Grapeviney

After the success of last summer's travels, Grapeviney's European Football Odyssey is on again! I'm stepping it up about five levels this time around, thanks to a contact in London who can score tickets to just about any sporting contest you care to name. Stop 1: North London derby @ Emirates. Got a seat in the Spurs section! Stop 2: Spurs v Saints @ Wembley. Should be a win. Stop 3: Barca v Spurs Champions League @ Camp Nou. In all likelihood a dead rubber, but it's Champions League, at the Camp Nou! Stop 4: Real Madrid v one of the crap teams @ the Bernabeu. The gloss is well and truly starting to come off Madrid, but have always wanted to visit the Bernabeu. So 4 games in 14 days - god bless midweek football. Not expecting much, result wise, but am jumping out of my skin at the thought of the derby v Arsehat in particular, and still not quite sure how i scored a ticket to a sellout game, let alone in the away section seat in what would be a very small allocation of tickets for Tottenham fans (I think this guy gets seasons tickets from members who can't attend). Wo0o0o-h0o0o0o0 !!

It will be interesting to see whether the MFC opts to forego the 2020 QB home fixture, thus locking in the 1 public holiday home game per-season that year and thereafter. It makes sense to do it now (then), while all 3 clubs are up and about and we're likely to play well-attended return games against both teams during the transition period anyway. 2019: No public holiday home game 2020: ANZAC Eve 2021: QB etc

A reminder not to post rumours, innuendo and the like, whether it's true or not. Even alluding to something without explicitly stating it can you get you and Demonland in legal trouble. They also have the potential to hurt Jesse and the club. All such posts will be removed. "I saw it on Ricky Nixon's twitter account" is not going to hold up in court.

Not really. He's played 9 games in 2 years. Put the shoe on the other foot, and ask yourself what you would be willing to give up if we were trading him in? Answer: Not much.

Panicking about something that hasn’t happened yet and may not happen at all seems pretty foolish to me.

As recognition for his work in the community, Nev’s been invited to a function acknowledging Victorian youth leaders where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be in attendance. Back pocket royalty meets British royalty.

Never looked in doubt, Macca! As you say, Man U have some serious issues and the heat is right up on Jose. I celebrated the end of footy season by watching a soccer triple-header on Saturday night, the Hammers v Man U televised game, then Spurs at Huddersfield followed by the Chelsea-Liverpool clash. Hazard is on fire at the minute but the last minute equaliser from Sturridge was a beauty, and worth a watch if you haven't already seen it.

When Jesse first burst on to the scene with that great game under lights against the Tigers, we told ourselves that the only way we would keep him long-term was to win games - to become a good side that played finals and was a premiership contender. It seems counter-intuitive that after enduring the tail end of the miserable years and our slow but steady rise up the ladder, he's going to jump ship to another basket-case of a club just as we're coming good and about to fulfil our promise to him. I trust the club to make the best of the situation, but I'll be sorry to see him go if that's what transpires. Jesse was one of the first pieces of the puzzle to be put in place for the rebuild, and it feels somewhat surreal to think that we might end up doing it all without him.

Only for a handful of pathological supporters. The rest of us are celebrating a wildly successful season.

Anyone else been following the extraordinary events in Adelaide the past couple of days? Woodville West Torrens were about 8 goals up against North Adelaide in their Preliminary Final over the weekend. North Adelaide came home with a wet sail and eventually won the game by 5 points. Problem was, they had 19 men on the field for some of that time, during which they scored 1.2 - enough to change the outcome of the game. The 19th player was taken off the ground before Woodville had a chance to call for a head count, which would have seen North Adelaide lose part or all of their score. Woodville then appealed to the tribunal, which last night slapped North Adelaide with a massive fine and docked them 8 premiership points for next season. But the score stands and North Adelaide will play in the GF regardless. The one-man tribunal decided that while the most appropriate outcome would be to replay the game, he didn't have the power to make that ruling. He said: "I'm of the view that as this was not deliberate, a reversal of the result is too savage a penalty." It's a staggering outcome and if I was a Woodville supporter I would be absolutely filthy. It shouldn't matter whether it was accidental or deliberate, North Adelaide had an unfair advantage and it helped them win the game. The SANFL have a lot to answer for here as they could have adjudicated the matter and made the proper ruling, but instead palmed it off to the tribunal. Can you imagine if we lost this weekend's match under the same circumstances? I would burn down AFL House...

