Adam The God

Because there is presumably a long lead time on these deals and it's disappointing that we are often the only club not to have a BOJ sponsor sorted by Round 1. Not this year, which is great.

Does anyone know the commercial terms? Great news to have the BOJ sponsor secured prior to Round 1. It shouldn't be difficult, but it has been.

Enjoying your new Bond name, Colin. Excellent choice. The best Bond film out there.

He hasn't played a good game yet and hasn't shown enough assets that will ever make him a sustainable AFL footballer IMO. I could never understand the love for him on these boards (particularly from you mate) prior to him even playing. He's a ferocious tackler, with reasonable agility and that's about it.

I want him to play more midfield minutes in 2019. His mix of x-factor, power and decision making is what we often lack in the midfield (with the exception of Clarry). I'd still have him forward 40-50% of the time, but we need him to take the next step this year and that means more midfield time.

"Melbourne in the first half were like one of those nervous African dictators. They always took a different route home. Now they're kicking goals." What a gem from DC.

Haha, every generation says this. You could just as easily level this at the 'super entitled' baby boomer generation, who have completely locked other generations out from the housing market and kept gen X and y out of top jobs.

I love the use of the full stop in the title. Very clever.

I'd agree with this. We have flawed / aging / injury-riddled players in depth spots, which is granted, what usually happens, but when you do a list of consistent role players or stars, it thins out at 26 or so. May, Jones, Salem, Harmes, Petracca, Lewis, Viney, Lever, Spargo, Brayshaw, Gawn, Preuss, Oliver, KK, Hibberd, Frost, Melksham, Hannan, Vandenberg, TMac, Weideman, OMac, Hunt, ANB, Fritsch, Jetta. Of course, our new recruits could change the face of this in the short term, although I doubt many of them will be able to have an impact in 2019. Hore and Sparrow potentially, but outside run is still a concern if KK, Hunt, Baker and Hore don't come on as expected. The article also rightly points out that we're placing a lot of faith in Weideman next year too. He's still a young player and I think we'll find consistency in 2019 is still an issue. I'll be interested to see if Bedford gets a chance at some stage in 2019 or whether he has to wait until 2020 and beyond for an opportunity, because we desperately lack pace at ground level in our forwardline. On the whole, our list is beautifully balanced, but there is quite a bit of assumption in that statement that is fairly questioned in this article.

The logical direction FA is going for Hawthorn and Melbourne is that we start to become even more of a destination club and players second guess wanting to go to Hawthorn - particularly if Hawthorn fail to make the 8 next year.

Yep, exactly. Despite what Collingwood say too, their best 22 is very old. It's why our list is so exciting. Our best 20+ are majority 24 and under.

It was a good interview, but I'd say as much as reengaging with lapsed members, we need to be focusing on targeting new members. I presume we have a plan for this too, but he just decided to keep it simple for this interview.

The first half is riddled by the studio interfering and the second half is the director's vision. The second half blew me away. Such a missed opportunity. The director's cut one day could be insane.

Haha. Cameron Diaz? Seriously? It's not 2002, Picket. Not sure about Hannah or Lee Curtis on that list either. Portman's film Annihilation this year could have been one of the best films made this century if the studio hadn't [censored] around with it. Check it out on Netflix, but it looks like you'd prefer The Children Act, given the actresses you've mentioned. That's also on right now. You'll be able to get it at Cameo. You're a strange fellow at times, HH. FWIW, Portman does a lot of incredible community work.

Very little football sense. He's a good tackler and he's an okay interceptor, but he's poor positionally, his kicking is weaker than Frost's and he's a poor decision maker, as he's clearly not a natural footballer. The FD are reaching with Smith for mine. He doesn't have enough going for the top level IMO.

He's no good.

Apologies if this has already been covered, but does anyone who has seen a bit of our draftees play, have any idea whether any of these kids will be able to step straight into the big time? Or are we looking at a group of kids who will need a few seasons at VFL level before they can step up?

You can't help but think Goodwin has a bit of influence on all these SA guys coming into the club. Retention-wise, I'd say having an SA legend as senior coach, would help, as will playing in finals consistently.

Going very early on this, Jack, but I reckon we'd be very happy we can pick him up later on and stock up in the midfield with earlier picks.

Just spoke to my mate who coaches at CGS and Oakleigh. Asked him about Jordan. Said he's a ripper kid, clean ball use, more contested than outside. Reckons he'll get better over the next few years as a late developer. Not much new info, but good to hear we've got a clean user who is more contested than outside too.

He seems to have a little bit of a Dayne Swan-like gait to his run from the very little footage I've seen. I like that we've gone for two guys that can roll through the midfield. Need to keep building and replenishing that midfield.

I'm a fan of the young and the old working together. Do it all the time in my projects and I advocate for both. The old MFC website seemed very simple and lacked decent video content. I hope to see more of it.

I'm impressed with our new digital content crew. It seems like actual content makers younger than 40 are producing the content on the website now. So much slicker already.

Is that what we should pop your alarmist politics down to as well? Old age? Left of Stalin. What rubbish. The Age lost its way a while ago, but mostly because of who sat on its board and made the decisions. As for the topic, Gaff hit Brayshaw and should cop the penalty. If we're talking politically left, I'd say the sentiments around the Gaff hit were that violent actions on the field should perhaps be dealt with in a similar manner to violent acts off the field. I can see the thinking, but I'm not for it as it's a contact [censored] sport.

I would imagine it would depend on what Melbourne can offer in terms of brand exposure. It shouldn't be as simple as $X in marketing/advertising budget, but maybe you're right.