The two rogue clubs of the AFL face off tonight and I’m tipping that they will change their respective roles for the game.

The Demons will play as if they have ingested some powerful potion that turns each of them into supermen and the Bombers will ... er, tank it.

Please God let us win this one. 

Don't know how I am going to get through work today.

Just get it done Demons.

win ugly, 6 goal 20. i don't care.

Just beat the Cheats.

Good to get these “line in the sand” games out of the the way early.

I think it will be a pretty scrappy affair to be honest.

Our midfield should win more than it's share of clearances again this week, it's just what we do with it that's the key.  Essendon's backline isn't as good as Geelong's, but if we go the bomb then we could be in trouble.

I'm tipping us by 4 goals, but not with a lot of confidence.  In fact, I'm pretty nervous about this one.

It's ok ... we've dug deep ( and I mean DEEP ) into our emergency bag of tricks ....and pulled out not one but Two Wagners ?

Doesn't get any better than this hey ?

?It's nearly Easter... couldn't we have pulled out a couple of Rabbits.... they've got speed, agility !!

As Titus suggests...A loss here will see that team spiral downwards.. ...

I'm already dizzy.

 

Surely we win this one... surely!

So many people said to me I think melbourne will go all the way this season. sadly I said I don’t think we will even make the finals. It was the old Melbourne supporter in me answering but I feel like I may not be wrong if we lose tonight.

 

prove me wrong demons

21 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

It's ok ... we've dug deep ( and I mean DEEP ) into our emergency bag of tricks ....and pulled out not one but Two Wagners ?

Doesn't get any better than this hey ?

?It's nearly Easter... couldn't we have pulled out a couple of Rabbits.... they've got speed, agility !!

As Titus suggests...A loss here will see that team spiral downwards.. ...

I'm already dizzy.

 

Let’s hope it doesn’t turn out to be a Wagnerian Tragedy opera. 

2 minutes ago, america de cali said:

Let’s hope it doesn’t turn out to be a Wagnerian Tragedy opera. 

?Something about the Fat Lady singing!!! ?

42 minutes ago, armstrong35 said:

Surely we win this one... surely!

So many people said to me I think melbourne will go all the way this season. sadly I said I don’t think we will even make the finals. It was the old Melbourne supporter in me answering but I feel like I may not be wrong if we lose tonight.

 

prove me wrong demons

https://images.app.goo.gl/kurTPDP8oBUUP7uUA

Maybe we should rest Gawn and Oliver from tonites game.

I'm tipping a similar match to last year. Scrappy early but then the Dees will get on top in the second half and we'll win by about 5 goals. 

Gawn to be BoG. 

Mick McGuane wrote a good article today in the Sun around solving our problems when going forward, and this part of the article makes me feel a little better about tonight and the direction we are heading.  As McGuane says, it's only a small snapshot, but proof that we can fix some of the things that are missing right now.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

It seems strange to talk this way about a team that lost by 80 points to Geelong, but things could have been a little different but for missed opportunities.

At halftime, the scoreline was Geelong 46 to Melbourne 22.

In the first two minutes of the third term Melksham missed everything with two kicks for goal. Those two shots resulted in two boundary throw ins. That’s fixable.

The third entry saw Weideman almost mark, but spill it 35m out. Fixable.

Then Christian Salem hacked it on his left foot for better composure. The result was a boundary throw-in, from which Angus Brayshaw’s quick kick saw Alex Neal-Bullen spill a mark 15m from goal.

A fifth entry saw a committed Neville Jetta win the ball and with good composure find Weideman in front, but he hooked the kick.

After the kick-in, the Demons won the ball across half back then went back in at speed before Petracca mistimed his jump and went at the ball one-handed when he had Tom Stewart cooked. That’s fixable.

Too much over-finessing the ball before it landed in the arms of McDonald, who hit the post. Stiff.

Jack Viney won a free on the boundary, had a left foot snap and overcooked it. Another behind.

