Bring-Back-Powell

An absolute genuine 50/50 game. They’re only a half game and 5% behind us and have beaten us 3 out of the last 5 games. Freo have definitely caused us problems under Longmuir. Will be a statement win IMO if we can get it done, with opportunities to come between rounds 13-17.

The thought of 50,000 morons standing in unison in support of Maynard after his 15-20 usages of the pill is almost enough to boycott this game..almost.

Pretty happy with that result, short of Richmond winning. I thought Geelong would go ahead us on percentage with a 12 goal + win, but Richmond put up a good fight. And let’s face it, are Geelong seriously going 2-0 against Sydney and Carlton both away. Third place is ours if we’re good enough tomorrow.

Tim Kelly out hurts them. Have a feeling too that the Saints will get a rare win. I’m still scratching my head as to why West Coast looked like a comprehensively better side that day than us. If you were new to the game you’d assume West Coast were a top 4 team and Melbourne were a bottom 4. The loss of Lever hurt but you can’t just blame it all on that.

I tipped Sydney and Adelaide to both finish top 2 before the season started. Not sure if i’m looking like a genius or a fool.

Turner selected over BBB. Frederick back for Freo. They're fielding about as strong a side as they'd hope to unfortunately.

Apologies if this has been already answered in the thread but did we get him for 6 or 18 months. The MFC website doesn't confirm but I would guess 18 months?? Approx half the draft class signed 18 month contracts.

When I was heading into the lifts at work yesterday, a colleague and member of the St Kilda cheer squad yelled out to me that we're into Tim Membrey. She had absolutely no good reason to go out of her way to tell me this so i'll take it as some kind of truth. Either we've been seduced from the Sandringham stat sheet from last week or this is a carry over from a few years back when a poster was adamant we tried to trade for him.

Well there you go, and fair call. Those stats tell a different story to what I saw on game day. Watching the game, it was clear to me that if Fritta wasn't marking the ball up forward, then nobody was. BBB and Petty took 1 mark between them and hence we missed JVR who will at least take 3 marks a game on his own and is more accurate.

Really disappointed in the loss of JVR. I feel other parts of the field could absorb a loss better than our (rightly) maligned forward line missing one of its key cogs, eg - Tomlinson being a proven and ready made replacement for Lever in our defence. Our forward line functioned poorly without JVR against West Coast, and Petty is going to really have to pick up the slack this time around. Clearly BBB or Turner will come in. The question is do you go with the proven forward who can barely move anymore but can still pull off a blinder such as the Port game in round 3, or a player with potential that's new to the forward line gig? Really important game this weekend. Win and we're third with opportunities in the coming month (depleted Pies, North, an inconsistent Brisbane away and West Coast at home). Lose and we're quite frankly going around in circles and will probably be fighting for 7th or 8th spot all year.

I think they’re a team that had a patchy April and May but are now working into the season really nicely as evidenced by their last 2 games. I don’t want to play them in a final, if we’re good enough to make it.

Freo have gotten the better of us the last two times, but I'd like to know why, aside from Freo being up and about for an MCG challenge, In 2022 May went off with concussion at quarter time which threw our structure out the door as Rory Lobb of all people got the better of us. In 2023 we went small and and forced Lever to play tall against the likes of Amiss, Tracey and Jackson and it backfired as per usual when we've gone in with a small defence. Other than that, can anyone think what they've had over us from a tactical point of view.

Say we play Carlton week 1 of the finals. Owies is in one pocket. Motlop in the other. Who are our two small lock down defenders to take the above 2 players if McVee is in the midfield (or out injured)? If there is no clear answer, then it's probably best that McVee doesn't get moved out of defence, for at least this year.

A hard no from me, this year anyway. Given blokes such as a severely out of form Charlie Cameron and Matt Owies of all people have gone to town on us, I don’t think it would be wise to release our number 1 lock down defender up the field. Each unit is as important as the other so I don’t see the point in robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Dodged a bullet with the weather. 17-18 for the game, where as tomorrow's going to be 28 which would've clearly favoured Freo.

Yeah the MFC representation in the AFL members is deplorable when we play Collingwood, for obvious reasons. Do you think the AFL member will sell out for Kings Bday?

I think AFL membership sale commences at 2pm.

I thought your post was pretty spot on aside from the Windsor comment about looking for a new club in 2026.

The Melbourne of rounds 1-4 would easily account for a struggling St Kilda today. However, with the Melbourne of rounds 5-10, I don’t see how any supporter or poster could go in today with any semblance of confidence.

Season on the line with this one. And for those underestimating St Kilda, they’ve lost to Port by 11 away, GWS by 1 away, Hawthorn by 5 away and Freo by 17. And of course they beat Collingwood in their only MCG appearance this year.

Another stellar night in the commentary box by BT. 1) called a Fremantle player “Franklin” 2) Called Nick Daicos “Josh Daicos” 3) made numerous other mistakes. He so often calls a player by the wrong name, can’t keep up with the flow of play and gets in the habit of saying “I think might have been player x who kicked the ball” It’s not good enough by channel 7’s premier caller and it’s not good enough by channel 7.

For those that are surprised Howes got dropped, I reckon it was mainly due to the lack of chase on Harley Reid as he ran into an open goal. He simply jogged and gave up rather than at least attempt to run Reid down. Standards need to be reset in this under performing club at the moment.

Hunter in and Howes/Bilings omitted are noteworthy

I thought Hunter was very good in the first 10 weeks of last year, to the point when everyone was concerned that he would be sorely missed for the Freo game (thru suspension) in round 11, which we duly lost. His second half of the year was ordinary but I thought he stepped up in the Carlton semi final and was able to adsorb the finals heat really well in that game. I expect him to be given an opportunity next week if we lose to St Kilda and either Billings plays another poor game (assume he's selected) or Windsor needs a rest.

Just realised Jack Higgins, who's been their best forward this year, is due back from suspension this week. M Crouch will return after getting 38 touches in his come back VFL game. Membrey was rested last week and will come back in fresh for this one. If Butler gets up, St Kilda will be 100% at full strength which is bizarre given the amount of injuries going around in the league. Will be a tough one to win given we can't generate a score. In fact every week for the rest of the season is going to be a tough assignment given we can't generate a score.