Go the Biff

Doubt it. If we win I reckon the plan will be for Melksham to go to Tom Stewart

Niners, Ravens, Colts. Good luck all

6. Clarrie 5. May 4. Petty 3. Langdon 2. Fritsch 1. Sparrow

I'm always happy to give ticket agencies a whack - I've found it's generally a stressful experience no matter the event or venue size. In this case however it was pretty smooth sailing after 15 minutes "in the queue". Requested Best Available, had a look at what it gave me and thought yep, that will do. I figure the simpler I make the process at my end, the more likely I'll get a positive outcome. So I didn't shop around for seats in my "preferred" area. Was close enough anyway. Some changes I'd like to see 1) Sell the games on different days. That's a no-brainer. Reduce the traffic & server load by 50% and you reduce the risk of cokcups. 2) Premium members get their own window. Not necessarily the "best" seats but for the quids they pay out to the club they should be given a decent crack at getting tickets before we "plebs" have a go (sorry @Jaded No More, couldn't resist) 3) Reduce the 10 ticket to one membership allocation significantly. I got four tickets using my daughters MFC membership. Three for members, one for my daughter's non MFC supporting partner who has developed a strong affection for the Dees. But I could easily have used that same barcode to get 6 more tickets for some of my non Melbourne bogan mates. Then used my own barcode for 10 other non Melbourne bogan mates. Rinse & repeat with my other daughters barcode. I shouldn't be allowed to do that. Nor should anyone else have that capacity

Passionate. Considered. Forthright. I thought Jobe was brilliant. Easily the best I've heard him speak. So why does he dish up such tripe in his special comments role !

The commentator is nowhere near as [censored] as our midfield.

Might be a good time to pick at the Essendon carcass. They are lurching from shambolic to full catastrophe. Wonder if they have anyone interesting and out of contract

I think Saad has a shirtful of sore ribs. Weitering seems ok

My first reaction to this was hell no ! And then HELL NO !!! Not that I don't rate Grundy - he's a gun ruck who's had one severe injury. It's more the $$$, the age, the Collingwood factor & a heap of salary cap tied up in two ruckmen. But after rolling it around the grey matter for a while.... This is a contingency plan based on LJ going. It addresses two birds with the one stone We need another KPF for 2023. Sadly, there are none to be had. McStay is the best available & we have one of those in T-Mac.So there's nothing we can trade in. Looking further there's no way McKay or Curnow will be prised out of Carlton, the Kings are already signed for a few more years and North are not likely to give us another FF. Can't see much else on the horizon. We'll need a second ruck for 2023. Goody is keen on the two ruck model. The footy department will have thought this through. They'll have a plan for how they want us to play in 2023. They'll have identified Grundy's role and presented that to him. They'll have explained how this impacts on Max's role which would likely be to spend a lot of time as a key forward and how they will work in tandem. Max is obviously on board as he was in the meeting. Personally I'm not a fan of Max up forward. I think we become too "Max-centric" at the expense of other, better options. However our captain is something of a freak. Barring his tap work (as he rarely jumps any more) he has managed to improve an aspect of his game pretty much every year. Be it his field kicking, his decision making, his contested marking. Even this year his leading patterns as a forward have improved significantly. So if the big fella wants to spend the summer working on his forward craft with a view to reinventing his 30 year old self as the second coming of a young Paul Salmon, I ain't the one to tell him he can't do it.

That's it in a nutshell. ANB is horribly out of form - with the ball. Without the ball his running, pressure & work-rate are all still there. However if he was to be dropped, we need to find someone who can perform his function at his level & better. I don't think that's Chandler nor Bedford nor Lawrie. I wonder if that could be Harmes or perhaps Jordan with Brayshaw then returning to the wing.

Yeah, I'll go round again

Josh Jenkins has his say. Was in Group 1 with Eddie Betts Josh Jenkins Full Statement on the Adelaide Crows 2018 pre-season camp

I've not forgotten. He had no other intention but to injure. Would dearly love to see retribution in the form of a knee to the solar plexus at Cox's first centre bounce. Aside from that I don't mind the big Yank. He has a quirky sense of humour & deserves credit for carving out a career in a foreign game

Hah. Played a couple of years in that. Loved those unfenced grounds. If you followed the ball over the boundary into the spectators you'd cop half a dozen jabs to the kidneys on your way back on the field. Fun times !

