Rab D Nesbitt

Why hand putrid clubs like Essendon or Collingwood a marquee round 1 match up against the premiers? I'd much rather give a leg up to one of the smaller Melbourne based clubs like the Dogs. Sorry to bore everyone with another anecdote from my native home but back in the first half of the 1980's Aberdeen (managed by Alex Ferguson) and Dundee United (with the likes of Richard Gough) swept all before them domestically and punched well above their weight in Europe. The former beat Real Madrid in the European Cup Winners Cup final in Gothenburg and the latter made a couple of UEFA Cup semis beating the likes of Barcelona along the way. Anyway, they were dubbed the 'New Firm' to rival the traditional 'Old Firm' of Rangers and Celtic. Perhaps Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs are our city's 'New Firm' and everyone else needs to get used that fact.

Well, we gotta play them sometime so let's get it done so we can own them for another 3 months. It'll also mean that we'll be all over the media in the lead up to the new season with our game likely to overshadow the warm up act on the Thursday night.

I doubt the club have it in mind to rookie Marty Hore as they have already farewelled him on social media.

Hi Cassie. Yeah, I saw that when it arrived a couple of weeks ago. To be honest I'm not as blown away with the poster as I was initially and it's still sitting in the tube it came in. I'll sure I'll end up getting it framed though at some point and place it in a prominent place in the house.

I'm not overly fussed about opening the season on the Thursday night but can see the financial advantage in playing the Dogs round 1 along with another big home game a couple of weeks later to offset being the away side next year on Anzac Eve & QB. My only concern would be that unfurling the premiership flag against our GF opponents would have an element of rubbing their noses in it. Maybe they could unfurl Bayley Smith's hair on the same night to give their fans and the commentators something to fawn over.

A fantastic look under the bonnet of our 2021 season. It felt a little bit like when they revealed the winged keel of Australia II after winning the Americas Cup back in 1983. In contrast to the Bulldogs which was more reminiscent of pulling back the curtain at the end of The Wizard of Oz.

Less is more? As a bit of a minimalist I like your thinking LDVC.

We have peers?

Ooooh I love it when a new piece of footage drops. It's a pity they had to spoil it with the Bulldogs goals but I guess they had to give some context up to the point just before we obliterated them.

At those odds it might be better to put a few $ on the threepeat instead.

I was at those games in '87. Through the club the AFL covered the cost of two of us to fly and stay with the team if we made the run throughs for each of the competing teams. We stayed at the Westin Bayshore near Stanley Park. The second game (the world championship final) was to be played in the Coliseum in LA against the winner of the North v Carlton game at The Oval in London. During the week however there was a 7.1 earthquake in the Los Angeles area and the game was moved to Vancouver. The line given to the media back here was that there were structural issues with the venue in LA making it potentially unsafe but in actual fact they had only sold 800 tickets for the game.

Capturing a creature like Powell - Pepper should require an actual lure.

Should we be looking to draft a replacement newshound to put pressure on Benny Gibson or promote from within the ranks?

Yeah, I like to keep things simple George. If only for my own sake. We have no idea where we will finish next year or who is available in the draft so why worry about it. As Donald Rumsfeld might say it's a known unknown.

If nothing else he can now tell his grandkids how close he was to a premiership in 2021.

I'm not the best at working out the pros and cons of pick swaps but we're effectively receiving pick 17 this year and giving up pick 18 next year yeah?

Got out on the bike yesterday morning. All those people that painted their picket fences red, white & blue before the GF must be regretting that decision now they're looking at another three coats to get rid of it so soon afterwards. Lucky for them the block sizes in Footscray and Seddon are quite small.

We should probably merge this thread with the other one that someone started. Then delete it. Nothing personal.

I think I'd much prefer to walk into my favourite cafes with one of those mean fellas than a keep cup Dr G.

What's the actual protocol with a match worn guernsey anyway Chook? Do they get framed with mud & sweat (or grippo) on them or are they washed first and is one more valuable or sought after than the other?

Geez. I must have missed that when I scrolled the MFC subset. It went as far back as round 7 then started with our finals games again. I'll give it a go again later tonight DJ. Thanks!

If like this year we're still flogging three game memberships deep into the season then we could top 80k I think.

The same 'dictator' to be democratically elected in a landslide.

Tom McDonald's signed match worn guernsey would be covered in grippo surely?

Hi BAMF. Interesting that you’d pass up the chance to watch play us on your own doorstep but I get what you’re saying. I guess I just like the variety it adds to the season and I’d rather play away in an authentic environment than a soulless high rise wasteland in the tropics.