Bring-Back-Powell

Anyone hoping for a sneaky Brisbane over the Dogs at Ballarat? I hate getting ahead of myself as I don’t trust our club yet, but a low scoring 4 goal win over the Cats and a Dogs loss - and guess who’s the league leader?

Sunday will show us if we're any chop. Lose badly and the narrative will be that we've beaten 3 sides that were not only injury depleted before the game but copped 1 to 3 injuries during the game.

And didn't we also have our hearts set on Mitch Georgiades until Port cut our lunch and got in a bit earlier. We ended up using that pick on Rivers. I like Rivers but Georgiades looks like he'll be a gun forward for the next 10 years.

Fingers crossed the rain stays away. Given that we kicked 12.19 under a roof, I shudder to think what we'll manage in 33 K/PH wind.

So we're expecting a wet and windy Sunday afternoon and they're possibly closing the top level of the AFL members where it's under cover. Makes complete sense....

Returning Australians should be forced to do 18 days hotel quarantine and then submit a negative test before they jump on a plane to Australia. Aside from family members being reunited, there is absolutely no upside for returning Australians to come home, considering we have the virus under control at the moment. But a topic for another thread.

Very disappointing that they've paused Thursday night footy. They've had Thursday night games since round 1 2020 so it feels like it's been a way of our footy watching lives and the weekend feels like it comes earlier with a Thu game. I guess the 5 day breaks are a major hurdle here.

I get your frustration. How hard is it now to book interstate trips without knowing the timeslot in advance of more than 4 weeks. I wonder if this will be a permanent feature of the AFL going forward (floating fixtures) or if it's just a COVID thing?

The AFL have released their round 7 and 8 fixtures as per below link. Round 7 - North Melb V Melbourne - Sunday May 2 - 1:10 at Hobart Round 8 - Melbourne V Sydney - Saturday May 8 - 7:25pm at MCG https://www.afl.com.au/news/579157/r7-r8-fixture-reveal-blockbusters-gf-rematch-derbies-locked-in You have a good start to the season, you get rewarded with prime time fixtures. Round seven Friday, April 30 Richmond v Western Bulldogs at the MCG, 7.50pm AEST Saturday, May 1 Collingwood v Gold Coast at the MCG, 1.45pm AEST Adelaide v GWS Giants at Adelaide Oval, 1.40pm ACST St Kilda v Hawthorn at Marvel Stadium, 4.35pm AEST Sydney v Geelong at the SCG, 7.25pm AEST Brisbane v Port Adelaide at the Gabba, 7.25pm AEST Sunday, May 2 North Melbourne v Melbourne at Blundstone Arena, 1.10pm AEST Essendon v Carlton at the MCG, 3.20pm AEST West Coast v Fremantle at Optus Stadium, 2.40pm AWST Round eight Friday, May 7 Richmond v Geelong at the MCG, 7.50pm AEST Saturday, May 8 GWS Giants v Essendon at Giants Stadium, 1.45pm AEST Gold Coast v St Kilda at Metricon Stadium, 2.10pm AEST North Melbourne v Collingwood at Marvel Stadium, 4.35pm AEST Melbourne v Sydney at the MCG, 7.25pm AEST Port Adelaide v Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, 7.10pm ACST Sunday, May 9 Hawthorn v West Coast at the MCG, 1.10pm AEST Western Bulldogs v Carlton at Marvel Stadium, 3.20pm AEST Fremantle v Brisbane at Optus Stadium, 2.40pm AWST

Farmer yes. Yze debuted in round 13 1995 in an 11 point win over Richmond.

I noticed that too. He was livid with his performance tonight.

Lost to the Pies by 7 pints at the MCG in front of 82,000 in 1983. Could he be thinking of the Hafey death game back in 2014 when we upset them?

It’s the default expectation of being a Melbourne supporter of the 2007-2021 era.

Richmond beat the Dogs on KB’s 300th by 73 points in 1979, at the MCG.

Greene and Himmelberg are major threats and need to be contained. Other than that, their fwd line is nothing special, so if we bring the required attitude/hunger and at least break even in the midfield then we’re a good shot at winning. Would also love to kick more goals than behinds today.

Actually Hunt would be the one. Good suggestion. Very good set shot for goal.

Very harsh but very fair. I can’t think of one player I’d feel confident with if he had to kick a goal from 45 mtrs out directly in front after the siren to win the game for us tomorrow. Would’ve been T Mac previously but his radar has been a bit off this year.

Does the new normal include no more players running through banners as well? Or is that another fan tradition gone the way of the dodo? As for the game, no change would be fine by me but Melksham may come in for someone very unlucky. We do need some class set shots around goal. As for GWS, watch out for Jake Riccardi who’ll come back. He looked very dangerous last year as a forward option. Assume Hogan isn’t ready yet?

As I mentioned the other day, Fritsch needs to somehow take his shots on far less angles. Essentially every set shot he’s taken this year has been on a very challenging angle. Name me a player in the league that would consistently nail the set shots that Fritsch takes. Having said that, his marking on the lead has been outstanding and he’s too viable a target to not be in our best 22.

Fritsch must be in that forward line. He’ll be awesome taking the opposition’s 3rd or 4th defender. Not in a hurry for the Weid to come back. Happy with BBB and T Mac.

Spot on. He sure was. At least Oliver doesn’t have a go home factor about him like Kelly did.

Can someone tell me the last marquee big name trade that occurred that did not involve free agency? Dylan Shiel and O’Meara and to a lesser extent Jake Lever spring to mind but not many others. My point is that it is rare for a gun player such as Oliver to be traded before he reaches free agency status. Assuming Oliver is happy at the club, I’d say (and hope) he’ll do a Trac and re-sign for 2 years taking him to free agency. Then he’ll sign his massive contract.

Or when Enright played his 300th. (GMHBA stadium, 2015)

Agreed. Should stay in the side and I think the club rates him as they have given him plenty of opportunities when he hasn't been injured. I was very impressed with Sparrow on Saturday night and that goal he kicked showed some fantastic composure and that he does belong at this level. He actually had a better game than Jordon IMO. I wouldn't be adverse to Melksham coming back this week for some crisp goal kicking but not at Sparrow's expense. if not this week, then he'll be in the side shortly after.

It's predicted to be 22 degrees at opening bounce. Should be a lovely evening for a game of footy.