Don't come across many expressions I haven't heard before. That one is a cracker Mel.

Apologies for the Essendon content but perhaps Lingers has graduated from the Grooming School for AFL Footballers

I've done this before having rewatched the game & can't be stuffed trying to find my post. Everyone goes "4 goals, 4 goals - he's a forward". Yeah he kicked 4 but from memory he booted a monster from near the centre circle - wasn't playing forward at the time. One was an opportunistic snap from the pocket. The last couple were when he was on one leg in the goal square & they pretty much landed in his lap. I think his direct opponent was queued at the pie stall for the first of that pair. Maybe snuck off for a cheeky dart for the second. Or perhaps Smithy farted. Whatever happened, he was left alone. So there was nothing about his game that made me think "you beauty - we have a natural forward here". Believe me I was looking as they are hard to come by & I'd have loved to see Smithy jnr replicate his dad's deeds. Love him to prove me wrong. Poor bugger has had a wretched run with injury & deserves a change in fortune

Courageous is one word. I think we need two talls and while JVR's development is pleasing, I reckon if they were going to play him it would have been last week. Instead he spent Sunday kicking 5 which looks great on the stat sheet but it was against the last placed team full of sparkies, plumbers & pizza delivery dudes.

Fence, you're an eternal optimist. I'd be loath to use him in a bash & crash kamikaze role given he can get injured just by crossing the boundary line. Accident waiting to happen I'd have thought.

Have a look at the game & you'll be less impressed with his forward craft.

You can pass the test Jaded but have symptoms kick in later on. So maybe that. Or maybe someone copped one at training

I kinda agree with this. He's contracted for another year and failing a miraculous return from TMac we have to keep playing him this year. His main issues as I see it. 1) He's too easily outbodied. So either he lacks core strength - which is possible as he's only put on semi decent size in the last couple of years - or his technique is poor. If the former then he's got a summer of squats & dead lifts ahead of him if he wants to make the most of his final contracted year. If the latter, he needs some specialized coaching. The Ox is a great example of someone who turned into a great "body" player. It needs addressing because at the moment he has a 95kg body being driven by a 70kg brain. 2) He needs to mark with his hands out in front of his face. Take the ball where its harder for defenders to spoil it. Too often he tries to take the ball almost directly above his head. Easy meat for any half decent defender to spoil without infringing. 3) Get the boy to Specsavers ! Have we tested his bloody eyesight ? The double grabbing, the running under the flight path - can he actually see the damn pill properly ? FWIW I gave him a bare pass on Saturday but he turned a fantastic start into a barely adequate game. Someone should also tell him that just because Max is in the pack doesn't mean he can't fly for it as well.

Nah - JB has been rolling with "bang" for years. His Clarrie call though, will likely become part of AFL iconography alongside the likes of Stephen Quartermain's "Leo Barry You Star" I thought the best thing about Brayshaw's "Bang..........bang bang bang" was the silence he followed it with, allowing the vision of the celebrating players tell the story

Good to see someone recognise Carmody's efforts. He reminds me a bit of Peter Donegan, a quality sportscaster who could turn his hand to pretty much any sport. A few years ago the VFL & AFLW telecasts were largely anchored by Carmody, Jason Bennett and Abbey Holmes and I thought they did a terrific, professional job. Good to see the three of them get more time on bigger stages although Carmody's expanded role has mainly been in horse racing coverage. I'm also a Papalia fan. He understands that his role is to call the game as accurately as possible and he just gets on with it. I prefer Daisy's analysis to most and I suspect the main reason that she's good is because she's still involved in the game. Special comments / analysts seem to me to have a limited shelf life. Some may recall Cameron Ling being lauded for his special comments in his first year on 7. He was bloody excellent. But with each passing year he's provided less & less meaningful analysis and more and more cliches. He's hopeless now. Malcolm Blight was another. Straight out of the game his on-air input was a breath of fresh air. Then he lost his marbles & from his most recent utterances, still hasn't found them. When it comes to hosting footy coverage I think both Sarah Jones & Kath Loughnan do a terrific job. On 7 Abby Gelmi is good but under utilised. Hannabal has summed up my views on Kelli Underwood to a tee. Nails down a chalkboard stuff. To finish up, I've always thought Rex Hunt was a megalomaniacal farkwit. He is, always has been and always will be about Rex. Any of his "offerings" should always be viewed in this light

Makes Best 22 lists !