Age

Ryan got 1

AFL like to make examples of lessor known players. I'm expecting 3 down to 2 - using the potential to cause injury reasoning. Unfortunately, potential to cause injury doesn't apply to 'name' players though.

There was an interesting stat on First Crack last week along the lines of a good majority of teams that lost the GF by over 50 points the year before either didn't make the 8 or win a final the next year. The dogs are looking good for that at the moment...

Don't have time to mention his points but he rates us number 1.

If he gets weeks, will it be VFL or AFL weeks? If VFL and he gets say two weeks, he could be out until the middle of next year!

Have been told that Hardwick has pretty much lost the players after his off field activities. Be interesting to see how long he lasts now they aren’t winning all the time.

This may have already been discussed earlier but it will be interesting to see which people are included in the crowd that is allowed at the GF. At best, it will be 50% capacity. We all know that corporates get the majority of GF tickets already. Will any club members get access to a ticket? Even those with a guaranteed ticket as part of their membership? I haven't read the membership fine print but I know the guarantee used to have a condition of ...if MFC gets access to tickets, or something like that. Does the AFL take the money from corporates to help their bottom line at the expense of public outcry?

How does this week go ahead? 5 games in Vic that surely can't go ahead and it's got to be too late to move everyone interstate

Loading happened around the bye weekend, we should be fully up and running now. Think instead of loading up it just finished us off!

Think we need to start playing some of the kids to see what they have. Season is cooked unfortunately. does anyone have the stats of how often it seems to be wet when play, feels like it always runs at our games.

If we keep winning, enter sandman will get as big this one. go to about 2:30 to not worry about some of the other pre game stuff

I've been told by someone at the AFL that it is all to do with the state government. Apparently, to be at 100%, they want the contact details of every single person that attends the game. Currently, the just get the details of the person that buys the ticket. QR code would have to be every single person that enters the ground, not just you doing it for your group etc. The AFL is trying to get around it but they aren't having much luck.

They are. Is why the saints defender had a career high disposals figure against us. He took about 14 of our kick outs!

Exactly, it's very easy to 'sell some candy' to a guy that can't move! Can even pretend you kick on an arc and just not actually come back in line with the mark and just run off. I doubt the umpires will pull the player back seeing as everything is to try and keep the game moving.

Let’s look at the positives. We aren’t playing finals this year and Goodwin will be gone at some stage this year. The future looks bright!!

Let's just all agree that if you want the system changed then the only way will be for us to win a flag and then have a top talent from another team want to come to us under free agency. Move will be blocked and free agency will be changed very shortly after that as you can't have a lessor team stay at the top for too long...

AFL has continually said that the need to produce the number of games that they do is how they get the current TV money. This year may have shown them that it they reduce the number of teams but increase the number of rounds, they could still get the same number of games televised and across more nights of the week which keeps the broadcasters even happier. Even being able to have rolling fixtures where they can maximise viewership by scheduling the bigger games has shown it can be done, such as how the NRL does. Who knows how long we may have to keep dealing with COVID and have restrictions on crowd numbers. If we can never have a full MCG again then the need to maximise crowds doesn't have to be a priority, leaving it solely to maximise viewership. It will be interesting to see the direction the AFL takes, more than likely they will head down the viewership path, whether clubs survive that shift will be another matter.

Didn't we do that last year though?

Whilst I like his appointment from a talent point of view, the fact we are already looking at getting in new assistants basically states that Goodwin isn't going anywhere and for that reason alone, I hate this appointment!

If only we had signed the coach to a one year deal....

Yes, footspeed really doesn't mean all that much, it is ball movement. It's interesting how many on here would view us as slow and unskilful. After we beat GWS in the final round of 2018, Phil Davis commented how quick we moved the ball and how skilled we were. You can't tell me that we have lost heaps of actual pacey and skilful players over the last two years so where has it gone then?

This is my worry with where our club is at. If we don't show proper improvement and have a clear direction as to where we are going then we essentially become a feeder club for the good teams. Who is to say that we aren't already that now, along with a few other clubs mind you. As someone said earlier, most players seem to love the NBA and they have been watching how the good players essentially just pack up and go to a power team so they can win a championship and how normal it has become for them. Even watching players like Lynch go to the tigers and grab a flag straight away and the way it is seemingly more and more accepted will make it more acceptable to them to spend their development years at a club, become a good player and then leave for success. The way that free agency is almost designed now, it sets up the comp for this feeder club scenario to emerge and explains how the cats are able to finish top 4 in 11 of the past 14 years. The draft was brought in to even up the comp but free agency has destroyed that.

AA squad is all about the reputation built up and very rarely about the year you have had, unless it is an absolute blinder of a year. May loses out because they essentially look at his reputation built up over a period of time, not just the one year. He had a great year this year but some of the other FBs have had a decent couple of years. It is a ridiculous system but that's the way it seems to work.

What will annoy me with Bennell will be that if the club was thinking sacking the coach, I believe this fine comes off our soft cap next year and may be enough for them to keep him on. That is unforgivable for me!

2019 we hand injuries. 2020 we had almost a full list all year, COVID can’t be used an excuse because every club has to do deal with it. The coach had a team he has pretty much built, with no injuries and yet, in reality, we were nowhere near it. If the club is serious about expecting high standards then these low standards that have been set by the coach cannot be accepted and he must be made accountable. Nothing will change though, why would we expect it to?