Pates

I think we would’ve been a team that benefited had they extended the bench, we have a healthy list a would’ve been able to rotate players through the game. But I’m fine with the decision not to, there’s been plenty of tinkering already this year.

I’m happy to see Jones back, I think he’ll be hungry to make this shot count. Pretty similar types of players, Jones needs to bring that pressure and tackling to his game. Hopefully he snag a goal or two as well.

This is the really screwed up thing with the Essendon game, we miss out on being able to have a rest when the whole competition gets to recover. I know it could just be seen as “one of those things” but it still feels like we’ve got the raw end of the stick.

If I’m not mistake Richmond somehow got a free kick from this even though he flew over a Melbourne player.

Ah good old Bruise Free Footy, still would enjoy seeing Viney smash him into the ground (fairly of course ?).

I hope Viney smashes him into the ground this week!

I can’t see Harley playing all the games, he above anyone will probably be one that gets “managed”. Given that our tough couple of games in a row is in the same state he could back up those two but we might have to rest him for Adelaide and then bring him to Tassie vs the Roos. Good to hear the confidence in the playing group though, this is hopefully where that monster pre-season on Hell and Back starts to bear fruit.

Harmes may have his hands busy with Neale.

I’d like to see us trial 3 talls but I’m not sure this is the week to do it. With it meant to be damp on the weekend I think a ground level player like AvB is probably the better choice, for me that’s Jones. I back Weid and LJ in to play with confidence this week, Tom’s got a fight on his hands.

Personally I’m pretty happy with those times, living in the UK it means I do t have to wake up at 4am to watch the games!

Hate to say it Saty but the health of AFL players is always up for speculation and release of information. What reaction do you think people would have if someone got injured in the game and afterwards the media chose not to report it or ask about it? If it's a disease or mental health issue that's different, but if it happens on the footy field then chances are the information will get out at some stage whether it's through the club, media, or leak. I say well done to Goodwindees for having the scoop. As for AvB, I'm gutted that he'll miss a few matches but on the plus side when others may be tiring from the crammed fixture he will hopefully be fresher and able to have an impact.

Bugger! Crap time for it to happen as well, credit to @goodwindees for the scoop! I think they will try to squeeze TMac into the team because of this, rotate Weid and Tom as FF/CHF. LJ can play as a bit of jack of all trades role, start him in the forward pocket, give him all ruck time when it’s not Stef Martin, possibly even play him as a midfielder. Really not ideal for AvB, bloke can’t take a trick. Jones and ANB probably in the mix as well.

Squad depth is talked about a lot in the premier league during the busy December period, unless teams come up against the best teams they usually have at least 1-2 players that are usual starting 11 playing off the bench or not named. Now we can’t quite do the same thing with the Dees aside from rotating in and out of the side but I wonder whether they may look at positional changes to give players rests. Such as playing Petracca predominantly forward for a match or giving Jackson more ruck time. Either way I think the club, with Burgess advising them of player conditioning, May have to be flexible and creative. As another aside I wonder if this could be something the AFL considers for future seasons. Cramming extra matches is in the middle of the season, end it with a bye, get an extra round for TV $$$.

I feel like we’ve got the pieces of the puzzle to be a competitive club in the top 4, it’s just a matter of whether we can put it all together and whether the game plan (and coach?) holds up.

That was very reminiscent of the old Neitz rubber chest, if you saw him do that early you could just about bank it he’d have a mare. Definitely shouldn’t be dropped though, if Tommy comes in it shouldn’t be at his or Sam’s expense.

It’s not quite season over but it will make it difficult. We probably needed to win either one of them to make finals anyway but there’s something about losing two on the trot that hurts the confidence. That Geelong loss could well come back to haunt us, lost it at selection and had our chances at the end.

I have just though about one annoying factor with the next games having shortened breaks, I suspect Harley will have to be rest for at least one of them to ensure his recovery is on track. Unless the AFL announce an extended bench which I would be up for given our headache of how to fit TMac in! But assuming not I’d say play him vs Brisbane and have him miss the Port match.

That's true but given the nature of the rolling fixture you can make requests for the next run to be kinder based off the way we have been pretty screwed over.

I'd be very happy for us to play two Alice Springs home games back to back. We're no longer giving up any home ground/crowd advantage and Alice is a place we'd be more familiar with than most so I would be strongly advocating it on our end. Very few teams have anything that they can call a home now, maybe we can take advantage of us actually having played there many times.

Haha I want them to suffer as well, but we know the AFL won't be doing that to them so we need to make it at least somewhat appealing to all parties.

It's a damn good question, maybe by being arrogant cheats? But on the subject of them, I think we should apply to the AFL to play Essendon in Alice Springs as THEIR home game and then have our home game vs Freo in Alice afterwards and there are a couple of reasons why this would actually work and make logical sense. There is word that they want to do their fabled "Dreamtime Match" in Darwin. So how about this: * Richmond vs Essendon - Darwin Dreamtime match (Try to arrange a decent break for both teams, not that the AFL ever did that for us!) * Essendon vs Melbourne - Alice Springs, do the make up match in a way that Essendon don't have to do a huge amount of travel onto their next game. They can do clinics to build back their shattered reputation, I'm sure they could find somewhere to base themselves. * Melbourne vs (Unknown) - I say Freo because that's been a common opponent but it could be anybody, we don't have to travel for a week and we get a good chance to stay up there

We can't really say the fixture has been particularly kind to us this year, I feel like we've been a bit more mucked around than most (with the Essendon debacle). But it actually does appear that most clubs fixtures are a mess. I knew we were going to be sent to Tassie against North, just a feeling in my gut. Of course they would never send Richmond, Geelong, Collingwood, or Essendon. On a positive side it actually appears that the GABBA has almost become our defacto "home" which is good for a couple of reasons. Firstly it's close to our base in Maroochydore so we aren't going to be traveling a couple of hours to GC on a bus. Secondly if (as it appears) the finals could be based up in QLD then this is giving us experience on the home ground of potentially one of the main finals contenders. Round 10 and 11 are simply must wins. Work your magic Darren!

“Kangaroos vs Crows Friday Night Footy!?” *Scrunches paper throwing it at him* “You stupid monkey!”

It’s an interesting decision (I assume the club had some kind of say in it) to choose Maroochydore, I guess a familiarity to the location could be a plus rather than having to settle somewhere unknown. Maybe a little isolation factor as well, not being around other Melbourne clubs would eliminate a bit of temptation. 2hr drive to our “home” ground isn’t ideal though.

My main frustration about Oliver is he seems to be working his brain too fast at times and he gets this rush to just handball it off without seeing if the play is in a better position. He burned Smith with it against Richmond when the momentum was swinging our way and cost a goal, he did it to Viney against GC and he was forced into an error, and did it to Max this week with him not even slightly expecting it. He’s still quite young so I’m hoping this will improve, but I’d just like him to take ownership of the ball at times rather than play hot potato.