Hopeful Demon

Our midfield looks really bare without Oliver.

I'm a big Fritsch fan but he hasn't been playing team football lately.

It's simply embarrassing that some people in this country still think this way.

It's possibly Deedub's new account.

Bedford is passionate. I like him as a player.

Nice to see Oliver nailing set shots.

God Selwood is a protected species.

They were both elite today. You won't find a better midfield duo in the game right now.

Easily our best win since the Grand Final. We were tough, quick, aggressive and relentless. We couldn't have played any better. Viney was simply elite. He may not get a lot of attention from the media but he has certainly been good enough to at least make the AA squad this year. I was very pleased with Jackson's performance. He seemed to relish the extra responsibility. Maybe we still are the team to beat after all.

This is giving me 2021 finals vibes.

Pickett is a genius.

That quarter was peak 2021. Our pressure was our elite and we finally looked threatening every time the ball moved into our forwardline. We better maintain this momentum in the second half. Brisbane look flustered at the moment.

Lever's looked a lot closer to his 2021 self.

Beating them three times last year was certainly up there with the most satisfying moments as a Melbourne supporter.

It's very unusual for me to show negativity on this site but our form has been extremely worrying lately. We seriously need to get out of the habit of capitulating after being 20+ points up but our forwardline is a total mess atm. We simply don't look like scoring. Something's not right. The bye has come at the perfect time.

Brilliant by Pickett!

Happy with that start. Turner has looked pretty composed so far. You wouldn't think that this is his first game.

Oliver has been insanely good.

I'm sorry, that is a very strange comment. If you took the time to read Gawn's book and watch some of his past press conferences, you'll find that he's very complimentary towards his team mates. He's the kind of captain we need in this situation. The fact that you're suggesting that Gawn is responsible for what took place last Sunday is bewildering. May and Melksham are both grown men and they're old enough to manage their own behaviour.

We're so lucky that Gawn's our captain. I knew he wouldn't be happy about the incident. It's refreshing to have a leader who doesn't refrain from expressing what he really thinks.

Our forwardline's a bit of a mess at the moment. A shame because we're playing well in almost all other areas of the ground.

This is what the infamous Dr D said about us last July: We ended up winning three of the four games that he mentioned and the losses to Adelaide and Collingwood turned out to be hugely insignificant. Unless you were living under a rock throughout 2021, surely you would have learnt that our performances against bottom sides don't determine how we play against top sides.

One of those games where you just bank the four points and move on to next week. The game certainly wasn't without its frustrations but I was expecting North to challenge us given that teams are clearly trying to find ways to shut us down. Oliver can take a bow. Best on ground by a country mile. Can't complain with being 10-0. We're off to an even better start than last year.

Vintage Fritsch goal.

Oh well. I'll take a 10 point lead at quarter time. I get that it's easy to make fun of NM but I expect every opponent to be competitive against us.