pantaloons

Would it kill the club to release the length of contracts? Maybe no one else gives a stuff about this. Maybe the sound of silence on this is an irritating shriek that can only be heard by myself and a few stray dogs, but it's a pet hate of mine that player contract terms aren't released to the public. It can only add to the overall enjoyment of the fan's experience. Rant over. I was worried about derailing the thread but it's likely that the next ten posts will be along the lines of "Yeah, I guess Bail and Riley aren't that bad but Terlich couldn't hit Fat Albert on the chest from 10 paces and must go".

#10 is one of the features of the club I cling to. "Oh, you won the premiership last year? That's nice, but you still dress in poo and wee."

I'm actually not sure what sort of response you want here. You're asking a bunch of freaks who are still here after 8 of the most insipid years in the history of organised team sport if we are weak. Do what a good brother should do and give him a fierce dead leg while singing It's a Grand Old Flag.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9VLwV48OHs&list=PL5839DAE6FDB764BD but you've given 2009 a huge fail without including Luke Tapscott at 18. You're welcome. Edit: Olisik beat me to it while I was learning the wonders of cut and paste.

If you take out the first half against West Coast a year or two ago where they had 22 frees to 1, the discrepancy against them wouldn't be too bad.

It was either Salem or Freeman (0 games) at pick 9. Had we picked Freeman, the Nathan Freeman thread would be filled with 60 pages of self-loathing, illicit links to the personal phone numbers and addresses of Melbourne's recruiters, and recipes for burnt offerings to place at the foot of Norm Smith's statue.

Do you have any direct quotes, Grint? Was the tone of what they were saying something like "I can't believe our own supporters booed us", or was it more like "I'm so embarrassed that the calibre of our play was so sickeningly rancid that booing was the appropriate response from a group of supporters who for some reason stuck around to watch us defile the Melbourne guernsey during a precious Sunday afternoon"?

Blease at 17 in 2008.

I don't see the problem with asking the question. We couldn't be any more pathetic and laughable after Sunday's emasculating loss so it's not like it's out of character. What I would like to see from the AFL is some rationale behind the decision if they don't grant it. Just come out and scrap it if that's the case, because after 8 straight years of historic futility, it will take some topping to give a priority pick to anyone ever again.

Demonland could go into meltdown if we had two players on our list picked before Wines.

Watts was probably smiling because in comparison to the club-ending excrement we dished up last week, this was a premiership display.

7mate has taken over from OneHD this season. I assume they'll get the same games we otherwise would have. Bring on the season anyway. I'm expecting a fall from grace this season and a return to KC battling Melbourne for the coveted mantle of my most useless football team.

I thought the same. I'm not sure if the OP meant the GWS game where we led late in the 3rd and then got within a point early in the 4th. We led very late in those four we lost after leading in the 4th quarter though. We led the Dogs with 5 minutes left at the G and 2 minutes left in the return match, and Port halfway through the last in the NT and then with 2 minutes left last week.

At the start of the 1998 prelim he took an absolute blinder about 30 metres out directly in front. I said before he kicked it that this shot at goal was for the premiership. Alas. What an absolute wizard he was though. One of my all-time favourites.

I'll respond to you rather than delete my post in shame. Thanks for pointing that out. I scanned to the bests and saw the best from the development league. Back to your lives, citizens!

If Gawn had 87 hit outs in an apparently putrid win and was not named in the best, I would like to know where his hit outs actually went. He must have been flailing about in the ruck like Peter Garrett in his prime.

Jesse Hogan to become the first player in VFL/AFL history to win his club's goalkicking playing only 4 games.

There are some posts of epic length here which I've read most of but not in entirety. Sorry if this has been covered, but on the radio after the game on Saturday it was noted that in 2005 when they won the flag, Sydney were 14th in the AFL for inside 50s. While I'd like to have the ball inside 50 more, it's more important to have quality inside 50s. We've got a 13-game sample size now and it can't be coincidence that in the majority of those our opponents have had a worse goal to behind ratio than us.

I can cop picking Toumpas - all year it was touted he'd go #2, so at the time it seemed we were roflcoptering all the way to the bank after GWS picked a couple of randoms who I haven't heard of before or since at 2 and 3. I have accepted mentally and emotionally that Toumpas won't be as good as Wines, so now it's just about watching Toumpas develop and hoping that he develops into a player who can fill a valuable role in this team over the next decade in his own way. We're going to be getting the best out of our draftees now, and we've had our own success stories in the last two drafts. How many players from the top 47 picks in that draft would you swap for Dean Kent? 10 maybe? Salem at 9 the following year (without even mentioning the increasingly favourable trade to get the pick) - tick. JKH at 40 when Hawthorn picked the delisted Garlett at 38. Even the 2010 draft - McDonald at 53 and Howe at 33. It's turning around.

Didn't Chagrin play for Melbourne in the late 80s? Dean or something or other?

It's currently 45-1 in Perth, Freo's way. 33 inside 50s to 3. Where's Lynden Dunn when you need him?

Urgh. There's no way Essendon would ever blow a 33 point lead.

Brock McLean - the gift that keeps on giving.

Glorious news. Two years makes perfect sense. He could be the best player in the comp by the end of 2017, or he could have snapped his back in half and never played a game - it offers a level of protection for both parties. It'll be a great relief when he puts pen to paper. I was going to be needing a medical certificate for MFCSS if the contract negotiations lingered into next year.

So this is now our second-highest tally ever. It really needs to be curving up every single year though. Hopefully we can finish the season strongly, have another excellent off-season and crack 40,000 next season. I can't just keep having children to boost membership figures.