The gap in time between their last meeting and the 2021 Grand Final will be 2 months and a day. The Demons have to make up 20 points (plus 1) to win the flag.

MELBOURNE

B: C. Salem 3 S. May 1 H. Petty 35 

HB: M. Hibberd 14 J. Lever 8 T. Rivers 24

C: J. Jordon 23 C. Petracca 5 E. Langdon 15

HF: B. Fritsch 31 T. McDonald 25 A. Neal-Bullen 30

F: C. Spargo 9 B. Brown 50 K. Pickett 36

Foll: M. Gawn 11 C. Oliver 13 J. Viney 7

I/C: A. Brayshaw 10 J. Harmes 4 J. Hunt 29 L. Jackson 6

Sub: T. Sparrow 32 Emerg: T. Bedford 12 J. Smith 44 S. Weideman 26

In: J. Harmes

Out: A. vandenBerg 

WESTERN BULLDOGS

B: E. Richards 20 A. Keath 42 B. Williams 34

HB: T. Duryea 15 Z. Cordy 12 B. Dale 31 

C: J. Macrae 11 B. Smith 6 C. Daniel 35 

HF: R. Garcia 38 A. Naughton 33 C. Weightman 19 

F: J. Ugle-Hagan J. Bruce 17 L. Hunter 7 

Foll: T. English 44 T. Liberatore 21. M. Bontempelli 4

I/C: M. Hannan 29 J. Johannisen 39 J.  Schache 13 R. Smith 37

Sub: A. Scott 28 Emerg: H. Crozier 9 L. McNeil 30 L. Young 2

In: M.Hannan T.Liberatore J.Schache

Out: H.Crozier (omitted) J. Dunkley (isolating)  L.McNeil (omitted) 

That game was when we were having our little form dip, having just come off the draw v Hawthorn.

I am confident we will be much more 'on' this time around.

I have lived the last 20 years hoping the MFC would become a power again. We are there now. The future ahead looks good for the club and its members/  supporters. Hopefully the success of regularly playing finals football over this decade will bring a new crop of young supporters to make up for old people like me. I feel my job is done I can fade away into the covid wilderness happy that the club I have followed for 61 years will continue. I pray we win but I have learner over the last 57 years how to accept defeat. I think both teams are evenly matched unlike the PF's I think it will be a close run game.  Go Dees. 

Not sure if there’s a thread on this..

So do the coaches go back to the game we lost against the doggies and the game we won?

In the game we lost they had

Naughton kick 2, Bruce kick 2, Hannan kick 2, bont kick 2 and ugle-hagan kick 1

Their tall forward line stretched our backline like crazy.

Now you take out Bruce and Ugle-Hagan for height wise. Ugle-hagan didn’t set the world on fire but still requires a tall.

They replace bruce with english, they’d rather bruce and now schache is down there 

who takes who?

This is about the talls but can add who takes the smalls also

Edited September 13, 20213 yr by Demongirl35
Error

Didn't we kick 9-11 or something like that

Even though we lost that one i thought in the second half of that game Ben Brown showed why we recruited him. To me that’s when he started to click.

Just watched that game today, we played average lots of over hand balling and missing targets.

They sat on Salem but now we have little Bowey to deliver out of the back half also.

Laslty the bulldogs got an absolute armchair ride from the umps that day, frees 25 -11 in their favour, we got ping for throws when they were chucking it all day.

That my biggest fear, is the dogs seem to get the rub of the green fairly often.

6 minutes ago, Rocknroll said:

Didn't we kick 9-11 or something like that

David King mentioned Champion do some kind of 'probable score' analysis of every game based on the AFL average conversion from the spot where every shot is taken. Said the analysis of that game returned a draw (73 each or something). They got a few from frees that night too.

However, they were also without some quality mids if i recall correctly (maybe Dunkley and Treloar). Midfield depth is where we are going to be most stretched and need to make it hard for them to get it out of the clinches cleanly so they can't burn us in front of the contest.

11 minutes ago, Rocknroll said:

Didn't we kick 9-11 or something like that

Yep we did 
20 scoring shots each 9 goals to 13 
our disposal efficiency 60% v 69%
wet day

and of course 
Free Kicks Us 11 Them 25 (no surprises there)

 

I suspect very little will be taken out of the last game.

It was wet. Which helped their case given their edge in kicking skills. And did brown and Tmac no favours

There was no crowd, just a big empty G. Which made for a pretty low energy vibe. 

