Ron, you hit the nail with this word: "patronising".

That's exactly what it was and why it was offensive.

There is no excuse for Gerard. No team, or player, ever deserves to be patronised.

 

Also, the correct answer was: "on current form, it is possible — but there's a long way to go".

 

I don't think we will make the 8, but I saw it and the overreaction and laughing at the suggestion [censored] me off. Maybe a sign of the times, I would've laughed last year too. 

I don't know if gimmicky things work or not in coaching and inspiring, but I'd be showing it at a team meeting to show the players what people still think of us. 

I'm guessing none of this team would take it too kindly. 

I think we can win 10-13 games if we win all the games we should win, which we won't, but we might snag a few we don't expect to win as well. 

can we make finals? yes. will we make finals? i don't think so, i think we'll be in the mix but inexperience will cost us, but next year, look out. 

38 minutes ago, KrazyJay said:

I guess this has caught on a bit eh?

If I see it on a banner one day I will die a happy & proud father 

 

How would one get into the business of d..k farming? I mean with all these bagfuls being thrown around surely there's some money to be made?

On a serious note though, mods, what's the chances of a thread titled 'The Eat a Bag of D..ks Thread'? I mean Howey's happily munching away, now Whateley has his hands full, and I'm sure Cotchin or Dusty will be lucky enough to win a freebie bag this weekend. It's not PC obviously but it's all in good fun. Do-able? I'd even give KJ the honour of starting the thread.

3 minutes ago, FireInTheBelly said:

How would one get into the business of d..k farming? I mean with all these bagfuls being thrown around surely there's some money to be made?

On a serious note though, mods, what's the chances of a thread titled 'The Eat a Bag of D..ks Thread'? I mean Howey's happily munching away, now Whateley has his hands full, and I'm sure Cotchin or Dusty will be lucky enough to win a freebie bag this weekend. It's not PC obviously but it's all in good fun. Do-able? I'd even give KJ the honour of starting the thread.

We could an 'Eat A Bag of the Week' award each week

I'm always amused that people get so shirty over things like this. I saw it, and I agree with him. FFS, We won against GWS by 2 points when they missed every shot in the second half pretty much and were missing their best forwards, we lost to Essendon... We lost. To. Essendon.

We then did well against the Roos and with a bit more class and poise we win, then we beat Collingwood who aren't exactly doing well. So after beating a club like the filth why would we suddenly be finals bound?

Perspective, we have proven nothing and with our draw and teams we are yet to play. I believe Whateley laughed more at the question being asked at round four than the actual chance of Melbourne making the eight.

7 hours ago, Red and Bluebeard said:

Or just didn't catch on very quickly.  Stuff 'em. When we are in the 8 after round 23, then we can revisit this thread and laugh until OD is young again 

Are you suggesting we die laughing R&B?

Generally speaking, we waste far too much time worrying what random journos/ex-players/the public/other supporter websites think.

As supporters that watch every game our knowledge of our team is in many instances better than those paid to comment on it.

It's wasted energy shooting the messenger all the time. We know where we are at and that's all that matters.

I think we'll win around 10 games. Depends on injuries/confidence. That probably won't be enough unfortunately.

8 minutes ago, dee-tox said:

Generally speaking, we waste far too much time worrying what random journos/ex-players/the public/other supporter websites think.

As supporters that watch every game our knowledge of our team is in many instances better than those paid to comment on it.

It's wasted energy shooting the messenger all the time. We know where we are at and that's all that matters.

I think we'll win around 10 games. Depends on injuries/confidence. That probably won't be enough unfortunately.

Sanity prevails 

38 minutes ago, Rusty Nails said:

Are you suggesting we die laughing R&B?

There are worse ways to go ... .

'Making the eight' is really meaningless. It's about making the final four.

I suggest everybody has a go at the Bailey Ladder predictor. Even when i'm being very optimistic we finish about 9th. I had the Dees on 13-14 wins, and as I said, that was optimistic. There are a lot of teams who will fight for the final eight this year with the improvement of GCS and GWS. I think it is going to take about 15 wins to be absolutely certain to make it. So my answer is, in all probability we won't make it. 

4 minutes ago, btdemon said:

I suggest everybody has a go at the Bailey Ladder predictor. Even when i'm being very optimistic we finish about 9th. I had the Dees on 13-14 wins, and as I said, that was optimistic. There are a lot of teams who will fight for the final eight this year with the improvement of GCS and GWS. I think it is going to take about 15 wins to be absolutely certain to make it. So my answer is, in all probability we won't make it. 

Since the introduction of the final 8, has a team ever missed the 8 with 12 wins or more? From memory they haven't. So if you have us with 13 or 14 wins we should be fighting for 5th/6th position.

21 minutes ago, btdemon said:

I suggest everybody has a go at the Bailey Ladder predictor. Even when i'm being very optimistic we finish about 9th. I had the Dees on 13-14 wins, and as I said, that was optimistic. There are a lot of teams who will fight for the final eight this year with the improvement of GCS and GWS. I think it is going to take about 15 wins to be absolutely certain to make it. So my answer is, in all probability we won't make it. 

I did it and it came down to the Demons and Cats game in round 23 being for a spot in the 8. 

Loser goes home.. How sweet it would be if it turned out that way and we eliminated them on their turf in the final round while making the finals for the first time in 10 years. 

23 minutes ago, bush demon said:

'Making the eight' is really meaningless. It's about making the final four.

For a club like ours that has spent a decade in the wilderness, making the eight would be anything but meaningless. 

6 minutes ago, AngryAtCasey said:

Since the introduction of the final 8, has a team ever missed the 8 with 12 wins or more? From memory they haven't. So if you have us with 13 or 14 wins we should be fighting for 5th/6th position.

Just did my own research. On 4 occasions a team has had 12 wins and missed the 8.

