The Third Eye

How does Geelong get away with its culture problems? Stengle. Bruhn. Now they’re trying to stitch the Doggies to get their paragon of virtue Bailey Smith with a lowball offer. Tell me again how they expect to get Clarry when they have zero trade and draft capital to offer?

Hope he works hard over the summer to get fit and prove the doubters wrong.

So Robbo was boned. His shortcomings have been exposed on numerous occasions and Whately will hopefully be next.

The Fog, Bont, Rayner headline long list of 2025 free agents

Would be a good player to have if the club still considers Petracca to be a flight risk. Obviously, not close in ability and standing but good cover until we can rebuild our midfield.

The more I see of players in the pool of potential retreads, the more I favour us focusing on the draft rather than to pick up duds from other clubs. I’m hoping we get three picks in the top 25.

Who benefits most from umpiring decisions? The 2024 free kick ladder for the home and away season Surely, Gerard Whatley should have been right on top of this when he interviewed Kate Roffey on SEN and asked her about Melbourne’s poor culture and lack of discipline that resulted in the team missing out on the finals?

When did she say that?

Didn’t see any Geelong premiership players trying to do a runner when they missed the finals last year.

The tall forward, a former member of the AFL Academy team, was drafted by Port Adelaide in the 2022 NAB AFL Draft. He’s a towering forward who stands at 203cm who hasn’t managed to find a way into the AFL. Melbourne could do with a tall overhead mark like him who can kick straight. I’m assuming Ben Brown will retire at the end of the season.

It’s true that Melbourne is faced with a monumental challenge but it’s not about turning around a negative 15½ goal outcome against Fremantle which is where it finished in Alice Springs early last month. It’s all about winning a game where both sides start with the score at 0.0.0 each, play under different conditions, on a different ground in a different city (albeit the home of the Dockers), with different players and with many of the same players of differing physical freshness and mental attitudes. There’s been an outcry and a lot of tears about the fact that the Demons have been forced to soldier on without two AFL top liners in Max Gawn and Christian Petracca but when you compare the makeup of the Melbourne team of round 12 with the team of round 18, there are some significant changes for the better even if you can never replace Max and Christian. These are the changes between the two games - Out Max Gawn, Lachie Hunter, Christian Petracca, Shane McAdam, Adam Tomlinson In Jake Lever, Jake Melksham, Andy Moniz-Wakefield, Koltyn Tholstrup, Jacob van Rooyen. That’s a mixed bag of players coming in which includes two experienced players in Lever and Melksham. One adds cohesion to the defence, the other adds steel to the attack which was not functioning properly on 2 June 2024 when Melbourne flopped badly to the purple people. The other three are JvR who is in massive form as a forward and relief ruckman, and two youngsters playing with great enthusiasm. They replace McAdam who was held scoreless, Hunter who was ineffective before he was subbed off at half time with a calf injury and Adam Tomlinson who worked hard but he doesn’t compare with Lever. There are a number of Melbourne players who have lifted several notches including wingers Ed Langdon and Caleb Windsor. Their current form is uplifting and their attacking mindset is setting a different tone to the team’s performance. The last time they met, it was said that the Dockers were completely switched on and primed to beat the Demons. They had an extra two days to prepare themselves for the game and this time they are coming off a shattering loss to Hawthorn. Certainly, Freo will have an advantage in the ruck if Max isn’t ruled fit to play but in every other respect, the goalposts have been removed 360 degrees over the past six or seven weeks. Even Optus Stadium is Melbourne’s home away from home.

No fine to Maynard for staging but Steven May cops a fine and gets persecuted by umpires taking marks off him.

6. Jack Viney 5. Steven May 4. Trent Rivers 3. Max Gawn 2. Tom Sparrow 1. Alex Neal-Bullen

So who to believe? I think former Melbourne doctor Peter Brukner is advising against Lever and May coming back too soon while the Demons appear to be pushing for them to be back playing asap. These are two major of the club’s major assets and we have two games in five days. Caution is warranted.