Bring-Back-Powell

First of many occasions Lewis has been overlooked?

Pretty hard to believe we made the finals that year considering we lost to a horrid St Kilda by 46 point in round 17 at Moorabbin to take us to a struggling 7-10. Does anybody remember that game? I'm guessing those that went would have gone home dejected and wondering if we'd ever make finals again in their life time. We had an easy MCG kill against the Bears the following week and never looked back until the prelim. If we're 5-7 after Collingwood, then I think another 1987 could be on the cards for sure.

That's an absolute indictment on us.

If and it's a big IF we can knock off GWS, we're back in finals discussion and his return will be required before the bye.

I don't think we lose anything with that late chance. Assuming Weed can play like a top 10 draft pick in his fourth year, coming off an excellent finals campaign.

Sound like we should be budgeting for hibberd to return for Collingwood, not next week Vs Adelaide. Smylie Misson kind of hinted that he may need an extra week in his injury report.

Naming Harmes on the extended interchange bench and then by extension naming him in Casey's 18 is almost an insult for someone who's been our best players over the past 6 weeks. I know the team on paper means nothing but they could've sneaked him into the 18.

GWS have actually got much the same side in as rd 23 last year. In - Greene out - Ward, Shiel So you could argue their side is actually weaker with those outs.

Surely his position in the best 22 is now locked, despite the 4 or 5 injured guns that are to come back (May, Lever, Hibberd, Melksham, Hannan).

Quietly putting together a nice year and has been a bit of a revelation up forward this year. Already kicked 11 goals and is on track for 25-30 if all goes well. One of a handful of experienced players that has improved this year.

Hopefully not Chaplin.

Win this and we're well and truly back in the hunt. The 8th place side (Adel, Port or Freo) could very well be 5-5 while we'd be 4-6. Makes last week even more frustrating as we could've been nearly 8th if we win this week. Still, will be a tough assignment with GWS near full strength while we've made no inroads with our injuries, and infact could be worse off with our concussion victims. Speculation of Lever possibly returning is surely nonsense. 7 possessions after 12 months out of the game would suggest he's not ready.

If they go ultra conservative with the concussions and rest all 3 players then we've got the following to choose from. Lewis Lever C Wagner Sparrow Preuss Keilty Chandler Jordon Maynard Lewis and Preuss would be the first 2 selected, however they'd then have to choose from one of Lever. Wagner, Sparrow, Keilty, Chandler, Jordon or Maynard. Really scraping the barrel there and you could then possibly understand them choosing Lever out of necessity. Though you'd suspect they'll still stick to the plan of Lever playing a few weeks in the VFL.

A win this week vs GWS changes the course of the season. Port or Freo will likely be clinging to 8th (5-5) and we’ll be 4-6 and right in this thing. Its been a terrible start to the season but a win this week will largely make up for it.

Brilliant pre game speech by his Dad. Has coach written all over him.

Probably one of the most enjoyable days at the footy as a Melbourne supporter knowing we were finally in the finals and at the sane time beating up on a contender.

Fritsch probably needs to be dropped after one too many poor games this year and/or that serious lack or effort in trying to go with Liam Ryan in the lead up to that screamer. I wonder if his omission from the prelim last year has rocked his confidence. He was good player last year. He isn't this year.

I know it's a tiny sample space but May did a good job on Eric Hipwood in JLT 2 which gives us hope that he is actually that key position lockdown we need.

My response to the thread was that I can think we can be rest assured the umpires don’t have it in for us specifically. We got the great rub of the green vs GC last week. I take your point that the standard of umpiring is down a bit this year.

Pretty sure every supporter from every club has started a thread like this. Umpires go at 85% accuracy and we copped a couple of unlucky ones in the last. They’re not robots, they’re humans who make mistakes, just like players. Get over it.

Gws going all 186 on Carlton.

No way they’re going to take the captaincy off Viney unless he doesn’t want it. Gawn will replace Jones as co-captain next year and Lever will be at the very least a co-captain in a few years if his knee holds up. Lever reeks of leadership.

And why are teams kicking so accurately against us? That’s hurting us just as much. In 4 of the last 5 weeks, the opposition has managed to kick single digit behinds. We have the most accurate ‘against’ score in the league if that makes sense.

Why are sides so accurate against us?

I'm a bit the opposite. Would prefer Essendon to beat Freo and have as many teams on 4-5 as possible. Remarkably, if we lose to West Coast and GWS but knock off Adelaide in Darwin, the ladder could look like this after round 11: Fremantle 5-6 (8th) --------------------------- Hawthorn 5-6 Port 5-6 Essendon 5-6 St Kilda 5-6 Bulldogs 4-7 North Melb 4-7 Melbourne 4-7. We could still be in this thing despite losing 2 of our next 3 games.