Lord Travis

They are trash. Who can forget them spitting on their own players coming off the ground a few years back.

Took a few years to get over health issues and build himself up, but he’s brilliant now. This year has been his best season yet and he should be in all Australian conversations. Great signing and show of faith by both player and club!

Probably in this order. Small defender - I’m not talking about a rebounderkng defender, I’m talking a lockdown option to clamp down on opposition gun small forwards. Jetta and Hibberd are near the end. We need a proper defender to replace them. Salem, Rivers, Bowey etc are rebounders in my eyes and not lockdown types. Mid sized forward - Marking type like Fritsch who hits the scoreboard. We’ve targeted a few in the drafts the past few years and missed them. Need to get another one for depth. Outside midfielder - may have been addressed with Laurie and Bowie and Rossman, but we need more quality depth in this area to compliment Langdon in future. Guys like Harmes, Vandemburg, Tomlinson etc are not the answer there. Key defender - Lever good for long term. May has a few years left. Tomlinson isn’t the strongest defender. Petty is still a question mark. Daw is old and depth and played forward too. Need another tall defender for depth. Key forward - a young one to develop as our key forward are all hitting retirement age over the next few years with only Weideman as a longer term prospect. Need more talent to develop and compliment him.

A rare achievement for a Melbourne player to play 300 games, and making it after the pounding his body took under those packs for years is impressive. Nathan is a great clubman and was a very good player at his peak. Congrats to the legend for sticking with the club when others didn’t and always giving his all out on the field.

I love Langdon. He’s so important to us structurally, helps us keep our shape and offer an outlet on the wing all day. It was unbelievable a few weeks back when he played 100% game time and clocked up 15kms! He must be a robot, his endurance is insane. He’s started hitting the scoreboard more this year too and really brings others into the game with good link up play. Definitely in All Australian contention this season. He’s possibly the best value recruit in my lifetime if he keeps this form up.

I mostly agree with you. What he showed at underage level is what we’re now seeing at AFL level. His around the ground work to be a linking option and his positioning around stoppages is brilliant. His ability with ground balls is freakish for his size. His ruck work is super advanced for his age. His leap is awesome, NicNat like. His forward draft however is poor and his contested marking is poor. He’s being used there as a resting option purely because he can’t own the number 1 ruck position yet. I’ll eat my own face if he ever becomes a good forward. Overall he’s tracking extremely well for a tall his age.

Think this will be correct for the changes. I worry we’ll wind up too tall and lacking speed against the Tigers, who are a quick running pressure side.

He’s been great around the ground when playing in the ruck, but he’s really struggled up forward. He’s not sticking the marks yet and hasn’t kicked a goal all season I don’t think? His work around the ground is great though. He’s really sharp with following up the ground balls and his positioning around packs. He’s also a decent link option during play too. Going very well for a second year tall/ruck. Just needs to start sticking those marks and he’ll become a real danger for oppositions!

Good maturity test today. If we don’t play smart we’ll lose this, and the Hawks are a [censored] team so we better not fold.

Massive out and leaves our forward line looking a lot less dangerous for scoring power. Petracca might need to play predominantly forward the next few weeks.

Had heard it was a 2 year extension on decent coin to take him through to free agency and looks to be correct. Still bloody happy he’s signed on. He’s the best 100 gamer I’ve seen and best inside midfielder in red n blue in my years supporting the club.

He doesn’t have to. Trade him to Freo or anywhere. Free up cap space and get a pick back to use. Sign Merrett as a free agent with more cap space available.

Brayshaw traded? Been rumored for years now and could help free up some cap space required for Merrett. Believe Brayshaw signed a decent sized contract a few years back when he was flying.

I must be one of the few on here who thinks it was accidental and just part of play? He was being tackled while handballing and May actually pulled him as part of the tackle which contributed to his arm being closer to his head. Hawkins is definitely a dirty player, but not sure he’s talented enough to defy gravity to get a cheap shot in! Yes it’s sucks one of our most important players got hurt, but Hawkins has no case to answer for IMO. Unlucky hit, move on.

Good luck to Kate and I hope she can lead us to continued success and a premiership!

If he kicked straight he’d kick four goals every week. He creates so many opportunities, just needs to make the most of them more consistently. He’s a talent and takes marks he has no right to. Perfect mid sized marking forward IMO. Just keep kicking straight please!

Good sign of maturity to put it to bed at the start of the last quarter. I’m still not used the team not folding when the heat is on! Lever was huge today. With May out injured, he showed why we got him to the club and was the general out there today organizing the troops. His defensive positioning was perfect.

Concussion is not the issue. It’s likely a broken cheek and/or sunken eye socket. He’ll be out for a while I think unfortunately.

[censored] hell Melbourne man up! We still can’t convert our dominance in play onto the scoreboard. Should be 40 points up here but we let them back in again. So frustrating to watch.

[censored] this. Time to drop a loose back into the hole for 5 minute to stop the momentum and hold onto the ball. Losing control here and our plethora of missed shots will come back to haunt us.

Losing momentum. Need to hold onto the ball for a bit here.

May done for the day with concussion and a swollen eye from a rogue elbow in a contest.

Poor conversion and not we’ve let them back into the game despite complete dominance. Ropable. Should be 30-40 points up instead of clinging on!

Hail and over 12 hours straight of rain overnight with 10mm plus. Ground will be soggy and it’ll be a slog in the wet all day.

Heavy rain isn’t good for us IMO. We are very reliant on Gawns marking at both ends and May+Lever intercept marking to cut off attacks and start scoring chains going forward. If Kozzie can’t dominate at ground level in the wet then I worry we’ll lose. Hopefully our midfield are up for it today. They’ll need to be clean to own the stoppages and territory battle so we can lock the ball in our forward half.