poita

I still believe Weideman and Brown are fighting for the same spot in this team. Weideman is a distant second in that race. McDonald has done more than enough so far to hold his spot for the foreseeable future. I'm not convinced by Jackson as a forward, other than if we can exploit a height mismatch. Same goes for Gawn. Fritsch needs to lead in front of goal, but his kicking is sure to come good at some point. Pickett is a certainty. Neal-Bullen and Spargo are probably fighting for one spot if we are keen to rest Petracca or one of the other mids forward.

I think this is the issue. Going to the theatre is an event for most people - something they might do a couple of times a year, so they make it a big day / night - dinner, event, maybe a night in the city. With the AFL building up certain games as stand alone events, people will make an effort to get to a couple of blockbuster games for the year, and that is it. I've thought for a number of years that there are less rusted on fans than there used to be, and last year has probably turned even more off. People may buy a three game membership to have some connection to the club and feel like they are making a contribution, but have no interest in spending 5 hours travelling to and attending games every week, especially when you can camp out on the couch for 2 hours to see a game. Average AFL attendances have generally been phenomenally high relative to our population, behind only the NFL and a couple of large soccer leagues. Maybe this is changing to go the way of the NRL.

There are a lot of reasons why people may not be going to the football at the moment. The current rules are a significant deterrent to people deciding to go on the day or bringing friends along. I can't take my son along because I can't buy him a ticket at the same time as getting mine. The inability to choose seats is resulting in people receiving seats far worse than what they have paid for with their memberships. There are so many dumb rules in the name of social distancing and the like, but then they only have one gate open after the game to clear half the Southern Stand. Then you go and stand on top of each other on a train or tram. Maybe a lot of people lost interest last year after not being able to attend. The lack of kids at our game last week would suggest it will take a long time to get them interested again.

Assuming Melbourne win, we only need one of Adelaide or Fremantle to lose to finish top 4.

I'm not sure I would trade Gawn, but I certainly wouldn't have given him a four year extension on huge money on top of his existing deal. This club is very good at failing to read the tea leaves. Max's ruck work on Saturday was quite poor, as evidenced by the goal he gifted Andrew Brayshaw at the end of the third quarter. He definitely needs to lift this week.

Yes, pretty disappointing. Understand the lack of interest and response if it was a bunch of Casey kids playing, but the side included our AFL vice captain, two of our four most experienced AFL players and all of our 2020 draftees. The game was pretty significant in the context of our season.

I can't understand the love for Jetta here. It is embarrassing watching him trail in ten metres behind his man. A decent small forward in a decent team would have kicked at least five goals on him on the weekend. He was cooked at the end of 2018. I don't know what the answer is given our critical lack of quality small defenders, but either Higgins or Butler will have a field day against him. Hunt and Sparrow would be the others on edge - Viney has to come in if fit and probably Hibberd as well.

I didn't have the pleasure of watching the game, but that is a fantastic result for the players and the club. I was pleased when I saw our draw for the last three weeks, because it gave us the opportunity to control our own destiny. Now they must have the belief that they can genuinely challenge for the premiership over the next month. Beat Brisbane and we may well finish top four, which gives us a home semi final. From there, anything is possible.

Definitely no

Surely the Casey coach (or one of his assistants) can spare five minutes to give us a write up of the game and let us know how the 4-5 key Melbourne players went.

Thanks for organising this. I thought Gary spoke more confidently about the on field side of things, than the off field side of things, whereas I would have thought the off field side should be more his department. I get that there are limits to what he can say about the home base, but the response to the revenue question was concerning and unsatisfactory. It seems to be assumed that it is only at matter of time before we're a consistent finals side, which will see members and sponsors beating down the door, and the dollars rolling in. It's not that easy, and there needs to be a plan B and C. I would hate to see the proceeds of Leighoak (and ultimately the Bentleigh Club) absorbed by covering operating losses.

I received the text directly from the club from the same account that sends my monthly billing reminders and other information. I have a couple of reasons for thinking it was legitimate, but if it was an open site it is likely that it has been abused by all and sundry. If so, then this was an appallingly managed promotion that once again sheds doubt on the ability of the club to properly process even simple tasks. I can't wait until Anzac Eve or Queens Birthday and we can't get into the games because the club has given away a bunch of free MFC memberships to Richmond and Collingwood supporters. The site is now saying "This exclusive Community offer has closed. Please contact the club directly if you have any queries".