Then came a hurried left foot from Nathan Jones to a contest 45m from goal in the “trampoline zone”. The kick should have been aimed more along the boundary to create a stoppage. Geelong won the ball to the wing, before a lazy free kick was given away by Sam Frost to Esava Ratugolea.

The result: the Cats went in deep and another free kick was given to Gary Rohan at the top of the square against Steven May.

For all that toil, there came nine inside-50s and three behinds to one inside-50 for a goal in 12 minutes of play. That’s fixable.

The effort, contest, pressure, territory and structure are all positives in this small snapshot of the game.

Relax, we've got this one.

I feel sick about tonight.

 

Hopefully we have gone over and over inside 50 entries both on track and in the film room.

 

If we get the same amount of inside 50's with just slightly better entry, we should have this comfortably, but who knows.

9 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

Mick McGuane wrote a good article today in the Sun around solving our problems when going forward, and this part of the article makes me feel a little better about tonight and the direction we are heading.  As McGuane says, it's only a small snapshot, but proof that we can fix some of the things that are missing right now.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

It seems strange to talk this way about a team that lost by 80 points to Geelong, but things could have been a little different but for missed opportunities.

At halftime, the scoreline was Geelong 46 to Melbourne 22.

In the first two minutes of the third term Melksham missed everything with two kicks for goal. Those two shots resulted in two boundary throw ins. That’s fixable.

The third entry saw Weideman almost mark, but spill it 35m out. Fixable.

Then Christian Salem hacked it on his left foot for better composure. The result was a boundary throw-in, from which Angus Brayshaw’s quick kick saw Alex Neal-Bullen spill a mark 15m from goal.

A fifth entry saw a committed Neville Jetta win the ball and with good composure find Weideman in front, but he hooked the kick.

After the kick-in, the Demons won the ball across half back then went back in at speed before Petracca mistimed his jump and went at the ball one-handed when he had Tom Stewart cooked. That’s fixable.

Too much over-finessing the ball before it landed in the arms of McDonald, who hit the post. Stiff.

Jack Viney won a free on the boundary, had a left foot snap and overcooked it. Another behind.

Then came a hurried left foot from Nathan Jones to a contest 45m from goal in the “trampoline zone”. The kick should have been aimed more along the boundary to create a stoppage. Geelong won the ball to the wing, before a lazy free kick was given away by Sam Frost to Esava Ratugolea.

The result: the Cats went in deep and another free kick was given to Gary Rohan at the top of the square against Steven May.

For all that toil, there came nine inside-50s and three behinds to one inside-50 for a goal in 12 minutes of play. That’s fixable.

The effort, contest, pressure, territory and structure are all positives in this small snapshot of the game.

apparently being rubbish at kicking for goal and not having composure is fixable. 

great, someone tell the coaches!!

2 hours ago, Wiseblood said:

I think it will be a pretty scrappy affair to be honest.

Our midfield should win more than it's share of clearances again this week, it's just what we do with it that's the key.  Essendon's backline isn't as good as Geelong's, but if we go the bomb then we could be in trouble.

I'm tipping us by 4 goals, but not with a lot of confidence.  In fact, I'm pretty nervous about this one.

Maybe, perhaps, should be the case, signs are not positive, form is amiss. I dunno. Selection is again functionally way off the mark and again, those who do no deserve a place in the team at the moment were first-selected, obviously. 

If we lose tonight (to the team I despise over all others) it will just confirm my theory that supporting Melbourne is like having a child who constantly disappoints.

Yes there are occasional moments of pride and joy but life with him is generally full of let downs and frustrations. Promises to try harder are followed by excuses and failure. He (sort of) got caught cheating a few years ago and now an older, drunk friend of one of his school mates, who has a big mouth, is bringing it all up again.

My kid has never topped his class and although he buckled down and did his best last year, he is back to form this semester. 

