It's cliche, but that was workmanlike. The connection in the forward 50 at times could be lacklustre, but for tonight, I put on my Melbourne circa 2015/2016 glasses and saw what it must have been like to be a Gold Coast Suns supporter.

Their endeavor was top notch. When their chemistry and ball movement clicked, they were quite exciting to watch. But ultimately, class and decision making skills sunk them. A top 4 team will punish you if you don't take your chances and that's what we mostly did.

Positives of course were Tracc. There is a scene in Boogie Nights when Dirk Diggler sweeps the adult industry film awards and has to make speech after speech. By the end of the ceremony, and his umpteenth award, he merely says 'thank you' and walks off. It feels like that with Tracc these days. What more can you say? Let's just hope he doesn't get injured!

Bowey was magnificent tonight. Losing Salo was a blow, but this kid plays that half back quarter back role amazingly well. Rarely wasted a possession, played above his height and gave us a real steady hand moving forward. Dogga was worth his weight in gold and reemphasized why we need to sign him to at least a three year extension. Gawny was feeling every bit of the humidity and Dogga's energy (especially when they sent Chol to jump into him) kept that ruck ticking over.

Negatives for mine were Hunt. Rarely touched the pill and when he did, I was underwhelmed. He will need to get his act together as we have Lever coming back next week or the week after. Hibbo isn't far off. Petty is a few weeks off. Players will have to make way for those premiership players and if he doesn't get his act together, he will be dropped. Joel Smith is barely putting a foot wrong and Tommo is playing pretty well but might be a bit tentative after knee surgery.

Anyway, Essendon next week and they won't want to start the year 0-3. It's tough to dig yourself out of that hole so we will need to be fully switched on. But as for tonight, I won't be ordering it on a Name a Game DVD but it's nice to have the four points in the bank.

 

Edited March 26, 20223 yr by Colin B. Flaubert
Went a bit overboard with Bowza with part of my Salo comparison

We are a good team !

32 minutes ago, Wadda We Sing said:

Kozzie seemed just inches off it so many times tonight as he often does. When he gets it, his movement is just so sublime and hes so so quick. Will tear a game to sheds soon.....and that goal.

But misses sitters that DEMAND to be nailed!

43 minutes ago, layzie said:

Think it's awesome to see Touk Miller finally getting the praise he deserves 

He was AA last year. Not exactly unrecognised. 

Relieved to win ugly.

I thought it may be close and we would have a win between 10 and 20 points.

The Gold Coast Suns have certainly improved from last time we played them.

The Melbourne Demons players looked absolutely cooked at 3/4 time. The heat and humidity really took it's toll.

Kicking 5 behinds and no goals in the 4th quarter was a little disappointing. However, we got the win and that's all that really matters.

I would definitely only have one training session this coming week and give our players plenty of rest before we play next Friday night against the Essendon Bombers.

Fingers crossed Jake Lever returns next match too.

Edited March 26, 20223 yr by Supreme_Demon

To be eligible for nomination, the player must be under the age of 21 at 1 January that year, and have played ten or fewer AFL games as of the start of the season. A player can only be nominated once per season; if a player is suspended during the season, he may be nominated, but will not be eligible to win the award.

I ask " Why not" ?   He qualifies.

For their first home game of the year against the reigning premiers after a big road win it was another pitiful crowd at Metricon. No wonder they never include the attendance figure in any match reports up there. 

7 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Those inbreds at Lygon Street never cease to amaze me.

 

Reading the comments, they don't actually think Trac staged. They are using it to have a go at Jon Ralph because the don't think Lochy O'Brien staged

4 hours ago, David-Demon said:

To be eligible for nomination, the player must be under the age of 21 at 1 January that year, and have played ten or fewer AFL games as of the start of the season. A player can only be nominated once per season; if a player is suspended during the season, he may be nominated, but will not be eligible to win the award.

I ask " Why not" ?   He qualifies.

They should add 'and not have won a premiership'...

What’s the record for intercept possessions in a match? 16 for Bowey last night puts him second in the league by 1 so far behind Frosty.

His ball handling last night was out of this world.

Struggle and win. Struggle and lose. I know which one I prefer.

Glad King and Rankine were non-starters.

next ! 

56 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

What’s the record for intercept possessions in a match? 16 for Bowey last night puts him second in the league by 1 so far behind Frosty.

His ball handling last night was out of this world.

