Spirit of '87

Reminds you of Andy Lovell with darker hair? Hard to tell.

That stat comes up often, in fact I think it used to be much less than half at one stage - if anything it’s improved over time. Pert’s not the first to suggest that they need to get more MCC members signing for joint MFC membership. The problem is that others at MFC before him, including Neale Daniher when he was coach, have made the same comments. The difficulty, in reality, is to get the remaining tight-arsse MCC members to fork out the additional 80-odd dollars for joint membership, when they can easily just sheepishly ignore the option, still go to Melbourne games in the comfort of the MCC and claim to be Melbourne supporters, while saving themselves some $ as a result. I hope Pert has something concrete in mind that will succeed, where other MFC management before him haven’t been able to in the past.

Yes a Sam Weideman goal kicked after the siren, but as a result of a miss-kick out of the goal square by Jeremy Howe.

That will be a good problem - means that Melbourne will have won the first game, against Geelong, and he may have contributed to that win, and will be in a position to deal with that fatigue problem in his second game that you’ve raised

Yes, and in the after game coverage with Darcy and Richardson in the Melbourne rooms, Hogan was standing in the background the whole time laughing and joking with a group of young supporters, which seemed good of him to give them so much of his time post-game, and he seemed happy!

Why the enquiry about Jackson and the CEO position on the Sponshorship thread? Seems to be taking is all off at a bit of a tangeant and derailing the thread topic.

I think you'll find he was having a bit of a shot at most other posters, including the poll, mis-spelling his name as David Schwartz instead of Schwarz.

McLachlan's comment about Carlton being allocated 4 Friday night games: "There's clearly a bit of risk in them if you took the end of 2017 (as a guide on their form next season) but I think Carlton are building a strong team and they're well coached." The inference from that comment would be that in contrast, Melbourne, despite coming off 12 wins and finishing ninth, are not building a strong team and are not well coached, therefore warrant only 1 Friday night game! And giving Carlton 4 games is based on the AFL's somewhat subjective and speculative assessment of Carlton's "strong team", being "well coached" and how they'll go next year.

Are we still starting up new threads about Jack Watts, even now that he's gone?

I assume you mean will Richmond 2018 be the Bulldogs of 2017 when things went pear shaped for them, rather than will they be the Bulldogs of 2016 in your heading, when they won the premiership? But yes, potentially...

To do that would be Misson Impossible.

Calls for an 'apology' from the club? "The club apologises for winning 12 games this season, being two more games than last year, which in turn was three more wins than the year prior, etc. We sincerely apologise for such progression from just two wins for the season only a few years back..."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/susie-obrien/susie-obrien-exdemon-liam-jurrahs-violent-past-undermines-reconciliation-message/news-story/510eb71ae7985df182e2cd83fb7b0f8f

To make out at the highest level? I'm sure with his good looks that the ladies provide him with plenty of opportunities to prove that.

I noticed Bugg making that 'titanic' pose after his goal last week, in front of Jack Watts, as a bit of a send up of Watts's celebration of his own goal the previous week, mimicking the same stunned facial expression.

4th in Round 2 this year?

It was great post-Watts-goal TV footage showing Taylor Adams, having made those unsuccessful Melbourne vs successful Collingwood remarks in the week prior, slumped on hands and knees and puffed out after a futile, distant chase of Watts, looking down at the ground dejectedly.

Has Demonland really sunk to such depths that Cameron Ling gets his own thread on here? The only special comment he ever seems to manage to come up with is "they have all the momentum!" whenever a team kicks a few goals. Thanks for pointing that out to us every time Lingy - great observation, we would never had worked that out for ourselves.

That incident when Watts was targeted by their players seems to have been greatly overrated and overhyped ever since to me, with all the "haha welcome to AFL football Jack" talk. At the time he wasn't actually crunched or hurt or anything, he just got up and took his free kick and played on.

Shouldn't Gawn be down to 11 weeks this week? Thought it was 12 weeks last week - but who's counting...

It seems to be additional to the Melbourne sponsorship, perhaps seeking exposure to more than one state/region: "Mr Lu said finding a strong community spirit was key to the sponsorship and said the airlines’s sponsorship of Melbourne Football Club was evidence of its commitment to top-level sport in Australia."

"Lynden Dunn quickly bringing the ball in from full-back kicks straight to McDonald-Tipungwuti, who converts from 20m out. Terrible error. Dons 88, Pies 92"

But back then Jones wasn't the 28 year old, with more games under his belt and existing captaincy experience that he now is.

The deal's been extended, according to an AHG announcement this morning. No details regarding term or dollars.

If they get a priority pick I will console myself with the very comforting thought that Essendon have been denied the first pick.