Hatchman

I think they have a hard time accepting that we are this good. Further to that would be last year was not a fluke I admit that I do at times as well because, to be really candid, most people alive on the planet today have only known us to be an utterly terrible team.

I feel bad for them. I know how it feels to literally spend every game sitting there just feeling everything is so hopeless. But there is the cold reality as well. North is not like Narrm, they don't have the tradition we have, nor do they have the link to the very origins of the game that we have. Their name is just ours with a compass direction added on - there is no need for two teams with the name Melbourne in it due to the number of Victorian clubs already in the League. They have very low supporter numbers and could never rally their members like Stynes did with the Foundational Members. They need to move to Tasmania, or the NT, and be reborn again. We're just watching a very slow death and it is very sad to see

Best I have seen in my lifetime.

🤞 Daw finally gets a call up. He can alternate with Jackson and he will be fine.

Goodwin. First coach to get us to a flag in my lifetime. Can't beat that Northey I still remember how utterly hopeless we were in the 80s. I was reminded every Monday in Primary school as the one of only three Demons supporters in my year level. The fact he got us to a Grand Final in 1988 and we got over the line in 87 (I was at the Whitten Oval), to give Flower his first ever final in a club that had a rag-tag list, an import from Ireland in Stynes and horrid facilities was massive. Absolutely massive. Daniher Even though he rarely had a Plan B on game day and put his faith in under performers for too long - selection pressure wasn't a thing on the Boulevard, he still managed to get us to a GF with arguably the worst facilities any team had in the league and had to do this after picking up the pieces after the whole merger debacle Roos Got us back on track, mentored Goodwin, cleared out most of the dead-wood and drove the standards and culture that we have today. His impact on the club cannot ever be under-estimated. Balme Kind of have Balme at a tie with Roos in rebuilding a list for Neale to take over. Difference here is Goodwin got the flag, Danners didn't. That is all. No disrespect to Bails here but no way would a Roos, Clarkson or Matthews have put up with Schwab and his meddling. His parting shot out the door lacked class too. But RIP mate, you had a thankless job and a gutless, cowardly employer.

That takes him to 10 years at the club. Probably a sensible timeframe I think, he's achieved a flag and may get another 1. After that he may want a new challenge

Plus one to that He is the best Key Defender I have seen play for us and I've either been to or watched, almost every game we played since the early 80's. Little harder now living in the States - thank goodness for WatchAFL and International Memberships. He ticks every box you want in a defender, second only to Lever in reading the play, an excellent kick, can mark overhead, great on-field leader, built like a brick outhouse. May and Lever were selection masterstrokes - all the more poignant given our utterly horrible recruiting record for more than a decade.

I can't watch Mark Robinson. I could never read his articles either. He is a terrible journalist and a relic of the "old boy" industry. I suspect he only maintains a presence from years spent [censored] kissing and swimming in the right circles.

I love it. So proud of this club and its long standing efforts of embracing our Indigenous heritage and culture.

To be fair, during the Neeld era we had descended into a team that just everyone pitied. We were impossible to hate

In our truly horrible years I went to a Dees v Hawks game at the G on a Friday night with a couple of colleagues. They were both Hawks supporters and insisted we sit next to the cheer squad. I slammed 6 pots before the game at Y&J as I knew I couldn't watch our team sober in that environment. We got smashed by a huge amount, no surprise What I have not forgotten is how nice the Hawks supporters were towards me. At one point I had my head buried in my hands and a couple came up and patted me on the back and told me things will come good etc. and at the end of the game a few shook my hand for sticking to the bitter end. I bare them no ill will, although I still hope we smash them

Dunstan got in for Viney. Good decision, he's better than Melksham in that role We have such good fortune with injuries at the moment, I'd love to see Bedford get a game though the kid has talent

Weid did impact contests well, but he still can't clunk them because he doesn't have the Fritsch smarts to work his opponent over. He needs to read the play better and learn his opponents' tactics, so he stops getting spoiled or bumped in the contest. He's got every other attribute ticked off as a key forward except that. At least that is how it looks to me. Brown should come in; he's a proven performer and is an excellent contested mark. He's still better than Weid

Sinead Goldrick has to be one of the hardest, see ball get ball, players I have seen. She must run through brick walls in her spare time.

