Thrice

Whilst my last line was perhaps a little churlish, I was sincere when I suggested running for the board with the idea.

TL;DR Put your money where your mouth is and run for the board with this as your platform and see how you go. I know how i'd feel if some bloke off the street who doesn't work in my industry wrote me a report telling me how to do my job.

As he builds a tank he'll be able to get that balance and find more footy in space. The kid is still only playing about 70%TOG. He'll be the new perma-captain in fantasy footy once he has an AFL standard tank.

I wasn't really including tomorrow as a winnable game. 2 of the next 3 will have us at 5-6. I understand the comment about making the best of the start of our season. But GWS (who are a rung above us) and Sydney aside; no team has been as hard hit by injuries and suspension to key players. Our best is right up there with the best in the competition and that with a full complement we would be at least 5-2. It is this that makes me bullish about the return of Gawn. He shifts the balance of our stoppages from being reactive to proactive: instead of planning to shark the opposition we can back in our set plays to execute clean clearances. Whilst currently we are still winning clearances in the strictest sense, the next possession is under pressure (hence the ring-a-rosie handballs) and the momentum from the stoppage is lost. We've got on top against Bombers and Hawks when their pressure dropped and we were able to get clean clearances. GCS and Pies, in particular, are not pressure sides, so I reckon our chances are solid against those two.

Ridiculous comment. BBO is spot on. It all comes down to when Gawn is back. Misson's update was he is travelling well and is now saying 4-6 weeks, which puts him about Rd 13-14. I'd back us in to win 7 of those 11 with Gawn (at least). If we win 2 of the next 4 (against Crows, GCS, Pies, Nth - so three very winnable games) then we are right on track. A spanking this week makes it hard to back up for next week against North, not to mention the dint to our very healthy %.

Chalk it up as recovering one the two losses to Hawthorn and Freo that shouldn't have happened. Then sing the song very quietly buried in the cheer squad and take off my jumper for the walk back to the hotel.

I hope so, I'm taking my little bloke for our first boys trip. I've never seen us lose interstate, which included a win over the Swans in 2005 - that's all I'm holding onto at present!!

We wouldn't have best 22 players in Hogan, Tyson, Frost and Salem plus solid fringe players in Bugg, OMac* and ANB*. Pick trades with them and GC were instrumental in netting Oliver and Weideman. (* steak-knife picks) We would have Josh Kelly and probably Ollie Wines (on the assumption would would've got him and Toumpas if we had picks 3&4 in 2012) and Lewis Taylor instead of Salem. Instead of Oliver and Weid we'd likely have Francis. Hogan > Wines Tyson << Kelly Salem > Taylor Oliver >>>>>>>> Francis The Frost pick got them McKenna!! + Weideman, Bugg, ANB, OMac. The reality is we've been one of the greatest beneficiaries of trades with GWS.

He would be far more expensive than a third round pick, even if he nominated us! A third round pick is speculative and he has a solid 150 game career ahead of him. Even accounting for a discount because he's being squeezed out for salary cap it would still take a pick in the late teens or early 20s and late pick exchange in their favour to give them some more academy points to get them interested.

Hogan out for half the games too. We led contested marks against both Saints and Blues.

My mind went immediately to the poster's namesake: Powell

He's rejoined the club as Indigenous Project Officer: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2017-02-17/whelan-rejoins-melbourne-in-new-role

At the risk of going too early: this may have been the case last year but we've moved to the next bracket up. The clinical evisceration of St Kilda (after 1/4 time) has only confirmed that. I suspect that mantle has shifted to Tigers, North, GC / Brisbane / maybe freo (if played at home): they will be getting themselves up for games against each other. Then there is Bombers and Pies that are the 'traditional' rivals.

Is it phone only? Or tablet also? I am a Telstra customer, so have the live pass there, but am looking for a tablet option that isn't foxtel.

Money talks... well, I'm sure you know the rest. (I'm the messenger on behalf of Messrs SportsBet, CrownBet, Ladbrokes et al).

