2 hours ago, Redleg said:

Viney’s continued for far too long.

You are right, yes it did - but does that make it ok? Its the action that should be scrutinized.  

1 hour ago, djr said:

Of your 94 posts have you ever said anything positive. I would hate to think what you would have written 10 years ago. Then again you might have enjoyed that time more than now. Our game plan does not rely on perfection, its all about defense and strangulation of the opposition. We react to what the opposition bring to the table every week. WC were very physical and very defensive. They showed a lot of heart in those middle quarters. Your views are very old school. Relax and enjoy the ride.

I call it as a I see it. The supporters that say 'Oh we played in 2nd gear and still won' or 'we just toy with the opposition and go bang when we need' are illogical views and a strange stance to take. Do you think playing in 2nd gear is by design? Of course not. Keeping in mind that we played a WCE with half their team out and 22 players out in total. A team that Casey would've beaten by 10 goals. Eventually, the 2nd gear is our only gear if it's the only thing we know how to do. 

So at quarter time, Goodwin says 'alright guys, solid first quarter now take the foot off the gas'? Laughable logic. Then at half time just after we've kicked 1 goal in 30 mins and get outplayed for the majority of the quarter Goodwin and every other full time coaching staff gets the players in together and say 'no worries guys, another 30 mins of that will be fine. They're the standards that we're trying to set at the MFC. No need to be ruthless. No need for %. Let's just continue to make Connor West look like a 3 time Brownlow medalist. Let's just continue to give them the easy 45 kick from kick-ins and to exit our defensive zone with ease. Let's not hit the top of the goal square to a 1 on 1 when going inside 50m. Let's go to the pockets to a 50/50 or even better turn it over'. 

If the full time coaching staff aren't saying these things, which they clearly wouldn't be, then it's on the players. A trend has now become a habit and it's justifiably concerning that we go a full half against a VFL reserves standard opposition and kick only 3 goals. The first and last quarter should be the minimum standard for all quarters. 

'Old school views' are the views where people just look at the margin and that's the only analysis they possess. Some junk time goals in the last doesn't help fix our inability to score or to put the foot on the throat. Most of the commentators were all saying the same thing, as well as pretty much all official match reports. You can't analyse the match without talking about a full hour of football where a vfl reserves team restricted us to 3 goals in a half. 

I'm critical because I recognise that our tough games haven't even started yet and we haven't played a team in the top 5 yet. It would be nice if people actually analysed the game instead of being like '74 points, light work. Next'. It's these supporters that are absolutely gob smacked when we get smacked by 50 points one week to a bottom 8 team. 

But if you want positive, it was good to see Pickett hit some form and get through the game with no major injuries. 

 

Edited May 16, 20222 yr by Deedubs

11 hours ago, GOLORDIE said:

Fair dinkum chaps. Why don't you try calling a game at home and then measuring yourself against Kelli Underwood's performance.....

 

This is not how life works. 

A surgeon who is terrible at their job and kills a patient can't use "Well YOU try and perform an appendectomy without killing the patient!" as a defence.

It's my job to do MY job well, and it's her job to do HER job well.

 

1 hour ago, Deedubs said:

It's these supporters that are absolutely gob smacked when we get smacked by 50 points one week to a bottom 8 team. 

I think that's happened once since the start of the 2019 season (rd 10 v Crows)

1 hour ago, CYB said:

You are right, yes it did - but does that make it ok? Its the action that should be scrutinized.  

Yes but one was a lean on the neck/jaw for a second or two, the other was a choking, around the time of a bloke being killed in the USA, by on the ground choking.

1 hour ago, Deedubs said:

I call it as a I see it. The supporters that say 'Oh we played in 2nd gear and still won' or 'we just toy with the opposition and go bang when we need' are illogical views and a strange stance to take. Do you think playing in 2nd gear is by design? Of course not. Keeping in mind that we played a WCE with half their team out and 22 players out in total. A team that Casey would've beaten by 10 goals. Eventually, the 2nd gear is our only gear if it's the only thing we know how to do. 

