1 hour ago, DemonWA said:

I think we'll smash the lions and book ourselves a prelim spot. After that anything is possible. Carn boys

I tend to agree WA. 

A lot of doom and gloom here, and rightly so if tomorrow night doesn't go our way. But if we win well, I wouldn't want to be a cats fan waiting for the next Friday night to roll around. We've been there and done it before, Richmond looked cooked after the QF in 2020, same as Hawks in 2015, Dogs came from nowhere in 2016, Collingwood almost got there in 2018. 

Not impossible or unusual really now with the pre finals bye

1 hour ago, The Reverend said:

Oh ye of little faith, have trust in the word of the coach, for blessed are they who believe even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, for they will be rewarded with another premiership. Blessed are they who refuse to be weighed down by common sense and logic for they will inherit a dynasty the likes of which has never been seen before. Blessed are they who keep the faith for they will be smiling smugly on the way to get the paper on Saturday morning. 

GO DEES!

The teams thread is certainly on a holy bender this evening.  Reckon i might have to rattle off three hail Marys after reading that.  Thanks Rev

1 hour ago, COOLX said:

I cannot see us winning this time around against Brisbane . We another tall to forward to back up B.Brown. Some how the MCG has become a bogey ground for us and it is certainly one for Brisbane yet they would have learnt something from their past two encounters against us . We the the other hand lack flair , we have bottomed out  , we are frighten to make decent changes to the team . 

Nah. Our gamestyles just do not matchup well for Brisbane whether you like or not. The same way we can't play against Sydney or Collingwood, they can't against us.

In my opinion them trying something different and learning from our previous encounters is bogus. They won't go away from how they play, 'contested' and 'forward half' brand of footy. Our defence worries them and they can't beat us in the middle. We should be right, the way we played last week would beat them by 4 goals.

Look we've smashed them twice already this year, what could possibly go wrong?

4 hours ago, faultydet said:

Staggering that so many on here can't see what's directly in front of them.

We are not a premiership side this year. We may get over the Lions this week, and that has been well analyzed by a few on here who have mentioned the low pressure game that Brisbane play and that we thrive on. 

But as Colonwood and Sydney have shown very clearly this year, we are far from elite when it comes to moving the ball under intense pressure, particularly from the midfield into the forward line.

As much as it pains me, it's Geelong/Colonwood/Sydney for premiers this year. We are making up the numbers.

agree but dislike

4 hours ago, adonski said:

We haven't been able to run out a tight game since the first half of the year

Carlton three rounds ago?

4 hours ago, faultydet said:

Staggering that so many on here can't see what's directly in front of them.

We are not a premiership side this year. We may get over the Lions this week, and that has been well analyzed by a few on here who have mentioned the low pressure game that Brisbane play and that we thrive on. 

But as Colonwood and Sydney have shown very clearly this year, we are far from elite when it comes to moving the ball under intense pressure, particularly from the midfield into the forward line.

As much as it pains me, it's Geelong/Colonwood/Sydney for premiers this year. We are making up the numbers.

Yep. Still we should get to the Prelim at least. Like many have said, anything can happen but our QF performance was not uncommon, it's been a trend this year and so while history favours at least one QF loser to make the GF, I just can't visualise us being there this year.

It's less about what Melbourne's not, and more about what Sydney, Collingwood and Geelong *are*. We tighten a few things up in the off season and blood new talent and we're set for a long while yet at the top end of the ladder.

Still though after starting 10-0 and finishing second, not at least making the Prelim would be disappointing. Collingwood could go out in straight sets and their season is still a huge success. For us losing to Brisbane would be a failed season in my view. And yes it's one game that makes a difference. Prelims are a whole different ball game. I'll be devastated if we can't get there.

4 hours ago, faultydet said:

Even if we smash Brisbane this week, nobody in their right mind would be claiming they were wrong to doubt us.

We have been embarrassed so often by top 4 teams this year. I reckon you would search long and far for a team that wins a flag after being towelled in every high-pressure game they played in that year.

