Pates

I have no idea if this Lever talk has any merit, honestly if he was not properly informed well in advance then that isn't cool by the FD and Goody. But if we were to trade away a player that might actually have some currency then Lever could be one. To clarify, I'm not saying we should do it, but given we have Howes showing some real development while Disco has taken big leaps this year AND we have Petty who is a much better defender than a forward, we have coverage.

I get this impression that North Melbourne's (and probably ours as well to be fair) QC/lawyer is Lionel Hutz, while Carlton's and Collingwood's is Mr Burns's massive crack team of lawyers.

You would think if they were going to contest it they would come armed with more than, "I didn't mean it, promise!" I don't think he meant to cop Sparrow high but he acted recklessly in the situation, this ban will hopefully mean he adjusts his style of play going forward to avoid knocking players out.

Sure sympathy for a guy who recklessly throws his arms and completely knocks an opponent out. Meanwhile if Kozzie even looked at another player with intent, "give him 5 weeks!"

Difference is that ANB wasn't at early pick, but in essence fans are way too impatient. They're expecting every player drafted to show their worth after 5 games and if they haven't then they're on the pile. I like Kolt's energy and willing to give him time to find his groove, I feel like he will be one of those "when it clicks" sort of guys that we may be waiting and waiting and then suddenly one day he'll announce himself.

The funny thing is that every Melbourne fan sees it, and would be absolutely on board with them putting him in cotton wool and getting whatever surgeries he needs done. So I don't understand why the match committee persist with him when a) he's hampered, and b) he isn't even playing well and is in fact a liability at times.

Hope he kicks a goal and everyone gets around him. This run of games that I would classify as "winnable" could actually be very important for shaping 2026. I'm so sick of losing to the Blues, especially since we've been dudded and/or dudded ourselves in most of the losses. That "lie on the line" from Petracca's match winning goal still annoys me, a total guess from the goal ump.

Prior to his injury I had AMW as one of the breakout players for the season, I really hope he's able to come back in good nick. Surely he gets a 2 year extension.

To me Jake doesn't look right physically, when the ball hits the deck he looks slow and lost at sea. If he is carrying an issue that could be resolved by surgery I'll be livid if the club opt to do it at the end of the season rather than just getting it out of the way now. TMac can cover Jake, if May is not right we can put Petty in his rightful position in defence. Management of players has been as issue for a long time, I'd hate for Lever to be another victim of it.

I haven't been able to watch the full game, but it's really heartening to hear Jeffo given praise because honestly the rest of the conversations have been far more negative (forgetting that he is a year younger than JVR). I really want them to persist with him in the team, and I'm hopeful that with Petty likely to return they send Petty back to defence to cover May. Or at the very least keep him in the team and have JVR/Jeffo alternate as the second forward. We have to give them time, if they don't make it then so be it but we can't say we didn't try.

I listen to both DeeBrief and Demonland for different reasons. I feel like Demonland does far more of a deep dive and in fact the DeeBrief boys do even admit "I haven't checked the stats, but..." so what I get from them is more about the passion and the vibe which does to be fair often reflect a lot of what other fans feel. I haven't listened to this honest deep dive, I might do that later, but if they are suggesting Buckley is our best replacement option that sums up our position with Goody. Change for change's sake isn't going to help the situation. I think we're all just fed up and frustrated that we haven't gone on with a great foundation to have more success (even just finals wins!).

What's the fix on-field or off-field? Logically off-field gets a natural boost if what happens on the field improves. So with that in mind I would have us look at would be to move on from Alan RIchardson, and at the same time look to improve our team of assistants. Jones can stay but he should be doing an apprenticeship not be in charge of the midfield. I would move Chaplin back to defence and maybe just maybe we can get someone who was actually a forward and knows the craft to be in charge of the forward line. I would also say thank you and goodbye to Mark Williams, our skills are deplorable and I just can't help but feel a new voice is needed there.

Absolutely ideal world would have had JVR being under the wing of Brown, but his body was shot when we got him. We managed to squeeze enough out of him to get a premiership but I also wonder if we did not manage him properly. I think of a stretch where we had something crazy like 3 games in 15 days and he played all of them, big shock his knee was cactus after that. I absolutely agree with what is being said that we are not developing him in the best way possible, not only is he having to player the key forward role, but he's also got to be second ruck to Max. At this stage of his career his is neither of those things, and it's killing him. I still have hope, but he is not a big hulking key forward and he never will be.

Underwhelming INs to be honest. I'm probably the odd one out but I'm not overly upset if Jeffo gets another week at it. It won't happen but I really want to see Tom Campbell given a second ruck role, let JVR just be a bloody forward for a day. The trade off could be that we leave Jeffo out, plonk TC up forward as a tall target. We really should be winning this and if we don't, Goody should feel really uncomfortable going into Monday. I'm not totally on the sack Goody side of things but losing to North twice has to fall on his shoulders.

I'm actually really glad that someone has brought this up. Goody is the figurehead and gets all the criticism (rightly or wrongly) but it has shocked me that Richo escapes the conversation. Listening to the Demonland podcast something I actually agreed with from @binman was that the coach is actually overrated in his influence and importance. I ultimately think that while he is the head of it, it is a coaching team, and much like some of the players we have they are simply B-grade. To me that responsibility lands on RIcho as he should be always looking to make sure we have the best coaches across all lines and roles. Personally I don't think he has succeeded in that. You could also argue that he is responsible for our high performance program, or at least finding the best people for those roles. Again, looking at our drop since 2021 I think it's hard to make an argument that they have had us in the top tier of this area.