Skuit

He was an absolute pillar in our three-pronged premiership-year defensive set-up for the first six or seven rounds while building belief among our team until doing his knee against North and ultimately being usurped by Petty. Otherwise, I'm fairly certain he would now have a grand final medallion, and it's not forgotten. Tomald's Jesus-like resurrection this year has further cruelled his career.

I'm not sure if the hilarious Ivan Reitman pairing of Muggsy Bogues and Farris-White can cover the departures of Jackson, Maynard, Trac and Watts on their own.

We need to invest in a club creche to better support the likes of Kozzie and ANB in their transition to fatherhood and provide space for Christian Petracca to feel loved and nurtured through cuddles and story time.

The thing is Burgess's influence went well beyond the start line. It was like having another highly-respected motivational coach for the team.

@spirit of norm smith what would you do if you were Lamb and Taylor all rolled into one?

Was it TGR? We made like bandits in that last trade.

Is North a chance to downgrade from #2? There would be some pressure on them to look beyond the midfield now right? That would probably mean our #5 and F1 to get up to #2 (I'm guessing the industry, rather than our fan-base, would estimate that as around #14 next year). Plus a handshake on who we won't take. Not my proposed trade, just curious.

See you troopers again next season. Live and love large. It's been a pleasure. Onwards and upwards in 2025!

Definitely as to the waning gibbous part, but not so sure about an only moderate Max UV index rating.

Someone complained this week about Viney's contract extension (no names, but you could probably guess who), partially on the basis of Jack nursing a long-term shoulder injury. Correlation doesn't equal causation and all that, but I've noticed that when our vice cops an early stinger it seems to activate beast mode. Come at him at your own peril. Long live this thread.

Is that the Petracca doll? Definitely out the door judging by his Hogan-like lack of smile. Also looks a bit fat.

Twelve hours to kick-off. Time enough to get in a few chapters of Thinking, Fast and Slow by the recently deceased Nobel prize-winning behavioral scientist Daniel Kahneman and ponder the mental juxtaposition created by the contradictory desire for instant gratification weighed against longer-term goal-setting and its potential promise of greater future rewards as disrupted by a lack of concrete details on the exact timeframe of our own personal demise, which becomes further complicated again for those of us who remain childless or have a lifestyle profile which could be classed as 'high risk' but still boast a full set of teeth, in all providing for an interesting metaphor for the Melbourne Football Club as its players line up for the first bounce in a dead Friday night rubber at the MCG. Or I could just read the Collingwood forums for a while to kill some time. Go Dees!

I did recruit at least three people to the MFC cause in Mozambique, a country which has remarkably seen live AFL action in the past: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/afl-to-stage-match-in-africa-20110509-1efte.html

Did you go home already? I just got back from Aljezur on the west coast a couple weeks ago, but then had to go to Belgium. Back in Portugal now.

The title is click-bait. There is no such thing in Portugal as no-one in this country has any idea of what AFL is, although my local grocer was a former member of the Portuguese international rugby league team. Anywho, anyone travelling here in the Australian ski-season is welcome to send me a message, as I might have a place for them to stay between Cascais and Sintra. This is not one of those serial-killer scenarios which apparently helps @WalkingCivilWar get to sleep at night, and I have a heap of credits inviting other members of this forum to stay at my place in various parts of the world sans murder, while also accepting some very kind offers of hospitality in return.

I've tried to point out before that the average annual turnover per season for both successful and non-successful clubs sits close to eight players or more, the number of which doesn't provide a reliable indicator for the year ahead. I think we'll have a similar figure as to open spots this time around, despite our list profile and 2024 failures.

Geelong did a serious number on us at the end of 2020 (stirring the pot for Viney, outbidding us for Isaac Smith's services, and then jumping the exposed MFC draft order to claim Max Holmes), which has had significant repercussions on our second wing recruiting ever since. See Billings and Hunter and Freeman. I say we turn the tables and make a bold play at uniting party-boys Oliver and Bailey at the MFC. We have better draft cookies than Geelong, and a starting midfield/wing line-up of Gawn, Clarry, Trac, Viney, B. Smith and Langdon would be one of the greatest ever assembled, with Pickett, Rivers and hopefully Judd running through.

Just looked at flights. The cheapest I could find on a single return ticket was for a 60-hour round-trip leaving tomorrow for just $3693.79, if anyone has spare coin. I'll buy the luker-warm Kentfield hot-dogs.

Peter Rohde has obviously got our back, casually letting slip to Jay Clark that Kozzie loves the Darwin weather to stifle any attempted Tasmania rumours when Pickett's contract is next up for renewal.

Eat a bag Deloitte. So it seems Jack's yeah-nah which launched 1000 posts on Sunday was probably a case of having already signed, but then remembering the press release wouldn't be announced until early in the week following the captain's. No way Jack managed to write a 400-word missive in under three days.

Yes, and Hunter. Unfortunate given the opposition (and the current high emotions), but we need an 'admirable effort' tank next week, or we might get stuck in early draft no-man's-land again. The opportunity to get below GC and the Saints, especially with the latter's potential free agency compo, could make a significant difference to our future. Winning or losing won't change the mind of any disgruntled employees or possible future ones.

There are also some lovely national parks northeast across the border if you have the time.

Fair warning. Anyone not currently demonstrating the requisite levels of cynicism might open themselves up to accusations of being a troll, or even a happy-clapper.

Hang out there until at least cyclone season for something interesting to happen, and then deal with that 100-year flop when it seems so close.