Totally agree. His disposal of the Ball is outstanding for a player with 9 Games to his credit. In fact it is 1st class. Can only get better.

2 hours ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

For their first home game of the year against the reigning premiers after a big road win it was another pitiful crowd at Metricon. No wonder they never include the attendance figure in any match reports up there. 

Sounded like the crowd was 50% Demons supporters when watching on TV

Was at the game last night.

Petracca had a pretty big collision with Viney in the second. He looked pretty sore and absolutely cooked after that.

You'd watch him at stoppages with hands on hips looking wrecked. Then the ball would go up and he'd just hit the boost button again and will himself through the packs. Incredible.

Geez Jacko and Bowey are just impressive kids. 

Kozzie thoroughly deserved that goal in the third. He'd worked his backside off through that quarter.

A really grinding win but we had lots of those at the start of the year last year too. Keep banking the points boys.

Good to be at a game for the first time in 11.5 years - see lots more - had forgotten that 

Tracc looked stuffed a few times

Entry inside 50 was not flash

Looked like Suns avoiding Langdon wing

Petty and Lever straight back in when ready

Umpiring very frustrating this year

Bowey the man

11 minutes ago, BAMF said:

Sounded like the crowd was 50% Demons supporters when watching on TV

It felt more like 80% Dees

The noise was outrageous. 

the boos for the umpires from our side as well as goals were very loud

great to be able to do the old fashioned “baaaalllllll”………”yessssss”

Good win. Tough conditions. Definite danger game going in and I was always just hoping for a grinding win. 

Conditions made it tough to pack mark. We could not get that intercept mark in the D50 or a mark down the line.  Took away one of our great strengths. 

Happy to just get the points. Bowey and Jackson were very impressive. 

 

41 minutes ago, David-Demon said:

Totally agree. His disposal of the Ball is outstanding for a player with 9 Games to his credit. In fact it is 1st class. Can only get better.

How? 

10 hours ago, Cassiew said:

 Gawn had a shocker though, couldn’t mark to save himself. Spargo was solid as was Bowey. 

Was is just me or did that umpire just loved saying “play on” every times a player took a mark?

Agree Gawn had a shocker. Terrible game by his standards. Gold Coast defended well in the marking contests. He looked shot all game.

 

Were you at the game? That woman umpire was atrocious. The crowd around us couldn't believe their own eyes when Kossy was almost decapitated and play on was called. Everyone was livid.

 

And on Kossie, that would have replaced Abletts non-mark as mark of the Century had he held it. Absolute towering leap.

36 minutes ago, Brownie said:

Petracca had a pretty big collision with Viney in the second. He looked pretty sore and absolutely cooked after that.

Was that the one that resulted in a Gold Coast free kick? If I remember it rightly, it was a two on one contest, Viney completely cleaned Petracca up, and the Gold Coast player got a free for high contact. LOL

Not prepared to write off TMac based on last night. All the MFC talls except LJ failed to some degree.

Hope Weid gets back for today's game at Casey

Wasn’t the best but take the win and move on. We had a few of these to start the season last year (in fact I vaguely remember our first 3-4 wins all hovered between 18-28 points). GC gave us a push, they look more like a team wanting to earn respect. 

We looked like a team that just wanted the 4 points and not much else, I’m good with us just ticking off wins. That said Kozzie and Trac really needed to nail their late shots on goal, luckily GC were struggling to hit the target as well. 

If Weid puts in a good run of performances TMac might start to feel nervous, if we’re including the latter stages of last season Tom’s form has dropped significantly since his injury last season. 

36 minutes ago, faultydet said:

Agree Gawn had a shocker. Terrible game by his standards. Gold Coast defended well in the marking contests. He looked shot all game.

Gawn is on the record as stating that he finds Witts to be a formidable opponent.  Chol was also quite difficult at the centre bounces and looks to be quite the athlete, despite not being able to maintain the rage all game, although, I think most players out on the ground were just about spent at 3/4 time with the humidity.

It’s so important for us to keep banking those 4 points any way we can while our backline is held together by May, a 9 gamer and a bit of sticky tape. 
The one area that I wasn’t pleased with last night was the connection going inside 50. We cooked so many entries that we would normally eat up. 
I wonder if the conditions just sapped us of energy. We were hitting them sweetly going for goal and then after half time it was a disaster. Again maybe we ran out of petrol and at $2 a liter couldn’t refuel. 
 

Anyway onto the next.