Id like to kick him out but, for some reason, I still love him dearly......

This should have been such a big game... instead it's a battle of the desperate losers.

When is this cursed club going to have some luck ??

MFCSS in full overdrive

23 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

MFCSS in full overdrive

Well this Friday game day thread's a bit flatter than the previous couple we had last September. 

16 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Well this Friday game day thread's a bit flatter than the previous couple we had last September. 

not to mention the thread for Round 1.... where did all that optimism go ?

My son (a Carlton supporter) is gleefully looking forward to this evening's match saying that whichever team loses their fans will implode ?

Edited April 5, 20196 yr by Diamond_Jim

1 hour ago, Wiseblood said:

Mick McGuane wrote a good article today in the Sun around solving our problems when going forward, and this part of the article makes me feel a little better about tonight and the direction we are heading.  As McGuane says, it's only a small snapshot, but proof that we can fix some of the things that are missing right now

A bit of Captain Obvious in McQuane's commentary.  No amount of words matter two hoots if we don't start winning.

I and most others on here have no doubt we can fix some things. The questions for many of us are:

1. Can we fix them fast enough to give us a fighting chance of making finals ie win several games in the next few weeks, starting with tonight.

2. Can we play at a higher level consistently enough to make finals.  Of course, we won't know this for a month or two.

Tonight is a must win game.  Coming back from 0-3 with a terrible percentage and our very difficult fixture will make it near impossible to make finals.  The time to fix things is now.  Tonight!

Play Oliver for 50% of the game out of the goalsquare. 

If we lose and Sydney lose against Carlton we have another battle of the Zero wins next week.

This season just keeps on giving

1 hour ago, Wiseblood said:

Mick McGuane wrote a good article today in the Sun around solving our problems when going forward, and this part of the article makes me feel a little better about tonight and the direction we are heading.  As McGuane says, it's only a small snapshot, but proof that we can fix some of the things that are missing right now.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

It seems strange to talk this way about a team that lost by 80 points to Geelong, but things could have been a little different but for missed opportunities.

At halftime, the scoreline was Geelong 46 to Melbourne 22.

In the first two minutes of the third term Melksham missed everything with two kicks for goal. Those two shots resulted in two boundary throw ins. That’s fixable.

The third entry saw Weideman almost mark, but spill it 35m out. Fixable.

Then Christian Salem hacked it on his left foot for better composure. The result was a boundary throw-in, from which Angus Brayshaw’s quick kick saw Alex Neal-Bullen spill a mark 15m from goal.

A fifth entry saw a committed Neville Jetta win the ball and with good composure find Weideman in front, but he hooked the kick.

After the kick-in, the Demons won the ball across half back then went back in at speed before Petracca mistimed his jump and went at the ball one-handed when he had Tom Stewart cooked. That’s fixable.

Too much over-finessing the ball before it landed in the arms of McDonald, who hit the post. Stiff.

Jack Viney won a free on the boundary, had a left foot snap and overcooked it. Another behind.

Then came a hurried left foot from Nathan Jones to a contest 45m from goal in the “trampoline zone”. The kick should have been aimed more along the boundary to create a stoppage. Geelong won the ball to the wing, before a lazy free kick was given away by Sam Frost to Esava Ratugolea.

The result: the Cats went in deep and another free kick was given to Gary Rohan at the top of the square against Steven May.

For all that toil, there came nine inside-50s and three behinds to one inside-50 for a goal in 12 minutes of play. That’s fixable.

The effort, contest, pressure, territory and structure are all positives in this small snapshot of the game.

Was about to post the same. 

He makes some great points and I remember that first 10 mins of the third clearly as well. 

He is right about the positives. But the inefficiency going forward has been there for two seasons and as he stated, cost us games last year.

I think it's a personnel thing, clearly Goodwin doesn't as we've gone with the same players (or at least 'type' of players) in pocket/half forward roles for two years. The same problem exists.