The Great Pretender

Someone posted on FB that SEN is reporting that Joel Smith has done a hammy and is set to be replaced by Hibbo. Anyone know if this is fact?

It should be an automatic 2 game suspension even if the contact was incidental and more if the umpire felt threatened or intimidated by the conduct. There’s a responsibility to the game and to all who play it at whatever level.

How could they do the finals in 3 weeks with 6 teams?

Surely, Weideman puts himself up for trade?

Jack Dyer used to mix them up and often would say that “Townselle played a good game for Melbourne today.”

Why? The Suns are giving up their home game. It’s probably a bit of an advantage to us to play them at a neutral venue.

This should be a quality game. Let’s hope that there’s no further disruption to this competition due to Covid19. It’s such a jumbled mess.

He definitely has concussion issues -

6. Christian Salem 5. Christian Petracca 4. Bayley Fritsch 3. Ed Langdon 2. Trent Rivers 1. Max Gawn

6. Salem 5. Jackson 4. Petracca 3. Harmes 2. Oliver 1. Jordon

No wonder he has his critics. Mac Andrew makes the top 15 in his power rankings off the top of one quarter of football. Isn’t that being a bit premature?

Really? There seems to be an element of exaggeration going on here. The Academy side was flogged to the tune of 20 goals and only scored 2 goals themselves. Remember 2 years ago, an Academy team that included a bevy of real stars including Rowell, Anderson etc. beat Casey. According to Herald Sun’s coverage on it’s subscriber only site, Andrew had 9 disposals, three marks, five hit outs and three clearances. Slim pickings from a supposedly top draft pick.

Knightmare was asked on bigfooty about Taj’s prospects:- “He'll need to keep developing. At this stage not sure he gets picked. But with improvement, he could move up draft boards. Have to see what he can do this year. “A wait and see at this point.”

Official now - his third ACL. Poor bloke.

Daw played four games last year in a club that was fractured and, after a reasonably good start, was losing regularly. By the time, Daw got his chance to play they were pretty much down and out, struggling to perform and with a coach who had lost focus. Not the best of circumstances to attempt a comeback from a debilitating injury that he incurred in fairly turbulent circumstances. Still, it wasn’t a complete train wreck. He filled in as a backup ruck man/forward and managed a goal and a reasonable number of hit outs and possessions in the first three of those games. His last game for North was up on the Gold Coast when the team was destroying by the Suns. He got 9 possessions in a game that was a disaster for both him and the club. His cards with the Kangaroos were marked. Sure, his career might be over but who knows? In a different environment and given opportunities, he might thrive. What do we have to lose by offering a one year contract?

I don’t have issues with small crumbing forwards but it’s very rare that players of 171cm or 172cm make the grade.

That would be a humiliation for club, coach and player.

My understanding is that the figure of $600k would apply if he performs at a high level of achievement through a season and meets all KPIs - eg wins the b & f. The base level of the contract would probably be around $400k.

Do not expect Melbourne to be players in terms of trading players into the club. We will clear Preuss and Hannan once the dust settles around the clubs they are going to. One or two more delistings to come and hopefully we can somehow improve our draft position.

Collingwood’s Ned Guy said that the Pies aren’t interested in TMac. I think that means they can’t afford him.

Season over.

While Collingwood are to be congratulated on making the finals, its worth noting how remarkably smooth their run of games in the second half of the season has been. After losing to Freo at Optus Stadium in Round 9, they’re played only one game away from the Gabba and that was v Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval in Round 11. This week they play Port Adelaide at ... (drum roll) ... the Gabba. That’s one plane trip in all of that time. They also had a bye during the last frenzy period. With the exception of a soft trip to play the bottom side in Adelaide, it was a complete joy for them to not have much traveling in the second half of the season and no games in the heat and humidity of FNQ or NT. Well done Eddie!

If there was one, the club website should have covered it by now.

Not quite tails up. They beat Fremantle and Swans in their first 2 games - both by a goal. I think there’s a fair chance we might have beaten them and Geelong at that stage. I’m not making excuses, just pointing out that the course of the season would have been different and a bye would have been handy at some stage in the past few weeks.

Essendon's Conor McKenna has retired, effective immediately. It was thanks to him that Melbourne’s fortunes started going off the rails in the early part of the season. We missed that game only one week after the resumption and we had a flat start the following week against Geelong. Perhaps, if McKenna hadn’t tested positive we might have had two extra wins plus a week’s respite by way of a bye around this time of year which might have made all the difference?