Nasher

That Hogan fella goes okay. Might keep him.

I remember that loss against Sydney in 1993 (I was in year 4). I got mercilessly teased in the playground at school during the week after. Tough gig being the lone Melbourne supporter at the school.

Nup, he didn't. I'm confusing him for Petracca. Getting old, I think.

Take a deep breath and think about why that might be.

I think it's just a more useful point of reference. If I said "this guy is a dead ringer for Nathan Wright", I don't think people are going to be much the wiser. The best players in the game are the ones everyone knows, so it's only natural that that is where the comparisons gravitate to.Anyway, ANB compared himself to Robbie Gray, so I doubt he's going to be that bothered by who he gets compared to.

By "have a feeling", he means taking a wild guess.

Don't think they're KC's best. Would love to know if there's a story behind him not being listed there though or if it was just an oversight - 5 goals sounds dominant.

I did too, but in my mind I associate Rivers with the Daniher era, which feels like such a long time and so much pain ago now that I'm able to let it go. Happy that he's had the opportunity to play out his career in a good side - I truly didn't think he'd still be kicking around at this stage.

Two good teams going at it in a close, exciting contest? Yawn. When do Carlton get thrashed?

Good to hear that Goodwin is trying to establish his list.

Didn't expect the Stretch/Fitz swap, but otherwise as expected after seeing the extended bench. Best of luck to ANB on debut. Hopefully Stretch can step up too - very, very inexperienced looking side this.

Bit of a tangent, but I thought it was interesting that Plapp went out of his way to point out that three of his young players are really enjoyable to coach because they listen (in contrast to Roos' comments after the game). The three he mentioned were OMac, Harmes and Stretch. I wonder how much of an influence this has on players having success at the top level - I've heard stories about some players such as Blease, Morton and Gysberts being nigh-on uncoachable because they didn't listen to feedback.

That's ABN to you, buddy.

Any offers from other clubs?

As opposed to the ones we've won that we shouldn't have won?

Spencer will most likely play too (pending MFC selection) - if that's the case I expect King will play the whole game as a full forward. We need King to be a good forward and a decent ruckman more than we need him to be a good ruckman anyway, IMO. A David Hale circa 2012/2013 type should be his ambition.

For what it's worth, you don't have to count his post to me as hectoring. I was far more amused at his expense than I was offended I literally LOLed when I read it.

No, of course the club should expect elite results from its elite performance manager. But who's to say we're not seeing elite results, and that it's just been bad luck, or other unidentified (from the outside) influences? That's my point. A small injury list might be indicative of good performance, but a large injury list isn't necessarily indicative of a poor performance.

This is one item that is absolutely impossible to assess from outside the club. Injuries and recovery are such a dynamic thing, there are so many factors that influence them and one of them is just pot luck. Don't know how you could ever say from the outside who was to blame, if anyone. The evidence is only ever circumstantial. Hell, I'm not even really sure how you'd do it from inside the club unless you were a fitness expert yourself, or obvious gross negligence was at play (which I highly doubt). By hiring another external expert to review it all, I suppose.

See my edited post

Yep, I'm assuming JKH is for fitness, as per my post above. There's no way Harmes will play in the DL, surely. Suspect they just had to name someone. Edit: All of the extended seniors bench are named in the starting 18 for the DL except for Gent, Morris, White and the 23rd player Hannon. So if you take out four MFC players and take those four as a given, there are three spots available, of which Harmes will surely be one.

Really pleased for King. Hopefully the development league form translates. JKH playing in the dev league. Suggests to me he's at least 3 weeks away from being fit enough for MFC selection - this game will be a 50%er I reckon, to be followed by a limited game in the seniors and a full game in the seniors at least.

Thanks. Meant Riley.

Final bench: Grimes, Michie, Neal-Bullen and Riley for mine based on that extended bench.

And they're just the ones I remembered off the top of my head. Then there are some like bing181 and Sylvia Saint who are overseas. There's no doubt you have to be at the game to pick up certain details about what happens, but I think you can get the gist on TV. Some broadcasts are better than others, too (depends on the producer, perhaps?) - I've watched a number of games where the cameras regularly pan to a point where I can see most of what's happening ahead of the player, which is the most important thing. I've also seen others where the broadcasters seem intent on me seeing the boogers in the players nose and that's about all, which is frustrating. There are also disadvantages to being at the ground, like when you get people who seem hell bent on standing up and/or walking up and down the aisles obscuring your view, or when play is at the opposite corner of the ground to where you're sitting.