poita

I was edgy after the semi finals, felt comfortable mid-week, and am now a complete mess. I have no idea how I will survive the next 12 hours, let alone the game itself. PS: GAGF NRL for putting the Storm on at the same time.

My first game was around 1983/84, but I have no memory of those early games. I have vague memories of the semi final in 1987 that we won by 76 points. My first final was actually a Hawthorn - Carlton game the year before - my (Melbourne supporting) dad must have thought I would never make it to a final if we waited for Melbourne to get there. The qualifying final in 2000 was probably as good a win as I have seen live, although round 23 2021 is the most excited I have been at a Melbourne victory. We won the preliminary final so easily in 2000 that it almost felt like an anti climax - fingers crossed for a similar outcome tomorrow. No question that the loss to Essendon in 2013 is the worst I have ever been to. My son was two at the time, and it felt like the club would go under before he was able to attend and remember a game with me. It was just impossible to see a future for the club at that point. There have been many more painful losses than glorious wins, although I guess they make the successes more enjoyable.

Does any other sport have awards where players get to vote for their mates? It just seems a completely ridiculous idea, in that (a) half the players would have absolutely no idea what the rest of the competition is up to and (b) most of them wouldn't take it seriously anyway.

Where is the evidence of that? I'm pretty sure the club instigated the trade. Good luck for the future Dom, I always thought you gave us everything you had.

While you are voting for Kozzie, jump across and vote for Clarry in the fan awards. https://www.afl.com.au/fan-awards

15 fines from 21 charges. I thought the fine was available as a minor sanction for first and second time offenders. By the time you are on your 22nd charge, you should be getting suspended for even looking at someone the wrong way. Contact with an umpire of that magnitude needs to be at least four weeks even for someone with a clean record. For Greene it should be closer to eight weeks.

For what it's worth, ESPN have Wines on 32 winning from Steele & Oliver on 31 and Bontempelli on 30. https://www.espn.com.au/afl/story/_/id/30993511/afl-2021-brownlow-medal-predictor-tracker-leaderboard-odds-every-team-every-player-every-vote-2021 They also have 6 Demons in their All Australian side, so hopefully they know what they are talking about.

Can you be a legend of Australian Football if you didn't play or coach in the best competition in the country? Where do you draw the line - does Nick Sautner get in the HoF at some point because of his outstanding VFL record? Five years ago they were cramming in every half-decent modern-day player they could find (Bell, Hall, Lappin, etc), now there are only two players from the entire history of the VFL/AFL worth including this year? Judd clearly yes, Burke less so. Garry Lyon remains an inexplicable non-selection, and our golden era remains woefully under represented.

Congratulations to the 7 Demons named - all very deserving. Otherwise a bizarre squad. I count 8 genuine forwards, 8 genuine defenders, 3 ruckmen and 21 midfielders. Either the selectors are going to pull their favourite trick of naming a ruck, 4 KPPs and a truck load of midfielders, or almost every one of those forwards and defenders is going to be in the final team, which bodes very well for the chances of May, Salem and Fritsch.

About time they put this competition out of its misery and start again with the 10 Victorian AFL teams each running a reserves team. If the AFL won't do it, the clubs need to start raising hell. It's a shame for the likes of Williamstown and Port Melbourne, but hopefully they can carry on in another competition.

I get the angst if he is a generational talent, but do we desperately need a speculative ruck forward at this point in our development? If it's going to cost us a top 20 pick, I'd rather use that on a quality midfielder. That said, it is frustrating that the Bulldogs continue to benefit from these concessions, only for the rules get changed after the horse has already bolted.

The coaches and football bosses need to start putting pressure on the AFL about this debacle of a competition - the inability of the clubs to get decent match practice into their fringe players has surely got to be concerning them. As a player I would hate to be coming out of contract having played 8 games in a season spread across five months.

No issue with the outs. I'm not sure what role Jordon has played since Viney's return, but he hasn't been impacting games in that period. Hibberd's defensive work has been okay, but his constant fumbling is a liability. Jackson and Spargo are very lucky to survive. We are playing two short up forward at the moment. Good luck to Jake Bowey - big ask for a young kid to come in at this point of the season, having barely played for a couple of months. Not so sure about Sparrow - he really needs to be played only as a replacement for Viney or Harmes, not alongside. I would rather bring in another half forward such as Melksham or Jones to fill that spot.

