Go the Biff

Well, that aged well @Lucifers Hero😁

You only ever heard of it when they won by a few points. Unmentioned when the result was a few points the other way. Absolute myth

FMD - some long bows are being drawn in this thread

Infection can set in rapidly. For a Demons example, I saw Rod Grinter at a party the night he clocked Terry Wallace. His hand was infected & had already swelled up like a soccer ball. It caused Grinter to miss the following week (while Wallace played)

Yep. Robbie wasn't comfortable with the number being out of action. He actually addressed the playing group & asked who wanted it. Stinga stuck his hand up & said "I do". So he went from 52 to 15 - the number of one of our greatest wingers in Stan Alves - to # 2 - the number of the greatest winger of all time

2018 when Mich Hannan was racing towards goal was seriously loud. On a fairly bleak May Sunday in 2008, inspired by little Aussie Woneamirri, a crowd of less than 20k sounded like 120k. The joint was heaving. One of my favourite days at the footy. That said, I'd rather not have to give the oppo 50 points head start to generate atmosphere.

Reckon you're spot on here @Sir Why You Little. Winning a flag does some great things for a supporter base. What it doesn't do is double it overnight. 57 years with little success has lost us a few generations of supporters. I suspect Hawthorn are the chief beneficiaries. That will take a long time and a lot of success to recover from. I was going to come off the long run-up on this but rather than boring folks with my waffle, will instead list a few observations 1) With the exception of Carlton, crowds are down across the board. It's not just an MFC issue. 2) In the last couple of years, circumstances have forced matchgoers to get their footy fix on TV. A lot have found that for various reasons, they like it 3) At a time when the AFL should be doing everything possible to make it easier for people to go to the footy, they seem to be making it harder. Ticketek etc. 4) We have over 60k members. I'd love a breakdown (for all clubs) as to how many of them are full season ticket holders. A spike in membership doesn't necessarily guarantee a spike in attendance. I know several members who through occupation, location, health status etc who know they can rarely if ever attend matches. But they are happy to buy memberships they can't use to "do their bit for the club". I know others with limited game memberships who are picking & choosing which games to got to. And our crunch games are in the back half of the season Given the trend, I actually think we're doing ok attendance wise

Fair enough. This evidence of which you speak - has it been communicated to you from someone at the club who would know ? Is it what you've observed first hand at training ? Or is it you extrapolating on what you see in matches ? Serious question. A lot would hope that you are correct but without real evidence, it is just clutching at straws to explain our performances in recent weeks

Max. NZ

Interesting chat with Benny Gibson

Dunno about that Jaded. Sure, he made a mistake & has had to own it & live with it but this is also the same bloke who pulled his club together after the horrific murder of their coach. Ticks & crosses. Agree with the first bit. Still a bloody good player & would rip it up in a good team

We'll have to agree to disagree Franky. These things happen every week & the usual worst case scenario is that the player underneath gets winded. Ed was unlucky. I'm a believer in tackling with intent & if the player tackled comes out of it a bit sore, so much the better. As others have said, I'd applaud any of our blokes who laid that tackle

Absolute bollocks. His arms were free. Fair tackle - no prior, ball-up.

There's no class action being assembled for victims of cracked ribs, torn hamstrings or high ankle sprain injuries. Also, I thought it was a great tackle. If one of our blokes laid that I'd be punching the air in approval

Hey Jaded - fair points one & all. My membership doesn't cover away games but I was interested in going to Docklands this week. So I got onto Ticketdisaster. According to them, "least expensive" seats were 55 bucks on Level 4 and "best seats" were about 75 bucks on L1. Hard to justify I thought. Strangely. on the telecast it appeared L4 was either closed or so sparsely populated that a crowd was undetectable.. Will have to have a closer look when I watch the replay

No respect !

I wish but they've dodged a bullet here and they should be smart enough to know it. Tribunal would likely increase the penalty

Not sure about reckless but agree with the rest. Young Chandler mixed enthusiasm with poor technique. Even had Foley not hit his head, it was a free kick for in the back. Poor tackle and those who think it was "perfect" need to put away the Footy Flashbacks DVDs. I'd have thought a free kick was fair until it became obvious Foley was concussed. At that point Outcome over Action steps in and I knew a suspension was coming. Two weeks is a bit harsh for a single action tackle though. Hopefully Foley is ok and Chandler improves his tackling technique - and a few of his team mates take notice. We have a couple that give away in the back frees when tackling from behind

I like watching Liam Ryan play. His efforts in an undermanned WCE team this year have been full of merit. So I wish him no ill. However his bump on Bowey is a textbook example of what we are trying to remove from the game. That sort of action can put someone in a wheelchair for the rest of their days. This was a perfect opportunity for the MRO to confirm that this action won't be tolerated. Sorry Liam, you were bang out of order, have 3 weeks off. Instead they slap him with a wet lettuce. The MRO system is clearly broken. Either the prescriptive formula for assessing incidents needs a complete overhaul or Michael Christian is just not up to the job.

I've a feeling that the Harmes hamstring may help Melksham creep towards his 200th. Which I wouldn't begrudge him. Bedford would be my pick

6 - Viney 5 - Gus 4 - Kozzie 3 - JJ 2 - Trac 1 - Jacko

Depends if you're getting a game or not. Barring Ellis, none of those Richmond blokes were walk up starts for best 22 anymore. You can add Dan Butler to that list. Ellis went as an RFA. Richmond could have kept him if they matched the GCS offer Kelly left purely for family reasons - a couple of his kids had medical issues & he & his missus wanted family support in caring for them. Clark was dissatisfied with the amount of games he was getting. Jed Anderson had been injury riddled & rarely got a game at Hawthorn Buddy & Ablett - exception circumstances / $$$$$ Headland I can't recall - maybe go home factor or maybe Freo just threw a blank cheque at him

He'd be on minimum chips Cassie. That's exactly why he's there. Cheap & only needed in case of emergency. He's good insurance but you'd hate one of rucks to cop a six week injury have to rely on Majak

I'd think he just slots back onto his HBF position where he is a star. However that isn't the role that Hunt's playing. The flow on effects are gonna be fascinating though as Gus is playing so well off half back that you'd be loathe to move him. Plus JJ has obviously studied the Gus 2021 playbook and is doing a terrific job of emulating him. Salo's return is a great problem to have and I'm currently clueless as to how the match committee will put all the pieces together.