Neil Crompton

I’m really not sure you can use the Hawkins incident as a comparison for a favourable decision for Fritsch. Hawkins was facing away from May and therefore makes an easier case for accidental. Fritsch on the other hand was looking straight at his tackler, and tried to fend him off, making it so much harder to claim accidental. I think we will need a way better argument to consider an appeal, should the worst happen.

On the last podcast G & G stated they were having a 1 week break. So expect them back this coming week.

Watching the game last night, did anyone else's ears [censored] up when, during one of the quarter breaks, one commentator stated that Harmes was having his first game back following his skateboard injury? Back after the round one game, the MFC stated the following: "JAMES Harmes will miss the next six weeks of footy after injuring his wrist during Melbourne’s Round 1 win against Fremantle. The midfielder sustained a knock just after half time on Saturday afternoon, but managed to play out the game without too much concern. Harmes then had an x-ray, which showed nothing untoward, with only an MRI later confirming a crack in his scaphoid. He will be sidelined until at least Round 7". I wonder which story is correct? EDIT - my bad -just reheard what Ben Dixon said at 3/4 time. He said "scaphoid" injury, not "skateboard" injury. I'm having my ears tested today.

Given we are 6-0, if we change our structure as you suggest, and we keep winning, are we actually any smarter? However, if we change our structure and we lose a game seemingly because of this change, we know that the original structure was better. Therefore maybe stick with what we have until it breaks?

In Brown and Chandler Out Jones (managed) and Melksham. If Rivers out, bring in Jetta Weid and Harmes are going to have to bide their time at Casey - and bang the door down before they get picked. A number of posters are saying that we will be too tall having 3 talls in our forward line. Why would this be an issue? We pl;ay 3 talls in the backline, and we still have great defensive pressure. Why can't that logic and performance apply to the forward line?

Finally, our 'ship coming in

This will only be a danger game if Bombay Airconditioning placed that bet back in early March that North would lose every game this year. If he placed it, we will drop this game for sure. Hopefully he didn't.

A big difference this year is that, so far, we have not conceded goals in the last minute or so of quarters. We have a long history of doing this, and thus going to the break deflated - instead of empowered. Great change - especially for us supporters.

Nev, I called it as I saw it - and to me, live, it was not a good look. I respect your opinion on this. I just have a different one.

The incident I was referring to occurred in the 1st quarter, with 5 min 15 seconds to go before the siren.

ANB's second quarter goal was sensational - and I would have laid money he couldn't kick it. He also ran his butt off all day, as per usual, and did a couple of other nice things against Richmond. However -and perhaps I shouldn't say this (it is an appreciation thread after all) - but I do not rate ANB as a player anywhere near as highly as most of the posters on here do. Before I get lynched, let me state my reasoning: - for someone who gets to the ball as much as he does (and he certainly does), the number of possessions he ends up with I believe is poor. He fumbles, he loses his feet, and he is bumped off the ball far too often, and easily, for someone who wants to retain his place in the side. - when he does get the ball, his disposal - particularly by hand - is usually poor, and often results in turnovers. His disposal by foot has improved over the years, but by god it needed to. - he rarely attempts overhead marks when the opposition is around, even if he is the only Melbourne player there. (And there was an example on Saturday where he deliberately pulled out of a contest - which certainly was not a good look). - he averages about 4 tackles a game over his career, which on the surface looks great, I just wonder how many of these result from his (good) second efforts following another of his fumbles or falling over occurrences, when the opposition was able to get the ball from him. - the fact that he is now in his 7th year in the system he should, by now, have been able to resolve his above listed shortcomings as a player if he was ever going to - therefore I see little upside to his current playing ceiling. As such, while I am not promoting for him to be dropped after Saturday's game, I just feel that a player like Kade Chandler would provide us with more bang for the buck than ANB does. There, I've said my piece - you can hang me now.

They have a more even mix of team players than we do?

I know we are a really good side this year. I do NOT need confirmation of that from the media. I could care less what they think. In fact I would prefer that didn’t rate us at all. I feel generally surprised at supporters who are outraged at the “lack of respect” shown to us by the media, and feel they need their confirmation for us to be the real deal. Look and believe with your own eyes. We are 6 and zip. We have played and beaten some good sides. What more confirmation do you need?

How good is this live coverage by Richmond. Providing full stats for both teams at quarter time. We might learn from this.

While I really think we will win this easily (24+ points), in some ways I hope we don't. Sound crazy? Winning this will have the media jumping all over us (and our supporters daring to look ahead to the last game of the year). Not sure we are ready for that kind of pressure yet. However, losing this game will keep all of that bandwagon stuff off our backs, will allow our players to know that we have improvements to be made, and will thus allow our season to build progressively onwards and upwards. Ah, WTF! Blow them away Dees!!!

Sorry demonstone, I like WJ’s version way better. (Never let the facts get in the way of a good story....)

After reading that, is it demonstone or demonstoned?

Hey Dieter, if i can remember my German correctly - and I may not - i thought all German W's were pronounced as V's. So pronounced Vaydeman?

It's bloody JORDON!!!! (I hope that helps Mr Demonstone)

The latest Gus and Gawny podcast is well worth a watch where their featured guest is Nathan Jones. Nathan has been interviewed a few times this week, but to me, this interview is by far the best of them all. And Gawny's comments about Nathan towards the end perfectly sum up the players respect, admiration and love they have for him. Congratulations and much thanks to Nathan.

Wouldn't it be perfect if N. Jones was able to win it!

I agree with you Lucy. It makes no sense to drop/move a player who is playing his role extremely well, with someone who had one good game at Casey. Form in the AFL always trumps form at VFL level.

And ANB

Haha nice story. You must have been about 25 yo in 7th grade. So who was the dumbest?

I can think of one (above) average defender who went forward (very briefly) and won our team a premiership! I'd be prepared to call him a gun forward, but I might be biased.