Melksham's disposal is elite, and we need to have a look at him for the next couple of weeks.  I like his selection on that basis, but he needs to produce now, or he shouldn't be playing finals.!

On 8/5/2021 at 8:04 PM, Demon Disciple said:

Wonderful. Helps nullify their 3 talks in attack. Our small defenders will need to be switched on.

Not sure I agree. Our game is based off intercept. We rely on marking just as much as their bigs do.

Fortunately, they don't have a lot at ground level, except Cripps.

9 hours ago, Deeoldfart said:

Melksham's disposal is elite, and we need to have a look at him for the next couple of weeks.  I like his selection on that basis, but he needs to produce now, or he shouldn't be playing finals.!

Defensive pressure is required to win the big games.

Melksham better be elite with his disposal, as we all know he will not defend.

Melks needs to deliver, pardon the pun, if he wants to play finals

Feel sorry for Hibberd. Has been a big reason for our success this year. Dropped in form last few games but certainly not alone.

1 hour ago, leave it to deever said:

Feel sorry for Hibberd. Has been a big reason for our success this year. Dropped in form last few games but certainly not alone.

Trickiest part for dropped players is there’s no way to push for selection with the VFL comp turning into a farce. 

Hibbo was good early when he returned but had earned being dropped with some really poor skills and mistakes. I reckon he’ll play finals though, his experience and toughness puts him right in the mix. 

Some insight into the team:

Jones can’t be selected as he is still in melbourne, so he couldn’t meet the quarantine if needed, and he needs more game time before being picked.

Melksham is in to play on Hurn - as Hurn normally goes on a small forward and just plays off to intercept. Melk will try to stay on him, or we use melk when Hurn leaves him alone.

In regards to tactics, WC win when they chip it around and keep possession, so the wet might help us there, but we really need to not let them chip it around. Forward pressure like last week will help there.

Also, they are really poor at ground balls, so we need to bring it to ground and not let them take lots of marks.

Clearly with Nic Nat they are great at clearances and get lots of scores from that, so keeping that in check will help us big time. We can’t let them walk out the front of clearances!
 

14 hours ago, Half forward flank said:

He can leap at the ball

like a forward. How do you rate his kicking.

Better than half of the forwards we currently assign to kick 'em. Quite good at 40-50m out, slight angle.

17 hours ago, Clint Bizkit said:

Pretty wild that we are favourites despite West Coast’s poor form.

Funny how melbourne hating twats like Tim watson and Dermot can't bring themselves to tip the Dees

It would be good if Vardy plays, as a reminder of 2018 prelim.

Demons should be up for this game:

- lock in top 4

- part of run into finals building form

- challenging game being in Perth

- locked in for 7 days adding to challenge 

- hopefully mindset won’t slip marginally as has seemed to happen against poorer teams

- stick it to Eagles

Demons please kick straight!!

Would be wonderful to finally see a Melbourne team take their chance and lock away a spot instead of leaving it until the final round. A second chance is something we've been craving to give us a genuine flag shot, and if we hit the finals fit and in form, we can still win the flag. (Can't believe I said that)

Having said that, still don't have the confidence that we will bring the heat against the Boogles on their home deck.

 

1 hour ago, jnrmac said:

Funny how melbourne hating twats like Tim watson and Dermot can't bring themselves to tip the Dees

Can't blame them. Our record against West Coast in Perf is horrendous.

2 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Funny how melbourne hating twats like Tim watson and Dermot can't bring themselves to tip the Dees

I'm not sure which of these morons I hate more ... Smirky/simpering Watson or Dunning-Kruger Brereton ...

McGowan and his chief health officer are making a significant announcement any moment according to the Age's live COVID update.

Might not be anything of note, but still interesting to read the word 'significant'

https://www.theage.com.au/national/australia-covid-live-updates-nsw-records-262-new-case-and-one-death-as-queensland-lockdown-lifts-victoria-records-11-new-cases-20210807-p58gpx.html

Edited August 8, 20214 yr by Bring-Back-Powell

4 hours ago, Pates said:

Trickiest part for dropped players is there’s no way to push for selection with the VFL comp turning into a farce. 

