very powerful ground stokes. But my eye was drawn to the male coach and the way he was so effortlessly hitting the ball, just a joy to watch and strong on both sides, hardly mis hitting a ball. The more I looked the more familiar he became, it was Pat Cash. He is 56 but from a distance he looks just as fit as when he was at his peak. His student’s name escapes me but she is ranked number 34 in the world.

The pundits agree with you SONS. AFL/The Age/HS all have Brisbane, Collingwood and Melbourne as potential flag favourites. Our midfield is very strong. L Pearce is the best ruck in the Comp, Zanker is a huge presence in the middle, while Hanks, Paxy, Lily M, Maddi G, rookie West and the recovering Liv P form a super on-ball group. Our wings have two impressive young guns in E McNamara and C Sheriff. Not sure who will back up ruck, Zanker/Parry? Tayla Harris will absolutely bolster our forward group and Hore, Scott, Parry, D Pearce, Bannon et al will all greatly benefit. Fingers crossed we kick straight this season. Our backline has been wobbly over the years. Love to see excitement machine, Goldie, play out the season! Meggs hopes Tarrant plays back (not forward). Her marking, neat kicking and reading of play continues to improve. No doubt Birch, Colvin and Lampy will take the key defensive posts and fan favourite S Heath, the lockdown small defensive role. Opportunities for Irish import Magee and others to help down back too. There are a number new young talls and smalls who will all be striving to be named in the team so selection will be very competitive. The Bulldogs were very physical last time we met but Meggs is confident coach Mick will prepare the girls this time. It bodes well for an exciting 2022 for our AFLW Dees. Go girls!

Not forgetting a big thank you to Civil for brightening up our day with some brain wrenching challenges. Thank you Civil!

That would be the late Robert George Dylan Willis I believe.

And further to these excellent points, it is ridiculous to compare Omicron to previous variants. Even more ridiculous that some people use the current Omicron tsunami as evidence to retrospectively support anti mandate, anti masks and anti restrictions positions on previous variants. Omricon arrived in Victoria and NSW in mid November. Today, less than 3 weeks later, in those two states alone there were 53, 000 plus cases, with both jurisdictions acknowledging wit the testing and RAT issues this is almost certainly an undercount. The phrase 'game changer' has been used ALOT in the last two years. However, if there was ever a time for it to be used accurately now is that time. Omricon has changed the rules AND the playing field.

Absolute speed reader. I average around 3 books per year, knocking off a few pages every night. Bit of a sloth really. Nonetheless, I've got this book on the shelf ready to go. If I start today, I should be finished by April...

How do you figure this out? Explain to me how we allowed every other State to go about their lives. Covid Zero was unacheivable, surely surely can see that now. BTW I think closing Australia' s Border did more to prevent the wholesale spread of Covid than any lockdown, curfew, restriction of distance allowed to travel etc.

We closed the State for 3 months when we had 5 cases, you remember the short sharp one. Now we have over 17000 cases and it's business as usual, my how times have changed. Someone will write a book about this one day and expose the gross mismanagement and over reaction by Governments. You can't hold back the tide no matter how powerful the politicians feel they are.

Partly Agree Balls about Salo but he needs at least 2/3 more years at his current level before he passes Brett Lovett in our rankings I believe. He will especially if he plays in a flag or 2 or 3 more!!!

Or even a shoo-in. a person or thing that is certain to succeed, especially someone who is certain to win a competition. "he was a shoo-in for re-election"

Funny you mentioned that. I've been adamant on the Twitter, and copped a pasting, that Hawkins intentionally clocked May in the match early in the season. It was an absolute no-brainer that Hawkins had a swing because no one would convict him (especially the ex player gang in the media) because he could always say it was an accident. But you pull any one of those media pundits aside and I'll guarantee they'll agree Hawkins had a free hit, and they'll acknowledge with a nod and a wink that everyone knows what Hawkins was really up to.

I got a copy of both from my son and that's why I didn't get it for myself, I sort of knew he would. He also gave me a little football with the club theme song on it. My house is looking like the MFC clubrooms.

Best 22 B: LEVER, MAY, A.JOHNSON HB: SALEM, WIGHT, B.LOVETT C: FLOWER, PETRACCA, TINGAY HF: LYON, SCHWARZ, YZE F: FRITSCH, NEITZ, FARMER FOLL: GAWN, OLIVER, T.VINEY IC: STYNES, J.MCDONALD, S.FEBEY, JONES

Remember this…..

