3 hours ago, Danelska said:

Let's be clear, the players do not play for us as individuals - (can you imagine if Bernie was thinking of you or me, when bombing goals from 55m - it'd be [censored] hilarious) it is our own relationship to what a win, or a loss means (and its context) that dictates our stress and urgency for another win - so we can make sense of how we are tracking. It's all about hitting behavioural standards as a team, and the teams own expectations are very different from the behavioural standards. If we could have a chart from 14-17, we've improved exponentially - and supporters (myself included) get [censored] scared when its not linear. Further our own expectations as supporters mean one [censored] jot to Goodwin and the boys, inherent in supporting/playing for a team, is that they want to win. 

An acceptance that performance is not linear, is a good place to start, to become less stressed about 'must win games' - as a supporter (and an athlete) but that does not at all devalue or promote mediocrity/not striving for things...if anything from a performance perspective - an openness and a genuine intellectual and emotional understanding of these things actually promotes consistent performance. But that last point is meaningless as a supporter because we have no direct influence over how the athletes play. 

 

If we could see the same chart for the doggies, I'd like to see if there was an obvious shift in form after that win they had against Sydney in 2015.

I like to believe there is that game than change everything. Sure, the form of your performance is never linear. There will always be ups and downs. But surely and so rarely, some games and wins are worth a whole lot more than the four points.

10 minutes ago, Juicebox said:

 

If we could see the same chart for the doggies, I'd like to see if there was an obvious shift in form after that win they had against Sydney in 2015.

I like to believe there is that game than change everything. Sure, the form of your performance is never linear. There will always be ups and downs. But surely and so rarely, some games and wins are worth a whole lot more than the four points.

It should have been the Whorethorn win last year...

But this is the MFC we are talking about..

1 hour ago, Redleg said:

We often lose when we are predicted to win, how about we win when we are not predicted to.

Wasn't that the case all year last year? Pretty sure we would have dropped a lot of the games where we were favourites.

Going in as the underdog suits me fine.

5 hours ago, jumbo returns said:

Bernie, Wattsy and Hogan to star.....

All three have historically played well against Richmond too.

Early scoreboard pressure is going to be vital against this mob. Bunch of downhill skiers, so if we can get them early I think we'll have them for the entire night.

2 hours ago, Dappa Dan said:

I dunno why people are saying the crowd will be 80% Tigers. I realise it's their home game, but we get in for free and it's at the G. Traditional standlaone clash, two clubs on the up in the media. Weather pretty good. This is the kind of ingredients that lead to a seriously startling crowd. I remember in the early 2000s when we were ok, we got 80,000+ to Queens Birthday. Nowadays we're pleased with 60,000. I'm pumped. And I'm picking us with confidence.

I agree to an extent about our supporters turning up to this game, but likewise, Richmond are quite well known for having supporters come out of the woodwork when they're playing well.

My initial prediction was 70,000. You could well be right and we could get 75,000+. 28,000 against Freo at the G is almost staggeringly good. I was surprised by that number.

I remember a game against Geelong in 2000 at the G that had 56,000 (the torch went around beforehand) and a game against West Coast in 2004 (?) when Ashley Sampi took 'that' mark that attracted 36,000, so when we're up and about we'll be able to attract some pretty decent crowds.

Our supporters are amazing really. Resilient and loyal. We've probably got 30-35,000 rusted on supporters. It's really quite comparable to the 'big' clubs who have much larger memberships, but don't have as many what you'd call 'rusted on'.

I remember Hawthorn got less than 20,000 to the G on a wet and rainy night against GWS in one of their premiership years (2015?). That same year they had over 70,000 members. How can you have 70,000 members and fail to get 20,000 of them along to the G? My theory on Hawthorn is that they're just massively fair weathered, mostly because they've gained so many followers due to their success in the 70's and 80's, so when things take a down turn, these bandwagoners stay away.

30,000 Melbourne people on Monday night are not beyond the realms of possibility though. Had we beaten Freo or Geelong, I'd say we'd get that and more, but it'll be interesting to see.

Completely agree with the OP, this is both our biggest test and most important match against Richmond for a long time. The Tigers have long been a confidence team, backed by the grog squad and other ferals certain players seem to lift when things are up for them. 

They are very lucky to be 4-0, much like the Cats and we are unlucky/have shot ourselves in the foot to be 2-2 so it's an evenly matched game. Dusty always seems to have a day out against us and he's dragging others into the game. 

Make no mistake this isn't the Richmond teams of the last two years. Our players need to rise to the occasion. Aside from the 2nd and 3rd quarters against the Saints I don't think our players have got out of 2nd gear which is promising because when we hit our straps we'll be very good. 

Hogan's suspension has cost us, anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded. He owes his teammates for his stupidity. When you lose one game due to inaccuracy and another by less than a goal it's not hard to work out our full forward would've helped. 

I've gone off on a tangent but really this is a must win for us. We lose and we're out of the 8 and playing catch up, we win and we can consolidate our position and go into our game against the bombers who are a bogey team with confidence. 

Edited April 19, 20178 yr by Pates

34 minutes ago, Pates said:

Dusty always seems to have a day out against us and he's dragging others into the game. 

Not sure about that Dusty comment. If I recall the last two games against us he was very quiet. Cotchin tends to always play well against us though. 

We didn't lose three games in a row at all last year.

I'll be disappointed, to say the least, if we drop this one.