Hibbo was good early when he returned but had earned being dropped with some really poor skills and mistakes. I reckon he’ll play finals though, his experience and toughness puts him right in the mix. 

I wondered what the story was; I hadn't seen enough (I'm often forced to be a highlights / sometimes replays watcher) and thought there might be some management for Michael being required? And it coincidentally seemed Bowey was 'knocking the door down' for a tryout, and he seems to have made himself hard to drop (which is nice!) I agree re finals - though who goes out?!

4 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

McGowan and his chief health officer are making a significant announcement any moment according to the Age's live COVID update.

Might not be anything of note, but still interesting to read the word 'significant'

https://www.theage.com.au/national/australia-covid-live-updates-nsw-records-262-new-case-and-one-death-as-queensland-lockdown-lifts-victoria-records-11-new-cases-20210807-p58gpx.html

The setting is a hospital ward, so I'm hoping it's just some sort of facilities or staffing improvement.

'Bad' news always seems to be delivered in 'open' settings (so they can run if necessary?....)

1 hour ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

McGowan and his chief health officer are making a significant announcement any moment according to the Age's live COVID update.

Might not be anything of note, but still interesting to read the word 'significant'

https://www.theage.com.au/national/australia-covid-live-updates-nsw-records-262-new-case-and-one-death-as-queensland-lockdown-lifts-victoria-records-11-new-cases-20210807-p58gpx.html

And???????????

Seems a long long wait for GameDay when your waiting till the Monday!

Melksham in finals has the potential to be Stewie Dew like (pre beer gut). 8 kicks could be 3 goals and 2 assists...

...or not

🤷‍♂️

 

 

23 hours ago, Redleg said:

I would have thought in the predicted very wet game, a harder player might have got the nod, like VDB or even JJ. Maybe they want Melksham’s foot skills in the poor conditions, to score, or set up a couple of goals.

I haven’t been to Optus when it’s blowing it’s brain off but tomorrow evening looks as though it will be. 
Rain aside, I think it’s going to be a low scoring and ordinary spectacle. 

Odd that J Smith was an emergency until yesterday and now Hibberd's replaced him.

Injury to Smith? More concern that Salem will be a late out and Hibberd is.a closer replacement?

I'm OK with Melksham getting Viney's spot, but he sure as [censored] will want to play well. If he lifts to 2018 levels he could really improve our forward half efficiency. If he plays at 2019-21 Melksham levels, we're screwed.

4 hours ago, faultydet said:

Can't blame them. Our record against West Coast in Perf is horrendous.

It's not that bad recently, actually.

We've lost the last three, one of which was the disastrous prelim. But the other two were a Friday night in 2019 where we led at three quarter time (and should have led by more, but Garlett ran into an open goal and missed), and Round 1 last year, where we got jumped early but then matched them with 7.5 each after quarter time (and that was a weird game as it was played after the announcement of the season suspension).

Prior to the prelim we won back-to-back games in Perth, and the one before that in 2016 was a six point loss, again where we led a three quarter time.

And in the middle of all that, we also played a reasonable game against them at Alice Springs in 2019 - again, a game in which we led at three quarter time.

This on paper should be an easy win for the Dees. but the way we have played this year take nothing as a given. we have lost against sides that we shouldnt have. need to stay focused and try to kick straight and well and truly beat them.

Win and we go to the top of the ladder and guarantee a top 4 finish. Just get it done Dees.

Going to be an ugly, tough, wet weather game, that we must win.

1 hour ago, Deecisive said:

This on paper should be an easy win for the Dees. but the way we have played this year take nothing as a given. we have lost against sides that we shouldnt have. need to stay focused and try to kick straight and well and truly beat them.

I’m not sure it’s ever easy to beat the Eagles in Perth. They are a 5 goal or more better team in Perth than playing away. Would be interesting to see their season broken into home and away results with respective %.