La Dee-vina Comedia

Maybe, but I think there's a future with Baker. I see no future with Corey Wagner, so I'd rather Stretch in for him. I'm not convinced about Stretch, either. But I'd like to give him the last two games to see if there's something there worth persevering with. So: Out: May (inj), C Wagner (omit) In: Hore, Stretch

I'm trying to visualise Demonland either have melted or turned to ash if we'd performed like Essendon or North over the weekend. Or GWS. My view has always been that we'll know more about 2018 and 2019 by this time next year. One of them will be an abberation. I'm hoping it's 2019.

I know I'm too late to be considered for inclusion, but here I go: 6. Fritsch (while bad kicking is bad football, the rest of his game elevated him to a standard better than anyone else in red and blue) 5. Petracca 4. Salem 3. Kennedy-Harris 2. Lewis (apart from one howler, showed meticulous precision with his disposals. I just wish the ball was in his hands more often) 1. Harmes The only other players who I could consider for votes were May, Oliver and Hibberd.

Excellent list. But you left off Satyricon.

Because it's written for the MFC website I can't really trust anything that's written here. It's not like the club will put something critical of itself on its own website. In other words, I am none the wiser as to whether McCartney is leaving on his own accord or not. I'm also not sure that it matters. If he wanted to leave, good luck to him. And if the club doesn't want him around, good luck to him.

Desperate times need desperate threads.

I can't see the problem. So we get pick 3 instead of pick 2 (or 4 instead of 3). The history of drafting suggests there's no difference between the likelihood of pick 2 being better than pick 3 (or vice versa). The bigger picture of getting the Suns competitive is a far more compelling issue. That being said, my suggestion for the AFL is to give the Suns two picks immediately after the first Round which they can only trade. That way they should get one or two decent more mature players. They have enough kids already.

Not every chronically injured player stays that way for the whole of their career. Wasn't Max Gawn late to start because of knee reconstructions? James Hird played his best football after the best part of two years out with foot problems and David Shwartz played excellent football after returning from three (is that the right number?) ACLs. I agree that club's can't keep too many "injury-prone" players on their list, but it's a classic risk versus reward conundrum with every player. VandenBurg's upside was clearly enough for the club to agree to take that risk.

Weeks, months or years?

Keep in mind the data is* showing totals for the year, rather than averages per game, so a player who has played more games (eg Fritsch) will have bigger numbers (good and bad). Nevertheless, I agree that Fritsch provides better value forward than back. *For the pedants out there...yes, I know that 'data' is the plural of 'datum' so technically I should have written 'are' instead of 'is'. But (says he incorrectly starting a sentence with a conjunction) that just reads so badly.

The best thing about this time of year is seeing an injury list with no 4-6 week injuries.

I expect the footy department knows that, too. Playing him as a defender when injuries hit our backline shows that our coach considers getting the defence right to be more important than having a decent attack.

I had been promoting the idea of retaining Preuss purely for the extra support he gives Max in the ruck. However, the weather forecast for Saturday which inlcudes a 95% chance of showers, between 8-15 mm of rain, a chance of thunderstorms, possible hail and snow down to Preuss's eyebrows suggests it might not be the conditions in which to play him. Cox being out also reduces the need for a giant second ruckman. But, if T Smith isn't available and with our other nominal KPFs already out injured, who could give Max the 5 minute break he needs each quarter if Preuss doesn't play? It hasn't worked before, but do we turn to Frost (which coincidentally seems a weather appropriate name)?

OK. Except I don't see it as a "demotion". I see it as changes being made when an opportunity was about to present itself with the departure of a key person. But you could be right.

Are you sure it's not just pining?

I missed that. What happened to Misson, or his role, in the midseason shuffle?

What demotion? Misson's departure has been explained - his wife has a job in Canada and he's following her. Would he still be at Melbourne next year if he didn't go to Canada? I have no idea. But I also can't see how the departure of Misson can be assumed to be linked to our club's problems with injury and fitness.

If jumping to conclusions were an Olympic sport, the gold, silver and bronze medallists are all posting in this thread.

I don't know if it has much value, but I understand there's a thing called a "wooden spoon" and apparently, we're still in the running for that one. Apparently, just like the chance of making finals just a few weeks ago, we need other teams to lose for us to get this award so it's not entirely within our control.

Preuss's major attribute is his tap work. The previous week against St Kilda we played T Smith as the second ruck. My view may differ if I had a look at the replay, but I thought that Smith in the ruck didn't work and we lost that game when Gawn was off the ball and St Kilda took control of the centre. That's why I wanted Preuss to play against Richmond. If there's an alternative to Preuss who can give Gawn decent support, I'm all for playing him. But without T McDonald or Weideman, I think we still need to play Preuss for this reason.

I suspect his contract was drafted so that he had to provide reports up to a maximum of 300 injuries for the year, a number chosen assuming we'd be well under it by the end of September.

Smart. Bailey didn't say that was what he was doing and was accused of tanking, By stating in advance that you'e doing it to look at flexibility, he's prepared his defence in advance. I can't see any future with C Wagner so I'd rather play Stretch to see whether he might be worth keeping. May and Hore should both come in, one for Oscar McD and the other for either Lever (if injured) or (gulp!) Brayshaw who looks horribly out of sorts. I don't think Preuss, Baker or Dunkley deserve their places, either, but I'd like to keep giving them game time.

Maybe for the extra 6 possessions he got from James Brayshaw not apparently knowing the difference between Hunt and Harmes. And he mixed up another, as well. Was it O Mac for Frost (or vice versa)? My votes: 6. Gawn 5. Fritsch 4. Oliver 3. Hibberd 2. Frost 1. Kennedy-Harris

I agree with most of this post, but not the bit about Fritsch. I still expect him to play forward. The seven defenders can be Frost, Lever, McDonald, Salem, Hibberd, Lewis and Jones.

Wasn't there media coverage just a couple of days ago confirming Jones has renewed for one more year? Addendum: A quick web search suggests that Jones has yet to sign on but has apparently been offered a one year deal by the club.