praha

Will be fine. That he had them out in the chair suggests it wasn't a big op and maybe only had 1 or 2 out. 3-4 day recovery. Maximum.

Just booked reserved seats in AFL members. All "allocation exhausted" except for Level 1 outside.

Twitter is a terrible measure of brand engagement these days.

Well yeah

Have to admit, the hype around us is similar to that of the Eagles in 2005. They'd had an average year in 2004 and finished 11-11 in 9th place. Almost every prediction in the pre season had them finishing top 4 in 2005.

It's going to be glorious watching them crash and burn this year.

Same, although the main difference at the moment is that opposition teams and fans "hated" those clubs because they were so good. Beating them was a statement because it showed you could match it with the best. As it stands, beating Melbourne is more of a victory against hotheads. You want to beat them and you hate them because you want to put them in their place. It's well known within AFL circles that the Dees were strangely cocky and talkative during matches, despite having not actually proven much outside of a handful of big wins in the home and away season. There are also rumours that players were ripping into Port saying stuff like, "This is what a real top 4 team looks like" when we were beating them well, and that this contributed to the change in momentum in the second half. Apparently Petracca and Oliver are the worst offenders when it comes to that. I think there's nothing wrong with trash talking and being overly confident, but you need to play in the "now". As the old saying goes, "you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?" If you're going to sledge like a finalist, you better damn well play like a finalist.

It's a high as a kite grand flag It's the threads we love Of the team we homies with The team of the blood and the crips Every gunshot rings through For the red and the blue As we rap this beat for you Should ya'all smoke weed and never get caught Keep yo eye on us or else.

I can't imagine that this is as it's been described. Mostly likely the songs have been touched up to sound clearer.

Likely a targetted post aimed only at people that like and talk about MFC.

Australia is the only country it happens in. AFL, NBL, NRL, A-league. Each have a history of expansion when the existent teams are already struggling. The overall pie is positive because of a few teams holding up everyone else, but when you expand too quickly you destablise everything and end up having to dip into the coffers even more. I feel the NBL is on the right track atm, although they are teasing a second Melbourne team, and I don't think that's the right idea. As soulless and corporate as the NBA and NFL are, at least when a team is struggling they move it, rather than just keep it going *and* expand into new markets. Vancouver to Memphis. Seattle to OKC (although the team could've stayed in Seattle if not for a greedy owner...), Charlotte to New Orleans. North should have moved to the GC. And GWS shouldn't have a team.

In the words of the ever wise Finch, "I don't like the kid, but he has a point."

President and CEO, doubtful. Coaching team, sure. PJ has worked magic. You can't understate how bad a position the club was in when he arrived. We had actually taken a step back from the days of Dimetrouhsbjwkcjshs saying our "brand is worthless". How the hell do you fall *backwards* from being worthless?

I am certain I read an analysis that showed that, statistically, we were far, far worse between 2008-2016 than we were throughout the 70s. Without GWS, and if you include having finished equal last on wins with the Saints in 2014, we would have "won" 4 wooden spoons over a 9 year period.

I realised I was still paying $30 a month for my digital and paper delivery subscription to The Australia. Totally forgot about it. Someone must be pinching my paper. Can't cancel online. Had to call. "So you want to cancel?" "Yes" "Okay so you want to cancel..." "Yes..." "Okay so if you want to cancel what I can do is drop the price to $15 for the next 2 months." "No thanks I'd like to cancel" "Okay okay fair enough...so you'd like to cancel..." "Yes please" "So i can offer you $8 for the next 3 months." "I'd really just like to cancel." "Okay sure. Can I ask why?" This is literally how the conversation went. After a few more minutes it was finally cancelled. They are desperate. Digital or print. He simply did not want to cancel.

What is most sad about this is that, unfortunately, many of these young men, and in some cases your women, are being exploited and pushed into lives of crime by silent assassin's who promise them the world if they knock off a few mom and pop stores. Imagine having lived through what you described. How could you possibly comprehend or understand what it takes to be a "good" citizen? It goes beyond simple integration. To be blunt, I feel that Australia has bitten off more than it can chew with some of these young men, not to say they shouldn't be here, but the only way the community and these young men evolve into upstanding citizens is if they have role models to guide and empower them. Unfortunately, they have no fear of the law or God. They need real guidance. Hopefully some of our upcoming Sudanese AFL players can provide that. Otherwise I feel a genuine divide that splinters the Sudanese community away from the rest of the country.

Hmm if we can't make finals this year, another mini rebuild might be in order. You would think the current crop has the foundation with a good amount of depth and veterans. Should we miss I imagine some tough decisions, even tougher than moving on Watts, would be made. Goodwin might also find himself under a bit of pressure.

Okay great. So he'll kick 6.0.

Disagree. Some of the games we lost late were no different than some of the games we lost early (Freo, Hawks, North). And we played good footy right up until round 23, and even then it was bad shocking quarter that killed us and ended our season. We kick 2 more goals in that quarter and we're playing finals. What caused that first quarter was not being us being destroyed after a long season. We were killed by injuries. I have a far greater concern of the demons (pardon the pun) that cause lapses like we saw in 3-4 games last season. They always came at the worst time. If we can get rid of them, even with a few injuries, i think we have the depth to compete. That said as I've mentioned in another thread, I'm not excited yet because there's been no opportunity for them to break that.

I'm all for a twilight GF. I'm not keen on a night one though. I love how a game transitions from day into night. He's right in that with the right crowd, it's a surreal atmosphere. It already finishes with the sun set behind the stand anyway. What's another hour or two?

The problem with this is that it not only proves Blight wrong, but it also sets a very high ceiling for Melbourne seeing as we are more experienced than most of those teams, and having more upside and promise going into 2018 than those teams did in their premiership winning year (aside from maybe Hawthorn who looked destined for greatness). Blight may be wrong but the effort to prove as much has only opened Pandora's Box: there's no excuse this year.

I'm less excited than I've been in past years tbh. I hate to be *that* guy, but I've said all too often over the past 24 months, "We'll be alright" or "We'll win" or "We'll play finals". I just can't get my expectations up. There's just something in the back of my mind that says it won't be an easy ride, nothing is an easy ride, but I just can't "see" it yet. I won't be truly excited until a finals berth is locked and loaded. Sorry, guys. I'm looking forward to the season, but I'm not excited.

We're going to beat Geelong by 10 goals.

Level 4 is fine and the MCG is so perfect that no matter where you sit be it the very front row on level 1 or the last row on level 4, you can see the whole ground. But one thing I've noticed on level 4 is that the atmospheric tension and noise just isn't the same as level 1, and the game's aesthetic loses physicality. Obviously this is due to sitting further away but I personally wouldn't recommend level 4 if seats are available on the lower levels. Level 2 on either wing has the best view imo. But for atmosphere and experience, I like to sit on level 1, wing, on the last row undercover. That way I'm covered if it rains, and I'm close enough to the action and noise.

Way too fact based for modern society.