2 minutes ago, Deemania since 56 said:

 

For those who, in their blindness and good faith, believe it won't happen, consider the Bulldogs win against Brisbane Lions last night. Check the free kick differential. One AFL executive wish achieved, with another to come and experimented with from the MFC/Geelong game. 

Holy moley. What's the wish that they want (and why?)

18 hours ago, CYB said:

The likelihood of Majak getting a game in a final is basically zero. 
 

We will have Petty, May, Smith play on Hawkins, Cameron, Rohan and have Lever line up on Dalhus or Close. I doubt they will go with 4 talls again as they won’t get the same luxury as they did with Giants. 
 

if they do go four talls then I will do a rain dance. buy seriously all we would need to do is apply midfield pressure and they won’t get the clean inside 50 delivery making the ground balls easier to clean up and rebound.

I know it is unlikely for so many reasons, but his presence at that training session in such a cluster could also be unlikely, surely? He just might be considered for an extended, big-body role and quite honestly, could be seen as an effective and unexpected weapon in such a role.

36 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

They still put themselves in that position each year. Regardless of the win loss ratio it's still a bloody good achievement.  It's hard enough to make finals.

So? Every club has a home ground advantage. Are they not allowed too?

 

I think your point was addressed in the original post. There is home ground and then there is Kardinia park. It’s shape and weather make it a very difficult place for visiting teams. Add to that the normal  HG advantage that it is virtually impossible for visiting fans to get tickets and you have a crowd factor very like Adelaide and Optus. 
 

The post you are responding to was spot on. That advantage seems to contribute heavily to their home and away result. You can tell because their finals record tells a very different story. Either the home ground is a big factor or the game style doesn’t stack up under pressure. Nothing else explains the discrepancy.

 Regardless, we are going to tear this crew a new one.

Preliminary finals. 
 
Dees v Cats &umps

Power v Dogs&umps

Hi Friends

Does anyone on Demonlande know where i can place a "Same Match Multi" on the Geelong Vs Melbourne Prelim? Here are my 3 legs; Dangerfield to shirtfront a demon player and not get reported, Selwwod to "accidentally" target Clarry's Head and get away with it, and Hawkins to "magically" somehow send Mazzy off with a head injury

The only problem i see with my bet is the odds wont be that great.

PS i also tried to get a bet on Selwood to get 3+ frees for ducking his head - but because he is elite at this no Bookie will take the bet- Blue = elite

 

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

I know some on here are pretty confident against the cats, but for me I just have this uneasy feeling that losing twice to us during the season won't sit well with this Geelong outfit. Scott is a very smart and tactical coach. They would have taken so much learnings out of the last game and I expect a much sound response.

They've also improved their side since the last round. They'll have Duncan, Touhy and potentially Higgins. Watched Touhy Friday night and he just makes them so much better off half back and wing.

I have it in the back of my head that it was only 3 weeks ago this same Geelong team were 44 points up. So when up and going they can be at their deadly best. 

The other thing to look at is their track record at optus stadium is actually pretty good. Much better record then ours. 

I know they are a bit banged up, but they always seem to find a ways to get into this position.  Their finals record under Scott is phenomenal even though the wins haven't been on their side. 

I agree with you. And whether people like to admit it or not, the Geelong Football Club has a recent history of knowing how to win...and quite frankly the Melbourne Football Club has had a history of producing results that are worse than they should have been with great regularity.

I hope the tide is turning for our club but for me to truly believe will probably take a flag or multiple years of consistently competing right at the pointy end.

Id just like to refine that and only take frees not paid inside 50 for Melbourne and Port. But I know nothing!

Every single Sunday Footy Show panellist except Billy tipped Melbourne to win. Without even a hesitation...

Why does that make me even more nervous 🤮

57 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

They still put themselves in that position each year. Regardless of the win loss ratio it's still a bloody good achievement.  It's hard enough to make finals.

So? Every club has a home ground advantage. Are they not allowed too?

 

You missed my point.

I agree its a great effort to be up so long, but the home ground is 115 metres wide for gawds sake.

Thats a huge disadvantage to a visiting team, when all other grounds are much wider with wider pockets. Geelong have mastered this issue . They train on such a narrow space etc. Other teams advantage is primarily one of crowd support and umpiring decision affirmation. Not one of geometry which has a tangible impact.

The win/loss prelim ratio is an issue. Ignore it and it will keep happening. What's the point if the ojective is a flag .

1 hour ago, Fat Tony said:

Didn’t the Cats give Freo a hiding this season?

Freeo are really bad

57 minutes ago, Deemania since 56 said:

Umpires, free kicks against us, overlooking screaming frees due to us because of the throws, holds, punches, elbow jabs and the like that the insulated Cats dish up in the name of footballing expertise, and catch-up\ keep-Geelong-in-the-game before the final quarter through the umpires' interferences in the game; all part of creating a Geelong-opposition loss that is now as ingrained, endemic and corrupt as Gillon needs and wishes it to be.

