Bring-Back-Powell

Wonder if Gary will give Max the 3 votes in his MVP for the round? He's given the 3 to Toby Greene and Matt Rowell in games against us, as well as minor votes to Xerri and Danger in rounds 2 and 4. Maybe over compensating with this MFC hat on.

No case to answer for. Confirmed.

FWIW David Zita from Fox Footy, who’s a tribunal and MRO expert, doesn’t expect him to get booked. Didn’t Schofield and Oliver have a dust up some years ago and perhaps he still has a bit of bad blood towards us?

100% agree. Loved his game last night and is extremely accurate and trustworthy around goals. Should never have been dropped for Gather Round.

Actually our current 1-8 record away from the MCG included the WC game of round 10 last year.

No idea but I reckon he plays. Not sure why they’d fly him over to Perth if he was under substantial enough doubt. If he wasn’t under a cloud and he injured himself at the captains run then surely he would’ve been withdrawn from the squad from now? See what happens.

Are we a better club on and off the field with the decision to move on from Harmes? Playing career best footy at the moment.

I think we might have a set back tonight. If the game were at the G we’d be winning our third consecutive game where we have a 6-6 record since round 11 last year. Plus we’re a better team than them. However away from the G we have a 1-8 record since that debacle in round 10 last year at Optus V WC. The stats are too obvious to ignore and it’s plain to see that we can’t or won’t play the style of footy and requisite pressure needed to win a game away from the G. Hope to be proven wrong of course.

I checked their forum at half time. The vitriol was real.

Just realised we've lost 8 of our last 9 games away from the MCG. Not a tremendously amazing stat to hang our hats on.

Why would you fly him over with little intention of playing him, unless of course he's aggravated something while over there.

Glad our game is at the same time as Pies/Cats so we don't have to put up with all the Jack Crisp celebrations (unless of course you're happy that he's broken Jimmy's record which is your prerogative). Interesting that McCrae basically admitted the other day that Crisp had COVID in 2021 or 2022 and had no business playing a game which obviously would've halted the sequence. Prefer a rock solid bloke like a Bontempelli breaking his record.

That is dedication. You might need a nap at the footy.

(Is Tomlinson available?) So our key defenders will now be T Mac, Turner and Howes (assume he's in) which is the same set up as the Freo game which is fine. Petty will be the second ruck which leaves us with literally no tall targets inside 50 when he's rucking. I don't understand this strategy. The other option is to bring in JVR rather than Howes to give our forward line some height and hope that T Mac and Turner can handle their tall forward line. Waterman is capable of 6 and being chiefly responsible for a West Coast win tomorrow night, make no mistake. May's becoming rather unreliable from an injury perspective.

The selections make sense if Turner is played forward (even though he impressed as a defender V Freo) The selections don’t make sense if Turner is played down back.

How did he train? Is he in any doubt after his ankle roll last week? TIA.

As always, brilliant job lads. I just want to touch on something George mentioned about a possible advantage Richmond had over Gold Coast in round 6 which would subsequently put less stock in Richmond's win, and then devalue our win over Richmond. George correctly alluded to the fact that Gold Coast were coming off a 7 day break off stinking heat in the Barossa the week before, and that Richmond would reap the benefits because they would be fresher. However, Richmond also played in the Barossa off a 6 day break in ever more stinking heat. So if anything, it makes their win over GC even more meritorious and it reinforces that we didn't beat a mug team the other night.

After the unacceptable 0-5 start, I reckon we need to go at least 10-8 for Goodwin to keep his job next year. If you were told pre season that Melbourne would win less games than in 2024, which is what will happen even if we have a solid 10-8 finish, you'd say there's no way he'd keep his job for 2026. When it's all said and done, I think the 0-5 start will catch up to him when a decision is to be made at the end of the season.

Can't see him leaving unless the Lions are offering him an insulting contract. Interestingly, G Healy and B Johnson on SEN re-casted the 2023 draft order and had Morris at #1. Windsor was at about 4 or 5 and Kolt wasn't mentioned.

I'm actually with you on this one. And it's purely to do with the venue and long road trip ahead of them. Just not feeling it this week. I think the Eagles will go all out attack, kick some early goals, get the fans involved and I can see their maligned players in H Reid and O Allen having big ones. And being 0-7 their clearly one game closer to their first win. And we have a massive handicap that we have seemingly put on ourselves. We get outscored by an average of 20 points in 4th quarters which logic suggests we need to have a 3 goal lead at 3 qtr time to hang on. However If the game were at the G or at a neutral venue, I'd be in no doubt we'd be 3-5.

That's pretty fair to be honest.

Hopefully opinion. Teams that are 2-5 don't have the luxury of getting cute at selection.

Yeah I think he walked into the doors as an Essendon supporter and exited a Melbourne supporter. I don't know if we had good CEO's in the 80's and 90's but PJ was (surely) by far the best CEO we've ever had.

I agree with this and I don't know why clubs don't share the second ruck duties to multiple players to ease the burden and provide a bit of unpredictability. Whilst Petty is poor in the ruck it would give JVR a bit more relief. I doubt they do it, but give Petty and JVR 5 minutes each a quarter as the second ruck.

I mentioned in my post that they've been "alright" the last fortnight (not the entire season), but deplorable in their first five games. They're close to a win IMO based on their last 2 weeks (arguably could've beaten Essendon as they lead for 75% of the game) and as you said we need to be switched on if we're to get the 4 points.