Bring-Back-Powell

I think it's fair that the media has written us off. We've lost 26 of our last 38 games which is a success rate of 31%. On what planet are we entitled to some respect and high hopes from the media going into a season after two back to back failures? Add into the fact that we traded 3 clear best 23 players from last year and we're already down Bowey and Viney for likely half the season or more. Can Steele, Mihochek and CJ go some way towards offsetting the loss? Time will tell. We're a rebuilding club IMO and behind closed doors I don't believe King has any expectations on making the top 10. I could be wrong, but if he was aiming for finals then he would've dug his heels in by keeping Trac at the expense of a tremendous draft package that is designed to pay off in the future, not 2026. He also would've given Oliver one more chance by gambling on that bounce back year that's been due since 2024. I hope like any other that we surprise the world with a 12 win season, and play a final in late August at the G, but my mindset is on the future as that was the message I interpreted during trade week. King's building us for a crack at the future, not 2026. I don't expect to win anywhere near 12 games this year.

I had a listen to David King this morning on SEN and he went to Casey last Friday to see us live for the first time this pre season. I know people on here ridicule him but it's still worthwhile to listen to a neutral who's casting a fresh set of eyes on the club. He raved on about Windsor. He and Cornes are expecting big things from him this year. The other player he loved was Jefferson. I found this to be an eye raising comment/observation. He also gave JVR and Heath some positive feedback. King said we look completely different from an offensive point of view and the shackles have been taken off. I hope we can take a few clubs by surprise in the first 6-8 weeks if indeed we play an unrecognisable brand of footy. On another matter, I've recently watched the first 15 games of 2025 in those 20 minute mini packages. If I had a dollar for every time the commentators would say "Melbourne are up in contest and clearance but haven't capitalised on the scoreboard."

I see the chef still hasn't been selected for the VICS. Might be a bruise to the ego.

I would be stunned if a 10th placed team won the flag. They'd have to play 4 away games in a row just to qualify for the grand final. Or if they're an MCG tenant, perhaps 2 or 3 interstate trips. Not happening. If a 10th placed team made a prelim, they ought to celebrate a job very well done and call their season a raging success. I believe the wild card was introduced to avoid less dead rubbers from round 20 onwards more so than that actual top 10 finals format.

Yeah it’s wasn’t exactly a glowing endorsement of late tenure Goodwin if you watched the interview.

Yeah we’ve beaten St Kilda by 38 points in both of our most recent meetings at the MCG - 2022 and 2024. Although St Kilda beat us the previous 2 times there. I was surprised to see that we didn’t win a game against St Kilda at the MCG between the 1988 and 1998 home and away seasons although we did finally beat them in a 1998 final. St Kilda have won 3 of their last 8 games at the MCG but one of those games was terrible win over Richmond late last year.

Anyone predicting Melbourne to finish 15th is being more than fair IMO.

Really hope we can knock Carlton off in round 3 as I’d rather not have to go to Gather Round for the second year a row facing an 0-5 start against Essendon.

I’ve asked this a few times over the summer and nobody can answer. FWIW Mitch Cleary was told by the club that he’ll make an appearance in one or both of the pre season games.

Mihocek arguably shouldn’t be on the injury list given he’s been in full training and match sim the last fortnight.

Just to strengthen your argument about Windsor looking good in the guts last year, he also played the week after the West Coast game against the Dogs (against a non witches hat team) and showed good signs. It was the Dogs game that he did his hammy. Behind Kozzie, Windsor and Langford would be second and third on the list of what I'm most excited about in 2026. Touch wood both players are setting themselves up for a big season.

Mark Keane for Adelaide sustained what could be a serious leg injury at training today. I know it has nothing to do with us but a big loss to their defence. And they've lost Dan Curtin for the first 2 months.

Oh well, scrap Culley off the round 1 list. Hopefully it's not a shoulder reco and he'll be available for selection in April or May. We don't appear to be having a good pre season from an injury and rehab point of view.

Don't get me started on the very family and work friendly time of 4:10pm Friday afternoon for both of our practice matches (admittedly the second practice game was the AFL's call) I reckon today will be a solid match sim with training mixed in. Next Friday will be more of a full scale intra club game.

Good points about Melksham. However, I need my best field kick at the club in the side. Those low dart kicks he makes between wing and half forward a thing of beauty and only Kozzie can also pull off I also need someone that is capable of kicking a bag from time to time. I see your point that he is aging and not suited to aspects of the modern game. However the extra interchange player could alleviate those concerns and he’ll certainly be on a short leash when it comes to being managed. Maybe you only play him against the poorer clubs when he’s more icing on the cake than anything.

Agree with most of that list except for 2018. The entire supporter base would have torn the MCG down if we failed to make finals in 2018, after missing 2017 by 0.2% or whatever it was. 2021 I'd say we were a 50/50 shot at finals given it took until the final game of the 2020 season to be eliminated from finals (Freo had to beat Dogs in Carins).

I’d suggest after round 24.

You can get $34 on us finishing top 4.

When recalling all the DL training report this summer, this comment above dawned on me that Lindsay hasn't really had any positive reports compared to your Culley's, WIndsor's, Langford's, Pickett's etc...

Good effort but I hope Melksham makes the round 1 side. He'd be top 3 at the club in terms of skill, ability and class when he's up and going. I assume the club has nursed him all summer in the attempt to have him play 16 or so games.

On top of the additional week of finals, the thing I like the most about the 'wild card' or top 10 is that more games will be relevant in the final month. Although I concede that 2025 was a bad year for 11th and below as the top 10 was essentially decided after round 20. But to support my argument, let's look at the final two weeks of the 2024 AFL season from an MFC perspective. In round 21 we had a heartbreaking loss to Port by 2 points and at the time our season was dead and buried. We were 8 points and 10% below 8th spot. However if the wild card was enacted in 2024, we would have been 6 points behind 10th spot and a slight chance of making the top 10 finals. Let's say the wildcard was around in 2024, we ended up beating GC in round 23 by 54 points to improve our percentage dramatically. We were in 12th spot but only 4 points behind 10th placed Collingwood with a better percentage. 11th placed Essendon had to play Brisbane in round 24 and were never a chance to win. So, come round 24. We play the Pies. It's win and your in for the wild card round and you're playing Hawthorn on Friday night in front of 80,000 for a wild card final. If that doesn't get you excited as a Melbourne supporter I don't know what does. But as there was no wild card, the Dees V Pies game was a complete dead rubber in front of only 53,000. Imagine the extra crowd figures and revenue for our home game if the wild card was in existence in 2024. The wild card will make the season a lot more interesting IMO.

Salem and Melksham to make appearances in the practice match series per Mitch Cleary (Ch 7) Viney miles off it.

And yet that very team who are supposed to host games there are playing at Whitten Oval. Go figure.

I'm not surprised we're second highest on the Pythagorean table. We haven't been able to win a close game to save ourselves over the last two years. Even under Chaplin, two of the three games were a close loss. I hope we do not continue to be the 'honourable loss' kings.

Be interested to hear if: 1) Melksham has graduated into the main group (and what his issue actually is) 2) if Viney has made any any significant progress this week, or whether it’s looking likely he’s out for the early rounds. 3) How Salem is looking. Has he done a soft tissue injury?