Bring-Back-Powell

I prefer Hogan over May as Hogan actually provided good service to us and barely missed games (aside from 2014 and the last few weeks of 2018). Hopefully May has a full season this year.

In 2019 we could’ve done with Kent and Watts as goal kicking sources.

No it was a question rather than an opinion or gripe. Just wondering if there’s a contractual obligation that states we have to play there, or the AFL showing us a bit of good will by allowing us to play an annual game at Casey.

On a side note, is there a contractual agreement in place to play a pre-season game at Casey Fields every year? This year will be our 4th pre season game there in a row.

Sounds promising.

Thanks for the clarification. Though he was delisted after the 2014 season. He last played in round19 2014 against Brisbane in a horrid loss at Marvel, effectively making him the ultimate list clogger for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. I can recall Roos ripping into him at 3 quarter time of a GWS loss.

Probably didn’t helped that he and Terlich dressed up as Rolf Harris and his young ‘friend’ at Mad Monday. Both were sacked/delisted.

Correct.

I'll go with Pickett in round 1, provided he shows a little something in the Marsh Series.

Must admit the OP's comment about Goodwin also piqued my interest.

And same for 1991 when we played West Coast at Waverley. They finished first, we finished 5th so both finals should've been over there. Two gifts, two fails.

Thanks for the read above. 1988 was just before I started going to the footy so it was good to get a poster’s account of the series. I recall us being very good in 1990, particularly the first 8 weeks and the last 7 or so weeks. What on earth happened in the 1990 semi vs WC? Everything was on our side - WC had just played an extra final Via the drawn qualifying final v Collingwood, and we’d schooled WC twice in the season. Was it simply Gary Lyon missing the game or did we go in too cocky. 1991 semi final Vs WC - I assume we went in heavy underdogs against the minor premiers and played accordingly.

Everyone talks about the 1987 finals series and how special it was, but nobody talks about the 88 series. We beat WC in a thrilling finish at Waverley. We beat second place Collingwood in front of 88,000 at the G, by 13 points but we were in control all day. We also beat the reigning premiers Carlton by 22 points in the prelim to right the wrongs of the previous year's disaster to make our first GF in 23 years! Nobody ever refers to this game, but it must have been extremely satisfying at the time. We won 3 finals in 1988 which is the most ever in an MFC finals series since 1964. We haven’t replicated it since. IMO, everyone only thinks of 1988 as the GF disaster but we certainly had some memorable wins in the lead up.

Northey era > Daniher era. The only metric I'm interested in is the win-loss stat and Northey beat Daniher 53.8% to 48.4%. Plus, Northey has been the only coach post 1964 to deliver us 3 finals wins in the one finals series. Who can guess which year that was? Goodwin is on 46.4% after his disastrous 2019.

Agreed. And Brendan McCartney is on record as saying that it was a very ordinary win over Hawthorn and the writing was on the wall for the following week. I found the Geelong finals win far more satisfying than the Hawthorn finals win.

Richo had a very ordinary coaching career at St Kilda but did have winning records over Essendon (5-3), Gold Coast (5-3) and Melbourne (7-3). I expect him to provide good intel on how to beat those three sides.

Spot on. I raised this point that the opposition’s accuracy was killing us as much as our own poor footy. Not sure if it was coincidence or to do with our lack of fitness. Check out this for a crazy 6 week period between rounds 7-12 which ultimately killed off our season. Melbourne - 53.80 (average 9.13.67) Opposition total. 76.45 (average 13.7.85) That’s basically an 18 point loss but 2 more scoring shots a a game. Hawthorn, GC and Collingwood combined a total of 12.0 in the last quarters of those three games. That’s surely just bad luck. (Ironically we won two of those games but that’s beside the point. The above mentioned opposition accuracy conversion of 63% over 6 weeks is a complete anomaly and would be unlikely to be repeated again this year.

I'm not sure if you can blame 2019 on mental issues as you've stated above but this sentence I've quoted carries some merit. It seems to me that the club has been very aggressive in using injuries and an interrupted pre season as the sole reason we had a garbage 5 win season. And keep in mind we had a full complement of mids all year - supposedly our strongest department. I hope the club has identified other issues that went wrong as it can't be solely injuries/surgeries. I can't accept the fact that ONLY injuries/surgeries were the reason we lost 9 more home and away games in 2019 compared to 2018, and got schooled by mediocre mid-low table sides such as St Kilda and Sydney on our home turf.

Any chance we can get this freak of a player out of retirement? We could do with another option up forward. He was the definition of natural talent.

It is iffy. His use of the footy in the Geelong final was extremely poor to the point where people were discussing him as an outside chance of being dropped. However, he’s clear best 22 and offers things to the side others can’t; eg - tackling, big brute of a bloke, contested mark inside 50; known goal kicker.

Leigh Matthews

Brilliant read! Mr Demonblog is a seriously funny and talented writer. Only at Melbourne can you have three 90 point wins (in 2011) and end the season in crisis.

Round 14 2017. The night he played a game the likes of Fyfe, Dangerfield and Martin dominate, as we had one of the all time great wins of this club. Would be amazing if he can return to that kind of form after a (touchwood) finally strong pre season.

I suspect you’re correct in that Kardinia Park wouldn’t work for our supporter base. We’d be lucky to get 6,000 against an interstate side down there. I was just wondering if we or another VIC side would get a guaranteed cheque for hosting a game for the city of Geelong. GMHBA stadium is expected to have a 40,000 stadium so you’d think there’s opportunity to play more AFL games there than just Geelong’s 9 a year.

And yet some people around here wouldn’t even have him in our best 22. Would walk into anyone’s best 22 with his crisp kicking and goal kicking nous. Players that would feature in other best 22’s. Gawn - obviously. Melksham - as mentioned above. May - one of the better full backs in the league. T Mac - 50 odd goals despite missing the first 5 games of the year gets you a gig. Oliver - one of the best young mids in the game. Does things others can’t. Maybe: Brayshaw - 25 odd Brownlow votes gets you a gig but I’m hoping he’s not going to live off that achievement for the rest of his career. Very good midfielder who once had a 37 possession 3 goal game. Poor 2019. Salem - has a good shoe but tends to fade late in seasons. Lever - A former All Aust 40 squad member who’s an excellent interceptor of the pill. Hasn’t shown anything near elite in his time with us. Fritsch - This season will prove whether he’s the real deal as a full time fwd presumably. Needs to kick 40 to be considered a gig with the big boys. Apparently Richmond and Collingwood have kept an eye on him if your believe rumours. Petracca - Has elite traits but just goes missing after playing a blinding quarter. Will 2019 be his year?