praha

Added Friday night, more so because we haven't played a Friday hight match for three years, and haven't won one for four.

Good thing we're going to win, then.

I'm guessing 34.5k is where it'll peak. 35k by round 1 was always a pipe-dream with two away games straight after round 1, and that Essendon loss. A win against Richmond might jump things up but I think the club's peaked atm.

It's far too early to tell. Games like this Friday, and how we perform away from Melbourne and against the likes of Hawthorn and Sydney, not to mention mid-range teams like North, Adelaide, Port etc will tell us a lot.

All this talk about Watts. He's Travis Johnstone 2.0: he's the kind of player you want in your team when your team's playing well. He gets the ball, hits a target, can kick a goal or two. But when your team is struggling, he won't win the game for you, or stand out. Dumping him would be silly, because whenever the team's on a role, he tends to be at the forefront. Yeah, that makes him a downhill skier, but he's still blasting down the mountain faster than the opposition. He's a role player. People want him to be a superstar but he's not. He plays a role and that's it. And his role is particularly highlighted when we play well. He's kind of like the icing on a cake, the "cherry on top". He's going to be a real asset when this team plays finals. Reliable. Until then, he can only do so much. We need the true leaders to stand up. The guy isn't superman.

It'll sure be interesting to see how Melbourne plays given the contest on Saturday. We could either be absolutely stuffed and get run over, or really rough it up and keep it tight. I can't seeing us 'smashing' them though. I honestly think that this is the type of games for BOTH teams that will determine how far they've come. If Melbourne wins this, they will have performed on a big stage and turned a corner. If Richmond wins, well, they'll have played consistent footy at the start of a season for the first time in a while. Richmond needs to win this if it wants to be a respected finals contender. Melbourne needs to win this to turn a corner. It's going to be epic.

I believe it was promoted as a "training" jumper. And by "training" jumper they really mean "another jumper for you to buy".

Bad kicking style. Confirmed going to Freo.

Spencer and Gawn are fine imo. They're very raw but expecting a Sandilands with your ruck stocks is futile. You need a strong midfield and a ruckman that will simply make a contest and get the ball to the ground. We've also got Frost now who reminds me a little of Jason Ball. Dawes can ruck around the ground, so can Hogan and Lumumba. We're serviced well in ruck stocks imo. We need better ball winners. Our defense is nice and our forward line is better, but for the amount we rebound off 50, we don't go forward anywhere near enough. Our mids still don't run hard enough going both ways. That will come with experience for Tyson, Viney. Vince never goes back and Jones can't do everything. Brayshaw will be special. Gee come to think of it if we're not playing finals by 2017 at the latest there really is something wrong with this club.

Another good option is Baden Powell on Victoria Parade. Amazing grub, sensational pizza, and a big screen. Again, it's hit and miss with what games they're showing.

We should have won 10-12 games last year. Not winning that this year would be a failure.

I have no problem with Essendon. I have many problems with Collingwood. During World War 1, the clubs with the highest tally of players serving came from "upper-class" (at the time) clubs: Melbourne, Geelong, St Kilda, South Melbourne. Essendon had many players serve during the war, but Collingwood was very under-represented: of the four "working class" clubs -- Collingwood, Fitzroy, Richmond and Carlton -- the Pies had by far the lowest amount of players serving. Melbourne stood aside from the competition and along with University had the highest number of players serving die: 16. In WW2, Melbourne lost a further 13, including ‘Bluey’ Truscott, and the Rat of Tobruk, Ron Barassi Senior. Collingwood's enlistment was half that of the Lions, Tiges and Blues. But this pisses me off the most: Melbourne name its best-and-fairest trophies after fallen war heroes, whereas Collingwood named theirs after Copeland and treasurer Bob Rush, who disguised gifts to players and committeemen during the wars as presents to soldiers, when they were anything but. Also consider that the neighbourhood was mainly Irish Catholic, heavily unionised and against conscription. In the 1916 and 1917 conscription referenda, Collingwood voted against conscription. Whether you agree with conscription or not (I can't see how you would), it seems bizarre that a club so aggressive in its campaign against the wars would be rewarded with arguably the biggest game on the regular season schedule that recognises those who served. If ANZAC Day was about "tradition", Collingwood most certainly wouldn't be there. The day is about nothing more than branding and corporate exploitation. If it had anything to do with the "ANZACS" and tradition, Melbourne would be playing. But it's not like Melbourne was smart enough to conjure up the day itself. It had an obligation to. It didn't. Now it's someone else's day, evidently, someone that most certainly shouldn't be held up on the day as a "club for the ANZACS".

