Whispering_Jack

Kev. The teams have been posted on page 2 of this thread. A couple of players named as MFC emergencies will go out as they’ve travelled to Sydney and one of them will be the sub for that game. I’m sure that KC will let us know the changes as soon as they are to hand.

Looking forward to a big game for the boys who I expect to live up to Goody's ethic of hard work and never shirking any issues irrespective of the match up.

I can still remember the sad days when the tanking controversy ripped through the Melbourne Football Club. We were pilloried in the press as every move the club made was examined under a microscope. Sentences uttered, even those made clearly in jest, were considered as damning by journalists hungry for sleazy headlines ready to condemn the Demons for committing heinous crimes that were ignored when committed earlier by the likes of Collingwood, Hawthorn, Richmond and Carlton. The atmosphere was toxic. But today, tanking is becoming almost respectable, little more than a minor moral dilemma facing Al Clarkson as North Melbourne embarks on its campaign to snare as many concessions from the AFL as it can get without causing embarrassment to the competition’s power brokers. It seems that nobody cares about integrity as much as they did in the days when it was a crime to tell a joke. To tank or not to tank? POSTSCRIPT: Robbo claims in the article that “Demons coach Dean Bailey actually admitted he was asked to not win games”. I don’t believe that’s true - my recollection is that Bails never went as far as admitting that at all. We all knew the drill but nobody had to be told what was at stake. Whatever you wanted to call it - tanking, list management, whatever, the practice was encouraged at the highest official level and the idea of selective sanctions at the time against one club for allegedly bringing the game into disrepute constituted rank hypocrisy by the AFL and many in the football industry. Attitudes might have changed but the hypocrisy has not.

I wouldn’t get too carried away about the prospect of Hawthorn beating Fremantle at the G today. I can clearly recall the night when those teams met earlier this year and the Dockers gave the Hawks a 69 point flogging at Optus Stadium. It was the night of King Charles III’s coronation and I was trying desperately to avoid the boredom of that spectacle only to fall into a worse hell in my capacity as a Freo Death Rider. The Hawks couldn’t take a trick that night and the Dockers played like certain finalists. And please don’t remind me that today’s game’s is being played at the MCG. We know what happened in Round 11 at that venue. And that’s my dose of DRFSS for today.

So much for ten day weather forecasts. My weather app for Sydney tomorrow is for a sunny day day with a maximum of 22 degrees. I hope we haven’t picked any mudlarks.

You can’t get played into form if you play against a team that wouldn’t even finish in the top 10 in the VFL based on how they’ve been travelling.

IN J. Harmes J., Jordon B. Laurie N. Moodie J. Schache A. Tomlinson OUT M. Hibberd K. Farris-White H. Neocleous Z. Toledo-Glasman D.Turner R. Valentine

We know we’re in a bit of strife when this happens!

Classic Mixed Media - on the one hand, the Fox Footy website is claiming that Melbourne is talking to rival clubs about Brodie Grundy Dees begin Grundy talks with three clubs and on the other, ‘He’s got four years’: Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin quashes Brody Grundy trade talk

He was picked by the team’s coaches as Vic Metro’s best player in the National Championships.

The real Robbo (Russell Robertson) has lashed out at Kane Cornes for his ridiculous attack on Simon Goodwin’s characterisation of Hawthorn tagger Finn Maginness as a player who doesn’t want the ball. ‘No one gives a s*** what you think’: Ex-AFL star Russell Robertson erupts in scathing Kane Cornes spray

That rule only applies where the club in question is receiving special assistance from the AFL.

The players have been selected for testing in the Draft Combines. As in the past few seasons (with the exception of the major Covid interruption in 2020), there’s the main AFL Draft Combine and the State Combines 2023 AFL Draft Combine list announced 2023 AFL State Draft Combines list announced

You missed the obvious one and that is the AFL’s engineering of outcomes by changing their rules, often in midstream. I would be very interested to see what the AFL does with North Melbourne’s ploy to have Tasmanian top 10 draft prospect Ryley Sanders registered as a Next Generation Academy player and then be pre-listed or eligible for drafting by North in contradiction to the NGA rules that apply to the non Northern States. The AFL has yet to agree to the idea but if it had integrity, consistency and fairness as heart then it should have already come out and ruled out this farcical sham as yet another unnecessary compromising of its own rules. Any organization with an ounce of decency would laugh such an idea out of court.

Yes. He scored 0.1 with 12 touches of the footy.

You’ve got that right Chelly

In June 2011 … 6naoRjl80WBmlrOx.mp4

Well - it’s now 4 or 5 depending on whether the Hawks beat Freo and the Suns overcome North. Both games are on in the early afternoon of next Saturday which automatically becomes the most intriguing part of the season’s final round.

Recalling that James Harmes missed a few games early this year for personal reasons, I hope that he’s okay now. He’s a life long Demon fan and lived his dream as a Melbourne premiership player and I’m looking forward to seeing him in action again in the red and blue.

When Hawthorn beat Collingwood recently, there were great wraps placed on Mitch Lewis, Jai Newcombe, Chad Wingard and of course James Sicily. I'd like to hear the panel's view of Melbourne's performance yesterday in light of the fact that three of their star players from that game were missing - out injured.

I’ve been thinking that we need to make a good start to the game after three consecutive games of slow starts but recent history over a number of matches is telling us differently. And I don’t understand the negativity of some people given that of all the teams in the competition, we have the highest percentage at this late stage of the season. So, I’m confident that we’ll be in front at the end of the day

Footscray’s 12 goal victory over Port Melbourne today means that Casey will drop to 7th if it loses to the Brisbane Lions tomorrow.

Some big ins ~ IN B Brown Grundy Hibberd Jordon Toledo D Turner OUT K. Brown Harmes Laurie McRae Tomlinson Steele

Max is the latest in line of Melbourne’s premiership captains and he sits on the same high pedestal on my vision as the one who skippered the club to its previous two flags in 1964 and in 1960 — the great Ronald Dale Barassi who also played in four others before that in 1959, 1957, 1956 and 1955. On Sunday, Max reaches game 200 and I salute him for that but what I’m looking forward to and I reckon Max is aiming for is to play game 204 on the MCG in just over a month’s time in a winning grand final against Collingwood. The achievement of 204 games on that day will make him equal in the number of games played for Melbourne and premiership cups held aloft as skipper of this great club with Barassi. A coincidence, but one worth looking forward to over the next 40 plus days to come. Take it to the Max!