Bring-Back-Powell

Yes absolutely. Geelong after round 17 2000 had a percentage of 96.8, and had a 9-7-1 record. Yet they were 4th on the ladder at the time.

They’ve got Fremantle, Sydney and Brisbane away in the last month so there’s no where to hide for them. I’d imagine to finish top 4 they’ll certainly have to win one of those 3 games. So eventually they’ll have to finally beat a premiership contender to earn their top 4 spot. Arguably they already have by beating GWS. I suspect they’ll be a North Melbourne of 2007. Get spanked in the qualifying and prelims while sneaking over the line in semi.

That selection was literally Simon’s worst moment as coach of the MFC. Fancy not utilising a fresh sub on an unseasonably warm September night. Carlton bring on a fresh Ollie Hollands who was instrumental in the winning chain of play then ended in the Acres goal and heartbreak for us. Meanwhile we have a 201cm immobile player warming the bench for the entire game. We can’t afford to have these selection shenanigans.

Remember that 2022 game well. We were all panicking that Gawn and Jackson were both out and had Weid as first ruck and Mitch Brown as his back up. But we ended up beating the Crows away despite losing to them the prior year with Gawn in the losing side. And last year Port had to call up an 18 year old kid that was absolutely not ready for AFL footy with about 4 hours notice to head up their ruck department. The game was against Essendon on a damp early July night at the MCG and Port beat them after the siren. Gawn’s bail out contested marking around the ground is absolutely irreplaceable. However the last 2 weeks there has definitely been more energy, spark and commitment to pressure to suggest that we can takes it up to the Dons and register one of our best wins of the last couple of years. And lastly, we strangely have a superb Saturday night record since round 1 2021. It’s something like 15-3 and a draw. And one of those losses was the controversial Trac touched call against Carlton last year.

Given Essendon were kind enough not to select Goldstein we could win as many as 5 centre clearances on Saturday night.

I would’ve thought Weid would be literally the last AFL listed player behind BBB to cop a suspension. And sure enough both have copped suspensions over the last 12-18 months.

@FearTheBeard what crowd are we looking at? 62,000 is our biggest home game crowd against Essendon in the AFL era - round 9 2000.

All good points and I'm sure a lot of MFC supporters think the same. The only annoying thing about a potential honourable loss this week is that next week we probably have the toughest assignment in AFL at the moment - Freo at Optus.

Waterman will be more than fine.

Is it correct that Fullarton is only 92kg. Not exactly a big lad.... Not sure if playing Fullarton or throwing all of JVR, Petty and Turner at the oppo's rucks is the better option?? Looking at Fullarton's stats over his career, he once had a 17 possession game against Collingwood in 2021 and his highest mark tally is 5.

That's twice in a row that Essendon have had the luxury of no Gawn. Brisbane have also had no Kozzie 2 times in the last 4 meetings.

We're something like 1-12 against Scott. Goodwin is 1-3 against Scott.

Great news. Shout out to Alison O'Connor for trying to bring it to the MRO's attention in her match report....

I don’t think we’re playing Brisbane this week??

If it rains on Saturday night then we won’t miss Max as much. Wet weather games largely take away his influence around the ground, which is contested marking. And I can’t imagine Essendon’s fleet of talls benefiting from the wet either. We haven’t won a wet weather game since Freo in 2022, but I think we could do with one this week.

a) Melksham's been suspended before. b) I think the AFL told the tribunal in no uncertain terms that the "good guy" defence is not to happen again.

Surprised more hasn’t been made of the incident around here. A chance to miss a week or 2 after finally making his return…

And we've still got Melksham's MRO hurdle to clear. The match report said he might be under scrutiny on McGovern.

Yeah, Phillips and Draper kicked 5 between them and dominated Grundy. Be interesting to see if they bring back Goldstein to further dominate our rucks at the expense of a runner. Or whether they leave Goldstein out because Draper will dominate on his own and keep that extra runner. And will we bring Fullarton in or have a committee of ruckman in JVR, Petty and Turner. One thing we should not do is make our best forward play 70% or more in the ruck.

The AFL website’s match reports suggested Melksham could be in trouble over an off the ball incident on McGovern. Anyone see it?

No as in the top level of the Ponsford and Warne are closed.

No.

No.

Didn’t make the most of his chances last week to warrant a full game. Dropped a costly mark with 90 seconds left that lead to the winning goal by McCluggage. Hopefully Goodwin utilises a fresh player for more than the last 3 minutes of a game.

I don’t watch Casey but McAdam’s kicked 6.2 in the last fortnight. Is that enough to warrant a recall? Bear in mind that our accuracy has been generally atrocious this year and he might able to assist in that area.