We were at the end of our loading phase. And as a result our pressure was nowhere near it has bene for the last six games. Which meant they were under les pressure when kicking and handballing than they will be in the GF.

We didn't employ any tags., letting Daniels run free and not putting nay defensive work into Libba, Bont or Mcrae.

They brought an extra extra to the stoppages (so two extra) - and we didn't bother even bringing one more to the stoppages. 

Goody didn't show employ any new tricks or tactics. Gave then nothing.

We we were very inaccurate. They took their chances.

And we have not lost a game since.

The first time we played them is the one to look at in terms of lessons for the GF.

Short story was that we took their game away from them completely. 

 

Edited September 13, 20213 yr by binman

they kicked six goals from forward stoppages - which was the major outlier and something that we shuld be able to address. This was why Champion data suggested the predicted outcome was a draw.

The cats were not a good indicator (given they have the worst small forwards in the league), but we did pretty well vs Brisbane in this area (except for Cameron in the first quarter) - but I think have improved with Bowey, and Hibberd as small defenders rather than having Smith in the team. We need to make sure midfielders (such as Bont, Smith, Treloar) are defended more closely this time around.

6 minutes ago, binman said:

I suspect very little will be taken out of the last game.

It was wet. Which helped their case given their edge in kicking skills. And did brown and Tmac no favours

There was no crowd, just a big empty G. Which made for a pretty low energy vibe. 

We were at the end of our loading phase. And as a result our pressure was nowhere near it has bene for the last six games. Which meant they were under les pressure when kicking and handballing than they will be in the GF.

We didn't employ any tags., letting Daniels run free and not putting nay defensive work into Libba, Bont or Mcrae.

They brought an extra extra to the stoppages (so two extra) - and we didn't bother even bringing one more to the stoppages. 

Goody didn't show employ any new tricks or tactics. Gave then nothing.

We we were very inaccurate. They took their chances.

And we have not lost a game since.

The first time we played them is the one to look at in terms of lessons for the GF.

Short story was that we took their game away from them completely. 

 

Yep I remember thinking the same, didn't want to show them anything, didn't tag just basically let the players play and we still closed within 4 points late in the game. . Sure it will be different in 2 weeks time

29 minutes ago, Demongirl35 said:

Not sure if there’s a thread on this..

So do the coaches go back to the game we lost against the doggies and the game we won?

In the game we lost they had

Naughton kick 2, Bruce kick 2, Hannan kick 2, bont kick 2 and ugle-hagan kick 1

Their tall forward line stretched our backline like crazy.

Now you take out Bruce and Ugle-Hagan for height wise. Ugle-hagan didn’t set the world on fire but still requires a tall.

They replace bruce with english, they’d rather bruce and now schache is down there 

who takes who?

This is about the talls but can add who takes the smalls also

They didn't "stretch" us really with only 6 marks inside 50. (We had 9.)

Melbourne had 24 shots to WBD 21 but Melbourne kicked 9.8 to WBD 13.4 (excluding touched/rushed).

The free kicks were 11-25.

Our defence let goals over the back which was poor and we were badly beaten in stoppages 31-37 despite winning the hit outs 67-18.

I remember around that time when we lost to GWS and drew with Hawks and the club didn't seem too concerned. I did wonder if they were concentrating on higher things, ie. long term gain vs short term pain.

I like the idea the Goody gave 'em nothing. Like when Allan Border first unleashed Warne on the Poms. Nothing but regulation leggies until the first Test. Then blam, the full repertoire.

 

GO DEMONS!!

47 minutes ago, DemonSam said:

Laslty the bulldogs got an absolute armchair ride from the umps that day, frees 25 -11 in their favour, we got ping for throws when they were chucking it all day.

That my biggest fear, is the dogs seem to get the rub of the green fairly often.

Interestingly, dogs got 6 fewer frees than Port on the weekend. Given how the last two games have been umpired, hopefully it's something similar in 2 weeks time.

52 minutes ago, Fat Tony said:

They didn't "stretch" us really with only 6 marks inside 50. (We had 9.)

Melbourne had 24 shots to WBD 21 but Melbourne kicked 9.8 to WBD 13.4 (excluding touched/rushed).

The free kicks were 11-25.

Our defence let goals over the back which was poor and we were badly beaten in stoppages 31-37 despite winning the hit outs 67-18.

Well kind of did in a sense lever had to man up more..

he couldn’t roam around as much and take those marks as he usually does