Goodwin, the coaches and the players have all bought into a process.  Playing for percentage, managing players workloads or trying new things is not part of it.  They'll follow the same process whether its the Lions or the Eagles.  Dees by 45 (75+ if we are efficient) 

23 hours ago, Deedubs said:

I don't understand how people make these sort of comments. Have you seen his knee? Do you know the level of pain he is in? Do you know if he's even in any pain? Do you know the nature of the injury? Do you know if it can get worse throughout the game? Do you know if playing can aggravate the injury? Do you know if playing puts him at risk for further injury? Do you know if he doesn't play, how he can keep his fitness up for the following week without doing any running?

Unless you know the answer to all of these questions, surely you trust the medical team that are actually professionals. 

Great to see your (sort of) positivity this week Deedubs. Were you happy with the pressure applied against St. Kilda last week or were you concerned about the 3rd Quarter drop-off?

21 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

I'd say the latter scoreline is more realistic than the former.

In reality, I see this game going down a similar path as the North game last year in Hobart.

Eagles will be super competitive in the first half and may even lead. We'll cop a rocket at half time, hold a slender lead at 3 qtr time, and then kick 5-6 goals to 0-1 goal in the last quarter...running out winners by 6-8 goals. 

I agree that a low score for West Coast is more likely than a very high score for Melbourne but I'll be very susprised & disappointed if the game is close at 3-quarter time. 

18 hours ago, Deeko2 said:

I shouldn't mention the "T" word but I legitimately think they're tanking now.  The year started losing to Gold Coast and I think they gave up then and there thinking why bother.

As evidenced by their performance against Collingwood in Round 4? They definitely didn't tank last week and were competitive in the first half.

15 hours ago, John Demonic said:

We had a taste of what that was like in the Port game - It was fantastic. It's a special kind of ruthlessness, more demeaning and deflating, than the ruthlessness of the shock n awe goal barrages we've also seen. Just completely cutting off their ability to score anything, and pip a few goals here or there on the rebound each quarter - neutrals will be bored to tears, but for us it's like watching a game of chess unfold. Sip a glass of wine and enjoy. Of course, I wouldn't mind a 100+ point thumping too. A scoreline of zero goals and whatever behinds to 154 would be a grand old payback for that prelim.

I don't think Sunday's game will be anything like the Port game. Port went into that game (as I think St Kilda did to a lesser extent) trying to play keepings-off which worked defensively for 45 minutes. WCE won't play that way because with all their missing players, less-skilled players and disrupted game plan the only thing they will have to fall back on is pressure. I'm expecting them to be competive early but Melbourne's skill & talent will win out.

54 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

I wouldn’t be shocked if we closely manage the on field minutes of our star players. Hence I wouldn’t care if we win by 6 goals, avoid injuries, and reduce the load on Clarry, Trac, Gawn, Lever and Langdon. 
Perfect opportunity to also try and tweak the things we haven’t been happy with. 

It's not really the Melbourne way. It's all about resilience and playing through niggles. We only have 22 players and 18 have to be on the field at any one time so if they're picked they play meaningful minutes ( I agree though if we're 100 points up in the last quarter you might give star players more bench time). Langdon usually plays 100% of game time so I don't expect his on-field minutes to be managed as it would throw the rotations out totally.

Reckon the eagles will put up a decent fight before we decide to put our foot down half way through the third quarter, run over the top of them and win by 74 points

only a personal view.

But I hope they take the opportunity to get Melky to 199 games,   might not even get used the medi sub, but while he has been at the club has been a pretty good servant, and deserves, (if anyone deserves anything) to get to the 200 game threshold.

 

Hope we wallop the mongrels,  start the run for the flag this weekend,

It seems like a long wait for Sunday games, least favourite time of the weekend for footy!

Waiting

Waiting

Waiting 

13 minutes ago, D4Life said:

It seems like a long wait for Sunday games, least favourite time of the weekend for footy!

Waiting

Waiting

Waiting 

yeah, 5:20pm on a sunday is a hell of a long wait

6 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

The reality is that we rarely score heavily and our average winning margin is probably around 25 points.

Brisbane and Freo are likely to have better % than us come season's end.

Keepon winning is what we need to do.

One loss and we slip to third.

The games against Freo and Brisbane have almost become must wins

I think you're being a little premature. Brisbane & Fremantle have both already played WCE & North and had their percentages boosted by big wins. Melbourne's percentage is just below those teams and I'd be susprised if any of the 3 teams have a percentage near those they have now by season's end. Also there's 14 rounds to go!

We have to win to get our top spot back. 

Wet coke to kick first 2 before we pile on next 40 goals to win by highest margin ever!😇

1 hour ago, picket fence said:

Wet coke to kick first 2 before we pile on next 40 goals to win by highest margin ever!😇

I think our biggest winning margin is 70 points against the beagles - todays the day to rewrite the history books I reckon