Vipercrunch

Great show, great final message (The Only Thing more powerful than hate is love). In a country where so many are determined to divide, it gave a brief respite. Unfortunately, the commitment to divide and conquer is strong. The news cycle will move on and the ongoing work to dismantle democracy will continue.

15 minutes ago, Gorgoroth said:

I know that call was 50/50 but the killer for me was the Allen turn over before the half. Gave the belief and lead to the Broncos.

I have had the Bills as my SB fav for the last few years but now its Allen or bust pretty much. Cook is good, but the receivers are just ok, tbh I'd run more with kincaid and Knox together.

I think we are hitting the moment where the QB's salary is killing their own chances at a SB. (and the WR's are racing towards that too!)

Injuries have been bad all season, especially hurting the Bills pass game and defense. Kincaid is awesome, but injured all too often. Couldn't believe we had even more injuries during the game yesterday.

Heartbroken Bills fan here.

By far the better team, but self sabotaged ourselves which left room for the refs to decide the result. Deja-vu of MFC in '22 and 23'. 😢

8 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Massive blunder by the club, he was showing signs of being cooked last year, now I can see him struggling to get on the park, might end up playing at Casey!

10th in the MFC B&F. 6th in Demonlands PotY.

I wish there was an eyeroll reaction.

22 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

I wonder why Kalani is in Melbourne for 2026.

With a structured training plan and some hands on mentoring from his father he could benefit from another year in the QAFL or whatever it's called. He would be on the MFC list.

I suspect it's just too hard from a liability viewpoint but given that he's 3 year minimum from a senior game what is the hurry to drag him away from family and support etc.

If he was the type of person that needed family and support, he would have chosen Gold Coast. He chose Melbourne, know it would mean moving and knowing it would be a while before playing AFL seniors.

Is it just 10 players selected tonight? As in, if all the F/S and acadamy picks go as predicted, our two picks will occur on Thursday?

2 hours ago, Dee Boys said:

Ben Brown kicked 190 goals in three seasons, not really sure he's a valid comparison. He absolutely would've got a game at Richmond alongside Riewoldt before Tom Lynch arrived!

Completely agree about your champion team call. All I'm saying is I don't think he's quite good enough to be a role player in a top team. People arguing he'd get in Brisbane's side ahead of the likes of mids, wings and forwards like McCluggage, Ashcroft x 2, Bailey, Cameron, Rayner, Neale, Dunkley, Lohmann, Berry etc have lost touch with reality. Some people think he'll get there in future. If you're one of those people then terrific! I have my doubts, that's all.

As I said, I hope I'm wrong!

You're right, Culley wouldn't get a game ahead of those players, but you didn't mention Sam Marshall who played 11 games in 2025 for Brisbane and looked lost everytime I saw him, especially in the GF. Just a kid yes and may turn out better than Culley, but in a premiership year, Brisbane played someone who looked lost out there. Bruce Reville is another who may have a cult following, but hasn't shown a whole heap. Every team, no matter how good, will need the battlers and developing players to contribute during sucessful seasons. Culley is tracking very nicely to be, at a minimum, a good AFL level honest battler, but may end up more than that.

I hope they both stay, and despite Trac reportedly being open to a trade, I will in in no way doubt his commitment and investment in the MFC if he stays.

Damn I miss ANB. The energy and passion he brings is worth so much to any team he plays for.

Can anyone share what he's like dealing with the media? I think Goodwins lack of spark with the media made him, and the club, a perceived easy target. It's obviously not the most important qualification, but a strong media performer can definetly keep the Fugazi noise down.

Some serious short memories here regarding Viney.

He is currently sitting 9th on the Demonland Player of the Year board, despite missing the last 3 games. I suspect he would have been top 5 before he was concussed. He was having a very solid and consistent year.

There should not be a doubt in the world that if fully fit, he comes back in and will play a mixture of midfield and high half-forward minutes, just like he was before he was concussed.

And we will be a better team because of it.

Link to POTY table

https://demonland.com/poty/

5 minutes ago, deegirl said:

Did anyone see that huge flock of black cockatoos that flew over the ground during the third quarter. Haven’t seen black cockies in Melbourne since 2021…just saying 😂

It was pretty surreal. They came in with hundreds of seagulls. I wondered what they knew that we didn’t.

