Ollie fan

I love the way JVR counts his steps. It seems to me to be an excellent way to force yourself to focus.

No surprise there.

Correct. Oscar-winning performance by TDK.

I like it. He stiffened up our defence, and who knows, maybe next year they will try Daniel Turner as a KPF?

Agree with all of this. I would love to think that Petty will be back fit and firing, but these foot injuries seem to take a long time to get over. It may not be quite so bad with a player like him who is not totally dependent on mobility though. I am sure that you are right about Grundy. I think Jackson really let us down last year and i am quite angry about it - all that stuff about "i haven't decided" when we now know he absolutely had, and to my mind he really didn't put in, especially against Brisbane. Reading between the lines, i think Goodwin must think the same and that is why he didn't select Grundy in either of our finals, even as a sub. I don't blame Grundy like i do Jackson, though; we were pushing Grundy out really. And i assume that is why Goodwin didn't select Hibberd, despite his excellent work on Elliott.

The Lever short option was to Rivers and at the game I was screaming at him to take it. (Surprisingly he ignored me😂). All the talk about sack the coach: the players adore him - that's why we have so many champions on long term contracts. A new coach might not get the same response.

Jordon😪. I hope Grundy is the sub because we might need him but regardless, his non-selection in the 22 makes it completely clear the club is happy for him to move on.

Agree

Hawkins for sure - ask May how he managed to get a broken jaw from a "loose" handball. I would have put Powell-Pepper for a long time, but I think I have to learned to respect him a bit.

That is exactly correct. 1000% agree. Why aren't the AFL arguing on that basis? They seem to be letting Collingwood define the argument.

Completely agree, and also it meant that Trac couldn't play as a forward. There were many reasons we lost but this was an important one. Just shows how hollow the "threat" was.

I have been consistently saying how bad Barrett is. He idolises Geelong and he hates Melbourne; he is also an all-round [censored].

Not surprising, but he's going out while still playing good footy. I thought that after quarter time he killed Elliott who is s good player. He's been great for Melbourne - and we've been great for him.

He made his debut in a final in 1982 and kicked 5 goals

So Gawn, Viney, May should have beaten Maynard up like Carl used to? Who would play in their places against Carlton?

I probably agree about Greg Stafford. But poaching a key forward? Next year we will have JVR really starting to fire, and Petty back and hopefully free of injury. So what do we do with the new recruit? Send him to Casey like we have done with Grundy? In fact, which key forward would want to come here when there is no assurance of a game - because you can't have three!

What's all this about Hibbo? After the first quarter he was right on top of Elliott, who is a VERY good player!!

The article just riled me. It confirms that he was going to Freo from halfway through the season on - and to my mind he really played like it. Gave us virtually nothing in that period. If he'd been upfront we could have put him at Casey and played someone who wanted to play.

If they play Cox, we MUST play Grundy. Cox has got the wood on Max, largely through very questionable tactics, but Grundy knows exactly how to play him and treats him with almost contempt.

100% with this

I just watched the replay of the KB match. It seems to me that unfortunately Cox can get Max, usually by pretty poor tactics. On the other hand, Grundy treats him with contempt - he knows just how to play him. So I think he should be picked, as a ruckman, to share with Max. Normally I like to have Tommo in the backline but if we play Max and Grundy, Max can probably drop back and be the third tall in defence,

Clarry is ready.

They probably want to get as much game fitness into him as possible

Completely agree. The week's delay meant we were not tuned in in the day we played WC. You could tell in the warmup that we were in trouble.

I think Clarkson knows enough to know that tanking is a terrible idea. Look at what it got Carlton 15 or so years ago - and what it got us. Just more failure. Even if you get a no 1 draft pick, the player - who presumably is a good player and probably a proud player - won't want to play for you, and the damage it does to your club culture takes many years to repair.