Nasher

My blood pressure has gone through the roof. It's not over yet though. Obviously any idea of a thrashing can be dashed, but hopefully we can turn up the intensity a whisker or two and win. I haven't given up.

Well I did all my literal sailing weeks ago, and I'm too uncreative to come up with figurative sailing metaphors, so I'm on solid ground and very excited for this game. I can't remember the last time we were so overwhelmingly stronger than the opposition, this is a great opportunity to really add confidence and really get some momentum going. Can't wait!

Richmond:

Jeez, that was limp. Awful game made rich only by a big crowd and a Richmond capitulation.

http://www.metrotas.com.au/communication/blog/2015/ract-boundary-rider-services-for-afl-matches-in-2015/ - it's last year's info but I'm sure it'll be similar. BA is in the middle of a residential zone and getting in and out is a bugger for big events. These games usually fill the stadium, so it wouldn't surprise me if there's not much left. I got my tickets from the MFC allocation; I got an email from the club months ago wanting me to organise it. I'm not as convinced as DaleDee that it won't sell out.

To me it is dc. My ambivalence towards the strange double standard is probably driven by the fact that a) I don't mind the white, I think it looks okay, and b) I just don't give a fig about being made to wear a different guernsey in the first place. The double standard has no practical impact on me whatsoever, so I'm happy to just ignore it.

Things that still surprise me: 1) That people hate the white so much 2) That people still post the red guernsey when it's clear it's never going to happen. 3) That people resent the AFL so much for imposing a rule that clearly makes sense from a watchability perspective. *shrug* I'm looking forward to see our white clad team roll Essendon in their traditional colours.

I think it's pretty disrespectful to call him Harry O.

*shakes head*

Pleased with those changes. We add run. If we find ourselves in need of a tall defender, and/or Pedersen is getting in Hogan's way, he can be put back there. We've lost arguably the two least AFL ready players in our side and added an experienced rebounder and another young gun mid. Rubbing my hands together now, can't wait til Saturday now.

As ManDee alludes to, Spencer *is* our first ruck in reserve. The fact that he happens to be injured is bad lack. You can't carry three genuine first rucks on your list; at some point you just have to accept there is some risk that you'll lose both your first rucks and one of your skinny rucks will have to step up. This is a problem faced by every club. Mitch King wouldn't be the first well under-developed ruck of all time to be forced to play.

Misson's comment was that Spencer has just started working "outside", I interpreted that as progressing and that it's more about incremental work load and condition steps now rather than injury recovery per se. It certainly didn't sound rubbery like it did with Frost last year. I guess we'll know soon enough!

That interview on SEN was gold. What a legend.

Hi, Josh.

Haven't seen anything published; this is derived from Misson's injury report: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/2016-03-30/rd-2-david-misson-injury-report. Apparently McDonald and King had very similar injuries, no structural damage and well on the way to recovery. Both expected to play this weekend. As expected, Trengove and Petracca expected to play in the VFL this weekend with varying game time. No mention of H or Brayshaw which I take to mean fully available and ready to go. The full list: Oscar McDonald - ankle - test Max King - ankle - test Chris Dawes - calf - 3 weeks Jake Spencer - foot - 4-6 weeks

It's a pretty loose definition of "gifted". For him to have not deserved it, in my mind, there has to be someone to have equally deserved a run and not got it for the equation to balance. He may have been the best of a bad lot; the best of a bad lot is nonetheless still the best. If your argument is that Stefan Martin should have played as a forward instead of Watts, then I'm pretty comfortable that your argument is shot. Firstly in the majority of games Martin played for Melbourne, Watts also played, so you could hardly say they were competing. Secondly, Martin was bloody hopeless as a forward and that's why he was moved on. He needed to be a first ruck.

Exactly. With early draft picks you hope for a star - particularly the first pick - but failure to deliver one doesn't mean the pick was a failure. Every single year since the draft began there have been as many or more total busts with top 10 picks (and not just the MFC) than stars, with the bulk being just good but unspectacular players. If Watts belatedly becomes a star then it's historically it's an excellent result; If he plays 200+ games at a decent level then historically it's a good result, not the terrible result black and white viewers would have you believe. A terrible result as you said, would be another Morton, but we know Watts is far better than that. Too many people can't see past the romance of early draft picks and use emotion for their judgement of players taken early, rather than hard analysis of the facts.

I'll believe Hogan's gone when he's standing at a press conference in his Freo trackies. Until then I'll give him the benefit of the considerable doubt and assume he's staying, enjoy watching his rise, and tune out from the blowhards like Langdon who always chuck this kind of carp out there to try and remain relevant.

Who would have thought that maybe it's not possible for everyone to attend every game?

Who would you have played instead for the games he was gifted?

Can't get my head around the idea of him going. The idea just doesn't match my view of his personality. He'll stay. The most I can imagine is him playing his last two years elsewhere in his 30s, but I'd be stunned if he left during the peak of his career.

Except of course it can't be 0 and 1 for Davis because that doesn't add up to 4, idiot. Must have been tired when I posted that yesterday.

It wasn't the answer I was expecting to that question, but it wasn't a surprise either. Great to hear that Nev's gone out of his way to help the kid. That's probably one of the benefits of Jetta himself now being comfortable and settled in the environment.

Interesting, I found that really hard to break down. The only solution I came up with that worked: Coach A: 5 Viney 4 Davis or Watts 3 Ward 2 McDonald 1 Davis or Watts 0 Hogan Coach B: 5 Viney 4 McDonald 3 Davis or Watts 2 Ward 1 Hogan 0 Davis or Watts One of the coaches didn't rate either Davis or Watts worth a vote. I think it makes more sense for the 1 and 0 to be Davis, as I find it hard to justify saying he was better than Watts on the day.

The top 5 all look top shelf straight up. Looks like this year's group could be an absolute bumper crop. Hopefully we'll be able to include Weideman in that statement as well.