La Dee-vina Comedia

If the "ins" are only coming from Tyson, Stretch, Garlett and Petty, I can't see how Pedersen gets omitted. Structurally he'll still be needed. If Petty plays, I would expect one of the nominal defenders to miss (ie, one of Vince, Lewis, Salem, Hibberd, Jetta, J Smith). Of that group, I would suspect Vince is the most likely. Tyson, Garlett and Stretch would be putting pressure, I would have thought, on Spargo and Hannan. Nice words from Goody about Watts, too.

Maybe the AFL forgot to tell everyone that the system used actually involves a points formula where the last step in the process is to multiply the points by ladder position to get a final number.

Nice reporting and I'm impressed you didn't regress by inserting a Melbourne weather today and Frost pun in your report. Must have been tempting.

Just looking at that picture...is it Kane Cornes' or Matthew Lloyd's team? (Not that it matters.)

If I recall correctly, his son was truly a colossus.

While these changes look good on paper (so to speak) who helps out Gawn? I assume from what you've said that Frost replaces Vince and Garlett replaces Spargo. Tyson therefore is the "replacement" for Pedersen, but obviously not as the second ruckman.

No, but Stockholm Syndrome might explain why Carlton have got so many Friday night games.

Should definitely try to get de Goey just to see your second sentence come true.

Can't decide whether it's easier to classify players as good/not good than it is to decide whether they are rangas/not rangas.

"...understood to have beaten" isn't quite the same as confirmation, though. It may be true...and it may not. The writers (Peter Ryan and Jake Niall) have clearly hedged their bets with that language. If they were certain, they would have written it with less ambiguity, such as "He beat a field of internal candidates..."

What a delight* it was watching the Australia v France game with the camera always distant from the pitch so you could see the play unfolding. *I'm talking about the TV production, not the result.

Apologies. I misunderstood your post.

"Well played, number 5. Good mark, number 14. Man up, number 3."

It's not that short a break given they played on the Thursday.

Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere, but do we know for sure that any or all of the internal candidates applied for the position? I would be pleased if they had the confidence to do so, but equally, not disappointed if any of them believed they were not ready for the job yet.

That's a ridiculous proposition. He'll be 62 years old.

Matthews played in a different era when the way he played was not uncommon. There were outright thugs who couldn't play football (defamation laws prevent me from naming anyone, but I'll just leave John Greening's name here as someone on the receiving end), brilliant footballers who weren't at all thuggish (Robert Flower, for example) and many who were both. Matthews - who was both - got away with it because the game allowed it, or, at least, turned a blind eye to it. Whether Jack Watts could have made it in that era we'll never know. But I'm sure he would have found the game far more challenging than today's version.

He was also a Director of Pacific Star Network (owners of SEN) for a while. Pert's job is to make sure Goodwin has the resources he needs and a stable back of house, both things denied to every coach from Norm Smith to Mark Neeld. If you think it's just the coach's responsibility to help us win games you haven't really been paying attention.

I know Pert's not taking over as CEO until October. But is it possible he may commence with the club in another role (let's just call it deputy CEO for now) which allows a smooth transition? And for the media know-it-alls who claim that this isn't a "succession plan", that's just bog-ignorance. A "succession plan" doesn't mean it has to be an internal appointment. It just means the CEO leaves with a new CEO already selected to take over. The alternative is what happens when the CEO leaves not at a time of his choosing or when a replacement CEO hasn't been selected before the CEO actually leaves, neither of which apply in this instance.

I genuinely no nothing about why Pert left Collingwood, but I could see that the review that Collingwood undertook came to the conclusion that there needed to be a change at the top which could have meant the President or the CEO...and the President made sure it wasn't him. Pert had spent a long time at Collingwood, so it was probably the right move for both him and that club for him to move on. And Mick Malthouse has apparently today slammed the appointment of Gary Pert as our new CEO. In my opinion, that just confirms the club has made the right decision!

I find my level of interest in football overall diminishes when we have a bye. And I have zero interest in games on a Thursday (other than a Thursday night before a public holiday on a Friday). Is it just me?

Apart from improving his fitness levels, if he wants to be a midfielder he needs to have a reliable right foot. We already have two left footer midfielders with abominable right sides (Viney, Tyson). I'm keen on putting together a package of trades (players and picks) to get us up the draft order. He seems a good prospect for this purpose and could be a useful addition to other teams, such as Carlton, Brisbane , Freo and the Gold Coast. I don't like the disrespectful term "trade bait", but if he wants to move to enable better opportunities, I'm all for us assisting him to do so.

Wow. On to the third page now. Can't think of another Melbourne player (even ones still playing for Melbourne) who would get this much comment if he were dropped. Which means as supporters we must have invested a lot of emotion into Jack Watts. I'm sure there's a PhD in this for someone who can work out just why we're still fascinated by "The Jack Watts Story".

I must have been at a different game on Monday. I don't recall seeing either Vince or Spargo playing in the midfield. And Petracca certainly did.

Strange how many people want to drop defenders and forwards when the major problem yesterday was the midfield. That said, the midfield has been very good the previous six weeks. So, I'm not in favour of making many changes but Pedersen was so poor I think he needs to make way for either Weideman or T Smith (preferably the former, as he's the better long-term prosect). It was always a risk having Gawn, Pedersen, Hogan and T McDonald in the same side. At least Weideman and T Smith offer more pace around the ground than Pedersen. So, assuming no forced changes, I'd give the rest of the team another chance to show why they are already in the team ahead of everyone else.