So at quarter time, Goodwin says 'alright guys, solid first quarter now take the foot off the gas'? Laughable logic. Then at half time just after we've kicked 1 goal in 30 mins and get outplayed for the majority of the quarter Goodwin and every other full time coaching staff gets the players in together and say 'no worries guys, another 30 mins of that will be fine. They're the standards that we're trying to set at the MFC. No need to be ruthless. No need for %. Let's just continue to make Connor West look like a 3 time Brownlow medalist. Let's just continue to give them the easy 45 kick from kick-ins and to exit our defensive zone with ease. Let's not hit the top of the goal square to a 1 on 1 when going inside 50m. Let's go to the pockets to a 50/50 or even better turn it over'. 

If the full time coaching staff aren't saying these things, which they clearly wouldn't be, then it's on the players. A trend has now become a habit and it's justifiably concerning that we go a full half against a VFL reserves standard opposition and kick only 3 goals. The first and last quarter should be the minimum standard for all quarters. 

'Old school views' are the views where people just look at the margin and that's the only analysis they possess. Some junk time goals in the last doesn't help fix our inability to score or to put the foot on the throat. Most of the commentators were all saying the same thing, as well as pretty much all official match reports. You can't analyse the match without talking about a full hour of football where a vfl reserves team restricted us to 3 goals in a half. 

I'm critical because I recognise that our tough games haven't even started yet and we haven't played a team in the top 5 yet. It would be nice if people actually analysed the game instead of being like '74 points, light work. Next'. It's these supporters that are absolutely gob smacked when we get smacked by 50 points one week to a bottom 8 team. 

But if you want positive, it was good to see Pickett hit some form and get through the game with no major injuries. 

 

I don't know whether to laugh or put you on ignore

1 hour ago, Deedubs said:

I call it as a I see it. The supporters that say 'Oh we played in 2nd gear and still won' or 'we just toy with the opposition and go bang when we need' are illogical views and a strange stance to take. Do you think playing in 2nd gear is by design? Of course not. Keeping in mind that we played a WCE with half their team out and 22 players out in total. A team that Casey would've beaten by 10 goals. Eventually, the 2nd gear is our only gear if it's the only thing we know how to do. 

So at quarter time, Goodwin says 'alright guys, solid first quarter now take the foot off the gas'? Laughable logic. Then at half time just after we've kicked 1 goal in 30 mins and get outplayed for the majority of the quarter Goodwin and every other full time coaching staff gets the players in together and say 'no worries guys, another 30 mins of that will be fine. They're the standards that we're trying to set at the MFC. No need to be ruthless. No need for %. Let's just continue to make Connor West look like a 3 time Brownlow medalist. Let's just continue to give them the easy 45 kick from kick-ins and to exit our defensive zone with ease. Let's not hit the top of the goal square to a 1 on 1 when going inside 50m. Let's go to the pockets to a 50/50 or even better turn it over'. 

If the full time coaching staff aren't saying these things, which they clearly wouldn't be, then it's on the players. A trend has now become a habit and it's justifiably concerning that we go a full half against a VFL reserves standard opposition and kick only 3 goals. The first and last quarter should be the minimum standard for all quarters. 

'Old school views' are the views where people just look at the margin and that's the only analysis they possess. Some junk time goals in the last doesn't help fix our inability to score or to put the foot on the throat. Most of the commentators were all saying the same thing, as well as pretty much all official match reports. You can't analyse the match without talking about a full hour of football where a vfl reserves team restricted us to 3 goals in a half. 

I'm critical because I recognise that our tough games haven't even started yet and we haven't played a team in the top 5 yet. It would be nice if people actually analysed the game instead of being like '74 points, light work. Next'. It's these supporters that are absolutely gob smacked when we get smacked by 50 points one week to a bottom 8 team. 

But if you want positive, it was good to see Pickett hit some form and get through the game with no major injuries. 

 

Give it a rest please

We will play the same way against the Top Sides. 
They won’t score….

12 hours ago, Deedubs said:

I guess I just realise how hard our fixture is coming up:

Brisbane Twice, Fremantle Twice, Geelong in Geelong, Sydney,  Carlton , Bulldogs. 

We need to start showing our offensive side because we're not playing well enough at the moment. So many errors by foot and dumb decisions going forward. 

