The Taciturn Demon

I did think about mentioning that as the exception. What a moment.

I always thought Harmes did make a difference... for the middle part of his time at Melbourne, anyway. He complemented Petracca, Viney and Oliver really well while also being capable outside centre bounces. He wasn't a turn-the-game player, but he made it easier for stars to do their thing.

Belated Harmes replacement?

I've seen some good Kate Hore games. Not sure if I've seen a better one than that.

She's going to be so good when she can run out a game.

Hore Hanks Chaplin Ebert Heath Fitzsimon

Rayner walking off wearing the cheat's rictus.

Absolute certainty. Such a good description. The tribalism of footy can be great fun. But it can also be very dark.

I found it interesting that they didn't show that tackle and what Maynard did immediately after. There were seconds left and the game was done. Pathetic from Maynard.

This is why West Coast supporters furiously applauded Gaff after he went full 1970s sniper and obliterated Andrew Brayshaw's face. Because for some people reason and fairness don't come into it: everything the red team do is wrong, even if it's being a completely innocent victim of abysmal behaviour, and everything the blue team do is right, even if it's doing something universally accepted to be thuggery or bigotry.

I agree it was a huge waste of time and effort, and was costly. But I'm interested in the counterfactual. How do you, and others who think it was mostly Max's fault, think it could have turned out if Gawn had been more... I don't know... accommodating?

And it goes back decades. Hawthorn sneered at us in the late 80s and early 90s. Pretty sure Brereton and maybe even Dunstall have spoken about this publicly. I also think 1996 did us no favours in almost every single way, including shaking the softness tag. Two very different approaches from most players and many fans to what was essentially the death of two great clubs.

Completely plausible. And I distinctly remember the handwaving. But how did they get it so wrong? I've argued elsewhere, Goodwin may have become preoccupied by stats, but a couple of stats might have raised alarm bells on this one. The Jackson-Gawn combo worked incredibly well, but Jackson never got above 40% CBA in 2021 and once above 50% in 2022 (when Gawn didn't play). Gawn has never kicked more than 16 goals in a season in his career. Grundy has never kicked more than 12. By 2022, Grundy's contested marking had gone from respectable - above average, probably - to consistently outside the top ten for rucks and outside the top 50 in the league.

I find Melbourne going after Grundy one of the most fascinating stories since... well... the merger. I would do anything to see an honest documentary on it - starting with the when Grundy was first mentioned inside the club and ending with The Schache Debacle. I'm open to the idea that this is somehow Gawn's fault, but none of the possibilities seem even vaguely plausible. Here's my take: fans and presumably business wankers with sway at football clubs put far too much store in landing 'big fishes'. Big fishes are only helpful if you're terrible and they simply become the best or second best player in the team or they complement what you're doing. And even then they don't guarantee sustained success - Chris Judd at Carlton springs to mind. Grundy is the sparkling exemplar of what happens when you get seduced by a name and give a laughable amount of serious thought to where that name will go on the magnet board. As I said, I don't totally discount the idea the failure was a product of Gawn hubris or arrogance. But I don't see how Grundy's startling inability to take a mark above his shoulders has anything to do with Max Gawn.

I agree. The entire system led to this. Missing goals that would get kicked in most other circumstances is just a small part of the problem and isn't separate from other problems.

Interested in your thoughts on energetics as they relate to Kade Chandler.

Is he on the "probably fine to use Mitch Owens" end of the spectrum?

Wow, that injury list isn't diminishing, is it? Richmond stuck around against Essendon. I thought they were OK. This could be a bigger challenge than it might have seemed as we were steamrolling St Kilda a couple of weeks ago.

Yep. Punt Road was probably the worst venue I've been to to watch the women (although from memory it was a scorching hot evening, which didn't help).

Oh that's interesting. I thought Oliver showed some encouraging glimpses towards the end of the year, but much of his season looked to me not a huge deal better than 2024. Perhaps I set my expectations far too low for Petracca (I remember thinking there was zero change he would even be available in Round 1), but I thought he was pretty good throughout. Way down on goals, and as you've said, making inconceivably bad kicking decisions, but still contributing.

Honest question: do you have to be a regular Foxtel viewer to understand the aura around Buckley? I absolutely understand that it was real in 2012. I don't understand it now.

Ha ha. I think it's a conspiracy but not a theory. It's impossible to deny.

A lot of the play was on the other side of the ground from where I was, so this is probably badly skewed. Chaplin Hore Harris Hanks Wotherspoon Paxman

You don't hear this very often: Stinear said Collingwood deserved to win in his press conference.

Totally agree. Casey would be fine if the locals were mad for the Demons. Crowd numbers suggest they're not. Interesting to see how many Melbourne supporters were there today - more than I usually see at even Princes Park, I reckon. Hard to see what the ratio was like in the grandstand behind the goals, but in the wing seating I think the Melbourne fans comfortably outnumbered the Collingwood fans.