La Dee-vina Comedia

I wonder whether ground availability might be a problem? Does cricket need any of the grounds before the (modern-day) traditional mid-March start? Marvel Stadium and some other non-cricket grounds would be available, but could the AFL schedule many games if there is no certainty as to the availability of the MCG, SCG, Adelaide Oval, etc?

How many knee recos has Gawn had? Or were his early knee injuries something other than ACLs?

For those with a statistical interest, the combination of Collingwood v Essendon in a Grand Final has happened 6 times. The most common occurrence is Melbourne v Collingwood with 7. There are a number of combinations which have happened 6 times, including Melbourne v Essendon plus Carlton/Colingwood, Richmond/Collingwood and Geelong/Collingwood.

I agree. Absolute momentum killer. (And for those of us living in Victoria, the State Government has also come to the momentum-killing party by making the day before the Grand Final a public holiday.) The worst week in footy is the week immediately after Melbourne's last game for the season, unless we've won the Premiership.

Until recently I would have said: 1. Flower and then daylight before whoever I had thought was second. Oliver has closed that gap significantly by his sustained excellence. So, for me it is now: 1. Flower 2. Oliver 3. Gawn 4. Lyon 5. Neitz Petracca is probably 6th and may jump into the top 5 if he maintains or even improves his output.

Would you be happier with ladder position? That is, 18 points for first, 17 for second etc. Maximum available points would be 36. It would need a decision on whether the points are awarded for end of Home and Away or after finals.

Congratulations to Oliver, Petracca, Grundy and May... https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1280430/record-number-of-dees-named-in-team-of-decade The article says that Petracca was pick 5 in the 2015 draft. That's only out by 3 spots and one year.

I agree. I know practice matches are not useful guides, but when I watched them on Saturday I could not help but notice how ineffectual their older players actually were. I can understand them trying to eke out one more Premiership with established stars, and using Hopper and Taranto to top up their talent, but I think the window for one last Premiership with that group slammed shut last year. I don't expect Richmond to play finals this year.

Word association has stirred up an old memory. Who else remembers the Esso advertising slogan of the 1960s and 1970s of "Put a tiger in your tank"?

If he wins, he'll be the first Judd to do so. Chris Judd got nominated in 2002, but was beaten for it by Nick Reiwoldt. There were a few other handy players nominated that year including Luke Hodge, Shaun Burgoyne, James Kelly, Jimmy Bartel, Tadgh Kenneally and Alan Didak. (And Steven Armstrong, who was our sole nominee.)

I know Robbo's list is speculative essentially trying to predict who will be the Number 1 footballer by the end of this year. For Charlie Curnow to get there, I think there are at least three players ahead of him right now...at Carlton. I would put all of Cripps, Walsh and Weitering ahead of him and I could understand an argument that Harry McKay is ahead of him as well. Curnow's going to have some year if he's going to be No. 1 by the end of season 2023.

I'm assuming you meant Grimes and Trengove. However, my first thought was Jones and Viney. Until I read your following line. Apart from the aforementioned, have we ever had any other co-Captains? I share your view that all you need is a Captain and a Vice-Captain. Other players can be leaders within the club, but don't need to be named as such. Leadership comes from within, not from being given a title. And there's no shame in not being a leader, either.

It's the TV commentators' fault that Richmond lost? Wow!

The organ grinder is the Herald-Sun. Robbo is the monkey.

Having thought about it some more, there is a piece of music composed by John Cage called 4' 33'' which would be ideal to play after every goal.

We have a winner. (OK, on a technicality it was the MRO not the tribunal, but full credit to Dr Gonzo for his perspicacity)

I can't quite understand what's being debated here. We are the Melbourne Football Club, also known as the Demons and the Dees, just like Collingwood are the Magpies and the Pies, Essendon are the Bombers and the Dons and St Kilda are irrelevant.

I seem to recall when this issue was in the media last year, no-one wanted to own the decision as to who decided that music was a good idea. I think the AFL said it was the Ground Manager (ie, the MCC) and the Ground Manager said they had outsourced the match day ground management to an outside company. In short, no-one likes it and no-one wanted to own up to authorising it. Nothing's changed - it's still a lousy idea. As an aside, the AFL has allowed breaks between goals to extend from 30 seconds to about 40-45 seconds, presumably to satisfy Channel 7 so it can run ads and replays of the goal. I wouldn't mind bringing the break back to 30 seconds. After all, everyone seems to be saying that games go too long and if a game has, say, 27 goals, that's an additional 6.75 minutes tacked on for no good reason.

It seems Robbo is being both highly aggressive and highly defensive at the same time with these selections. It's rather like a stock picker investing in Lithium stocks and fossil fuels.

A lot of the Richmond hitouts would have been against Tom McDonald. He took most (or even all) the forward 50 contests and as you can see, only won one of them. As I posted previously, this may not be a concern given it meant that it would have allowed us the luxury of having one or both of Gawn and Grundy behind the ball.

I'm still getting used to us actually being good. Not just for a game here or there, or even for one season, but consistently good over a period of years. It's not just the supporters of other teams, it's also the media. For example, look how often Melbourne stories make the media and how the media illustrate their generic stories with photos of Melbourne players when they could use anyone.

I know it was just a practice match but there are troubling signs for Richmond. Reiwoldt, Cotchin and Martin all looked "old and slow". I think they could get away with playing one of them, preferably Martin, but all three in the one team is going to help drive them over the proverbial cliff.

A few observations: Ben Brown played a mixed bag. He got a lot of free kicks in Q4 for doing what he does best - long leads and long arms, which meant the defender gave away those free kicks. In other words, he earned those frees by playing the game his way. Also, in the first half I thought rather than playing an ordinary game, he played as a decoy forward which allowed Grundy and Gawn to thrive as forwards if Tom McDonald continues to take all the ruck contests close to goal, we'll lose most of them. However, this might not matter as it allows us to have at least one ruckman a kick behind the play which will make it hard for the opponents to clear the ball I know Petty was outplayed in the last quarter. Until then, though, I thought he was absolutely dominant ANB was outstanding I loved the mixing and matching of the on ballers in the centre square. Whereas 2021 we thrived on consistency, in 2023 we might benefit from the variety I found Chandler to be a disappointment. I expected more from him Hunter has been a great pick up

The MCC membership year ends 31 August each year. Every MCC member knows that if you want to attend AFL finals matches at the MCG,you need to have paid up for the new year or you won't get in.

That's an interesting question, worthy of its own thread. My guess is that the replacement has a non-compete clause which doesn't expire until May (when Gil is meant to be leaving) and can't even be identified yet. If that's correct, it would mean the internal applicants have all been overlooked.