P-man

Hoges kicks his second. Looking the goods so far.

The Jaguar ad with Vin and Trac that just played on Fox makes me weirdly happy. I’m programmed to expect seeing players from teams other than mine in those kind of ads.

The Who Cares Cup.

Love the inclusion of serial bridesmaid Chandler, regardless of it coming at the expense of Demonland enemy number one.

I can’t help being amused by that reasoning for not making umpires professional. It’s like that guy who doesn’t want to make any changes to his ****ty relationship out of fear she will leave. Even if that’s the case with the current crop, you can map a path towards making them professional. It doesn’t have to be an overnight change. The role is insanely difficult compared to other sports. Asking people to do it part time isn’t really fair to any party. Including the fans.

Agreed that we need to fix the centre clearance issue, although with the personnel we have in there, it seems inevitable we will get that right. I’m not worried about a North-like drop off, even as a chronically wary Demon supporter. Our talent level alone is streets ahead of North’s at that time. North also had a legitimately soft draw at the start of that season. Many predicted their strong start on the ledger. By comparison, our 8-0 start includes a domination of both last year’s grand finalists. But one week at a time, etc etc ?

We can all speculate til the cows come home on how or why the penny has finally dropped and there’s no “right” answer. There can however be a temptation to dig too deep or look for too complex an answer. If I had to reel them off, the main reasons for the season performance to date would be: a greater fitness base across the playing group that enables better execution of positioning on the ground key players hitting a critical mass of games played, otherwise known as maturity Lever and May finally getting a stretch of games together and filling a leadership void a functioning forward line with Fritta playing well and T Mac playing angry a genuine appreciation of roles on the field. Having game changers of the ilk of Trac and Claz certainly doesn’t hurt, but without the rest, they would be the cream on a non-existent cake. The coaches deserve some credit for the above, obviously, but it is the players who deserve most of the plaudits. Look at Hawthorn currently. You can have the greatest coaching group in the world but you’re going nowhere if you don’t have the cattle who are capable and want to take ownership of the outcome.. That said, the job is still miles away from done.

I’ll never understand the absolute hysterical reaction to this.

No disrespect to him but if he isn’t on the fringes, particularly when it comes to the midfield, who is?

Has the club confirmed anything? Teague has always batted away the suggestion of him carrying an injury when I’ve heard him. It seems for a long time that Cripps’ poor performances have been attributed to a phantom injury that seemingly no one wants to acknowledge. The consistently elite player he was a couple of years ago is becoming a distant memory. At this point I think he and Carlton should be parting ways. He was a passenger out there after halftime which is toxic for those around him. Let him go west, grab the pick while he still has value and use it on a top shelf mid that will be running around with Walsh and co in five years time.

This is a pathetic roll over by Carlton.

No change for me. Harmes is on the fringes and I don’t think we’d lose anything by swapping him for Sparrow but on merit I don’t think you can make a strong enough argument for a change.

You’re one of my favourite posters. You’re above this crap.

What is this fascination with Melksham? He was more than serviceable.

If there’s a better sight in football than Ronald Dale Barassi singing Grand Old Flag then I don’t need to know about it.

I’m starting to seriously love Spargs.

I’m still not sure why two weeks is required for clubs to get used to the idea. But oh well. “Consult” away.

May very stiff. Salem hasn’t just had a good couple of weeks. His season has been top notch. Of all Melbourne players who deserve a spot in the side right now he’d be top 3.

Do we know why it will take a couple of weeks?

I’m really hoping we see him in the next few weeks. I suspect we will. We have invested in Weid and I have little doubt he is set to take a quantum leap in the next year or so. It would be a huge call to leave the club when it’s on this trajectory, but no player of his calibre wants to be spending too long in the seconds. And money talks. The club is doing everything right at the moment. Let’s hope the management of Weid isn’t the exception.

But what do you really think about them Mac? Quit holding back ffs.

Been wondering the same ?

As big a signing as it gets. Massive.

Even those muppets at AFL house couldn’t overlook him this week. Onya Dogga.

I feel like people are focusing entirely and somewhat unfairly on Petty’s first half against the Hawks. He was much improved in the second.