Chook

Hannan to Smith. Hannan has always reminded me of Smith (obviously Smith is miles better), and this would be a great opportunity to hurt the Hawks' biggest attacking weapon going the other way.

Let me in on that too!

Oh well. Looks like I'll be watching our Prelim from home.* *Standard one week at a time terms and conditions apply.

Ok. Happy to see the Pies out in straight sets now.

Obviously. But there's no chance of a Prelim for Melbourne in Melbourne if the Pies can't get it done tonight. One week at a time applies here as well.

You should start up your own website then. The "I hate Collingwood more than life itself" forum.

Unless you live in Western Australia or you don't go to the footy, why would you want Collingwood to lose? Don't you want to see your team live in a Prelim?

Hogan on a wing for Tyson, Lever down back. Push Fritsch forward and Spargo goes out.

That's the story of this Finals series IMO. The changing of the guard. Geelong, Hawthorn, Sydney give way to Richmond, Melbourne, GWS.

If Vince is fit, we should bring him in because he is experienced and composed, which is exactly what we need against Hawthorn. If Vince isn't fit, we should just leave it. I'm very worried about Isaac Smith though, and could Hannan possibly go to him in a shutdown role? Similar body shapes, and could hurt Smith going the other way.

It's a lot better than the game of "Watch all the finalists and shudder at how much they'd smash us by" that I've been playing for the last dozen years.

Terrible at every aspect of the game that involves touching the footy. Handy player in every other aspect of the game though, so he's got that going for him at least.

If it goes Cats, Hawks, Pies, Tigers, that will be pretty much the perfect 4 opponents. Breaking through the 2 teams who have given us the most pain through our dark years, then a preliminary final vs our ancient foe. Then a GF vs the defending champions. You couldn't script that better, and there's no 4 teams I'd like to beat more than them if we could do it. One week at a time though…

I was pretty sure we had it when the Hawkins free was reversed (if it were any team other than Geelong I would have been sure then); I was certain when Geelong were out the back but the Cats player fell over and Gawn dived on him to get a holding the ball. It was party time when Hannan kicked that goal.

See ya next week Hawkers.

Richmond are miles better than Hawthorn. Ripe for the picking the hawks will be next week.

Possibly the first ever example of a successful 5-year plan.

Almost 50/50 in fact.

Severely underrated player for us.

Frost's gonna be unavailable for the next 4 weeks anyway

Just to whet your collective appetite for this Friday night, a user called Melbourne Footy posted this on Youtube today. Highlights: 3:44 Brock McLean kicks the sealer (and wins his place in my heart forever, no matter what came after — hence my nickname all these years later). 5:32 Adem Yze puts the cherry on top (surely causing Yze Magic to cash in his ankles country membership for a full-fledged one). 7:54 Nathan Jones sighting (sorry buddy but this will be as good as it gets for you for a dozen years or so).

I'm not saying "keep every tradition forever no matter what." I'm saying "If you've got nothing else, keep your tradition until you get something else." Right now Melbourne has just 1 thing. History. Win 3 flags and I'll be a little warmer to changing our song. Until then we risk destroying the only thing we have going for us.

Terrible idea. Right up there with a suggestion that we replace "It's a grand old flag" with "It's a brand new flag." We're Melbourne. If we don't hold our tradition, what else have we got?

Lets beat Geelong first hey?

Over the weekend I rewatched all our wins from this year. From that, I observed that Viney was nowhere near what he offered in 2017, and is almost a downgrade on form for what our midfield did without him this year. I think he'd be a good defensive forward/mid in bursts to lock the game down, but I'd rather stick with our Gawn/Oliver/Brayshaw/Harmes setup — especially when it really starts to count and we need to get a lead or get back in it.