Harvey Wallbanger

Our last main training session today prior to Round 1 on Saturday night. All present other than Aimee Mackin (who, with Jacinta Hose, are on the LTI list - Jacinta was present working with the physios.) Based on the injury report yesterday, ruled out for Round 1 are Tahlia Gillard (in a leg brace) and Beasley, although Grace was working freely with the mids today? Also unavailable are Gall (ankle) and Colvin (MCL). Seemed to me that Maeve Chaplin and Saraid Taylor would also be doubtful. Kate Hore (bone bruising) did not work with the main group today (worked extensively with the physio) and I expect would also be a doubtful starter for Saturday. Although the report suggested she was OK I think Blaithin might also be in the doubtful category. Of those also under a cloud, Harris, Rigoni and Campbell also trained fully. In short, quite a few "niggles" for our women, but of the active list of 30, just Tahlia Gillard in the medium term out category. Nice to see Riley Bonner at training - seems his development role extends to the women's program.

Has there been a release of interim financial results? Revenue up? I guess we had both the Richmond and Collingwood (KB) games as home games.

Fantastic stuff Ghosty. All present today bar Lever, Hore, McAdam and AMW. Windsor present doing some light stretches, after his hamstring injury on Sunday. As usual Tom Campbell didn't do much and looks to be carrying a lower leg or foot problem. Hendo coping with a groin issue - but I expect both of them still to be available for Casey. Xavier Lindsay was running laps and did not join the soccer. Fritter also running laps and TMac did not do much. Good to see Sestan there. The mood was certainly much more update than last week's Captain's Run. We'll get the official injury report shortly.

The President can be changed at any Board meeting and is a matter for the directors, not the members. The change of President is not a matter for the shareholders'/members' meeting - no voting takes place at the AGM, unless a resolution is put to that meeting by shareholders in advance. Last year's announcement by Brad referred to a proposed change of President at the end of the AFL season. Given that our men have not made finals that would normally be interpreted as the end of August (or September - given that we did not know whether we would make finals at the time of that announcement). If Caro's reporting is correct there has been a change to the "Kirribilli" agreement.

That week is 15-19 September. Today is the 11th of August.

Just another shout out to Wheels. Always the last off the track - picking up cones and balls and helping the staff. Rusted on!

Grundy into concussion protocols - will miss this week. Might help a little.

I wanted to follow up on these comments - more a comment than a question re the Stats. We had pretty amazing transition numbers this week, which goes to the new game plan. Just as well that clicked yesterday because we were smashed in clearances (-15) and Inside 50's (-15): normally that would lead to a bigger loss than that. Amazing pressure in the third quarter drove the resurgence after half-time. I get the experiment with Windsor in the middle but Richards and Libba killed us inside. We needed Jack's game from last week this week. Petty's game was enormous and Max continues to be unbelievable.

After today's VFL results my calculation is that if we beat Box Hill next Sunday we finish anywhere between 5th and 8th, depending on other results (Brisbane -away to Frankston, Collingwood - away to Port M and Richmond - away to Williamstown). If Willy win, they knock out Coburg from 10th). I'm backing both Frankston and Willy to win and we finish 6th - miss the wildcard round. If we lose, we finish either 8th or 9th.

6 Gawn 5 Petty 4 Culley 3 Langford 2 Turner 1 Bowey

Stats also confirm what an impressive game Petty had. Played like a good old-fashioned CHF today.

The finals series will again be played across five weeks and will conclude with the 2025 Smithy’s VFL Grand Final on the weekend of September 20-21. Finals series to commence with Wildcard Finals on the weekend of August 23-24. The format for the Wildcard Finals remains unchanged, with the team that finishes in seventh place on the ladder to play against the team that finishes 10th, while eighth will take on ninth. Unless we make it into the Top Six (and that's still a chance), we will play in the wildcard round - on current ladder position (almost certain to chnage though) we would play Williamstown at home and GWS would play Richmond. The two winners then slot into positions 7 and 8 and the usual Final 8 schedule then kicks in.

1.05 pm at Casey v Box Hill Sunday 17 August.

Lovely morning at Gosch's. Looking for subtle changes - the entire group walked over from AAMI together - they are usually more like Brown's cows. All 23 present, plus the carryover emergency, Sharp. The other two emergencies, Campbell and Jefferson are playing in Brisbane (Casey started very well!). Interim CEO and Richo present (as usual, constantly on the phone). TMac family present as usual with the Viney kids. No soccer game today. Trac doing his usual goal-kicking practice. Judd tells supporters "he's not going anywhere". Chappy embraced by a particular trackwatcher (guess who!?). Still some sadness in the air - the familiar strut/saunter of Goody not present. No prospective coaches spotted.

Out of the box, but maybe Petty does go back and Adams is the sub? Just a thought, given both are listed on the interchange? Reckon McVee is perfectly suited to playing on West.

Don't think so - Ed said the boys just wanted to play their soccer game away from the spotlight - that almost worked.......that decision did leave certain hardy track-watchers staring at the grass at Gosch's. Oh well.

So where does that leave us the punters/members - to read between the lines (lies)?

Ed said in his presser the zoom call involved the senior players and they then managed to get around to most of the other players"before it dropped"....... perhaps not all?

This year the points system for matching father/son and academy picks has been changed and the relevant discount of points to be used has dropped from 20% to 10%. Whilst that makes it more expensive for us to use points to match a Kalani bid - those changes apply in spades to the Gold Coast, so perhaps they could not have fitted Kalani into their plans, given their other targets.

Not a soccer ball in sight.....🙂

Started as a nice day at Gosch's but then a cold change swept in. Absent: Everyone Present: A few hardy Demonlanders and a lovely lady from the ABC called Kate who did a couple of interviews for Radio 774 to get the MFC fans' reactions to the news re the Senior Coach. I am sure someone has the technology to find the interviews and post them here. Guess who they were. Not Harvey W fyi.

So why didn't the Board announcement come first?

Fact No. 1 on the list - perhaps THE most important job of any Board - appoint a CEO, and have a succession plan for the current one. We will finally have a non-interim CEO almost 12 months after the last one departed.

What should it matter? You're absolutely right - ability is key, but we are talking about just 8 people with ability. Surely from a membership base of 40,000 adults, 8 people of ability (already red and blue) can be found?

Nice to see the Pod return this week. I wonder - will we cover both the Saints game and today's game?