Bang Bang Bang

Melbourne week 1 with the prospect of Geelong in week 2 would surely make you nervous.

Hunter seems to be quite unpopular on here. I personally feel like he has been an excellent outlet for us all season and has changed the way we play for the better, we actually use both wings to attack now. Very important player for our structure even if he can be a bit cute at times. We’re 8-0 at the MCG with Hunter playing this year and 0-1 without him. We were a poor MCG side up until this year too. Now I am not suggesting he’s THAT integral to our fortunes, but I’d be absolutely staggered if he was dropped. Tomlinson on exposed form has had a better season than Petty, but I get the feeling the coaches see it differently. We have conceded a lot of scoring shots in the past two games, so it seems like a no brainer to slot Hibbo back in there. For who? I’m not so sure. Grundy for BBB seems like a given in the next few games too.

That was a stressful last quarter, but an otherwise enjoyable game of footy with the Dees faithful. Glad the rain went away and 33,000 was a strong showing IMO, particularly with very few Crows fans at the City End. Don’t care how we win them at this time of year. That’s 8 incredibly value points in our last two outings when it could easily have been 0. Collingwood and Port have made winning close ones an art form this season, why can’t we? Kosi was the difference between the two sides and for all the “LoSt At SeLeCtIoN” comments I’ve read over the years, can we say this match was WON AT SELECTION? Tomlinson was excellent and we don’t win without Chandler. Brown off for Smith was genius too. Onya Goody.

I think it’s highly likely we go for it and certainly possible West Coast agree to it. It’s almost an identical play to what we tried last year with Essendon’s pick and Humphrey. Something like: pick 4, pick 15 and our future first For pick 1 and a future third Is mutually beneficial IMO. Eagles get to take Curtin and also get two bonus first rounders to strengthen their rebuild. And we get to draft the heir apparent to Petracca and Oliver. He will be hitting his prime just as they are slowing down / retiring. Yes, there’s no guarantees of Reid becoming a star. But the inside bulls have a MUCH higher probability of making it than anyone else.

So Clarry has gone from 3-4 a fortnight ago, to 4 last week, to 3-4 again today. Hope he can actually get back this season.

There are lots of possibilities, but here are the two I see most likely: 1. Trade up for pick 1 i.e Harley Reid. West Coast might go for it if we get pick 4 and package it up with two of our other assets (our own first rounder this year or next, or Freo’s second pick). West Coast might prefer going for Curtin anyway and using the other picks to strengthen their rebuild. As for us, the Petracca/Oliver/Viney era has been amazing and still has a few years left in it, but we need to bring a genuine A-grade talent in to take over the midfield in five years. Reid is perfect IMO and I’d be happy to go down this path despite the cost. 2. Keep Freo’s pick. My money would be on taking Zane Duursma - from memory he trained with us over summer and played a bit at Casey. I’m sure that works in his favor somewhat and there’s a fair chance he will be best available at Freo’s pick and he fits a need.

I can’t see them catching us. They have Brisbane away, Port, Collingwood, Saints (at Marvel) and the Dogs to come. They will lose at least two of them, surely. If we go 5-1 or even 4-2 from here, then we should have them covered. They’ll be dangerous in September though.

So… you’ll be…. going for…. Geelong… tonight? Never thought I’d see the day.

Went to the game tonight, I actually don’t mind Marvel like everyone else seems to. It’s definitely not as good as the G but it’s always pretty easy to get to on the train and a solid spot to watch a game of footy. 30k was a pretty good turn out, even if we were outnumbered. Was just a “so-so” win at best, but also no worse than our win over them in 2021. And the 4 points were as crucial as they’ll be all season. Puts us in a very good position now. May was masterful, it looked like maybe age was finally catching up to him, but now… perhaps not? We will be in every game of footy as long as May is fit and in form. Beast. Goody will probably be pleased with how the midget forward line worked in tandem. I thought Melksham was very good, Trac was clinical and BB tried hard and did enough. I still feel like we were lacking one tall player down there. Forget Grundy playing forward, he has his strengths but marking and forward craft aren’t it. Gawn too. On that note… I think Gawndy is actually going the way a lot of us predicted it would last October. Just doesn’t seem to work and it’s made Gawn a shell of the player he once was. It’s not really Grundy’s fault either but surely Goody gives thought to replacing him with JVR (or Schache) just to see how it looks.

