Jaded No More

But also why would you risk Lever or Hibbo in a round 3 game against a side that don’t have much of a forwardline either.

Who was the last player we really wanted to keep but they left anyway?

It’s round 2 and we are 2-0. Calm your farm.

Eventually we have to lose. We are on another winning streak and we’ve seen how hard that is to maintain. We aren’t in great form. To me we are just going and doing the bare minimum to win games. That’s a perfect position to be in this early in the season, but it also makes us much more vulnerable to dropping “easier” games. You can’t be up all the time. Maintaining a level of intensity that requires winning every week is impossible. Clubs will come out hoping to catch us on a down week so they can take a big scalp. This could be the week.

You are correct. I shouldn’t listen to Petracca who said he was 21.

If he ever gets injured we are stuffed. No Bowey no Melbourne.

From the 2 seconds of vision at training they showed on 7, Trac had a full leg bandage and was grabbing at his knee. Let’s hope he’s ok. I would hate to risk him in round 3 and have him end up like Salem.

Imagine the nerve of winning back to back flags and back to back rising stars… I’ll take my jinx and see myself out now

Well FMD Bowey got it this week! They went output over hype. Well done little ginger. You can hang up this useless nomination next to your shiny premiership medal.

I think both Miller and Bowey were very very good for their respective sides. I am frankly surprised if one coach gave Oliver 2 and Miller only 1. Miller was definitely more influential than Oliver.

A bit of both. I think it depends on Rivers and Hibbo’s injury status.

Suddenly Adelaide has a hope in hell. It could be interesting viewing. But also who cares.

And the same can be said for the MCFSS going on in this thread too. There has been more real evidence that Jackson is happy at Melbourne, than evidence that he's home sick and is dying to play for mediocre sides.

It is weird. When I was watching the game against Gold Coast and I kept thinking we are not playing great footy, and then the commentators would gush about how clean we are and what quality we have across every line, I suddenly realised what a spoilt brat I've become that I am complaining about a win because we didn't play quite so well.

To be fair though I don't think Tim Kelly was home sick as much as he needed to go home for family reasons. Those are different things. Feeling lonely, isolated and missing home is very different to having external family pressure to return home because of a partner/child/parent, which is also where Hogan was (and having cancer would not have helped!). I highly doubt Jackson, who is 21 and has no long term partner or kids, would be feeling any pressure from his family to return home, when they can see what a successful career he's forging at Melbourne. He also has great connections at the club, having come across with Rivers who is an old mate. There will always be noise that he's 'going home', because every super talented player born in WA gets that sort of attention. But there has never been a single indication that he was wanting to return to WA. He said on the Gus and Gawny podcast last year that he loves Melbourne, he keeps gushing about the team, the culture and working under Gawny. Why would you go out of your way to say those things if you were missing home? For me the only reason he hasn't signed is because his management team knows how much his worth will continue to increase, and the club is obviously trying to put long term deals in front of him, which is not a wise move for someone of his age and calibre to sign. As much as I wish he would sign a 10 year deal, the reality is he should sign for 2 and then get even more money. I also think that if the club didn't think they were a strong chance to retain him, they would have entertained the Cerra for Jackson trade last year, as we were very much into Cerra.

I agree with some of their comments that this won't be some dead rubber. Their effort against the Lions was much improved. They will probably struggle to kick a winning score, but I don't think they will just roll over. At 0-2 the pressure is mounting on them, and after a hard road trip with a 6 day break, and given we are not known to go hard early on the season, this could well be another close game. Besides, we don't smash sides... unless it's September 🤣 I just want to see an improved performance going inside 50 so we can get some decent output from our forwards.

I believe he got pulled off at 3/4 time because he's likely going to debut this week. Not injured.

Dermie is insufferable. Just does not shut up!

I bet my bottom dollar they’ll give it to Daicos

I agree but how do these teams get 2 top 5 picks? They will probably have one. Freo may not even have that. It’s a problem for us that he’s out of contract. Doesn’t leave us much leverage except that North is the most likely team to win the spoon…if West Coast get a sniff that he’s a chance they might even try to get that spoon off North, but it seems highly unlikely. They’re a better team than North when at full strength and still have an epic home ground advantage

I think it’s fair to say not a single member of Demonland saw that one coming… well done ANB on not just resurrecting a career but cementing a spot in the best 22 of the reigning premiers. A magnificent turnaround.

The only way I see him throwing away a golden chance at multiple flags is if he’s really really home sick. Someone who is really really home sick doesn’t play the way he has been playing though.

I don't want March headlines, I want September headlines. March is a fool's playground. September is when the big boys come out to play.

I totally agree. If there was any sense that Jackson was a risk of not signing there is no way Petracca, who himself has been under contract pressure in the media, would ever bring it up in jest on national TV. Given Jackson and Trac are locker buddies, I am sure they have chatted about it off line and Jackson has said he is staying and letting his management sort it out. He really doesn't strike me as a kid who has any interest in business.

I reckon Freo is the sole reason I lose footy tipping every single year.