Bring-Back-Powell

Good news about May if true. Seems like we would've been one tall defender down too many on Thursday night if he, Lever and Turner were all out. Now we can keep Petty in the forward line. Hopefully May can get some continuity into this footy and play the next dozen games without interruption as his form has suffered as a result.

I would be staggered if the AFL and the courts haven't come to an arrangement that allows Balta to play night games due to plying his trade.

There will probably be an exemption between the AFL and the courts to allow him to play because he's plying his trade. The AFL have shown absolutely no regard to the seriousness of the assault it would seem.

afl.com.auFixture analysis: Bulldogs and Dockers facing tough runs,...Check out your club's run of fixtures across the next five weeksApparently we've had the second hardest draw to start of the season given 4 of our 6 opponents (Geel, Ess, GWS, GC) have winning records thus far and Freo had a winning record before the weekend. We are projected to have the 3rd easiest fixture in the coming 5 weeks which also makes sense given 3 of our opponents have losing records and Hawthorn have been a little vulnerable over the last fortnight. We should be aiming for 3 out of the next 5 (Rich, WC, Syd), then give the Hawks a red hot crack and who knows? Meanwhile Brisbane is out of the question at the moment. 4-7 would be a decent recovery and would get us out of the bottom 4 doldrums and we could realistically look to finish around the 10th-13th mark. This would make Essendon's first pick more palatable. 5-6 would actually get us back into the hunt.

The overwhelming consensus is that Balta will escape jail. Therefore I don’t see any reason why he doesn’t play, considering Richmond’s been in a hurry to play him. On a side note, lucky prior suspensions have no bearing or loading on the next one. Kozzie once again reported, but luckily can escape with a fine.

Highlight of the day was Langford’s clincher in the last. When I need someone to step up in the big moment in the future, I know who to call.

Agreed. He’s selected a forward line that simply won’t win an AFL game against anyone.

Some condescending/2013/ Mark Neeld like KPI’s that we could achieve today. Win one quarter Keep Freo to under 100 points. Kick more goals than behinds for the second time in the last 9 games. Reduce the uncontested possession differential from 80 of the last 2 games down to 40. Ensure every quarter has a pressure rating score of at least 170. 160 is apparently unacceptable and what we dished up in 2 quarters last week. Try your very very best. Strip it back to junior footy where the player that puts in the greatest effort gets a McDonalds voucher. If all 6 points fail, for crying out loud, let’s keep the margin under 90 so at least we can avoid the bottom of the ladder/Essendon pick 1 territory.

Well I guess we can cross West Coast over there in round 8 off the winnable list based on tonight. So now it’s down to Richmond, North and West Coast at Marvel.

Not saying yes but how much worse would things get if we did get him?

The loss to North, who have since regressed to their usual 20 loss a year standards, should really count against Goodwin. And I’m sure it will if decisions need to be made. Some of our other losses have been understandable and a semblance of respectability (GWS and Geelong) but we have absolutely no business losing a game by 59 points to North Melbourne. Let’s get serious for a second.

You want West Coast to win because you hate Essendon? Or you want West Coast to win because we’ll be the only team to be winless and hence the microscope will be fair and square on the club? A small chance IMO.. Aside from round 1, West Coast will play their better games at Optus.

The roof’s fantastic for TV. However it should be open for warm early season nights and overcast winter days. Absolutely unbearable and non temperature controlled when it’s mid 20’s plus.

Not sure if that’s more of a dig at North or Melbourne. We‘re the only team North can beat.

Anyone come across a poll on the Adelaide Bigfooty forum asking whether they would take Goodwin at Adelaide next year? 12 out of 102 voted yes and 4 of those voters were registered Melbourne supporters. This is a group of supporters that haven’t seen a flag in 27 years that have hypothetically been offered a premiership coach next year, and the consensus is hard pass.

Thanks GW. I know you’ll address this regardless, but a report on May and Kozzie would be appreciated. Yesterday‘s main train session would’ve probably told the full story though.

Given May and Kozzie are under injury clouds, my money’s on Fritta getting a late reprieve given he’s an emergency. A possible token wake up call?

I stood up and clapped.

I personally didn’t find the flag to be “lousy” but it’s lousy to think many of us missed the flag live and at the same time cannot see any prospect of seeing one in the short to medium term. In answer to your question, I would say 22,000 MCC members (there is purported to be about 24,000 MFC supporters in the MCC), 1,000 AFL members, 16,000 club members and a number of supporters that would’ve scored via the corporate allocation. Plenty.

Yes, agreed. If Geelong get up this weekend, they’d have claims for #1.

Collingwood or GWS would be the #1 seed as of now.

He probably means one “lousy” flag because most of us didn’t get to see that one flag, and won’t have the opportunity to see one anytime soon.

Viney, Rivers and Sparrow should be next on the block. None one of these players have come even remotely close to putting in a half decent performance this year.

What a silly call from this poster calling Fritsch a 0% chance of getting dropped this week. Of course he’s going to get dropped after his best game of the year and kicking a goal that electrified the side for a few rare minutes.

Yep, one advantage (among many) of next year's new coach is that we'll have a game plan that will not have been worked out for a period of time. The last 2 weeks, we've been painfully dominated in the coaches box by 2 very senior coaches. Eg- losing uncontested possession by 80+ meaning the opposition are dictating the game on their terms.