Chook

I'd worry about our rebound from defence without Rivers in there. McVee does well when he gets it but isn't super damaging, and Salem and Bowey are 50/50 as to whether they'll end up costing us with their disposal these days.

McDonald is fine to go on in my mind, as his issues stem from lack of fitness due to foot trouble. Brown's knee is never going to get better, so he needs to just manage it and play as much footy as his body lets him.

Might as well blame him for Gawn's knee injury as well.

I love how Collingwood supporters are so feral that the media is actually afraid of the blowback for even suggesting they're not that good. "Oh please don't come after me pies fans you're a chance". Spare me.

The double chance is more about only needing to roll the dice 3 times instead of 4. So much luck goes into winning a final let alone 4. You don't want to have to roll the dice any more than absolutely necessary.

Still a nonzero chance of him being required to play #1 ruck in a grand final for Melbourne within the next 6 weeks. So much water to flow under the bridge.

I think ironically it has been Max that has been the reason why it hasn't worked. Anyone who knows anything about Grundy knows he cannot play forward. I was in the "keep Wiedeman" camp so we could play him as our 2nd ruck and forward with Roo/McDonald/Brown (obviously that would have turned into Wied at VFL most likely due to him being just unable to come on). Anyway all that aside, the only way Grawndy would work is if Gawn were the 2nd ruck + forward. I still think that would work very well but for some reason we haven't tried it and seem to think Grundy needs to be the forward when the stretch for him to play forward is so much greater than for Gawn to do it. All in all Grundy has still been a good pickup this year given we would have been stuffed during Max's injury without him, plus Gawn seems to be fit and firing now due to the decreased load.

Thank you Adam Schneider for your terrible effort returning the footy to Jared Rivers. That 50 metre penalty is tattooed on my mind.

And conversely imagine the wrist-slitting from some around here if we have to make the trip to Brisbane. It's not like we're the last team to beat them up there or anything.

Dees. It's the winner of that qualilfying final that gets the home final, regardless of ladder position.

Josh Jenkins hasn't had a kind word for Melbourne all year. Sucks to choose to be wrong so often like that.

I think bang bang bang may have broken some supporters' brains and they've never fully withdrawn from that high, expecting MFC to pummel teams every game.

Dwayne Russell just called Jason Horne-Francis the Horn, as in... "The Horn is away" Please spare me, immediately after telling me what that even means.

We need to know what our forward line looks like before a qualifying final though surely.

6 Lever 5 ANB 4 Rivers 3 Brayshaw 2 Viney 1 Melksham

Great efforts from Laurie…just didn't quite result in a goal.

And the Oliver / Petracca combo is back!

Him or ANB.

Clarry! You can't keep a good blood nut down!!!

Great one on one win from Lever, good transition and wonderful drifting mark from Roo. And converts! Dees by 13.

If we concede 2-3 quick centre clearance goals in the first minutes of this final quarter again like last week I'll go ape.

Clear block to van Rooyen. Not sure what the Hawks fans are whinging about.

ANB has been best on ground for mine today so far.

Interesting move playing our mids as forward line rucks. I like it.

Petracca selling teammates into trouble with every handpass.