“That bloke.” The Dees guy in the crowd. He epitomised pretty much every Demons fan at that moment in time.

I have been checking out the size and shape of presents under the tree and I think I may have done the right thing by waiting for today instead of buying it.

I suppose I cheated! I borrowed a digital copy from the local library and read it in two sittings! And no I’m not a skinflint but as a retiree and having purchased the supa dupa Demons 2021 box set for $139.95 and renewed my club membership I’ve spent my football allowance for the year. It was certainly an enjoyable read😀.

In the second part of his series on his top 100 players of past 50 years, regular Demonlander Deespicable ranks 61-80 So now we are getting down to the guys who were damn fine players on their day but were just a tackle, smother or a matchwinning goal away from being regarded as outright stars. The three hardest to rank were the three ruckman from 63-65 on my list. It’s amazing as bad as we were at times throughout the past five decades, we have always been able to produce high-quality ruckmen. In fact we are the only club with five All-Australian tappers – O’Dwyer, Stynes, White, Jamar and Gawn. On top of that Peter Moore won the Brownlow for us in 1984 – albeit being overlooked for All-Australian selection to Simon Madden and Andrew Purser that year. Of course just as some old-timers like me argue about whether Woey or Graham Teasdale or Tony Liberatore were worthy Charlie recipients, a case could be made about how Strawb and the Russian actually got an All-Aussie gong. That’s not me being denigrating, it just that Madden and Aaron Sandilands were the clear No.1 in the years that our boys saluted and you wonder why they bothered to choose a back-up. But they did and as a result I am left wondering whether I have the duo high enough on my list. Feedback please. 61 Jack Watts 09-17 153 games, 143 goals So is he a great? Or a great waste of talent. It’s hard not be cruel about our infamous No.1 pick of 2008 who is clearly one of our most skilled players ever – right up there with Robbie and Dollars and Trapper. Sure we’d have rather have had NicNat, but if we did, we wouldn’t have taken Max Gawn the following year. Maybe it was the way we gifted him the Queen’s Birthday game to bump up our home crowd, but he always seemed more happy in his role as our No.1 promotions officer than he did nailing tackles. And as a result he became synonymous with what’s wrong with Melbourne, rather than someone who should have been properly developed from day one – the Dogs have a similar problem with Ugle-Hagan right now. After Roosy tried to restore his confidence, Goody, some might say to his credit, seemed to realise that he was a bit of a trainwreck and sent him packing to Port. But here’s the thing. Hands up if you got out of your seat to cheer the loudest you ever have when he converted after Alex Rance manhandled him on Anzac Eve in 2016? Or when he waltzed down the wing and kicked the sealer against the Pies in 2017. And which player would you like to have a beer with most of all. A great man I reckon. 62 Peter Giles 79-87 124 games, 32 goals Like Watts, another player given Norm Smith's No.4. He was recruited from Sandringham as a forward, but he had this awkward kicking style and at 187cm was hardly going to split packs, so we turned him into a defender. He played tight at full-back and used his body well like Hibbo does, but we were so bad back then that he copped a few batterings. He played on Michael Roach in 1980 when he kicked nine goals to bring up the ton. But the one that everyone remembers was when he was KO’d in the second quarter by Leigh Matthews at the MCG in 1982 - the second of four Dees the lethal champ sent to La La Land over the years. Once he woke up, Gilesy came back on as a forward and kicked three goals to inspire a comeback, including I think a go-ahead goal from the boundary, but Lethal then stepped up to spoil the story. But Gilesy got some redemption with a super game in a memorable win over the Hawks in 1984 at Princes Park. 63 Garry Baker 74-81 127 games, 112 goals Recruited from Footscray who had Gary Dempsey marking everything, he wasn’t quite as tall (just 193cm) but did a pretty good Garry 2.0 impersonation with similar sticky fingers – he took 17 marks one day against the Cats’ Jeff Fehring, which was probably more than the number of hitouts he ever won given his size. He was good for a goal in the resting ruck role most games as well and had a beard that Maxy would be proud of today. He even won our B&F in 1978 before a knee injury in 1980 curtailed his movement and he wasn’t that quick beforehand, so Barass sent him packing. 64 Mark Jamar 02-15 155 games, 56 goals I had a lot of trouble deciding where to rank the Russian. I mean before this year he was one of only a handful of Dees to make an All-Australian line up and he did kick five goals against Carlton one day. But you’d be hard-pressed to view him as a great, although he was clearly a handy, humble servant, putting his body on the line for more than a decade, often down at Casey. Only once in his 14 seasons did he play every game – in 2010 when he had an impressive 643 tap-outs and finished third in the Bluey Truscott and sat on the AA bench as back-up for Aaron Sandilands. And unlike Woey and the Brownlow, he hasn’t copped it for being one of the least qualified AA selections of all time. For us though, as a ruckman, he’s in a battle with Strawbs and Bakes for our fifth best tapman of the past 50 years – such has been the quality we have produced in the rucking area. He started off playing third fiddle to Jeff White and Darren Jolly and finished up as our third wheel behind Gawny and Pencil. 