Bring-Back-Powell

I would be stunned if a 10th placed team won the flag. They'd have to play 4 away games in a row just to qualify for the grand final. Or if they're an MCG tenant, perhaps 2 or 3 interstate trips. Not happening. If a 10th placed team made a prelim, they ought to celebrate a job very well done and call their season a raging success. I believe the wild card was introduced to avoid less dead rubbers from round 20 onwards more so than that actual top 10 finals format.

Yeah it’s wasn’t exactly a glowing endorsement of late tenure Goodwin if you watched the interview.

Yeah we’ve beaten St Kilda by 38 points in both of our most recent meetings at the MCG - 2022 and 2024. Although St Kilda beat us the previous 2 times there. I was surprised to see that we didn’t win a game against St Kilda at the MCG between the 1988 and 1998 home and away seasons although we did finally beat them in a 1998 final. St Kilda have won 3 of their last 8 games at the MCG but one of those games was terrible win over Richmond late last year.

Anyone predicting Melbourne to finish 15th is being more than fair IMO.

Really hope we can knock Carlton off in round 3 as I’d rather not have to go to Gather Round for the second year a row facing an 0-5 start against Essendon.

I’ve asked this a few times over the summer and nobody can answer. FWIW Mitch Cleary was told by the club that he’ll make an appearance in one or both of the pre season games.

Mihocek arguably shouldn’t be on the injury list given he’s been in full training and match sim the last fortnight.

Just to strengthen your argument about Windsor looking good in the guts last year, he also played the week after the West Coast game against the Dogs (against a non witches hat team) and showed good signs. It was the Dogs game that he did his hammy. Behind Kozzie, Windsor and Langford would be second and third on the list of what I'm most excited about in 2026. Touch wood both players are setting themselves up for a big season.

Mark Keane for Adelaide sustained what could be a serious leg injury at training today. I know it has nothing to do with us but a big loss to their defence. And they've lost Dan Curtin for the first 2 months.

Oh well, scrap Culley off the round 1 list. Hopefully it's not a shoulder reco and he'll be available for selection in April or May. We don't appear to be having a good pre season from an injury and rehab point of view.

Don't get me started on the very family and work friendly time of 4:10pm Friday afternoon for both of our practice matches (admittedly the second practice game was the AFL's call) I reckon today will be a solid match sim with training mixed in. Next Friday will be more of a full scale intra club game.

Good points about Melksham. However, I need my best field kick at the club in the side. Those low dart kicks he makes between wing and half forward a thing of beauty and only Kozzie can also pull off I also need someone that is capable of kicking a bag from time to time. I see your point that he is aging and not suited to aspects of the modern game. However the extra interchange player could alleviate those concerns and he’ll certainly be on a short leash when it comes to being managed. Maybe you only play him against the poorer clubs when he’s more icing on the cake than anything.

Agree with most of that list except for 2018. The entire supporter base would have torn the MCG down if we failed to make finals in 2018, after missing 2017 by 0.2% or whatever it was. 2021 I'd say we were a 50/50 shot at finals given it took until the final game of the 2020 season to be eliminated from finals (Freo had to beat Dogs in Carins).

I’d suggest after round 24.

You can get $34 on us finishing top 4.

When recalling all the DL training report this summer, this comment above dawned on me that Lindsay hasn't really had any positive reports compared to your Culley's, WIndsor's, Langford's, Pickett's etc...

Good effort but I hope Melksham makes the round 1 side. He'd be top 3 at the club in terms of skill, ability and class when he's up and going. I assume the club has nursed him all summer in the attempt to have him play 16 or so games.

On top of the additional week of finals, the thing I like the most about the 'wild card' or top 10 is that more games will be relevant in the final month. Although I concede that 2025 was a bad year for 11th and below as the top 10 was essentially decided after round 20. But to support my argument, let's look at the final two weeks of the 2024 AFL season from an MFC perspective. In round 21 we had a heartbreaking loss to Port by 2 points and at the time our season was dead and buried. We were 8 points and 10% below 8th spot. However if the wild card was enacted in 2024, we would have been 6 points behind 10th spot and a slight chance of making the top 10 finals. Let's say the wildcard was around in 2024, we ended up beating GC in round 23 by 54 points to improve our percentage dramatically. We were in 12th spot but only 4 points behind 10th placed Collingwood with a better percentage. 11th placed Essendon had to play Brisbane in round 24 and were never a chance to win. So, come round 24. We play the Pies. It's win and your in for the wild card round and you're playing Hawthorn on Friday night in front of 80,000 for a wild card final. If that doesn't get you excited as a Melbourne supporter I don't know what does. But as there was no wild card, the Dees V Pies game was a complete dead rubber in front of only 53,000. Imagine the extra crowd figures and revenue for our home game if the wild card was in existence in 2024. The wild card will make the season a lot more interesting IMO.

Salem and Melksham to make appearances in the practice match series per Mitch Cleary (Ch 7) Viney miles off it.

And yet that very team who are supposed to host games there are playing at Whitten Oval. Go figure.

I'm not surprised we're second highest on the Pythagorean table. We haven't been able to win a close game to save ourselves over the last two years. Even under Chaplin, two of the three games were a close loss. I hope we do not continue to be the 'honourable loss' kings.

Be interested to hear if: 1) Melksham has graduated into the main group (and what his issue actually is) 2) if Viney has made any any significant progress this week, or whether it’s looking likely he’s out for the early rounds. 3) How Salem is looking. Has he done a soft tissue injury?

I hope there's isn't an ounce of truth that he was interested in coming to us and we couldn't get him over the line. I'll sleep better at night if we were never a chance. Because you know if he wants out again this year, the big boys such as Hawthorn, Collingwood and Geelong will be all over him and in front of the line.

Yeah he cooled down a bit in the last month and couldn't manage a 20 and 2 game in his last 5 which cost him. His form between the Sydney game (round 11) and Carlton game (round 20) was off the charts and certainly cemented his AA spot. 3 games where he kicked 5 and had 20+ is disgustingly good. Kozzie is the number 1 on my list of things to look forward to in 2026 and it's not even close.

I would say you're correct. Turner played his first 3 AFL games as a defender. One in his 2022 debut on Kings B'day and two late season 2023 games. He played well in round 24 2023 V Sydney and was arguably unlucky to be dropped for the Pies final the following week. Then in 2024 he played his first game of the year as a forward on Anzac eve and kicked 3, and we all thought "hello, have we got a forward here?" I would like to see him up forward as he is such a lovely exponent of the set shot, and can kick it a mile.