Chook

Gold Coast is Gold Coast. Win. Sydney couldn't win a clearance to save themselves. We dominate teams out of the centre. Win. West Coast will be missing Kennedy by all reports and are a soft contested side. We dominate contested ball. Win. GWS is a massive test but it's at our home ground and they'll likely have 3rd sewn up. We'll be playing for top 4 and redemption after last year. Win.

Bradbury didn't fall over, which is what we'd be doing if we were to lose all our games. Win 1 v Gold Coast and find 1 more somewhere (Sydney next week…equivalent to keeping out skates on the ice), and we're in barring some ridiculous set of mathematical permutations. That's the Bradbury route in my mind.

If we want to win a flag this year, the Sydney win was the perfect result for us. If we just want to Bradbury our way to an extra footy game this year, well then bad luck.

lol Franklin or not, Sydney are still terrible.

I believe in Frost as a lockdown defender. He can match it physically with anyone.

Guy Walker? Hopefully he becomes a God Kicker and not a Man Runner.

I just want to beat Gold Coast this week.

Footy's clearly dead too by the way. Ripper game…except for the umpires who can't help but go on the AFL's terrible set of interpretations.

This game makes me feel better. I don't know if it should but it does.

Literal Nam-like flashbacks right now.

Everything, literally everything Geelong did in that last q last time turned to gold against us and they won by a bee's d. A few things have gone wrong this time against Richmond and it's been enough. We were so bleeding close it's not funny.

This performance from Richmond in the last quarter should be compulsory viewing for every Melbourne player. Goodwin should sit his list down and get them to watch how Richmond has quelled the Geelong fightback so expertly.

Jake Melksham would like to have Jack Reiwoldt's 50/50 luck in one on one marking contests forward.

I'd actually feel better. If it can happen to the premiers, it can happen to anyone.

It begins… Melbourne supporters are having flashbacks.

High, then a sling tackle. Terrible non-decision from the umpire.

I reckon Liam Pickering's predictions are pretty spot on. First time I've ever agreed with that bignose.

"Peg-leg Jack" would be a good name for the captain of a pirate ship.

I've increasingly come to think this about injuries: It's not like we have to field 21 vs 22. As long as our depth is good and our intent is there, our selected 22 can beat any other selected 22. Collingwood proves this. Still wish we could select Lever, Viney, Melksham and Hibberd though.

Definitely more than 1disgruntled partner in that 27k I'm sure.

As you say, we kind of do that already. It's called a "clearance". Seems to work ok there so I'd like to see us do it in marking contests.

I could see it. Tom's like: "I'll give you a month's lead. That should make things interesting, kid."

I don't. I see him kicking 3-4 goals every game until he retires. He's not the kind of sledgehammer that you need to be to kick bags. He's a dynamo; he just keeps on ticking. And as reliably as a dynamo, he will always reap rewards.

I think we can account for Sydney even without them. It's all about the West Coast game for me. With what this club has been through last year, that game looms as the biggest for this club in forever (yes, even bigger than the R23 Collingwood game last year). Won there last year. Didn't make finals. To go back again and secure a spot in this year's finals after they knocked us out, with them firmly in the top four, would be our official return from the Wilderness. And it goes without saying that Viney and Hibberd are crucial to that.

I heard an interview with the American sports science guy who did Trac's recovery. He was one of the world's leaders in that stuff, and he pretty much said that a lot of people focus on "getting back", but that getting back quickly almost always results in minor or major recurrence of the injury down the line. The exercises that Petracca did during his rehab were designed by this guy, and supposedly were focused on long-term strength and "going the journey" in the sport. Considering Tracs knees seem fine, I hope Lever's doing the same stuff. Lever's a lightweight compared to Petracca, so whatever works for Trac's knees will surely work for Lever's too.