La Dee-vina Comedia

I'm reasonably confident the middle one is Yoda.

I'm curious. If Smith were picked, who would miss out from the players I've listed?

He's got a 5 week old baby at home. I don't need to look any further for a reason.

An alternative might be to change the rule so that a ball hitting the post becomes irrelevant. if it bounces back into play, it's play on. If it goes through on the goal side of the goal post it's a goal and on the behind side of either the goal or point post, it's a minor score. Yes, it would be a major break with tradition. But does that really matter?

I agree with the sentiment that it seems poor management to have kept him on the field, but would most people have him in their Round 1 side if fit? I'm not sure if he gets in ahead of T Mac, Weideman, Melksham, Petracca, Spargo, ANB and Hunt. And I can't see us playing an eighth forward. The last three I've listed would be playing a different role, so the real question is whether he'd be playing instead of one of the first four named (I would have thought not) or whether one of those four plays elsewhere (possible, if Petracca plays more of a mid-field role). In short, I'm not convinced he would have been picked this week anyway. And I forgot about Fritsch. If he's playing forward, there's even less room for Smith (and probably Hunt)

I don't think you have to look far. Try Melbourne FC pretty much anywhere in the period 1964 to 2013. But if you want to limit it to 20 years, the 1994-2013 era, even with some highlights early on, will take some beating.

Without seeing what Ralph actually wrote (or hearing what he said), I'm not sure what to make of this statement. Was he saying that there were multiple claims of Hogan being seen all of which proved to be false (which, I think, would be a literal interpretation) or was he trying to say that Hogan had been seen as often as there were claims that Elvis had been seen. It's been a long time since Elvis has left the building and as far as I know, not once has an alleged sighting of Elvis been proven.

I don't know the reasons why Rioli and May ended up at Scotch and Melbourne Grammar respectively, but rather than "poaching talent" maybe those schools were giving scholarships to indigenous kids to give them a better chance of an improved education compared with what may otherwise have been their lot.

I'm impressed. I can't even understand the question, let alone answer it.

I've not been following his off season, but do we know whether his foot injury has fully and properly resolved?

As a matter of interest, do you think Harmes has become a better automon or is he one of the exceptions?

And to drill a bit deeper, I wonder if it's also a story, within those clubs, of two coaches? One who has recruited Andrew Lovett, Harley Bennell and Jesse Hogan. And one who hasn't.

Wrong Khan. Ghengis was a mongrel Mongol. I think the Khan who can be linked to "nice" was Kubla, with his "stately pleasure-dome". (From my favourite poem of all time, which, perhaps ironically given some of the content of this thread, was written following an "opium-influence dream".)

I don't understand this gratuitous comment. Are you saying Christian Salem, Jayden Hunt and (even though he's not ours) Josh Kelly have a similar mentality to Jack Watts?

ANB.? I think VandenBerg might be next. Injuries have prevented us from knowing what his true capabilities are. I'd like to say Weideman, but I'm not yet convinced. I hope by this time next year I will be.

I agree with everything you've said. But I still think he should be in the "automatics" group.

I was never a fan of Dunn when he was with us. But having heard him speak since he left, I can see why he's considered a leader. Speaks well, and has been an assistant coach for their AFLW team which shows his leadership potential. It's also a reminder that the best players don't have to be in leadership positions. I'm confident no-one thought Nick Maxwell was the best player at Collingwood throughout the time he was their captain - but he's now retired as a premiership winning captain.

I'm not quite sure why a player who played every game last year, was 36th in goal kicking, equal 24th in score involvements (equal with Brayshaw) and equal 10th in goal assists for the whole competition isn't considered to be one of the "automatics"...at least until someone better comes along (which you'd say for everyone selected as an "automatic"). Alex Neal-Bullen clearly needs a new PR agent.

For once, I'm pleased with the AFL. By amending this rule they've tinkered with our gameplan and removed what I thought was our consistent weakness last year. Sure, having the extra on the back of the square might occasionally have helped us win the centre clearance, but how often did that result in a turnover because we were a forward short? The strategy we used should have been reserved for teams anticipating losing centre clearances, not winning them.

He's hardly gone out on a limb suggesting that the 2019 Premier will come from one of the teams that finished in the top 4 the previous year. While that hasn't happened in the last few years, I would have thought it was pretty much the norm. I'm not a fan of Malthouse, but I'm actually quite surprised that he's playing it so safe. I would have expected him to choose at least one team from left field.

I'm not quite sure what you were expecting. "Wild untapped potential" would have been snapped up in the draft period. Lockhart is being selected effectively as the last rookie pick in our draft. What's there to sell? If he makes it, well and good. But the odds of him becoming some sort of star player are long. Any attempt to "sell" this recruitment would be just setting him up to fail in the eyes of supporters.

Is this a good or a bad thing? Does it mean we have a superstar ruckman? Or does it mean the club lacks depth in the rucking department? Or a bit of both?

This one's obvious. It's an allegory portraying the MFC at the time as donkeys.

I seem to recall the AFL does this every year with each of the team captains. But why? What's the marketing value of this photo? I'm not having a go at the AFL (there are plenty of other more important - and unimportant - issues to do that), but I'm genuinely curious. Why is this photo taken? What's it used for?

And the other 26k are recycled members courtesy of Visy.