Bring-Back-Powell

I'm predicting a pretty ho-hum fixture when the balance is announced in 2 or 3 weeks. GC V Melbourne - Sat 7:40pm (PFS) Adelaide V Melbourne - Sun 3:20pm (AO) Melbourne V North Melbourne - Sun 1:10pm (MCG) Carlton V Melbourne - Sun 3:20pm (MCG) St Kilda V Melbourne - Sun 3:20pm (Marvel) Melbourne V West Coast - Sun 4:40pm (Marvel) Melbourne V W Bulldogs - Sat 4:35pm (MCG) Hawthorn V Melbourne - Sun 3:20pm (MCG) Collingwood V Melbourne - TBC (MCG)

100%. Battle's an intercept marking king and had an absurd 33 possession/12 mark game last week. I would've like Melksham to have played a role on him as a defensive forward. Sicily could get thrown forward at some stage.

Add Mitch Lewis and Nash to the list of clear best 23 players missing. So they have 7 players out that they'd love to have in a final. We have Lever, Viney, Petty and Melksham missing from ours. From a quantity point of view you'd say Hawthorn are more depleted, but it feels like our outs hurt more. Time will tell. I suppose Hawthorn bat deeper than us.

Richardson said he had some soreness and they wanted to play the long game with him. If it were a pre determined rest, then I would've re-scheduled the rest for next week V Brisbane given we've already lost Viney and Petty from our best 23. We have a better chance of beating Hawthorn than Brisbane IMO and could've done with Melk tomorrow.

Any idea where they'll start Turner this week? With JVR and Jeffo in, you'd probably imagine defence.

I'm not sure if you're a punter or not, but you can get $101 odds if the Dees win by 39 or 40 pts or $21 odds if they win by 40+ points.

Given Viney went into protocols today, he might miss next week as well given the 10 day rule.

Given we’re down a couple of soldiers in Viney and Petty I wonder if they could’ve deferred the resting of Melksham by another week. Hawks are missing Day, McKenzie, Dear, Barrass and Scrimshaw who are all clear best 22 players.

I'm a big believer in history when predicting a crowd and most Hawks/Dees crowds have hovered around the high 30's/low 40's. Even when Hawthorn were flying in 2012-2015 the crowds were in the 30's so it's a tall order to suddenly expect 60K for this one, even with Hawthorn being back. For reference we got 50,000 to round 23 2023 on a perfect Sunday arvo, our home game. I believe the crowd may have been inflated due it being a BCNA game. Now - Hawks are up and about but we've been a disappointment for most of the year, so that balances things out. I would suggest high 40's on Saturday and for goodness sake can they open the top levels of the Southern and Ponsford stands which they often don't for our home games.

There was probably a sneaky mention of the Dees V WC game at Marvel taking place at the family friendly timeslot of 5:48pm on the Sunday.

He's sure dominated in 2 of the 3 games he's played against us. He also made the AA squad in 2023 which is an A grade season in my book. This quote made me laugh.

Mid to late May.

And I can't believe Max is only 5 off the lead. Is it correct that he played the entire last quarter on the weekend?

Oddly (pun not intended) we were $3.30 for this game before we beat West Coast. Then after we beat West Coast the odds blew out to about $3.70, before Hawthorn played their game.

If we want to value a win over development this week, I'd be dropping Kolt or demoting him to sub as he was a liability at times on the weekend. Our skills and ability to handle the big moments need to be on point this week as a good team like Hawthorn will punish mistakes far more than West Coast did. I'm glad Melksham didn't get suspended. I'd be giving him a role on Battle this week as he seem to be taking a lot of intercept marks.

We play North in round 18 (not 15) and I would be bitterly disappointed if we have to wait 9 weeks for our next win.

Wonder if Gary will give Max the 3 votes in his MVP for the round? He's given the 3 to Toby Greene and Matt Rowell in games against us, as well as minor votes to Xerri and Danger in rounds 2 and 4. Maybe over compensating with this MFC hat on.

No case to answer for. Confirmed.

FWIW David Zita from Fox Footy, who’s a tribunal and MRO expert, doesn’t expect him to get booked. Didn’t Schofield and Oliver have a dust up some years ago and perhaps he still has a bit of bad blood towards us?

100% agree. Loved his game last night and is extremely accurate and trustworthy around goals. Should never have been dropped for Gather Round.

Actually our current 1-8 record away from the MCG included the WC game of round 10 last year.

No idea but I reckon he plays. Not sure why they’d fly him over to Perth if he was under substantial enough doubt. If he wasn’t under a cloud and he injured himself at the captains run then surely he would’ve been withdrawn from the squad from now? See what happens.

Are we a better club on and off the field with the decision to move on from Harmes? Playing career best footy at the moment.

I think we might have a set back tonight. If the game were at the G we’d be winning our third consecutive game where we have a 6-6 record since round 11 last year. Plus we’re a better team than them. However away from the G we have a 1-8 record since that debacle in round 10 last year at Optus V WC. The stats are too obvious to ignore and it’s plain to see that we can’t or won’t play the style of footy and requisite pressure needed to win a game away from the G. Hope to be proven wrong of course.

I checked their forum at half time. The vitriol was real.