Chook

We play footy the right way. Collingwood don't. No comparison.

The pies are in serious trouble. At this point you wonder if they'll win another game this season.

You'd hate to be a pies defender. Mids do not win a contest, and they don't run defensively so you're always out of position with no support.

Collingwood are…what's the phrase? All duck no dinner? Eventually the ducks come home to roost.

Love fritsch. Just reckon Howe is a natural forward.

Geelong being killed in the clearance game. That's bad news for them, since Collingwood's major weakness is their contest game.

Good to see Howe starting forward. He's nearly as good as fritsch as a forward imo.

Surely that's holding the ball paid to Ratugolea, as the pies player was trying to kick the ball and missed his boot?

No way that's a mark to Mihochek. Smith held that for longer and wasn't paid.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/1400918/gus-and-gawny-jacob-van-rooyen

Wow. This might be the most uninformed sentence I've ever read.

I think it's the right call. By default, we're better with a taller backline. If things go pear-shaped we can sub Grundy or Smith out and go smaller, overrunning them in the last quarter. Hibberd is no spring chicken as well, and although his best is still good enough his body is fragile and there's still 2 months left. He's best 22, but not for a full game anymore just due to age.

I hate that I'd love Tom Hawkins, which makes me hate him more funnily enough!

Skip the first 2 minutes of this clip and the last 30. One minute of good analysis of the difference with and without Oliver. Essentially, him coming back into the side (same as Grundy) should be to complement what we're already doing well without them, not to just go back to the way things were when we were 4th with them both in the side earlier in the year.

I saw the same thing, and thought the exact same. King says whatever he wants to suit his narrative. If he doesn't have any stats backing up what he's saying, I just ignore him. If he has stats, I usually still ignore him:

Beautiful footage. Carlton stuffed that up about 10 times in 2 minutes. You'd think they've learned a lot since then. Melksham doing Melksham things - coming up clutch in last minute come from behind wins. That Carlton girl's reaction at 4:07 is tattooed on my mind like the Bulldogs lass in the grand final. Classic win.

I actually quite rate JVR's ruck work, especially at boundary throw-ins but without Grundy I worry he'll just completely run out of gas at some stage and we need him fresh and firing forward more than we need him rucking. That's what Gawn and Grundy are for.

I hope Gawn plays a fair bit forward and shows something when he's there. I understand he's a fantastic ruckman and is blowing teams out of the water in that area in Grundy's absence, but part of his role in the Gawn/Grundy partnership is to play forward as well, and he has underperformed in that just as much as Grundy has. They both need to lift their forward game if this is to work like it needs to over the next couple of months.

Great ins. Glad to see Grundy back (and the 🐐 as well of course). Where will we play Smith? I hope we put him forward, though it leaves May and Lever as our only tall defenders, making it harder for them to zone off...

Melksham would have kicked 5 on the weekend if he was umpired the same way.

The existence of infinite caring implies the existence of negative infinite caring, on the caring real number line mathematically speaking. So caring 0 is only halfway there.

I wouldn't put it past Clayton to actually not even understand fully what he's not doing "right". I would be surprised if he fully understands everything the HP officer and coach are even asking of him, and why it's important. It definitely wouldn't factor into his worldview of what football is about and what you need to do to prove you're ready for an AFL game. Lucky for us he doesn't get to make that choice.

Contrast Clayton's interview with Daicos' press conference and there's why Oliver isn't rated in the media - he's just not a charismatic media performer and has no time for that stuff. Not worried, though I do think Oliver would have been able to play before this week (or at least thinks he would have), and the reason he isn't is not because of his lack of confidence in his body but our medical staff and club not wanting to take any chances with our most important wildcard.

I would never blame Sparrow directly, but one thing I've thought throughout these last couple of years is the very predictable way we play does reduce the incidence of major injuries. Sparrow's kick was not part of the plan, and did Petty no favours. Nor did the surface (Gawn, Petty, Fritsch all suffered unusual injuries on substandard grounds).