Hello Deedubs, and thanks for returning to your old form. In case you hadn't noticed last night, West Coast's sole aim was to stop us scoring, as largely was St Klada's the week before and Port's earlier in the year. In turned out brilliantly for all those sides, didn't it. I've got better things to do with my time than go back and look at all your old posts (I don't need that much negativity in my life), but I'm just assuming after we beat Western Bulldogs in Round 1 you were disappointed because we didn't beat them by a larger margin than we did in last year's Grand Final.

I'm not quite sure what your expectations are but we've won 9 from 9, have a percentage of 159% (which would be 179% if we'd kicked half-straight), are a game and 8% clear of the next best team (and 2 games & 20% ahead of the 3rd team), are playing North next week (who have already played Brisbane & Fremantle). Our game is based on all-team defence. We have the best defensive record, yet have the 4th best record in attack. Fremantle have a similarly miserly defence, yet have scored 100 points less than Melbourne. After North we have 4 games at the MCG including games against Brisbane, Fremantle & Sydney (also Collingwood). We will be deserved favourites in all those games, Yes, we have some tough games to come but, rest assured, all those teams will be more afraid of Melbourne than we are of them.

A few years ago: "woe is us ... we're getting beaten by 70 points".
Now: "woe is us ... we're not winning by more than 70 points".

Some here need to get a grip.

15 hours ago, Wells 11 said:

15 hours ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

Guest who . . . in an excitable voice . . .

"Melbourne have won the first nine in a season for the first time since . . . [hesitation] . . . last year!"

Commentary box sniggers. 

Hard as I have tried to erase from my memory, that is reminiscent of I think the suns game last year when young Pickett kicked one of the goals of the year, and the rasp came out with something like “Kozzie buzzing around like a mozzie” which made me 🤮 

Edited May 16, 20222 yr by monoccular

2 hours ago, Deedubs said:

I call it as a I see it. The supporters that say 'Oh we played in 2nd gear and still won' or 'we just toy with the opposition and go bang when we need' are illogical views and a strange stance to take. Do you think playing in 2nd gear is by design? Of course not. Keeping in mind that we played a WCE with half their team out and 22 players out in total. A team that Casey would've beaten by 10 goals. Eventually, the 2nd gear is our only gear if it's the only thing we know how to do. 

So at quarter time, Goodwin says 'alright guys, solid first quarter now take the foot off the gas'? Laughable logic. Then at half time just after we've kicked 1 goal in 30 mins and get outplayed for the majority of the quarter Goodwin and every other full time coaching staff gets the players in together and say 'no worries guys, another 30 mins of that will be fine. They're the standards that we're trying to set at the MFC. No need to be ruthless. No need for %. Let's just continue to make Connor West look like a 3 time Brownlow medalist. Let's just continue to give them the easy 45 kick from kick-ins and to exit our defensive zone with ease. Let's not hit the top of the goal square to a 1 on 1 when going inside 50m. Let's go to the pockets to a 50/50 or even better turn it over'. 

If the full time coaching staff aren't saying these things, which they clearly wouldn't be, then it's on the players. A trend has now become a habit and it's justifiably concerning that we go a full half against a VFL reserves standard opposition and kick only 3 goals. The first and last quarter should be the minimum standard for all quarters. 

'Old school views' are the views where people just look at the margin and that's the only analysis they possess. Some junk time goals in the last doesn't help fix our inability to score or to put the foot on the throat. Most of the commentators were all saying the same thing, as well as pretty much all official match reports. You can't analyse the match without talking about a full hour of football where a vfl reserves team restricted us to 3 goals in a half. 

I'm critical because I recognise that our tough games haven't even started yet and we haven't played a team in the top 5 yet. It would be nice if people actually analysed the game instead of being like '74 points, light work. Next'. It's these supporters that are absolutely gob smacked when we get smacked by 50 points one week to a bottom 8 team. 

But if you want positive, it was good to see Pickett hit some form and get through the game with no major injuries. 

 

Yeah, I reeckon the coach doesn't say 'have rest boys', but maybe he says "let's try a bit of plan #3B for 10 minutes". Would you notice on TV? I wouldn't.

