Tony Tea

In the context of this year's application of deliberate, it is almost impossible to believe that non deliberate happened. The umpire is possibly not a cheat, but he is certainly a world class gutless squibb.

It's all a plot by Korda to drive Collingwood into administration then save Collingwood with administration. He's a black and white knight.

Could there be another dynamic to our clearances? Previously we have barrelled in, won clearances, banged the ball forward, and been picked off across halfback. Now we seem to be sitting back and allowing the opposition to have first use, then picking them off across halfback. I think we would concede that to be a foolish tactic against the best sides - four of whom we will soon play: WB, WC, BL, PAP. Maybe it's something to do with missing Viney. It's also highly unlikely the coaching panel is unaware of the discrepancy. But what if next week we had seemingly swallowed a magic pill and our clearance work was perfect? Would it still be perfect in September? Remember the 2018 Prelim? We went into that game confident our onballers had their onballers covered, but we were ambushed and their onballers creamed us. My point is this: are Goodwin, Yze and Williams keeping our powder dry? Could our footy brains be working towards us ambushing the opposition in finals? (IF you are a footy journo trolling for copy, you never read that.)

There were 18 game seasons as recently as 1967. There were 20 in 1968 and 1969, then 22 in 1970. (No word on whether ladders prior to 1970 employed a match ratio.)

When we were dominating centre clearances we were overcommitting to the contest. Now that we are less committed to the contest we have better balance over the whole ground. What would we have to sacrifice from our current structure to square up the centre clearance numbers?

Just a thought. When the Hawks were busy winning premierships Clarko said that winning the centre clearance numbers was overrated. Clarko learned his coaching craft under Choco.

6. McDonald 5. Oliver 4. May 3. Jordon 2. Petracca 1. Harmes

We are keeping the footy punditry on its toes as we make them skip from one player's contract negotiations to the next. Each time a pundit writes an article implicitly critical of Melbourne's alleged tardiness in signing a required player, he or she is barely halfway through basking when we sign said player and force the punditry into changing its focus to another player. It's a masterly military performance. The question now is whether we change tactics and concede Weid is expendable and has trade value.

Round 3, 2005.

6. Salem 5. Fritsch 4. May 3. Jackson 2. Langdon 1. Oliver Very hard to pick this week.

Unlikely Melbourne fans would give Howe the same generous reception Storm fans tonight gave Will Chambers who now plays for Cronulla.

It has always upset me that Howe is playing for Collingwood. It has also always upset me that Collingwood is praised for turning Howe into a backman. I'm glad he missed a flag in 2018. He should still be at Melbourne, but would he fit into our system?

Players with significant upside, a year older, a year wiser, a year better coached by a cadre of experienced footy-heads.

If Kane bothered to do any research - or basically just think before he shoots from the lip - he would have seen Goodwin have a quiet word with Kozzie. A slightly over-the-top reaction by an excited youngster calmly dealt with by the coach. Excellent work by Goody.

The original bubble headed booby.

Sticks was important last night, and I'm disappointed I couldn't slot him into the votes. PS: The highlights video missed a fantastic smother by Angus on the outer wing down at Geelong in 2015.

Hibberd - licence to blanket.

6. Petracca 5. Salem 4. Oliver 3. Jackson 2. Viney 1. Langdon

Best style of win since I don't know when.

I'm expecting a loss, but hoping for a good performance. Our defence has been our key by keeping oppositions to scores low enough for us to win by kicking a moderate score. Today our forward line has to show up big time. Simply put: we miss our chances, we lose.

... be surprised. Looking at the recording of the Hawks game, I got a bit disheartened about or chances Saturday night.

I always expect a slump, and we have not beaten anyone yet, but at least we are playing proper grunt footy.

6. Gawn 5. McDonald 4. Oliver 3. Salem 2. Lever 1. Petracca

The noise of the AFL's "game day experience" wore me down a couple of years ago. I've stopped going to games.

I'm not as bullish about our prospects with May out. He's our most important player, and you can't easily replace gun key defenders.