65 Steven O’Dwyer 87-91 84 games, 45 goals Big Strawb will long be remembered for missing the 1988 GF when suspended but the feisty redhead was also unlucky to miss our breakthrough night premiership in 1987. He’d just made his debut against St Kilda and impressed against Alan Sidebottom but copped a two-week suspension that ruled him out of the night granny. By 1988 he was a huge presence and a John Northey favourite, so much so that he won our B&F that year. His absence against the Hawks proved telling with it forcing some major positional tinkering that proved catastrophic. With Jim Stynes developing rapidly, the club seemed to lose a little faith in Strawbs after 1990 and the umps weren’t fans of his style either - he gave away seven free kicks against Geelong in a 1989 final. But at the time he was very good at winning the hitout, even if his groundwork was a long way short of Gawny or Jimmy. 66 Jared Rivers 03-12 150 games After an inaugural season spent primarily developing at our then VFL affiliate Sandringham, the Adelaide defender was outstanding in his first full season and with his intercept marking skills on show and he quickly became Rising Star favourite, pipping teammate Aaron Davey in a year that frankly was a bit light on – no Sam Walsh’s on the horizon with Adam Cooney a slowish starter that season. After winning it he lost his way a bit in 2005, but was back taking aerial risks in 2006, helping us to the finals. Injury took its toll for the next two years and I reckon ultimately he just didn’t have the body strength to manage the power forwards. Certainly he frustrated Mark Neeld (but who didn’t) and with T-Mac being developed as a defender, Rivers was sacrificed and sent forward. He even snagged four goals against GWS that year. But having endured the club at its worst, he knew his time was up and headed to Geelong where he played three more years and quite a few finals. 67 Matthew Whelan 00-09 150 games A Darwin lad who had impressed in the SANFL, Wheels burst on the scene in 2000 where he showed amazing courage to often fly back into approaching packs for intercept marks and his pace made him a weapon at Marvel Stadium of all places. He wasn’t a thumping kick (he was a small after all), but he was clever and disciplined in the Nev Jetta style and his absence through injury during finals campaigns in 00 and 02 proved costly. When he eventually got to play a final in 2004, it was memorable, shirtfronting James Hird. He also inadvertently injured Nathan Brown in a tackle and in 2008 got suspended for striking Brendan Fevola – so the big names didn’t worry him and he kept wearing his No.45 even when low numbers were available for an upgrade. 68 Earl Spalding 87-91 109 games, 63 goals One of my favourites, the Duke arrived at Melbourne from the west as part of the “give Robbie a taste of the finals” recruiting spree that landed Todd Viney and Warren Dean. He started as a lanky CHB and he always looked a tad unco-ordinated, particularly when kicking for goal. But he could mark it like Greg Parke and as a result we sent him forward and alongside Lyon, Stynes and eventually Allen Jakovich, we had aerial superiority over most teams. He actually only played with us for five seasons before Swooper felt his errant kicking and apparently, lack of toughness, was too much and shipped him off to Carlton. Four years later he was a key member of their almost invincible 1995 flag side, so he was definitely one that got away. 69 Andy Lovell 88-95 121 games, 146 goals Dad Greg was a world wood-chopping champion, so he arrived from Glenorchy as a teenager in 1988 with the nickname Chopper. He was a thick-set but classy small forward who also played as a mid and was still attending Melbourne High when he made our 1988 GF side and with Steven Febey was one of two Tassie teenagers in our line up that day. He had plenty of good days, snagging eight against a lame Tigers in 1993, but I reckon his five-goal game against the Roos at the MCG in 1994 was probably his best. Not sure why we sent him to West Coast at the end of 1995, but he was a lot more handy for them than exchangee Craig Turley was for us. 70 James Harmes 14- 122 games One of those lifeblood of the club type players. He’s been criticised heavily by almost every regular Demonlander for his at times errant disposal, yet it was his pin-point pass to Fritter that got us going in the grand final. He was third in our breakout 2018 B&F and his antics when he stood up to Joel Selwood in the elimination final make every Dee fans must-watch list. He didn’t quite cope with the switch to defence in 2020, but he was back to his best when he returned as a close-checking midfielder against the Swans in 2021. 