Bring-Back-Powell

Ian Hill injured his ankle at training but is expected to play.

Agreed. But on the other hand, Sunday looks like a really good double header as it stands.

Best results for the Dees in the event we win (operative word being event): Richmond to beat Adelaide Brisbane to beat Dogs Hawthorn to beat GWS North to beat West Coast St Kilda to beat GC Sydney to beat Geelong. Carlton to beat Essendon Incidentally that multi is paying $349 - 1

If we get done this week, the club will be absolutely fearful of the crowd for the North game. Last year we only got 29K to the corresponding game, even though we'd come off a good ANZAC day eve win and were 4-2 with hopes still sky high. We could be coming into this game with a 1-4 record from the last 5, while North's contribution to the crowd will be 4 people and a dog. Sub 20K could be on the cards if it's a freezing cold and wet June night.

Maybe Fullarton is one of those players who plays better at AFL level over VFL level.

At the very least Melksham is a professional forward and natural goal kicker, which is exactly what Petty and Turner are not. He will add something to our forward line if his body holds up. My guess is that he'll return for round 18 V Essendon (13 July), after 2 VFL hit outs.

Hopefully JVR gets up. My confidence in beating Freo was severely dented once JVR was surprisingly left out with injury. I don't think we're a chance on Monday without JVR given how diabolical our forward line has been this year. We can't ever have a forward line of Petty and Turner as your number 1 and 2 key forwards again. If you have to wheel out a finished BBB then so be it.

I think behind Essendon in 2000 and Geelong in 2007 we had the largest aggregate winning margin (190 points) across a finals series in the AFL ERA. Collingwood had a whopping 11 combined points last year. There was nothing underserved or fluky about our flag, and any side that only loses 4 games in a home and away season is the real deal. Furthermore, the quarters were normal length in 2021. It doesn't take away the fact the approximately 15,000 MFC members, 10,000 MCC members and 1,500 AFL members were denied the opportunity to attend the experience of a life time, and probably won't any time soon. That's the only wrinkle on the 2021 premiership (outside of Perth people attending) and it has nothing to do with the club or coach.

I have this crazy and controversial idea that may not go down well on this forum. Play Ed Langdon on a wing. I know it's absurd but worth a shot I guess.

Our first quarters have been a chronic issue for us this year. Unless we're in front at quarter time or within a goal of the lead (per the 2 SA games) then we're utterly toast. Put your hands us if you knew we were no chance at quarter time yesterday with a 3 goal deficit despite the perfect weather. Backing up wins has also been a major problem since our successful SA trip when we were still in "us against the media world" mentality. Aside from the first 5 minutes of the game, we looked completely paralysed and despondent in the Brisbane, Carlton, West Coast and Freo games after successful results the week before. Our inability to stem the early first quarter bleeing has been deplorable in our losses. Conversely, we do back up after poor performances, and I'm sure we'll get a first quarter/half/full game response on Monday, meaning we're just going around in circles this year. Another bug bear of mine yesterday was the slow jogging and poor body language in the second half by some of the players. Just because you're losers on the scoreboard, doesn't mean you have to act and behave like losers.

Can bet your absolute last dollar that GC will break their 9 year hoodoo against us.

2 weeks ago I guess? Credit in advance to posters who vote today. Not one winner on the field whatsoever.

Dropped 7% in a half of footy. My only interest in the second half is whether we can salvage a bit of percentage of back. GC can even replace us in the 8.

An absolute genuine 50/50 game. They’re only a half game and 5% behind us and have beaten us 3 out of the last 5 games. Freo have definitely caused us problems under Longmuir. Will be a statement win IMO if we can get it done, with opportunities to come between rounds 13-17.

The thought of 50,000 morons standing in unison in support of Maynard after his 15-20 usages of the pill is almost enough to boycott this game..almost.

Pretty happy with that result, short of Richmond winning. I thought Geelong would go ahead us on percentage with a 12 goal + win, but Richmond put up a good fight. And let’s face it, are Geelong seriously going 2-0 against Sydney and Carlton both away. Third place is ours if we’re good enough tomorrow.

Tim Kelly out hurts them. Have a feeling too that the Saints will get a rare win. I’m still scratching my head as to why West Coast looked like a comprehensively better side that day than us. If you were new to the game you’d assume West Coast were a top 4 team and Melbourne were a bottom 4. The loss of Lever hurt but you can’t just blame it all on that.

I tipped Sydney and Adelaide to both finish top 2 before the season started. Not sure if i’m looking like a genius or a fool.

Turner selected over BBB. Frederick back for Freo. They're fielding about as strong a side as they'd hope to unfortunately.

Apologies if this has been already answered in the thread but did we get him for 6 or 18 months. The MFC website doesn't confirm but I would guess 18 months?? Approx half the draft class signed 18 month contracts.

When I was heading into the lifts at work yesterday, a colleague and member of the St Kilda cheer squad yelled out to me that we're into Tim Membrey. She had absolutely no good reason to go out of her way to tell me this so i'll take it as some kind of truth. Either we've been seduced from the Sandringham stat sheet from last week or this is a carry over from a few years back when a poster was adamant we tried to trade for him.

Well there you go, and fair call. Those stats tell a different story to what I saw on game day. Watching the game, it was clear to me that if Fritta wasn't marking the ball up forward, then nobody was. BBB and Petty took 1 mark between them and hence we missed JVR who will at least take 3 marks a game on his own and is more accurate.

Really disappointed in the loss of JVR. I feel other parts of the field could absorb a loss better than our (rightly) maligned forward line missing one of its key cogs, eg - Tomlinson being a proven and ready made replacement for Lever in our defence. Our forward line functioned poorly without JVR against West Coast, and Petty is going to really have to pick up the slack this time around. Clearly BBB or Turner will come in. The question is do you go with the proven forward who can barely move anymore but can still pull off a blinder such as the Port game in round 3, or a player with potential that's new to the forward line gig? Really important game this weekend. Win and we're third with opportunities in the coming month (depleted Pies, North, an inconsistent Brisbane away and West Coast at home). Lose and we're quite frankly going around in circles and will probably be fighting for 7th or 8th spot all year.

I think they’re a team that had a patchy April and May but are now working into the season really nicely as evidenced by their last 2 games. I don’t want to play them in a final, if we’re good enough to make it.

Freo have gotten the better of us the last two times, but I'd like to know why, aside from Freo being up and about for an MCG challenge, In 2022 May went off with concussion at quarter time which threw our structure out the door as Rory Lobb of all people got the better of us. In 2023 we went small and and forced Lever to play tall against the likes of Amiss, Tracey and Jackson and it backfired as per usual when we've gone in with a small defence. Other than that, can anyone think what they've had over us from a tactical point of view.