At the break of Gawn

I just can't see how we not play Heath based on Freos talls. Petty will have to take Treacy, Turner on Voss, and Lever on Amiss with Heath giving the chop out for Max instead of Petty. There's also rumblings that Cox will get selected for Darcy who we know can go forward.

It's probably already been mentioned, but Max Hall is some sort of player. Watching the game live, he's got a level of toughness and skill that is rare. I'd argue he's almost the Saints 3rd or 4th best player but he's probably on peanuts. It's a pity he's contracted until the end of 2027, but if his trajectory continues, he could demand a decent pay packet the Saints might not be able to afford.

Besides from our cohesion in defence as an issue, one other negative was probably Langford. I'd like to see what his GPS numbers were because it looked like he was just jogging for most of the day. Only 9 disposals, 9 pressure acts, 1 tackle for 94 mins of game time.

I'm a bit perplexed with Lever's game. He had an awesome preseason looked good in the practice matches but looked lost today. I think he really struggles against dangerous small forwards.

Great atmosphere at the game. The trident members area was rocking. Hats off to Sharp. I thought some of his gut running against the Tigers was excellent and he's brought it today in the last. A bit of a cheeky strategy from King resting him on the bench to then unleash in the last qtr. Ross the mastermind had a mare leaving Nas on the bench for so long in the last qtr.

Tholstrup misses a regulation set shot while the guy we should have drafted (Wilson) bags one from the boundary

Feeling pretty optimistic about today. I don't think the Saints have the fire power up forward to kick a winning score. With no Marshall, TDK will have to play majority ruck. Keeler coming in for them is interesting. Last year he looked like a player with no conditioning from a ressie side but he somehow gave Steven May a bath. I think we'll start really well but the extra conditioning for the Saints playing in OR will help them in the second half. We'll hold on to win by 17 pts.

Round 0 teams 2-0. Watch this become a real problem for the AFL and the equality of the fixture.

Great read. Loved that King said he guarantees that we'll be a better team this year.

Kane's criticism of Lamb is fair albeit with a few facts incorrect (like the Petty for first rounders). The decision to extend Viney made absolutely no sense and I think that will burn us in the end. Clayton's deal at the time seemed completely reasonable but the due diligence by the club (not sure if that's Lamb's accountability or a shared one) was clearly not done properly.

Does anyone know if we've gone back to having a day's break between our main training session and our Captain's run or are we still doing the main training, then captain's run then game day (i.e. 3 sessions in a row)? I always thought the change last year caused fitness issues...

I tuned into OTC last night and I still can't understand Jack Riewoldt's strong dislike of the MFC. The panel were discussing Petracca's and Oliver's performance and he couldn't wait to ask the open question "What does this say about Melbourne?" implying a failing of the club. Thankfully Lewis defended the club and talked about how the GC system boosts Petracca's performance and Lethal also said "Melbourne supporters would be wondering, where was this for the last 2 years!?". Matthews and Lewis sensibly added other factors but Riewoldt would have happily let it go into more Melbourne bashing.

I remember once hearing Goodwin in an interview about a discussion with Choco on our set shots and Choco saying that most have good execution but it was a mental thing that let them down. We saw Trac do things like close his eyes before taking a set shot and visualisation techniques. I wonder if at the GC they've said to Trac, "No this is a pure technique thing and we're going to work on it" (particularly his high ball drop). It honestly makes me wonder how long Melbourne was unnecessarily employing Williams for with such little improvement. Having said all that, I'm not going too early on Petracca. That was an extremely low pressure game and the Cats let him run with free reign. He'll dominate West Coast next week too but he'll get more attention now which he'll no doubt struggle with.

It's a flexi membership so it's basically 10 tickets so you can split it up how you want. It's great for people who may want to share a membership cost. IT'S DEMON DAY! For today only, we’re selling a 10 Game Flexi Membership for $100 (valued at $250). Take 9 mates to one game, or keep them all for yourself. DON'T MISS OUT

My money is on Langdon on Nas.