You guys (and some gals) are all party poopers.

We will be playing finals this year! I have no doubts at all.

2 minutes ago, Neil Crompton said:

You guys (and some gals) are all party poopers.

We will be playing finals this year! I have no doubts at all.

Ditto ❤️💙

We only need to finish 10th to play 'Finals'. That is about 11 games.

People forget that our premiership team had about 10 players with less than 50 games.

We have enough expereince in every line to help the kids. Select 23 healthy and hungry players each week and watch them shine!

Edited Wednesday at 23:491 day by Lucifers Hero

7 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Well at least Archimedes could have worked out the thing about a deer, buffalo and hippopotamus sitting on the river bank!

I dunno. But he was the guy who screamed out Eureka after he worked out how to measure the density of gold when he was in the bath. Maybe he'd find what is golden among our team and what is hollow .

The most important things are to embed a new gameplan that is in line with the trends of the modern game and to allow our younger players to develop in the roles that they will be playing long term

As long as those two things are occurring I think most fans will accept losses

If we can do it while winning games and being enjoyable to watch, then that’s a bonus

If we can somehow do it while winning enough games to play finals, then anything is possible

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst and just enjoy the ride for the first time in a few years - that’s where I’m at mentally and emotionally for this season

somewhere between 6th and 16th

I don’t hold high hopes for us this year, this is to protect me from heartache we may face. Not expecting big things but expecting us to build on our game plan and connection for the years to come where I do believe we will be in the premiership window frame again. Our last weekend without any AFL for a long time, Go Dees!

We were surprise finalists in '87, '98, '04, '18 (?) & '21 (?) ... in a general sense

2026?

Edited yesterday at 08:521 day by Macca

6 minutes ago, Macca said:

We were surprised finalists in '87, '98, '04, '18 (?) & '21 (?) ... in a general sense

2026?

Agree with most of that list except for 2018.

The entire supporter base would have torn the MCG down if we failed to make finals in 2018, after missing 2017 by 0.2% or whatever it was.

2021 I'd say we were a 50/50 shot at finals given it took until the final game of the 2020 season to be eliminated from finals (Freo had to beat Dogs in Carins).

12 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Agree with most of that list except for 2018.

The entire supporter base would have torn the MCG down if we failed to make finals in 2018, after missing 2017 by 0.2% or whatever it was.

2021 I'd say we were a 50/50 shot at finals given it took until the final game of the 2020 season to be eliminated from finals (Freo had to beat Dogs in Carins).

The surprise in 2018 were the first 2 wins in the finals ... similar to 1987

9 hours ago, Neil Crompton said:

You guys (and some gals) are all party poopers.

We will be playing finals this year! I have no doubts at all.

Not I

I called prelim after the draft

11 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Agree with most of that list except for 2018.

The entire supporter base would have torn the MCG down if we failed to make finals in 2018, after missing 2017 by 0.2% or whatever it was.

2021 I'd say we were a 50/50 shot at finals given it took until the final game of the 2020 season to be eliminated from finals (Freo had to beat Dogs in Carins).

@Macca 11 hours ago, Macca said:

We were surprised finalists in '87, '98, '04, '18 (?) & '21 (?) .

I reckon in exact order the latest was the most likely going all the way back to the least likely in 87. Have people forgotten how incredibly close we were to making finals in 2017 and 2020?! Seriously! We started 2020 in Perth away against West coast and played an hour after it was announced that the season was off indefinitely and perhaps would be cancelled. Then almost 3 months later we come back establish a five goal half time lead against Carlton and hold on for a point win. Instead of playing Essendon the week after we got a bye at the worst possible moment. We play Geelong the week after who incidentally had just lost to Carlton and here we were I'm sure wanting to resolve the fade out the previous game playing TWO WEEKS LATER against an eventual grand finalist who had just had two games compared to our one (twice as many) after the enforced three-month break. When eventually we needed a bye ,guess what, we were totally cooked. Remember those 5 or 6 days up in Cairns? If we just come off a bye I reckon we have one or two wins against those two lowly sides that embarrassed us. Instead we see Collingwood and Bulldogs just scrape ahead of us, even after a controversial decision to decided that bont had kicked a goal rather than a point against WC to give them an extra four premiership points. I was never going to bet my life-savings we would make the finals in 2021 but certainly I was more than quietly confident.