Richmond in 98, Hawthorn in 03, St Kilda in 12 & Port last year. Having said that teams have also made the 8 with as few as 10 wins.

I reckon 12 will get us there. I think we're capable of winning up to 15 however think the actual number will be a lot closer to 9 and we'll miss them this year.

Whately is a class act. He laughed at the prospect of Melbourne making finals after a decade of nothingness. Hardly controversial.

20 minutes ago, AngryAtCasey said:

Just did my own research. On 4 occasions a team has had 12 wins and missed the 8.

Richmond in 98, Hawthorn in 03, St Kilda in 12 & Port last year. Having said that teams have also made the 8 with as few as 10 wins.

I reckon 12 will get us there. I think we're capable of winning up to 15 however think the actual number will be a lot closer to 9 and we'll miss them this year.

I had the Dees winnning 9 of  first 12 including Essendon so 8 in the first half and I think 4 of the second half including ,Saints,Gold Coast,Port  and Carlton. So 12 is very possible IMO>

At the start of the year I thought no based purely on what I perceived was a tough draw.  

On current form 

Port x 2

Pies x 2

Freo

don't look unbeatable.

i still don't think we will but I think we'll go close.

Harden up people who actually cares if Whatley sniggered at the thought of The Dees playing finals. Until we consistently produce our A game week in week out this won't change.... Keep a lid on it, under the radar it's the way to fly..... Geelong 2007 is the perfect example..... I don't sit on fences, I personally think we will make the 8 comfortably in 2016

53 minutes ago, btdemon said:

I suggest everybody has a go at the Bailey Ladder predictor. Even when i'm being very optimistic we finish about 9th. I had the Dees on 13-14 wins, and as I said, that was optimistic. There are a lot of teams who will fight for the final eight this year with the improvement of GCS and GWS. I think it is going to take about 15 wins to be absolutely certain to make it. So my answer is, in all probability we won't make it. 

Just out of curiosity (am a hopeless optimist with the predictor) how many wins do you have us getting for 9th? 

10 hours ago, Demon Disciple said:

We were lucky to beat GWS though Ron. It was their inaccuracy during the 3rd that cost them the game.

And the Kangaroos were bloody lucky to beat us. Yet they're top 4 bound and no one questions that.

The Roos kicked 6 goals from free kicks, surrendered a 42 point lead on their home ground (a ground we'd never played on), and they narrowly missed losing the game on the siren by the size of Boomer Harvey's underpants.

We did in fact beat GWS. And the scoreboard following the game and the table reflect this.

Adopting a substance over form methodology however, I'm prepared to concede 4 points to GWS, if we get 4 points credit for the game against the Roos.

 

I found the "GWS can win the flag this year" topic based on them thumping a terribly out of form port at the weekend an overreaction....Steady on Gerard,  steady on slobbo ...its only round 4. GWS have never even played finals footy, let alone won a high stakes game at the G. 

Whilst it was patronising how they went about laughing off our top 8 chances were need to take it one week at a time and this group will be better off hitting some form and gaining momentum whilst flying under the radar 

 

 

I tipped us to go 9-0, I was being somewhat optimistic but we should be 4-0 right now.

If we can win the next two games and go 4-2 then finals are very much an option, however we simply cannot afford to drop many close games as this will be the most even season in a very long time.

10 hours ago, Ron Burgundy said:

These jokers tonight posed the question: "Can Melbourne make the 8 - real or overreaction?"

Gerard Whately laughed his head off at the mere suggestion - "steady on! Just steady on!". I normally rate the guy but this really annoyed me. His reaction is plainly based on historical bias rather than a proper assessment of where this club is at and its performances thus far this season.

This club has been ahead in every final quarter it has played this year.

And in respect of the two games it has lost:

- we absolutely deserved to win the game against the Roos, but umpiring, inexperience and bad luck cruelled the end result, and we lost by less than a kick after being 42 points down - both bozos rate the Roos highly, which has to be a relevant consideration as to our performance in that game; and

- we did not deserve to beat Essendon, but we should have beaten them despite being pathetic for the entire game and still nearly jagging it.

In short, we've not been that far off winning 4 from 4 - that means top of the table. Early days, but yes - top of the table.

So why the comedic reaction to the mere suggestion that we COULD POSSIBLY make the 8 based on our performances thus far this season?

We've shown a lot more than many better fancied teams to date.

Really hope we pump Richmond and the Saints in the next fortnight. Win these games and it simply can't be such a stupid suggestion that we might be in the mix for the 8.

C'mon Demons - it's time to prove these journos with their cliched and highly patronising opinions about the club wrong.

Ron, you have answered many questions that Whately would've considered.  Those being;

- We lost to North.  It's a loss, we had the opportunity to win and we didn't.  Blame the umpires, sure, but the thing you can't take away was the fact we were inexperienced.  It's this inexperience that will likely still see us lose a couple of these types of games this year.  Teams striving for finals shouldn't lose those games, they can't afford to.

- The fact that we have been ahead in the last quarter in each game means squat when determining if we are a finals side or not.  What it shows me is that we have improved significantly over the past 3 years, and I look forward to converting some of those final quarter leads in to wins.

- The fact we lost to Essendon is an absolute disgrace.  Teams that want to play finals don't deserve to be there is they can't beat sides like that.

 

Don't get me wrong, I would love to see us make the finals this year.  But I think everything has to go right for us, and a fair few things go wrong for clubs around us, for it to happen.  Generally if everything goes right for a finals bound team, they will be in the premiership hunt.  We are needing everything to go right just to make 8th.

 

I, like Whately, am not getting too carried away about our finals prospects this year.  But I'm still happy for us to fly under the radar for as long as possible - we all know too well what happens when we are pumped up too much by external sources.