Bring-Back-Powell

I’m the opposite. I’d prefer a soft opponent at the MCG with a greater chance of getting this new regime a win ASAP. Last thing the club needs is a punishing first month with membership at mini crisis levels (to end 2025) given we’ve fallen behind St Kilda and Bulldogs and now pretty close to North at the bottom of the VIC pack.

It’s an outstanding decision by the AFL to bring this in. I’m actually quite amused by the amount of people outraged by a decision that was extremely inevitable and one that nobody will bat an eye lid come next season.

Never got a chance or any senior continuity under Goodwin -rightly or wrongly. I thought he was incorrectly dropped after the GWS game in late 2024 when he finally had a full game with 19 touches and some midfield minutes. You can tell he was learning on the job and getting better as the game wore on. And then they instantly dropped him and killed any confidence he could have gotten out of the game. FWIW King gave him a positive gee up in the training video yesterday and you know what they say about first impressions. With that being said, what is his point of difference that will make him a successful and regular AFL player? We just delisted Woewodin who had no identifiable point of difference whatsover.

Exactly my 2 cents worth as well. Although I seem to be in the minority and am actually excited to have a couple of high stakes games on the last weekend of August, as opposed to nothing. I guess I like watching football…

Richmond to play a home game next year in Hobart with the promise that they retain 10 home games at the MCG and no home games at Marvel. Why then did we play 1 home game at Marvel last year, instead of our usual 10 at the MCG (and the other in Alice)? I actually didn't mind a home game at Marvel against West Coast, but it's interesting that after a 9 year hiatus, we were back to playing home games at Marvel.

A 9 win team is not going to finish 10th. It hasn't happened since the AFL became an 18 team league and it most certainly won't be happening in a 23 game season. I reckon at worst an 11 win team with a good percentage finishes 10th.

The only adjustment I’d make to this is that I wouldn’t consider the wild card games part of the finals series. I’d call them “finals qualifiers” to get into the final 8. I think that would be easier to stomach for those who are dead against this. If the wild card came in at the end of 2024, I think we as MFC supporters would have been a bit more enthusiastic about this as most us were expecting an 8th-11th kind of 2025 season. Next year I’d say the majority of us have us around 13th-15th at best and thus the wild card is a bridge too far for us.

Excellent and inevitable decision by the AFL. Going to be an exciting weekend as opposed to watching 2 flies going up and down a wall on that nonsense pre finals bye. And it’s a still top 8 finals isn’t it? The wild card weekend is technically not finals. Finishing top 6 gets you automatic entry while teams 7 and 8 Fight it out with teams 9 and 10 for the last 2 spots. I’m fine with that.

MFC losing a final despite having more scoring shots and the opposition rubbing salt in the wounds with absurd accuracy. Never seen that before…

Maybe next year is the year Collingwood play down there with the increased capacity. Geelong play 10 home games at GMHBA and their one home game at the G will be against Hawthorn on Easter Monday next year.

I convinced myself that we’d be playing GC on opening round due to the Trac factor. That doesn’t mean we won’t play them or GWS in round 1 though.

Within reason, I hope we use one of our first 2 picks on a high quality small forward who's kicked his 30+ goals a year in under 18's footy. Looking at our small forward depth chart it's only really Kozzie (part time midfielder) Chandler, Henderson and Mentha. The latter two didn't make giant strides at Casey to suggest they'll be valuable senior regulars next year. I'd be keen on recruiting for needs for our second pick (i.e. small forward) and best available for our first pick.

Fixture to come out next week (probably Thursday) according to reports, with Gather Round and Opening Round a chance to be revealed between Sunday and Wednesday. Just me speculating but I expect the King era to begin on the Gold Coast for opening round. This is due to the Trac factor and Collingwood wanting out of Opening Round and therefore opening up a spot for the MFC. Then a round 1 home game at the G??

It's a no from me. The guy's on his last legs and one of his rare assets (goal kicking set shots) is starting to disappear. Plus we're well stocked for ruck/forward options But remember this is the guy that destroyed us in 2018 with 5 goals and quite frankly made our defence look inept that day, kicking goals where the 50 metre line meets the boundary line.

The two rules of predicting a ladder: 1) Ensure you have turnover in the top 8. 9 out of the last 10 years you’ve had at least 3 changes to the top 8 from one year to the next. 2) Since the AFL became an 18 team league, at least one elimination final loser will miss the finals the next year. Take it to the bank that Freo or GWS will miss finals next year. 1) GC 2) Brisbane 3) Hawthorn 4) Geelong 5) Sydney 6) St Kilda 7) Fremantle 8) Bulldogs 9) Adelaide 10) Collingwood 11) Carlton 12) GWS 13) Port 14) North 15) Essendon 16) Melbourne 17) Richmond 18) West Coast (I’ve predicted us to have a 5-18 season but I really have no idea how we’ll go next year)

Did anyone go to the Saints V Dees game at Moorabbin in 1977? We apparently won the game after trailing by 46 points, the same margin in as this year’s infamous game. It was our third biggest comeback win in our history.

Needs to kick more goals to be considered an elite midfielder- even just 10 a year would be great. A Clayton Oliver goal is an event rather than a pattern. The fact that I can distinctly remember all of his 4 goals for the year (Nth, Syd, Bris, hawks games) speaks volumes. And this is why I always preferred Trac over Clarry and why I’m far more disappointed that the former has departed.

Would anyone be shattered if it all fell through?

All the noise suggests St Kilda V Collingwood on Labour Day eve for opening round. I can see a scenario where we play GC in opening round (Trac factor) and then the Saints at the G in round 1?? I think that game would get some publicity- the return bout.

One advantage of finishing down near the bottom is you know we’ll be getting a number of early Saturday (1:20pm) and early Sunday (1:10) MCG games. I can confidently speak for most posters here that these timeslots are the most preferred. Aside from Anzac Eve and KB’day, I don’t see us playing a marquee timeslot (Thursday or Friday night game) in VIC in the first 15 rounds. Maybe a Saturday night at best.

Possibly the most bizzare comment I've heard from an AFL senior coach in a long time. There was nothing positive in the last 4 minutes about Clayton Oliver's sloppiness in front of goal, burning repeated inside 50 opportunities and breaching a 6-6-6 rule to concede the winning goal in the last 6 seconds of the game. He was reportedly blindsided by the sacking, but geez he sounded like a defeated man in the post game presser. I know he was required to attend the presser, but full marks to him for answering the questions in a respectful way to the media.

Not stressed about ins and outs of the fixture for next year given it’s a development/re-build year. However, can we not have a repeat of 2025 when we went about 34 days without a game in VIC? Any surprise we lost 10 of our last 12 games of the season.

We’ve actually never played Hawthorn in Launceston (aside from a pre season game) so maybe next year?

An absolutely disgraceful performance. However, hopefully it was a turning point on a journey that was heading absolutely nowhere.

Is Hawkins confirmed? Would be a massive get for obvious reasons, for the likes of JVR.