Give Ben another week or two to show his worth, he was never going to impact in today’s rubbish conditions and should have been a late out if anything. I’d be happy for any of ANB, Kosi and Chandler to be dropped, but this is Goodyball, none will be. As for Harmes, what a poor selection, no hindsight needed, just bizarre to drop JJ for him.

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David King is paid to analyze the game and had Freo as his 4th seed twelve days ago. Someone needs Champion Data to go and audit his continual [censored] calls.

Joey Montagna is a much better analyst than Kingy. Joey jumped on the FlagDees before anyone else in the media (very early in 2021) - at a time when it was still VERY uncool to take Melbourne seriously. Kingy has no idea really, he'll probably have Essendon in his power rankings tomorrow. I do like him taking Kane Cornes to task every Friday though.

Not enough love for Lachie Hunter's hit on Hoskin-Elliot (3.54 left in the first quarter). Was awesome. Too bad Grundy couldn't finish the work off.

Jack Viney what a man! Not sure what was a bigger disgrace, the umpiring at the end there or Hamish going with "Bang Bang Bang" at the start of the game. [censored] off.

Anyone who thought Schache was going to be John Coleman for us were always going to be disappointed. We only got him on the cheap as insurance which thankfully we haven’t had to tap into much so far. Exactly the same as what Weideman was bringing us.

Delist Jefferson though.

Gunston is an interesting one - he was still an excellent player in 2022 and I was actually disappointed we didn’t go after him. But he has fallen off the cliff now. Not totally unexpected (he’s 32 this year) but just very sudden. Hopefully our plus 30s have a couple of good years left yet.

Umpire 22 is the worst in the business. There’s a reason he’s been around for years but never pops up in the finals. Dogs easily could have won that if it weren’t for him. Port are a bunch of [censored] but they’d have to trip over their own shoelaces to miss top 2 from here. And that gives them a huge chance of a GF spot. They have Geelong next week, I’m honestly not sure what to do for that game. Two despicable teams who are both dangers to us for different reasons. I might watch paint dry.

Five contenders IMO. #1 seed: Collingwood - clearly the Premiership favourites and won't have to leave the MCG in September. #2 seed: Melbourne - not the second best side in it, but crucially we play the MCG well and should be able to do enough to qualify for 4th. Running games out much better than 2022. #3 seed: Port Adelaide - people underestimate them, they probably should have won the flag in 2020 and only had a horror prelim evening in 2021, while 2022 was never a chance for them after the first month. They've bounced back quickly and Butters/Rozee are approaching their prime. They strike me as the most likely to qualify for a GF off the back of two home final wins - but then lose the GF to Collingwood, us or Geelong. #4 seed: Geelong - they just never go away and can easily get on winning streaks. They won 15 straight on their way to a flag last year. Will be strengthened further when Dangerfield and Duncan among others return. Old as hell, but for whatever reason their older stars never seem to slow down. A real wildcard. #5 seed: Brisbane - I think everyone kind of feels the same way about Brisbane. They'll put themselves in the conversation but won't be able to get it done deep into September.

I wish him well for the most part but Weid is still the exact same player he was with us. Those dropped marks are much easier to watch when he’s in Essendon colours.

That is 100% going to be 1-2 weeks. No way he gets off. Just need Mason Cox to dump tackle someone now.

“This will bring the house down” - dead silence. Love his enthusiasm. Haha.

Trac and Clarry will be locks for the next few years. It's disappointing that nobody else has really put their hand up so far - Gawn, Salem, May, Lever, Fritsch, Pickett and Langdon were all in the conversation this time two years ago. That could potentially be a good thing in the back half of the year. Lots of very good players who can lift.

I dunno, he has exposed form at AFL level over many years now. He's not a world beater but if he struggles for impact in subpar conditions at Casey then I don't think that should put a line through his name. Joel Smith was promoted off less.