11 hours ago, Macca said:

The surprise in 2018 were the first 2 wins in the finals ... similar to 1987

ESPECIALLY 1987. It so much fun following Melbourne in that last five or six weeks of that season culminating in somehow dad taking us the other side of town to see Melbourne beat the Bulldogs at their home. I was just thrilled to be sitting at the MCG and actually be watching our boys run out onto the field in an official final. But f*****g hell! Maybe I exaggerate but Todd Viney, who couldn't kick to save himself, kics an impressive goal probably in the first 25 seconds. The remaining 119 minutes almost felt like Melbourne were the Harlem Globetrotters for the day. To win a final by 118 points suddenly for the first time ever maybe, just maybe, our side really were the genuine deal!

34 minutes ago, Go Ds said:

ESPECIALLY 1987. It so much fun following Melbourne in that last five or six weeks of that season.

I’m normally someone that misses out on those ‘Woodstock moments’ but I too made it Footscray. 87 if I forget about one certain event there are many treasures to take from that year, smashing Collingwood twice being one of them.

14 hours ago, Macca said:

We were surprise finalists in '87, '98, '04, '18 (?) & '21 (?) ... in a general sense

2026?

You are right Macca only one pundit picked us to make the eight in 2021.

13 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Agree with most of that list except for 2018.

The entire supporter base would have torn the MCG down if we failed to make finals in 2018, after missing 2017 by 0.2% or whatever it was.

2021 I'd say we were a 50/50 shot at finals given it took until the final game of the 2020 season to be eliminated from finals (Freo had to beat Dogs in Carins).

I could see 2021 coming from watching the way the team played in 2020. We were better that a team that missed out on finals. Along with the horid Cairns losses, we should have also beaten Brisbane in Brisbane in 2020 (they were still a good side then and finished 2nd on the ladder that season, somewhat boyed by all the virtual home games no doubt). The way we finished the 2020 season against Essendon at Carrara you could tell we belonged far higher up than the bottom half of the ladder.

My prediction is that all these comentators and 'footy experts' that have written us off as virtual non contenders for season 2026 will eat some humble pie and re-rate the side as a contender and be singing the praises of Kingy after the first half of the season.

3 hours ago, Go Ds said:

ESPECIALLY 1987. It so much fun following Melbourne in that last five or six weeks of that season culminating in somehow dad taking us the other side of town to see Melbourne beat the Bulldogs at their home. I was just thrilled to be sitting at the MCG and actually be watching our boys run out onto the field in an official final. But f*****g hell! Maybe I exaggerate but Todd Viney, who couldn't kick to save himself, kics an impressive goal probably in the first 25 seconds. The remaining 119 minutes almost felt like Melbourne were the Harlem Globetrotters for the day. To win a final by 118 points suddenly for the first time ever maybe, just maybe, our side really were the genuine deal!

So the 2 big victories in 2018 was the surprise result, not the actual reaching of the finals

2021 was winning the actual flag. Hardly a soul here or elsewhere was predicting that

So how does that relate to this season? It's hard to see it, but we could have a very good year in terms of wins based on the unpredictable nature of things

One of the first things that needs to happen is a great run with injuries ... but Bowey & Viney being out for a good length of time is not a good start!

12 minutes ago, Macca said:

So the 2 big victories in 2018 was the surprise result, not the actual reaching of the finals

2021 was winning the actual flag. Hardly a soul here or elsewhere was predicting that

So how does that relate to this season? It's hard to see it, but we could have a very good year in terms of wins based on the unpredictable nature of things

One of the first things that needs to happen is a great run with injuries ... but Bowey & Viney being out for a good length of time is not a good start!

Agree with your first two paragraphs. We did go above and beyond in 18 and 21.

Can we do it? Yes we can. Will we? I don't know.

The beauty of each season is you start with hope.

3 hours ago, DEE fence said:

I’m normally someone that misses out on those ‘Woodstock moments’ but I too made it Footscray. 87 if I forget about one certain event there are many treasures to take from that year, smashing Collingwood twice being one of them.

Then you will remember the roar when the scoreboard showed the Roy's had gone down.

Im not thinking well end up in the 8 but we could. Reckon we'll knock on the 'traditional' door at 9th.

Had forgotten about the silly new finals 🙄🥴