This is Melbourne’s line in the sand day. A win would keep the season alive and become a building block for the next phase in this crazy season. Defeat puts us in stage 4 lockdown.

Frosty will be the BOG for us today... Looking forward to the 5 goals coming from his direct turnovers 

Win and get the four points, lose and get no points. Make no mistake. 

I’m feeling cautiously optimistic. Could end badly but so far, so good. 

Would like to see pressure applied similar to that Collingwood on Thursday night.

Absolute cracker of a day up here on the border. Gonna do a few jobs round the house and enjoy the sunshine. Then it's footy time, light the fire and drink some beers.

Don't need to do anything spectacular today, everyone plays their role we will walk away with the W (ferda)

We are a 4 goal better side than Hawthorn, get the 4 points and move on.

Dees need to bring the same attitude as last week.
And smarter decisions going into forward 50. 

Interesting to see Jackson.  Project player this year imo. Not sure he’s a key forward but certainly he is an athlete. 

Watched the Dorks play Geelong a couple of weeks ago and thought if we can't beat this rabble then we might as well pack up for the season.

I'm sticking by that claim.

Apart from Tmac, we can pretty well put our best side on the park. I was surprised Jackson got a gig, but hey it's bizzaro season, and just like Kossie, how else is the kid going to learn the game?

Melbourne easy! And the the first jolly good thrashing I'm dealing out today will go to Sportsbet.

Today we see whether they learnt anything from the Cats chip n mark keepings off game. I expect us to win unless lack of conversion or inability to counter keepings off occurs. 

Expect to see lots of inside 50’s only for the ball to come straight back out again.

 

2 minutes ago, big_red_fire_engine said:

Today we see whether they learnt anything from the Cats chip n mark keepings off game. I expect us to win unless lack of conversion or inability to counter keepings off occurs. 

This will come down to the coach to see if he has the ability to counter it this time. 
 

No BS excuse we weren’t prepared for that style. 

Always nervous against these blokes. 

We need 13 goals. Who's gonna kick them?

30 minutes ago, dee-tox said:

Always nervous against these blokes. 

We need 13 goals. Who's gonna kick them?

fritta ,kosie,weid,melk and LJ we will be to quick for this dads army of a team

2 hours ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Win and get the four points, lose and get no points. Make no mistake. 

E.T. The news breaker! Does it again!!!

1 minute ago, Gorgoroth said:

E.T. The news breaker! Does it again!!!

Compare the pair ..  draw and we get 2 points

1 hour ago, Josh said:

Don't need to do anything spectacular today, everyone plays their role we will walk away with the W (ferda)

We are a 4 goal better side than Hawthorn, get the 4 points and move on.

Agree with both points.

A frustration for me in the first three games is that we played so far below what i know we are capable off. Were a good side. Certainly beter than Geelong in my opinion. 

As i have noted many times our key weakness is not having enough above average and elite kicks and too many poor kicks (watching the suns yesterday i have to say i was impressed with how many really good kicks they have). But that is as it is.

And Harley, Kozzie (who has the modern skill of weighting kicks to space) and even Hannan (who hit a couple of perfect kicks last week) all help improve our kicks inside 50.

As others have noted, almost as big an issue is decision making but that has much more scope for improvement, as we saw last week. Good coaching last week from goody who brought in good decision makers and got the team to slow things down (apparently our lowest percentage of play ons from marks since 2015). 

But with decision making i really believe a big part of it relates to confidence: in the game plan, each other and individually.

With the game plan, they had to adjust last year as the massive up and down the ground flooding of other sides (and our lack of fitness) that became the norm severely disrupted our preferred game plan. And this is  an even bigger factor this year with 16 minute quarters and teams not tiring meaning they can keep their flood up till the siren. We tried to to beat this through playing on at all costs, but except for the first quarter against the blues it hasn't worked.

Personally i think a combination of the two styles we have employed this year is the go. The key is knowing when to implement each style. Which is where confidence is so important.

Goody has to get them into a head space where they are not worrying about losing, which feels to me they have been for 18 months.  Which has meant they often seem to have a passive, defensive mind set married to an aggressive game plan.

In the second half of 2018 they played without fear of losing and collectively and individually played much more freely. The game has changed in a short time so they need to adjust but they can still find that same mojo - and there is still a place for their contest out, high pressure game. That style is built for finals as comprehensively shown last year by the tigers.

