GRAND FINAL: Melbourne vs Western Bulldogs

[Demons11 7,021]

8 hours ago, wizardinoz said:

Not true. Dogs have to do 7 days as reported on Fox.

👍

[picket fence 17,170]

7 hours ago, adonski said:

Port have a far superior forward line than the Dogs. The biggest worry heading in would be the smalls. Port also have the better defence over the dogs. 

We cover the dogs in both the fwd + backline. If the mids can at least break even we should win.

Sorry to disagree Dogs Forwards far more potent, as evidenced last night. Was that Mitch Hannans best ever game??. Port were sooo overconfident and it showed last night

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

My thoughts:

- I really wanted to play Port

- I really wish Brisbane won last week

- The Bulldogs’ midfield has the same quality as ours but theirs is deeper

- Our forward line is slightly better than their backline

- Our backline should cover their forwards but Weightman is a factor

- Stef Martin makes them a lot better just by at least nullifying his opponents

- We won’t be able to walk out of contests like we did with Geelong, the pressure will be immense

[picket fence 17,170]

Early prediction Dees by 1 point then

[Zimma 107]

We have been challenged all season and passed them all. Early on everyone doubted how long we could keep the unbeaten run going. It was going to be the clash of the undefeated Dee's v Dogs and we comprehensively beat them. We played the Lions and the first half the Lions were outstanding evrrything on there terms, and up by 5 goals and we beat em. 

The 2nd time we played the Dogs we were off by 10-20% and they played very well with the rub of the green on many decisions, yet I still felt in the last quarter we could have pinched the game.

The cats round 23, 7 goals down in the graveyard of yesteryear and we won.

It all comes down to effort, want and trust like so many things in life. Our boys have been unbelievable this year and I believe and trust the boys to complete there mission and beat the Dogs again.

Over the whole year Dee's and Dogs have been the best teams, we have to beat the best to prove we are the best.... Let's get em Dee's 

[BDA 22,755]

Since the comeback at Kardinia in Rd 23 we've been playing with real confidence and belief. 2 dominant finals wins. Beat the Lions by the equivalent of 10 goals (if we kicked straight) and we obliterated the cats.

We're on a mission and i have no doubt we will deliver a performance in 2 weeks time. Whether that's good enough to win time will tell, the doggies are worthy opponents, but i reckon they'll be very worried about dealing with our weapons. Maxy is in rare form. Our mids are flying, BB taking contested marks, kozzy will be buzzing about. We have the system and can apply the heat to take away their main weapon, their outside ball movement. We neutralised them in the game at Marvel this year and we will set-up to do so again. Their win at the G came when we were in a form slump and they benefited from some questionable umpiring, particularly in the first half.

I'm confident we will get the game on our terms and end our drought

Really looking forward to the next 2 weeks and can't wait for the game. 

[loges 6,767]

Lets face it, both losers in the preliminary finals were rubbish so what do you take out of the results? We certainly won't be complacent. We have 2 weeks to assess their strengths and weaknesses. We are very good at taking away opposition strengths, bring the tackling intensity and set up the defence and we can strangle them like we did the first time. They like speed on the ball so have to be able to slow the game tempo when needed. We can definitely win this but need to play a solid 4 quarters

[Mickey 4,684]

Dogs have done a great job getting through another finals campaign, but I'm a bit surprised at the fear so many people have for them.

I think they will need everything going right for them to beat us. They have a great midfield, but so do we. Their backline is very suspect, outside of Dale and Daniel who aren't really lockdown defenders. Naughty is amazing, but we all know how Hannan can have an amazing game then go missing.

I still think they were lucky to beat us in round 19, and only did so because we failed to capitalise on our chances in the middle of our bad run of form.

[D4Life 2,475]

9 hours ago, —coach— said:

Alright so tips on how to play this, my wife follows the dogs, me and the kids are all demons 😬

I’d make her quarantine in the kennel!

[Bombay Airconditioning 6,396]

Some of these comments….Suddenly people are jumping of Melbourne. The Dogs beat the Bombers who haven’t won a final in however many day, the Lions with an intentional rushed behind, and they flogged Port, a team which struggled in big games for most of the year and choked in a home prelim last year. Our team has made changes with our fwd line through out the season but now we are now playing with a synergy that will deliver us the premiership. Our defence is the best in the league, all of our fwds are genuine weapons and have all had games where they have kicked multiple goals. We have the no.1 ruckman in the comp, Gawn had a career best game against Geelong, Jackson is a freak, I’ll back Oliver, Trac and Viney against Macrae, Bont and Libba any day. I’m sick of hearing about Caleb Daniel, yes he has good vision and uses the ball well but the majority of his kicks to me seem to be barely 15 metres. I was nervous last week but I was adamant if we win the prelim we’ll win the flag and that hasn’t changed for me. We need to tighten right up defensively and not be caught just guarding space allowing the Dogs to pick their way through. 
 

This is our year, the Mighty Demons will be bringing the Premiership home.

