13 hours ago, dees189227 said:

So listening to gawn on abc after the game, it seems king has just given free reign to the players on how they use the ball.

Gawn made comments about what he does & if he stuffs up king won'tyell at him.

Also said towards the end they wanted to slow the play down & control the ball but the picketts had other ideas

The phrase King uses for this is ‘take what the game gives you’ and it means you can pull any kick if that’s the available option rather than having to play in any set way.

A identify-able way of playing already visible. Special coach we have on our hands.

29 minutes ago, Fork 'em said:

With 80,000 members, attendance figures soaring and sponsors banging the door down.
We're a marketing departments dream right now.

We can only hope for this outcome.

25 minutes ago, Macca said:

But in order to make the finals we're going to have to turn half-way with a decent W/L record. Our run home isn't easy.

In one of the prediction threads I wrote we would make finals (ie top 8); prediction was made before the wild card round was announced.

I still think we can make the top 8. We play Ess and Rich twice. Yet to play Eagles, Pies, GWS, North, Port and GCS again. I'm not putting those down as wins but on current form the odds are on our side that we win the majority of those and perhaps steal a couple of wins from the top teams.

I think we will drop a few games mid year as we don't get our bye until round 16 and have a few i/state games around mid year.

But post bye most of our games are in Vic.

Am still going with a top 8 finish and with luck top 6.

Talking of byes. We have defied the odds!

Our last two op have had 2 weeks rest and we won both convincingly.

Our fitness levels must be through the roof!

btw, King has an unblemished record at the G.

May it become our fortress!

3 hours ago, binman said:

I wonder if Matthew Lloyd thinks were still a 'poor side'.

What a peanut

Doesn't have more things to worry about his mob?

They are pathetic.

3 hours ago, binman said:

I wonder if Matthew Lloyd thinks were still a 'poor side'.

What a peanut

You know the saying Bin, opinions are like a---holes, everyone has one.

Seriously though, if you asked him now, I bet he would have a different opinion. Exposed form changes opinions on where teams are at.

BTW, I have thought we would could make finals this year, but yesterday didn't think we could beat the Suns.

My opinion has changed a bit now. Injuries are going to be very important as usual.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by Redleg

1 minute ago, Macca said:

Bit of truth in what you're saying as many (most?) footy fans are a superstitious lot!

Me? I believe in talent levels and everything else runs 2nd (however, a good coach can harness that and a poor coach can stuff things up)

And we've got plenty of talent and more depth than we thought. All that after 4 games?

It's got everything to do with game style and skills. And you can't fake that and it's not a fluke either

I’m just trying to protect myself from more emotional damage, haha. NOTHING GOOD WILL EVER HAPPEN AGAIN MACCA.

But in all seriousness, first 6-7 games of a season is the first metric I use to gauge how teams are looking and thus far, we’re passing with flying colours. If we beat the dons and Richmond in our next 3, we’ll be 5-2. That is an undeniably a strong launching point for the rest of the season.

Enjoying the ride 🎢

7 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

In one of the prediction threads I wrote we would make finals (ie top 8); prediction was made before the wild card round was announced.

I still think we can make the top 8. We play Ess and Rich twice. Yet to play Eagles, Pies, GWS, North, Port and GCS again. I'm not putting those down as wins but on current form the odds are on our side that we win the majority of those and perhaps steal a couple of wins from the top teams.

I think we will drop a few games mid year as we don't get our bye until round 16 and have a few i/state games around mid year.

But post bye most of our games are in Vic.

Am still going with a top 8 finish and with luck top 6.

Good call, Luci

I like those who are prepared to stick their necks out. But it works both ways as sometimes one can see misery coming

For instance, I'd seen enough after round 2 of the 2008 season. And after 6 rounds of the 2012 season it was obvious that we were cactus

As for Essendon next week, if we lose, the match could easily be viewed as a wake-up-call. In terms of talent levels and style of play, we are ahead of the Don's

So we have to turn up and bring our best. No let downs and no getting ahead of ourselves (the players & FD)

The supporters? We can speculate all we like as we are mere onlookers. We influence SFA

As for crowd support and the noise factor, it didn't help the Eagles against the Swans. A +20 goal loss despite all the cheering & booing

Just now, BoBo said:

I’m just trying to protect myself from more emotional damage, haha. NOTHING GOOD WILL EVER HAPPEN AGAIN MACCA.

