The heart beats true

I’d take Pick 2 for him. Partly because a player at that number in the draft is going to be good, potentially great, but also because that means he’s going to the Eagles and Freo have gutted their list for nothing 🤣

Can I completely agree with this statement and still boo him if he starts to play well against us? Don’t take all the fun out of it!

Grundy’s phone will be blowing up today.

We’re not going to get that hard a draw again. Ever. It’s statistically impossible. Our last 14 games included 10 against the other top 5 teams. We can’t play finals for 3 months, when everyone else only has to play them for a month. A lot of things worked against us.

Just for context 12 of those 14 were against teams in the 8, and an incredible 10 of those 14 games were against the other top 5 teams. Brisbane x 3, Sydney, Freo and Collingwood x 2, Geelong x 1. I doubt that’s ever happened, or will ever happen again.

Not to come across all @Demonstone but ‘finished’ means completed, or ended. We didn’t ‘finish’ second. We finished 5th. I’m all about optimism, but facts are important. 👍

Did we not finish 5th?

I’d add to that consistency of having to play quality opponents. I wrote this in the loading thread but we played 12 of our last 14 games against top 8 sides, and 10 of those games were against the other top 5 teams! That will never happen again in an 18 side competition. We got very unlucky with our draw.

I firmly believe we tried to replicate what we did in 2021, which we had the right to do given where it got us. But I think the biggest factor in play for our season in 2022 was that we played 12 out of our last 14 games against teams in the 8, including 10 games against the top 5 sides! Our draw ended up being insanely difficult and we couldn’t maintain it every week. In the same 14 week period Geelong haven’t had to play 2 finals sides back to back at all (and because of the week off still haven’t). They played the Eagles twice, North, Suns, and Saints. Their ONLY games against finalists from round 11 to finals - us, Richmond and The Bulldogs twice (5th, 7th and 8th). I honestly believe we will never get a draw that hard again. We have played 3 months of finals. I doubt anyone could maintain that.

Someone won the New Balance run against a player thing at the Collingwood game I believe (could have been Carlton). I was legitimately shocked.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

They put out a line of merchandise, and built a custom finals website. I think the club has done a pretty good job with marketing. The promotion, merchandise and work done around Naarm was the strongest, most relevant, marketing initiative in the AFL all season (and I’d suggest across all Australian sport in 2022). Our game day experience is unique to us, and I think Robbo does a good job on ground. We have a very diverse supporter base and I think the club is trying to straddle a difficult line, which in general they do well. It can be better, but this year, after 2 years off, was not the time to tinker too much. They’ll sharpen it up in the years to come.

But you see if he told you, would you promise not to tell anyone else?

Quiet supporters. Obviously.

Do you think it’s safe to assume this was because we were too banged up/lacking in fitness to play 4 quarters? It was so consistent (and honestly infuriating to watch) that it had to be a plan. I’m just trying to work out why it became our game style.

I [censored] love this. The flag looked so good again on Friday night. Dylan should be so proud. I’m proud of him and I’ve never met the guy! At the game on Friday 6 women sat behind me who I’d never seen before, and they started talking about Ryan and what I good job he does. They were joking about all turning up to the footy one weekend with blond tips to honour him. We started chatting (because I wanted in on the conversation) and they were so enamoured with our cheer squad. It was really nice to hear them talk so positively. I feel like it’s been a really strange year to be a Melbourne supporter. We seemed to have turned on each other a bit. I love the club obviously, but this was the year I really felt a deep admiration for our supporter base. I think we missed out on a lot last year, and it only became more obvious how much we’d missed as the year went on.

I thought our culture was great in first halves, but at half time we obviously stopped calling our mums and helping old ladies cross the road.

TMac in for Brown, JVR in for Melksham, Petty at CHF. I’d say Smith, Turner or Tomlinson to replace Petty. Yes it makes our defence weaker, but we aren’t regularly giving up 100 points. The problem is we aren’t scoring enough from our clearance wins. This forward line looks a lot more difficult to hold than Brown and Melksham. Petty, JVR, Fritsch and Koz as the pillars of our forward line for the next decade makes me excited.

Where’s Dan Andrews when you need him? Shut the borders! Nobody in, and definitely nobody out.

If Koz goes we will be even more predictable and easy to defend. He makes us at least a 2 goal a game better side, which currently is a quarter of our score, and he wins us a couple of games a year. I’d be heartbroken if he left.

I think this is a relatively fair analysis of the players. It’s interesting to note that the vast majority of your disappointing season players are either at the end, or the beginning, of their careers. I think it’s fair to say most of our young guys played well above expectations last year, and couldn’t go again this year.

His mums a Carlton supporter, so she’ll force him to go there.

I reckon Sydney have the work ethic and best balance of skill and determination, and Geelong have Jeremy Cameron looking like the best player in the comp. Long way to go yet.

The reality is that all the teams left bar one (who ironically rolled us when it counted) had the wood over us convincingly throughout the season. In that context it’s less of a wasted season, because it’s tells us we weren’t good enough, and more of a sign we have a lot to work on. We essentially finished fifth because we aren’t good enough to be top 4. I think that’s more meaningful for the football department than us feeling like we just had off nights when it mattered. It will force us to try and get better, and not just put our head in the sand.

The commentary openly barracking for Collingwood is why neutral supporters hate Channel 7. Just call the game!