We are not winning the flag in 2022. We can reload for 2023, but prepare yourself for a letdown if you think dazzle is off the mark this year.

The thing is, he and everybody else who’s tolled the bells of failure pretty hard of late are likely to be correct, because we aren’t the favourites this year, and we’re looking sore and sluggish. But it’s not exactly risky or insightful to suggest such a team won’t win the premiership, is it? 

I don’t think anybody here deserves an “I told you so” if we don’t win a flag, because it’s just so obviously the likely outcome to any half-interested observer of the game  

But taking a dump on people who like to think there’s still an outside chance is just a bit unnecessary and boring. Do we really need to lambast people for the crime of being hopeful? 

 

Edited September 8, 20222 yr by Mel Bourne

32 minutes ago, Mel Bourne said:

But taking a dump on people who like to think there’s still an outside chance is just a bit unnecessary and boring. Do we really need to lambast people for the crime of being hopeful? 

 

Rest assured, 99.9% of the Hopefuls will be BIG enough to celebrate the 'premiership against all odds' TOGETHER without the pettiness of I told you so's. I hope that gives anyone food for thought that wants to bang the drum about being correct, if we do fail this year.

What can go wrong when you rely on clearances and your weapon  you go in with has  a broken leg. 

Our best connecting forward couldn't sing at the Judith Durham's memorial because his voice box is broken.

Bailey Fix is in troube.

We need about 3 Boweys to get back on track 

 

 

Edited September 8, 20222 yr by Wrecker46

More than team changes, I’d like to see changes to where individual players line up. Specifically, and as others have noted in other threads, I’d like to see Brayshaw back to the wing, Harmes rotating through the middle, and more of Max in the ruck. 

Edited September 8, 20222 yr by Nairobi_Demon

3 hours ago, Deenooos_ said:

Nah. Our gamestyles just do not matchup well for Brisbane whether you like or not. The same way we can't play against Sydney or Collingwood, they can't against us.

In my opinion them trying something different and learning from our previous encounters is bogus. They won't go away from how they play, 'contested' and 'forward half' brand of footy. Our defence worries them and they can't beat us in the middle. We should be right, the way we played last week would beat them by 4 goals.

Well we can play against Collingwood and Sydney. We would win that last Collingwood game 19 times out of 20 if it was played again. They relied on very low % shots at goal all going through, particularly in the first half, and us missing sitters, to still be in the game at half time. That score line should have been akin to our round 23 game against Brisbane at half time and there would have been no coming back.

I don’t read too much into the mid-year slump either. We were 10-0. We should have beaten Sydney if it wasn’t for a few things going against us in the final 10 mins and we could have even beaten Collingwood too.

 

4 hours ago, John Demonic said:

I for one look forward to an easier draw next year if this year is a straight sets fail #SilverLinings #OddYearsNotEvensThisTimeRound

Don’t know how to break it to you, but our fixture won’t be any different should we win or lose tonight. When they design the fixture, they break teams into groups of six - 1 to 6, 7 to 12, 13 to 18. The general theory goes you play three return games against teams in your group, and one each against teams in each of the others. Given we can’t drop out of the top 6 now win or lose, it doesn’t make a difference. 

We have been super unlucky that the team from 7 to 12 we got twice this year was Fremantle (big improver) and from 13 to 18 was Collingwood (also big improver).

That sort of luck, added to the fact all of those games against Fremantle and Collingwood were after round 10, as well as both Brisbane games (and one game each against Port and Bulldogs), meant coincidently we ended up with an enormously difficult fixture after round 10. Far more difficult than any other team, by some way. 

 

10 hours ago, layzie said:

Goody won us a flag and still apparently is a nitwit who knows nothing about coaching.

Goody didn’t win us the flag, didn’t you know that was all down to Yze and Choco.

Now that things aren’t running as smoothly as last September it’s all down to Goody

3 minutes ago, Pennant St Dee said:

Goody didn’t win us the flag, didn’t you know that was all down to Yze and Choco.

