old55

20% across the full Penfolds range would be nice. FWIW Bleasdale make some very good value wine.

Contrary to popular belief that's about the best team we could select. JJ a long way down the pecking order it seems. B: S.May 1 H.Petty 35 T.Rivers 24 HB: C.Spargo 9 J.Lever 8 J.McVee 41 C: L.Hunter 12 C.Oliver 13 E.Langdon 15 HF: K.Chandler 37 B.Brown 50 K.Pickett 36 F: A.Neal-Bullen 30 T.McDonald 25 J.Harmes 4 Foll: M.Gawn - C 11 C.Petracca 5 A.Brayshaw 10 I/C: J.van Rooyen 2 B.Grundy 6 M.Hibberd 14 B.Laurie 16 J.Bowey 17 B.Howes 22 T.Sparrow 32 T.Woewodin 40 Emerg: J.Schache 19 J.Jordon 23 D.Turner 42 A.Moniz-Wakefield 45 Notable absentees: Christian Salem, Bayley Fritsch, Jack Viney

backflip? Seriously Jack was on fire in the training sessions I attended. He was also on fire in the middle of last season in our big win against Brisbane at the MCG in June when he was captain in Max's absence: https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_match_statistics?mid=10664 In addition to his trademark aggressive tackling, he showed some incredible agility in that match - changing direction at high speed and leaping over fallen players to win possession. It was the best I've seen him play in years. Clearly he was hampered by some injury in the latter part of the season and wasn't a shadow of the player he can be in the finals. I'm very hopeful that his great preseason sets him up to play at his best this year and this knee injury is just a small hiccup.

"Bigger and better" than a flag in your 2nd and 4th years? OK ...

Collingwood would have won the 2022 PF against Sydney if Grundy was playing.

Let's hope Hawthorn's streak starts to rival it. It will be very close to 3000 days at the end of this season.

Looking forward to perennially sunny Nat's take on her Hawks as the year progresses.

2022 Brownlow: Asterisk

Given his accuracy in front of goal an arm tattoo design is likely to end up on your chest.

Grundy definitely man handled Marshall in around the ground stoppages. I thought his grappling was close to being a free kick against on some occasions when he threw Marshall aside. Opposition ruckmen will be exhausted from wrestling with Grundy and Max and having to jump against Max. Late in games we should be able to take advantage of this. It may force teams to play two genuine rucks when otherwise they'd just go with one.

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I don't think that's right. The Saints are miles ahead of where North, who finished clear last behind tanking WC, were last year.

Good summary Dazzle. There's a lot to like - injured players now fit including TMac and BBB; Hunter and Grundy are significant upgrades on Hunt and Jackson; players are showing significant natural improvement including Rivers, McVee, Chandler and AMW; players showing promise including Verrall, Jefferson and KFW; and no injuries.

Whatever it was I doubt it involved 16 goals against.

Liking Verrall and KFW. Both getting involved.

Phillipou said he was the best player in the draft and he might be right. Brad Hill got plenty of it with some good run. Both good dreamteam options. Wilkie was decent. The only bright spots for the Saints, it's going to be a long season for them.

Post didn't age like a Grange Jimmy.

Redtime goals FOR is a nice change

Hoping the Sandringham game is at nearby TBO

It lives!

We had a very tough fixture into the finals and I think plan A was "play our best players even if injured, finish top 4 and win the Qualifying final so we get a weeks break into the PF to get some injury recovery time". On this path, we might have won our way into the GF if we could finally get past Collingwood, but I think Geelong would have beaten us in the GF anyway. It didn't work out because Sydney were too good for us in the QF and then we were too beaten up against Brisbane in the SF, and if we had won that then Geelong would have belted us in the PF anyway. The other path would have been to rest injured stars late in the H&A, finish 5th to 8th and have to win 4 finals in a row for the flag. That wasn't happening, I preferred plan A even though it didn't work. Geelong were always winning the 2022 flag.

We finished 2nd after the H&A. Do people really think we would have won the finals against Sydney and Brisbane if we played Dunstan for Oliver, Jordon for Petracca, JVR for Brown and Bowey for Salem. Realistically they were the options we had.

It's the numbers on the players' backs that are the same as the premiership years, e.g. Nev Jetta #39 and 1939, Steven Febey #21 and 2021. I think that's different from your answer above ...

Solution. A team of MFC players who played in jumper numbers that represent the last two digits of our premiership years. Let's hope James Jordon becomes eligible this year and Trent Rivers next year.

St.Kilda would still only have 1 flag