Bring-Back-Powell

If VIC somehow goes a month without community transmission by mid September, WA should open their borders to VIC with unrestricted travel. That would be consistent with what McGowan did in early July.

With all the doom and gloom over the couple of days, I'm quite happy to take a gallant prelim loss and then take the next step into a 2022 grand final, when things are back to normal. We've waited this long, what's another year. I hope the AFL takes the border issue into strong consideration and therefore considers Adelaide. It's only about 5,000 less capacity than Perth anyway.

I've got no issue with the grand final being played in Perth so long as Victorians can fly over for it and not have to quarantine for 14 days. WA opened their borders to VIC on 9 July which was 29 days after VIC came out of lock down 4. For WA to open their borders to VIC, we'd essentially have to be out of lock down on 13 August and not have any community transmission until GF day. It's a tough but not impossible task. Conversely, SA opened their border to greater Melbourne 12 days after their lock down 4.

Can the Monday teams be fiddled around with or are Shuey and Barrass certain non inclusions? Shuey usually kills us.

So am I. This lockdown's going to hurt the most as it will be probably be the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of ruling out the grand final and possibly all finals. I know I should be grateful if we win a flag this year but watching it in lockdown with a 500 metre travel radius imposed on all Victorians and a 6:30pm curfew sounds like the pits if you ask me.

Was that the day when Jeff White's jaw could've broken King's leg according to Mark Thompson?

If I got a ticket, I'd take a crowd of 20,000 if the Dees made the GF. I'm sure many other Demonlanders who reside in VIC and have a guaranteed GF ticket would think the same. If it must be interstate, I'd hope it's at a state where they'll be more likely to have opened their borders to Victoria (assuming we're over our outbreaks by then), whereby 15,000 odd MFC members can fly over for it. Western Australia is not that state and I'd hope the AFL would take that into account. Getting my head around the Adelaide Oval as a sort of middle ground. Doesn't have the bells and whistles of Perth, but is still a fantastic stadium and might be more likely to have their borders opened to Victorians. It will take a month of no cases for WA to open up to VIC.

No truer words spoken.

Being a Victorian I truly hope the grand final isn't moved to WA, particularly if the Dees make it.

Lousy news. There were no crowds permitted this weekend regardless but our final home game against Adelaide is now looking shaky, on Sunday 15 August. If we can't have a crowd in rounds 22 and 23, I sadly think the AFL will rule out the MCG as the grand final venue and risk a GF game day lock down in Perth.

The Suns are the AFL's baby/problem child. Can't see the AFL giving them up for adoption.

Interesting that the glamour club of the AFL has 7,000 less members than the Dees and just 4 more members than the side that was expected to go winless this year.

Swings and roundabouts. We got away with an absolute bank robbery with Fritsch in round 7.

Sure is the hardest proposition. However they always seem to drop 1 game a year down there (eg - losing to Carlton last year), so you never know.

Some random thoughts should we unfortunately lose this week to West Coast but beat Adelaide in round 22. 1) Geelong will have top 2 sown up by the time we play them as we assume they'll beat GWS and St Kilda at home. We will have top 4 on the line while Geelong won't have anything to gain as they'll have top 2 sown up. I wonder if that might change Geelong's mindset and they hold a couple of things back, thus giving us a better chance of winning. 2) If we finish 5th and go 1-2 for the rest of the year, keep an eye on the battle for 3rd and 4th between Port and Sydney. I hope Port finish 3rd and Sydney finish 4th. We could potentially play Sydney in a semi final as the away team but play the final in VIC if COVID is still rife by mid September in Sydney. Much rather that than Port finishing 4th and having to play them over in Adelaide in a semi. Of course if we win this week, none of the above should matter provided we also do our job against a very poor Adelaide. We will finish top 4 and the destiny is in our own hands.

I would say you've nailed that schedule. The only minor alteration could be the early Sunday game.

If find guilty you don’t usually get less than 3 weeks when it goes direct to tribunal.

And at least we’ll have about 7 less holding the ball calls against us.

A bit of speculation Viney’s going to be suspended by the MRP, or fined at the very least.

Or perhaps a Sunday 1:10pm or the recent "COVID" special of 2pm. But, yes it will be Sunday for sure.

Next weekend as in 6/7/8 August? Or next weekend as in 13/14/15 August?

I think Brisbane are cooked in terms of top 4. We'd have to go 0-3 to finish below them, provided they go 3-0.

Wouldn't mind playing the Dogs at Marvel if we finish 3rd or 4th and play them. We play a beautiful brand of footy at Marvel and all our games this year have been over by 3 qtr time at the latest. Our record under Goodwin at Marvel is 10-3 or thereabouts. Having said all that I'm pretty sure we'll be playing Geelong if we hang onto 3rd or 4th.

And a change to gain some percentage on north and hawthorn who have also had draws.

Absolutely. You can’t just 100% blame the umpires when they’re just doing their job.