seventyfour

I have. We were in just as bad form last year and got it done against the Bombers. I don't rate Essendon at all. Merrett is a freak, otherwise there isn't much in their team that i'm scared of. Even the worst teams win games, usually 3 or 4. If Lever comes back it gives us arguably our best team (on-paper) so far this year. May and Kozz with games under their belt, hopefully Windsor is better with some consistency too. I understand that we look horrible but i'm not going into every game thinking it's an automatic loss, and the Bombers are a team i'd particularly highlight as opportunity for a win.

Essendon are no good and getting a lead will surely cause them jitters. We can absolutely win this game.

If the season finished today, our first pick would be 20, and that doesn't factor the pick sliding from academy and father-son players. Essendon holds our first round pick. There is no incentive for us to tank this year other than the development of young players.

Reckon the bombers would give our first pick back for trac?

I'd love to keep these two, and Kozzy, but at least one needs to go. Why? We need picks to regenerate the list. I'm terrified about the future of our backline, there's no KPD repalcements in sight and they take time to develop. We need to draft someone this year.

Have been saying for the last two years that we needed to draft a defender. Now May is clearly in decline and Petty looks [censored], while Adams is doing nothing at Casey.

Give that 16yo a 10kg weighted vest, make them run 2km, then make the sprint as hard as they can for 50m, then ask them to execute it. Now make them repeat that 20 times. Throw in being bumped and tackled throughout. How well would they go now?

Collingwood gave up their future to get Schultz and Houston. Schultz has been very average, not worth the first round pick they gave up. McStay has spent more time in rehab than playing (22 of possible 73 games since he got to Collingwood). Way to early to make a call on Perryman and Membrey. They were average last year and their 3-1 record this year has been far from impressive.

Agreed, but i'd be happy if they said "one more week" to Riv, promising him back to midfield next week when Lever is back.

Yep, awful timing for it. My feedback was not great at all.

If no AJ, does that mean JVR is back in the ruck? I was fully against it after last year but maybe it's a way to help him find form.

That's very good. Based on this we'd have all but three players available for Richmond on ANZAC Eve.

We looked like contenders while the Hawks only had 2 wins. Crazy how quickly it changed. That goal from Fritsch is an all-time MFC highlight. The rundown tackle and goal from Windsor was also an amazing moment for a first year player.

He would still be playing VFL if we kept him on the list. More dissapointed that we haven't drafted another KPD to get ready for life after May and McDonald. Cupboard is bare if Adams isn't up to it.

When we signed Brayshaw, Petracca, Oliver etc. to long contracts, in face of rumours of the first two leaving, it was seen by most members as a sign of how strong the club had become. Now they are 'bad contracts'...

Frustratingly we have an injury list that is heavy on <22's. Windsor, Tholstrup, McVee, Jefferson, Lindsay... all should be playing when they're fit in 3-4 weeks time.

Big issue is that fans won't want to rock up to games now, it's clear we all want to see the back of Goodwin. There's no-one else in the coaching panel that would inspire the fanbase though. I assume Chaplin would take over as interim; that doesn't excite me at all. At least at one stage we had T Viney and Yze around. Jones is in the box but a mile off it and right now looks like a questionable hire.

Lever and Kozzie raise the talent floor. May gets a poor rusty game out of his system and plays better. Hopefully Windsor is ready. Who knows...

Sorry but I can't buy this. We finished top 4 both years. 2022 finals I'll accept, it wasn't great, but the 2023 finals were lost by the players on the day, not the coach.

2023 was lost on injuries to forwards and poor set shot kicking. There was no conspiracy, we just had bad luck and kicked ourselves out of two finals. Melksham plays against Collingwood and we win, then I'm confident we would've handled GWS.

You can trade 2 years of first round picks as of this year. So Collingwood could give us their 2026 and 2027 firsts.

Package Rivers, McVee and JVR for West Coast's first and second round picks.

Thank you for the flag but the way we've unravelled on and off field since 2023 is too much of a mess to recover from.

Landford looks a mile off it, just wants a cheap handball every time he has the ball.

Drafting talls is a coin flip at best, and it takes years for them to have an impact. Jefferson and JVR were both drafted in the first round since we won the flag. Unfortunately neither have worked in that time. Maybe we could've drafted Armstrong last year, but it wouldn't make any difference to us this year. We'd have given up Landford or Lindsay to do so. The only decent talls from 2022 are Mac Andrew, Jye Amiss and Sam Darcy. We didn't have the rights or draft picks to get them. The next best is JVR. There's only one 193cm+ player in the 2022 draft who has played more than 10 games (Cadman). If you look at trading instead, it's impossible. Jackson left us with one destination in mind and there was nothing we could do. This is the story with trading for talls. Clubs don't let them go easily. When they go, usually they have only one team in mind. We tried hard to get Max Gruzewski from GWS last year and they refused to budge.