Bang Bang Bang

Thought I might not be as invested this season, but was already resorting to dropping F-bombs and even the occasional C-bomb by early in the second quarter. The vulgarity was mainly directed at the horrific umpiring, but also at our continual butter fingers at inopportune times. I like ANB but he's infuriating to watch when he's off. Just can't handle the ball cleanly. To be fair he was far from alone tonight. Nice to see that becoming a Premiership team doesn't now make us immune to complete and utter spuds tearing us a new one either. Matthew Kennedy, give me a [censored] break. Bloody good to be back to be honest.

He is grossly underrating Bayley Fritsch. Robbo had him at 16 in his last list, which was perhaps a fraction high but still much closer to his true standing that not even in the Top 50. LOL! On a wider lens, there is no way in hell seagulls like Merrett and McCrae (and even Walsh if I'm being harsh) are better than Tomahawk and Toby Greene.

Watched the replay last night. There wouldn't be many, if any, players out there who are better on the non-dominant side than Kozzie. I'm sure we recruited him in 2019 to mainly fill a specific need, but he's going to be so much more than that. His impact can't be measured on statistics. I also think Bowey was better than he was given credit for. I think it just comes as a massive shock when he actually does make a mistake. Won't hold my breath on Joel Smith staying fit, but he was really impressive. Tomlinson seems to be back way earlier than expected? Not suggesting any corners were cut, just pleased to see him out there and playing well. When he first went down in Tassie, you could be forgiven for thinking 2022 was a wipeout for him in terms of playing good footy again and yet here we are.

I think the recent Boxing Day test is a good reference point. Even though they are always dead rubbers, Ashes tests always pull the highest attendances. 2013 : 91,112 2017: 88,173 2021: 57,100 Crowds were WAY done last year despite full capacity being allowed. They were also way down in general in the early rounds of the 2021 AFL season, even factoring it that we only got to 75% capacity. Sadly, I think it will be 45,000 or less March 16.

I’ve only watched the full replay once. But I changed my username not long after September 25 and have watched that sequence 100+ times since. I still tear up most times, as I can literally feel 57 years of pain shattering away like glass in that moment. It was truly a surreal experience that will most likely never be replicated, even if we win another flag.

Feel like Big Benny Brown is in for a big year. He has already justified the trade on the back of his work in 2021. Heck, he justified it on the back of the Grand Final alone. But quite often, he'd dominate early in games before drifting out. I put that down to a lack of conditioning. Now, he's had a year in our system, has a full pre season to build miles in the legs, and is approaching the sweet spot of his career (29 y/o is absolute prime for a key forward IMO, particularly for one that started his career a bit later). He basically guarantees us a goal every time he takes a set shot. 60+ goals isn't out of the question in 2022.

Depends on the player really. Franklin and Judd played their best footy at 21, where as Hawkins reached new heights at 32-33 and is showing no signs of slowing down. I'd also say that modern players are generally more durable than they used to be. I remember when 30 was generally the age you'd expect a player to bow out. It's more like 32-35 now. May and Gawn are both turning 30 very soon but have fresh AA blazers in the wardrobe and should be at their peak a while yet. Trac and Clarry honestly have an eternity of good footy left in them.

Long deal for Fritsch out the back! Recovers and signs!

This guy seems really unlucky. Drafted mid season to the best team and eventual Premiers, who also had no real injuries. To rub salt into the wound, the only competition he could have potentially staked a claim for selection in was shut down shortly after arriving and didn’t return. Must have been a poor trainer or something. Will back our list management team on this one.

He could retire tomorrow and still be an MFC legend forever. But we still have 7 years to enjoy, the majority of which will be in his prime. Not sure why his "spin" out of traffic doesn't get the plaudits Dusty's "don't argue" gets. It's every bit as glorious to watch in full flight.

How many years for Dogga would you be happy with? Sometimes young stars don’t progress as expected for different reasons. I’m thinking of Jesse Hogan, Jake Stringer, Joe Daniher who were all once 20 year old stars. Patrick Cripps is not elite anymore after being one of the competition’s best a few years back. There are more examples I’m sure. That being said, I’m comfortable enough with Dogga being a generational talent that a three or four year extension (+1 already agreed to in 2022) would make an already perfect 2021, well… even more perfect.

Good early signs from Jacko. Hope he's next to put pen to paper.

