Roger Mellie

Round 11 - Graveyard shift at Marvel v North. To be expected as it's a nothing game in terms of ratings. At least the there's no schlepping to Tassie again. Round 12 - Game of the round - Melb v Freo! Graveyard shift again! Codswallop. AFL can GAGF

Yep, he's not allowed to fly until tomorrow

At the start of the season, the MCC announced that certain games would be ticketed and require pre-booking. They then listed the games. All the games requiring ticketing were the larger games and is a covid thing eg. our first two games. The game v GWS wasn't one of them so I'm not sure why they're taking bookings. Are they just offering bookings for those that want them or has something changed?

6 Petracca 5 Dogga 4 Bowey 3 Oliver 2 Nibbler 1 May Having been a huge critic of Neal Bullen for way too long, I'm happy to help myself to a big slice of humble pie. This lad is a player - runs all day, is trusted to run in the middle, sharp disposal, vision, pressure and an exponent of the underground handball to boot. I salute you!

I didn't get an email and have clocked up 20+ years 🤔

In: Lever Out: Salem TMAC back to the forward line. Brayshaw and/or Jordon in Salem's role. I don't want to see TMac v Weightman again in a hurry

In this situation I would defend any footy journo going around ... even Barrett (I feel dirty saying that) but I'm struggling with Morris. He is the epitome of the self-serving gutter journo. Morris poked the bear and the bear not only snapped but utterly lost it. Right message, totally inappropriate and unhinged delivery by Bevvo. The amusing part was Bevvo's claim that Morris the weasel's motivation was that he barracked for Melbourne. He should know Melbourne will have nothing to do with Morris even if he does unfortunately support the Dees.

I think we need a back-up ruck or two. I assume the rest of the back-up players will come from Casey, if there are no more outsider additions?

I can just see Gil's sales pitch to the clubs now before the vote given he is so against it: - each club will be stripped of funding for x years, any Tassie player can break their contract and go home, each club will give two quality players selected and the Tassie team would get all the prime draft picks for the next 3 years. I'm sure all the clubs will jump on board.

Game thoughts -- smashed in the middle - a waft of arrogance amongst some players - relieved we fought our way back to within a kick - we lack back line depth - a bit rusty and it looked like conditions were a little slippery - a good way to zap Wiedeman's confidence is to play him like that

After the game he was back in his warm-up gear and limping markedly

I thought it was a bit rich given Max did exactly the same thing earlier

To be fair, Turner was injured and went off. I thought Smith did his job, but the rest. meh

Yes it was mentioned in Scoop Juniors last training post

As I remember it, we tried about 8 players unsuccessfully in the wing role prior to 2021 - including Harmes and Brayshaw! We then went after Smith, who agreed (in principle) to come to Melbourne, then reneged and went to Geelong on a shorter contract (suck a fat one Isaac!). Goodwin then asked if Brayshaw wanted play as an inside mid, or play in finals. Brayshaw then went all 'team first' and agreed, embracing the new role. The rest is magnificent history.

Which is excruciating to hear fifteen times a game!

Seriously? Nothing like locking out the community from their local rag!

Great jumper but I found the numbers hard to see clearly. That minor issue might need a little work

I've been looking at the coaches votes each week and have found them puzzling. I couldn't have Harris as BOG, but she did play well. At least two of her shots at goal were from frees. I thought Hanks was BOG by a clear margin then Pearce etc. McNamara was terrific last week in spite of her early clangers (much like Lampard's this week) but didn't feature too highly in the votes. In the AFLCA votes, I'm usually agreeing and rarely surprised, but not so with the AFLW.

Joel Smith has all the skills, but there's something that's just NQR about him. I put it down to a lack of game sense. For eg. In one of the finals (v either Geelong or Brisbane), Rivers is streaming through the centre and about to be tackled. Smith is running beside him, ready to receive the handpass and is Rivers' only option of moving the ball forward without the risk of turning it over. As Rivers releases the handpass and is looking toward him, Smith, inexplicably changes his mind and turns away and veers off, I assume to mind his opponent (as Melb are streaming into attack). In my mind he had committed to receiving the handball and it was the only logical play, yet he bizarrely decides to chase his opponent or whatever he was doing. The result was, the handball went to where Smith was supposed to receive it and there was a turnover. These instances will happen less and less the more games he plays, but when he's not getting games at Casey, he's not getting that experience. Rivers is set in stone IMO although I think his position will change over time.

OK, so maybe I'm being a little alarmist. Just my possibly skewed interpretation of Pert saying he'd seen the plans as opposed to something like - we've been working on the plans or even 'our' plans. I'd have to agree with @Gouga with the beggars can't be choosers theory. I just hope it suits/fits our needs for the first time in decades. Have we established that it's in Car Park F yet?

The Doggies are a pretty good side so I think our game has gone up a level. Our composure, skills and ability to hit a target was the best I've seen from them yet. Zanker, Hanks, Birch, Lampard, Gay and Pearce got better as the game continued. I love the improvement from Heath, Bannon and Tarrant. Caris looks like she belongs at this level as do the other newbies. Great win!

I'm also surprised McNamara isn't in the team. I thought she'd be a walk up start too. Is this televised?

McDee works for me!

OMG, so we had zero input into the design/function of the place even though we will be the permanent occupants. Brilliant!