Feeling sick, CBizkit? It will be attempted - I feel sick, as well, about the game even though I wear a ring of confidence about our abilities to win and win well.

This margin of excellence we hold over Geelong will be prevalent throughout the game and will therefore be countered, eroded and killed by any means after the first bounce.

For those who, in their blindness and good faith, believe it won't happen, consider the Bulldogs win against Brisbane Lions last night. Check the free kick differential. One AFL executive wish achieved, with another to come and experimented with from the MFC/Geelong game. 

Okay.

3 hours ago, Demon17 said:

On the contrary.

Its a big ask for the oldest team in the comp to beat the youngest, hungriest and most AA team, away from home when they couldn't do it at home only 3 weeks ago after Dees giving them a 7 goal start.

And barely performing against a banged up star-less, heroic and no forward structure GWS 2 days ago

And having won only 1 game in the month of August , and that by barely 2 goals against the 10th placed saints.

Does this help?  because its reality for the cats where I stand.

Helps a lot. As I said I don’t think this group is rattled at all by this kind of task, it’s just nervous fans like me that use stats like this to worry!

But these are all the positive affirmations I’m going to be telling myself every day this week :)

We got our email for ticketing starting tomorrow.  Any idea how much tickets will be for category 1?  Can't see anything on the Ticketmaster website.

3 hours ago, Dwight Schrute said:

I think our big advantage on reflection is going to be the open spaces of Optus, Geelong do seem a little bit banged up, and have had to come the hard way with an older list. if we can make the ground as big as possible and guys like Langdon, ANB and co make them chase us all day they may really struggle. 

they'll probably need us to be a little bit off in order to win

Agree. Our game is built for big grounds. One because we spread and run in waves in transition.

But the key benefit is the comparative advantage we have. We have the best defensive web/zone and move across the ground to stop the switch and transition better than any other club. Small grounds, eg Kardinia Park, reduces that advantage.

Would not surprise me if they look to switch a bit more and spread early doors, as they did against the lions, to make the cats have to run .

1 minute ago, binman said:

Agree. Our game is built for big grounds. One because we spread and run in waves in transition.

But the key benefit is the comparative advantage we have. We have the best defensive web/zone and move across the ground to stop the switch and transition better than any other club. Small grounds, eg Kardinia Park, reduces that advantage.

Would not surprise me if they look to switch a bit more and spread early doors, as they did against the lions, to make the cats have to run .

For sure Binman. Stretch them out of position and get them doing the hard yards early. 

Cant start this game poorly. Dont get beaten in centre clearances and our fitness plus weeks rest will handle them

Just done some research and it looks like we've never defeated Geelong 3 times in a season. 
I'm pretty excited to watch the Dees create history on the weekend

Head Street (Near New St. ) Elwood

 

I’ve been thinking about this more today and I reckon the whole “it’s difficult to beat a team 3 times in a season” thing isn’t what it seems for this game. For the round 23 game, the Cats could almost look at that as a win for them. If it wasn’t for Dangerfield and Selwood off for most of that last qtr, I think they probably would have won. I have no doubt Goodwin would have reviewed it pretty heavily and I think we were lucky to scrape through. I also sense that Goodwin would have been preparing for the Cats even before the semi-final. He’s had two good looks at them since we beat them to prepare. 
 

Despite my MFCSS running wild, I sense that like what the Eagles did to us in the PF in ‘18, I really believe we’ll jump them early and the damage will be done before they can properly land a counter punch.

2 hours ago, A F said:

Maybe. My Geelong supporting half of the family likes to tell me they have a bit of support over there from Polly Farmer days and they seemed to pack the stadium the other night. I know half the crowd were Freo or West Coast players, but still. :P

They do have a lot of support over here in WA, like North pre Eagles days with plenty of WA boys and following the sides they went over to. Cats had plenty starting with Farmer, Marshall, Peake, Mullarkey, Cousins, Bairstow all pre Eagles 

Beating a team 3 times in a season actually gets easier the longer you go when it's a side with Jeelong's list demographic. 

Dangerfield (20) & Selwood (14) only combined for 34 touches against GWS, who were terrible all day.

Parfitt out now is the cherry on top.

We're capable of dominating the midfield battle this week.

So just caught up on FIRST CRACK from last night. David King is a deadset nufty.

He talked about Geelong's tall forwardline and how it would trouble us, yet didn't talk about who Geelong played and their injury list.

Staggering really.

29 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

I sense that like what the Eagles did to us in the PF in ‘18, I really believe we’ll jump them early and the damage will be done before they can properly land a counter punch.

I have this feeling too

Check your emails Demonlanders.

The MFC membership team have sent emails out today so encourage us to give our barcodes to family in friends to go to the game and support on our behalf which is being permitted.

I have my mother, sister and brother-in-law going and have sent them two of my old scarfs in the mail.

Melbourne members are first in the queue for seats ahead of Eagles and Dockers members tomorrow between 12pm and 4pm. Demon members can purchase 8 tickets max!

Didnt think they’d allow that sort of thing but so happy I was wrong!