Bring-Back-Powell

I thought missing the entire finals series last year would motivate at least 45,000 of our 65,000 odd members (not including MCC members) to get to and cherish the idea of attending a final in person. Guess I was wrong and people prefer to stay at home and listen to BT's mistake riddled commentary where he's been known to call players that aren't even playing. Or JB marvelling about two traditional Melbourne sides in Geelong and Collingwood doing battle last week. Get to the game peoples!

If that trend continues this week and into next year, I can't see Selwyn Griffith having an overly long tenure at the MFC.

They're also now offering walk ups in the AFL members Reserve meaning: 1) AFL members can get free entry if they're happy sit on the top level. 2) They're expecting a rather small turnout in the AFL members. I saw a level 2 seat for sale last night which is unthinkable for a final.

So a bacon and egg mcmuffin could put our finals chances in jeopardy?

Wouldn't mind seeing Chandler get a full game in replacement of Spargo if he doesn't get up. What I've seen from him at Casey is impressive and he played a belter of a game in an AFL practice match against Richmond in 2021 and kicked a 70 metre goal against North at Casey in this year's praccy match. A bit hard to make your mark in this business when 8 of your 10 games have been as a sub, and out of the two proper games he's played one of them occurred when the sub rule wasn't even invented!

The great news story of the deal is that I'll never have to watch a channel 7 home and away game again from round 1 2025.

Love it how the opening question during Q&A time for the biggest TV deal of all time was: "What do you think the white powder was in Carey's bag?"

Foxtel to have its own commentators and graphics for all games from 2025. So you don't have to put up with the mistake riddled BT from that point onwards.

Sounds like more Thursday night games on FTA and less Saturday night games on FTA. I think Gil mentioned the first 8 rounds or so will only have Foxtel games on Saturday.

Good. I already pay $130 per month for the Foxtel/Netflix combo Happy not to have to pay for an additional streaming service.

If the Kozzie infringement was incorrect then the umpire in charge of that call should have his grand final chances put in jeopardy. A massive punishment for the MFC if Kozzie actually wasn't in the illegal zone. The game was right in the balance mid way through the third qtr.

At the moment you can’t purchase a seat on level 4 of the AFL members. Not sure if the Ticketek website is playing up or if they’re not even bothering to sell seats on the top level. If the latter, then we’re probably looking at a significantly reduced crowd from last week.

Young’s first 2 years were injury riddled but in year 3 he’s had a full season under his belt and it’s been comprehensively better than Jackson’s. I’m entitled to my opinion and I think Young will be a better player than Jackson.

It's absolute nonsense and a slap in the face to the entire team to suggest we would not have won a flag without Jackson. I'm fairly sure Trac, Oliver, JV and Fritta had a say in proceedings.

Who's played 8 games? Young's played 20 games this year at an average of 23 touches a game.

I'm in full agreement. Hayden Young is going to be an absolute champion of the game. An absolute champion. His composure in his first final as a 20/21 year old was first class. Imagine the highs this kid is going to reach in his prime years of 23-28. Not to mention he's had a fabulous third season of football. We weren't the only club to overlook him but hindsight will say we made the wrong call for a multitude of reasons. Young is currently a better player than Jackson, and will also end up being the better player. Jackson's had a mostly woeful season and probably won't feature in the top 15 of the best and fairest.

If we were to get the job done this weekend, I'd rather play Geelong as a clear underdog in a prelim as opposed playing Collingwood as favourites despite failing twice to them. We'd also have at least a 50/50 crowd split against Geelong in a prelim as opposed to 30/70 against Collingwood. That's the only solace I take from losing our qualifying final.

Just out of the top 8 on percentage.

You’d imagine mid 60’s for this one. The combination of the novelty of attending Melbourne’s first MCG final in 4 years inflated Friday’s crowd, Brisbane having less supporters than Sydney and the fact that we lost should see a reduced crowd this week.

Spot on. It won’t happen but it should. Why is Jackson taking valuable ruck minutes off the best ruck in the AFL?

There’s absolutely nothing surer than Collingwood beating Freo next week in front of 74,000/75,000 ferals.

You’re entitled to your opinion of course, but how can the best team in it have a 0-5 record against the top 4 sides? Last September I would’ve agreed with you. This year we’ve been too inconsistent in the second half of the year, which is the half you want your game in order.

Until we win a game against a top 4 side, I suspect Melbourne supporters will be twiddling their thumbs on 24 Sep. Friday night was a chance to atone our record against one of our bogey sides (Collingwood being the other) and put in a rare excellent MCG performance. We once again failed.

Haden Young > Luke Jackson

Jon Ralph with the captain obvious fixture bombshell: Geelong to host the Friday night prelim….against hopefully us.