Bring-Back-Powell

Would have liked him to have played the Carlton semi final given we were missing goal kicking avenues in Petty, Melksham and JVR (who kicked a combined 14 goals between them against Richmond). I would also like him to go on, but there has to be some confidence from both parties that his knee will hold up next year rather then spending half the season in the medical room. Multiple posters in the B&F thread were apparently told he will be playing on.

I didn't like the comments much because I don't agree with them. We are not better than them. Maybe if the qualifying final was played on a Champion data spreadsheet, we were the better team, but the facts are we lost the game because Collingwood came out harder, focussed and were more ferocious at the contest in the first quarter. They also consolidated their lead in the so called premiership quarter with a 4 goal to 2 quarter. We've lost to Collingwood 7 of the 9 last meetings. Since round 1 2022, Collingwood have a 38-13 record compared to our 32-17, and have beaten us 3 out of 4 times. I've been struggling all weekend to comprehend on what basis Melbourne is better than Collingwood like so many posters are claiming we are.

Any player that has managed a 5 goal/30 possession game requires consideration.

I don’t want to come across as greedy but I’m expecting Shane to kick something close to 23 goals in his first 3 game for Melbourne, just like uncle Adrian did in 1993 for North.

Zanker has been out of this world clutch today.

Do people genuinely believe we’re a better side than Collingwood? Like honestly believe that 7 times out of 10 we’d beat them, right here, right now.

Agreed, he shouldn’t get booed. Can’t blame the guy for seeking better opportunities. And given some MFC supporters were actively cheering on Luke Jackson in our loss to Fremantle last year, I don’t think there’ll be any booing issues for JJ.

I can’t seem to locate May’s speech on the website. Was it that profanity laced?

Nice scoop. Hopefully he can have a bit of luck with his knee as we chronically need a forward that doesn’t let us down in front of goal.

Has Goody done his speech yet? He usually sounds pretty refreshed at these nights.

I actually thought the post that preceded the park bench gag was even funnier.

McAdam for JJ’s compo pick would be a good outcome. Be interesting to see if he starts round 1 or is made to earn his spot.

I'd like the following to not occur which seem to have plagued our fixtures of late: Not to travel in the final round. Reduce our non Gather Round interstate fixtures from 7 to 6. Not to play Geelong on a Thursday night in Geelong. Not to play Geelong in Geelong, period. None of this 10 day break nonsense after Kings B'day. Give us a proper bye A 7 day break post Alice Springs. Not 6 days as per last 2 years. No back to back travel either before or after Gather Round. No 4 week absence from the MCG which occurred in the second half of 2022. Not a previous issue, but not to play GC in Darwin, but I fear our turn will come soon. Other than that I don't think our 2022 and 2023 fixtures were overly disastrous and unfair.

Yeah I like the Sunday 1:10pm games. Game is over by 3:45pm and you've still got the late afternoon/early evening to do stuff after. Also hoping for more Saturday 1:45pm/2:10pm games.

I wonder who's ahead in the depth chart and in line for a game if Max goes down - Schache or Fullarton.

His best game from a statistical point of view was a 15 possession/5 mark/1 goal game in a loss to Hawthorn in round 20 2021. His last AFL game was incidentally against us in that 2022 semi final. Probably played well too given their entire team played inspired footy against us in the second half.

I strangely remember that post you made about Smith back in 2019. I certainly remember the Brisbane pre season game where Smith went bananas on 1 leg.

Lever did his knee at Marvel against the Dogs in 2018.

Smith doesn’t get enough credit for his semi final performance. Kicked 3.0 whenever everyone else was kicking behinds for fun. Will be interesting to see if he’s a part of our forward line in round 1.

I would more than happily punt the Alice Springs game in exchange for a home Marvel game and retain our 13 games (10 home/3 away) at the G. Aside from a giving the locals a game of footy to watch and the "feel good vibes", I'm struggling to see the upside from a footballing department perspective of playing games in the Alice. I wonder if Goodwin gets excited when the fixture comes out and sees that we're in the Alice in round 16 followed by the inevitable 6 day break at the fast paced Marvel.

Spot on. Round 1 2020 @ West Coast Round 1 1998 @ Freo Round 1 1991 @ West Coast It's actually remarkable how little amount of times we've travelled in round 1, and never outside of Perth.

I'm not against Lobb. Despite having a disastrous first season at the Dogs, he did manage to kick 10 of his 20 odd goals in the last 4 games including a 3 goal/15 possession/1 brownlow vote game in round 24. Imagine if we got that kind of output in the semi final compared to T Mac's 6 possession/1 hit out disaster of a game. If nothing else he fills a need for 2 years as a goal kicking back up to Max while JVR can focus on being a forward. He can also be a cover for Petty who can't be relied upon to play 20+ games a year.

Happy to keep BBB for another year provided we don't nurse him for 85% of the season. I wonder how worse off we would've been if we selected BBB over T Mac in the Carlton final. He was apparently in full training that week.

Yes.

I like the idea of a fresh Melksham coming back into the side in round 19/20 and then being the potential finals X factor we were missing this year. Collingwood had a bunch of blokes over 30 on Saturday that performed in a GF.