Goody should encourage them to go for it. Trust in each other and themselves. Take that kick to the corridor on. Be aggressive when it is called for. But smart and patient when it isn't (which is where defence can become attack).

A funny thing about this year is teams seem to scoring goals in clumps and whilst momentum has always been important in footy it feels like it is eve more important this year., perhaps as function of the scores being lower. Having two speeds and the skill and on field chemistry to implement them at the right time is really important now and that is the challenge for this coaching staff and team.

A fascinating element of the game will be the tactical battle.  A good chance for goody to silence some critics.

Won't be surprised if the hawks go against script early and attack. If so we need to be ready. If they jump us we need to stop their momentum with tempo footy. If they don't and we get on top early we need to put our foot down and put score board pressure on them. Get four goals up and they can chip, hold and flood all they like.

With their uber flood we need to make sure we risk turnovers and go for our angle kicks, take on the corridor and cross to the fat side when needed. Be patient.

I can't see Clarkson giving us so many kicks inside 50 to a free man in the corridor like the Suns did (i thought Goody out coached dew with this) but we need to keep looking for them and try to engineer them.

And i have feeling the hub environment will help all of these elements come together. As Whispering Jack notes in the first post in this thread this is very important game. And as you note josh we are a four goal better than the Hawks and we need to show that today.  

Edited July 18, 20204 yr by binman

I think I’ve worked out how to beat them. Same game multis seem the go lately so I tried a couple this round.

Had Selwood in one on Thursday, pops a hammie early. Tried again in last night’s game and included Caddy and Ziebell. Well well, both pop a hammie early. I’m including all Hawks players today.

Go Dees!!

You underestimate Clarkson's experience and wyliness at your peril, but we have youth and talent, and (to a degree) form on our side.  I have high hopes that we 'crossed the Rubicon' last weekend, and that the confidence and self-belief gained from that win will stand us in good stead today.

Pickering of the Liam variety thinks it will be a walk in the park for the Hawks today.

Honestly, I think he is way off the mark and look forward to sending a text to him at SEN complimenting his total lack of football knowledge.

Last week we applied good pressure to GCS when they got the ball. Better pressure than we have applied for the past season and a half (although our tackling execution still wasn't great).

If we apply that sort of pressure to Hawthorn then we give ourselves a good chance to win. If we revert to type and think that our own ability to win in close is enough to win us this game, then we will lose.

If only our group start to realise that while they have a great ability to win the ball in close and generate forward entries, the golden forward entries are the ones that come off opposition turnovers. Bring the pressure, watch how our own ability to score increases.

2 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Dees need to bring the same attitude as last week.
And smarter decisions going into forward 50. 

Interesting to see Jackson.  Project player this year imo. Not sure he’s a key forward but certainly he is an athlete. 

Sad to say he cant do much worse than tmac the way hes been going. When hes better pit him in the backline where he clearly belongs.

 

Some tactics:

• Sicily is their backline play maker so have our fwd take him to one side of i50 and we play into the other. 
• Play thru Frost's opponent - weakest link in their defence
• Use the corridor once out of our d50; move the ball quickly thru gaining territory
• Run with (not tag) Silk - good job for Langdon
• Show last weeks composure

We win .

Edited July 18, 20204 yr by Lucifer's Hero

7 minutes ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

Some tactics:

• Sicily is their backline play maker so have our fwd take him to one side of i50 and we play into the other. 
• Play thru Frost's opponent - weakest link in their defence
• Use the corridor once out of our d50; move the ball quickly thru gaining territory
• Run with (not tag) Silk - good job for Langdon
• Show last weeks composure

We win .

I reckon composure is the key Luci. Have a look find a target.

There's nothing quite like good coffee to help find that sweet spot of optimism prior to the first bounce. Two down so far and I'm already quietly confident. 

Not nearly as confident as any of you tbh.

Last week was our 'line in the sand' game, this week's it's the Hawks one. Would be very typical Melbourne for us to still be enjoying the bath water from last week so much that we don't get up for this one. That, plus having Clarko in the opposite box after a week of him copping it; certainly does not put me at ease.

Today tells us a lot about whether 'To Hell & Back' was filled with platitudes by paycheck collectors or genuine footballers and coaches who not only know what it takes to win, but will do what it takes to win.