Vipercrunch

North Melbourne currently have 17 players out injured. 35-17=18.... I hope the AFL realise that would be a bad decision BEFORE they make it, not afterwards which is the norm.

I could be on my own here, but surely using the Port game as evidence that LJ, Weeds and TMac can't work is not super clever. The whole team played terribly that night and the magnitude and manner of the lose simply cannot be attributed to playing 3 talls in any possible way.

I noticed that also. Looked lower back related maybe? Just didn't move smootly. Played ok though.

Interesting to hear the commentators go on and on about AVB’s push and how it needs to be stamped out of the game, but when the little guy from Adelaide charges and bumps May well after the ball goes out of bounds they celebrate it. Kinda sums up the commentary all night really. I think they wanted blood and were very disappointed Melbourne won.

As soon as Covid starting affecting the season, my hopes for this season greatly decreased. We are not a resilient club. There is something wrong with the culture in there somewhere and it’s been that way for a long time. An abnormal season like this was never going to suit us.

Prior to his injury, TMac appeared to be finding some good form, especially with his contested marking. If there are no doubts at all about his eye, I think he has to come back in. At whose expense is the question though. I'd love to keep LJ in the side to keep developing and to be the second ruck instead of Weeds having to do it. I think Melksham maybe the one to miss out. He plays more like a tall forward than a high pressure forward, so it wouldn't change the balance too much to have him out and TMac in.

There were something like 80 family and friends in the stadium for the AFLW Alice Springs game. That may have been to do with how close it was to those restrictions coming in or the location, but maybe each club will have a small number of guests they can have there.

I expect sometime over the weekend, the AFL will re-release the fixture for the first 6 rounds and it will fit in say 4 weeks. The peak of this virus is expected to be 2 or 3 months away and they want to get as many rounds in before they have an extended break.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2020/mar/04/can-wearing-gloves-like-the-queen-help-protect-you-against-the-coronavirus

Gloves are useless if you keep touching your face and mouth.

Please explain why you think Gloves are so useful? The masks are useful, and serve two important purposes, neither of which is stopping people breathing the virus in. Firstly, if you have the virus but don't know it, it reduces how much virus you spread into your surrounds. If you don't have the virus, masks helps prevent people from touching their face with their possibly contaminated hands. That's how the virus gets in.

You'll get an opinion out of him, but I suspect it's not always his honest opinion. It's an opinion he knows will be click-bait and create the most attention.

I'm sure they'd just do what they are doing in Italy and play in empty stadiums. It would definitely be interesting times if it got to that though. Schools shut. All those who can will be required to work from home. Nothing like I've ever experienced.

Throughout his captaincy, Viney always thought we were much better than we actually were. Always took confidence from the wrong things. Gawn's message was spot on all last yeah, even when we won. We sucked and had a lot of work to do. This is a great call by the club.

Spot on. With a "normal" run with injuries, making finals is a pass. Hoping for some September wins though.

I have no problem with co-captains, but TBH, I've really gone off Viney as a captain. So many times last year (and prior) his message about how well we were doing was well off the mark. In contrast, Gawn's message was spot on.

How has Lever's disposal been this preseason? Before he did his knee he seemed quite reliable but last year he was our turnover king coming out of the backline. I'm hoping with a full preseason and more confidence in his body, he'll be much improved this year.

One of the most pleasing things about the whole concept of this series is that it is effectively removing all excuses. It's not a safe message. The media and general public will hammer the club for this if we have a bad season and I think those responsible for the series know it. Our collective balls are on the line.

Yep, definitely Bernie during a preseason fluff interview on SEN. He was involved with our preseason training and was asked which recruit was standing out. Got me pretty excited about the kid, especially when he was picked so early on in the season. Hopefully the non-fairy tale first season works in his favour and Sparrow has a great career.

This is why I hate when people say "it will all even out in the end" as an excuse to not use technology to make sure better decisions are made. Yes, the technology has to be good enough to truly assist, but "evening out in the end" is a statistical anomaly, not a norm.

25 metres or 25 secs? Thanks for the report.

I think (and hope) we saw Gartlett's farewell game yesterday. He's was a great pick-up for us, but I thinks his AFL days are over and now that our season is well and truly dusted, we should be getting games into others.

Great post. I’m getting sick of it. It’s a deadset cheap shot.

I reckon I'll check the VLine App to see what time the next train leaves about 5 minutes into the 3rd.

If so many of you are so sure the FD reviewed that game heavily despite the message over the offseason from the club that it wasn't (see post #4 which mentioned some of the times), please explain why that message came out? What did they hope to achieve by publicly downplaying how much that loss to WCE was analysed? I don't get it.