Bring-Back-Powell

Looking forward to watching the obligatory Melbourne V North classic in 1996. The one where North fell over the line…by 106 points.

The West Coast game at the MCG was the first time we've seen an MFC key forward take control of a game of footy since the Hogan halcyon days of 2016-2018. And McGovern and Barrass were playing that day so it wasn't as if he got hold of a bunch of mugs. Good on him for cracking the 30 goal mark, and blokes like Harry Mckay and Curnow didn't manage 50 goals until their 4th or 5th AFL seasons. Aside from a 3 goal performance against GC, he didn't end the season well taking only 10 marks in the final 5 games.

We were 7-5 before the Kings B'day, and then 4-7 from Kings Bday (when he went off early) onwards. We also lost 3 games to top 6 sides by a kick without him. You'd suspect a typical 30 possession 1 goal game from Trac would've gotten us over the line in one or two of those games - particularly the Port game where a piece of brilliance in the dying minutes would have gotten us over the line in a low scoring scrap, given Port were having trouble scoring. On the flipside he was in the team when we put in our two worst performances of the year against the WA sides which proves that he can't do it all on his own when the rest of the side doesn't come to play. I hope his return automatically makes us a 2 win better side than last year.

And the next 4 to the Dons…

2020 mens vibes about this season for the girls. Recover from a slow start to the season but ultimately fall short after the season’s final home and away game because the destiny fell out of the club’s hands. Carlton did beat Freo away so they’re capable of an upset.

Will be very interesting to see how our forward line functions now with Troy Chaplin.

He actually became consistent in 2023, and had a really good elimination final against Sydney. He got suspended in that Sydney final and missed the Dees/Carlton final and I can recall being excited at the time, as he was becoming a key cog in their forward line as that third target. Geelong will no doubt get him back on the rails and he'll probably end up in the All OZ 40 squad, knowing how Geelong fix footballers.

Is it correct that we had the biggest membership drop off in 2024 of all clubs?

An absolute freebie for Collingwood assuming his publicised mental health issues are under control. I wonder if we pursued him during the year (we've been unofficially linked to him for years) and he turned us down, or if we decided that our forward line is sufficient without him - which it isn't.

Cannot like this GIF enough 👍

Yeah I was being a bit kind. 9.15 is quite frankly a disastrous return for a full time forward with the odd cameo down back. I would like to know how many forwards in the league managed to kick single figure goals from 20 games this year. He had a severely interrupted summer so we cut him some slack, and it's pleasing he signed an extension.

An ok year up forward, however there was a four week patch between the Carlton and Freo games where he had a grand total of 18 possessions, 5 marks and 1 goal. That is so poor that you couldn't even accidently get that kind of output in 4 full games. If he's not kicking goals then he needs to be clunking 9/10 marks a game like he did in the Geelong win when he polled the 3 votes. Given we retained T Mac, I expect he'll train and start the season up forward again. Who knows how the season will evolve though?

Yes please.

Hopefully he can teach the boys how to nail a set shot consistently. He was a good exponent of that craft.

Both player and club ought to be extremely disappointed with one another that he wasn't called up for the Essendon and Freo games when Gawn was out. Probably sums up where he sits in the depth chat.

Surprised he played as many as 15 games which generally means that if you compiled our best 23 starting line up for 2024, Howes would be in it. Started the season well in the first 4 or 5 games as a medium defender who was capable of a good intercept mark. However after that he progressively got worse by the week. He was visibly cooked by the time of the round 10 West Coast game as he jogged rather than sprinted in his pursuit of his opponent who ran into an easy goal. His late season game against GC where he had 22 touches and 10 marks was promising. Given the mixed bag, I'm none the wiser if he's a long term prospect or if 2025 will be his last on the list.

I could be wrong but wasn't our overseas form pretty damn perfect. I remember us also winning a game in Toronto in 1989 after which Steven O'Dwyer invited the whole crowd to the club's hotel and then beating West Coast in 1990 at possibly the same venue? We also beat Adelaide in London in the early 2000's.

Looked better in his first year in the seniors compared to his second.

Had me excited in a match simulation at Casey Fields in late January with 2 goals and had the ball on a string in a near BOG effort. Have to remind myself to take match sims with a grain of salt.

Genuinely thought they would get rid of it. Reckon Melksham should be the semi regular sub next year. Can see him having impact in the last quarter of games, and I doubt at his age he could play week in week out of 24 rounds of footy. Let's hope the Turner on / JVR off sub was a Goody one off!

That was me who stated Brisbane's injuries and I wholeheartedly agree with you that they have a clearly better list than us with an abundance of "non top 10 draft picks" youth that stepped up big time in the likes of Lohmann and Morris. However, they'll clearly welcome back McCarthy and Coleman next year.

Did not have a good year at all after his return from injury. I wish he ventured up forward more often as he’s a tremendous kick on the run from around the 50 arc.

For those blaming injuries for us missing the finals, take a look at Brisbane Lions: 1) Lose Keidean Coleman to an ACL in opening round. One of the best players in last year's grand final and was a prime candidate to be an all australian small defender. 2) Lose Lincoln McCarthy and Darcy Gardiner on the same night to ACL's. Both were settled into their forward line at the time. The former a clear 30-35 goal kicker a year. 3) Lose their high quality Ruckman for the grand final of all games. No how's that for dealing with adversity. The only time I saw us dealing with adversity this year was the Adelaide oval business trip. We raised the white flag in Perth and Alice Springs when things got a bit tough.

An Essendon draw tonight is as good as a loss.

Someone over at Bigfooty who reckons he nailed round 1 last year prior to the fixture release reckons we’ve got North round 1, Sunday 4pm at the G. Given the fixture won’t be released until the final week of November, I’d take it with a grain of salt.