The Chief

Sparrow was excellent. For a young age, his ability to fend off tacklers/break tackles and still make effective disposals seems to be overlooked by many. He’s improving before our eyes and will slot into Viney’s role when needed.

As Gus’s platinum player sponsor, we here at Control are delighted our man has decided to commit for the rest of his playing days.

Just looked flat for most of today. While 22c isn’t hot, the change from Melbourne weather may have contributed? Massive contrast to Geelong’s pressure and tackling last week and again last night to our lack of energy around the ball. That said, Port were playing for their season, and their effort was pretty ordinary With no Ollie, Wines should have dined out, but hardly noticed him. Salem getting a game on reputation at the moment, his kicking is totally unreliable. Either misses the target or chips it too high. Need to desperately find a better option from kick ins. The kick to Max is just too predictable. Percentage of possession wins after a kick in would be an interesting stat.

Can’t believe not a word from Foxtel commentators on what was probably the worst umpiring performances this season. Really happy for Mitch Brown to bag 2 goals, tried hard in the ruck, but way undersized.. Has been a great team man for Melbourne and deserved a bit of reward.

The Control crew have made our way over to Perth. Its a nice sunny morning here with a few clouds around, good day to dish out some sweet revenge.

No question we have a major problem with the quality of umpiring, which feeds through to lack of decision making consistency and that in turn drives players, coaches and fans nuts. The AFL seems to be in denial about this and the focus on stopping players from disputing decisions seems to be tackling the problem from the wrong end. If the AFL instead focussed on addressing umpiring quality, better umpiring should by default lead to more respect for umpires and less disputed decisions. Watching Eddie last night spew out his plethora of solutions is a consequence of the AFL seeming to have no plan on how to address the issue of umpiring quality. There’s been rumours of Eddie being interested in an AFL Commission spot and even the AFL CEO role. Last night’s diatribe felt like Eddie was positioning himself for a more formal tilt at one of those positions.

Not a word given about Mitch Brown getting hit off the ball. Hasn’t been sighted since.

There was a moment in the second quarter when Weid lost another marking contest and then couldn’t be bothered to raise his arms on the mark. Looked very poor and just sums up his lazy approach to the game in general, zero intensity. Should have shipped him off to the Pies when Eddie was there. .

Schultz just abuses ump decision and……nothing

Round about way of saying ‘wooden spooners’?

Apologies if already mentioned, but if TMac gets a few more games down back and shows he can be an effective part of the backline system, the option to try Petty forward when he recovers would have to be considered.

Has the flag raising time been announced yet?

Following the AFL’s determination that players can’t express their opinions on decisions to the umps anymore, it was reported on the radio this morning that a club has instructed its players not to say anything to them at all. Though that could be problematic at the coin toss, maybe we’ll see some interpretive dance? If this is the path the AFL really wants to take, they should instruct the umpires to revert back to referring to players by their numbers not their names and stop pretending they’re best mates with the players.

So based on all that, there’s nothing to report on Jacko.

Bar codes for Melbourne v Carlton are now available on the app

Thought Hibbo showed he’s not going to give up his spot up easily. Won just about every one on one he had, looked quick and his kicking was pretty good. Completely toweled up their chunky #44.

Nice report Picket. I have at times wondered if TMac might be an upgraded version of Hymie.

Great to see Sam Switkowski recognised, though I acknowledge it’s a bit premature. Just needs a season with out any major injuries and he’ll surprise plenty with his exceptional talent.

Yeah! Can’t understand why Healy has to breathe

Probably mentioned elsewhere in these 110 pages, but highly recommend watching the YouTube GF with the SEN commentary. We all know BT is a moron, but after listening to the SEN commentary I’m convinced Channel 7’s management team are the morons in employing that senile fool, when Anthony Hudson and Gerard Whateley are quite likely available.

My memory is a bit hazy on some aspects, but I remember going to Vic Park for the last game of the season in 1976, with my Dad. He had somehow got 2 tickets to sit in the stand (Social Club?) behind the goals at the railway end. I was just 12 and Dad laid out strict rules for the day, no Melbourne gear and no barracking for Melbourne! He was spot on with his warning, as from what I could tell, no one was barracking for Melbourne in that entire stand. We were an outside chance to make the finals (6?) if we won and another result went our way. I think Henry Coles got his head knocked off and stretchered off early on, Bobby Skelton was coach. We won, I think relatively easily, and we stayed to listen on the radio to the result of the other game, perhaps it was the Dogs? A lot of Pies supporters also stayed after the siren to do the same. When the other game ended with not the result we wanted, meaning we missed the finals, the Pies supporters were jubilant, chanting & cheering, you’d have thought they’d one the game. It just showed how much they hated Melbourne even though we’d been a krap team for over a decade by then. it was the last game of footy I ever went to with my Dad who died relatively young the following year.

I’ll call it now quite confidently, by the end of 2022 season JVR will be ahead of Weid in the selection pecking order.

Yep all negative here at Control, party rolls on. Not sure though about the Kaos crew.

Brayshaw was a no show at last nights B&F. Did he train yesterday?

Not exactly sure which game it was, possibly Essendon, but I had a crack at Harmesy about trying to take on tacklers and ignoring first options. These though dropped out of his game as the year went on, and his back half of the season and finals were great. Love his passion and obvious enjoyment playing footy for Melbourne.