Can we translate that same sort of defensive consistency that we saw against Adelaide against Richmond? I'm not convinced that this team has the capacity to play well consistently, two weeks in a row. We haven't seen it for four years. I hope they prove me wrong. Let's look at the stats: Richmond averages 60 more possessions a game (387) and 20 more marks (98). They lead the league in marks-inside-50 at 17.3, which is 10 more than we do (7.3). Adelaide averaged 19.5 marks inside 50 in the first two rounds but only had 5 on Saturday. That said the conditions didn't suit the forwards so it definitely made it easier for us. We average 7 more clearances per game (40) but we both average 11.3 center clearances. This should be a good tussle between the midfield, but I hope the likes of Jones, Tyson, Kent and Bernie can rough the Toiges up a bit like they did the Crows. We average 5 more stoppage clearances (28) and 4 more rebound-50s (40). We average almost 20 more tackles per game (70). It's just our capacity to get the ball forward inside-50 with good delivery that kills us: we're 17th for inside 50s with 42.7, whereas Richmond averages 55. We're also not that efficient going forward: it's 4 inside 50s for every goal, compare to Richmond's 3.6 entries for every goal. How can we win? We need to limit their marks inside 50, and translate our 40 rebounds per game (6th in the league) into goals. Richmond averages 5 more goals per game. Because of our inefficiency, if we permit Richmond too many marks inside 50, we'll need to rely on inaccuracy to keep us in the game, because we've really struggled to get the ball forward and score in rounds 2 and 3. Maybe playing on the MCG again will change this. Tackle hard, win the stoppages, restrict their push forward and completely cut off the supply to their marking forwards. We can get on top of their mids. My Tip: Dees by 123

"Melbourne are right up the backside of Adelaide so far." Yesterday's gem from Riccuito.

Sports Bar at Crown is good but it's a gamble (pun intended) on which game will be on the big screen and with audio. Essendon v Carlton would have been the preference yesterday. Other games are relegated to smaller screens. They have a schedule on their website but don't list what's showing on the big screen. Love going there though. The Parma Burger is a delight.

"I miss the days when players didn't have as much say in where they play." Inorite? Who would want employees to choose where they work! Adapt or die. The club has to find a way to keep (and develop) talent.

Many positives from this with Brayshaw, Hogan, Vince, Jones' response, McDonald continuing good form, but unfortunately we are still a very, very average team. Going to be another long year.

This is incredibly winnable. We are in a prime position. They look spooked. Rough 'em up! Bully them!

Sorry for the bump but I was breezing through old footy videos and this was a "recommended video" next to our comeback game against Freo in 2008.

cocaine is a helluva drug,

It's an interesting sentiment, but it makes the assertion that Ablett is neither a/as good a leader as Jones, nor someone that is able to lift GC off the bottom half of the ladder. Now, a good "leader" is not necessarily one that leads from the front and is the best player. A leader "empowers" those around them to get the most out of themselves. Is Jones good at that? I think that objectively this is certainly up for debate: in the training of Melbourne that I've watched, he's far from the most vocal and directive, although that hardly dismisses his leadership capabilities. Does he lead from the front? He does, but I'm not sure he's at a level where people are necessarily empowered to over-perform in the same way they do under an Ablett or a Selwood. We've seen how Melbourne has been the last 2-3 years. We've hit rock bottom. What has Jones done for the team as a whole apart from being its only consistent, respected player? Jones is a *very* hard midfielder, but you have to question where the Suns would be if they had him as opposed to Ablett. Would they have won so many games in the first half of 2014? Would they have been considered (and maybe still are) a finals contender? Overall, would Jones have been better overall for the Suns? I'm not sure. I love Jones, I really do, but he's a "go through the motions" kind of guy. His best is good, rarely great. He'd be an asset to ANY team but, even as Roos said last year, he needs to go to the next level. Let's say Tyson, Viney, Brayshaw and Petracca all end up AA midfielders and top 50 AFL players: does Jones still get a game? Again, I'm not dismissing Jones' skill or leadership capabilities. But in a way I feel that Jones kind of epitomises this club: when this club is good, it's good, never great. It never goes to the next level. Last week really disappointed me, but evidently it appears as though Jones was sick/injured. He needs to reach another level and unless he does, we'll have to wait for the likes of Tyson, Brayshaw etc to build their experience and skill up to lead the club. Because atm, Jones' best isn't doing much in the way of empowering the players to play for one another. So I disagree. Ablett might not be the *best* leader, but there's no price on playing under the likes of Ablett. I know a Suns midfielder who reckons he's just a great guy, easy to talk to. He's a bit of a loner but at the same time, he sets such a high standard that you can't help but be inspired. This is really a deep discussion that could go either way. I don't think you can put a price on having young players play under a once-in-a-generation type player like Ablett. Jones is just what you have to expect from a midfielder. He's far from exceptional. That said, Melbourne is *VERY* lucky to have him. The last 2-3 years would have been a lot darker.

Going to be a great player for a long time. Not sure he'll make that transition into greatness but he's the kind of player that will average 90-100 SC points his whole career. He's the second coming of Nathan Jones. Exactly what we needed. What a colossal [censored] up.

We were up for 50 and almost lost. 5 minutes into the last, my girlfriend asked if we were safe. "Yeah it's game over." Nek minnit...

Since 1980: 59 games, 14 wins, 45 losses vs Hawthorn

Added "Score 100 points". Before Round 1, we went 31 matches without scoring 100 points. Forgot that one! Added.