Diamond_Jim

nil desperandum OD. I'm the opposite.. I have started to demand a premiership in the next ten years and to see this decent list squandered is #%^&*ing me off. Is it too much to expect a string of decent years as experienced by Hawks, Geelong, Collingwood and even North to mention but a few... there's something about failure at this club which is becoming part of its DNA. Hell even Brisbane is rising from its ashes and they have three fantastic premierships this century. As another poster said the worst thing is that we are becoming "irrelevant."

you are correct .. it seems that the use of pig skin bladders as the internal part of the original rugby ball pre-dated AFL. 1860’s and 1870's - Rugby Ball and First Innovations Richard Linton and William Gilbert owned shops near Rugby School in England. By the 1850’s they were the two main suppliers of balls for the school. These early balls were made using inflated pigs' bladders inside a leather ball, and the variation in the size of the bladders meant the balls were different sizes.2 Richard Linton introduced ‘indian rubber’ inner tubes into his balls in the 1860's, and a hand pump to blow up the balls. Linton also claimed to have invented the distinctive oval shape of the ball. Unfortunately for Linton, he did not patent any of these inventions and they were widely copied. 3 William Gilbert’s business also grew. By 1877 Gilberts were producing 2,600 balls per year and were increasing the number they exported overseas to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.4 Rubber bladders meant that the 1870’s and 1880's saw standardization in the size of the ball. In 1872 the English Football Association revised its rules, and for the first time included measurements for the ball in their rules5 In Melbourne, for the first time, Australian Rules Football rules specified the size and shape of the ball: http://boylesfootballphotos.net.au/article39-The-Same-Game-A-Different-Ball

yeah... thought the same myself

More than enough for a Tasmanian team then if correct. The old chesnut that they need two teams in a local market to satisfy demand and keep up press coverage etc is so old hat. As you say.. it's a television game. The Gold Coast is the graveyard of sporting clubs as we all know anyway. Looks like GWS won't win the big one so watch out for the priority pick call from them in not too many years.......Only got 12k at the Showgrounds for what was a top of the table clash against Brisbane.. after ten years they aren't showing much growth. Strangely enough one of GWS' biggest home crowds ever was against MFC at Manuka in Round 20 2017... (I suspect that was us in our hunt for a final.)

send them to Tasmania... with the equivalent AFL support the team would fly with regular crowds of around 15k if not more

double that ?? very strange Is this what they call the peddling of soft power... have noticed a subtle and not so subtle attempt by occasional posters to turn this excellent forum into a fangirl/boy site. The analysis and frank criticism is what makes this site so readable. Well done Demonland

they won't grant it because of the view of the other teams... they went through this multiple times over the last few years and the AFL's position on where any priority pick is located is now clear and its not at number 1 or 2.

According to our "never wrong" contracts thread.. signed until end of 2021

The second pick if given will come at the end of round 1... the other teams have made it clear they won't allow the multiple dips at the pointy end

Has definitely been one of the few bright lights this year. Hard to think of other players from 2018 who are playing as well let alone better this year than last... perhaps Salem and Frost

Is that like rolling thunder or more crackers on a wet night

11 games in three years with one goal at AFL level. If we had no other players predisposed to injury then ... yes.... but we have four.. is he the best of the four?

In 2017 he was very reliable if I recall as in previous years. He just got the yips one year in advance of the rest of the team. I am still trying to work out how both Tom Mac and Weid missed everything from around 25-30 metres out.. and of course Petracca

He's kicked 9 goals 6 behinds in his 11 games of senior football. In his three matches for Melbourne he has kicked three goals. Gawn is way more mobile and that is why he may make the better forward. Ruckwork is way over rated. It's all about halving the contest. If having a good ruck were all that important we would be top 4 and dominate clearances which we don't.

I'd give Tim S the rest of the season and see if he can stand the heat. If not.. goodbye Joel Smith.. bye AVB... bye (medical retirement) KK... one more year.... he's still young and I think there's something there but be ready to delist/medically retire mid way through next season. All are very tough decisions but they need to be made.

VDB, the two Smiths, KK... all injury prone players. Taking each player alone the list can carry them but can you support a list where almost 10% of your players begin well behind par from a fitness viewpoint.

Must say I'm surprised a little by those who think Preuss is a forward. Sure a goal or two every couple of games but no more than a 17-20 goal a year man. Gawn is the key... Preuss to ruck 70/30 and Gawn to play forward 70/30%. Gawn is a potential 4 goal a game player.

the reality is that this season was a chance to move past Carlton membership wise. Today was a second albeit lesser chance to keep the gulf to a manageable level. We blew it just like we have blown this season. Gutsy wins against cellar dwellers don't bring in new members. There are pivotal times in the life of a football club and make no mistake this year was one of them for the MFC.

you may be interested to know that judging by the number of supporters around the quarter time and half time huddles they probably had the larger supporter numbers there as well.. (nowhere near the mismatch of the Collingwood game though). On the video feed could not agree more... two unmanned stationary cameras.. two feeds.. watcher clicks between them... cost not much.. or give it to some film students or the like to run.

if you'd seen his game at Casey you would wonder when but certainly not now

Juice also had to put up with learning his craft at Sandringham where Sautner was the dominant forward. On the other hand those stats are a little misleading given the high scores that were quite often kicked in those days plus the open forward line. My real concern is that four years in the Weid hasn't had one day out bar a half at Box Hill.

so which side is more likely to get the membership bump out of today? At the end of the day that was the only thing riding on this game.

not so much this year.. the opposition mids have worked him out. TBH I don't rate the ruck role that much. It's all about halving the contest

Kreuzer was very influential with his round the ground play in the first half. Preuss held his own in the ruck and I see stats wise slightly outdid Kreuzer with disposals. Preuss' role as I have argued for yonks is to free up Max to play around the ground. Max' hit outs are not much better than Preuss' so it's the midfield that needs to lift. With Mc Donald out next week if not longer there's lots of time to experiment not to mention for Weideman to justify his re signing.

was that a win that felt like a loss