Well off to work again ? 

 

Then it's the annual Easter Saturday Billy cart races down the Corowa main Street, followed by the annual pub crawl home, which due to a scheduling conflict with the AFL is going to have to be quicker than normal this year as we are an early start.

 

As for the game God only knows, there doesn't seem to be any certainties this year, our best side has them covered, even this side playing their best has them covered but impossible to say.

 

Prediction, draw 

Dees by 65. 

Beating a dogs side that doesn't take them seriously is one thing. 

Beating the dees on the mcg when we are hungry and desperate to prove we are a one man team is something else entirely

i expect us to be far to clean, intense and well drilled over four quarters and to convert much better from a similar amoung of shots on goal. 

Dom Tyson to bounce back and be BOG with 30 plus touches and a couple of goals

Feeling similar to pre-Carlscum game. 

Never seen a Dees victory over Freo live. 

Confident yet uncertain. 

Its going to be a long 6 hours. 

Shouldnt be an enormous crowd so going to drive and park at the G. How civilised. 

Cmon boys. 

It'll be a tussle in the first half, dees to break it open in the 3rd q and run away 6 goal winners. 

Who am I kidding, pure speculation, who bloody knows what's gonna happen?! 

Is it unrealistic of my to look forward to the day when I can witness Melbourne playing the perfect game, overrunning the opposition from the start and finishing with a big victory of 10 goals plus?

I really would like to see a ripping start where we pile on the goals early and not what we've seen in the three games so far this season.

Round 1 - Saints lead by 24 points after Riewoldt goals at about 5 minutes into the second quarter.

Round 2 - we dominate the first quarter and a half against Carlton but fail to translate that dominance on the scoreboard allowing the Blues to reel us in and lead at one stage of the third quarter by 9 points.

Round 3 - a poor start concedes the first three goals to the Cats and we trail by 16 points at the first break. We catch up and overtake them with a 31 point turnaround kicking 10.13 to seven straight by the 30 minute mark of the third quarter, then relax to give them back the momentum with 2 goals in the final minute of the term and capitulate in the last. We lose what should have been an unlosable game if only we were better in front of goals. The loss of Max didn't help.

Time for a ripping start and time to blow an opponent out of the water in front of a hostile crowd.

Not confident with this game, I think it's going to be a bit of a slog. Watts will take home the 3 votes. 

I think we will have truly arrived when we start beating good sides in hard fought battles in tight games. For the last year or so we have mostly won or lost too easily. Close score games last season were against deplorable sides like Essendon, Carlton and GC where we seem to do everything we can to lose. 

We were much better against Carlton this year but against Geelong we were terrific for a long time but still rolled over too easily when the game was there to be won. How long has it been since we beat a switched on side in a hard fought game? 

The Freo game has a lot of danger signs for us. If we do everything right we should win comfortably, but.....

For once I just want to go to the footy and smash someone, I feel like a relaxing non stressful day, is it too much to ask for a 100 point win I don't feel like being stressed at 3 quarter time wondering if we are going to win or not, unfortunately I can't see it happening I can dream though 

All about percentage today 

put the purple rabble away early Dees

17 minutes ago, DubDee said:

All about percentage today

Yeah, what could possibly go wrong?

18 minutes ago, america de cali said:

I think we will have truly arrived when we start beating good sides in hard fought battles in tight games. For the last year or so we have mostly won or lost too easily. Close score games last season were against deplorable sides like Essendon, Carlton and GC where we seem to do everything we can to lose. 

We were much better against Carlton this year but against Geelong we were terrific for a long time but still rolled over too easily when the game was there to be won. How long has it been since we beat a switched on side in a hard fought game? 

The Freo games has a lot of danger signs for us. If we do everything right we should win comfortably, but.....

A de C, the 4th quarter capitulation was indeed disappointing.  One thing I think we all need to bear in mind though is that our list is still very young and on Saturday we were coming off a six day turnaround.  The Cats were too, but it was notable that it was the older guys with the many pre-seasons (Jones, Selwood, Dangerfield and Vince, notwithstanding the toe) who stood up in the last quarter.  

Today is a good litmus test though - coming off a defeat, a cool and still day, MCG deck, home crowd - we really need to bury Freo unequivocally.  I hope the forward line functions - I worry about the Watts chop-out periods as Weideman can't orchestrate things down there in Hogan's absence.   

Well I'm ready for anything. Just inhaled double bacon and eggs over pancakes and washed it down with a bucket size cappuchino. I'll have elevenses at Scumbury before joining the plebs on pubic transport.

