Bring-Back-Powell

If that’s the case, then we’ve apparently got our first 3 games in Melbourne with North at Marvel and GC at the G, if you believe the Herald Sun. Expect a lot of travel between say round 4 and 10 to catch up on our obligatory 8 road trips.

@FearTheBeard any intel on round 1. Obviously won't be Carlton, Richmond, Hawthorn, Essendon, Sydney or Brisbane. North are rumoured to play Dogs in round 1, while Collingwood are hosting Port. So that leaves GC, Adelaide, Freo, West Coast, St Kilda, GWS or Geelong. I have a feeling it will be either West Coast at Optus or GWS at the MCG. We're allegedly playing North at Marvel in round 2 on a Sunday. AND then; Gold Coast round 3 at the MCG (first time since 2018) on Saturday afternoon.

We absolutely deserve to be off prime time given what we dished up after round 5 last year. I wonder if the Friday night game will be some random interstate game on Good Friday night against West Coast over there, or if it will be a genuine Friday night MCG game for all to turn up to.

The problem was that we were #14 in scoring this year. The AFL and channel 7 want clubs that play attractive high scoring footy on prime time. Explains why Hawthorn have 3 Thursday nights, 2 Friday nights (in OR and round 1) and one wonders how many more Friday nights before the floating fixture takes effect. They're obviously banking on an Essendon resurgence (3 Thu night games) more so than an MFC resurgence.

So we get one Thursday night game by default (Anzac eve) Perhaps an early indication that the AFL wants us off prime time. We might get one Friday night at best, and it will probably be away to Geelong or interstate.

Agreed. It's a hassle going to the Thu night games mainly because when you get home from the game you're still amped but still need to get up early for work. However they're to watch at home. Sounds like we'll have somewhere between 0 and 2 Thu night games in the first 15 round block. If we're any good through May, we'll likely get a couple in the floating fixture from round 16 onwards. If we're garbage then it will be 1:45 Saturday, 1:10 Sunday and 4:40 Sunday and the occasional Saturday night game against an interstate side in July and August.

The latest count is now 24 out of a possible 26 Thursday night games including week 1 finals. Great result for fans that love their footy and love the footy weekend to start early. I get your concern of 5 day breaks becoming more prevalent, but we've reached the stage where Thursday nights are ready to be full time I'd of thought.

If that's true, expect the fixture to be delayed 2 weeks as the Pies try to weasel their way out of that one.

Pretty much. Sydney beat Collingwood (who both played round 0 Melbourne beat Dogs Carlton beat Richmond (who both played round 0) Brisbane lost to Fremantle Gold Coast beat Adelaide GWS beat North We actually did take advantage against a sluggish opponent in the Dogs for round 1. Hopefully our round 1 opponent didn't play in round 0.

As Melbourne supporters we're quick to jump on the AFL for fixture, next gen academy, MRO (despite Kozzy being a recidivist) and other unfair elements. I think it's fair to say we got a bit lucky to get the Adelaide Oval 3 years in a row for Gather Round rather than be fixtured at the sub par Norwood venue or out it in the bush.

His best season since 2021. Was starting to stagnate a little in 2023 after his mid season rib injury in 2022.

62.5% chance we'll be playing Geelong in Geelong. 10/16 (62.5%) clubs have a chance to play down there, excluding Hawthorn who are fixtured to play an away game at the MCG against Geelong next year. Given we didn't play Geelong down there this year, I'd put at 98% we'll be down there in 2025.

Highly rate him as a small defender but wasn’t impressed with his midfield trial - 8 possessions as a midfielder against Collingwood. 48 straight games from his debut is pretty damn impressive.

Happy not to be involved in OR. Given our very early start which spooked us into rushing blokes like Spargo and Clarry when they weren’t ready, 3 games in 25+ degrees and a 35 degree praccy match V Carlton, and a 5 day break in Adelaide and we were therefore already cooked by the round 5 Brisbane game. We looked rejuvenated after the first bye, but were back to tired and listless after about round 9 and suffered some horrible losses against West Coast, Freo and Collingwood before the second bye. Happy to approach round 1 in a less hurried fashion which will hopefully hold us in good stead later in the year.

Feasible. Only 10 more consecutive wins than our round 20 2021 to round 10 2022.

It's technically nobody's home game. Just an additional game on top of every club's 11 home and 11 away games, which is not part of a club's membership package. (I've also seen us listed as the home team in the Gather Round promo) For example, in 2023 Richmond were the home team against Sydney at Adelaide Oval, Gather Round. Then later in the season Richmond played Sydney again as the home team at the MCG, but in a normal home game. On paper Richmond were the home team twice against Sydney in 2023, but realistically the MCG game was the only genuine home game of the two. If we play Essendon later in the season, Gather Round will have no bearing on who's home game it would be. In theory the concept is a crock, but attending the event is actually pretty fantastic and the city of Adelaide has a tremendous vibe. It's a ton of fun if you love your AFL footy, not just MFC.

2025 Gather Round fixture. Essendon on the Saturday night at Adelaide Oval. Fingers crossed not a repeat of 2023. GATHER ROUND FIXTURE

Despite being adamant we wouldn’t be welcome back to opening round due to our horrid year, it’s not 100% ruled out that we won’t be playing that weekend like I thought it would be. It would either be Sydney, GWS or GC if we were to play that weekend.

A rumour today that we’ve got Essendon at the Adelaide Oval during Gather Round, on the Saturday night.

Does he survive an 11th-13th finish / 10 to 11 wins? I understand there are a lot factors and reasons behind a win/loss record but you’d have to say it would be a very line ball call.

His first half of the season was vintage Fritta. He looked disinterested in some of those late season games at the MCG. He only had 57% playing time against Collingwood in the last game (was he injured?) and looked lost as a high half forward chasing kicks up the ground. Not sure if it was down to form, or whether he became less of a focal point with the JVR/Petty/Turner structure, but he plays his best footy as the number 1 or 2 key target. Take a look at his game against Hawthorn when a lot of the forward entries went through him. Another of a long list of players that are capable of better overall seasons, which is a positive.

You’d imagine the review was critical of our very small 2 man leadership, and the need to unearth some new leaders in an official capacity.

Should be our most used starting sub next year. Can see him having an impact with his forward smarts in tight last quarters.

Clearly a negative year, but he still played at least 5 Clayton Oliver quality games against the likes of the Dogs (MCG), Geelong, Brisbane (GABBA), Essendon and GWS. You'd imagine he'll increase that to at least 12-14 quality games next season if he has a full pre season. Add that to a (hopefully) full season from Trac and that's surely some automatic improvement right there. Was understood to be injured at the time, but he was a complete liability in this last game against Port, to the point where he needed to be subbed off as he was hurting us on the field. Let's hope those days are behind him.

The 2002 Dees/Crows final was certainly a game for the ages, but has never been on Fox Footy’s classic catalogue. Interestingly one of the most boring games of the AFL era between Geelong (33) V North (53) in pouring rain back in 2001 makes the annual “Fox Footy classic games” each year. Not to mention the North V Melbourne game in 1996 that gets shown every year when North flogged us by 18 goals, but yet is still considered a “Fox Classic”