As I posted in the Casey thread, I really enjoyed the wider angle and raised view of the telecast of that match.  So it was doubly frustrating on Sunday night to see endless close ups of the player about to take a kick or the ball going out of the frame to an unknown fate. Obviously the TV directors think it is more exciting to not be able to have any idea of what might happen next. 

 I do not want to know how closely the player's have shaved that morning. I want to see the game.  Am I alone?

35 minutes ago, Sydney_Demon said:

Hello Deedubs, and thanks for returning to your old form. In case you hadn't noticed last night, West Coast's sole aim was to stop us scoring, as largely was St Klada's the week before and Port's earlier in the year. In turned out brilliantly for all those sides, didn't it. I've got better things to do with my time than go back and look at all your old posts (I don't need that much negativity in my life), but I'm just assuming after we beat Western Bulldogs in Round 1 you were disappointed because we didn't beat them by a larger margin than we did in last year's Grand Final.

I'm not quite sure what your expectations are but we've won 9 from 9, have a percentage of 159% (which would be 179% if we'd kicked half-straight), are a game and 8% clear of the next best team (and 2 games & 20% ahead of the 3rd team), are playing North next week (who have already played Brisbane & Fremantle). Our game is based on all-team defence. We have the best defensive record, yet have the 4th best record in attack. Fremantle have a similarly miserly defence, yet have scored 100 points less than Melbourne. After North we have 4 games at the MCG including games against Brisbane, Fremantle & Sydney (also Collingwood). We will be deserved favourites in all those games, Yes, we have some tough games to come but, rest assured, all those teams will be more afraid of Melbourne than we are of them.

You call them WCE, it was a vfl reserves standard team on paper with their outs. So I don't care what strategies they put in place or how they played to slow down our scoring. It's irrelevant. 

The round 1 game you reference was probably our best game for the season. 

15 minutes ago, sue said:

As I posted in the Casey thread, I really enjoyed the wider angle and raised view of the telecast of that match.  So it was doubly frustrating on Sunday night to see endless close ups of the player about to take a kick or the ball going out of the frame to an unknown fate. Obviously the TV directors think it is more exciting to not be able to have any idea of what might happen next. 

 I do not want to know how closely the player's have shaved that morning. I want to see the game.  Am I alone?

No you are not alone it is the reason I much prefer to go to a game. 

51 minutes ago, BDA said:

I don't know whether to laugh or put you on ignore

If you put Dr d on ignore you will miss out on hours of entertainment 

8 minutes ago, Deedubs said:

You call them WCE, it was a vfl reserves standard team on paper with their outs. So I don't care what strategies they put in place or how they played to slow down our scoring. It's irrelevant. 

The round 1 game you reference was probably our best game for the season. 

Stop digging!

Some Dees fans need to take a step back and have a look at the bigger picture, bigger picture being:

 

- 9-0

- 16 wins on the trot

- 1st on ladder

- 1st on percentage

- Reigning premiers

- Arguably the greatest defensive team of the AFL era

 

So we only won by 74 points against a ravaged West Coast? Sure, the 2nd/3rd quarters were boring but the team is made up of humans, not football robots. We won by 12 goals and kept them to 5, not much more you can realistically ask for.

 

Enjoy the ride, it's the most exciting time to be a Dees fan since the introduction of TV in Australia. Go Narrm

Edited May 16, 20222 yr by Doggas front teeth
16 wins not 15

1 hour ago, sue said:

 I do not want to know how closely the player's have shaved that morning. I want to see the game.  Am I alone?

Not alone. It looked like the WCE were flooding, but you couldn't really see until the cameras were trained on our forward 50. I also suspected our forwards were being monstered off the ball, but same thing. Only the occasional glimpse.

In the GWS game, the camera often showed the view from behind the goals to give a better idea of the positioning of players around the ground.

Kozzie...

Hes found 2nd and 3rd gear.....look out when he finds 4th.

Although we are all starting to get used to his cat-like moves, we should never become complacent about it.

He is the envy of other teams....and just how do you hold him? A decade of brilliance to come.

Edited May 16, 20222 yr by Wadda We Sing

4 hours ago, Deedubs said:

I call it as a I see it. The supporters that say 'Oh we played in 2nd gear and still won' or 'we just toy with the opposition and go bang when we need' are illogical views and a strange stance to take. Do you think playing in 2nd gear is by design? Of course not. Keeping in mind that we played a WCE with half their team out and 22 players out in total. A team that Casey would've beaten by 10 goals. Eventually, the 2nd gear is our only gear if it's the only thing we know how to do. 

