Bring-Back-Powell

So we're effectively trading half of Grundy's proceeds (not sure what we did with pick 46 last year), Neale-Bullen and a speculative late pick for a late first rounder.

One of those fixture quirks where Port and Sydney annually play each other just the once. Bit like us and the Dons.

Hit the nail on the head. How many times was the ball just about to go out of bounds in our forward 50, only for an opposition defender to take possession, waltz through 3 broken tackles and set up a punishing turnover going the other way. That's one aspect I absolutely hated about our football in 2024.

Agreed. There was period of time when he was actually our best forward at the club. Admittedly it was for 5 quarters between round 4 and round 5 2019, but still....

Mitchell did mention that Melbourne's long kicking and contest and defence style has been taken over by teams that are handball happy (I'm not paraphrasing here) and are willing to take the opposition on with fast, ballistic and attacking footy (I'm paraphrasing a bit here).

Sam Mitchell had a bit of a dig at Simon Goodwin this morning basically suggesting that his game plan that was successful in 2021 is now obsolete. Now I know posters will refer to round 2 when our "obsolete" game plan beat his Hawks by 9 goals. However since round 8 Mitchell's Hawks went 14-3 while Goodwin had a poor 5-10 from that point.

Interesting that Freo just had their B&F and they were in the hunt weeks longer than us.

One of the rare good stories of 2024, in terms of a player improving from previous years.

Anyone know how many times he was listed as an emergency this year? That would be an indication on how close (or miles off) he is from AFL footy.

Do tell. Ross Lyon was appointed coach of St Kilda on 24 October 2022 so there's oodles of time if the club thinks Simon should seek other opportunities.

No issues with this if it's going to help him perform to his optimum by round 1 2025, or at the very least help him get to round 1 by undertaking this event. He's been to heaps of B&F's, had plenty of mediocre steaks and dried out chicken breasts. Seen the same old obligatory speeches from Pert and Goodwin (the latter after a few reds each year). He's not going to place this year. Every tiny little thing at the club has to be magnified. I look forward to the day when the media obsession with the MFC is done.

It’s apparently in October which seems to be pretty late for a team that was last seen a few weeks ago. If the B&F was in September then this wouldn’t be an issue.

Hunter signed a long term contract at Dogs through to 2024. Is it possible we offered him an extra year through to 2025 as a selling point to get him over. At the time (2022) he was still considered an above average league player.

About time the boys are back in training.

Is there something legit about Derkson or would he be just another Pat McKenna who we also got from GWS a number of years ago. I think Matt Owies could be useful for us, but I guess we have Spargo who potentially could get himself back into the side.

Hunter was re-signed through to 2024 at the Dogs. So we must have given him an extra year to coax him to the MFC. Either way, unbelievable that he'll be with us next year.

Hunter on the non Langdon wing for round 0?

Yes and he also kicked 1 or 2 clutch goals against us in the semi final last year.

Is Kennedy the bloke that kicked the winning goal in Gather Round after a Freo player gave the umpire a mouthful?

We probably come home with the 4 points if Owies didn't play against us in round 9. And a big yes to Kennedy who could replace ANB is that mid/forward player. Carlton seem to be well stocked in B/B+ midfielders such as Cerra and Hewett so could probably afford to trade him.

Keen for a Brisbane V Sydney GF. Get the flag out of VIC so it's out of sight out of mind. I don't mind Port as a side but I don't trust them in putting in a decent GF.

Any ideas what percentage of the list did 90% of pre season? Felt as though the season was over before it began with so many players on the side lines in January and February.

Yes to moving on Lamb. Yes to pursuing Wright. However I think Wright is looking for a role that's higher than list manager. Eg - Club CEO or senior AFL executive.

Just did a bunch of googling. 2023 number of 71,388 members from the MFC audited report: https://resources.melbournefc.com.au/aflc-melb/document/2023/11/23/b3cb16b1-2ea5-4d95-a11d-0bf3081645b8/2023-MFC-Annual-Financial-Report.pdf 2024 number of 65,479 members from the AFL website. https://www.geelongcats.com.au/news/1652243/afl-releases-2024-club-membership-numbers Observations: 1) We recorded a 9% decrease in members in 2024. 2) 13 out of 18 clubs achieved record membership in 2024 - clearly not including the MFC. 3) 8 clubs recorded +10% in membership in 2024. 4) It's understood we had the largest drop off in membership but admittedly I can't back that one up with data. But given at least 13 out of 18 clubs experienced record numbers in 2024, we probably did have the largest drop off. Make of that what you will when linking membership performance with Simon Goodwin's performance.

We had a 9% decrease in membership, which was one of the worst membership drop offs in the league. Could even be the worst.