Call Me What You Will

Dunstall has just said it all - nearly half the team out, and most of our best players. No panics yet. Of course Dermie tries to intellectualise an opposite view. Absolutely no idea what he said or what he meant?

Cripps is a gun. Francis is becoming a gun. Walsh will be a gun. The rest are just the same recycled hacks running around with sun tans.

Great to see they are getting the ordinary games out of the way early.

May have been mentioned already, but today provided a complete stitch up of Gil’s Absurd AFLX. A fantastic “practice match” match, organised by the clubs - great weather, great footy for February. When will Gil’s clowns realise that trying to recreate an American “game day experience” will slowly extinguish our great game. Give the girls in the AFLW some air and just let the clubs do what they have done for over 100 years build for the real season in March/April. Rant over! Whatever happens, always nice to beat the filth!

87, then daylight. Interestingly earlier in that year we lost against Norf at the G with a goal after the siren by none other than Alastair Clarkson. Season over (again!!!) we all thought.......

Full MCC member. 30+year MFC member (2 adults and 3 kids for the last 20). Reserved seat in M51 and Red Seats prior to that. Only sit in MCC members for “away” games.

What’s Baba doing these days?? Ha ha!

Simple homage to those wonderful “MCC Match Day” officials - the “Blue Coats” in another time. No matter how hard you would argue at the gate that your dress was appropriate, the stock response was always “call them what you will sir, those shoes are ‘runners’ or those trousers are ‘jeans’.” The Cleese “Upper Class Twit” imagery goes without saying.

At least my little girl will be going to the footy - her package arrived on Saturday. The rest of my family of 5 are still waiting!

Coping with the Grand Final itself will be half the battle. Having lived through 88 and 2000 live, part of me still has trouble with the trauma of those fateful days. Having embraced our wonderful 2018 journey, and putting aside the huge let down of Preliminary Final Day over there, I watched this year’s Grand Final with a strong “what if” mindset. When Darling took that mark in the 3rd quarter, I made the comment “the filth will lose this”. I backed it up with - “this is the sort of game that Melbourne would find a way to lose.....” Clearly, I still need my therapy, but my god, these are exciting times......

I thought Charlie was still only in Year 8!

Quite simply, what a wonderful extended family we all belong to - so much diversity, yet united by a common love of all things and people red and blue.

How on earth can a multi-dollar organisation delay its announcement because the feedback was not positive......Ah, sorry, I forgot, we are talking AFL here! Beggars belief.

Every game will be a danger game as we become the hunted. To be honest, I don’t care who we play, when or where - as long as we win lots and lots of them. The commercial side will look after itself if we do that. Quite possibly, an opener in March against Port will draw a lot more people than a cold afternoon or evening in the middle of winter against the same mob.

Now the dust has settled, watched the Geelong final again last night - straight through - no ad breaks! How good was the tackling! How we missed those second quarter goals!! What an absolute smashing. Elimination Final tonight vs Hawthorn.......... Yep, could be a long summer!

The “squad” approach is an interesting one. Yes, in the world game where teams play 40 to 50 games a season, astute managers will do just that - manage the squad. Key players will be rotated and rested. In our game, with less games and less margin for error, the mantra of “don’t flirt with your form” has always resonated. Interesting times.

Yep, No squirming here either. Full MCC for 40 years. Full MFC - 31 Consecutive Years - plus underwriting 4 other MFC memberships for my beloved family!! (M51 Reserved Seats). Very proud MFC Member who happens to be lucky enough also to be an MCC Member as well!

Wow! Just wow! Circus ! Now we embrace Jessie - map a very clear pre-season plan for him at Centre Half Back. Engage David Neitz as a personal mentor - Neitz’s transition from Forward to Back and then Forward again should be the template for a Jessie Hogan 5 year plan at the Dees. we should all embrace this new opportunity.

Gil and his corporate clowns have so much to answer for.......

Money had nothing to do with the May conversation - it was more about accessing draft picks to get the deal done. Gaff is a free agent I believe.

Gripping 15 minutes. The more I hear and see what our back room team do, the more comfortable I am with the direction of our club. We are in good hands! Clear and concise. Brilliant.

Whilst not compensation for the disappointment of the weekend, how good was it to have 3 players “taking votes off each other” - brilliant work lads and bring on 2019.

The dream is over, but not angry! Just sad it had to end like this. Lot’s of “learnings” from today, but a fantastic ride over the last 6 weeks. This team will get better and better - especially by referencing the disappointment of today.

Seriously, Bwooce is a complete [censored] on nights like these!

All this revolves around the big “if” at 3.20 tomorrow. If the dream continues tomorrow, I simply don’t care who we play - payback to either - ANZAC Eve or Queens B’Day - take your pick!