Bring-Back-Powell

Agreed. I get absolutely no satisfaction or enjoyment watching Luke Jackson in a Freo jumper. He’s the type of ruck/forward we wanted Grundy to be, and we now have a painfully obvious void in that position this year. If Freo are playing a Carlton on GF day, I’d prefer them to win, but they’re certainly not high on my preferences.

Laurie was told that he’ll be in for just the one week in replacement of Sparrow. Not sure you can rationalise it any other way after a career best game. Not doing his confidence any good.

For 16 weeks I was adamant Carlton would take it out. I’m pleased to report I’m less adamant.

Wouldn't mind seeing Howes and Hore back for this one. Howes showed a lot of promise in his first handful of games but got progressively got worse. Any chance he could be trialled on the wing? There is an opening with Windsor out. Hore played well in the earlier game against the Dogs. With Windsor out and Billings not performing last week, it probably opens the door for Hunter to return for his 200th.

Is there any feasible chance we can make finals with 13 wins and the assumption that out percentage would increase somewhat with a 3-1 record to close the season? If yes, then I’ll start getting interested in the run home once again.

All points taken, and I was aware that Essendon had a VfL side running around in the AFL that year. And I agree with your last point that the crowd was a disgrace last Saturday night. Too many physically abled people probably preferred the lounge room fire and a glass of red as opposed to seeing their boys live at the G which is the best part of AFL footy.

Remind your Essendon mate that his team drew 14,463 against GWS in 2016. Under a closed roof as opposed to the arctic conditions we had to put up with.

I think it's the average age we've fielded for the year rather than the list in totality. As @titan_uranus explained, we fielded an older side in the earlier rounds which is consistent to what you are saying. Still think our side is adequately stocked with veterans to see us to the finish line - Melksham, May, Lever, Gawn, Oliver, Viney, ANB, Langdon, T Mac, Fritta etc...

I was so close to going to this one but for a 1st birthday party I felt obliged to attend. Massive Bullet dodged.

And I also thought they were coached well. They responded really well to a good old fashioned cook at quarter time, and refused to allow May to take on Hogan. They somehow manipulated the defensive battles such that May would take Riccardi and T Mac would be on Hogan, and we know the rest of the story in the last quarter.

On reflection, can you genuinely think of one MFC player that was in the best 5 players on the night? Meanwhile how did Hogan not get a vote? Tore the game apart in the first half of the last quarter.

For those that think we're a young team and that's one of the reasons why we're struggling, then this article suggests otherwise. https://www.afl.com.au/news/1184405/the-young-and-the-marvellous-youth-spurring-hawthorn-hawks-hot-charge 8th oldest on average and 5th oldest on average for games played. I think our fitness hasn't been as strong this year and/or lacking hunger compared to other clubs such as Freo, Hawthorn, Bulldogs, GWS who haven't tasted success in a while or ever.

It's to do with the Friday night double header. Nothing to do with Olympics because Sydney/Collingwood starts normal time next Friday night. They always play the early game around 7:10 - 7:20pm.

His second goal of the night was a clinker as well.

Coaches votes came out today and one of the coaches couldn't even give an MFC player 1 vote despite losing by just 2 points. The other coach gave Oliver 1 vote. And I kind of agree. You couldn't confidently say that an MFC player was in the best 5 players on the ground.

I reckon the club might lobby for some Sunday 1:10 games next year, purely from a crowd rather than TV exposure point of view. It's the most family friendly timeslot and you can be home before dinner and prepare yourself for the working and school week ahead. 44,000 against the Dogs and 32,000 against West Coast which incidentally was our second biggest crowd at the MCG against WCE suggests that the MCC faithful are responsive to this 1:10pm timeslot. Compare that to the paltry mid-high 20K we got to both North Melbourne Saturday night games in 2023 and 2024. Saturday 4:40pm games are also becoming the next big thing.

Even if were to somehow beat the hottest team in the league on Friday, I can't see how we would then back it up the following 3 weeks. 2024 has been the year of inconsistency for the Dees as our form varies from week to week and even quarter to quarter. The GWS loss summed up our season well I reckon.

I have a feeling we'll be having the same discussion after the Port game in 2 weeks.

It was also mentioned on Fox Footy's "the Tackle" that we were looking at bringing Hunter for the sole reason of playing his 200th against his old side. I don't expect it to happen, but also wouldn't be shocked if it did. In his one full AFL game this year he was actually pretty decent.

Yep that's a good point. We're probably projected now to finish 12th-13th which will mean far less Thursday and Saturday night games in the first 15 rounds of next year compared to this year. There will be more Sunday 1:10 games and maybe even some Saturday arvo's of which we had none of this year.

I wouldn’t be shocked if Hunter comes back into the side to play his 200th against the Dogs. Direct replacement for Billings who once again did next to nothing. We owe nothing to Hunter, and he won’t be with us next year, but I think it’s fair that we get him to 200 before he retires.

Dogs have a 5 day break into this one which is handy I guess. Have we played a team off a 5 day break this year? As in the oppo, not us?

Proud of our comeback. To go from 27 points down with 10 mins left, to game on in the last minute shows some good character. The effort and pressure was overall good tonight and I hope we play the role of spoiler for the rest of the year, starting with the Dogs on Friday night, who themselves have a 5 day break.

Not specifically having a go at Goodwin, but what’s the upside in not having your premier defender in May on their premier forward in Hogan?

Should the sub rule be removed for next year, the biggest beneficiary of all AFL coaches will be the one and only Simon Goodwin. He’s a brilliant coach but can’t utilise the sub rule to save himself. Goodwin directly cost us the Carlton final last year due to his mismanagement of team selection, specifically not utilising a sub at his disposal on a warm night when we had no injuries.