Except that we are now pretty clear favourites, after starting evens pre-JLT. The Blues rested most of their senior players and played 9 who had never played at AFL level before. It was a far weaker side than the one that played us. I'd be nervous as a saints supporter if they didn't win by 15 goals.

I count 24 and they still have the extended bench, so it looks like they are all playing. I'm Interested in who you think are the 5-6 who aren't playing and who they will displace. Surely a few of those will be shuffling of bottom 6 players with fringe 22 players (e.g. ANB, Bugg, Harmes, Trengove, Spencer, Melksham, Garland c.f. VDB, JKH, Jetta, Kent, Pedersen, Frost). Hibberd and probably Garlett would be the only players not named that I would call clearly best 22.

And another point: is it really any less accurate than general punditry? Even people on this site were lining up to lay the boots into David King over his assertion that we are the toughest midfield in the league. You can only imagine the reaction of 17 other clubs supporters. At least CD stand by their claims and methods rather than changing their mind half way through the season when their prediction fails.

It highlights the folly of using past results to try and predict the future. It does prove that we've been pretty avaerage over the past 2 years, so no surprises there. But, there is not much that is inherently wrong in the assessments. It is uses the AFL player ratings, which is highly skewed toward scoring involvements. It's based upon statistics analysis of matches as to which acts are the most crucial in determining the outcome of a match. It's also why players like Trac and Hunt rate as above average after 1 season - I'd expect them to be edging elite by the end of this year. Those bemused by Hogan need to remember who he is being rated against. 40 goals from the no1 kpf is the very definition of average. And as for TMac: being the primary intercept player leads to him being the beginning of many scoring chains. And think about that role across the league - who's better: Rance obviously, but then who? Jeremy McGovern? well he's elite too. The only other might be Steven May.

No, you can't only mirror an android device through Chromecast Home. I looked for it on my iPhone (already have a chromecast) and couldn't find it. A minute of googling confirmed it. You may like to try one of the third party apps on the app store which may offer screen mirroring - although its probably more of a firmware / operating system restriction than a software one. My iPhone is supplied by my work and I'm restricted from downloading the 3rd party apps, so I can't test this theory myself.

Most phone and tablet chargers are rated at 2.1 Amps @ 5.2 Volts. Applying Year 10 science of W=VxA the charger would be drawing about 11W, so 40W is ample. The charging circuit is actually in the phone/table itself and will limit the current draw to what it needs, so the fact its max is 40W won't kill it.

No Watts, Tyson, Hibberd. Kent we know about. Squad of 28. You'd reckon if we're going best 22 (24 for preseason?), as per Drunkn's wink wink that the likes of ANB, Garland will come out. I'll be intrigued to see if we trial Gawn and Spencil in the same side.

MFC Squad for the game v Western Bulldogs 1. Jesse Hogan 2. Nathan Jones 3. Christian Salem 5. Christian Petracca 6. Jordan Lewis 7. Jack Viney 9. Jack Trengove 10. Angus Brayshaw 11. Max Gawn 13. Clayton Oilver 15. Billy Stretch 18. Jake Melksham 20. Colin Garland 22. Aaron Vandenberg 23. Bernie Vince 24. Jay Kennedy-Harris 25. Tom McDonald 26. Sam Weideman 28. Oscar McDonald 29. Jayden Hunt 30. Alex Neal-Bullen 32. Tomas Bugg 33. Jake Spencer 36. Jeff Garlett 37. Dion Johnstone 42. Josh Wagner 43. James Harmes 44. Joel Smith

Players of supercoach will know that an effective tap is one of the highest scoring acts. And 13 effective taps in 60 minutes is enormous - Max averaged that last season in 120 minutes, and he was far and away the highest in the comp. I know an effective tap is 5 points for the mens game; but when you then factor in that the match is shorter, with fewer possessions overall, those taps would be worth even more than that, as the scores are scaled to a combined 3,300 across all players.

DeeSpencer was referring to the 8 players in the midfield (and the 7 forward and 7 in defence).