Lord Travis

I'm at least in acceptance of my denial!

Nearly 40 years watching multiple games every weekend and I've hit breaking point thanks to umpiring. The rules keep changing and the umpires can't officiate a fair game at this point. It's not just Melbourne games - every game feels confusing and like a narrative is being crafted. I miss actual football.

Floating mark over unsuspecting pack. Nothing tough about it as spectacular as it was.

Holding the ball only applies to one team apparently?? Get stuffed umpires. SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT.

He's the only reason to watch this team. He's absolutely unreal!

It was a routine win against a 17th placed team that's been bottom four for over half a decade... It was in no way impressive.

And we let them go coast to coast for another shot. Weak and lazy. This team is cooked

TDK is possibly the softest big man I've ever seen. He gets out marked by blokes 20cms shorter and 20kgs lighter than him. Constantly [censored] his dacks. If he's worth over a million to a team, then actual footballers like Kozzie must be worth 10 million a year.

Watching footy is excruciating these days. We've entered the realm of sports entertainment where everyone is waiting to see how umpires interpret rules and it feels like outcomes are fixed. I'm not even complaining about Melbourne games - all AFL games feel wrong these days. Maybe I'm just getting old and cynical, but I've watched 1000s of games and the game has never been worse.

Goalless quarter against a dog**** team. I expected a bit more fire for Clarrys 200th. What a disappointment that half was. Cmon Dees wake up for [censored] sake!!

Regardless of his recent form and issues, he's still a champion of this club. He's one of the best midfielders we've had in my lifetime, and I'd say he's possibly the best inside midfielder to ever pull on the red and blue. Peak Clarry was unstoppable around the contest and a key reason we won a premiership. He deserves a ton of respect and admirations from fans and the general football public. Two time AFLCA MVP - the only other player to do that is Gary Ablett Jnr, who's a potential GOAT. Even now while he's not at his dominant peak, his stats still stack up well against the comp and he's well above average for an inside mid, just not elite. Will always love Clarry!

That was from the match on the weekend. He was our hardest working defensive runner. He was second the week before too. It's a strength of his that the coaches love, similar to Nibbler over the past few years and Gus Brayshaw when he played as a defensive winger in our flag year. Just because you don't see it on TV doesn't mean it's not happening. If he continues to build his fitness and body so he can consistently get involved in more offensive chains and contests then we're onto a winner.

Thanks for hijacking the thread with emotional drool. You sound like the orange man in your avatar... and that's not a compliment. Back on topic, it will be interesting to see how Kolt progresses next season. I love that he goes straight for the corridor when he gets the ball out wide. His vision and boldness to be attacking stand out amongst his peers, and you see it at training too where he's often the one to execute the angle kick to corridor or into 50. It feels like his fitness is holding him back getting to the contests from the wing back to half forward when we have ball in transition. The lack of preseason and injuries are likely attributing to that. He always works hard with his defensive running, not dissimilar to ANB in years passed.

Ceiling: Toby Greene as a forward or Jai Newcombe as a midfielder. As a medium sized forward, he's powerful, loves a contest, can clunk a mark, is technically a great kick and can get under opponents skin. As a midfielder, has the attributes to be a well rounded mid like Newcombe who can win lots of ball inside but also get it on the outside and hurt. I love that when Kolt gets the ball be looks to kick into the corridor. He's more brave than most of his teammates, and they let him down at times. Floor: Tom Sparrow. Mid/defensive mid or forward role player who doesn't have big impact but plays an important role in a successful team. Either way, I expect him to make a decent AFL career. He just needs time to get fit. Coming into this season he was a 19 year old who's played about 10 games and had limited preseason coming off a 12 week foot injury. Foot injuries can be career enders, so it'll take him time to properly get fit and confident again. There are some posters on here showing how poor their footy knowledge is by writing him off this quickly. I assume they wrote Petracca off after his injury riddled and poor first few seasons?

Trading our Hogan and Watts won us a flag and were 100% correct list calls. We got May and Fritsch as a direct result of those trades. Without either of them, we don't win that 21 flag. Fritsch alone has kicked more goals than Hogan since that trade. Hogan wanted to go home and took 6 seasons to return to being a good player. He's a gun again now, but he's a 30 year old who's battled physical and mental issues for the majority of his career. He's basically at the end of his career. Watts is long retired. Yes we need a quality key forward now, but we made the right call trading those players out at the time. There's a seven year gap, and where we are now is not related to what happened back then.

Gun defender and the long term Lever replacement as our key intercepting defender. Great story and love his positive attitude towards life and the club.

