GRAND FINAL: Melbourne vs Western Bulldogs

[Demonland 66,672]

25 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

She just made the nightly news. Pathetic.

 

[Roost it far 6,275]

Demons by 27. I've been saying since the season started that we'll win the Premiership and the Dogs don't scare me. Gawn, Petracca, Oliver, Viney will rip them to shreds.

[Skuit 9,382]

48 minutes ago, Luther said:

It harks all the way back to Roosy's philosophy... defence wins premierships.

All hail the great man.

This isn't intended as a criticism of any of these coaches in any way, but it's quite crazy the circuitous route we've taken to get to this point over the past ten years, or even just the past five or so. Following Bailey's free-flowing game-plan (forget Neeld), Roos came in an immediately instilled a stolid if uninspiring defensive approach, as was his style, but if only to stem the bleeding. Goody then takes over with all guns blazing and we become the highest scoring team by some margin, but leak like a sieve. 

Somehow since then we've now found ourselves as one of the best defensive teams that has ever graced an AFL paddock (actually through shrewd recruiting, and at least by far eclipsing anything MFC in my time), while retaining decent firepower up front. This grand final is definitely a product of all those parts. Goody rejected the approach of his mentor - knowing it would likely get us nowhere - but then probably had to go back a bit and embrace some of that philosophy, and rebuild his team from the back-end. 

[Binmans PA 26,589]

1 hour ago, 3183 Dee said:

Just chatting to my mad Bombers neighbour: says he and all his crew are right behind the Dees.

Haha, predictable. They've forgotten about the tackle on Petracca in the 4th and are focusing on those Weightman frees. 

[Fork 'em 6,607]

3 minutes ago, Skuit said:

 Somehow since then we've now found ourselves as one of the best defensive teams that has ever graced an AFL paddock (actually through shrewd recruiting, and at least by far eclipsing anything MFC in my time), while retaining decent firepower up front. This grand final is definitely a product of all those parts. Goody rejected the approach of his mentor - knowing it would likely get us nowhere - but then probably had to go back a bit and embrace some of that philosophy, and rebuild his team from the back-end. 

Goody copped abit of flack for spending big on defenders Lever and May.
Paying off big time.

[Skuit 9,382]

13 minutes ago, Gorgoroth said:

And no mask. And the scarf is a 2017 EJ club which only has 500 members. The club can provide all names to police. Here’s to a 5k fine.

I probably would have done the same [censored] as kid. Maybe we should lay off her a bit until the full details emerge. If she's a young adult or underage, I hope she cops the fine and is then left to deal with that out of the public spotlight. It's not representative of the Dogs' fan-base, and shouldn't be made out to be (not suggesting you have done so Gorg). This isn't the motivation we should be tapping into. Every club has its undesirable fans, and we're not immune. 

[Binmans PA 26,589]

52 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

That wont work. Did you see Martin last night? He's cooked.

He'll compete in the ruck, but I don't think he is any chance of keeping up with Gawn or Jackson around the ground.

It's an area we can, and need to, exploit.

I wonder if they'll park Max on someone like Schache so he can intercept, and also free up Lever. He basically played on Hawkins in the slow plays the other night.

[Jaded No More 59,538]

32 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Just watche dgame again.

Umps killed us 19-6 at 3/4 time. Some howlers they scored direct goals.

 

We need to be fully prepared that this will happen again. The Dogs have had a dream run from the umpires all year. 

[Clayton van Oliver 1,704]

9 minutes ago, Skuit said:

It's grand-final week AmDam (ahem, fortnight). Need to back yourself in!  

Double down on the Demon delirium?

[DeeZee 6,889]

Dogs don’t really deploy a stopper or tagger in their line up do they?

[P-man 13,285]

I’m struggling to understand the narrative developing that the Dogs are the “story of the year” and it will be the “greatest flag ever” if they win it.

Why? Because they lost games they shouldn’t towards the end of the regular season which dropped them into fifth? Is that what makes them the “story of the season”? Failure?

I don’t mind the Dogs. I’m just a bit perplexed how their story trumps that of a historical cellar dweller finally coming good to dominate all comers and break a 57 year premiership drought.

But maybe I’m biased.

Edited September 12, 2021 by P-man

[Skuit 9,382]

11 minutes ago, P-man said:

I’m struggling to understand the narrative developing that the Dogs are the “story of the year” and it will be the “greatest flag ever” if they win it.

Why? Because they lost games they shouldn’t towards the end of the regular season which dropped them into fifth? Is that what makes them the “story of the season”? Failure?

I don’t mind the Dogs. I’m just a bit perplexed how their story trumps that if of a historical cellar dweller finally coming good to dominate all comers and break a 57 year premierships drought.

But maybe I’m biased.

Edit. Forgot the serious content and language warning for the above. Teenage Demons fans should be advised to go back and watch whatever wholesome online content they usually do. 

Edited September 12, 2021 by Skuit

[Boots and all 928]

5 hours ago, one_demon said:

Dogs will properly use Stefan Martin to tag Gawn.  They'll use Schache as a defensive forward on Lever.  

No way Martin will keep up, Gawny will run him ragged. He looked totally out of sorts, even out of shape, last night.