[ucanchoose 1,816]

Number 22 did our round 19 game so we should at least get a better go with the umpires

[BigFez 1,462]

Big defensive games for Spargo and ANB will be critical.  Dale and Daniel never waste a possession, they distribute the ball amazingly well and set up a lot of scoring chains.  Can't let them waltz out of our backline with no pressure on their disposal.

 

[Gorgoroth 12,955]

Viney to Libba, Harmes to Bont and he has to hit his legs every chance possible.

Martin hobbled around half the game, won’t keep up with Gawn or Dogga. 
Must watch Smith slowly creeping goal side at stoppages and suddenly being 10 meters alone.

Id play Petty on Naughtin early and May on Schache. 

Who ever tackles weightman must be told if it goes high from him ducking, rip his head off and bury him into the ground, the free is already given, but make him not want to do it again or knock him out again.

When Sparrow is half forward I’d play him on Daniel. 
 

The interesting conundrum they have is Keith will be back but do they keep Cordy in? It makes them slower in their back half with both and who ever has Cordy take him to the goal line. 

[Webber 10,468]

51 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

Stef Martin makes them a lot better just by at least nullifying his opponents

He’s a liability against two ruckmen who contribute to the game otherwise in ways he can only dream about, witness Friday night. Gawn and Jackson are going to be an enormous factor. Martin is better than the youngster they had previously, but not by much. . 

[At the break of Gawn 4,460]

I think it’s easy to forget that Port beat the Dogs at Marvel in rnd 23 and the Dogs had an even better side playing that game. 
 

Port Adelaide simply didn’t show up. The Dogs eclipsed them in contested possession by 25 in the first qtr. It was an AFL record. There’s no way the Dogs are getting anywhere near that against us. In fact, even when we lost to them in rnd 19 we won the contested possession by 20 overall. We’ve been the number 1 team with scores from stoppages they last 4 weeks, which was our weakness in rnd 19. Like others on here, I think if we are even in the contest and it’s a dry game, we will win.

[D4Life 2,475]

9 hours ago, CYB said:

Stat wise it was very even that second game. If memory serves me right we got murdered by the umps and d50 stoppages and inaccuracy in front.
 

update: 11 - 25 free kick count.

2-10 last Quarter.

 

The Dogs best players pretty much all played well, including the 3 in yellow as shown by the free kick count.

Demons best players generally had an ordinary night.

If we bring close to our best we win!

[Cassiew 1,903]

I’m assuming someone’s already pointed out the similarities to 1954? Beaten Geelong in the preliminary to face Footscray in the grand final. 
Just hope history doesn’t repeat itself 

[Clintosaurus 7,849]

3 goal win coming. Get around it.

[gOLLy 401]

8 hours ago, Pates said:

We didn’t tag Bont last time, he murdered us. I wouldn’t say no to first bounce Trac goes next to him but either way there needs to be a plan. 

The big thing they did which every team who beat us did was not allow our defenders the chance to mark. They are very good at the fall of the ball in the forward line. 

We will be favourites but I see it as line ball. Dogs have their bite back. 

They need to worry about us.

[Engorged Onion 10,215]

2 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

3 goal win coming. Get around it.

we will be up by 7 in the last with 12min to go....gulp!🤢

[spirit of norm smith 16,461]

1 hour ago, Clint Bizkit said:

My thoughts:

- I really wanted to play Port

- I really wish Brisbane won last week

- The Bulldogs’ midfield has the same quality as ours but theirs is deeper

- Our forward line is slightly better than their backline

- Our backline should cover their forwards but Weightman is a factor

- Stef Martin makes them a lot better just by at least nullifying his opponents

- We won’t be able to walk out of contests like we did with Geelong, the pressure will be immense

Agree mostly with this , except their backline cannot be taken lightly.  Keath probably replaces Gardner.  Cordy is a big bodied defender.  Wood and Williams are hard and skilled.  Dale and Daniel are excellent players who setup the play.  Duryea just gets it done.  

[ProperDee 1,698]

All of this worrying about match ups is doing my head in! It’s simple.  It’s a Grand Final. GO THE KNUCKLE! No send offs in our game! 😜

[one_demon 826]

They've been getting better and better through the finals.  I'm hoping the two week break will halt their momentum.

Edited September 11, 2021 by one_demon

[one_demon 826]

Watching the dogs yesterday, all I could see was weapons everywhere 

[rufus 1,162]

They are a brilliantly coached side and they will have plans to take away our strengths. Beveridge is not too stubborn and will put multiple players in negative roles to take away any of our advantages. I hope we are not too stubborn and are prepared to look at multiple shut down roles.

They are going to hack, knock and scrap the ball forward in every contest to get it in there before we have had time to setup. If they get it in quickly we are going to get pulverised as we can't match them at ground level in their forward half.

The game will be decided by one thing: The amount of pressure we apply to them at the absolute inside of the contest. If we can restrict their ability even hack it forward, we will have a decent chance. Our mids are going to need to be better than they have been all year (and they have been great) and in fairness that is what it should take to win a flag.

I firmly believe to win we will need to keep the Dogs to <65 points. With the level of pressure they applied last night it is going to be hard for us to score more than 9 or 10 goals. We are going to need to make it an arm wrestle and hopefully be the ones who bob up at the right minute.