So at quarter time, Goodwin says 'alright guys, solid first quarter now take the foot off the gas'? Laughable logic. Then at half time just after we've kicked 1 goal in 30 mins and get outplayed for the majority of the quarter Goodwin and every other full time coaching staff gets the players in together and say 'no worries guys, another 30 mins of that will be fine. They're the standards that we're trying to set at the MFC. No need to be ruthless. No need for %. Let's just continue to make Connor West look like a 3 time Brownlow medalist. Let's just continue to give them the easy 45 kick from kick-ins and to exit our defensive zone with ease. Let's not hit the top of the goal square to a 1 on 1 when going inside 50m. Let's go to the pockets to a 50/50 or even better turn it over'. 

If the full time coaching staff aren't saying these things, which they clearly wouldn't be, then it's on the players. A trend has now become a habit and it's justifiably concerning that we go a full half against a VFL reserves standard opposition and kick only 3 goals. The first and last quarter should be the minimum standard for all quarters. 

'Old school views' are the views where people just look at the margin and that's the only analysis they possess. Some junk time goals in the last doesn't help fix our inability to score or to put the foot on the throat. Most of the commentators were all saying the same thing, as well as pretty much all official match reports. You can't analyse the match without talking about a full hour of football where a vfl reserves team restricted us to 3 goals in a half. 

I'm critical because I recognise that our tough games haven't even started yet and we haven't played a team in the top 5 yet. It would be nice if people actually analysed the game instead of being like '74 points, light work. Next'. It's these supporters that are absolutely gob smacked when we get smacked by 50 points one week to a bottom 8 team. 

But if you want positive, it was good to see Pickett hit some form and get through the game with no major injuries. 

 

Our game plan is built on contest and full team defence. We never take our foot off the gas when it come to pressure acts, restricting opposition ball movement, harassing and positional structure. Over a year and a half we have built THE MOST consistent team defence that the AFL has seen in a very long time, perhaps the best ever. We have super high standards and the cattle in the reserves to enforce that no-one on our team drops their head or compromises on our 'non-negotiables'.

We are not a media driven organisation, we are a performance driven one. We don't play for a headline or for BT to wax lyrical about our scoring power. We play to win games and ultimately finals and despite your whining we are actually very damn good at it. How much we win by is not a metric that we seem to care that much about. How we play our brand is one we absolutely care about. We push hard on that because that is what wins finals: ruthless, hard nosed, brutal contest and defence. Big scoring is cream on the pie, we score more than the opposition and that is enough. We have the tools to turn it on in attack but we do it the Melbourne way. We attack into areas that minimise our exposure us on rebound. If you are expecting us to do anything different you haven't been paying attention for the last year or two.

16 hours ago, A F said:

Sure, watching live is a completely different thing, but I found myself very relaxed watching today.

I expected us to win and win well. We did.

I expected us to strangle them and then have a devastating patch and today we had two devastating patches.

Don't get me wrong, I never doubted we would win and was relaxed in that sense. Just thought we were off from our normal defensive intensity. 

4 hours ago, Deedubs said:

I call it as a I see it. The supporters that say 'Oh we played in 2nd gear and still won' or 'we just toy with the opposition and go bang when we need' are illogical views and a strange stance to take. Do you think playing in 2nd gear is by design? Of course not. Keeping in mind that we played a WCE with half their team out and 22 players out in total. A team that Casey would've beaten by 10 goals. Eventually, the 2nd gear is our only gear if it's the only thing we know how to do. 

So at quarter time, Goodwin says 'alright guys, solid first quarter now take the foot off the gas'? Laughable logic. Then at half time just after we've kicked 1 goal in 30 mins and get outplayed for the majority of the quarter Goodwin and every other full time coaching staff gets the players in together and say 'no worries guys, another 30 mins of that will be fine. They're the standards that we're trying to set at the MFC. No need to be ruthless. No need for %. Let's just continue to make Connor West look like a 3 time Brownlow medalist. Let's just continue to give them the easy 45 kick from kick-ins and to exit our defensive zone with ease. Let's not hit the top of the goal square to a 1 on 1 when going inside 50m. Let's go to the pockets to a 50/50 or even better turn it over'. 