[Watson11 1,963]

1 hour ago, jnrmac said:

Schache tagged lever. Daniel was left alone 'out the back' - cannot do that again. Langdon played on JJ, Brayshaw on Hunter

That might happen in the GF but Schache played defence on Luke Jackson last time, even following him into the ruck. One area we have a big advantage is our forward mix, with BB, TMac, Jackson/Gawn, Fritta going to stretch their defence if it’s dry. I have a feeling TMac is going to have a big GF.

[Jaded No More 59,538]

12 minutes ago, P-man said:

I’m struggling to understand the narrative developing that the Dogs are the “story of the year” and it will be the “greatest flag ever” if they win it.

Why? Because they lost games they shouldn’t towards the end of the regular season which dropped them into fifth? Is that what makes them the “story of the season”? Failure?

I don’t mind the Dogs. I’m just a bit perplexed how their story trumps that of a historical cellar dweller finally coming good to dominate all comers and break a 57 year premierships drought.

But maybe I’m biased.

Not buying it either. We had the hardest run home of all the top 5 sides. We got stuck on a plane for 8 hours. We quarantined in Perth and played a 60 minute final quarter against West Coast and played Geelong in Geelong. 
We won all those games and finished top of the ladder. Yet we still travelled to Adelaide for finals and then went on to quarantine in WA. We took our chances and finished 1st! Dogs only have themselves to blame for dropping the double chance and finishing 5th after being top 2 for almost the entire season. 
They’ve had a very hard run in finals with travel. Finish top 4 as they should have, and it’s a non issue. So cry me a bloody river Dogs. Always with the [censored] underdog story. 
They’ve had a dream run from the umpires all year. Don’t hear them mentioning that!

[Willmoy1947 3,824]

1 hour ago, longsuffering said:

Stefan looked very slow last night and I think Jackson has it all over English so I don't think the rucks will be a worry. It is getting it out of the centre bounce which concerns me. Why don't we tag the taggers for the first 5-10 minutes or what I really liked was starting Kossie in there.

We tag and the best wingers in the comp will  orchestrate as many, if not more  free kicks than usual

[DemonOX 8,551]

1 hour ago, Demonland said:

Poor form. 

 

Some people are just scum and then you have to try and explain why someone would do that, to your kids. It’s pathetic. 

[Earl Hood 5,850]

3 minutes ago, willmoy said:

We tag and the best wingers in the comp will  orchestrate as many, if not more  free kicks than usual

Good wing players or whingers? It took me 5 autocorrect attempts to actually write whingers! I hope we get the same umpires who officiated our Preliminary Final, they were very good and if they keep to their minimalist approach we can break even on frees I hope. Although Weightman is working at a different level, ducking at the first hint of contact. I wonder if a Sheedy type coach would be discussing it at every opportunity in the next fortnight, you know waxing hypothetically that they hope the umpires aren’t drawn into the same errors we saw vs the Bombers. You know no accusations just putting it out there. Hoping the umpires actually start to think twice before they see some blonde hair vibrate and assume an illegal tackle. 

[Jaded No More 59,538]

Ummm guys… we are in a grand final!

[jnrmac 19,394]

1 hour ago, Skuit said:

Following Bailey's free-flowing game-plan (forget Neeld), Roos came in an immediately instilled a stolid if uninspiring defensive approach, as was his style, but if only to stem the bleeding. Goody then takes over with all guns blazing and we become the highest scoring team by some margin, but leak like a sieve. 

Bailey's team had high scores but gave up some big scores as well. 

One thing having Roos steady the ship is that we were able to recruit players from oter clubs. It's kinda forgotten but no-one wanted to come to the Dees.

We got Vince then Lewis and that enabled us to turn the corner and become an attractive destination. Lever and May were two huge sgnings that would not have been possible in the previous decade or so.

 

[loges 6,272]

Max will be the difference against soft as butter English and out of shape Martin.

[Bitter but optimistic 21,560]

Schache !!!!

Soft as butter!!

edit

haha. Just saw your post Loges.  They’ve got two “ Western Stars” then!!

Edited September 12, 2021 by Bitter but optimistic

[dimmy 1,158]

Oh well we were Premiershi[p favourites for 24 hours.

Both sides palyed thehir A+  Game over the weekend . It wiill be interesting qwho keeps their standard up will win.

[OhMyDees 1,380]

[Skuit 9,382]

3 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Bailey's team had high scores but gave up some big scores as well. 

One thing having Roos steady the ship is that we were able to recruit players from oter clubs. It's kinda forgotten but no-one wanted to come to the Dees.

We got Vince then Lewis and that enabled us to turn the corner and become an attractive destination. Lever and May were two huge sgnings that would not have been possible in the previous decade or so.

 

Indeed, looking back on our 2011 margins (as a repeat of 2001 and other seasons), it's crazy how erratic we were, when compared to right now. It's often forgotten that even after conceding 233 points against Geelong, we were still actually right in the hunt for the finals. When we were looking semi-decent in 2017, I posted something along the lines of not being ready yet as a supporter - I wanted a run of supreme dominance first. I never imagined dominance would look like this; not blowing teams off the park, but never remotely looking like losing. But I don't agree with your thesis jnr. Vince and Lewis and co. were probably the right signings at the time, but they aren't what ultimately brought Lever and May to the club. That was Goodwin and his vision. Roos did well, but any competent coach with the same mandate should have been able to do the same, in my opinion.