Bring-Back-Powell

They might trade him for a 2026 or 2027 future pick if either of those drafts are less diluted and more talented than this 2025 one. You also need to factor in that the club may want him out but the player wants to stay, which it sounds like he does want to stay if you've read snippets around here. I agree that Fritta's body of work over 8 years rather than the last 12 months makes it more appealing to keep him rather than trade him for a draft pick. And even factoring in his last 12 months, not that long he did kick 4 goals against Sydney in round 0 2024 and 5 against Hawthorn in round 2 2024 and that freak goal on the boundary that sealed the Geelong win last year. Plus he's kicked 11 goals in his last 5 games which is 50 goal pace per 23 games to suggest that his form is trending upwards. It's a keep for me but I'm open minded about the offers for him.

Yep. Curnow to break his 4 week goal drought at the 48 second mark of the first quarter and Francis Evans to kick 5.

Is contracted for next year, so we would need some decent compensation - a top 25 draft pick or a solid established B grader that addresses a need. That is unless the relationship between player and club is untenable and the club is happy to see the back of him....not saying that's in anyway a fact.

McKay’s apparently due back next week rather than this week. When he’s up and about, Carlton are up and about, per their win over Geelong.

A young man that speaks very highly of his club. There was a video over the pre season where he stated that he'd like to be a leader of the club down the track, and is already trying to act like a leader, so if his football continues to develop could he be a left field contender to be skipper post Gawn??

No doubt we really let ourselves down between rounds 2 and 5 (in fairness the Geelong game wasn't a disaster) and more specifically the St Kilda game in Alice Springs. That was objectively our worst loss of the year given we were almost back in the hunt at 5-6 and the amount of missed shots that day. We blew our season in one afternoon of footy and I bet your bottom dollar that we win that game if it were at the G. Aside from that, we've been ok this year overall. Just a couple of points: 1) We've seriously done some heavy lifting with our fixture between rounds 8 and 17, with 6 interstate trips. More specifically, name me a club that would go better than 1-2 that's copped Port, GC and Adelaide 3 weeks in a row on the road. While 0-3 is not good, GC and Adelaide away are turning into the hardest assignments in footy, and we took it up to Adelaide. 2) Since the inspiring and 'feel good' Freo game in round 6, we've gone 4-2 at the MCG which is perfectly acceptable. But if you dig deeper, one of the losses was against Collingwood which IMO was our third or fourth best performance of the season. We were pretty damn good that day and better than in our wins against WC and Richmond and arguably North. We only let ourselves down against Hawthorn in that horrible last quarter. Therefore, it's only the entire GC game in round 3 and the Hawks last quarter that we've been poor at the G. 3) Our inaccuracy was hitting record books low before the bye. However, it's definitely stabilised and trending upwards since the bye with a much tidier 41.35 in our 3 most recent games. Law of averages suggests we'll have more accurate than inaccurate games on the run home and will win games accordingly.

The karma bus has hit us with the Blues winning the next 3 by under a goal.

He must be pretty prolific on the lip as he’s involved in a weekly scrap with the oppo, particularly today. I think he struggles with the intensity of AFL that a Langford clearly doesn’t. Simply isn’t clean in a pressurised environment.

I’d love to beat Hawthorn in round 23 to snuff out their top 4 dreams, and Melksham was sorely missing in our first battle with them. Therefore I’d be very keep for him to play that game, and as many games as possible on the run home.

Xerri shouldn’t have even played today and the Sparrow incident would’ve been avoided. Last week against the Dogs in the last quarter, he looked like a punch drunk boxer as he stumbled on his feet after a head contact incident. Basically every player who’s been unsteady on their feet after a head knock over the last couple of years has entered concussion protocols- no ifs, buts or maybes. Disappointing IMO.

The people riot if he drops T Mac. The people riot even harder if Carlton beat us by under a goal yet again.

I would’ve had Kolt as sub but I can see Windsor as an effective sub with his run and dash in the last quarter.

I’m absolutely scratching my head that they’re only one win behind us. Admittedly, Essendon have such a lengthy injury list that it’s now an automatic 4 points when you play Essendon till the end of the season.

The entire level 4 of the Warne stand and top level of the Ponsford stand apparently closed tomorrow. Two Melbourne clubs….

Yeah our accuracy has been atrocious this year and could very well cost us another game this weekend. Also, North are clearly one of the more accurate sides in the league. I will say though that our accuracy is trending upwards since hitting rock bottom (7.21) against St Kilda. We had more respectable scores of 10.9, 12.11 and 11.9 very late in the Pies, GC and Adelaide games.

I know it's more likely Simon stays next year than goes (due to his contract) and the club isn't going to decide his future on 7 games (unless it's obvious that he's lost the players). However I don't think it's unreasonable to put a bit of pressure on him to perform these last 7 weeks with a short injury list and the fact that he's 10-21 since the infamous Harley Reid game last year when our season fell off the rails from seemingly nowhere, after a promising 6-2 start to 2024. We should be aiming for the following from rounds 18-24. 1) 3-1 against North, Carlton, St Kilda and West Coast. 2) one win against the contenders in Dogs, Hawthorn and Collingwood. 3) in the two losses to the above contenders I want to see us take one of those sides to time on in the last quarter, per the Kings B'day loss. I know the above goals are probably unlikely to happen, but it's time the coach, his assistants and playing group start to put an extended period of winning football together, with consistent 3 to 4 quarters a game week in week out, because right now the gap between our best and worst is horrifying and the effort from 1 quarter to the next is bipolar. We need to finish 2025 with confidence and have the players and supporters feeling good again about their club again. Can you imagine going into 2026 with a 1-11 record since the Sydney win with the "same old" in charge.

Happy to release Oliver if it means we'll be getting in a Warpol or Flanders who both aren't on absurd money commensurate with output.

And nothing surer than Curnow breaking his goal drought in the first minute of next week to get the crowd on their feet.

Nonsensical. Also, $1.90 on us winning by at least 27 points is way overs for a team that struggles to play more than two competent quarter a game.

Good point. Larkey got a hold of Petty in round 2. And May kept Larkey goaless last year. It's the small-medium forwards like your Rankines, Zurharrs, Jye Menzies and Dan Butlers of the world that have destroyed us this year, rather than the key forwards (aside from Ben King and Georgiadis).

Me too. He, Curtis, Zurharr (who killed us in round 2) and Xerri will go a long way towards deciding the result. I'm assuming and planning for Larkey to play despite being injured. They'll just park him near the goals.

McVee for Pat Voss and whatever draft picks need to be swapped, if Judd wants to head home. AMW can take his place. I get that it was only one game, and a praccy game at that (V North), but AMW played like the prototypical small defender that day who could potentially go toe to toe on the classy and speedy Rankines of the world. AMW absolutely had a round 1 spot stitched up had he not done his knee. McVee's had a really poor season this year which is underscored by being 21st or so in the Demonland player of the year. I doubt he'd be too much higher in the B&F either. Needs to respond well this week by containing Paul Curtis somewhat.

"On Wednesday night we will be joined by the coaches...I mean former coaches Simon Goodwin, John Longmire and Adam Simpson" Garry Lyon, AFL 360, Fox Footy. 7th July 2025. Does he know something we don't?

Ralph's not wrong. Where do we go from here if we go 0-4 against North, Carlton, St Kilda and West Coast? Because we sure as goat's droppings not beating Dogs, Hawthorn or Collingwood.

My heart is in my mouth every time the ball is in the vicinity of Kolt. My expectation of him doing something effective in the contest or with the ball is next to zero. I don't have that feeling with XL and I most certainly don't have it with Langford. I think he gets dropped this week.