First time I’ve noticed one of our half backs sprinting into centre bounces like they were today. Bowey most often I think, Windsor when Bowey was off the ground. Very interesting strategy.

So much to like about that but I want to highlight AJ. He causes chaos up front, so much of which results in goals. We counted 5 today.

Go Dess

5 minutes ago, GS_1905 said:

100% i had him delisted in the near future at the start of the season, but he has turned it around epically. I'd love to see him get on a few chains and HB receives and kicking it from the front half more as well. Once/if those score involvements start going up, then he'll start getting noticed a lot more as well.

You seriously had Bowey down as a possible player to delist? Unbelievable.

Great to see Newcomb getting called twice already for chucking it. Seriously don’t think he knows how to execute a legal handball. Wish they noticed last week though.

Thoughts on how Windsor has been going off half back? I've been concerned for many weeks with how he has been going down back, and there were several moments today that has led me to conclue he doesn't have the temperment to handle the pressure back there. I think for his sake, and for the betterment of the team, he needs to return to the wing or half forward where he proved to be a real weapon for us in his first year.

The umpiring was appalling and I can't help but think it sapped some of the spirit we were showing, but in the end we failed horribly to capitlise when we controlled the game in Q2 and Q3. We should have been 5-6 goals up before the last quarter started and then (hopefully) been able to hold on from there.

We really missed Petty as a forward and should have picked another tall defender to allow Turner to play forward aswell.

We also missed Viney too, especailly down the stretch.

I am usually one of the last here to give up on players, but I am at the point to call Jefferson a bust. Did not warrant a call up to the seniors and then did nothing today to even slightly hint he belonged there.

Fritsch is also horribly out of form and/or confidence and needs to go back to Casey and really made to earn a recall this time.

And this will likely be unpopular, but I don't think Windsor has the temperment to play on half back and needs to be played further up the ground, away from the pressure of the backline.

Some positives, Langford is a joy to watch and is the most exciting young prospect we've had since Clarry, Trac and Brayshaw. Lindsay also seems to have an extremely bright future. Bowey has turned into a fantastic player after 2 quiet seasons. Easily our most consitent players this year and would have to be leading (or very close to it) our B&F.

I don’t remember being as angry watching the footy as I watched the quarter. So many wasted opportunities and then that missed call 🤬🤬🤬🤬.

HOW THE HELL CAN ALL 4 UMPIRES MISS THAT TRIP!!! ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC.

The only thing I want to see this game is a massive reduction in the fumbling and horrible skills that have made watching our team so painful the last two weeks. Get between the ears fixed, get the confidence back, excecute our skills at an AFL level and lets see what we can actually do rather than another train wreck.

12 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

I know this will be howled down but TMac is too good to not have in the 22. If May comes back I’d be moving Petty forward. AJ was poor in the ruck against Brown and JvR is much better. Jeffo has no intensity and I’d prefer Turner and Petty to AJ and Jeffo. 
If Spargs is ready he’s a class above Hendo. 
Wont happen, but that’s my take. 

I'm on the Petty is a forward bandwagon with you and I'm staying there.  He is the best contested mark out of all the players we've tried up forward in the past few seasons, and that makes him a big point of difference.  TMac had a great season last year, and I think the backline of May, Lever and TMac should be continued this season.

JVR, Petty and one of Jeffo or Turner, along with Fritsch (staying much closer to goal than he did yesterday) and the smalls rotating through is our best look I think.

Always disappointing to lose like that but I kind of felt it was a bit of a free kick of a game prior to the first bounce. They had the advantage of playing last week and are one of the most highly fancied teams while we were playing with 5 AFL debutants. As long as we weren’t smashed it seems an acceptable result. 
 

Slight worry for me was our scoring profile. Goals from centre clearance are wonderful to watch but they aren’t reliable. Need to keep working hard on scoring from turnovers and from the back half. 
 

Still much to like but  we got so so close and gave up the lead in the last minute. 

We’re trying to be too cute for these conditions. Most of our goals have come from loose ball deep in the forward 50 but instead of getting the ball in there, we’re trying to hit the perfect pass. Just get the ball in there, get it to ground and see what happens. 

A bit rusty but not terrible. Take away their goal from Langdons 30m kick backwards that missed the target, we would be in front. 

TURN THE SOUND DOWN MCG