2 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Losing Max shook them up. 
No doubt about it 

Take your point SWYL . . . certainly didn't help. But it seems we showed resilience today that wasn't there against the Bears. What could account for that I wonder?

4 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Losing Max shook them up. 
No doubt about it 

Agree with this the team looked shell shocked when Max went down…what we saw today was much closer to the real Melbourne 

Stephen May looking good for the golden fist this week. 

Spargo and Chandler. You couldn’t ask for much more from your small forwards. What a win!

Mc Vee is an absolute cat!

So much has changed from the bad old days in how we blooded guys like Watts and with the handling of Trenners and Grimes etc

Van Rooyen , Mc Vee , Chandler Bowey, Spargo , Rivers , Sparrow and Jordon are ready to not only play but to excel.

Edited April 2, 20232 yr by DeeZee

A most enjoyable afternoon. 
When we take the game on, we are dangerous, when we play the lines all day we are crud. Vs Lions we played the lines, today we (for the most part) took the game on and smashed them.

1 hour ago, YesitwasaWin4theAges said:

Melksham is a weapon as a sub.

Stiffled the influence of that ugly mofo Lizard Blakey......

Hahahaha, I called him a lizard at some point today

53 minutes ago, Gawndy the Great said:

Hopefully BBB was a tactical sub and not through injury.

When he ran out after half time he looked totally cooked.  When i saw Melks on the ground I assumed BBB was subbed out.

57 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Grundy absolutely phenomenal. Work rate was through the roof for a guy still regaining fitness. Loved his little tug of the jumper as he ran past the members wing post game. He’s been a brilliant trade, as has Hunter. 
 

JVR what can you say. Did exactly what you wanted from a kid playing his first game and then some. Goal kicking superb. 
 

My only negative today was Viney. Horrible horrible horrible ball use. He needs to step up now as captain.

The one Viney kick that hit a target was his last of the day - and it was on his right foot 😂

10 minutes ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

Take your point SWYL . . . certainly didn't help. But it seems we showed resilience today that wasn't there against the Bears. What could account for that I wonder?

They had a week to prepare. During the Bears game, they probably thought Max was done for the year. 
In the last Q we smashed the Bears, but it was too late

A big pat on the back to Goody and the coaching dept (and the Demonlanders who were calling for it). We had to move on from the 2021 Premiership team and game style. 

A forward line compromising BBB, T Mac, and a resting ruckman (Gawn or Grundy) is too top heavy. Goody and the coaching dept. had the balls to drop T Mac, despite Max' absence, and also sub BBB. And as a result, we rarely saw the long bomb into the forward pocket. And we were also able to run out the game because JVR, Petty and sub Melksham provide more defensive pressure.

51 minutes ago, Satan said:

As I said in game day , was clobbered after 2nd q siren when he was not expecting it

Went into the ground quite hard. Limped and proppy going to the rooms

32 minutes ago, layzie said:

Things looked a bit bleak in the 3rd quarter. I'm keen to hear from the DLers, what changed?

I thought it was Sparrow who started winning centre clearances and then others joined in, kept us rolling out of there.

1 minute ago, kev martin said:

I thought it was Sparrow who started winning centre clearances and then others joined in, kept us rolling out of there.

My thoughts are similar Kev. Thought we really backed our contested footy to eventually turn the screw.

Time for the usual critics to give some credit to:

(1) The club for signing Grundy. How would we have fared without him tonight?

(2) Simon Goodwin, for some excellent tactical moves, including the move forward for Petty which gave Sydney quite a few problems they probably did not anticipate.

(3) Jake Melksham, who did a solid job as substitute despite his numerous detractors.

(4) Kade Chandler, who has seized his chance to prove he belongs at AFL level.

(5) Charlie Spargo, for a couple of Kozzie-style moments that led to excellent goals.

Of course, being Melbourne, we will probably find a way to defeat ourselves against West Coast next week!

 

Think I'll watch it again on Wednesday, just lovely. Now for Collingwood after making a speedbump of Richmond.

I posted on another thread during the week and Collingwood having a large number of players hit the scoreboard. Today we had 15 hit the scoreboard, 12 of them kicking goals (3 players with 3 and 3 with 2).

In the first half of 2021 TMac stood up for us, he was massive up fwd, in the back half and through the finals Brown played some great games. Both were instrumental in our premiership year but after watching todays game I’m not sure either of them are any longer in our best 22. Fast ball movement into a mobile diverse fwd line is the key. 

Fantastic performance particularly from our younger guys who were super competitive all over the ground. Dennis Pagan had a rule of changing over a percentage of your list each year to keep things competitive and fresh and that's where we're at

It was a great win but the 50 point margin makes it looks easier than it was. Sydney are a tough side & got our lead back to 6 points - was a great effort to push away from them and take a big win. 
 

Very happy with Grundy’s efforts today. And Rivers was very strong, good to see. 

Good I hate Papley. Thank god we won. 

Welcome back to form Fritta, will be much needed going forward. 

30 minutes ago, Pennant St Dee said:

Speaking of JVR and family the youngest brother is only 14 and not much smaller than the two older siblings. He’s also potentially the best of the 3

If that is the case, change the F/S rule to a 50 game family rule. Get the bros to the club and develop. 🤣

It was like Christmas, and New Year’s all in one for a lot of us Demonlanders seeing both Petty and Van Rooyen in the forward line.

One those wins where there were few passengers.  We also don't need Petracca or Oliver to get big numbers in order to win.

Can't remember a game where we kicked so accurately was great to be on the other side for a change. They wasted so many gettable shots in the 2nd and 3rd

Edited April 2, 20232 yr by Bates Mate

34 minutes ago, Pennant St Dee said:

Speaking of JVR and family the youngest brother is only 14 and not much smaller than the two older siblings. He’s also potentially the best of the 3

Brother/brother rule perhaps?