71 Michael Hibberd 17- 89 games Good old Hibbo came across to us after the Bombers’ supplements saga and made an immediate impact with a huge game in our unlucky Anzac Eve loss to Richmond. Despite missing the first four weeks with a hammy, he ended up making the All-Australian team as a dashing, tough left-footer. The best thing about Hibbo is that he uses his body so well. Go back and watch a replay of the first quarter of the granny and you will see just how valuable he is, just ask JJ who came off second best. 72 Jack Grimes 08-16 100 games As with Trenners, how do you assess our former captain who almost didn’t make the 100-game club. Regarded as a draft steal at pick No.14 in 2007 (aren’t they all), a back-related stress injury delayed his rise and he played in eight losing sides before the club downed West Coast by 20 points. He took 16 marks and had 29 disposals off half-back at the MCG that day along with three Brownlow votes and a star was born. The following year the tide seemed to be turning our way and he became a fan favourite until round 14 when he hobbled off with back stress recurrence. The next year it was a navicular foot stress injury, but despite all that, he was promoted to the captaincy for 2012 under Mark Neeld having played just 32 games. To his credit, he managed 21 games the next year and he was always honest and humble – hard not to be some might say given he ended with a token 100-gamer and retired to the suburban leagues with just 22 wins to his name. I like to remember him for that fist on a Patrick Dangerfield lead during our upset win in Adelaide in 2014. I suspect if he was 5cm taller and at the right club, he would have been just like his three-time premiership winning brother. 73 Anthony Ingerson 96-01 121 games Some Demonlanders will tell you that Ingo was our best full-back (period) but having seen Sean Wight in his prime that just isn’t correct. But after being let go by Adelaide, he gave us six good seasons until knee injury. A bit of an ugly left-footer, his main strength was diligent and courageous manning of his opponents that included the master of the flop Matthew Lloyd, whom he kept relatively quiet in the 2000GF (four goals). 74 Andrew Leoncelli 96-03 146 games Another slow-burner who tried out at Carlton but it wasn’t until a super season at Old Xavs in 1995 that Melbourne came calling and his AFL debut came soon after his 22 nd birthday. A bit like Trac with the media, the No.36 was a regular by 1998 playing mainly as a high half-forward with occasional stints on the ball. He was a clever ball user and his 2000 season (fifth in B&F) was impressive although like many mates, he didn’t see much of it in the granny. 75 Peter Rohde 88-95 163 games Another Carlton discard who found his way to Melbourne and became a lock off half-back during the Swooper Northey period when we were pretty competitive. From memory he had quite a few hamstring issues, but when fit he was a nice long kick. He had a memorable Queen’s Birthday game in 1993 being sent forward and snagging three in our win against the Filth. 76 Brad Miller 02-10 133 games, 89 goals Drafted from Mt Gravatt in Qld, he always looked the part, but never really took the game by the scruff of the neck. He stats in 2004 when we won six straight to briefly top the table, were hardly flattering but as a CHF, he made good position and took a big out to allow Neiter more room. Arguably his best game was against Freo in the second week of the 2006 finals where he took 14 marks. He topped our goalkicking in 2008, but by then we needed him to be Wayne Carey for us to win games. 77 Matthew Febey 87, 90-00 143 games The draft was only just getting started when the Dees punted on the Tasmanian Febey twins from Devonport. While Steven enjoyed instant success, Matthew had to do it the hard way, even being delisted and re-rookied along the way before getting a gig on the left-side wing in 1990. As with his brother, he was extremely fit and that’s why he was a regular under Balmey and the Reverend until injuries in 2000 brought on his retirement. 78 Daniel Ward 97-07 136 games Another of the Reverend’s hard workers, he began as a rookie half-back from Fitzroy reserves and ended up having a go in our midfield where he provided a bit of dash and courage, although he probably wasn’t a natural in the give-and-go, in and under caper. Got into strife with gambling late in his career, but he was a reliable No.10 for 10 seasons, even if he sprayed the odd kick. 79 Paul Wheatley 00-09 135 games He burst on the scene in 2000 when Dustin Fletcher and Ben Graham were the kings of the long ball and wasn’t that far off getting a gig in the granny that year. He often took the kick-ins and anyone who marked a ball around the 50m mark looked to dish it off to him as he could kick it 60m off one step. And if the NAB Cup nine-pointer had made its way into the AFL, then he probably would have played 200 games. But to be honest, he was just a tad slow to be a star and not quite tall enough to be a key defender in those days. 80 Clint Bizzell 02-07 88 games Kicked 77 goals as a flamboyant forward at the Cats before crossing to the Dees in 2002 and becoming a regular under Daniher. Blessed with a nice leap and looks for TV, he was the first of our breed of intercept defenders, invariably drifting across to make life hard in the air for the opposition’s focal point. A back injury and broken leg ruined his last two years, but he quickly found his post-football niche as a travel show host. Link to 81-100

