The Jackson FIX

Don’t know if covered elsewhere but Steven May sharing on radio that he has ‘instructed’ Melbourne defenders to always claim they’ve touched the ball, regardless of whether they believe that or not, is just stupid. Refreshing that he is being honest, maybe, but now every time a goal umpire sees a Melbourne player claiming the ball was touched, they will instantly be sceptical. Could cost us a soft review in our favour one day that costs us a goal (or potentially a match). Was just an unnecessary thing to say.

Routine check up after the finger in question was successfully removed from his backside about a month ago. Nothing to see here

He went to Wesley, one of the most expensive private schools in Melbourne, didn’t he?

If they win the August premiership on Saturday night we will see noxious levels of obnoxious, mark my words.

The West Coast junkie is elite trolling

Beat me to it

We’ll call him Disney

Finally avenging the theft of Ronald Dale. Revenge is a dish best served cold (and in this case stale, tasteless and dangerously mouldy).

Freudian slip?

Yeah, I know the format and what I said wasn’t wrong.

There is multiple games they roll through in the NBA play-in which makes it a bit more like a handicapped mini-tournament and there is a decent enough volume of games to make it a revenue spinner. 2 extra matches in the AFL ain’t gonna make it that meaningful on the revenue front… the other argument is it increases interest in matches at the back end of the year but it doesn’t feel like a material-enough change to bother changing what is already a pretty good system

I’m typically not in the camp of ‘avoid interstate players’ like some Demonlanders still aggrieved at Jesse & Jack departures, but I would’ve thought that any young guns from Tassie are abnormally-high risk of going home because of the unique scenario of the first ever team getting started down there? Not comfortable spending a top 5 pick on a boy from Tassie right now.

Maybe but I don’t think that Chandler falling off a perch was part of the plan so they may need to reconsider that one…

Never thought I’d see the day that I was looking forward to Carltank thumping a side…. But here we are.

Broadly how I feel about the current state of play. If our game plan was consistently being exposed by opposition I’d be more worried, or we were playing a style of footy that couldn’t hold up in finals I’d be more worried. The issues are kinda superficial and you can see how they can disappear with a bit of luck and a bit of confidence. Belief that can happen? Our run into finals last year and some chronic cases of MFCSS aren’t helping the belief

Very much enjoy your analysis, probably because it is actually grounded in sensible data points (take note AFL media). Faith somewhat in tact, our inability to correct course last year is the niggling factor in the back of my mind

Field kicking issues aside, we have a forward-line game plan that exacerbates our goal-accuracy issues - we deliberately kick to contests with the aim of bringing the ball to ground which means shots on goal consistently come with pressure. Yes sure, that means we have a better shot at retaining the ball inside 50 for repeat attempts but if the repeat attempts are consistently inaccurate (because of our kicking deficiency x pressure), at what point do we look to change that strategy to at least see if there is another way? Or is the answer, we don’t change, we just hope luck swings our way soon?

Poor kicking team noted @binman. I’m looking at Frit going down as an opportunity to look at some more radical options to fix our forward line efficiency. Will Goodwin experiment or just swap Melk for Frit and hope our kicking woes solve themselves naturally?

Anyone know when/where training is this week? Keen to take the Billy lids down for a look

+ Brad Johnson has been feverishly been making updates to his ‘rolling-All-Australian-illness-affected-team’

Certainly am noticing a lot of Doggies supporters’ aggressive dislike for all things Melbourne nowadays… if only their players could’ve channeled that aggression at about the 20-min mark of the 3rd quarter of the 2021 Grand Final

Appears that golf buggy killed off some of his few remaining brain cells.

Unconfirmed reports: Trac -“you have a face like a capful of covid mutations”

Don’t understand why teams don’t assault Cox in/before a marking contest like they do Gawn?

Also ticks the required box to have ‘beaten someone up with a crutch at Zagames’ before