Bring-Back-Powell

You'd imagine Pickett will improve on year 1. He showed some good signs this year, but didn't get involved enough and his inaccuracy was a poor result for a full time forward. We need to add to our small forwards, not replace them. One of St Kilda's strengths is that they have talented small forwards that kick goals.

Severe danger game this one. Freo were fairly impressive last year and were too good for us in Cairns. Would be delighted if we can get a win here.

We got Friday night games in 2019 on the back of finals. One of them against Sydney in 2019 was considered one of the worst games of the season. In the original 2020 fixture before COVID hit we received 3 Friday night games, even on the back of a terrible season. We were also awarded a prime time Thursday night game against Port this year on the back of a couple of promising weeks in the NSW hub, and proceeded to stuff it up badly...and I mean really badly and spoilt the viewing of everyone bar a Port supporter. The AFL likely hasn't forgotten about that debacle when fixturing the first 6 weeks. The bottom line is we can't be trusted on the big stage - by our supporters, the general TV viewer and the networks. Sorry if that sounds harsh.

We'll get them later in the year if we deserve them. A club that's made finals once in 15 years doesn't deserve Friday nights.

On very quick glance: Very good that we keep out home game block busters V's Richmond and Collingwood. 7 interstate trips despite giving up Darwin. North again at Hobart (is there a contract in place that we must play them there) Punishing last 6 or 7 weeks - Port, GC, West Coast and Geelong all on the road from round 17- round 23. Tough double up against Geelong and potentially GWS and Bulldogs if they're any chop next year.

Perfect time slot for the MFC faithful to see their first game since 2019 (all going well) We really need to win this game and go 5-1 or 4-2 to start the season if we want to comfortably finish in the top 6. Our Aprils under Goodwin have been woeful and it feels like we’re always in catch up mode after a poor start. We need to plan on a big start to the season and stay the entire season above .500 so we don’t have to rely on other sides as per 2017 and 2020.

Very good. 100% agreed. This post just about sums up why we've been utter garbage since 2007 and have not fulfilled our so called potential under Goodwin, despite he being gifted a solid list and re-build. The Melksham one I especially agree with. If he gives away another pathetic 50 in round 1 next year, he can go play at Casey Fields until June.

Can't imagine Harmes and Melksham being on the banner given the years they had. Goodwin lucky to be on the banner assuming that's him on the far right.

Nice of the AFL to schedule us a game in Victoria in the first 6 weeks.

I haven't. That guy still gives me nightmares! It's no surprise that Melbourne was the team he kicked most of his goals against. For all the crap Kingsley copped, he still managed a couple of bags of 57. Unlike Brent Grgic who played 11/13 woeful games for Geelong. The 2 not so woeful games happened to be against us.

Doubt it. Knowing our luck we'll back in Perth for round 1 to face Freo and then round 4 to face West Coast - both in the middle of a scorching late March/early April Perth afternoon. Not sure how clubs in any professional sport can stump up the motivation to fly 4 hours across the country for a meaningless trial match - but it is what it is. I feel for Geelong. They're making their big road trip to Moorabbin.

That game was just before COVID really started to hit. Who could’ve predicted that it would be the last game one could attend in VIC.

Friday 26 Feb 4:10pm local - Fremantle V Melbourne - Fremantle Oval Sun 7 March 4:10pm local - Melbourne V North Melb - Casey Fields Full pre season fixture below. Rounds 1-6 of the Home & Away season should be due out any day.

Yeah right on. Who can ever forgot that nobody Beau Wilkes from St Kilda kicking 5 and 3 goals against us in the same year?

Is that the spud that kicked 4 goals against us last year, despite tearing his hammy earlier in the game, on the way to another humiliating 2019 loss for us?

I have a gut feel Laurie’s going to be an absolute gem for the MFC.

After those two bags of 7 goals, he was very disappointing the following week against Brisbane - could only manage 5 sausages! I think he debuted a few weeks earlier (Vs Fitzroy at Princes Park) before he went nuts against Collingwood and North. Kicked 5 goals in his first 3 games.

I know you can’t judge a player on one game but Jones’s last game of the season against Sydney was un-AFL standard. He made 2 or 3 of the worst blunders you’ll see at half forward and looked to be a player who’s time was clearly up. Will be interesting to see how he’s managed next year to get to 300. Clearly he’ll get to 300 as there’s no other way he could’ve been retained given his age and decline in performance.

Didn’t he come top three in the 1990 Brownlow?

Yes it was nice of the AFL for us to host Richmond in 2020 in front of NIL and Collingwood in front of 1,500.

No excuse with regards to the Sydney loss in Cairns. We lost to a pathetic side who were 4-9 at the time and had kicked 2 goals for an entire game just two weeks earlier. You can blame the wind, the pandemic, O Mac being sent to the goal square etc...but we just had to find a way to get the 4 points that day. Absolutely no way would a good side like Richmond, Geelong, Brisbane, Port or West Coast had dropped that game. The Freo loss was slightly more forgivable as they were in good form at the time and are far from a bottom side. And we played with more endeavor that night.

Yeah back in 1993 and earlier if you were down by less than 1 goal with a minute left and the ball was up the other end from your goals you had no hope of winning as time kept ticking during an umpire's bounce or other stoppages. Unsure if time kept ticking after a throw in back in those days?

A good description of O Mac over the last 2 seasons.

The AFL.com article suggests that all matchups and venues will be revealed after round 6 but not the dates. So we'll inevitably know that we'll have North Melbourne at Hobart in round 23 but we won't know the exact day of the game. Not ideal but you can plan you holidays with a bit of (COVID free) confidence.

That is a good point in that many of the consistent finals sides of 2007 -2020 such as Geelong, Hawthorn and Sydney we've barely beaten over that period. However, during Sydney's recent decline of 2018-2020 we've had all sorts of problems against them. They beat us in the middle of our fantastic run to a prelim in 2018 and tonked us twice in 2019 and 2020 despite them being badly out of form. The bottom line is we should've beat them, we should've won one of the two Cairns games despite a bit of adversity and the same problem exists year after year under Goodwin - we don't come switched on in critical games despite the rewards on offer eg- cementing a top 8, top 4 spot). I hope Williams can fix this.