Bring-Back-Powell

I think it’s time we played that fella that kicked 187 goals in 3 years between 2017-2019. I get he’s 30 and his body is cooked but he’ll create more of a problem for the opposition than any of JVR, T Mac and Josh Shack.

Exactly how I felt on the Saturday night of Gather Round. Good on you for making the effort to travel over.

In fairness we were fixtured to play Port in round 8 2020 at the MCG before COVID ruined the original fixture. And in 2022 we played them in Alice. The AFL had to fixture us against someone up there given our insistence to sell a game up there.

If the press are worth their salt they’ll ask Goodwin why we conceded 40 or so touches and 2 goals to Butters who was single handedly responsible for his clubs win.

Cameron Mooney: Melbourne are still my premiership favourites. - Fox Footy post game. He gave us a massive amount of credit for our fight back in hostile territory.

He’s the anti Kozzie at the moment. Will do something that tears your hair out, but then make up for it with 5 brilliant things. Kozzie will kick a brilliant goal but then you won’t see him for the next 30 minutes. Rivers is having a much improved year compared to 2022.

At half time I would’ve taken a 4 point loss and ran with it given what happened In the third quarter of Gather round V Essendon. We were deplorable in the first half tonight. Clearly our “best loss” for the year.

Grundy’s accuracy for goal is elite but can someone have a word to him about shushing the crowd after his goal. The rest of the game went downhill after that. Credit to us for making a game of it after half time, but way more credit to Port and especially Butters.

I got this wrong but good news nonetheless.

If Sydney's season has gone to the dogs by late July the game could even be Saturday afternoon or twilight and hidden on Foxtel. Although it's more than likely it would be the Saturday night or Sunday afternoon slot given out finals seeding will probably rest on this game. But yes, you can rule out Friday night for the Swans V Dees game. Brisbane V St Kilda, Essendon V Collingwood, Port V Richmond , Geelong V Bulldogs and even Carlton V GWS (just to see if Carlton can miss the 8 again at the last minute) would all be vying for the prime time slots of Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday 3:20pm.

That would be ideal to have the game on Saturday arvo however it sounds as though channel 7 and the AFL have an agreement to play the Alice game on channel 7 which means it can't be played on Saturday arvo as they are Foxtel games. Therein lies the problem and there's not much the AFL could do about it aside from putting Melbourne V Brisbane in a less marquee spot.

That is a poor result, although almost the same scenario occurred last year. Sunday in Alice into Saturday night at Marvel into Friday night at Optus Stadium, and we won the latter game Vs Freo off back to back 6 day breaks. The two alternatives to prevent this issue occurring is to punt the Alice Springs game for good or to request to the AFL that we don't play Friday night games. Given neither is an option I don't think there was much the AFL could've done here and posters in this thread predicted this 3 week schedule would occur.

I don't mind the Sunday 3:20. However, for a team that's gone about 49-17-1 since the Port debacle in 2020, we're certainly not a prominent Friday night team during the home and away season, particularly in VIC.

Good spread of time slots there aside from no Saturday afternoon games in Melbourne.. Assuming Carlton will be on Saturday night and Hawthorn will be Saturday arvo/twilight or Sunday arvo. Is it just me or Saturday afternoon turned into a timeslot for the mediocre sides and/or low drawing games?

A good entree before the main meal. North and Richmond had a crack at this in 2014 but only got 32K.

Dixon is more likely than unlikely to be playing according to Hinkley.

Would appear to be one of the more replaceable players on the list given his age and declining form by the year, since his career best year of 2018 where he was near BOG in the important round 23 and elimination final wins over GWS and Geelong respectively. His best position was clearly as a starting midfielder that would do a job on the oppo's best mid while doing damage offensively. Goodwin clearly can't (structural) or won't (not good enough anymore) put him back into the middle as a full time mid. Be interesting if he's the replacement for Sparrow this week. if he isn't he'll be clearly asking some questions.

They were horrible on Kings Birthday last year in the AFL members. Yet they were far worse in round 21 . Wouldn't even let you exit the aisles after the game without giving you a gobful because they beat us. Feels like we're an interstate side in the AFL members when we play Collingwood at the G. The only reason why I'm not 100% excited to attend the game. Sitting amongst the lowest common denominator of the AFL fan.

The MCG flag drought is THE one I'd love to break.

Yep, good point. One of the Marvel games needs to be Friday night, as much as they'd love the Port V Collingwood game to be Friday night. (unless they're entertaining the idea of a Saturday Marvel double header which would be very unlikely) Here is another example of why Thursday night football needs to be a permanent 24 week timeslot for fixture flexibility. If Edmund's mail isn't 100% as you pointed out, there is still a chance that Melbourne V Brisbane could be the Sunday 3:20 or Saturday 7:25pm slots on channel 7.

A bit of solid speculation tonight on SEN of the following MFC fixtures: @ St Kilda - Saturday day or night, Marvel v Brisbane - Friday night, MCG @ Carlton - Saturday night, MCG

Some upcoming records to overcome: Have never beaten Port on a Friday night since their inception in 1997. Haven't beaten Fremantle on a Saturday MCG game since 2021. Have never beaten Carlton on a Friday night since their inception in 1897.

Reckon they could get around 45-50K.

I can’t see Brisbane beating Collingwood or Geelong in a grand final. I can certainly see them making a grand final should they finish top 2 and host/win both their GABBA finals.

Not prepared to commit to it but for some reason I think Carlton could get some revenge on Collingwood and they finally have a game where it all clicks. The other potential upset is Freo beating Geelong at home if Geelong don’t get anyone back aside from the suspended Close.