Bring-Back-Powell

It was a reverse Melbourne performance whereby we won the game with 6 less scoring shots. That was genuinely one of our best wins in our history. Certainly was from the late 80's onwards.

That has to be on the head coach surely. And if it happens in 2 finals in a row, he's going to have to alter and evolve his coaching philosophy over summer, as the club isn't getting it done enough against the big dogs.

Kozzy actually had a better game last week than I thought he did. Was in everything in the second quarter and could’ve had 2 goals on the board that quarter had Fritsch actually applied a shepherd on the goal line to prevent Murphy from touching it. Wonder if he has a 3-4 goal performance because you’ll know he’ll probably have 3-4 shots at goal. Salem is grossly out of form and may be paying the price for his interrupted pre season and knee injury in the early rounds.

And that streak started in the second last game of 2020 V GWS at the GABBA.

His form is certainly a concern.

We're 1-2 this year when Tommo plays and either May or Lever is injured. We're 5-0 this year when Tommo/Lever/May all play. I'm sure we'll eventually lose a game when all these 3 play, but the facts are we haven't lost a game when these three are in the same side since 2020. In actual fact, our defence was brilliant in the early rounds of 2021 with Tomlinson taking a key forward each week before his knee reco. Petty took over his role successfully.

I think Pies will be locked in for Friday night given they were the higher ranked side.

The last 10 years has seen the number 1 ranked side get the Friday night prelim. Thus I expect Collingwood will get the Friday night prelim. I think the AFL are currently determining what time the Brisbane game should commence on the Saturday to ensure the winning VIC club gets home late Saturday to prepare for the GF. You'd imagine it will start somewhere between 3:20 and 4:40pm. Return flights from Melbourne are starting at $860 according to Webjet. I shudder to think what they'll be come this Saturday

Imagine what Grundy would be thinking on Friday night when he's up in the stands watching Schache taking his first centre ruck contest of the night. I understand the potential selection because one can play forward and the other can't, but it's still hard to get your head around.

Two questions: 1) Are high 90's any chance for this game? 2) Will there be 50/50 members allocation for Brisbane V prelim opponent next week at the GABBA? Or will Brisbane members get the majority?

But, but….we won a qualifying final at the Adelaide Oval during COVID….

If we can’t win the flag, I sure as hell hope Collingwood doesn’t, after watching that video.

I’ll back in Joel Smith’s 1 career hitout from 41 games.

Probably stating to get into pig headed territory if he refuses to once again play Grundy. I totally support not playing 2 rucks if it’s wet, but the combo has actually worked in the first 13 rounds.

Our defence was excellent last week to keep Collingwood to 60 points. But I guess the point is we have a far better record when we play a tall defence. Tomlinson will be a good match up for the resting De Koning or Pittonet. Then Lever can take Silvagni if selected

It’s also Mitch Cleary’s understanding that the club felt they went in too small last week in defence. This is interesting because we abandoned the 2 tall defender set up after the bad Freo loss. We then played the 3 tall defender set up and proceeded to go 10-3 for the rest of the H&A season. We then abandoned the 3 tall defender in favour of a smaller defence against Collingwood and we ended up back on the losers board.

Ch 7 going with Tomlinson over Hibberd. Listed a range of other players to come in but Grundy wasn’t one of them.

Sydney are a direct competitor to us next year so we shouldn't bend over backwards to trade him there. Ensure the draft pick is good OR get them to pay massive chunk of his salary so we can therefore target a ready made player for next year with Grundy's $$ As for this weekend, and with JVR out, I think it's gotten to the point where we actually can't not select him.

Mostly agree with this, Jordon has taken a step back this year as a player. Curious though as to who replaces the vital midfield minutes that Brayshaw would have provided?

Excellent research. The reason why that grand final had such a low crowd was because the MCC section of the Northern Stand was being rebuilt that year. I would be flabbergasted if people could have rocked up to the G that day and got a ticket at the gate.

The early season wins over Bulldogs and Sydney were our most complete performances of the year. None of this conceding big first half leads, none of this going to sleep for 25 minutes. Just rock solid exciting Melbourne wins. In the Dogs win (on a warm dry night like this week), our forward line was missing Petty, Fritsch and JVR while Melk only came on in the last quarter, and yet we still managed 17 goals. BBB and Kozzie kicked 4 goals each and Spargo and Grundy hit the scoreboard too. T Mac had a stinker. Maybe we take a bit of inspiration from that game and play Grundy, Brown (If at least 75% fit), Spargo and drop T Mac. In a perfect world we could sub out BBB or Grundy for some run in the last quarter. The Dogs game also showed that we can win with key outs. That night we were missing Viney, Fritta and May and yet still won by 50 points.

It's beyond my footballing knowledge as to why you would continually not play a defensive combination that hasn't lost a game since the year 1 of the pandemic.

Any grand final, even GWS V GC would sell out.

The major consideration the AFL needs to make in terms of pursuing an appeal is whether they can stump up the $5,000 cost involved in an appeal.

Perhaps he thinks that only a Collingwood V Carlton grand final will sell out, and that if Carlton don't make it, the ground will only be 75% full??