The heart beats true

Im very critical of Goodwin but this is purely about our midfielders not working hard enough. Oliver and Brayshaw need to lift a lot.

The minute he was in I was worried. He has the worst win/loss ratio of any Melbourne player over the last 4 years.

This is why I hate being a Melbourne supporter.

ACL

That’s why Melksham is in the team. Gets and kicks it long and direct.

They said the breeze won’t impact the game

Funny, for a long time I thought Tom Lynch was ‘probably better than that’. Turns out I was wrong. Hes an absolute [censored].

Everyone knows nobody skies in April - we’re all too busy shutting down our Sorrento homes for the winter. I just wish these nobody muck throwers would make like the ATO - and stay out of my business.

2 teams I can not stand because they do what they do so consistently: Geelong playing like millionaires at home, and The Eagles lacking soul away from home. Its been the same for 30 years.

Oscar Baker and Joel Smith are the 2 that stand out to me. Interesting.

Tom McDonald was fantastic that quarter

We are in for a fight here. A good opportunity to find out if we are made of the right stuff.

Given all the noise about this I expect to read tomorrow that Dodoro won’t accept anything but 7 first rounders and 1000 bags of gold - only to watch Merrett walk for a packet of chips and a Mars Bar. I believe it’s called being ‘Danihered’.

For those of you who wondered what Jake Lever adds - have a good look at that last quarter. ?

About to find out if we have another gear.

Fritsch has made 3 mistakes that all cost us goals. Get those right and we’d be at least 3 in front. It’s hard to know how difficult it is to mark the ball, but we just dropped 3-4 marks that would have put us in a much better place.

I’m confused. Ed left out the plan for systemic racism in the new club, but maybe that’ll be in the next blueprint? T’was a proud day.

I watched him live on AFL360 and 2 things occurred to me: 1. Pettacca seems happy. 2. Mark Robinson is the least intelligent person to ever be on Television in Australia. It’s impossible for him to get through a sentence without saying 2 words incorrectly. He’s oafish, rude and unbearable. I can’t stand that show, and haven’t watched it in years because of him. We have some very smart, articulate people in the football community, and it’s mind boggling that he somehow ends up getting so much work. He offers nothing.

And isn’t fantastic that they get to participate in a VFL practice match almost a month after the AFL seasons starts? The VFL is a joke. The AFL’s involvement has killed the stand alone VFL clubs, the season is so poorly out of sync with the AFL that it only allows 50% of the development time the Reserves used to, and the facilities and ground conditions don’t prepare developing players for their AFL careers. COVID has taken the focus off the VFL’s troubles, but it needs to change, and quickly. It’s sub standard, and serves literally no one well - including the clubs, players and supporters.

May vs Hawkins is going to be a belter.

I think we are much better this year. The balance of players is better at the foot of the ball. We’ve got some X factor in Kozzie and Trac, some in and under with Oliver and Viney, some outside pace with Hunt and Langdon, and Salem behind the ball with impeccable foot skills. It doesn’t have to be 100% manic anymore. It feels much more composed and controlled. I also think our back line has given us the confidence to maintain our shape around the ball more, even if we lose a few contests in a row. There’s more trust.

That was a deadset free kick

We know what they are planning to do to win, flood back. Now we need to continue to think it through and get the ball into the hands of Salem to pick through the flood.