Bring-Back-Powell

Amazingly if we lose to Essendon and St Kilda, but then fall over the line with poor wins over GC and Carlton we'll be 4-5 and in the exact same position as after last year's round 9.

He's playing like the ANB of circa 2016. The version we didn't like.

I reckon we would've beat about half the sides in the league on Tuesday night. Our 3rd qtr revival was impressive and it was only the fact that Richmond are that good that they were able to counter punch when it mattered and then eventually broke us. If the oppo was a GC, Brisbane or even Freo (the away version) I'd say we would've ran out easy winners in the second half.

After lurking around the Richmond Bigfooty forum, I'm staggered that so many of them think they'll lose to us. You'd think most of them would be unbearably cocky after winning the flag.

In - Pedo, Hannan, Fritsch Out - Weid, Melksham, Harmes T Mac back for St Kilda.

Fair enough, T Mac is prone to mistakes down back. However I can recall his start to 2015 when he was in All Australian centre half back discussions. He would surely improve our dodgy defence.

McCartney was definitely in the box during the Brisbane game. I can vividly recall him giving Goodwin an almighty death stare after we fell over the line, as the cameras captured it.

If our defence had proven to be a cohesive, tight unit that played for one another thus far, I'd have no hesitation in having T Mac as a permanent forward. However our defence has been a complete rabble and liability this year. It's screaming out for a competent defender that takes contested marks and a genuine leader. And don't get me started on the fumbles, the falling to ground and the loose checking that has resulted in the easiest of goals to the oppo. Lever has so far has been an epic bust for the price we paid. He was supposed to be the 'captain of the defence' that would release T Mac. Jetta can hardly move. He's gone from a slowish small defender to someone that's running like a 50 year old. Hibberd is a shadow of his AA form. Down on both quality and quanity of possessions. Last year was obviously a season he won't ever replicate. Wagner just isn't a good player. Frost has been a complete disaster since mid last year. Credit to O Mac though. He's been the one shining light of an awful unit this year. T Mac will play forward when he returns, but until our defence improves I'd rather he down back.

Surely T Mac will once again be a defender once Weideman finally makes it AFL level. You surely can't have Hogan, T Mac and Weed in the 1 forward line. A defense of T Mac, O Mac and Lever as your 3 talls supported by Jetta, Hibberd, Hunt and Lewis/Vince looks good on paper.

Vlaustin and Caddy ruled out according to Julian De Stoop's twitter account.

Correct we are very slow. But we can also do without the holding the balls, direct turnovers and lose accountability that Frost brings to the table. It's a shame he's a poor footballer as he has some great athletic traits.

Vlaustin and Caddy in doubt. Though I suspect the latter will play. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-04-23/star-tigers-in-doubt-for-anzac-day-eve-clash Frost dumped for this week (and possibly forever IMO) http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-04-23/big-demon-defender-out-of-tigers-clash

Garlett confuses me. In the space of 3 weeks, he's gone from bailing us out against Brisbane with a superb 4 goals to getting named in the Casey side (albeit not actually playing). I'm assuming if he puts up another 5 possession 0 goal game tomorrow night, then he'll be in the twos next weekend.

North will play finals this year. Maybe even top 4. They remind me of their 2007 season. Nobody rated them, every side paid them no respect and they ended up winning 15 games. I hope our Rd 3 North win doesn’t end up being our highlight of the year.

Given our wildly inconsistent first month, I’d be surprised if we actually make finals. We’re such a disappointing footy club.

If it were a Richmond home game you'd be looking at 90K as most their members would get in for free. A Melbourne home game will certainly get less. Tipping 75-82K. As an aside, hosting Richmond has cost us one less overall game at the MCG than last year. Last year we played 12 (9 home and 3 away). This year we play 11 (9 home and 2 away).

You can rule in ANB for this week. No way they'll drop him on the back of a rare good news story (even though it's a bit of a fluff piece) http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-04-20/improving-demon-just-keeps-on-running

Be confused as Hawthorn beat Melbourne who beat Richmond who beat Hawthorn.

Defence. Our defence has been a disorganised rabble this year and badly needs his leadership back there.

Well done to Richmond on that stat, but that really annoys me from an MFC point of view. Under Goodwin, we have a 7-8 record on our home ground. That is simply not good enough and we won't play finals if we lose more than we win at the MCG. Is our game style not conducive to the G? The good news is 3 of our next 7 games are at our now beloved Etihad.

I'm expecting T Mac will return for round 7 vs St Kilda, no earlier. As desperate as we are to have him back, surely we're going to err on the side of caution and not rush him back. I hope we've learnt something from the Viney cluster ....you know what...of last year.

Rounds 3 (Geelong), 4 (Freo) and 5 (Richmond)

We went an impressive 0-3 when Lewis didn't play last year.

Surely it was tongue in cheek, having a laugh.

We'll win on Tuesday. Just checked the forecast and the poor darlings won't have to suffer in the drizzle like last week. Tuesday 24 April Summary Min 16 Max 24 Partly cloudy. Chance of any rain: 20% Melbourne area Partly cloudy. Slight (20%) chance of a shower later in the day. Winds northerly 15 to 20 km/h.