grazman

I assume Chandler as the unused Sub from last week plays VFL too.

I think the most likely outcome is we play them at Marvel and they move one of North's home games later in the season to Tassie.

Don't forget Carlton lost as well.

What's a newspaper?

Need to keep things in perspective - until today's Collingwood Essendon game - last night was the biggest crowd since the 2019 GF. Covid is still having an impact. I flew down from Canberra to watch the game, but travel isn't what it was two years ago - there are a lot of reasons why it's hard to draw bigger crowds ATM - including all the contact tracing and other issues compared to just rocking up to the game and buying a ticket at the ground.

T Mac to the wing and Gus replaces Jordon in the midfield rotation.

Definitely against the Saints at Docklands. I was at the game and watched our season go down the gurgler after winning the first three games of the season it looked like we were ready to take off. We fell pretty hard!

Thanks mate, finally got it sorted through the club. Will be there with bells on!

There was footage of Neale on the ground holding his jaw prior to them showing the Rohan strike (which was ten or so minutes later). Neale stayed down for a long time and looked in real distress that might have explained why he was so animated with Rohan. A simple round arm to the chest wouldn't suggest him holding up three fingers. A lot will depend on the medical report after the game. I think there's probably some evidence that Rohan did connect with Neale's jaw.

Agree, the Selwood throw is an example of how reticent the umpires are to call this. It used to be that you needed to have the hand holding the ball stationary for it 'not' to be called a throw. Move both hands in unison and you were often called for throwing the ball regardless of the contact you made with the other hand.

Will only let her get one ticket - To be fair the club tried to ring me twice more, but same issue - just asks me to put my phone number in again. Love the Clash and I love Banksy... so it just seemed right!

I live in Canberra and my wife got her barcode, but I didn't get mine. Long story short, they had the wrong credit card details on file, (I updated them in January - and it worked for my wife's membership obviously). Anyway four attempts to ring the club (two return calls that simply ask me to enter my phone number again and then end) and three emails later and still nothing. I know they must be short staffed, but I'm getting the sads!

I wouldn't do that - They'd probably just use it to get Eddie Betts back to the club.

Anyone still think we overpaid to get Jake Lever to the club?

It's been talked about in the press that the plan is for T Mac to play wing. Not having BBB and Weid has probably resulted in a reprioritisation of where he plays at this stage.

I think this is way too simplistic. I don’t disagree with the need to be honest and for the players to drive this, but if it were as simple as isolating one factor in why clubs succeed or don’t then this would have been identified centuries ago. My question for Maclure is what evidence does he have the club isn’t doing this other than losing a preseason match?

Without Mitch Duncan the Cats have no defensive run through their midfield at all. They struggled in the ruck big time - Essendon got a lot of forward fifty entries, but were extremely wasteful. Can't take too much out of pre-season game though.

Pleasantly surprised! He has a major weakness in that he plays his cut shots in the air. He was told by Matthew Hayden when batting day 1 at the Gabba to forget playing cross-bat shots. It appears he either didn't take the advice on or forgot it as soon as the ball got above hip height.

Agree. Cummins and Hazelwood are class and we should have rotated Pattinson for Starc earlier (I think he plays too much red ball cricket based on what he can do with a white ball) and personally I would have loved to have seen Jhye Richardson back in the team for Brisbane, but Lyon was always going to play his hundredth test. I think Paine has to accept some of the blame for not closing out the last two tests and also the debacle in Leeds in 2019. My primary criticism of him is that unlike previous captains he can't stop the momentum of opposition batting sides with bowling changes and field placements. He places far too much trust in bowlers who simply aren't delivering. Particularly after Adelaide when there was absolutely no swing from any of the quicks and Lyon was always going to struggle against a side where off spinners are grist for the mill. Headingly - England batting in the last and win Lyon's figures - 2/114 Sydney - India bat last and draw Lyon's figures - 2/114, Starc 0/75 Brisbane - India bat last and win Lyon's figures 2/55, Starc 0/66 Does anyone think we put in Carey or McDermott at 5 as specialist batsmen?

Only a rumour - but was brought up on fox footy. Apparently Treloar wanted to spend 3 days a week in QLD during the season. Don't know whether that was disinformation/misinformation.

Short answer is yes. Be thankful we are Melbourne and not Collingwood. The club didn't bust any relations with its players in offering them up for trade (at least from the outside) - T Mac himself and his manager were very complimentary of the club and their honest approach about discussing the opportunities that would be available for him next year - I imagine it was the same as with other players as well. I haven't seen one piece of negative social media with how the club dealt with guys like Preuss and Hannan moving on. Meanwhile down at the Carringbush...

To be fair, there were rumours that Stephenson's behaviour in the hub might have been a problem, that and his preparation (again rumours) were somewhat below professional expectations. If you read closely between the lines and his desire to be away from the club to relax in the company of his family and friends you might see a similarity with a former Demon who has just moved clubs again.

Given how he was treated by North, I think it would take a miracle rather than a phone call. He's checked out - it's nearly impossible to turn that ship around.

Never any interest from Adelaide I suspect. Would have been an absolute steal if we could have got him. Knee injury aside I rate him higher than Williams and Saad as a HBF.

The deal will get done. You can't effectively push a guy out of your club and when you have a chance to trade him act like he's a required player. It's not like he will stay at North if a deal isn't done. Higgins is a completely different scenario because North aren't pushing him out.