We kicked straight and our confidence snowballed against Freo so if we’re 1.5 or something at quarter time then it could be a gross night. Early accuracy is a must!

Kozzie looked to have been given licence to just go between the midfield and forward line whenever he liked too, which was a major headache for Freo, so just let him do what he wants.

I’d like to see Windsor, Lindsay and Langford get off the chain tonight as they’ll be playing against a lot of their peers.

We should win. If our midfield plays at 80% of their best that should be enough. As long as they execute something resembling our game plan.

2 minutes ago, DubDee said:

I haven’t felt this confident of a big win since round 2

Go Dees?

That ended well.🤦

No idea what will happen tonight. Expecting an entertaining game but in reality I’d like to win by 120 points

We won last week by kicking straight. Hope we do it again

The Tiges have been pretty plucky so far, but never in back-to-back games this year. Without Balta, they really struggle for key defender depth. All in all, we have all the tools to give them a right belting. I'd back in Fritta to do a defensive role on Vlaustin to help keep him accountable to start the game.

I'm just taking it a week at a time.
The gap between our best and worst is very large.
Anything could happen.

Edited April 24, 2025Apr 24 by Fork 'em

29 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

If we play like we did last week Fritsch could have a field day if he’s playing deep forward like Koz did last week to great affect.

Because he is a frontrunner

I want him to win the ball and have a crack, not look for the easy ball

9 minutes ago, SthSea22 said:

Because he is a frontrunner

I want him to win the ball and have a crack, not look for the easy ball

No because at his best he reads the play well, finds good position and kicks beautifully

Should be a win if we do what we did last week. May back helps with Lynch and McVee helps with hitting targets and speed out of the back half.

Would like to see more of the leads at the footy that we saw last week, and Trac get on board with lowering the eyes, still too many hail marys for me last week.

Dees by 22

Edited April 24, 2025Apr 24 by Fromgotowoewodin
Forgot Juddy

32 minutes ago, Fork 'em said:

I'm just taking it a week at a time.
The gap between our best and worst is very large.
Anything could happen.

Agree with this...we have had one good game only and the Tigers certainly give effort under Yze. We certainly don't want to just show up and think it will happen

Here's hoping we get a big crowd tonight.

I'll be happy with anything above 70k.

Please let me know if anyone would like to sit in my redlegs seats on level 2a in P7. I will be in the afl as usual tonight so I am happy to message the location of the seats for anyone scanning in and planning on going GA.

2 hours ago, Macca said:

From a technical point of view ...

We've got a totally new game plan so I'm not sure Yze will have answers for it. The old game plan, sure, but all the other clubs were countering against the long ball style

We're now playing a version of the small ball style and countering that can be an on-the-day thing

And we haven't played small ball for how long? Maybe the style that Balme was trying to instigate way back when

We've been a long kicking team ever since

Tonight it could come down to the skills attached to the new game plan and not turning the ball over as Richmond like to hang on to the ball as well

And we do not want to fall back into old habits ... no dump kicks forward to packs otherwise we're effectively handing the ball back to the opposition

The extra handpass should be in play

We bring our best, we win

2017-2018 was definitely small ball style.

2 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

we SHOULD win this

will we?

it's a 50 / 50, either / or, who knows situation

If we don't win it won't be pretty. Tigers and Eagles are the 2025 easybeats.

Let's win for Essendon !!!

Hoping we build more confidence in the new game style and really take the game on. It was great to watch last week, and we could really get on a roll with further belief it's working.

14 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

2017-2018 was definitely small ball style.

Reckon you're right there, AF, good pick up

Although the long dump kick forward to packs was probably more prevalent back then ... and defensive flooding less so?

Last week we had 392 possessions in the game against Freo at 81.7% DE

The last 6 games of 2018

R20 426 @ 70% ---------- R21 358 @ 72% R22 386 @ 72% ---------- R23 403 @ 75% EF 335 @ 72% ----------- SF 382 @ 69%. Difference being the DE rating up (albeit from one match against Freo) the good news is that our veteran players should be able to re-adjust to how they once played

Back then Oliver handpassed most of the time and Gawn often gave it off short

Can't recall on Viney & Petracca but they maybe handpassed a trifle more?

Edited April 24, 2025Apr 24 by Macca

If last weeks team and attitude turn up we win. As easy or as hard as that. Will that team run into the field wTFK’s

Hope they do. Go Dee’s

1 hour ago, MrFreeze said:

The Tiges have been pretty plucky so far, but never in back-to-back games this year. Without Balta, they really struggle for key defender depth. All in all, we have all the tools to give them a right belting. I'd back in Fritta to do a defensive role on Vlaustin to help keep him accountable to start the game.

I know context is everything, but I actually felt a bit uncomfortable reading this. I'm curious...did it also affect others in that way?

42 minutes ago, ElDiablo14 said:

Here's hoping we get a big crowd tonight.

I'll be happy with anything above 70k.

beautiful weather, no work tomorrow. teams coming off wins

Should be a huge crowd

2 hours ago, roy11 said:

I usually go to this game with my tigers supporting pal but he's a late out (non-curfew related) so i'll be there by myself.

Both sides a little unpredictable so far this season, if we play like we did last week we should be fine.

Hoping May is free of any injury shackles, keen for Fritta to explode with some goals as well.

Your not alone lots of dees mates there .Dont forget a stranger is just a friend you havent met yet.So you are not by yourself

1 hour ago, Roost it far said:

If we play like we did last week Fritsch could have a field day if he’s playing deep forward like Koz did last week to great affect.

Don't disagree, but how good did the forward 50 zone look last week with just Kossie in it?

1 hour ago, stinga said:

We won last week by kicking straight. Hope we do it again

That's very true.

There were three interesting things about last week's game in terms of accuracy

One was our actual score was only 4.1 points above the expected score, meaning it's not as if we shot the lights out or anything. Basically, AFL average for the shots at goal we had.

Secondly, it's not as if Freo were inaccurate and unlucky to lose because they missed too many easy targets - their actual score was 3.3 above the expected score.

And thirdly, that means that the margin between expected scores was basically the same as our winning margin of 10 points (expected margin was +9.2), meaning there's no asterisk on our victory of the sort that there is on the wins of many of our opponents over the last two seasons (ie they won, but only because of our woeful inaccuracy)

	xScore	Score	xWin %	xMargin	Margin	Swing
Melbourne	102.9	107	69%	+9.2	+10	+0.8
Fremantle	93.7	97	31%

Last week, while we didn’t kick the first goal, we also didn’t have to play catch-up. We need to burst outta the gates again.

Got m’ lucky socks ready to roll, so…

Us by Fritatta- 31 pts

GO YOU MIGHTY DEMONS!

GIVE ‘EM HELL!!!

❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