Great Northern Summer

The side I probably see us going with in the finals, if we are at full strength: B: McVee May Lever HB: Rivers Petty Salem C: Hunter Viney Langdon HF: Pickett Van Rooyen Neal-Bullen F: Melksham Brown Fritsch R: Gawn Oliver Petracca I: Sparrow Bowey Brayshaw Chandler S: Smith E: Grundy Hibbard Tomlinson Dunstan

Somewhat similar game to our Semi Final loss to the Crows in 2002, but in reverse! Thankfully!

Either Dunstan or Smith as sub tonight I suspect. Presuming the latter given Smith sat out the Casey game on Sunday and Dunstan played the entire game.

Pickett, Spargo and Grundy are on the nose. Arguably Grundy is playing better than Gawn, but Gawn covers far more ground. Grundy's defence leaves a bit to be desired at times. Either way, we need to work out how to use them properly if they are both staying in the team. I'm worried Goodwin will continue with both, even if it's clear come finals time it is not working, because Grundy joined us on the proviso of actually playing. Pickett has been poor for far too long. Surely he cannot stay in if we're serious. Best case scenario for him is to play as sub and impact in a shorter game. He needs to play with more desperation, his spot in the side being in jeopardy might just give him the kick up the 'you know what' that he needs. Spargo is a difficult one. I was at the game last night and I saw him impact a few contests where he gave his all, and stopped a run from St Kilda despite being outnumbered. I'd lean towards giving him another crack and see how he goes. In: Smith, Dunstan (sub) Out: Pickett

Why didn't Joel Smith play today? He only played 5 minutes last night. Would have thought he'd play an entire game today. Maybe it's because they see him playing on Friday night, even as the sub, and didn't want him playing off a 5-day break.

Sounds pretty amateur doesn’t it!

Nor for a few weeks yet by the sounds of things…

Go enjoy a day at the Blue Lagoon and pretend it didn’t happen 😊

hang on a minute, Stokesy is single handedly playing another heroic innings to get his lads over the line

Had the chance last year, we knocked it back

Well Rankine was denied a goal that was a goal, so yep, just on that basis alone

Troy Wilson - but he didn't play for MFC

We all know that money goes around in a circular direction. They may have 'fined' us, but they basically gave it back to us later in an annual distribution (which isn't the same for all clubs). It was all for theatre (i.e. to appear they were doing something).

My ticket cost $90 + booking fee. I couldn't see any tickets below $80 that became available to the general public after the GFC members passed them back. Not sure how people were able to get cheaper ones.

Don't implicate Bruce in it. He was a legendary human being. He had nothing to do with it.

Because we lost to ourselves basically - missed 9 set shots - that was it

Now is the time we need to actually manage our list in our last ten games, especially given we almost have a full list to select from. I suspect we won't only be going into every one of these games favourite, but most clear favourite. We have a good run home. We need to be smart. This is a far cry from last season, where we played top 8 contending teams almost every week. We need to move towards a 'list mentality' rather than picking the same team every week (baring injury). If we win this week, no reason why we shouldn't finish top 2, given Port Adelaide and Collingwood play each other, and both have harder runs home.

Can't wait to watch Bazball! Very exciting!

He said he would if we beat Collingwood today. Sad to know that I know this, I know. I need to spend the valuable time I have in my life listening to more relevant people that offer something useful.

Collingwood have been average the last three weeks. They beat Carlton easily on the scoreboard but inaccurate kicking cost Carlton, should have been a lot lot closer. North got within 5 goals or thereabouts and West Coast were only two goals down at one stage in the third quarter. They’re just going along and are tired. I think they’ll drop a few games now, including tomorrow. There are no excuses from us.

I realise i'll be mocked here for saying this, but what about offering Jesse Hogan a two year contract? I understand he's out of contract at end of season. Surely this would be worth the risk? He seems like he's been more switched on over the last few seasons and improved his discipline.

Sorry? Trying to work out the logic of your 2nd and 3rd paragraphs. You’d rather finish 5th than 3rd? 😲 You think if we finish 3rd, we’d have 0% chance of beating 2nd? If we finish 3rd and win the qualifying final, we are straight through to a home preliminary final. If we have no chance of beating 2nd in a qualifying final, regardless of where the game is, we are no chance of winning the flag and we’re just making up the numbers.

Although they came good in the third quarter against us, and out scored Port in the last half last week. Cause for optimism

100%. Never been this evident.

Garfield is Gary Ayres. His other nickname :-)