Just keep Bowey in, he's our good luck charm

I was never worried, not for a second. It's a weird but pleasant feeling and I think no matter what happens I will enjoy this season as a very large, lifelong weight, was taken off my shoulders last year

Glad you noted that as I thought that bump was massive at the time. I've watched that vision numerous times and it could have been possible that Trac could have been nudged slightly and not made that crazy goal Pickett just hits so damn hard with the way he uses his shoulders. Different to his uncle from memory but no less brutal in the way he goes about it. I would have been terrified of playing against his uncle though, Byron was like a block of granite

I loved the part at the end when we were over ten goals up, and Trac notes that when May told him to defensively man up, he told him to smile as we were home. For that, he copped 30 seconds of abuse from May and Viney, who overheard him! I love this; it speaks volumes to the team's commitment to be honest, and open with professional feedback at the start of the year.

To clarify this. KAYO and Channel 7 are actively blocking VPNs. A number of the major ones like ExpressVPN, SurfShark will not work. For the tech-minded folks, this is because KAYO runs on AWS (amazon web services) through their CloudFront CDN, which is regularly updated to block VPN traffic originating from their data centers or other major cloud providers. The one that always seems to work is Bullet VPN, as they run their servers (I think, but not sure) across multiple private data centers and change the IPs regularly to avoid getting blocked. I used Bullet all summer to watch the cricket on Kayo and never had an issue. You can run Bullet (like most VPNs) either as a browser-based VPN or as an app on your desktop/laptop. BUT you can't use Kayo as a mobile app overseas no matter what VPN you have running. The reason is KAYO is smart enough to demand your location be on before being used as an app on your phone, so running the VPN on your phone will not work because the app will also use location as a secondary line of defense. You can't change that either; KAYO won't run without location. It makes me question the legality of that regarding personal privacy, but there is probably a loophole so they get away with it. So the solution here is to run BulletVPN (or any other not blocked by KAYO) on your laptop and then use AirPlay or Chromecast to cast to your television to watch whatever it is you want to get around the location tracking issue

Every bit of pain and suffering is now dead and buried, 6 foot deep in the ground in Western Australia. In many ways this closes a chapter in my life. I can finally move on.

Desperation. Their window has closed and they need a "brand name" player to keep the media talking about the club as they sink back down the ladder.

I get the logic to this. A couple of years ago I tore my meniscus playing adult recreational basketball. Got a big explosion of pain in my knee, I swore and hobbled off the court. Went home, iced it, called the physio the next day and let the team know they had a scorer for the next 6 weeks! Sports injuries are, like imagine to a lot of us, nothing new and we get used to them especially as we age and stay active. I won't bore anyone with the laundry list of injuries, concussions, surgeries etc... I've had, but say enough to say that it didn't freak me out and while it was bloody painful it wasn't anything I hadn't dealt with before - not like a broken bone which I hate doing as they always hurt like hell But I do remember talking to another player in a team my guys played the week after as I hobbled up to do the scoring, and he mentioned they had a guy in their team that did a similar injury later that night and that he went down like a sack of potatoes, face went white and was nearly crying. We got talking about it and he told me that this bloke had never played much sport and taking up rec basketball in his early 40's was the first time he'd ever played. Meaning it was the first time he'd ever experienced pain like this. Maybe that sort of explains this theory?

To be fair, I had half a thought that we would too. We've got history

Good call on Sparrow. I had my doubts including him over Jordan (and even Jones), at the pointy end of the season but his prelim and GF were huge

The challenge to hang onto the players in this group will be the biggest this club has faced. There is no doubt there is another flag in our future if we do. We need to replicate what Geelong and Hawthorn did.