Hatchman

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.

In all of my 45 years 2021 was, by a very long way, the best Melbourne team I have ever seen. Which i know is easy to say because we won the flag, but it just is. There have certainly been times throughout the decades where I have seen us play amazingly well. The QF against Carlton in 2000, times during 1990/91 before we [censored] the bed in the finals to the Eagles etc...we all can recall certain games or weekly periods where we were just "on" - only for the wheels to fall off But in 2021 we just got absolutely everything right and everyone peaked in terms of skills, fitness and mental strength right at the time of the season when they had to. Every player just went to another level as they all pushed each other there. That has never happened before and may never again. The way we dismantled Geelong and then the Bulldogs was utterly merciless and brutal. It was the most perfect, relentless football I have ever seen in my life. And as for Max, his game against Geelong was the best game I have ever seen a ruckman play. Like ever. And I am old enough to remember the individual brilliance of Stynes, Madden et al. It was just extraordinary.

Does anyone know if this will be live streamed? I'm currently based in the US so would like to be able to watch!

Should be retired in my view. Much like 31 and 11 when Max retires Number 2 has earned that prestige with Flower and Jones

I remember it all. I was at those two Hawthorn games, if I remember rightly wasn't one of them Michael Tucks 400th game or something like that? I think the previous one was a milestone game for Ricky Jackson. It is so good to be able to recall these memories with the premiership now in our hands. It doesn't feel so wasted or painful like it used to. This team will be remembered forever, they gave us back our dignity as supporters

I was at that game and remember being reduced to tears. I honestly could not believe that we lost that game

After the Geelong game then I totally lost my excrement in the last quarter of the GF seeing the players celebrate and run around the ground

Rendall has had bits of toilet paper on his chin for over a decade - ignore it, he's just trying to be "controversial" to keep his job https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-20/rendell-racist-comment-throw-away-line/3900240

Still in that corner? 😀

I would personally be disgusted if our team instigated or planned to take players out of the game to win dirty. Leave that crap to the Hawks, Bombers etc clubs. No-one has forgotten the acts of Wallis and Long in 2000 and I would not want that kind of cloud having over a premiership win for us. Play hard, play on the edge, but play fair

Watching from Los Gatos, California! Brought over all my supporter gear and will be zooming with the family Have already procured ingredients for a nice cheeseboard from a Whole Foods Market in San Jose and selected a nice Napa Valley Red to go with it. I don't give a stuff if it's on at 02:30 in the morning - 21 years is a long enough gap to do something a bit out of the ordinary!

Bloody hell we are going to win the Grand Final.

I moved to California over a year ago which means the bounce will be at 02:15 on Saturday morning! But our family will be getting up for it and I will ensure that an appropriate cheese board is ordered through Amazon Whole Foods to go with a nice bottle of red from the Napa Valley I picked up in March! I'm nervous but mostly I am just happy that we made it to a Grand Final. I shed enough tears at the end of the Geelong game from 20+ years of sticking by this club, so come what may I'm just grateful that we made it to the big dance. Hopefully we can make it again in future years and I will be able to fly back for the game