Don't want to tempt fate, but since the start of 2017 Petracca and Oliver have missed a grand total of ONE game between them. Incredible durability. The signing of Dunstan has little to do with them. The signing still makes sense though. Viney will probably play 60-70% of H&A seasons for the rest of his career, and we're never ever again having a run with injury as good as 2021. If Choco can do with Dunstan what he did with Ed Langdon, then he might be able to push Harmes or JJ out of the team at certain points. Dunstan will cost nothing, he was on fire during the mid part of the season and 27 year old 100 gamers are exactly the kind of age profile we should be adding to the list. Good job Dees.

It's a good question and one I've thought about a lot. For me, these three are very hard to split but are the clear standouts from the 21 we kicked or whatever it was. 1. Petracca. Capping off arguably the most dominant individual GF quarter in history with THAT. Get outta here. (Little did I know he still had a hand to play in another) 2. Oliver. Legitimately pondered the possibility I had died and was at the pearly white gates after this goal. And yet it's still only #2. 3. Fritsch's 4th. Was a bloody goal without any context, but add in the crowd noise, BT's commentary, Fritsch's celebration and the realisation we were back made it pretty special. MIght be time for yet another rewatch of the 3rd quarter.

I have no plans to rewatch it but seem to recall the Dogs lead all game, were challenged late then flexed their muscles again to win comfortably. Agree on the umpiring, but kicking straight and taking your chances is part of being “the better team on the night” IMO. Anyway it’s irrelevant now, the losses helped shape our flag and like most of us I get overly emotional and read too much into things in the immediate aftermath of any loss.

That Bulldogs defeat was the worst performance of the year. Empty stadium, horrendous weather, horrendous umpiring but honestly a game where for the first time all year I thought to myself “We aren’t good enough”. Dogs were clearly the better team on the night.

It’s still a bit puzzling to me as to how we got him so cheap and with minimal interest from other clubs. Was a goal kicking machine before the knee injury. No surprises that he eventually returned to be a goal kicking machine after the injury. Can extrapolate that he would have kicked 48 goals in a full season and that’s just as a role player and a slow start. Maybe the knee injury was more serious than what I remember it to be. That’s literally the only thing I can think of. Fritsch and Benny will combine for 100 goals next year. And the year after. And maybe the one after that.

Brilliant interview. One of the better transcripts I've read through. Max has that rare and perfect blend of humour and insight when speaking about the club. Re. Goody: "The members get a bit annoyed by him and media, because he's very much one message in his press conferences and quite monotone....." made me LOL.

I wasn’t planning on changing my username, but after hearing JB say “Bang Bang Bang” for the 100th time I though I liked the sound of it. Love seeing Jaded’s new name too. She’s been on here as long as anyone. @Jaded No More

I for one have not and will not move on for several months. Even then I won’t really have moved on. The rest of the world can please themselves.

I'm not sure if he gave anything specific, but I'd put it down to the following factors: Money and contract length. I think the offer was reported as 4 x 700k a year Previous ties to the MFC. He was close with Paul Roos and nearly got drafted by us in 2014 Melbourne were an attractive prospect at the time. A lot expected us to be on the cusp of success. Jordan Lewis chose us 12 months previously precisely for this reason (but obviously mistimed his run and should have chosen Richmond). We won 12 games and were damn good at times in 2017 He reads the future as well as he reads the ball

Interesting to revisit this trade. We were widely condemned at the time for over paying but let's actually look at what came in and out. In came Jake Lever, a 2017 second round pick (Harrison Petty) and a 2018 third rounder (traded on to St. Kilda who picked Matthew Parker) Out went 2017 pick 10 (Lochie O'Brien), a 2018 first rounder (Liam Stocker) and 2018 fourth rounder which ended up with Fremantle (Brett Bewley) Jake Lever is an AA defender and still just 25 years old. Harrison Petty was steak knives and may yet be an AA quality defender himself. I'm sure JT would have used the outgoing early picks much more wisely than picking [censored] O'Brien and Stocker, but it still goes down as one of our all time great trades and still has 10+ years to go.

I remember thinking that after the third quarter of the prelim. Then we went out and topped it two weeks later.

Kicked the same amount of behinds as 2020. But an extra 37 goals.

Turned a GF on its head in his second year. Incredible.