Bring-Back-Powell

I fully enjoyed Hannan's 4 possession game and expect him to be retained accordingly, judging by our match committee selections this year.

I though the big bloke was off them for good.

Frost was one of our key defenders up until that disastrous loss (we seem to be having a lot them lately) in Hobart in round 19. Then wasn't seen again. Frost had a mixed year last year but did do extremely well on Tex Walker in our great win over there. I think he needs to replace Petty next week as at least he'll provide pace and a bit of seniority. He'll also provide mistakes, but hey, most players were doing that on the weekend.

Yeah, agree that we’ll probably only beat Freo and GC and finish the season at 10-12 after being 8-3 at the half way mark. If that were to eventuate, some serious questions need to be ask of the coach for an even worse second half than last years injury depleted one. Althogh in today’s environment, an AFL coach gets chance after chance after chance, so Goodwin will be safe for the next 5 years regardless.

In - Petty, Weed Out - Tim Smith, Vince

Harmes is probably on notice for those 2 momentum killing turnovers in the second half last week. 20 points up with all the momentum and he finds a Port player at our half fwd. That is what's keeping him from being a serious player.

I doubt he's heart is in it at the moment. If it was he'd be smashing the VFL as he's too talented for that league. With that being said, I wish he was in the side. His demise started against GWS last year in Canberra with that infamous 10 dream team points performance (3 possessions/3 frees against) and has barely played a passable game since.

I hope nobody mentions the 2002 semi final vs Adelaide. Yeah it was a great game from a neutral perspective, but we lost and shouldn't be thought of as highly as it is by Demon fans. The 2000 prelim V's North was pretty damn good and doesn't seem to get talked about much. You'd take a 156-106 win with your gun small forward kicking 8 (and Powell kicked 4 with 33 touches) to put you into a granny.... any day of the week!

I think she's doing ok but she has a long way to go to reach the heights of Dixie Marshall.

You can use all the stats and hot dogs you like to evaluate our season, but the facts of the matter are that perhaps we don't have the list good enough to finish top 8??

I first thought that too. But perhaps we just don't have the cattle. Our defence on paper is not good. When Oscar McDonald (who is still learning on the job) is your number 1 key defender at aged 21, I think we're in trouble.

If we miss finals, I think we all just have to accept that we're simply not good enough and don't have the list or the players to win enough games to qualify. The hype of the media and the talk around the work water cooler may just be totally wrong about the MFC. We're simply a youngish mid table side that may or may not take the next step into finals over the next 1-3 years. It also seems to me that 2017 was a much easier year to qualify then 2018, given that you had a wildly inconsistent Essendon qualify and a West Coast side that appeared at the time to be on their last legs. 2017 may have been the year that got away for the MFC. I think we'll be be fighting tooth and nail to win 13 games.

Agreed. I think Goodwin needs to give up on his fantasy of Garlett ripping up a VFL game in order to grant him admission to the seniors. Garlett would've kicked 2 goals against Port and set up another 1 or 2.

I heard that response from T Mac as well. Completely out of character from him as he's usually brilliant to the media.

You can add Sydney to that. I just can't see us winning that game at the venue we play our worst footy at. Buddy will probably run amok.

I'm not so sure about that. Collingwood play 5 of the current top 8 and all of the top 3, while us and North only play 3 top 8 sides. Hawthorn and Port play just 2. If Collingwood were to lose to Essendon next week or even GC this week up there (and Suns play far better at home) they'll actually be in a bit of trouble.

How many times do you reckon Bruce will say the following in tonight’s telecast: ”You just get the feeling we’re going to learn a bit about these two sides tonight...don’t you”? We can win this if we set the tone early and Port have an off night. If Westhoff and Dixon and Robbie Gray are blitzing it early, then it’s going to be a long night.

As much as a loss would hurt tonight, you’d almost take a 3 point loss.

To all those concerned that we’re too weak and short in defence, we have a viable option that can play down there. He wears number 25 and he’s our best defender on the list. Last week we played him up forward and we lost badly in a shoot out.

Was hoping Jeffy was there instead of Spargo.

I'm elated with this news.

Good on him. Seems like one of the more switched on youngsters in the league. I’m still shattered that he’s gone down as I’m sure Goodwin and co are. Our defence was disfunctional, leaderless and 2013 esque vs Collingwood.

2005

So basically the club is conceding that this year's Darwin game is going to physically effect our run home this season. Not good. However, good news that we may be looking to get out of the deal. More than happy to have that home game transferred to Etihad given how well we play there and how badly we play at the MCG. Interesting that last year we had a good win over Port the week after Darwin, but then put in 2 lackluster performances against North and GWS (both interstate). So the flow on effects could last beyond the 1 week.

Like that idea. We now need height in defence. (I still think T Mac may return down back if our defence doesn't stack up over the next 4-6 weeks but that's another story) Although I've never seen Petty play, I think he'd be a good match up for Marshall who's just a 19/20 year old kid himself and is coming back from personal tragedy. Hinkley talked up Marshall massively last night as one for the future, but he only had a 6 possession 2 behind game last week in his return. Petty could then take on St Kilda's youngster in Josh Battle while O Mac takes McCartin and someone else minds Bruce if he's back.