No. 31

I am staying a bit further north near Zadar. If you come to Zadar I will shout you a beer 😊 Loser of Dees v Blues shouts the next two 😁

Siem Reap, nice enjoy 😎 I will be watching in a seaside village in Croatia with a walnut liquer and a strong black coffee. May the best team win today 😊

Venice, very nice. Veneto is the ancestral home of the Silvagni Clan 😎 Waving to you from the other, more scenic eastern coast of the Adriatic, my son has donned his Auskick Blues shirt to watch the game with me. Writing to you from Dalmatian Coast in Croatia, ancestral of home for Carlton 80s Premiership players like Val Perovic and John Dorotich and also Allan Jakovich, two time leading goal kicker for the Dees in the early 90s. After some hassles renewing the AFL app, looks like its working now 🤞 May the best team win today 😊

I have largely tuned out of footy for 2025 and am on holidays abroad. Against my better judgement think I will update my Watch AFL account and try to catch this with patchy wi-fi (I'm a sucker for punishment 😁). Both clubs have badly botched their seasons. The Dees are trying to reinvent themselves on the run, the Blues are in freefall and probably haven't bottomed out yet. Dees by 3 goals. Interesting to see what the crowd turnout will be. How many Melbourne supporters are at the snow and how many Carlton fans sre sunning on the Mediterranean? 😁

Pies without even a solitary goal at HT ... suddenly I have a bit of interest in football this season again 😁

I don't gamble. Just doesn't interest me. I can't stand pokies, I think i would rather pull out my toenails out than an evening playing pokies. Gambling does create some real negative social outcomes but it is legal, it is taxed, adults can make their own free choices whether to partake or not and I csn't see why a football club cannot 'invest' in this sector to diversify their income sources.

I would say that the Dees and the Blues are in very similar situations with both clubs facing a fork in the road moment at the end of this season. If the right moves are made, being back in contention in a couple of seasons is certainly possible and achievable. Full blown rebuilds are not required. But some calls need to be made now.

2 draft/trade periods, 2025 and 2026 for a reset under a new coaching team, head of football and CEO (CEO already onboard).

On the train back from the MCG. Against my better judgement I still went to this game 😁 Result was not unexpected, at least this means the Voss era is coming to a close soon. I feel for him, was a superstar footballer but just isn't senior coach material (not to absolve some of the players mind you) and he should have been given better support. It simply hasn't worked out. I still believe that in the right hands with some intelligent list management moves the Blues can be a contender in a fairly short time frame, but remains to be seen if enough levers can be pulled to get closer to that goal ...

100% Its all about getting access to Gosch's Paddock. Without it, Collingwood and Richmond will have a substandard training facility by current AFL standards. Dees should be using Gosch's Paddock until the opening ribbon on Caulfield is ready to be cut.

Geelong and C'Wood have shown you don't have to draft your way to reset (or rebuild) a list and some canny mature age recruiting can change things in a relatively short time frame. Key is to have savvy people in recruiting & coaching. Think that is an issue for both the Blues and the Dees and it may be a scramble to chase some of the same names.

I watched Carlton on Thursday night do their best to get their coach sacked ... the Dees today on the Gold Coast "hold my beer and watch ..." ... my overseas holiday can't come fast enough, footy sucks this year 🙃😁

Correct spelling, rules out a Collingwood supporter subversion.

Aye, and you try and tell the young people about that today ... and they won't believe you!

The swimming complex is most definiteky still there, went for a swim there this summer and still had that new acquatic centre smell 😁 The other end of Lord Reserve on Koornang Road in Carnegie also has an oval, I think Caulfield Bears and Carnegie Cricket Club use it? That area is a great location, near Glen Huntly and Carnegie train stations (different lines) and also the 67 tram. Caulfield RC should be the primary aim but this could be a potential backup possibility.

If St Kilda does actually put in that rumoured ludicrous offer to Carlton's TDK could we see the Blues court LJ and nab a better and younger ruckman for even less ... 🤔 [runs for the foxhole ... 😁]

If the Dees had Harry McKay in 2022 and 2023 I would wager good money that MFC would have Premiership #14 on the mantlepiece now (or #17 if you are a Colin Carterite).

At the MCG right now, HT, the Blues are horrid. This game msy just well kill the senior coaching career of Michael Voss. At least I can get a 500ml Asahi here ... mmm beer ... fortunately I still have beer ... 🍺😁

The Workshop cafe in Glen Huntly does a decent shakshuka and coffee IIRC ☕️

I always assumed it was going to be in that S.E. Corner actually, lol. Better location and also easy access for 67 tram and recently redeveloped Glen Huntly Station. None of this impacts of the training ovals inside the racecourse mind you.

An important move for MFC, I say that Kozzie can be the best small forward in the league very soon and signals that the Dees are serious about being a contender and are not the shambolic hot mess internally like some segments of the media have sought to portray recently.

Agreed. Kozzie will be the best small forward in the league. Just needs to iron out a few more rough edges. Dees have to splash the cash for him!

Some naivety and lack of finesse when it counted, the endeavour from the Dees was great though and they should have won. Make no mistake, the umpires steered this win, its nauseating 🤮

On my way in to the MCG, last time I watched Dees v C'Wood live, the Dees won ... hope its an omen 😈 Just have this feeling that C'Wood's great run has to hit a pothole sometime soon ... hoping its a big MFC pothole this arvo 😁

It is a heavy wooden cross to bear 🥺 😁 On the train home from the MCG, the Blues scraped in, not much more to add. Still always good to beat Essendon though 💉