Thanks to the good folk at Carlton Draft, Lord Nev has finally been recognised as back pocket royalty.

I'm starting to think Ablett deserves his own separate thread here, just to acknowledge how often Viney beats him up. The Gary Ablett Can't Stop Crying Thread .

These are the teams of my childhood, too, Macca, and while I've been always a Spurs supporter, I did have a little dalliance with Leeds back in the Gordon Strachan days, Gary Speed etc. Tottenham will be thereabouts again this year but can't see us challenging for the premiership - we're just a step below the likes of City and Liverpool in the talent stakes. I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that the owner's 'no big spending' policy will have us treading water as a top 6 side whose main aim each year is to qualify for CL. It's funny, I was watching the Spurs - Watford game this morning and Watford were pressing hard with Tottenham 1-0 ahead. At times like that, I would normally pray to the sporting gods to not let the other team score, but I made a conscious decision to let it pass, thinking to myself that I need to save my prayers for Friday night against the Cats. Sure enough, we conceded 2 in about 5 minutes!

Why would Freo offer him 7 x $1.5mill when you think he's worth less than half that at Melbourne? You can't pretend he's a superstar at one club and an average player at the other. There's 31 pages of drivel in this thread, and only a handful of posters who really understand the substantive issue, which is how - and if - we can accommodate the 3 KPFs. Trading Hogan to resolve that issue, if it is one, is a fair way down the track right now. At this stage, I'm with @binman and think it can work, especially on the bigger grounds.

Mate, if I answer those questions, Jack won’t trust me to drive past him in the future. I just can’t risk the relationship we have. Sorry.

Just saw Jack so I’ve got a bit of an update. I was driving and he was walking so I didn’t get a chance to speak to him. But in the split second that I drove past him, he didn’t seem to be in any discomfort. He wasn’t even looking at his feet. Will try to write more later.

Remember the ridiculous hype over NicNat's so-called 'point of the century'? Well what about this ripping goal by Robbie against Richmond at the 1.50min mark of this tribute video? He's out of position in a marking contest in the centre of the ground, effects the spoil and prevents a certain Tigers mark, keeps his feet and is first to the ball, sharks it over an opponent, streams through CHF and dobs it from outside 50m. As Bobby Skilton says in the commentary, it's football at its very best. NicNat sharked his ball from the ruck - look at where Robbie was in the contest, and how quickly he regains his balance. Amazing.

And special thanks to Elon Musk and his unusable toy submarine, which he insisted on taking to Thailand even though 8 of the boys were already out when he turned up. Musk said Thailand was a beautiful place - so beautiful, in fact, that he left his useless machine at the caves 'just in case someone needs it in the future.' What a guy! Thailand will be even more beautiful now! Sadly, his father passed away last night, Jane, not long after the rescue was completed. God (or Buddha) giveth, and God taketh away.

I love footy, but I've lost count of the number of times over the years that I wished we'd become a rifle club instead.

Yep, that is what’s meant. The ‘only’ is a reference to the absence of the fence, rather than a set of goalposts missing. The ground will only have goal and point posts, no fence.

People saying the backline is a shambles need to look at the broader context. Yes, it fell apart today, but we spent the first 4 weeks of the season adjusting to Lever, and the past 3 trying to cover his absence. That's half the season where the backline has been in a state of flux. Unless we can find the right mix back there soon, the Lever injury is going to prove very costly.

Which bit of 3 possessions is good?

Herald Sun article left out one crucial detail - the new Demonland headquarters will also be part of the development. As you can see from this artist's impression, it will be discretely located right next to the MFC admin building.

I know I'm in the minority here but I understand those wanting to protect the aesthetics of the park as it is - one of the G's most endearing features is that it's surrounded on 3 sides by parkland, which is unusual for a stadium of its size and significance. My favourite walk in the whole world is the short stroll from Richmond Station through Yarra Park to Gate 3 - the anticipation, the smells, and the trees, which change colour as the season progresses. Having said that, this development will be on the other side of the park, so I say: let the building commence! It would be a fantastic outcome for the club.