Hampton 22

Strong case for a send-off rule. The incident unsettled the team for quite some time. It certainly unsettled me. We’ll never know, but the Dees could well have won had it not happened. And I reckon Mason Cox had just one aim at the first bounce and it was not the footy. Plus there was the subsequent accidental/on purpose taking out Petracca’s legs.

Related, spare a thought for Luke Dunstan who has also suffered an ACL injury. Played his heart out every week for Casey, amassing huge possession numbers. At most other clubs he’d be an automatic inclusion in the firsts. This is not how he would have seen his career playing out. We wish him all the best too for a speedy recovery, with gratitude for his important support role.

So sad. All the very best to a fine man.

The fun of this thread aside, does history show that a, say, number 4 pick is really better than a number 6? I would have thought that there’s so much luck and talent development involved that it wouldn’t make much difference.

The more teams, the lower the chance of a Melbourne premiership. In ‘21 we had to beat 17 rivals. In ‘64, just 11.

Great win, made even better with the memory of North beating us time after time for years.

Couldn’t watch the game. How did Petty go, and who makes way next week for BBB?

After the St Kilda game in the heat, the trainers had the players running multiple sprints. The push for endurance seems to be paying off. Hopefully they’ll keep running out games well.

How strange. Can someone please tell me why 2 Victorian clubs are playing each other in Adelaide? Are we going to see Freo playing West Coast at the Junction Oval next?

Great piece of play in the forward line. JvR being monstered by his opponent. BBB spots this, runs in to assist. Breaks the tag, leaps back out and marks. Goals.

One of our better first sixths.

On ball role.

I’ve just ridden in from Parkdale. Not impressed - a lovely ride though!

1 Undefeated 2 All 3 Season

Such a strong performance to come back from a 2 goal deficit in the first quarter, hold the opposition and battle out the win. A fine effort particularly in the final quarter to preserve the lead.

Merge ‘em with North and send them to Hobart.

Playing the Dees took it out of them.

Forecast crowd 61k and it feels fairly quiet

The most positive assessment I can come up with is that we were beaten by a team who will play in the GF, assisted by some generous umpiring. Dees were a metre off all night and if we can clean that up, there’s plenty of hope.

Well done to MFC for a great public event. Players looked most impressive. TMac looking v good training with the seconds. Moving really well.

Bowey factor!

Pretty poor coverage with replays often taking precedence over live action, overlaid by commentary box prattle.

Kudos to ANB in the pocket for extracting the ball from somewhere in the Earth’s core to feed out a handball that led to a goal at a vital time.

Outplayed, insufficient first options, turnovers. Remarkable that we’re so close on the scoreboard.

Weideman did ok