Big Col

We've also had 5 changes of Prime Minister! Ipads didn't exist. ...and like you I had no children. This is wild. i'll be a happy man all week.

Haven’t read the other comments but this made me laugh.

That would be the worst result by far for us. Our advantage over both teams is our percentage which would then become irrelevant. I'm hoping for a North win. Making the finals is in our hands, making the top 4 is still possible, but we need games to go right. And FMD, we have to make sure that if/when we do make the finals for the first time in 5 Prime Minsters that we can see them play at the MCG rather than an interstate game. We must be 5 or 6 to ensure that.

Just discovered the podcasts and I’m blown away Demonland! Great questions and responses. Good journalism IMHO When Roosie said his biggest legacy is seeing kids turn up with Mel FC tops at QB I went to tears! My 6 yo girl wears her Demon stuff to school, my 11yo boy hats footy. BTW Did anyone else notice that Roosie referred to Melbourne as “us” on multiple occasions?

Maybe a bit off field but Oliver was looking tired (but still playing well). He's had to carry our midfield as a 19yo 2nd year player while we've been missing Viney, jones and Tyson. if Jones comes back this week is it time to give Clarry a rest?

I started tearing up watching that. i understand it's a very different experience for players vs supporters and I don't really begrudge players changing clubs ( even TS ) but you gotta love Jones. He'll be loved by the club forever. im a regular Sportsbet punter but I've never bet on MGC for the premiership. Just grabbed a sneaky $20 @ $16 in light of Jones interview. I can feel something happening...

Remarkable season so far. After the Hawthorn loss i was despondent, thinking our season was shot, but a win tomorrow and we'll be 6th. After Rd 9, there'll be two games between 15th and the top 8 and the same between 9th and 1st. Win a few games on the trot and you're right in it. Lose a few and you slip right back. I can still imagine Sydney winning the premiership - after being 0-6. But no team, other than maybe Brisbane, is an easy beat. At the same time, I'm confident that Melbourne can beat ANY team -and lose to any team. This is actually a rare year when the premiership is wide open. Dare to dream?

I warned Gill that the Demonlanders would be a hard nut to crack ... not like that lot over at 'Ology.

Wow! A lot of hate towards ideas trying to fix our scheduling system - and misdirected IMHO at Gil. Allow me to talk people through this: Why is there a proposal to change the draw? What are the current problems? 1/ 18 teams don't fit into 22 rounds, so there's an inherent fairness problem surrounding who plays who twice. Despite the weighting that occurs to determine the next year's fixture, certain clubs always play each other twice (interstate clubs, ess v coll etc) purely for financial reasons 2/ Towards the end of a season, large numbers of supporters of those clubs that can't make the finals stop attending and watching their teams. As melbourne supporters you'd well know how it feels in August when all hope is shot (actually we usually feel that in May LOL) So Gil proposed this back in 2015: 1/ Every team plays each other once in the first 17 rounds. Over as two year period, each team would play once at home and once away 2/ After 17 rounds, the AFL splits into 3 groups. 1-6 plays for top 6 positions, 7-12 for the last two spots in the 8 and 13-18 for draft picks (unspecified) What's good about this? 1/ It's a fairer draw 2/ It makes the late season far more interesting, especially for teams in the 7-12 space. 3/ It has the added benefit of placing the bye round at the end of Rd17 (the extra bye that the PA want) rather than the week before the Finals. Given that the last week will almost certainly be important, the incentive to rest players (like Freo and Nth did in 2015) is diminished. 4/ Scheduling for prime time spots (ie Friday night) can be more accurately presented in the last 65 rounds as top clubs all play eachother 5/ Teams can be clearly rewarded for their performance in H&A, not only with guaranteed finals spots or chances for a spot, but with top 3 of each group of 6 playing 3 home games (bottom 3 play only 2). But the clubs (not Gill) didn't like the 17-5 model. Why? 1/ Interstate clubs want to play each other twice (ie money reasons, and travel) as do Vic clubs like Coll, Ess and Car 2/ Clubs wanted a guaranteed 11 home games (under the 17-5 model, some clubs would play 12 home games, some 11 and some 10) - ie money 3/ No-one could agree on what the proper incentive for the bottom 6 should be (IMHO - a legit concern) And so the clubs (not Gil) suggested working on an 18-4 model: This is much harder. Trying to fit 4 rounds into 3 groups of 6 will be hard to be both fair and practical, although you can make each team have 2 home and two away games. The wildcard idea that has been floated is designed to provide some incentive for the teams finishing in the bottom 6 (rather than provide (unspecified) draft concessions) Issues With All These Models: 1/ What to do with the bottom 6? You could offer the team that won the bottom 6 comp, pick no1, but then give the bottom team 2, 2nd bottom 3 and so on. The 13th based team with pick no1 and a string of late season wins would enter the next season busting with hope. OR you could give them a 'wildcard' entry (as proposed in the post-Gil model). A wildcard entry vs team 7 at team 7's home, would not win very often. 2/ Do you re-start the ladder or start again ie is the final 4-5 rounds considered a new competition or do wins and percentage carry on? (I personally favour re-starting the table, and using original ladder position or maybe total wins instead of percentage to split teams) I'm a supporter, generally of Gil's proposal. I'm looking for some reason to remain interested once finals places are shot. Unfortunately money looks like it will kill Gil's proposal - not the other way round.

Definitely a legend . Only player from our club to win two Brownlows. War veteran. Amazing tale.

I think if we were able to play two games back to back in Darwin this would provide us with a big football advantage (at least for the second game) . I think i'd also be really tempted to head up to Darwin for a week's holiday then - bookended by Melbourne games. Good for the NT Tourism as well as for the MFC.

Jeremy Howe is probably the best #38 since Kenny Melville,