Skuit

I love cucumber sandwiches. Just today I had one with sweet baby Lebanese on homemade sourdough adorned with sumptuous organic butter, but augmented it with some aged Italian parmesan shavings and garden-fresh coriander and rocket, dusted with ground Kampot pepper and pink Himalayan salt crystals. It was so delicious that I quickly prepared and snuck in another one when my current life partner ventured out for a brief errand. She almost caught me with evidential crumbs on my shirt, but I fibbed and said it was dandruff! Queen Elizabeth II enjoys her cucumber sandwiches with Norwegian smoked salmon, so I didn't feel too guilty from a purist's perspective for my wild embellishments. And from a Collingwood perspective, I suppose at least it was white bread. I dunno, I feel like it beats meat pies with a regulated 18 percent 'meat' content and four fifths gristle and floor sweepings. But maybe that's just me.

So toward the end of last year I spent some time in a remote corner of northern Australia. Chatting to the AFL-employed footy development officer for the region, he mentioned that the official zoned club had not done a thing to promote football etc. - but also said that under the program if clubs don't engage with the communities other clubs can come in and claim the players and regions. Someone recently mentioned St Kilda had been making phone-calls in their community. I hope we're doing the same.

For all that 1998 was a great season I still recall heading into our prelim with little hope vs. North. They were the AFL's Friday night darlings and had given us a spanking in the run home. 2000 we were never in the race, up against possibly the best performing team in history. This year is different - we are the genuine front-runners now. That said - that's rating flag chances, not teams. As for teams, we have the best midfield and best defence in my lifetime, especially the two one-two combinations of Oliver/Trac and Lever/May - nothing comes even close to those pairings in my mind. We're lacking star-power up forward, but the forward-50 arc is probably the most difficult to compare between eras. I think on the balance of things, this year* is close to the best team we've fielded in the past thirty. *Note: we basically fielded the same team last year.

A sub (in industry terms).

My workings above

What it says on the can. I started a similar thread in 2017 but it didn't get far. Quite a difficult exercise, but I will give it a go to kick off. Explain your workings and own parameters if you care to or not, and add stars or ratings however you see fit. Mine are just in order of merit and emotion. Richmond Dogs Brisbane Geelong GWS Saints Sydney Carlton Hawthorn Freo North Adelaide

Welcome to Skuit's random post-match thought-bubbles. It's nice to support a real football team. I'm so (expletive) proud of the boys tonight. But it's a bizarre feeling though that after so many years supporting the MFC in the wilderness that my pride in the team now has a fatherly quality. Have loved Pickett's dressage approach for set-shots all season. Disappointed that BT expressed a similar sentiment tonight before I put it on public record. Yet, I still have time to claim that May's body posture resembles one of the Rolling Stones. Paging @demonstone Eric Hipwood reminds me of what Sam Weideman hasn't been able to achieve. We were literally out-marked in the first half, with Brisbane beating us by first hitting up marking targets at half-forward to negate our usual defensive dominance. I was the lone MFC supporter in the venue tonight. A Brisbane guy said it probably wasn't what I was used to coming from Melbourne, before I told him I wasn't from from Melbourne, and then realised I've spent most of my life as the lone MFC supporter. Although, if I wasn't a Melbourne supporter, I would probably have an even greater appreciation for how good Oliver and Trac truly are, even though I already think they are two of our best if not greatest ever mid-fielders. I bet large on Melbourne for $6.50 at 40+ (gamble responsibly or not at all), and despite the beautiful gritty win I'm getting concerned that we don't have a kill mentality. Started the exact same thread in 2017 and was ridiculed, until . . .

Caroline Wilson blends opinion-based writing with investigative journalism, which blurs the line between rhetoric and fact, and is the reason many people find her and much of contemporary Australian media so antagonising. The righteousness and often innuendo in her reporting isn't befitting of a balanced journalist, as the story should really speak for itself..

Doesn't seem to like marking overhead.

Scroll back to the start of this thread and read the first post which details both Turner's height and how tall he is.

At some stage over the past year I posted that Sam was closing his eyes on contact. I had noticed it once or twice live and went and closely looked at some footage to confirm. I imagine all players do to some degree but it really stood out to me. I haven't bothered to check again but this would be a fairly obvious reason for failing to complete his marks. Suggested some heavy marking work with the tackle-bags as a possible remedy.

Our mean and median average winning margin is basically same. Would be nice to win a match by more than four-to-five goals one day. Well done to the boys though.

