At the break of Gawn

King’s MO is to make a bold early prediction and gloat about it later if he gets it right. I heard him in rnd 1say that Essendon could be a bolter this year. He also said a couple of weeks ago that the Saints had more “weapons” than us. I doubt he watched the Melbourne game because the North v Freo game was on at the same time. I wonder if he changes his tune a bit more after we belt his beloved Roos. Montagna is a good analyst FWIW. He picked up on us very early.

I reckon we started to see it the end of last year. The thumping by Port was a real come to Jesus moment for the group and I think the group gathered together and started to make inroads.The two losses in Cairns were mainly due to unexpected conditions and Covid restrictions (travelling up the day of while Freo and Swans were there days beforehand), so I think if you exclude them we’ve been good for a while - we’ve won 12 of our last 15 games which is amazing.

He was at the game apparently, saw a tweet from someone that he gave a bunch a Dees fans the finger after they said something to him.

His articles are decently written (certainly not the best out there) but he uses a lot of emotion in his writing which suits the HS. His footy knowledge is really poor though which surprises me. I’ve been watching 360 for years and he just always uses phrases such as “they’re just not showing heart”, or “x team has to make a stand” while completely ignoring any technical reasons.

Agree with this also. It’s crazy to think he won’t even be regarded as the best person in his draft year as there’s a guy in there who’s won 3 norm smiths.

AnB fought back really well in the second half. Did some nice things.

Thought Jetta had been pretty good, not fantastic but still really solid. Don’t particularly like 3 changes to a team who has been so settled. I suppose 2 are forced though.

100% agree, although David King reckons the Saints have more “weapons” than Melbourne this year ?

That is really poor. I signed up my daughter at the start of March and have also received nothing.

Surely there’s no excuse now for our supporters not to sign up!?

I’m happy with his running and getting to multiple contests. I’m sure BB will kick more goals but I still think Tmac has a place.

Will be too difficult in these conditions. It’ll be a territory battle today. We need to smash them in clearances and contested possessions then lock it in our forward 50.

I think the rest of the footy world believes the Cats deserve, and are due, for a loss which I’m happy for us to deliver. I’m predicting a smallish winning margin - 10 to 20pts which will see us gain a bit of respect but not too much media hype to give us big heads against the Hawks the week after.

Goody and the coaches have been pretty spot on with the team selection so far so I’m happy to take their judgment on this one. Apparently Melbourne is the no.1 defensive side in the comp without the ball according to champion data, so we must be doing something right, and I can’t seeing Melky stuffing that up.

Sparrow adds midfield depth, so I’d take him ahead of Melksham at this stage. Hibberd for Jetta only if the matchup is right, but Jetta was excellent round 1 and blanketed Lonie last week.

Harsh on a couple here. Brayshaw was our only winning mid early. Fritsch kicked 3 up against an AA defender

History may actually say Gawn is the most decorated and potentially best Melbourne player ever. 4 x AA, best & fairest winner, AFLCA best player 2018 so far. He’ll probably add another AA jumper this year, too.

I actually thought Brayshaw was ok. He laid some big tackles in the last qtr (including one on Fyfe) and did some nice composed kicks that led to scoring opportunities. He’ll be even better next week.

I think one of the reasons is that supporters didn’t have a lot of confidence going into this one. Poor 2020 and a poor AAMI series game. If we were playing the Saints as our home game at the G next week you’d get 50k

In: Viney, Hibberd Out: Sparrow/Harmes(either will do) Hunt or Rivers Not sure Melksham is an automatic selection.

Wtf? Jetta was actually good today. He won a number of critical one on ones.

I’m a big Petracca supporter, but he was very quiet after qtr time. Surprised so many have him in their votes.

Petracca needs to lift for the 3rd qtr. Way too quiet in that second qtr.

This has a bit of round 1 2013 feel to it. I hope I’m wrong but a loss on Saturday will signify the beginning of the end for Goodwin. Nothing surprises me with this club anymore so a comfortable win could also easily happen