21 minutes ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

Hail and thunder + heavy rain in the South east.   Concerning as these are the type games we fumble and do not adjust to the conditions.  We "should" beat an aging Geelong with extra days break, but this has alarm bells for mine.

Demons to over-run them in a tense last quarter.

Going to be hard for Geelong to play their chip up game today, they will adjust and just bang it forward and pressure at any cost....i hope we do the same or it could get really ugly.  If we match their game style and pressure we should win this by 5 goals+, if we play dry weather footy we are in big trouble today!

Yep, need the rain to clear we're not good in difficult weather conditions.

46 minutes ago, Lace Out said:

These conditions would surely suit Sparrow ahead of Melksham. 

 

This is a perfect set up for our mental demons. The Cats & especially their coach will be preying on our ability to crumble and throw it all away. They will throw the kitchen sink at us in the first quarter, and if we can withstand that, we'll win. But if we start to doubt and have to play catch-up against an experienced & ruthless team with a wily coach ...

3 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

The so-called “experts” keep saying that Melbourne hasn’t beaten an opponent of quality yet.

If that’s true then the season begins today...

Agree. Also, as the ladder currently stands:

• Melbourne have played: 
  • Fremantle (17th) - Win
  • St Kilda (10th) - Win
  • GWS (14th) - Win
• Geelong have played:
  • Adelaide (9th) - Loss
  • Brisbane (16th) - Win (less than a goal)
  • Hawthorn (15th) - Win (less than a goal)

You could argue we were not convincing in our wins against all of the above teams at certain stages of the game, but by the same logic you would have to question where that leaves Geelong in theirs. On pure form, it appears Geelong are severely over-rated right now.  The Demons are on a relatively rare run of 3 wins and Geelong have the experience to beat us mentally, if we cannot keep our heads/structure and trust in our superior fitness. Geelong lose their favourite strategy of keeping's off if it is wet/windy enough, in which case we have no excuse to lose.

However, I am mentally scarred through years of Demon's let downs and can't bring myself to say we will win. Logically, if I followed another team and was a spectator of this game, I would surely have confidence in the Dees. Out of pure nervous habit to not tip the Dees, I tip Geelong by 14 in a slog in which our young guns learn some lessons and our veterans can hold their heads high. Either way, go Dees!

Heavy rain isn’t good for us IMO. We are very reliant on Gawns marking at both ends and May+Lever intercept marking to cut off attacks and start scoring chains going forward. If Kozzie can’t dominate at ground level in the wet then I worry we’ll lose.

Hopefully our midfield are up for it today. They’ll need to be clean to own the stoppages and territory battle so we can lock the ball in our forward half.

Seriously! Dees paying $1.86 Ffs ?

 

Edited April 10, 20214 yr by Graeme Yeats' Mullet

I have no concerns about this game.

Comfortable win for the Dees

Im predicting Langdon as BOG

I’d like us to start repaying 187 today, with interest... and venom.

43 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

This is a perfect set up for our mental demons. The Cats & especially their coach will be preying on our ability to crumble and throw it all away. They will throw the kitchen sink at us in the first quarter, and if we can withstand that, we'll win. But if we start to doubt and have to play catch-up against an experienced & ruthless team with a wily coach ...

The biggest take from our last 2 games is the way we have responded to teams jumping us in the 1st qrts.

Instead of dees of old we seem to have kept our wits about us (not demonland) and have fought back.

Let the old cats give us all they have and find themselves out of petrol in tge 2nd half.

Would have smashed Geelong on a dry deck, but oh no, it has to be a wet slippery day which will leave the cheating [censored] in with a fighting chance against us.

Geelong are [censored].  They lost to Adelaide, then beat Brisbane by 1 point at the Cattery thanks only to corrupt umpiring and struggled to beat a bottom 3 Hawks team by less than a goal.

They don't even have their best player playing.    If we fail to win this we are pretenders.

The next three weeks will decide our season. Need to win two.

Win three and the lid is off.

 

41 points to us

We've played dumb wet weather football last couple years when you'd think our contested game wld suit it. I think Goody and Co are finally coaching to our strengths so trust we will adjust our approach to work with the go off the ground approach. 

Our intercept game however is much better suited to dry conditions. I'd expect Geelong to have the advantage in the wet with experience and big bodies, but doesn't seem like they have been playing too great, so will depend on whether they're up and about. 

At lease we have small fwds going well this year. Hope Melk adds to some fwd efficiency. 

Late change Sparrow for Jones wld be good. 

How bad is it in Melbourne today?  Is it going to be a full wet weather slog?

Cats will play 7 behind the ball, so how we going to deal with that?

Gary Ablett kicks 11 goals against Dees but cats still lose.
 

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/from-the-archives-1993-not-even-ablett-can-save-the-cats-from-the-dees-20210407-p57had.html

What a luxury it is for the Saints, Essendon and Bulldogs to play under the Docklands roof on a dry track every other week.

I notice that never gets bought up when talking about the inequality of the league.

9 minutes ago, Pickett2Jackson said:

What a luxury it is for the Saints, Essendon and Bulldogs to play under the Docklands roof on a dry track every other week.

I notice that never gets bought up when talking about the inequality of the league.

I wouldnt swap

T Mac will still be angry about last week and want to keep his place in the team

milkshake will want to resurrect his career

jones and Jetta want a chance at a flag in their last year 

there are many reasons for us to not take this game lightly. I expect a more mature demons team to win in a tight one

This game is not that big a deal.

Dees comfortably.

We really should get this done.

Wet weather makes me nervous as we have a tendency not to play to the conditions. But surely we’ve learned that lesson by now. All part of our growth, maturity and insert other buzzword.

The Gawn/Jackson split of ruck duties will be one to watch again. It worked well against the Giants with Gawn being a real presence going forward. Geelong will likely concede the taps much like the Lions did against Grundy so we need to be awake to that and make best use of the big man with the armband.

Also interested in how Clarry handles a likely O’Connor tag, as well as Season 2 Episode 4 of the Kozzie show.

We play something remotely close to what we’re capable of and we go 4-0.

Hard to tell what will happen today. I still have no faith in our forward line and they have a reasonable defence. Selwood will be awarded 20 plus head high tackles which will send me into oblivion.

1 hour ago, Graeme Yeats' Mullet said:

Seriously! Dees paying $1.86 Ffs ?

 

Paying $ 2.00 yesterday 

The weather is meant to get slightly better with rain easing for the bounce. Still a wet track is a good thing for a slow aging side like Geelong that love to hold possession.

Traditionally we are very poor in the wet, but I hope that Yze, having coached Hawthorn who I think used to be one of the best wet weather team going around, can help us overcome that. 
Oliver and Tmac coming off very average games. Can’t see both having another stinker. 

5 minutes ago, dl4e said:

Hard to tell what will happen today. I still have no faith in our forward line and they have a reasonable defence. Selwood will be awarded 20 plus head high tackles which will send me into oblivion.

Luckily today is not a day for big forwards...

 

 

...now watch Hawkins kick 12 ??