Dr. Gonzo

That was BB (Before Bowey)

He has also started clunking some marks which is what I want from him at the moment. The goals will come but just seeing him mark some contested balls is great, some more time to build confidence and synergy will have some posters with egg on their face I reckon. He is marked very very hard by many, sure he's not Plugger or Dunstall but few are.

Next Sunday, ANZAC Eve, is also Orthodox Easter. Probably won't have a big bearing on Melbourne supporters but I wonder how many tigers supporters might not attend because of it (it's their home game as well).

Haha reminds me of my son telling me after we won the flag last year "I've been waiting my whole life for this!" He is 8. 🤣

Yes they lock the car park for 20 minutes now until the crowd has dispersed

Stevic was just as bad

He definitely didn't seem to have any injury concerns last night. Can't believe I actually thought he wouldn't play 🤣

Loved that too, May is such a fantastic player and it's great to see his teammates and supporters show the recognition for those actions. Got a monster round of applause when coming to the bench shortly after.

He is such a clever player as well which I think gets overlooked sometimes. Some of his little tap ons tonight we're superb.

It's great seeing teams with the ball at half back and just having nothing to go to, its happened 3 games in a row now. They have nothing, our defense is like a vice.

20k is a worry though. That should be 30k minimum really with an aim of 35k-40k, if people aren't showing up after winning the flag and undefeated when will they? Our goal is for 50k average home crowds how will we meet that target? Obviously if we keep winning I couldn't care less at the moment but it must be a worry for Pert, Roffey et al. Must say I was surprised at the lack of marketing for this game by the club too.

You're right, I stuffed up. I thought it was a shot of him talking to Williams in the gallery on MFC app but it was someone else whoops

Pictures of Rivers at training yesterday showed no strapping on the knee. I think he'll be fine.

When I'm watching live at the footy I try to look ahead of the play to the players who are about to have the ball kicked to them instead of just following where the ball is. It is hard when you're wrapped up in the game but I try to catch myself and look ahead of the field to get an idea of the behind the ball play. There was one play in the Essendon game, the one where Wanganeen kicked the snap from the MCC pocket, where I looked ahead and Smith got completely lost in the play. He was ball watching and standing about 10-15m in front of Wanganeen. Wanganeen doubled back while Smith was looking upfield and when the ball came down Smith was caught miles out of position and Wanganeen had plenty of space to work in and snap the goal. I'm sure this isn't an isolated incident and reminded be of last year's QF when he got turned inside out by Cameron a couple of times. This is my worry with Smith, he doesn't know where to position himself and gets outsmarted by players with higher footy IQ. His athleticism is undeniable but if he's not getting led to the ball I feel he worries our defensive structures too much which is a huge issue considering the type of game we play.

And Longmire? Don't know the exact deal but Essendon destroyed Freo in trades when they first entered the comp. Git Lloyd and Lucas for Ridley (who?) or something like that. We also got Farmer for Phil Gilbert from memory and Adelaide also got Andrew McLeod. No wonder Freo stunk for so long.

Which of our forwards played well though? Pretty scrappy inside 50 with Port flooding back and the poor delivery from the mids. Tough decision, they'll have to weigh up the potential mental impact on Weid if he is dropped again with whether they think it is best for the team to keep him in. I'd like to see him given a block of games early in the season and it might stick a rocket up TMac as well as he hasn't reached the same level he did through the middle part of last year. Brown is a definite in though.

Especially after the comments about how last preseason they agreed to stop with the negative talk about each other eg "Lever had 8 marks today" "yeah but who was he on?" I'm not a Smith fan and I agreed with what Max said but I was thinking geez how would Smith be feeling listening to that? It's basically saying everyone knows he's second rate.

For the first time in a long time I thought the camera work was great last night giving us some zoomed out wide shots of the field to show the setups of each team. Port handballes far less than usual and tried to play a defensive possession game, they flooded back to stymie our opportunities to score. It worked for a quarter and a half but then the inevitable happened. Pretty tough without your two bookends and two of your better small forwards missing.

Pickett and Spargo both did it last night and I don't like it. They're good enough to not have to do that. Spargos did result in a gal to Viney but the umpires will crack down on them if they become known for it (or maybe not if Selwood is anything to go by 🤷‍♂️)

Conversely we have a 5 week run later in the year with games away from the G - Crows in Adelaide, Cats in Geelong, Port in Alice, Dogs at Docklands, Freo in Perth in consecutive weeks.

He was good last night, what are you talking about? Sparrow, Jordon & ANB (Viney too) stood up when Oliver & Petracca were below their best. That's what makes us so hard to play against.

And we will be again at some point, it's inevitable. So enjoy the good times while they're here people, no point wallowing in the misery of a "poor" win. We are a very good side and we will win ugly plenty but it's better than losing.

I've seen plenty worse and we were often on the other end of it. [censored] me some of you people are fickle. That was an outstanding display from our end I loved every minute of it.

They had 1 goal until halfway through the last quarter didn't they? We destroyed them.

People are complaining? That was beautiful to watch, our defensive structures are so sound both Essendon last week and Port tonight had NFI what to do. Clinical, once our ball movement starts clicking watch out.