Mel Bourne

Yeah, there’s this other ruckman who’s actually better than McEvoy....

Isn’t it more a dearth of dedicated forwards, rather than like-for-like physicality? Indeed, Melksham will have to step up (and it’s a big step) to fill the more nimble-forward role. But who steps in for Melksham to play the...whatever role he played last week.

Drag. Who comes in for him? Mitch Brown?

I guess the question here is who out of our other forwards is he getting a game OVER? Mitch Brown? Bedford? There’s a high chance he’ll be rotated off when Weid or BB become available, but when you look at who’s beating down the door, giving Milkshake a chance to prove himself isn’t exactly the insane option.

Anybody know how long Jay Lockhart has to rest, following that frankly horrific injury he copped in the pre-season? True. I guess the one main difference is the focus on him now. Everyone around him has lifted, and suddenly it seems he’s playing for his career. I doubt it felt that way to him last year. He won’t have much time to prove himself, though.

Melksham will play and will also lift next week. He’s literally the only guy in the team who walked off with a cloud of doubt lingering over him. He’ll be feeling that scrutiny, and will know it’s put in or get out. Could be a hard team to get back into, as well.

Highlight: Seeing those guys play like a well-oiled machine. We watched the team earn a level of respect we haven't seen in years. No passengers, except Melksham. But I'm willing to let him have a return game to find his feet. We deserve this feeling, my fellow Dees supporters. Lowlights: Losing May and... Brian Taylor - "You get the feeling this game is like a bag of sand hanging in the air above, and any second it's going to burst and spread itself all over the ground"

Insane that you can watch Kozzie Pickett play a game like he did today, but not see his name mentioned once in this thread. Why? Because there were several others that played EVEN BETTER. Gotta love it.

Don’t get me wrong. Not for a moment was I suggesting he doesn’t have a spot in the starting lineup. He does. But I don’t think his looming 300th should be a part of the conversation for “best starting 22”, nor should anybody’s ever be.

Nah, we’re definitely a better team this year. Skills are silkier. Players look in tremendous physical shape. Just look at the difference in somebody like Jayden Hunt for example. A few stories like that across the team. But I’m in agreement that it’s far too early to make any big calls.

Unpopular suggestion perhaps, but I don’t think NJ’s looming 300th game should be a factor at all in team selection. Form, and form only.

This, among many other things, is a lesson in hubris. A handful here suggested that he’s been unfairly dealt with - that a person has to be “perfect” or not slip up once to keep their position in this current culture. That is of course, total bollocks. We live in a world where corrupt, malevolent or, in this case, just plain ignorant people repeatedly offend, and not only go unpunished but thrive. And I have no doubt Eddie McGuire could have been one of those people had he chosen to refrain from plastering his bloated head on every billboard in town, and donning an ill-fitting suit to appear on whatever hack tv or radio program provided him the opportunity. He is seemingly of the opinion that he is some kind of broadcasting legend, and that you basically can’t get enough of him. Most reasonable people, even the most innocuous television muppet, would have a voice in the back of their mind saying “maybe you’re over-exposing yourself a bit”. But not Eddie. Eddie has serious tickets on himself. And when you’re the kind of person who gets pretty easily irritated by this kind of arrogance (the kind that comes with zero benefits - at least some [censored] are funny, clever or insightful) you just can’t wait for cretins like McGuire to make that fatal mistake. And yes, a lot of people were hoping for that mistake. A lot of people thought the former CEO of Channel 9/Triple M Radio Host/A Current Affair Host/Footy Show Host/Game Show He Couldn’t Even Pronounce Host/Collingwood FC President was perhaps a little too ubiquitous, especially given his almost phenomenal ability to remain completely and utterly charmless in front of a camera or microphone. He is part Icarus, part used-car salesman. But of course, we can expect to see him hosting “Australia’s Tastiest Hot Dogs” or “Jetski Olympics 2026” or whatever other lowest-common-denominator rubbish he likes to roll around in. He might have lost his club, but we’re stuck with this corporate slob for a long time.

Also people, it would only be human for Jake to come here and see the reaction to his arrival by the supporters. I’m confident players quickly learn to avoid this place, but factor in him or his relatives possibly reading this stuff, and consider positivity instead of projecting your MFCSS all over the kid. Further to this, the Spargo trashing on this site is [censored] pathetic.

Not long enough.

If he can't find a new team there's always more podcasts with the Institute of Public Affairs waiting for him.

This is something I’ve been advocating for a couple of years now, so it pleases me greatly. He’ll be head coach in 2022.

Interviews with him show him to be a very thoughtful and intelligent person, so it must be pretty draining having to deal with our coach.

Sure, but it has about two months left until it gets relegated back to the C Division.

That’s bizarre. And kind of disappointing to discover the AA team is the best 22 AFL players in the league according to...some dudes.

First call was the winner!

Indeed.

I think Jordan Peterson’s demise must’ve hit him pretty hard too.

I’m very uneasy with this growing sentiment that none of the media can be trusted. I suspect the majority of people who spruik such an opinion were on very poor diets (tabloids, A Current Affair etc) and were never that interested in quality journalism to begin with. Widespread-condemnation of an entire profession (and a profession that a cohesive society relies heavily on) is an extremely irrational and dangerous practice. What next? Doctors are out to kill us? Edit: Apologies. For a moment there I forgot that there already are many “interesting” people in the world who do believe that doctors are trying to kill us.

There are at least twenty newspapers, news services and journals I could list off the top of my head that subscribe to and endorse the SPJ Code Of Ethics https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp There are always going to be errors, inaccurate reporting and hype in the media, but I’d sooner put my trust in a publication that holds those standards, than some dude in his shed with a webcam.