Now that things aren’t running as smoothly as last September it’s all down to Goody

Madness isn't it Pennant! 

6 hours ago, Glorious Day said:

Don’t know how to break it to you, but our fixture won’t be any different should we win or lose tonight.

One thing is for sure, no matter where we finish, we’ll play Geelong down at Geelong next year, and the next year, and the next year ......

Edited September 8, 20222 yr by napster

Weird. Not the team, but the commentary in this thread. Last week this side played probably the second best game any team has played all year. It's hard to win, though, when the team you play happens to play the best game any team has played for the year.

It may not have looked like the best game, especially given the entertaining other finals, but I'm confident we would have beaten every other team last weekend if we had played the way we did last Friday. 

Goodwin is right to stick with personnel and method.  Trust and belief is a two way street. This group is going to be together for multiple campaigns.

If we don't win it this year then there will be changes, but until that happens we should stay the course.

We haven't been far off it, we could make changes now and still not win and what would that tell us?

If we win this week, then barring injuries there won't be changes. Strap in!

9 hours ago, Mel Bourne said:

The thing is, he and everybody else who’s tolled the bells of failure pretty hard of late are likely to be correct, because we aren’t the favourites this year, and we’re looking sore and sluggish. But it’s not exactly risky or insightful to suggest such a team won’t win the premiership, is it? 

I don’t think anybody here deserves an “I told you so” if we don’t win a flag, because it’s just so obviously the likely outcome to any half-interested observer of the game  

But taking a dump on people who like to think there’s still an outside chance is just a bit unnecessary and boring. Do we really need to lambast people for the crime of being hopeful? 

 

That's an awful lot of carry on for the line you highlighted.

People complaining of "whinging" and "whining"

The sensible ones call it pragmatism. I'm still hopeful but I expect we won't win the flag based on the evidence right in front of me. It's pretty simple.

28 minutes ago, faultydet said:

That's an awful lot of carry on for the line you highlighted.

People complaining of "whinging" and "whining"

The sensible ones call it pragmatism. I'm still hopeful but I expect we won't win the flag based on the evidence right in front of me. It's pretty simple.

I highlighted that line because you seemed to be pointing at DD saying “listen to this guy, he knows what’s up”. 

I think we all realise that the Demons aren’t looking likely to win a flag this year, and nobody deserves credit for pointing out the bleeding obvious. But the pre-emptive “I told you so” posts of late (beginning with that boring “We Won’t Win The Flag” thread) are just increasingly tedious to trawl through.  

I get that we’re all frustrated with how these finals have gone so far, and DD may very well be correct, but I’m choosing the foolish option of having some faith. At least this week. 

Edited September 9, 20222 yr by Mel Bourne

19 minutes ago, Mel Bourne said:

I highlighted that line because you seemed to be pointing at DD saying “listen to this guy, he knows what’s up”. 

I think we all realise that the Demons aren’t looking likely to win a flag this year, and nobody deserves credit for pointing out the bleeding obvious. But the pre-emptive “I told you so” posts of late (beginning with that boring “We Won’t Win The Flag” thread) are just increasingly tedious to trawl through.  

I get that we’re all frustrated with how these finals have gone so far, and DD may very well be correct, but I’m choosing the foolish option of having some faith. At least this week. 

Yeah, it's tough times but I still have some faith left.

Just heard on the radio that Daniher will be out tonight for birth of his baby....Good for us!

6 minutes ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

Just heard on the radio that Daniher will be out tonight for birth of his baby....Good for us!

Good for him & good for us. For a moment when it said family reasons my mind raced straight to Neale… 

4 minutes ago, CYB said:

Good for him & good for us. For a moment when it said family reasons my mind raced straight to Neale… 

You never know these days. Joe could be in a relationship with Neale and they have gone down the “third party reproduction” path 

 

11 minutes ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

Just heard on the radio that Daniher will be out tonight for birth of his baby....Good for us!

For as much as he gets bagged he can bob up and kick some handy goals, I think it’s a big out.