Bring-Back-Powell

Sharp Kicked 2 not 3 goals. Chandler kicked 1 not 2 goals.

To the people that attended the game, I’m assuming there was a howling wind to the right of screen/Freo cheer squad end. 22 goals the right of screen. 5 goals to the left of screen.

Humphrey (GC Suns) a sniff to get a week suspension with a sling tackle and subsequently miss our game in round 4. So potentially Rowell, Trac and Humphrey, but they have absurd depth to cover those losses.

Hardwick wasn’t giving much away but it didn’t sound like it’s an overly serious hammy.

I don’t think I could wish McVee well under any circumstance.

Amazing what happens when you schedule 2 good teams on a prime time slot as opposed to having 1980’s “has beens” in Carlton and Essendon hogging the marquee slots.

I read somewhere (and heard on the deebrief podcast) that we'll be wearing a retro jumper. I don't think we'll be wearing royal blue on Saturday.

Are we wearing this jumper this weekend? I highly rate this clash jumper.

So at this time of year it looks as though we're 3,000 ahead of 2025 but 6,000 behind our peak year of 2023. I think we will max out at 60,000 however Paul wants us at 65,000. North - 46,000 Bulldogs - 54,000 St Kilda - 65,000 + I'm a firm believer that with all things being equal we should be above those three clubs and be mid tier VIC club in terms of membership. Not the second worst.

If we do end up losing, I'd imagine Luke Jackson would have had a large say on proceedings. He's played us 3 times for 3 Freo wins. One time (MCG) he got the 3 Br votes. Another time (Alice Springs) he kicked 3 goals /6 marks/16 touches. The one time he didn't play us we won. What a massive coincidence....right?

We have a sneaky bad 5-14 record against Freo in WA for a club that's had a pretty mediocre history. We went 17 seasons without a win there (2005-2021), albeit didn't play there every year.

Young’s a very handy out. He was under a cloud Vs Geelong and therefore clearly shouldn’t have played…much to our benefit.

James Hird mentioned on today's edition of Footy Furnace (channel 9 streaming show) the following: "Melbourne internally are quietly confident they're a top 8 team this year" Make of that what you will.

I always find Gary Lyon's weekly MVP players on AFL 360 interesting. This year he's expanded it from the best 3 players to the best 5 players of the week. Interesting that he gave Naughton votes but not JVR despite both kicking 6. However I'm glad that he gave Max 4 votes as he had a tendency without fail last year to give a Melbourne oppo the 3, 2 or 1.

Not surprised to hear this. In his original press conference he showed (what I thought to be) genuine gratitude and appreciation on not only landing a head coaching role but landing it at the MFC. A fantastic first up result but mindful that we have some genuine tough games in Freo, GC and Brisbane coming up.

How many players have been nominated for goal of their year with their first goal?

Tracs’s got the Brownlow sown up. Another 3 goal haul.

Has the round 0 club actually had that much of an advantage over the team that didn’t play? 1) Richmond objectively outplayed Carlton in the second half which is completely at odds with what people are concerned about - the rested team being out gassed towards the end. 2) does anyone actually think Essendon would’ve beaten or come very close to beating Hawthorn had they also played last week? 3) Adelaide completely debunked the theory by knocking off the match hardened Collingwood in a statement win. Whilst the Pies came back in the last quarter, the Crows were able to get that second wave of energy and kick a couple of late sealers. 4) the one game that may support this theory is Freo fading against Geelong. However, if Longmuir can’t defend a 35 point lead, he has bigger problems than AFL fixturing. Furthermore, we played GWS in round 1 last year in the same scenario and took them all the way to the finish line in a fine performance, albeit a loss.

Was appalling today.

Interesting comment by Longmuir. 1) they were one of the rare teams to beat a round 0 team in 2024. 2) in 2025 their opponent Geelong actually don’t play round 0 due to the canceled game in QLD. 3) you had big enough lead. It’s on you to protect a 6 goal lead.

Meanwhile Adelaide (in the exact same scenario as Freo) got the job done against Collingwood despite being outsiders. If you’re good enough, you’re good enough.

Karma for his smug post game interview last week. I can’t see any bitterness in his and club’s pathetic performance today. (In fairness Clarry hasn’t done much wrong but hasn’t helped his team either)

Bulldogs: how do you go a half of footy without one player scoring a behind?

Agreed. A player improving by the week and appears to be a regular in their talented best 23. Has started well today with a goal.

Yeah that’s my only query on selection. Sharp was awful in his last 7 games of last year only managing 0.5 while Melksham was nailing 52 metre goals against Collingwood on the Friday night stage. There’s no substitute for class. It’s a new season and chapter so we’ll see how it pans out.