Bring-Back-Powell

They'll be a contender next year with the additions of Dunkley, Gunstan and Ashcroft. Clearly their list has been bolstered and they would be aiming for a grand final next year. It's still a bit hard to reconcile that this mob beat us with 1 and a half quarters of scintillating footy, only to disgrace themselves a week later.

Well thought out post overall. Lobb actually kicked 36 goals this year and must have been heavily considered by our club (prior to settling on Grundy) as a very solid forward/ruck option given T Mac had a serious foot injury, Jackson was half way out the door and BBB had a poor year and has a chronic knee issue.

Spot on. The most recent premier has had it's ruck department questioned for at least the last 5 years.

Sounds promising....

Still hope he plays the majority of minutes in the forward line. We need to utilise his amazing goal kicking talents as much as possible. He can do things around goals that nobody else can. As for his re-signing, if it's not done by the mid season break or thereabouts then I'd say he's gone for sure.

Excellent information WCW!

Any good? He’s the highest rated unpicked player so far.

At least he’s not a flight risk.

I’m thinking definitely not. Lobb kicked 36 last season. Jackson would be lucky to manage 20 across a full season.

It’s irrelevant who is the home and who is the away side in terms of finances. Every club will get an even distribution from the weekend. Melbourne will still get their 10 home games at the G and 1 NT home game assuming that arrangement is still in place. What would be annoying is if we’re the designated home side against Geelong in Magic round and then cop the return game away to them at GMHBA in the final month. Hopefully it would be the reverse.

Heard that one as well. Not sure if that’s people’s opinion because of the Grundy “grudge” match. Or if there’s some substance to it. It would make for juicy round 1 game and a bogey of some sort for is to get over. There’s also some speculation we’re off to Port in round 1.

Are you getting Luke Beveridge vibes about Goodwin?

I think Bell is desperate for a key forward at Freo and is trying to sell his message to the members as they have one of the least potent attacks on paper of all the contenders. The fact they were around the 12-13th mark last year in scores “for” underscored this, and they won’t be going near a flag next year if they don’t improve in that area. Jackson couldn’t catch an over sized beach ball in the 2022 finals when playing as a key forward. Either he mentally checked out of his footy club by finals time, or Bell is incorrect by claiming his best footy will be as a key forward.

Tend to agree. Would like a number of Saturday afternoon and early Sunday games next year as opposed to games every Friday and Saturday night - as good as they are for media exposure. A good balance of games is what the members want I would’ve thought. I’m sure we’ll get a number of night games in the first (announced) 15 rounds next year. But if we have an ordinary first half of the year, then we’ll have a number of day games to end of the year.

If we’re playing Geelong in magic round then that essentially guarantees we play them twice next year.

Not overly blown away by this guy. Many of his goals from his highlights package came from either “Joe the Gooses” or from close range set shots. Furthermore, a lot of his goals came from just the one game at Icon Park Vs WA. On the flip side, we need another capable key forward to develop and hopefully partner JVR when T Mac and BBB finish up. Therefore I’ll be happy if we select him.

Probably isn't Laurie but I'm backing him into be our 2023 bolter.

Collingwood supporters are still livid we gave them Woewodin so they take great delight that Dawes, Kennedy and LaBamba ranged from average pickups to down right disasters for us.

I don’t think I’ve seen a MFC player not play for a Melbourne jumper as much (or as little) as Luke Jackson did in his final outing for the club on 9 September. His half hearted marking contests in a high stakes final was something else. If Paul Roos was still coach of Melbourne, Jackson wouldn’t have played the final few games of the year.

Unless the round proves to be an epic fail next year, then I think it's here to stay. Money talks and clearly cities around the country would love to have the round to boost tourism. But I see your point - there's really nothing in it from a Victorian's perspective.

From listening to Gerard Healy on my drive home from work since 2011, he has been nothing but supportive, encouraging and enthusiastic about the MFC and loves Nathan Jones. He predicted big things of the clubs since 2017ish - way more than other analysts. My only criticism of Healy is that he makes way too many gaffes on air - eg - referring to the wrong player, wrong club etc...

I personally wouldn't be going hard on a player that's kicked 114.46 over the last 2 years and worked hard on rectifying his accuracy issues. He also did the best he could in our disappointing finals campaign kicking 5 goals I'd be levelling criticism at another forward at the club who kicked a total of 2 goals and average 2 marks a game over a 4 week period which included those losses to Freo, Sydney and Collingwood. He also kicked 1 goal in total in the finals.

That's with a pre finals bye week which would take place in the first weekend of September. I originally thought the season would start a week earlier, but with the last Saturday in September being the 30th next year, that pushes everything back a week compared to 2022.

Given that they announced Magic round will be round 5 (Apr 13-16) I have round 1 starting on Thursday 16 March, which is basically the same start as last year. The grand final will be 30 Sep next year as opposed to 24 Sep this year so that essentially pushes things back a week. Fixture due out either Thursday 1 December or Thursday 8 December IMO.

Not a disaster at all if BBB misses the pre xmas training period, given it's only 3 or so weeks these days. Hoping for a better season from him next year.