Jaded No More

They are a very very good side, and much more even across the ground than the Dogs, who outside of their midfield are only average. IMO they could easily snag the flag this year, and we must show the same intensity and application as we did against the Dogs, or we will get cut up. No Langdon is a massive loss. I really don't know if we can win it without him. Need some massive games from our small forwards to ensure we keep the ball locked inside our forward 50 as much as possible, so the Lions don't go for a quick kick down the wing to try and open us up without Langdon.

Keep your footballers safe but your healthy return travelers next door to Covid infected travelers ?

Don’t disagree at all. We haven’t done a good job in Victoria. But I’m sick of small states with hardly no international travelers and little density having a crack at Victoria. NSW is the gold standard. If we were as far away as WA, Tassie or the NT, if we shut our borders every 3 minutes like QLD, if we had the population density of SA, then fair point. But Melbourne is in a totally different category. We have the highest population density, we have large movement across the city each day, we have large immigration population who live in large household setting. We also have large number of factories, processing facilities, a massive international port and so forth. We can’t be compared to other states except for NSW. I wish we could go into a government exchange program with them. But we can’t.

I was talking about Tassie. NT has a federal government quarantine facility. The only facility in the country that is actually built properly. And if you want to talk about population density, proximity to other large cities, movement of people and so forth, NT does not come into it. Their facilities are also half empty. I think we have had our fair share of bloody poor mismanagement in Victoria. Our second wave as an utter joke. But this lockdown was caused by poor handling of travelers in SA where someone healthy was next door to someone sick. Like wtf?! We should have gone to a snap lockdown after the first mystery case. We didn’t. Now we are in for an extended period of lockdown and restrictions, which is devastating for our economy, our kids and our well being. But this started in SA and they should take some of the blame for learning absolutely nothing about quarantine management.

Yep very easy to live in a small island state with close to 0 international arrivals, no interstate work force, very small immigrant population and low inner city movement with low population density. Unless you live in NSW you have legitimately zero right to chest beat about the handling of Covid in your state. They are the only state with similar population movement, density and international arrivals to Melbourne, and they have nailed it without shutting their borders every 3 minutes.

Say what you like about our Vic government and our handling of Covid... at least we have Brett Sutton and not this muppet talking about not touching balls.

Yes but at the expense of robbing us members of attending yet another home game. I’m all for playing in the NT instead of playing one of our other interstate matches, but I would hate to give up an MCG home game for an NT game, even tho I understand we need the money.

Covid- the gift that keeps on giving.

Definitely no to Sydney for the QB game. Not big enough of a crowd. SA are bastards I don’t want to give it to them. WA too far to travel altho we have a bye the following week. QLD not enough interest.

South Australians. What a bunch of actual morons.

Sadly agreed. They already said we can't got to regional Victoria over the long weekend. No chance they'll say "but please go to the football". Absolute balls.

They already said no regional travel in Victoria over the long weekend. They might ease restrictions slightly.

Another 7 day lockdown here in the great city of Covid. Please nobody who doesn’t live in Melbourne tell us it’s only 7 more days. PTSD is high.

SA being absolute a holes. We are in lockdown because you stuffed up your quarantine. Not once have I seen them offer to help out Victoria. Bloody typical. Thank god for NSW. One normal state.

100% I woke up with a tiny sore throat and I’m already in line to get tested even tho I have been at home since the lockdown started and live nowhere near any exposure sites. People wait far too long and in the meantime visit 1200 bars and restaurants and bottle shops and work.

You’ll get way more crowds at AO. QLD people don’t care enough about footy. Adelaide is also a much shorter trip. But I do recognize the problems with their hard border that they caused ?

If Hubs are off the table it means the AFL got an assurance from the Vic government that they don’t plan on having a long lockdown and extended restrictions for outdoor gatherings. Of course nobody knows what [censored] will hit the fan next, but make no mistake the AFL has their ear firmly in the Vic government. This is a big money making industry for a lot of people.

But today they’ve issued an alert because someone with the virus in Victoria went into NSW. I swear Victorians just do not know when to sit their [censored] down.

Rub it in. I left my house for 40 minutes today to walk around the block with a mask. It was glorious.

Mystery injury of the last month- Burgo. Hasn’t taken one of these injury updates in ages. Has he already gone back to SA?

What's worse? home schooling, 5km radius, or AFL season rapidly going down the toilet? F$%^n Covid!

Correct. SCG is a pointless stadium. Apart from the money aspect, playing the Lions at Giant Stadium is a win for us. It is an easier trip than going to the NT and we play well there. Lions are not advantaged by this at all. I know missing out on the money is really hard, especially for our club which has worked so hard to be financially independent of the AFL. But, in terms of purely football, this is not a bad outcome (if it is the outcome?!). We really really need to beat the Lions, anyone who thinks the risk of playing at the Gabba is worth it, has lost their mind. Brisbane are directly competing with us for a top 2 spot. Imagine if we go to the Gabba and lose this game and as a result end up finishing 4th and needing to travel up there again in finals. No thank you! This is the most important game of the our H&A season outside of last week. Make it 2 from 2 and top 4 is all but sewn up! Lose and suddenly we are par with the Dogs and Lions are only 1 game behind us.

I honestly don't blame the players. I would not want to be away from an unknown time from my family either. Surely we need to get thru this next 2-3 weeks and then other states can start to ease their rules around Melbourne based teams. As it is, the risk is minimal while we are all in lockdown.

This game deserves to be at the MCG and have crowds. It would be better to push it to the following weekend (as we don't play Essendon until the following Saturday night, and hope we have some crowds by then. That is 18 days away. We may well be back to 50% capacity by then? This game is so important not just to our bottom line, but also to MND. Doing it anywhere else would not do it justice.

But if we have to go interstate and quarantine we miss the prelim final. And what if you go and we don’t make it? If the GF is going to be interstate again between two Victorian teams they should push it back 14 days to allow Victorians to attend ?