Age

It’s good that they are being taught the Melbourne way down at Casey!!

Exactly this. We won a flag and still have no idea 2 years on what our forward line should be. They got so caught in defense that they were completely blindsided by the comp changing tact and becoming more offensive and we simply have no answer to it. Should have seen it as the afl were all talking about making the game more of a spectacle.

I still firmly believe we just got lucky and got hot in September 21. We are going to waste the talent that we have with what we have in charge.

It does seem funny this year. I know we started 10/0 last year but all the talk was that we were not actually at our best and would romp the year in. This year, we have lost a couple of games, sit probably second after round 9 with far and away the best percentage and no one seems to be saying a word about us at all. We probably had an easier start to last year so are really looking much the same as last year but it does feel like we are really going under the radar.

JVR is perfect for the MRO/AFL to say they are protecting the head at all costs. Send him straight to the tribunal to get 3-4 weeks. With us being a smaller club, they won't mind if there is any outrage as we generally just roll over and take what the AFL throws at us. On saying all of that though, they need to be leaning on Bounce and their golden fist award where they glorify spoils that belt people across the side or back of the head. Gawn by himself should have half the opposition team get a week for the amount of times he gets smacked in the back of the head in club's joke attempt at a spoil. I can take JVR being rubbed out if there is then consistency but the AFL and consistency simply doesnt exist.

Will not happen under Goodwin. His mantra is slow the ball so we can set up our defense behind the ball, moving it quick and attacking goes against all of this. He will actually be pretty annoyed with the last 12 minutes!

Looking at our draw and the way we are playing, we will scrape into 6/7 only to lose in the first week. I think we have to start looking at some of the kids we have to see if they are up to it as we are losing braysure and Jackson at the end of the year. Also need to look out fitness team as we have looked so tired all year, there is something not right there after losing burgess. only issue now is that with Carlton, pies, dockers and swans being younger and improving, I think we have missed our window for multiple flags. at least we got one, even though without actually being there to see it, still doesn’t reallly feel like a real premiership, which is so Melbourne!

Hearing that at least 6 other clubs will be doing this next year.

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.