seventyfour

Beyond Brayshaw, there's Brown, McDonald, Hunter, Petty and Tomlinson that would be all likely be on above-average salaries and may come off the books this year through trade, retirement or delisting. Smith will be gone too, maybe Melksham, and we didn't replace Grundy's salary this year either. If we replace a lot of those players in the draft, that is a huge amount of salary freed up. The question is whether we go all-out again next year, or if use 2026 to develop some kids to get us ready for a home-grown tilt in 2026.

I don't know that Goody can go, and i'd be fine with that, but Greg Stafford absolutely has to go. I'm not sure about Alan Richardson either. We also really, really need off-field stability and need to prove to the rest of the competition - as in the players - that the culture is improving. I'd love to know that players like LDU, Yeo and Tom Lynch have Melbourne on their radar as a trade or FA destination.

Retired: Brayshaw, McDonald, Brown, Melksham Delisted: Smith, Hunter, Schache Traded: Petty That's eight changes, then there are always unforeseen trade requests or delistings. Would not be surprised if the list hit 10 players. We'll need to load up at the draft for the first time in years. Agree that 2025 might be a down year, to reload for one last tilt with the current crop. The issue there is Steven May probably won't make it to 2026, and I just can't imagine us winning the flag without him. We'd need to find a KPD in a trade or free agency.

I'll kill myself if we concede another by quarter time without getting one ourselves

Drop Sparrow for Tholstrup next week.

We're mentally cooked

We're mentally cooked

Ermmm that is not good? No emergencies?

I care more about winning this game just because it's Collingwood/Maynard than I care about the win potentially saving our season.

Anyone but Laurie, please. Has shown nothing and doesn't look at all like a player who would rise on a stage like King's Birthday. Have similar feelings about Howes, had some shaky moments in bigger games while he was in the team. Unfortunately we don't really have any other options. Billings is just as bad as Laurie.

I wonder how far off Kynan Brown would be, with the idea to play him as a very defensively minded forward. A speedy terrier running around, harrassing the hell out of the opposition, might be just the sort of spark we need. He might even be there to do the job for three-quarters, with the hope that we wouldn't have other injuries and could sub him out. I dunno. Just a thought.

Being a good side helps, we get the best time slots to attract big crowds. With how we're travelling at the moment we could see 20k at the Saturday night game against North Melbourne.

Petty formed a crucial part of a premiership winning defence, then looked brilliant playing forward before hurting his foot in 2023. Plenty of players before him have made the same move from defender to forward and had strong careers. Anyone saying that we were "crazy" to let Petty go is trying to re-write history. We weren't crazy to let him go, in fact it would've been crazy to just let him go easily, given what he had proved as a defender and what he was showing as a forward.

I cannot get over that unpaid HTB Absolutely criminal

Cool so instead of it being HTB and is going 19-0 up it's now 13-12. This is why people get so bloody annoyed about umpiring. Should've been rewarded to give us tons of momentum and now we have none.

Club prioritises winning at AFL over VFL. Imagine a few players get food poisoning whiel in Alice Springs or are carrying illness that doesn't show up until the trip. Disaster. Goody and the players always speak about how good travel is for team connection too.

Good summary. Unfortuantely we need to accept that this problem won't go away. If we win the flag this year, it'll come from having the #1 defence, from midfielders kicking goals, and from goalkicking accuracy in the finals. It was Fritsch, Pickett and Petracca who hit the scoreboard in the 2021 finals, with the cameo from Gawn that we can never expect to happen again.

Luker Kentfield from the WAFL. 19yo, 196cm / 93kg tall forward.

He copped a suspended ban for the incident early in the year so you would think they activate that now.

We had May, Lever, McDonald and Howes before. Replace Howes with Tomo?

It's accuracy too. 51.55 in first halves, 79.70 in second halves.

We won't win the flag by sending players forward who don't belong there. We'll win by our forwards and the mids doing their jobs. Billy Frampton's performance as a forward could've cost Collingwood them last year. I don't see why Tomo can't stay in the team when Lever returns.

Harsh on Chandler. Thought he had some really good pressure acts on the wing. Needs to kick more goals but I thought he was good yesterday.

Fritsch has been critcised for selfishness in the past, but with the way our forwards are playing and how Fritsch is kicking lately, I hope he remains selfish. His snaps are really special. Pickett is in a similar boat.

Billings has to be on the 'never again' pile. 162 games, two clubs. He has talent but is neither consistent nor physical enough to be an AFL contributor. Agree RE: Windsor. The problem is, when was the last time an MFC player was managed? It's time for Windsor IMO. Taj has to get a run. Leave Windsor behind for the trip to the NT.