Lord Nev

Definitely not against Petty playing, but on a quick deck against a 'smaller' quicker team I would guess the selection committee would be looking at changing up the mix of talls anyway.

Not sure a narrow win against one of the spoon favourites with a caretaker coach (and short on the bench also) correlates to 'expecting greatness' for a team in the top 4 last year. My guess is people have just expected an improvement in skills, structure and game plan, and we didn't see much of that today at all. The fans have a right to still be disappointed in how we performed even though we won.

Would be a decent chance to miss anyway with Lever coming back in. Don't need 4 tall defenders against the Doggies IMO.

Yeah I love him mate, would just like to see a few of our blokes focus less on the umpires, many of them stop in-play to complain or appeal, it's a bit soft for mine.

And he's paid to play. Needs to focus on that more.

Could be on my own here, but I'm not sold on bringing Gawn back to play against a running team on a quick hard deck with his injury. IN: Lever, JKH, Baker OUT: TMac (inj), Petty (conc), Hore (inj)

Importantly a few really good decisions going inside 50 in the first quarter. That's what you need from a captain, hope Viney took note.

The might just not know which ones to call as he plays for them in every contest and complains about every single call.

That is the direct opposite of what premiership-winning coach and former Melbourne coach Paul Roos had to say about him. I know whose opinion I'd listen to.

Confirmed Gawn out, Preuss in. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2019-07-07/preuss-replaces-gawn-in-final-22

The official team sheets have to be in 90 minutes before the bounce, so I guess we'll hear officially sometime around 11.40ish.

Not announced obviously, but he's told people he can barely walk as of Saturday so you can pretty much lock it in he won't be playing.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2019-07-05/a-surprise-debut-for-dunkley

Dunkley confirmed for debut. Excited to see him. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2019-07-05/a-surprise-debut-for-dunkley

Congrats to the young fella on his debut!

Reckon you're right mate, Brayshaw is the main one that springs to mind for me, followed by TMac. Be interesting to see how those players are managed in these last few games. I hope we don't sacrifice 2020 by trying to save face in a last season.

Quite possibly, but would make sense if Brad went there to be closer to him that they would look at moving back to Vic together. Stephen is a free agent, so anything is possible.

Fair enough, definitely agree he's lost a yard this year. I think he'll see out the last year of his contract though, hopefully can add more value next year with a better preseason.

"The Herald Sun reported that both St Kilda and Geelong are interested in Bradley, while AFL Media wrote that Melbourne was also keeping a close eye on the Docker. Channel 7 added that Carlton and the Bulldogs were both clubs searching for speed. But Channel 7 reported that if a club was able to make room for both Hill brothers, it would help sweeten a prospective deal." https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-trade-whispers-more-victorian-clubs-join-bradley-hill-race-brandon-ellis-attracting-interest/news-story/a76f7cafa892e290f394c910f1efd38f

Jones and Hibberd will both play next year IMO. Hibberd is contracted and Jones will get another year, minus the captaincy, similar to Bernie and Jordan's last years. Why would Hibberd not play on next year?

TBH I can't decide which way I want us to go this year. We absolutely need to get in some high end draft talent so we have the next generation coming through, but at the same time, if we could add a skillful outside runner in the 21-25 year old bracket I'd be keen on that as well. I'm 50/50 split on it. I guess people will decide which way they go on that based on if they think this year is an aberration or not. Yeah the Hill/Kelly situation seems like a logical one. I wonder if we'd look at his brother as a free agent?

It's a 'rolling' 4 year period that started in 2015. It's very confusing, but because of when all the trading picks and when the new rule came in to play, we can trade either this year or next years first rounder. From the article: "That means the Bombers satisfy the AFL's new rule, which comes into play next year, regarding the use of at least two first-round picks in the previous four-year period."

"Essendon is in a similar scenario to Hawthorn and Melbourne under the new trade conditions. All three clubs drafted two players in the first round in 2015, but the Hawks and Demons haven't used one since and neither has one this year. They can do as they wish with their first-round pick in the 2019 NAB AFL Trade Period, including offloading a future one, because they have used at least two in the preceding four-year period. However, like the Bombers, unless they trade in extra first-round selections this year or next, they will have to start using those picks in 2020 until they satisfy the four-year rolling requirement." https://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-11-02/trading-firstround-picks-afls-most-misunderstood-rule-explained

We only have to use one first round pick out of the next 2 years. So either this year or next. They do it as a rolling 4 year period.