except it's merriam-webster not miram, but close enough for a cigar (but not a premiership cigar)

Strongly disagree. Only May, Lever, Gawn, Petracca and Oliver would be certainties for our best 22 since 1976. The 8 players from the 2021 Premiership team that were 21 and under, are still unproven in real terms. Aside from the players you mentioned, surely Jeff Farmer gets in ahead of either Spargo or Pickett. Brett Lovett ahead of either Rivers or Salem. Laurie Fowler or Alan Johnson ahead of Bowey. Alan Jakovich ahead of Fritsch. Greg Wells ahead of Viney. Todd Viney ahead of Harmes. I could go on because Hibberd, Petty, Langdon, ANB, Sparrow and Jackson are not close to making best 22. The 2021 team is easily the best Melbourne team we've seen, but it's not made up of 22 stars.

At the 6:14 mark you can hear the regular Adelaide Demon supporter yelling "Whoo Hoo!" in the background!

would be very bitter...

Thanks for these. Even as kids they are well developed. And the wine bottle....anyone know what the wine is ?

So many great images from our season. Max at the Cattery Langdon’s smile Trac’s stare Fritta’s jumper tug Kossie after a snap Goodie and Max centre stage at Optus Team celebration I rate this most iconic - I recall the instant 57 years despair morphed into spine tingling disbelief

When I see the title of this thread - Clumsy or was he tripped?

Responsible for much swearing at my place.

In previous years round 6 would equate to about 2 games for Casey. Hope they sort that VFL shortfall out.

He'll probably fail yet again and be dropped, just like has has several times already. Did you actually have a point to make? Do you think he will suddenly be able to do things that up until now he hasn't been able to? If he does, wonderful. But I think it's far more likely that he wont based on what we've seen so far.

Weid is confused by the word 'clunk' . Before you can clunk 'em, ya gotta be in position or moving to a better position, preferably just about alone.

I think Tomlinson can play with Lever, Petty and May anyway. It would completely release Lever and give the option to May if we wanted to get him peeling off more.

Our premiership drought is now FOUR WEEKS old. There are kids out there who have never seen a Melbourne premiership!!! Will it ever end?

Macrae got crunched 4-5 times hard in the first quarter. In the first 5 seconds Viney absolutely impales him, then Salem spears him like Goldberg about 75 seconds later. I don't think its coincidence they both went in hard on the same player. I think it was a directive to tackle him hard and rattle him. He had his second lowest disposal count for the year (by 1), I think the hits had an impact on him physically and mentally. I watched a lot of bulldogs games this year and he never got that sort of attention from opposition.

Reckon Bowey is closer to Whitfield, as he's a far better athlete than Daniel. Not necessarily saying he'll be as good, but there are some similarities which is exciting.

Pickett also tackled and dispossessed Weightman to enable Bowey to get the turnover and pass it to Brayshaw for his lead changing goal. He also harassed the Bulldog players to force a turnover for Spargo’s goal.Three very important efforts that directly turned into goals. Never got much ball himself but was always in the thick of the forward line action.

Can’t stop watching Kozzie’s shepard for Petracca.

Someone has uploaded a highlights of every goal Kozzie has kicked this year. Nothing else to do? Well worth the 20 minute watch.

Agree that the “standard published stats” suggest he did very little but there were numerous pressure moments and shepherds that are available to some that no doubt show things differently. Sure, by his standards, he may have had a quiet one, but he still did the team things and absolutely helped get us there. About to watch the full replay again.