We've all been riding the 10-zip wave and framing its parallels as a hopeful conclusion to a five-decade long saga dating back to Norm's dumping. But the true narrative starts almost exactly one decade ago, in 2011 - and the parallels, and almost spiritual redemption, are both uncanny and monumental. Whereas as the sacking in 2011 of a young and tactical coach, who lacked the faith of the president but had a united and still maturing playing group, led us to the darkest era of possibly any club in history, this time the board saw fit to remove the critical president and back a coach in a highly similar situation.* Curiously, there's one figure who is central to both events - one who may be the real redemption figure here;** “I reckon it was one of Melbourne’s biggest mistakes getting rid of Dean Bailey.” "“Any business or organisation when you’re doing those things you’ve got to stick to your guns." “I’m still ashamed of the game today. We, and I, definitely took full responsibility for Dean getting sacked and the way the club went down was something that still doesn’t sit right with me to this day. I feel sick about it really. It cut deep.” ................................................................................... *If Gleeson's account is accurate in its portrayal. **Which may also shed some further light on Caro's board article last year.

Why is everyone so keen for this game - and round - to go ahead? In terms of ladder position and outside of finals, this is one of our most keenly anticipated matches in years. Now both teams have had significant disruptions, and the match will be played in an empty stadium without a crowd. I've personally lost all interest, and I say this with having no prospect of attending the game live to begin with. Why not just bring the bye forward and give it a week to see what happens, while also helping to minimise the risk of exposure to players - which could disrupt the competition to a much greater degree. ? Other recent snap lockdowns have proven successful, and we may just get crowds allowed in and $$$. Instead, our players have to wait till gameday to see if the match is even going ahead. I understand the AFL's get-as-many-games-done-when-you-can mentality last year, but this is a completely different situation.

They can get tactical advice from Vlaustin and Short.

I said this before Mac Andrew was a thing, and will now say it again. I believe that the MFC must lobby the AFL for a more equitable phase out of the NGA, where clubs should continue to be able to match bids at any stage of the draft until they tally the equivalent in discounted points as whichever club has spent/saved the most to date (exc. the Northern Academies). It could even be tied to just the first round. A much slower phase out, but the draft will become less compromised each year and the actual intended benefits from the NGA will be realised as much as they are today for longer. Clubs may even be hesitant to spend their small, one-time allotment of points if there are promising prospects coming through, meaning greater longer-term engagement. As only a handful of clubs have benefitted to date, one would imagine the majority would readily agree to the proposal. It's ridiculous that a couple of clubs should gain an advantage in such a tight competition to such a random extent. I really do believe it would be a worthwhile exercise for the club to gain support and make its case to AFL HQ.

Caveat: I may have this all mixed up. But the kid I was thinking of can be found here (12.25 some excitement):

Interesting. Played for St Mary's in the Central GF when I was down there last year. Our NGA territory, and we have a particularly strong connection to the Santa Teresa community, having grassed their oval. A great watch for anyone who hasn't seen it:

Probably last chance to bring big bad slamming Sam Baulderstone to the club. Otherwise, your loss Demons. http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2013/05/14/1226642/435736-sam-baulderstone.jpg

From the cocky 8-0 corner: tap Kysaiah for some of Trac's middle minutes. Bring in Bedford or Chandler to cover those lost up forward. Brayshaw can pitch in in the middle too. I know we got slaughtered in the centre-clearances last week, but Oliver, Harmes and Brayshaw should have it covered, and the extra small will balance the extra tall. Keep challenging Pickett while we're in the black.

Aborted post.

You're right. It was 2005 - 16 years ago. My poor memory has completely invalidated my point.

Reality is - despite being the crappest team in history for a good part - we haven't had an unwanted go home beside maybe Scott Thompson in the past fifteen years. In addition, since Goodwin has been at the club, we haven't lost a single player we really wanted to keep and have brought in almost all of those we've publicly targeted. Club is well run and we have a good culture. Just signed up Trac to seven years, along with deals for Max, Viney, Oliver and Salem. No one of interest will be leaving of their own accord.

Thanks for sharing the link. A good read. I'm concerned you have comprehension problems though if your take-away was that Petracca's signing would lead to long-term issues. Exact opposite to the jist of the article you're providing as evidence.

I don't know to be honest. Maybe elite sport in Australia is different to global sports? We've been busy trying to build a mature team - I would contend that maturity includes not wanting to go 'home' and play around with high-school friends. Anyone who does desire such - see Hogan perhaps - isn't the right fit to begin with. Let them walk.