If the full time coaching staff aren't saying these things, which they clearly wouldn't be, then it's on the players. A trend has now become a habit and it's justifiably concerning that we go a full half against a VFL reserves standard opposition and kick only 3 goals. The first and last quarter should be the minimum standard for all quarters. 

'Old school views' are the views where people just look at the margin and that's the only analysis they possess. Some junk time goals in the last doesn't help fix our inability to score or to put the foot on the throat. Most of the commentators were all saying the same thing, as well as pretty much all official match reports. You can't analyse the match without talking about a full hour of football where a vfl reserves team restricted us to 3 goals in a half. 

I'm critical because I recognise that our tough games haven't even started yet and we haven't played a team in the top 5 yet. It would be nice if people actually analysed the game instead of being like '74 points, light work. Next'. It's these supporters that are absolutely gob smacked when we get smacked by 50 points one week to a bottom 8 team. 

But if you want positive, it was good to see Pickett hit some form and get through the game with no major injuries. 

 

I mean if you can't just relax and enjoy watching the club when we're reigning premiers and undefeated on top of the ladder after round 9 you must live a highly stressed existence.

2 hours ago, BDA said:

I don't know whether to laugh or put you on ignore

If it looks like a troll and sounds like a troll ...

11 minutes ago, FlashInThePan said:

Our game plan is built on contest and full team defence. We never take our foot off the gas when it come to pressure acts, restricting opposition ball movement, harassing and positional structure. Over a year and a half we have built THE MOST consistent team defence that the AFL has seen in a very long time, perhaps the best ever. We have super high standards and the cattle in the reserves to enforce that no-one on our team drops their head or compromises on our 'non-negotiables'.

We are not a media driven organisation, we are a performance driven one. We don't play for a headline or for BT to wax lyrical about our scoring power. We play to win games and ultimately finals and despite your whining we are actually very damn good at it. How much we win by is not a metric that we seem to care that much about. How we play our brand is one we absolutely care about. We push hard on that because that is what wins finals: ruthless, hard nosed, brutal contest and defence. Big scoring is cream on the pie, we score more than the opposition and that is enough. We have the tools to turn it on in attack but we do it the Melbourne way. We attack into areas that minimise our exposure us on rebound. If you are expecting us to do anything different you haven't been paying attention for the last year or two.

Thanks for your reply. And thanks for actually having a discussion which is what I thought this forum was for instead of people just slamming my opinion.

I agree in that our defence seems to never take the foot off the gas. Our structures seem to hold up for most of the game and when we leak it's usually for no more than a 20 min period.  I'm aware that our strength is in defence with May, Petty, Lever as well as Bowey and soon to be Salem but I feel like a lot of pressure has been on them this season. I think this is because our efficiency going forward has been way off so instead of an easy mark to a leading forward like Fritsch who would then take 30 seconds and have a shot for goal, it gets rebounded and we have to rely on individual brilliance instead of team defence. In my hypothetical, if Fritsch misses, we can set up our zone (which was non existent yesterday but that's not my point) and make it a forward half game.  So I think the forward half efficiency is crucial. 

You mention that it's not the margin that is the metric that we care about but instead how we play our brand and that's exactly how I am. How we play. My thoughts echo Steven May's thoughts: https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/melbourne-demons/afl-news-2022-melbourne-def-st-kilda-steven-may-interview-undefeated-streak-fixture-how-good-are-they/news-story/15b4697e3786c5800a00a1ee995553a5

So people who are telling me to 'get a grip' can also tell Steven May to get a grip. I'd like to think Steven May has a pretty good grasp on things and the way we are going. He wouldn't be content with how we're playing and either should demonlanders. 

2 hours ago, Deedubs said:

You call them WCE, it was a vfl reserves standard team on paper with their outs. So I don't care what strategies they put in place or how they played to slow down our scoring. It's irrelevant. 

The round 1 game you reference was probably our best game for the season. 

They had 12 premiership players playing. They weren't a VFL side. Weakened yes but not a VFL side.