I would think the question is more :”Can Melbourne bring its best game consistently”?

If the answer is yes, then look out.  If it is no, then we will be in trouble.  It is that simple.

The one question mark for me is can I be bothered to listen to 41 minutes of Caro and Bartel ???

Oh well, here goes ....?

it's not so much a disorganised fwd line, but kicking goals instead of points

we get plenty of i50s, i50 marks and shots on goal. just need to make sure we convert most of them

and we already are the #1 scoring team in the whole comp (comfortably)

In the middle two quarters, we struggled to find a target inside the forward fifty and our crumbing the packs was quite poor.

What makes Richmond so good is when the ball hits the ground, that's the difference between us and them.

The Inaccuracy that occurred in the 2nd and 3rd quarter is the only aspect of our game that will hold us back.

30 minutes ago, Graeme Yeats' Mullet said:

The one question mark for me is can I be bothered to listen to 41 minutes of Caro and Bartel ???

Oh well, here goes ....?

Can you let me know what time they talk about us so I don’t have to listen to their other drivel.

Seems like every criticism/concern raised about the Demons can be distilled to one simple issue -

"They need time to ingrain their systems and for their young group to mature together"

As long as it is done well and actively, that's all that is missing. I trust Goodwin, Rawlings, McCartney et al to make a mission of that, unlike past administrations where too many thought it would just 'happen'.

It's true for the defence, it is true for the attack. Meanwhile the coherence of such a young midfield group is an incredible acheivement.

Is there anything better than knowing that your weaknesses can be targeted and corrected? Sends shivers up my spine, what could be done by this team as it grows together.

Our one weakness is the same as Richmond's... three to four key players that provide the engine... injury to two of them and the truck will splutter.

Tom Mac could have won us the game off his own boot in that first half last week... 1:3 and one that did not quite reach and was credited as rushed.

There is no doubt that Hawthorn will crowd our forward 50 and deny us space. On the other hand we will get plenty of opportunities. Looking forward to a decent win but have the usual nerves.

Go Dees

22 minutes ago, Gorgoroth said:

Can you let me know what time they talk about us so I don’t have to listen to their other drivel.

12min 10s

40 minutes ago, Gorgoroth said:

Can you let me know what time they talk about us so I don’t have to listen to their other drivel.

Hm, inneresting. I quite like listening to them!

3 minutes ago, -Ⓥ- said:

Hm, inneresting. I quite like listening to them!

TBH it can be very hit and miss for me, Bartel and Gleeson I can listen to more, Niall can be even more hit and miss and Caro annoys me most times. 

1 minute ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Our one weakness is the same as Richmond's... three to four key players that provide the engine... injury to two of them and the truck will splutter.

Tom Mac could have won us the game off his own boot in that first half last week... 1:3 and one that did not quite reach and was credited as rushed.

There is no doubt that Hawthorn will crowd our forward 50 and deny us space. On the other hand we will get plenty of opportunities. Looking forward to a decent win but have the usual nerves.

Go Dees

Agree.  But if we continue to defend well and pressure well inside 50 we should win even if we kick badly.  But it will be stressful if we don't kick straight and give Hawthorn an opportunity, as anything can happen when a team gets their tail up.  The dryer it is Friday night the better it is for us. 

If we get through this week I'm actually looking forward to how we go in the following day game(s) if it is dry.  All of our huge wins with good conversion have been dry games, including WCE in Perth.  We have big contested possessions advantages over hawks, WCE, and richmond (almost +20) and are ranked 3rd for clearances versus 11th, 13th, and 17th, so will get lots of opportunities, which is why I hope we have dry weather as it helps our inside 50s and forwards. 

Go dees.

Nailed it W11. Wet weather is our kryptonite. 

Wilson made a mistake with how much we were ahead when Selwood turned Hawkin's kick over.

We were 21 points up and potentially only 15, not 15 to 9, as she asserts.

1 hour ago, Clint Bizkit said:

In the middle two quarters, we struggled to find a target inside the forward fifty and our crumbing the packs was quite poor.

What makes Richmond so good is when the ball hits the ground, that's the difference between us and them.

This^^ This weeks training should be all about kicking ugly goals anyway possible from a crowded fwd line. 

Whorethorn have made it part of their game to kick the ball off the ground, whenever needed since 1971. 

Ugly footy can and often is the best tactic in September

23 minutes ago, ProperDee said:

Nailed it W11. Wet weather is our kryptonite. 

Weather at this stage is Fine 22 Degs for Friday

Speed of ball movement with Full Body Tackling will be the key

1 hour ago, Clint Bizkit said:

In the middle two quarters, we struggled to find a target inside the forward fifty and our crumbing the packs was quite poor.

What makes Richmond so good is when the ball hits the ground, that's the difference between us and them.

i think people are confusing poor forward line play with bad kicking. We set up well at times. Petracca great positioning drops a sitter, ANB front and square perfect crumbing, misses a sitter, Jones misses a very gettable shot. If our 1.10 was even 5.6 we would have hit the 100 points mark, our usual benchmark.

It wasn’t just the poor goal kicking that kept Cats in the game, there were a number of easy marks dropped inside 50 (Petracca comes to mind) and poor decision making/poor kicks to leading players inside 50.  Hopefully nerves played a part in this and they will be a bit more settled this week. 

1 minute ago, Bay Riffin said:

i think people are confusing poor forward line play with bad kicking. We set up well at times. Petracca great positioning drops a sitter, ANB front and square perfect crumbing, misses a sitter, Jones misses a very gettable shot. If our 1.10 was even 5.6 we would have hit the 100 points mark, our usual benchmark.

that second quarter was one of the best I have seen the team play all season. For it to result in six behinds in no way did it justice.

The third quarter was pretty good as well. Watching the replay the game reminded me of the one in Alice Springs against Adelaide except of course we were not hitting the score board.

10 minutes ago, The Chief said:

It wasn’t just the poor goal kicking that kept Cats in the game, there were a number of easy marks dropped inside 50 (Petracca comes to mind) and poor decision making/poor kicks to leading players inside 50.  Hopefully nerves played a part in this and they will be a bit more settled this week. 

that's true but we still kicked 1.10 at one stage beginning in 2nd qtr. we still had plenty of chances up fwd, so not a "disorganised forward line" at all

1 goal 10 with like 2 or 3 going out on the full plus 3 falling short in the goal square. Our marking wasn't great but let's not act we didn't continue to murder the cats. Granted if Hawkins kicked that goal or they kick the goal off the free kick advantage then maybe we talk about a different game. However i can say what if geelong didn't kick 8 straight in Geelong to win it? What if we didn't kick 1.7 in the final qtr Round 1. We needed a bit of luck, but it wasn't like we didn't deserve it.

What's scary for the competition is that there is so much improvement left in this group.

15 minutes ago, ProDee said:

What's scary for the competition is that there is so much improvement left in this group.

It will all click soon, hopefully we don’t have to wait till 2019

This year is wide open...

One question I ask time and time again at the game is this...

why don’t we stick Gawn or TMac in a postition to mark the ball when guys like Spargo are kicking for goal from around 50? If I can predict the ball will drop short into the goal square why can’t the players?

it happened a few times last Friday and I was screaming for someone to get back into the square, so much so people around me were looking at me funny, then sure enough the ball dropped into the hands of the waiting Geelong defenders!

it has happened in just about every game his season