Chook

We played North Melbourne off about 3 hours of shuteye.

Totally agreed. I haven't got a clue about basketball but this idea that umpires should never have to exercise judgment in whether a free is a free is ridiculous. Any complex game/sport/passtime is likely to have areas where only a trained individual with experience can adjudicate on the edge cases. If they get it wrong then so be it. And here's another thing, related or not related (take your pick). Sport is not just a set of rules overlaid upon actions over a period of time, where one team wins and one team loses. It's a soap opera, in the greatest sense of the word. There is an unfolding story to sport that is constantly changing in a beautiful way. But the kind of changes caused by "interpretations" of rules destroys this beauty and replaces it with a chaos and a randomness that is hard to love. Sure, sometimes there will be unheralded success, but most of the time we just learn to cope with the change because we love the story. Just as if Masimo marries Esmarelda one week and is married to Consuela the next, the whole thing becomes a farce if the damn plot becomes so untethered that we can't keep our bearings. If the wheels keep turning, at some point we as passengers can no longer keep our bearings. Thanks for indulging me if you read the above.

I would just die if Ed Langdon got injured. Wingers are absolutely critical to modern football. Melbourne's gameplan revolves around numbers at every contest. Wingers get to every contest. Langdon is the best winger in the competition. QED.

The second I saw Chandler being showered with milk on tv (by Clarry of course, who I would totally expect such stupidity from) I though "no, that's not right." I've had those thoughts many times over the years and not seen them be righted. We're not letting those stupid things slip by these days, which is so good to see.

I often think of my grandfather after a win (any win, but certainly more in these lovely times). He got me onto footy and supporting Melbourne when I came down from Brisbane as a kid. He took me to the 2000 GF, which I was luckily young enough not to care a great deal about when we lost. I really got into footy in 2004, and we went to watch many games in the next few years, and always chatted about it when we saw each other. He passed away about 10 years ago, so he missed Neeld thank god. Too bad he can't see this, which is starting to very much make up for it.

Let's not just Cross the Rivers. May we Salem?

Barely got out of a canter and won easily. Looks like I won't have to buy a hat and eat it after all.

Harsh. If May had touched it (obviously Rivers didn't hear the whistle), would you have wanted Rivers to just stand there doing nothing?

Teams with a game in hand should always be ahead of teams on the same points but with no game in hand regardless of percentage imo.

I'll bow to your superior VFL knowledge, but you'd agree there's something to work with there?

Agreed. Rosman looks the goods. I'd love to see him at AFL level.

Sure but first I’ll have to buy a hat.

Haven't been more confident going into a match this year, and I'm the guy who started the "Do you trust Melbourne?" thread. I will eat my hat if we lose this match.

I want to win the premiership obviously. Anything else this year at this point will be a disappointment. Having said that, I'd love to see us go 20-0 no matter what happens after that.

Why don't we just win all the games from here till next year, and play the best team each week to win that week?

I don't think it matters how many teams there are in the competition 18 wins in a row is always better than 17. Winning 18 in a row is just as impressive in a 100 team comp as it would be in a 2 team comp, assuming each individual win is a toss of the coin.

It wasn't Norm's curse, it was the curse of what was done to Norm.

The Saints have had their chances in the last 20 years. You can lead a club to water but you can't make it drink. We've been parched for a very long time.

McDonald probably hasn't trained for the wing in about 10 weeks now, given he's been killing it as a forward.

I can think of one.

6. Oliver 5. McDonald 4. Salem 3. May 2. Spargo 1. ANB

Fritsche is having an absolute mare. Trac thinks he can plow through the entire Sydney team by himself. A bit of bighead about him this week with his new fat bank account. We should win this from here, but the Cats thought the same thing last week.

How good is it to have a huge forward marking presence in Brown? So much fun to watch!

Even if he does (get better), he still won't be better than the alternative that gets all three of Brown, Wied and McDonald in the side. I'm aware that Petty is the decision the coaches have gone with, and it's not going to change. I just think they're wrong. I will be shocked if Petty turns out to be a better defender than Oscar McDonald was, and Oscar had his own limitations.

McDonald (back) + Wiedeman > McDonald forward + Petty Petty isn't the future. He's not an AFL standard defender, no way known.