Pates

Less games to make an impact so I hope he jumps right out of the blocks vs Carlton. I cautiously optimistic about him, hopefully it'll click for him, he seems to have the right attitude so it's about putting all the pieces of the Petracca puzzle together.

I'm not entirely up for the idea of 6 on the bench but if it were to happen this year I'd throw Bennell in for the first game with small bursts. I really hope they don't maintain the shorter quarters for the future, and it definitely shouldn't be more people on the bench going forward. I can understand it for this year as things are just completely out of whack and it gives more players a chance to perform, though I hope they'd maintain a similar (if not lower) amount of interchanges encouraging them to have the players out there for longer periods.

He keeps ticking boxes and that’s all we can ask of him. If he ends up debuting against the Blues it could be one of the most anticipated debuts from a Melbourne player in a long time. And it’ll be in front of no one!

Freo and WC have lost a home game, WC is playing the premiership favourite on neutral ground. Maybe we have lost out in terms of double ups but that as already been partially compensated with no longer traveling to KP. I’m not fussed about what we’ve lost.

Oh my god has this side by side been done before? It is perfectly on point! ?

Just an aside on things, the club will be financially stuffed from this year after coronavirus. The league is going to be stuffed for a while with spending already being cut in certain areas. While I wouldn't say that means every contracted coach is 100% safe as houses, I do think that it would take a disastrously bad season (think Mark Neeld) for a club to sack a coach with another season to run. The clubs just don't have the cash to pay them out and the league doesn't have the money to bail them out. I'd be shocked if Goodwin isn't at the helm next year.

I reckon it would be great to have a cafe/pub/function area that overlooks the oval and perhaps the interior of the center for people to look into the fitness and training zones. Sort of a way of it being interactive with the fans. I would really love it to be at Gosches paddock (and then rename it to Stynes Park), I just wonder if it too ambitious for a small zone.

I remember when they release that I honestly felt like they'd given up. I mean why not do a fan submission competition or at least a fan vote with some options? Just seemed lazy.

Ah your delving into territory well covered here, does the club have a naturally negative culture born out of the club or the fans? I think you may be going a little far with the spies idea but there are a lot of people predisposed to the worst possible outcome. Hate to say it but it is rather difficult to avoid when you've been following the Dees for a while. Carlton is a good first up team, they are improved (so we shouldn't be taking them lightly), but really with the team we have available we should be winning. I can't help but feel that winning this year will depend on mental strength as much as ability, who will be able to adapt to the new normal quicker? How do you lift players when there is no atmosphere to get people "up"? I would love nothing more than to see us come out of the blocks and smash the blues away.

One advantage the AFL has going with the "make it up as you go" fixture is they might be able to be more flexible with how they create the draw through the year. If a team starts to show some excitement and entertainment they could be bumped into higher exposure timeslots. This should 100% be an aim for us to be pushing into the minds of Seven and the AFL to get us into those prime time slots by the end of the year.

Plus the Happy Gilmore quote.

On the fixture, there is absolutely no excuses for us. 3 of them very winnable (would go so far to say should win), one of them we will be definite underdogs but it's at the MCG which helps us. If last year was the odd one out, then we should be winning 3 out of 4 at least.

Producer: "we're short about 3-4 minutes, what dribble can we use to pad out the show for a bit?" Hutchy: "we'll I was thinking that Max Gawn's hair looked a bit strange for a first time captain..." Producer: "done!" I think that conversation has been had more than a few times during the lockdown, not much to talk about so create stories.

I'm going to be genuinely interested to follow his progress at the Hawks, so many in the media were giving the club a grilling for letting him go, but I don't know if Clarko will be able to work his magic on Frost. He is way too unpredictable.

There was a golden example in there of what Frost does when he is on the liability side of things. Gave up a stupid free kick directly in front to give them level, takes a mark and immediately coughs it up. I was sad he left but we have enough liability players.

Basically I agreed with you however, and I admit I'm not familiar with the Blues list, but who would be the direct match up of OMac? Might be that he misses if there isn't a suitable match up for him. That said I still actually think as a defender taking the 2nd tall forward he isn't the worst going around.

Given up until coronavirus we were going to be playing GWS I think this draw has become favourable for us. Really 3 out of 4 should be near enough to 50/50, if we can get some momentum from wins over the Blues and bombers then the cats at the G might be a chance. I’d take us being 3-2 by the end of this. Good to have some footy to look forward to!

I’m pretty sure they’re looking at him as unlikely for the restart, if they’d gone with extended benches then I would’ve had him in to do 5min bursts here and there. Really hope it works out for him (and us!).

‘98 could’ve been a year to pinch one, we had a great team and the competition was quite even from top to 5th. It disgusts me that Adelaide went back to back in 97/98, not even close to being the best team that year, but they were the better team on the day it mattered. I was only young but I do look back at ‘94 and feel like they had the team to win it.

One would hope that would be the case, remembering though that should we play Richmond, Collingwood, Hawthorn, and potentially Blues away they could be MCG games so “sort of” home games. Given we have already got one interstate trip out of the way, we really shouldn’t be traveling that much for the rest of the year. Its interesting with the Kangas bleating about Tassie that there has been literally nothing said about the Alice Springs game, should we assume that just isn’t happening?

With Collingwood going down this path their collective IQ at the ground is set to double in 2020. ?

I think this is one of the biggest issues, the kick doesn't have penetration or direction to it, it's just "getting it in there". I remember one of Melksham's goals came from a Kozzie kick that while not exactly on point, was still delivered at pace with a trajectory that made life difficult for the defenders. It also didn't loop in a way that allows players to peel off to intercept.

One of the things I'd like the coaches to do is show Weids and TMac footage of Neitz going for marking contests. There was this intent and determination in his eyes, he was totally fixated and nothing would get in his way. I know we're talking about one of our greatest ever but both of them could really learn from that attitude. I'm pretty sure Glen Archer actually said that of all the forwards he played on Neitz was the one player he did not want be between him and the ball.

As he said it's one game in so small sample size, but we had the whole pre-season (extra time than WC) to address and fix. But it looked exactly like last years entries for almost the entire game. It's one thing to get the ball in long and quickly, but know where to go with it, look for space to lead the forward to the ball, at least put it to their advantage. Like everyone, I'll believe it when I see it.

I know there is something to be said about being a one club coach, especially with his record. If hypothetically this year is another disaster, the only current coach I'd really be desperate for us to nab would be him.