This would be the worst decision this incompetent board has ever made, if true. Managing to pizz off the majority of your loyal members and seriously harming your team's chances of winning a premiership at the same time would take some doing.

I don't understand why this club doesn't make it as easy as possible for members at this point of the process. Some people don't sit at a computer all day waiting for an email from the club to drop so they know what is expected of them. The rules are changing each week, and what was applicable for the GWS game is not necessarily what is applicable for this week. I still haven't received the email for my son's account. The emails should have been sent yesterday evening at the latest.

Next we'll be hearing that Austin Bradtke is a better ruckman than Max Gawn. I'm impressed that the OP didn't just postulate that Bedford was a better player than Spargo or Neal-Bullen, he skipped straight to Bedford being a better player than Viney. How many small forwards develop into quality AFL players after spending three years doing not much in the VFL? I would suggest very few, generally because they don't get given a fourth year.

No change. This is the best we have in terms of structure and personnel, so we need to keep them together. Sparrow and Melksham have had their chances and been found wanting. Vandenberg is done, and Bowey is not ready. Jones is the only I would consider if he had a run of games at Casey.

The way that some posters talk about Majak Daw it is incredible that he is not a top 10 goalscorer in the competition, let alone has played just 54 games in 10 years. An accurate kick, mighty presence and a fine mark? What adjectives does that leave for Tom Hawkins and players of that ilk?

Shocking timeslot, but any games we get to go this year are a bonus. A 25K crowd would be a good result given where the two teams are at.

If you are going to play three crumbing forwards, then you need some big contested marking types for them to crumb to. Crumbers become redundant when the talls are Fritsch, McDonald and Jackson, all of whom are leading forwards, and none of whom really crash packs or provide a strong aerial contest. With our current structure, we may as well play drop Spargo and Neal-Bullen and play Melksham and Vandenberg in their place. At least they are capable of providing a target inside forward 50.

I don't believe we have a Jack Viney problem, but we certainly have a problem with overall team balance. Jack was okay against Essendon, less so against GWS, but will certainly improve with more match fitness. The issue we have is that Viney & Harmes didn't play in the same side between round 2 & round 14. Now we have both playing significant midfield minutes, and that is taking midfield time away from others. All the combinations that were working early in the year have been broken up, and the new combinations are yet to gel. Now we have pushed Petracca forward more, where he is capable but not at his most dangerous; Jordon on to a wing where he is having little impact and is also reducing Brayshaw's effectiveness; Sparrow is inexplicably getting midfield minutes when he is a complete liability in there, and we have to manage Oliver and Viney who can't play anywhere but the midfield. The answer is clearly to remove Sparrow from the equation, and perhaps Harmes needs to spend more time forward unless he has a defensive role to play. Our other key issue is that Jackson is critical to our overall structure, but is contributing nothing as a forward. He has been good in the ruck, but Gawn was conspicuously absent from the centre square for much of Saturday's game.That is certainly not ideal.

Who knew that we lost on Saturday because of umpiring decisions? I had assumed it was because (a) we are incapable of putting the ball between the big posts, (b) most of the players looked completely disinterested for most of the game and (c) the opposition played better than us.

https://womens.afl/news/72888/listen-dees-flag-push-plus-humorous-reaction-to-tayla-trade Interesting interview with Todd Patterson, the AFLW list manager. A fair amount of talk around the trades for Olivia Purcell and Tayla Harris, but also the overall list strategy. Despite the obvious improvement over the second half of the season, there was significant disappointment that they didn't win the premiership. This will be the goal in 2022, as it is every year.

Our 6 specialist forwards contributed a grand total of 3 goals between them last week, and Goodwin thinks that all is well - the mind boggles. How many uncontested marks will Haynes & Davis take this week because we are looking for the marking option that doesn't exist? Forecast is for 60% chance of any rain, with possible rain of 0 - 1mm. Hardly a torrential downpour and certainly no reason to keep Brown out.

We haven't had a home game in Melbourne for 7 weeks. The club can't just assume that everyone is across what the current rules are given that they are changing by the week, if not the day. The club website is typically useless - see below. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/member-ticketing/r16 Do we need to book tickets? Can we use our reserved seats? Does anyone know what is going on?