Must be because most punters don't watch boring Melbourne matches late every Sunday arvo. I don't blame them. He's worth a bet at those demented unbalanced odds. Thanks for the tip!

Curtin has had a few good games recently, but across the whole season Langford is a clear level above. He's averaging 7 disposals more, more goals, more tackles, more score involvements, higher disposal efficiency etc. He's currently ranked in the top 100 players, with Nick Daicos the only other debut year player to do that since pre-covid. Levi Ashcroft is the only player eligible who could otherwise win it, though he's had the luxury of playing in the top team, getting lots of easy ball fed to him across half back and his disposals haven't been as damaging. Langfords disposal efficiency and hurt factor is through the roof. He's absolutely flying and looks like exactly what we hoped he'd become. Future star midfielder who hits the scoreboard - our next Trac.

Appreciate the response and you raise some fair points. Often back pockets wind up moving up the ground and becoming attacking half back flankers or midfielders as they develop. Mcvee seems to be on that path - I doubt he'll stay a back pocket for much longer and it seems he's losing his way down there anyway. But that raises the concern about who replaces him in that role. Imagine we're lining up against Brisbane in a final tomorrow. Charlie Cameron, Kai Lowman, Zac Bailey and Cam Rayner are all smaller options up there who can turn a game and require close checking. You can't lockdown on them all, but Cameron in particular requires close checking. Mcvee has down the job on him before well, but imagine we no longer have Mcvee available or in that role. We're playing.... Bowey? Salem? Howes? Rivers? as lockdowns on Charlie Cameron. None would do the job satisfactorily, and if you were Brisbane coach playing against us you'd basically clear out the forward line and leave Cameron alone to tear it up and kick 6 etc. Agree Taj and Sestan won't make it. Unsure on Brown unless he can make a role like back pocket his own. AMW strikes me as more of an offensive type than a lockdown, but I may be wrong, and that's assuming he makes it. It might not be the most impactful position on the ground, but it's important in the modern game and I feel we're lacking there. I wouldn't be surprised if Mcvee left and wound up at West Coast as floated. He's leaving contract talks right until the end, and his form is going backwards, so it's not like he's adding extra dollars or years to a new contract by holding off. If he does leave, left hope we get something decent for him and can get someone to adequately fill that small lockdown defender role!

Wanted to highlight this bit. I don't agree it's an easy spot to fill. A good lockdown small defender is crucial these days given how much of am impact small forwards have with ball movement being quicker in the modern game. Small lockdowns defenders are possibly the hardest position to find. They need to have pace and agility and be selfless in focusing purely on stopping their opponent. A good distributor like a Bowey or Salem or Rivers would play as a rebounding halfback and would struggle to lockdown on quality small forwards such as Kozzie, Stenglein, Higgins, Watson, Curtis etc. They'd be wasted playing lockdown small. Howes is too big, lacks the pace and agility to play on those types. Brown could potentially play that role. Taj and Sestan don't have the right attributes. It's actually a challenge to find a quality one. It's why Nev Jetta was such a great player for us. We also had Hunt and Hibberd capable of that role. I personally feel it's a clear gap in our list, especially if Mcvee leaves.

Second round pick. West Coast are a bottom team, so the pick would be early in second round if he went there. That's best case scenario unless he is part of a package to get Jackson or a star somehow. If you take the emotion out of it, turning a rookie lister into a second round pick is good business. Would prefer he stayed, but if he did want to leave and the above early second round pick trade eventuated, you'd say we've done well.

From the genius who brought you no free to air footy on Saturdays, "Round 0", the stand rule, the pre-finals bye, and "interpretations" of RULES, comes... a second tournament for rubbish teams mid season! The AFL is a pathetic basket case. Is there a worse sports governing body in the world? Andrew Dillon is completely unfit to lead the game and may go down as the worst leader of all time. His administration makes FIFA look smart and just. I am close to giving up on the sport I have religiously followed since the 1980s. We've moved beyond a sport and into sports entertainment at this stage. The game has never been worse.

If we're having a go at players based on nothing footage like that then we may as well pack up shop. He's a 19 year old who's just been benched and his team is losing after fighting hard all day. I've seen far far worse from senior players, including Gawn, every week. Kolt's not setting the world on fire, but let's not attack his character as a person over nothing. Really poor behavior on this forum recently!

Great chase down from Langford on Nibbler there!

He's not on over two million a year you pelican. Pull your head in! He's been one of our best so far today. If he'd slotted the set shot he'd be having a big day.