Dr. Gonzo

Yeah me too, so he misses our game against them in round 5 which is good :)

I don't think one preseason is enough, we had been working away at ours for a period of time before players matured into it and it clicked, plus having the fitness to play to the system for entire games.

Agree, I think we have both class and system whereas the Swans have system but questionable class and GWS have class but questionable system. At our best we account for Geelong, Lions and Tigers I think, Bulldogs still a wildcard - how will they rebound from the GF? Will they have scars from the thrashing, will they change their system up (we pulled it apart twice last year with our system)? Will JUH/Darcy have an impact?

32,954 on 22/2/21 according to the OP.

We played home games against Brisbane and Collingwood in Sydney in 2021 costing us a lot of money in the process. We also had to play home finals in Adelaide and Perth. Their home games will just be relocated to a neutral venue same as other clubs last year.

I think you'll find that's incorrect https://www.ascotvalepanthers.com/

Lucky the Greek alphabet only has 24 letters so there's only 9 more variants to go 🤣

Feast or famine and it's time to feast

As far as I'm aware no premiership 18/20/22/23 has ever played together again. Players may have been on the list but there were always changes to the matchday squad which meant the team that played in the flag never took the field intact again.

Richmond probably favourite in 2019 ahead of wce? We were up there too I reckon.

What a game that was, we cost the Pies top spot or the double chance if I remember correctly and they lost an Elimination Final to the Saints. They thought they had another flag in them after the hangover in 1991 and the win was as sweet as anything. I was there as a 10 year old standing in the outer with my dad and uncles (one a Collingwood supporter). I walked out of the game towards Hoddle St screaming Grand Old Flag at the top of my lungs I remember getting some dirty looks but noone said or did anything. Had one of the best hamburgers that day too there was a grill setup just inside the entry gates - at least they knew how to do something right. Actually as a kid I never witnessed many issues at any of the suburban grounds but I guess we were generally in the outer with other Melbourne supporters. In my experience stkilda supporters have been the worst I've experienced and it has always been at the G.

I don't see it with the Tigers unless Lynch has an all time type season. Riewoldt, Cotchin, Nank both a year older, Astbury gone, Chol gone Prestia and Grimes injury prone. They'll be lucky to finish top 4 I reckon even with a good injury run. Edit- whoops corrected Lunch to Lynch thanks WCW 🤣

Anyone want to PM the article to me? Thanks in advance 🙂

I've just finished the round 5 Hawks game on my rewatch and one of the things that has stood out to me is how ineffective Jones has been. There were patches during a couple of games where I forgot he was on the ground. Good on him and the club for getting to 300 games but it has cemented in my mind they made the right call and he would have been very lucky to get a run during September.

It wouldve been worth going to the Kitty Litter in 2021 if we could get in 🙂

I was lucky enough to witness the end run of the suburban grounds before ground rationalisation though never got to see Arden st, junction Oval or Lakeside Oval and Punt Rd and Glenferrie were long gone by the late 80s when I started watching. I visited Princes Park and Waverley many times, Western Oval, Moorabbin, Kardinia Park and Windy Hill 2-3 times each and Vic Park once in 1992. I think Windy Hill is the only place I never witnessed a victory at (I missed out on 1990 for some reason). I agree the old Olympic Stand at the G although run down still had the feel of a footy ground, now it's just another stadium with a lot of the soul ripped out.

Are you sure that was mud 🤔

The academies are a joke, the AFL is the governor of not just the league but the sport as well since it usurped this role from the ANFC. It is therefore the afls responsibility to manage development programs but they have delegated responsibility to the club's. And this was done as some kind of appeasement due to the northern state club's having their own academies which in themselves are a rort, particularly for the NSW club's. Now the non-northern state club's derive close to zero benefit as seen by us this year and this is only going to get worse as the AFL expands the rules so that club's can't match bids within the first 40 picks - so what is the point? Get rid of all academies, I'd even be happy to get rid of the father/son rule (which is nice but an anachronism) and move towards a pure draft. Footscray getting back to back number 1 picks while making a GF, the Swans getting Heeney, Mills, Gulden, Campbell et al while being perennial finalists - the system is a joke and the AFL is trying to have a bob each way. A pure draft is the only way to go in a league focused on parity/equalisation.

We're the only team that's proven it's possible so far 😉

All the finals are in bluray? It's just the GF isnt it? I've got the GF bluray and the victory pack but won't shell out for the season pack if the quality isn't that great. I found copies online of every game in 1080p including multiple commentary tracks for the QF and didn't have to pay a cent. It's only just over 200GB in total too so you could fit it on 4 or 5 Blu-ray discs (50gb each I think). Surely the AFL/distributors can give us some better quality asking us to pay in excess of $100.

It has

Anyone looking for some time to kill during during isolation or just wanting a general pick me up I highly recommend reading through the GF matchday threads on opposition boards on BigFooty. I read through the Bulldogs one the other night and it was heartwarming to see how quickly they went from "we've got this, Melbourne are [censored]" to "uh-oh I think we're in trouble" to "**** we've [censored] the bed here" to "no one could match them, Melbourne were unstoppable" The Carlton and Richmond board threads were pretty funny in their own ways, it was a joy to read the Hawks supporters realising how far away their midfield was from competing with the best (IE OURS!!!) the St Kilda thread was just depressing I felt a kinship with them after reading through that misery (Petracca winning the Norm Smith just to rub it in) and really hope they can break their drought soon. Looking forward to killing time reading through the Essendon and Collingwood threads, the Geelong one should be hilarious too.

I drove past Whitten Oval yesterday (I'm only about a 10 minute drive away), would it be cheeky to drape Ted Whitten in a Demons scarf just before round 1?

Well apparently half the Geelong team were bedridden with flu/gastro before the Prelim and they were still allowed to play, why should players miss games because of a little sniffle 🤣