Nasher

Pedersen's game was fantastic, I hope he continues this form and he gets the job done. It still doesn't change my view that he's a battler, and that he'll struggle to find a place in the side once all the injured talls return. We will see though. The crowing going on in this thread is pretty ridiculous.

It just demonstrates that Pedersen is probably a player who needs a prod now and then. That's fine, some people are. I did like the quotes though. He had clear goals and consequences of failure, but also the support and tools to get there, and the promise that he would have a role to play if he did. I agree that it's good management.

Weid is in his second year and already playing AFL footy. Cook was delisted after 2 years. Weid is clearly a vastly superior player. I take your point, but if you want people to take you seriously, probably best you lay off the hyperbole a bit. Casey watchers last year said he attacks the ball in the air. We've seen first hand that he is also capable of moving the ball very quickly and involving himself in general play - see Hawks game last year. He's only 19 - you have gone way too early I reckon.

That average height for Essendon can't be right. We've only got 2 players on our list shorter than 177cm (Kennedy and JKH), so it seems ridiculous if that was their average. I'm 177cm exactly and I always feel like a complete dwarf in the presence of AFL footballers. To be honest it's such an outrageous error that it makes me doubt the veracity of any of it.

I came to terms with the fact that I don't know jack about footy years ago. Makes reading old threads much more bearable - and every now and again I surprise myself!

Makes for interesting reading. I had sympathy for the "not a priority" camp at the time, but in hindsight ProDee nailed it with his "he's better than all of them" argument. There's no doubt we are better off with him in the side. He's also a much better player than I realised.

On that note, Salem has been excellent this year. "Get more of the ball please" was my request last year, so far he's only had one sub-20 possession game. He's very trustworthy with ball in hand. Coming along very nicely now.

Does Watts have any haters left amongst the MFC faithful?

Not really - the data is really only a fraction of what gets used. The bulk of it is the system software which gets larger with each update. Besides, it would be a shame if we had to start deleting stuff out of the archives, there is a lot of history there as the current database has been operating continuously since 2005.

5 minutes? Jeez, where were you for the first 4? Actually 5 minutes is probably fair - took that long for Richmond to get the ball in their half in that game. I thought Hibberd would be good but I didn't expect him to instantly hit his straps, thought he might take a while to get going. You wouldn't know he had an interrupted pre-season on top of 12 months out. How funny is it seeing Essendon sooking about their suspended players looking flat? Hibberd is going okay, maybe your players are just crap?

Only the one season and never made it out of the dev league as far as I'm aware.

@Deestroy All here you go. A player with no weaknesses, apparently.

If that's the case then he comes in for JKH, with Petracca to play higher. All the other changes in this thread are just tinkering around the edges in my opinion.

No change.

I only recall seeing one half of that game. I assume I suffered some kind of brain trauma at around half time because I can't remember anything before that.

A real exhibition of fast paced, exhilarating football. The skills of both teams sublime. Essendon just looking slightly sharper. Joe Daniher is a star. Really looking forward to backing it up in the second half. Just a great game of football. Honorable mention to the umpires. The best umpired games are the ones where you don't notice them.

This game was always going to be awful.

Umpires looking as tired as the players. I think every person at the ground is better off just erasing the first half of this game from the memory banks. That's my plan.

This is almost an ironically enjoyable contest.

I don't know the history, but that sounds like the sort of thing a supporter might get upset about.

My memories are just as fond - I can recall the evening I looked up all 40 possession in a match winners for Melbourne, and discovered we had a player I'd previously never heard of named Glenn Elliott in the 70s who did it once, about 4 years before I was born. Am I making you feel old yet? :-)

How about Brett Lovett's effort - 40 disposals including 27 kicks, in a win, for zero Brownlow votes. Greg Healy got his in a game where we were soundly beaten.

Bernie Vince - 42 - 2016 vs Collingwood Bernie Vince - 41 - 2014 vs North Melbourne Travis Johnstone - 42 - 2007 vs Carlton Brett Lovett - 40 - 1993 vs Adelaide Greg Healy - 40 - 1987 vs St Kilda Brian Wilson - 40 - 1982 vs St Kilda Greg Wells - 48 - 1980 vs Fitzroy Glenn Elliott - 40 - 1979 vs North Melbourne Greg Wells - 45 - 1973 vs Geelong That's all of them. Only a matter of time before Oliver joins them.

It's worth watching just for the Ablett dominance. Don't have any particular love for the bloke but I do love the way he has shoved it right up the anus of the footy media who had decided he should retire.

Rubbish.