praha

Given the amount of players drafted each year and the number of highly ranked key forwards, I would take it as a figure of speech and treat it as a rare occurrence. How many star key forwards have been drafted since Hogan? Not many. If any.

2011 was a weird season. We would belt some teams by 14 goals and then get belted by 10 goals. I'm of the opinion that neither Bailey nor management could have avoided what eventually happened. I understand there were key drivers of the fued that led to 186, but we were a one-way, "bruise free" team that had it coming. Bailey was an attacking coach and he would have had to completely change his coaching style to make us a finals contender. Given he was in his 4th season I couldn't see that happening, especially with the crew we had. I knew we were done when we lost to Carlton by 50 odd points. I think that was the "bruise free" match. You could just smell it. We were comfortably a 10th-12th team, we a poor back office and resources. This led to division, poor management of injuries, no leadership, and low morale throughout the club. 2011 really was the perfect storm. Fast, erratic change, new branding, the dumping of McDonald, and an expectation that a young brigade would lead to a flag. All with a bunch of yahoos managing the club, and no real long term vision.

He was already well noticed considering how well he polled despite missing a large chunk of games at the start of the year. Had he played to start the season and played to the standard he did for the rest of the reason, he'd have won by a mile.

I probably won't be as happy as I would have been, say, 10 years ago. Now for me it's kind of like, "Just get it done already". Whereas I used to fantasise about seeing a flag.

When you look at the team's with the toughest draws - melbourne collingwood west cost essendon hawthorn and richmond - they all play each other twice. That's 6 of last year's finalists that you'd think one might actually drop out of the top 8. There are smokies with the likes of Adelaide, Sydney, Geelong, Port, GWS and the Bulldogs, all of whom you would think have grand finals ambitions. I think we may well see a North or Brisbane sneak in this year, and I wouldn't be surprised if one of Melbourne Hawthorn or Collingwood drop out. Essendon is all the talk atm but could finish anywhere from 1st to 12th. Ultimately I think top 4 will be made up of the best defenses, we are stacked in that regard but the question is if our forward line can be as potent. I'm in two minds about 2019 just as I was last year about 2018. Finals would be ideal but this might be the toughest draw we've had in my time supporting the club (29 years).

I've been involved in digital publishing for 13 years now, and have been involved in countless website rebuilds and reboots. The feedback is generally harsh and overwhelmingly negative, because people hate change. It can be very demanding mentally because you put so much time and effort into building something, and people hate you for it.

just goes to show, one solid 10-win season and a good off-season, and Carlton will be back on Friday night. Whilst we need to basically set the world on fire.

Surely not...if that's then case, then a home game against Essendon (for once), or at least a second game against Collingwood and Richmond.

We would be looking to maximise profit by playing teams that are well supported in the NT. The WA and SA teams, particularly Crows and Eagles, ensure a full house. A Melbourne v St Kilda game would be awful.

Suspect Essendon will get the Thursday night slot and we'll be looking at 3-4 friday night games, including one against Sydney in Sydney in round 2.

Surprised they could string so many coherent sentences together.

Crazy talk. To lose money on an MCG home game you need a sub-23k crowd. We'll get 45k-50k imo.

We would have likely scored Port at the MCG at some point anyway but it's still not ideal. Geelong on a friday night at the MCG....YAAAAAAWN. Not great scheduling. And then Bulldogs v Sydney as the primetime game on the Saturday night? GIVE ME A BREAK! Regardless, I think we'll get 50k in round 1.

Vanders and Hannan are in the team partly because of the spot left by Garlett. I'd be looking at Menzel purely as a depth option should one of the aforemention, ANB or Spargo aren't playing. Garlett is cooked imo.

I'd have him ahead of Garlett by the length of the Flemington straight. If you can get him relatively cheaply, I'd throw a 2 year contract at him. Good depth.

Freo needed Hogan more than we needed Lever, and they needed to protect draft picks more than we did. Why battle to save a future first rounder when your intent wasn't to go to the draft in the first place?

The way I see it: - 13 MCG games - 2 Marvel games - 2 NT games (vs Adelaide, vs Freo) - 1 QLD game (vs Brisbane or GC) - 1 Sydney game (vs Swans or GWS) - 2 SA games (Crows and Power) - 1 WA game (Freo) That leaves 9 home MCG games and 4 away MCG games. Home: - Collingwood - WC - Hawthorn - Geelong - GC/Brisbane - GWS/Sydney - Carlton - Then one of St Kilda or Bulldogs Marvel away games: - North - One of Saints or Dogs Away MCG games: - Richmond - Collingwood - Essendon - Carlton Teams we play twice: - Collingwood - Carlton - Crows - Freo

If you can *play* like a small forward, your height is irrelevant.

I also saw Simon Godfrey at Inflation nightclub about 15 years back. I went up to him and said "Go Dees" like a groupie. He looked at me strange. Good times.

While in Amsterdam recently I had two extremely random MFC encounters. 1. My walking tour guide, who was an Amsterdam local, asked us who we followed in the footy after he heard we were from Melbourne. Before answering I asked him how he even knew about footy, and it was because his roomate was a diehard Melbourne supporter. Funnily, he knew all about Essendon's drug saga and compared it to FIFA corruption. 2. The next night, we did an awesome canal tour (Dam Boat Guys if anyone is after an awesome canal tour with some, erm, smoking flexibility). The guide was an Aussie that had been living in Amsterdam for a few years. While he was driving the boat at a blistering 5kmh, he was showing me highlights from the final vs Geelong and was almost in tears talking about how much he wished he was there. It was so random to find myself talking about the Dees on the other side of the world, twice, within 24 hours. What are your random MFC experiences while traveling? (NOTE: I asked the boat tour guide if he was the roommate of the walking tour guide, and he wasn't)

Gus squibbed a few times early as well...but he changed that really quickly and went from one extreme to the other. I think Andrew is a smart footballer, but unlike Gus he is taking longer to, erm, squib the squibs. Unless he does, he's just a Cale Morton 2.0

We are better defensively with a fit Lever and May, better by maybe 3-4 goals. Losing Hogan makes us 2 goals on average worse. However if we can keep the differential high enough, the total score is irrelevant.

Ceiling is higher for Neale atm you would think. Beams has probably peaked.

- Based in beautiful Princes Park - Fringes of melbourne CBD - ...flies free agent to Noosa

Norf is trying very hard not to bottom out but imo they would be best served to. Build up and trade for draft picks, and manage that cap space accordingly. Throwing money at every single free agent is getting embarrassing for them. Imagine having your $200k p.a. better offer rejected.