Bring-Back-Powell

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.

So the North game was sort of the beginning of the end of sorts. I can recall it being a very unenjoyable win.

Chuck it the bin and revert to 2023 with a dash of composure. We won 7 of our last 8 home and away games, with the one loss decided by an inconclusive goal umpiring call against a prelim finalist. Dominated the inside 50's by +32 against the Pies in week 1 finals which is surely a win in 99/100 occurrences; Outscored Carlton by 8 scoring shots in the semi final which in anyone's language is a 3-5 goal win any day of the week. The game plan didn't provide for Max Gawn missing a critical shot from the point post. This year we are all over the shop. We're showing wild inconsistencies within games. We're losing stats we otherwise would usually win. We're letting opposition mids waltz out of the centre. And most recently we got outscored on turnovers by about 70-14 which we're told over and over again is a critical stat for success. On what basis does a good game plan allow for that kind of disgraceful discrepancy?

Any chance J Smith can be moved from the injury list? He's not injured, will most likely never play AFL again and it just makes out injury list look bigger than it is.

St Kilda do not have a single established player on their injury list, with B Crouch, Butler and Hunter Clark available this week. Going to be a tough assignment despite St Kilda being out of form.

Thoughts on McAdam's MFC's debut? Whilst it was rusty, I thought he put himself in offensively dangerous positions, created options and could've had 3 goals if his 40 metre kick made the distance and that dribble at goal in the fourth quarter bounced the right way. Kozzie definitely wanted to bring him into the game. Something to work on.

The last 2 games he's missed: 1) Gather round shocker v's Essendon 2) Lost to the Dogs in a shoot out at Marvel in late 2022. Not a good one to have out.

This was our worst performance since the Brisbane game in round 5, and we all said that game was the worst loss since the Port game in 2020. Very disappointing to have 2 uncompetitive performances in the space of 5 weeks. I hope it's not a trend.

Yeah that's the angriest (relatively speaking) I've seen Goodwin in a post game presser in years.