Fantastic performance by the team on Saturday night, probably the best I have seen them play. The talents of our top 5-6 players have been well documented, but it is really pleasing to see the likes of Colvin, Sherriff, Parry and Heath starting to play really solid football on a consistent basis. This is why we get so frustrated, because the team's best football is as good as anybody's, but their bad days are really awful. I'm really pleased to see Stinear stick with the changes that worked well against St Kilda, but hopefully he is prepared to move things around further if things go against us at some point over the next two weeks. With the Dogs a game and percentage behind, and Carlton two games back, our destiny is very much in our control. Another win should secure a finals berth and two would give us a chance of going top four. As an aside, the consistency of our TV coverage has been fantastic this year. It will be very disappointing if AFLW coverage falls away with the AFL starting this week.

Given that one was carrying a knee injury when we recruited him and the other seems to have a significant injury every year, I'd say about 5/4.

I love Max, but I really wish he would stay away from this kind of stuff. As one of the most senior and longest serving players on the list, he is more responsible than most for us underachieving over the past decade. And why would he possibly want to drag us until the Lumumba mess?

My son automatically gets a 3 game St Kilda membership with his SMJFL registration. I suspect their numbers are highly inflated. I also expect that a LOT of MFC members will have downgraded their memberships this year - numbers may be comparable to last year, but dollars will be significantly down. But if numbers are what matters to broadcasters and the like, we desperately need to find a way to piggy back off the work of one of these large community organisations.

There's plenty of people at AFL clubs in senior positions who don't deserve them, and plenty of horrible decisions have been made by people who are otherwise accomplished at their roles. Many of those poor decisions have been made by people at this club over the past three years, and we are entitled to question them.

Good to get the win on Saturday, but St Kilda showed the gaping chasm between the top and bottom halves of the ladder. We were good in parts, and average in others, but will need to be much better overall to beat Adelaide. It was good to see Stinear mix a few things up this week. We'll need to play a stronger defence next week, which probably needs to include Scott, and hopefully Downie. The Zanker midfield experiment should continue, as should Daisy up forward. We need to keep giving as many minutes as possible to Bannan and McNamara.

Congratulations Oscar, very well deserved. Sure, Frost & McDonald have their weaknesses, but both have played more finals for the MFC than May, Lever & Tomlinson have, and we didn't pay $2M a year for the privilege of their services.

The biggest tragedy of that 2000 side was that it was so young. With some good recruiting and development over the next 3-4 years to bolster the list, we should have genuinely been contending for premierships for years to come.

I think this is the case as well, but it really shouldn't be this way having paid finals once in 14 years. We all know that our top players are taking up a significant portion of our salary cap, but 3/4 of our current list should be on far less than the AFL average. We really need to bite the bullet at year end and offload the likes of Vandenberg, Jetta, Jones, Hibberd and Hunt (I know he just signed for two years), whose output is well below their current salary.

Slow, small, indecisive with ball in hand, can't hold a tackle and always in the wrong position. And I'm pretty sure I saw another set shot at goal from 40m that failed to make the distance.

Jordon and Sparrow are both bog average players without a single AFL standard trait between them. Keep one as deep depth, the other can go at year end. Who knows whether Nietschke can play or not, but he was a speculative, left field selection who has not played a full game at any level in three years in the club. He shouldn't have been on the list this year. There are 15 players drafted after Sparrow who have 10+ games to their name - any one of these would have been an improvement on what we have.

I thought our effort was generally okay, but we looked miles off the Bulldogs' standard for the most part. If not for May and Lever, the dogs win that game by 12 goals plus. The big concern is the phenomenal number of times that we were in clear position to make a tackle and force a stoppage, and they would just break free and offload to the guy running past on the outside. They were too big, too strong, too quick and too well drilled. Obviously that changes a bit when Oliver, Brayshaw, Viney and Salem return, but it is hardly surprising when we've spent the past four years recruiting slow midgets. We're in a world of trouble if we are relying on any of Spargo, Bedford, Bowey, Vandenberg, Jordon, Hunt, Sparrow, Baker, Chandler, Jetta or Lockhart this year. Too small, too slow and / or poorly skilled. The Good: May and Lever excellent, Petracca looks set for another big year, Langdon's workrate is elite, Fritsch made the most of his opportunities, Harmes is much better in the midfield and Neal-Bullen showed a bit. The Bad: Jackson was smashed when in the ruck and struggled as a leading forward; McDonald kept asking for the high ball instead of leading at the ball carrier; Gawn's ruck work was poor; we lack quality small defenders; and we lack midfield depth. The Ugly: Our forward line was completely dysfunctional, other than Fritsch; our game plan is flawed and we don't have the personnel to implement it; our players are slow and reactionary; our inexperienced third and fourth year players are miles off AFL standard. We're a bottom six side on that performance with or without returning players.

Our performance against St Kilda last year was every bit as bad as what we've delivered over the past two weeks. We are going to need to play significantly better to win this week. If we don't, we'll be playing for draft picks over the final three rounds. Sadly, other than Downie, there really isn't any talent to come back into the team.