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Fritsch has been a positive today. Working up the ground and applying good pressure.

Drop Lever. He left Darling alone to support McDonald but didn't even support him. Awful awful defending.

We're so bad. Langford's ball use is atrocious.

It is incredibly gusty in St Kilda. Forecast suggests it'll hang around until the game starts. Would hate to be playing local footy today. Thankfully rain looks unlikely until after we're done. North will come in sniffing a win today. I hope we fight fire with fire, we have mature bodies and need to be on it early.

Re. Hardie, at 27yo, with 18 months with the Cats and a preseason with Melbourne, I think there must be something in his game that just won't translate to AFL. A shame for him, I feel sorry for the types that can never quite crack it above state level. It must be challenging. I do agree that Henderson seems to be a mistake but I'm not sure Hardie would've played much more for us. If we wanted to bring in mature midfielders next year I'd be going after someone like Dev Robertson.

Why do people say this like winning flags is easy. It drives me nuts. How many have Brisbane won recently despite being a top team for years? 1. How many have Geelong won recently despite being a top team most years? 1. How many times has Sydney won from their last 5 times playing in that the GF? 0. How did Collingwood go after winning in 2023? Didn't make finals.

Current picks are 23, 53, 59. One or two of these will need to go for Kalani White. We hold all of our future picks, but only our 2026 holds any potential value. The 2027 draft will be destroyed by Tasmania. Struggling to see how we get any deals done for players unless we lose a few. Would Gold Coast take a punt on Oliver, swap for Flanders?

Larkey missed training with knee complaint, fair chance he misses the game.

Weather looks shocking. Raining and windy. If anything I'd be looking to remove Jefferson for a smaller player.

I couldn't care less about Victoria. I only care about players who represent the red and blue. What does it even achieve? A few hours of entertainment during the season. Then back to the proper AFL season... The All-Star games in NFL and NBA have become a joke. The NRL is one of the few surviving leagues to have a strong all-star or stage-of-origin game, but they have a consistent legacy and only two states competing, hence a massive rivalry.

Been off for weeks

How is Oliver just jogging around barely a minute into the third quarter?

Jefferson had a exciting moment 15 seconds into his first game. I haven't seen anything exciting since. Really disappointing.

We lost a mid sized defender and a key forward. We didn't really have other options.

KFW and Bradtke were Forwards/Centers in basketball, usually stiffer athletes who use their height rather than movement and don't play as primary ball handlers. Berry is a guard, the position requires a lot more movement and skills with and without the ball in hand. Two of his brothers are punters in NFL and College Football, so there is clearly family pedigree when it comes to foot skills. KFW and Bradtke were much more onthe raw-with-upside due to their height. Berry seems more likely to have a chance.

Most of the time they will be. Have to be out of AFL systems for 3+ years. Not sure how many other sports would be relevant. Despite the way it ended, Joel Smith was a very serviceable player for us. Played the sub role incredibly well in 2023, could've been a Grand Final sub had injuries not gone against us. Hope Oscar could be the same. Cat B list spots can't be filled by any other types of players, so we're not taking some list spot that a kid or established AFL player could take. Would be on dirt low money too.

Yes, was in rehab almost all preseason

After this week we don't leave Melbourne again for the rest of the year. If we were competitive, we'd be excited about the opportunity. Our fixture last year was unfair with 5 games in 28 days and back-to-back Adelaide games against Adelaide sides. Our fixture this year has been fine.

Top 5 for speed in attack: Melbourne Top 5 for speed in defence: Gold Coast Stats say it all.

He has lost the players. During our premiership contention years, we would get outplayed or outcoached but we always showed up to play. Not today. This is Bailey and Neeld era stuff.

Who plays ruck when Gawn rests?

Agree. Windsor was incredible in his first year, they move him elsewhere and his performance suffers. Coaching issue imo. There's not even anyone exciting to replace him either. What are we going to see, Billings? Laurie? Henderson? zzz, none of them are the future.

McStay has never kicked more than 28 goals in a season. He wouldn't have changed our fortunes.

So should we have settled for the next best option to start right away or wait 6 months for the best option?

Why not play them all? Imagine Collingwood with De Goey and Petracca rotating with each other from forward to midfield. Nightmare stuff.