31 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Go on, admit it. You are. And there's nothing wrong with that.

No, I'm not.

But I am suggesting there's no reason we should fall in a hole and there's no reason a good team can't keep winning.

41 minutes ago, ProDee said:

I see a lot of similarities in our list with Geelong 2007.  They won 10.5 games in 2006, which is the year Bomber almost got the bullet.  It's not a perfect analogy, because Geelong played finals in 2004 and 2005, nonetheless I think the talent levels are somewhat similar.

Early in 2007 Geelong were 2 wins from 5 games and self reflecting after a loss to North at home.  Paul Chapman famously addressed his teammates after that loss.  Geelong beat Richmond by 157 points in Round 6 to get their season back on track.  In fact, they went on to win the next 15 games in a row and lost just one more for the year as they secured their first flag since 1963.

Now clearly I'm not suggesting we'll do the same, but this precedent from a young and inconsistent side shows that we haven't necessarily peaked too early.  

We will lose games.  We will play badly where nuffies will get hot under the collar.  And there will be plenty of time to regain form.

just enjoy what they're doing now.

I like it.

2 hours ago, Demonland said:

STATISTIC	MELBOURNE	NEXT-BEST
Kicking efficiency	69.8%	Brisbane 67.8%
Kicking efficiency differential	+6.5%	Brisbane +3.8%
Disposal efficiency	74.8%	Collingwood 74.7%
Marks inside 50	18.8	Richmond 13.6
Marks inside 50 differential	+10.4	Port Adelaide +4.2
Contested possession differential	+21.6	West Coast +13.4
Clearance differential	+9	Fremantle +6
Inside 50s	65.2	Richmond 61.2
Scores per inside 50	49.1%	West Coast 48.2%
Goals per inside 50	31%	West Coast 28.5%
Points for	133	Richmond 98.6
Intercept points	84	Richmond 68.8
Clearance points	44.6	West Coast 32.6
Defensive half to score	19%	Richmond 14.7%
Consecutive quarters won	18	West Coast 15
Offensive one-on-one win	39%	GWS 35.7%

These stats are incredible. I hope these stats hold up in June too.

This is amazing.

Only 16? Lift your game, boys!

I"ll say again about Max, and that Clearance Differential.I notice that the next Team down is apparently Sandilands Freo, and i would imagine all the rest are in a bundle close together.

I guess the point is here that all the other high figures for us could relate directly to the obvious advantage in this statistic.

Hey i might be wrong.........however unwarranted attention against him will incur my wrath........ 

3 hours ago, daisycutter said:

i'm looking forward to the complete transformation from mfcss to mfcsa (a=arrogance). reckon i could handle it really well.

I always remind non-Melbourne supporting associates of two reasons why they should be scared of a MFC flag;

1. When we win one, we have historically won many in a short space of time.

2. I have 38 years of flag arrogance but up, and I will be unbearable to them when we break through.

3 hours ago, Dee Zephyr said:

According to Luff the Stats Guru our contested possession of +46 against the Crows was the second highest differential ever recorded.

He also said the contested possession differential of +21.6 over the month has only been beaten on one other occasion.

The Eagles in 2006 produced a +22

3 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Go on, admit it. You are. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Have we peaked so l here?  No we haven't peaked, I believe that we have spiralled to another level.  

Get used to it.

A good hard fought win that goes down to the wire would probably be great for the club over the next month....awesome as it is to be crushing everyone by 15 goals, surely it can't realistically continue....or can it?

1 hour ago, sisso said:

A good hard fought win that goes down to the wire would probably be great for the club over the next month....awesome as it is to be crushing everyone by 15 goals, surely it can't realistically continue....or can it?

Port in Adelaide would be a good one

The tests will come, at some point a team will match us or beat us in the contested posessions and keep enough pressure on us that the fast sabre-strikes into forward 50 break down almost as often as they get through, or slows us down enough that a disciplined defence gets back to force us a little wider to take shots from 35-50m instead of 0-15m.

Then we'll know if we are ready to win finals. Remembering that even the super-Geelong team broke down at times, when the goals didn't flow, and the opposition rushed a bunch of tactical behinds... in a grand final.

Hopefully the team holds onto a mentality of every week being a new test, a new chance to prove themselves to a different challenge, whether that means beating up a weaker opponent, barely clawing over the line against a strong opponent, bouncing back again from a slip-up, or simply to make a statement to fans with a shattering of Collingwood on Queen's Birthday.

This weekend's special challenges - beating up and out-of-form but stil occasionally potent opposition, aiming for the consecutive quarters record, and just for good measure let's see if we can hunt the '600 points in 4 games' mark. Haa ha ha ha ha what am I talking about, what is this team? Freakshow.

1 hour ago, sisso said:

A good hard fought win that goes down to the wire would probably be great for the club over the next month....awesome as it is to be crushing everyone by 15 goals, surely it can't realistically continue....or can it?

I've been musing on this  in reference to media types saying that we 'haven't beaten anyone'.

 

The narrative around the great clubs is that if they keep winning the close ones then they're mentally tough... until we do so consistently then there will be this view of us. The first couple of close wins the narrative becomes, we scraped through/fell over the line (must make personnel changes etc etc)... but the team then gets enough close ones under the belt, then it also provides another aura of - playing to the end no matter what, not just when yer 6-7 goals up.

Surely every oppo analyst will be trying to pull apart our gameplan more than ever now as well

11 hours ago, sisso said:

Surely every oppo analyst will be trying to pull apart our gameplan more than ever now as well

Thats the only problem we will encounter as we have given teams plenty of time before finals to combat our game plan and negate it. Richmond didnt give other teams a chance last year to come up with a plan because they timed there run or accidentally to perfection.