La Dee-vina Comedia

Fritsch - missed the target Just as apt, I would have thought.

Someone probably needed to heal that ooze. By not doing so, it all drained away.

I'm not quite sure how this is any different from how the game would have been played if Gawn wasn't "tagging" Grundy. Having said that, if there is some difference, Gawn getting that experience in a year when it doesn't matter makes some sense. Gawn might not be the best ruckman in the competition forever, and when the time comes that he comes up against a better ruckman, it would be useful for him to understand how to nullify said opponent.

Serious question. David King claims Salem was Sidebottom's man. How would he know that? I could see that most of the time Frost was on Elliott, but after that I couldn't tell who was playing on whom. Was it clear to others that Salem was meant to be playing on Sidebottom? My suspicion is that what King saw was when Goodwin decided to semi-reinstate last year's ploy of running an extra into the midfield at a centre bounce. When we did that (it was usually Baker or JKH), because of the 6-6-6 requirement, one of Salem or Jones was nominally in the wing position but about 1 metre from the back edge of the square. That had them 30 metres away from the Collingwood wingman, who was sometimes Sidebottom. When the ball was bounced, Baker/JKH ran forward and Salem/Jones ran into the 50m arc to pick up a man.

I think the mistake was allowing Geelong to be formed as the second Australian football club in 1859. Started the rot.

Salem says hi.

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.