Feeling confident today.

I think the last quarter fadeout against Geelong was mainly mental in that we weren't rewarded for effort in quarters 2 and 3.  When you're not getting those rewards for effort a group can drop away.  They may have been getting tired, but that was compounded by not hitting the scoreboard. 

Feel much more at ease without M Pavlich in their side!!! 

4 minutes ago, ProDee said:

I think the last quarter fadeout against Geelong was mainly mental in that we weren't rewarded for effort in quarters 2 and 3.  When you're not getting those rewards for effort a group can drop away.  They may have been getting tired, but that was compounded by not hitting the scoreboard. 

Yep - hit the scoreboard and put the cats 5 or 6 goals down like they should've been and its a very different story regarding fatigue. 

We need big games from our mids today to win the ball and continually push it into our forward line for the likes of Kent , Jeffy and Petracca. To paraphrase Captain Blood - if you've got it , the other side aint.

Have to jump them early, If Freo gets the early break we are in big big trouble. IE Freo can not play catch up footy but are very hard to run down once in front. 

2 minutes ago, Mr Steve said:

Have to jump them early, If Freo gets the early break we are in big big trouble. IE Freo can not play catch up footy but are very hard to run down once in front. 

We did it once Steve - big time. I'll never forget that game.

Big week for both us and the saints vs the collywobbles. If either of us are real in 2017 - both are must win games. 

Believe we will run over freeo and given the dogs struggled last night hope that last week was more a reflection the dogs aren't as good as people think rather than a reflection that freeo are better than believed to be.

go the d's!

1 hour ago, america de cali said:

I think we will have truly arrived when we start beating good sides in hard fought battles in tight games. For the last year or so we have mostly won or lost too easily. Close score games last season were against deplorable sides like Essendon, Carlton and GC where we seem to do everything we can to lose. 

We were much better against Carlton this year but against Geelong we were terrific for a long time but still rolled over too easily when the game was there to be won. How long has it been since we beat a switched on side in a hard fought game? 

The Freo game has a lot of danger signs for us. If we do everything right we should win comfortably, but.....

Try Hawthorn round 20 last year. They were firing up til then and we were all over them. Allegedly it was a major factor in Clarkson cleaning out his list; it was certainly the major reason Jordan Lewis chose us over the other 16 clubs who were chasing him. 

I think sometimes we can be too down on ourselves. We are a young, developing list. Sometimes I think we don't recognise how much. I was talking to my ex Demon supporting brother the other day. Now a Sydney resident and Swans fanatic; when I told him we were the youngest side with the least number of games played per player in the first round he could not believe it, even though he still follows the D's closely, and if anything is more bullish about our future than the Swans. 

We are building nicely. Will have our ups and downs, but overall going in the right direction, and very likely to at least make the 8. Roll on a repeat of 1987 I say. Now that would be exciting!  

 

Very keen to see Spencil (aka Gordon Lightfoot) resurrection. Hoping for blood, expecting a close slog with ample seating & parking opportunities.

1 hour ago, ProDee said:

I think the last quarter fadeout against Geelong was mainly mental in that we weren't rewarded for effort in quarters 2 and 3.  When you're not getting those rewards for effort a group can drop away.  They may have been getting tired, but that was compounded by not hitting the scoreboard. 

And champions like Selwood and danger will know that and would have been waiting for the drop off 

it should have been a non issue and should show the club that the whole package is there just some weeks we will be better at putting it all together than others 

The main takeaway from last week was that we were able to generate so many scoring shots, even without Hogan in the side.

Replicate that this week and take more of our chances and we should win by 5-6 goals.

Viney to have a big game, 30+ touches and a couple of goals.

Apparently Walters could be a late out for them

I hope Lewis is on hand in the rooms and around the young kids.  Whilst it's a shame he is not on the field, I still reckon he can add great value as a game day mentor.

the result today depends on which Freo and which Dees mob turns up.  If we are as good as we hope, then it will be a fun day at the G.  However, if we are off and Freo are up after last week, it could be a frustrating afternoon.

on paper, we should drill them a new one.  Go Dees.

If we're a finals side, we win and win comfortably. 40+ points.

I think this team is still trying to find its feet and establish an identity. You need to anticipate losses on days like today. Harsh reality. We are not a finals-proven side yet and are still working our way up. Fremantle could easily roll us. If you're prepared to accept that then it won't come as a surprise. I'm not saying that because "Oh it's Melbourne, they lose games like today", rather because the team still hasn't *really* proven itself.