Bring-Back-Powell

Surprised clubs supported this given they're obligated to look after their own backyard first. Sam Michell was asked his opinion on SEN this morning and he gave the impression that he was against the extension, it was like "bad luck Melbourne and Carlton but rules are rules" (unless I misunderstood him).

Leave him up forward. With Kozzie out, he's our leading small goal kicker and is generally an excellent set shot at goal as evidenced by his 66% accuracy in terms of goals/total shots (excluding any out on the fulls). We'd love his 21 goals a season to turn into the 30's but I'm not sure he has that in him. Plus he's also there to provide forward pressure and created a good outlet between wing and half forward. Along with some of our other forwards such as JVR, he had a disappointing final month last year in terms of goal kicking output.

Tom Morris on SEN just suggested that the AFL might be open to extending this year’s deadline.

One of the positives of the day was Tom Campbell. Held his own against one of last year’s best ruckman in the AFL in Xerri. Also showed unexpectedly competent skills for a ruck, highlighted by some quality set shots at goal. It’s reassuring to know that if Max has a niggle, we can rest him with the knowledge that we have a secondary ruckman that will be competitive. We’re (touch wood) clearly not having a repeat of the Freo debacle last year when the game was over before it started re: conceding hit out and clearance dominance. Lastly, sounds like he’s has a great pre season, looks fit for his age and by all reports is a cracking bloke.

Chandler should and likely will play round 1. Creates a good outlet from wing to inside 50 and has tremendous goal sense. Without Kozzie we’re, down a small forward and we’re going to have to find 13-15 goals to beat GWS and Chandler’s proven that he can snag 2-3 at the G when on song. I agree with you that Howes and Laurie provide no point of difference as players.

My thoughts as well. It’s a a bad round 1 opponent to face given their plethora of quality small forwards (Greene, Daniels, Jones) and we’re already two accountable small defenders down. I reckon Brown could potentially play the McVee role but it’s probably too late in the piece to up-skill him down back.

Can I get some more of these 3 goal Harry Sharp games?

He along with Johnson and Verrell were wearing the training tee-shirts in the pre game warmup which suggests he’ll either be playing in the second half or not at all.

It’s extremely concerning given he’s already kicked half out score.

Panic stations if he hasn’t kicked 3 snags by quarter time?

And also is Ray Ellis available for another gig?

A leopard never changes his spots.

Had a brief look at North's squad and it's pretty strong compared to ours. Scoreboard's irrelevant tomorrow but the form of some borderline '23' players isn't.

Yeah for sure. Our round 1 team will need plenty of solid minutes against Freo because when we play GWS they'll be 4 quarters ahead of us in preparation. I doubt Kozzie will play Freo. Sounds like he's playing tomorrow instead.

#moreuselessinformation We lost our last 7 games at Arden street, some by hideous margins. Our last win there came in 1976. 23 point win. (although we did win a praccy match there in 2020 if that counts...)

David King, who's been on seat 1A of our bandwagon this summer has ruled us and 6 other clubs from premiership contention this morning. Cornes, who's reluctantly been on seat 46F actually disagreed with King and said you can't 100% rule us out. FWIW I agree with King (as I don't think we're capable of applying enough scoreboard pressure to be a flag contender) but man that bloke flip flops with his opinions.

For those wanting to watch the game live on Foxtel it appears to be on channel 505 at 10am (at this stage)

Not the first time he's talked us up this off season.

Re: our opponents, it was great to see the AFL go hard with suspensions on the big names such as Thomas, McMullin, Fonti and Fahey, all household names that will miss our round 1 game. Whilst all these champions of the game didn't play in the semi final Vs Brisbane I'm sure it was due to injury as to why their services were missed. Meanwhile the no name hacks like Toby Greene, Whitfield and Idun, who were as much complicit as anyone in the ill fated end of season party, escaped with a fine.

Petracca unlikely this weekend. Mitch Cleary last night suggested that Trac will get some minutes next week against Freo.

I reckon you nailed your own question. North have done this the last 2 years in their match sims vs Richmond and Collingwood. It might give both clubs an opportunity to chase a close deficit in one scenario and hold a close lead in the other. We need practice in this area as we lost a lot of close ones last year.

Sucks that we have to play these mongrels twice again. It's the only time I don't enjoy going to the footy and something disastrous on-field always happens when we play them.

I get the impression both clubs are not fussed about fans turning up for this one. Even over at the North website there's no information or details about this weekend's game on its home page. Where as in the lead up to last weekend the club was making a massive song and dance about their intra club game last Saturday (which MFC if you're listening, is an appropriate time to have an intra club game/family day).

Thanks GW for the inside info. Hopefully the MFC and NMFC websites can also confirm to the public.

I don’t think Harmes would’ve made a difference to the win/loss in the Pies final. We were 28 points down in the third quarter in slippery conditions and were always losing that final when they got off to a hot start. i think he could’ve made a small difference in the Carlton final. 30 minutes of fresh legs coming on as the sub replacing T Mac, beats 0 minutes from Schache, which will go down as the worst MFC tactical move under Goodwin. I understand that he was coverage for Gawn but it simply didn’t pay off.