Nasher

His opinion of himself exceeds his capability. He’s mouthy and dirty. I’d be embarrassed if he was on our team. Gross.

He’s back to a point now where he’s grabbing the ball at the top of his reach. He’s a massive dude, I wouldn’t want to be trying to outmark him. He works his butt off when he pushes up the ground too. I’m getting accustomed to see him impacting a contest at half back, then 20 seconds later impacting it at half forward, or getting on the end of one. His best MFC footy is still ahead of him I reckon. Hard to believe we got him basically for free.

I know it’s been mentioned but I really enjoyed Sparrow’s game. I thought he was tough and composed - he’s shown signs of not being quiet up to the pace of the game this year, but last night he looked the part. He’s directly competing with Jordon for a spot, in my mind he put his nose in front last night (obviously the MFC already thought he did). On Jordon, both last week and this week as the unused medical sub, he’s come out as stoked at the end as if he’d played every minute. I love seeing how invested everyone is, even if they’re not on the field at the time.

Giants, because it will mean Geelong went out in straight sets, and we started the rot.

Putting our most valuable assets out of harm’s way for sure. Imagine if Clarry did a knee in the last minute, Josh Bruce style, when the result was already settled. Rumour has it that it was meant to be Jake Lever that came off, but old Rick didn’t know where the bench was so Maysie had to come off instead.

I remember in 2018 after both finals wins. I felt like the boys after the siren last week, just elated. After this win, I’m celebrating like Charlie Spargo does when he kicks a clutch goal. Clenched jaw, bit of a fist pump, high five a few of the boys, then get in place and switch back on. Loved that win, but definitely just feels like a waypoint. Job’s nowhere near done yet. Bring on next fortnight.

I don’t think playing at the top level is necessarily essential. There are other examples of coaches who didn’t but went alright - Neil Craig and Chris Fagan spring to mind.

Who cares if he does? It’s not illegal. If he is blatant about it, it won’t get paid. If he keeps ducking and gets caught holding the ball, the coaches will stamp it out quick smart. I hate it when Selwood and the others do it. I don’t care when our players do, especially if they suck the umpires in. Yes I’m a one eyed, biased hypocrite, so what?

15! Far out, we’ve dropped the ball. We had a Billy Stretch thread when he was about 12.

You lot have let the endorphins cloud your judgement. McLaughlin is the worst. For mine he’s the whitened teethed face of the appalling state the commentary of our game is in. Combined with Darcy and Richardson, my ears were bleeding and I’m just glad I was still able to enjoy the game in spite of their presence in the call.

Lol, mate. I’m offended you even need to ask.

Nah. Both games are in Launceston (3 hour drive each way from my place), I’m busy on Saturday and don’t want to spend my only weekend day in the car. Would have gone if it was in Hobart though. Bombers have a pretty solid following in Tassie so that was expected. I’m pleasantly surprised the Sydney GWS game sold out so quickly too though.

Both games sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale.

My mum was 11, and I was 19 years from birth. I’ve got to admit, as a man in my 20s, I always cringed a little at the older generation of Melbourne supporters who just wanted to talk about the glory years of what is literally a lifetime ago. Dropping these dusty old names that meant nothing to me. I knew of the Norm Smith Medal for a lot of years before I knew he was an all-time great Melbourne man. As I’ve progressed through to my late 30s, and had the youthful optimism beaten out of me by some pretty dismal failures, I’ve come to appreciate how precious that success is and how much it is to be cherished when it happens. You folk who can remember Melbourne flags are so lucky. I hope we can all share another very soon. And rest assured, if we lift the cup up in 2021, my grandkids not having any idea or interest in who Max Gawn and Christian Petracca were won’t stop me from talking about them.

Have a watch of Trac’s post-match interview. The 2021 team are, without a doubt, playing for the jumper.

Looks like there are direct flights, but you’d have to fly out Friday night and return Monday night. Only direct flight back on Saturday is before the game, and none on Sunday 👎

Ah, poo. There had been previously, I just assumed there still was. Definitely takes the gloss off the idea if we had to go via Tullamarine.

Sorry, I’m another voice for “all welcome”. Why be picky? Especially anyone who happens to live in Adelaide who might want to barrack for “not Port”, and might like to adopt a certain minor premiership team who look like making SA home for the final seies. Crows fans should get around us!

Tas-SA is low risk, and there’s direct flights from Hobart to Adelaide. If we’re still in Adelaide for prelims, I might pop over for that. Dunno about anyone else, but I’m happy it’s at AO. We play well there, it’s only a hop, skip and a jump away in terms of travel for the players, and it’s really inconvenient for Brisbane. Hopefully we’ve got a few SA based supporters who can get along and turn it in to our new fortress.

That was the moment where I thought we were going to win. My 15 year old daughter, who doesn’t normally care for footy at all, had tuned in because of my carrying on. She saw that collision and laughed and said “what the heck?”, to which I replied, “that’s the sort of thing players do when they think they’re about to lose.”

Yep. “Whoops”.

Goodwin mentions us all the time in his pressers. I think the current group get what it’s about. Players and coaches come and go, but the supporters are the ones that are here through all the peaks and troughs. Christian Petracca was in high school when we were getting pummeled by 30 goals in Geelong. Kozi Pickett and Luke Jackson weren’t born yet when Troy Simmonds got shirtfronted by Michael Long and teenage Brad Green got punched in the throat by Dean Wallis while being held by the current Richmond coach. They don’t have any of those memories. We have all of them. And we place our trust in the group to make positive memories for us, because we have absolutely no power to affect the outcome. We’re totally at their mercy. The team and coach say they can’t wait to be playing in front of crowds again. If this group goes all the way, they’ll be cemented in our hearts, and they know it. They’re aware of why they’re there. They’re doing it for us.

I’ve still got PTSD flashbacks from Jimmy Toumpas fumbling in the defensive goal square to enable a Leigh Montagna open goal. Ergh. Mistakes happen. Glad it was the other suckers ruing theirs last night.

What made it all the more staggering was that a clearly more deliberate one wasn’t paid against Selwood about 20 seconds earlier. That’s the joy of rules that require the umpire to read the players’ minds. Doesn’t matter though. No free against Brayshaw -> no shanked kick by Guthrie -> no needless punch in to the stands -> no 50 to Lever -> no Gawn mark with 10s to go. All the decisions, good and bad, got us to arguably our favourite MFC moment of all time for those of us too young to see ‘64. Well umpired, umpires!

Just watched the last two minutes again (possibly a couple of times). Gawn signalled to Lever, “put it there”. The kick from Lever was an absolute ripper. Couldn’t have put it more in the right spot.