But in all seriousness, first 6-7 games of a season is the first metric I use to gauge how teams are looking and thus far, we’re passing with flying colours. If we beat the dons and Richmond in our next 3, we’ll be 5-2. That is an undeniably a strong launching point for the rest of the season.

Enjoying the ride 🎢

As confident as I am, no game is easy

We still need to bring it against Essendon. And that's when good coaching comes to the fore

King knows he's got the talent but can he coach against complacency or perhaps, over-confidence?

That's the test

16 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

@Lucifers Hero why did I doubt you!

Amazing. We are far more the real deal than I had wanted to let myself think.

Yep, I didn't give us a chance this week, but was so proud of our effort.

To me we're showing similar signs to Collingwood in 2022. Who no one really rated until suddenly they made a prelim.

Our ball movement is scintillating and our pressure arouns the ball is scary.

King and the coaches are extracting maximum value from everyone in the 23.

Clear improve everywhere in this system and it's a system that can beat anyone.

Irrespective of how we go against Essendon, that Brisbane game in a fortnight will be fascinating and a great test of where we're at.

29 minutes ago, YesitwasaWin4theAges said:

We can only hope for this outcome.

Entertain the mob and the benefits will come.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by Fork 'em

What a great morning winning is the best Ipromise i will bare my [censored] and genitials at 12 on my birthday outside y&Js if we dont make the 8 GO YOU GOOD THINGS. Goodmorning my little sheet rack guess you are out on your morning 10k run

19 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

I think we will drop a few games mid year as we don't get our bye until round 16 and have a few i/state games around mid year.

LIONS, Carl, Coll, Hawks, Sydney, GC & GWS all get 2 byes before we get our first too 🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠

Just now, Lucifers Hero said:

Talking of byes. We have defied the odds!

Our last two op have had 2 weeks rest and we won both convincingly.

Our fitness levels must be through the roof!

btw, King has an unblemished record at the G.

May it become our fortress!

27 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Talking of byes. We have defied the odds!

Our last two op have had 2 weeks rest and we won both convincingly.

Our fitness levels must be through the roof!

btw, King has an unblemished record at the G.

May it become our fortress!

23 minutes ago, Redleg said:

You know the saying Bin, opinions are like a---holes, everyone has one.

Seriously though, if you asked him now, I bet he would have a different opinion. Exposed form changes opinions on where teams are at.

BTW, I have thought we would could make finals this year, but yesterday didn't think we could beat the Suns.

My opinion has changed a bit now. Injuries are going to be very important as usual.

We still have JV and JB to return.

Those would be massive additions.

16 hours ago, darkhorse72 said:

Fantastic win, I admit I didn't tip us.

The team is running with confidence and it shows. Relentless and fast footy which is great to watch.

The amazing thing was our midfield dominance considering how young we are in there. Across the ground we unsettled the opposite and did you notice how much they were arguing with each other every time we beat them. Not a team yet on today's performance.

Also better first quarter, though still not leading yet at 1/4 time.

I noticed that too there was a lot of finger pointing and blaming. Also there were at least 2 occasions when we were tackled and driven head first into the turf and no free or case to answer. The umps definitively looked after them.

We've already had one big wake-up call ... the first quarter against Freo. Game was over after that

And in a general sense, we aren't starting well. So King has a bit to work on

A lot of the rest of it is fantastic to see so we've obviously improved

What stands out is we're sticking to taking risks at great speed via the corridor. That's going to take us a long way as it builds scoreboard pressure when it works

It took 3 and a bit quarters yesterday but we ended up breaking the GC and made them look ordinary

2 minutes ago, ElDiablo14 said:

We still have JV and JB to return.

Those would be massive additions.

And Fritsch & Rivers

XT might take a bit of time but he was a standout junior with big raps

If it wasn't for Big Max, Heath could step right up, right now

17 hours ago, gs77 said:

Not what ABC radio was saying. They were loving our attacking play right to the death and were gushing that we were playing the kind of footy they liked to see.

When I got back into the car I had to turn them off as I felt they were downplaying us and saying the Gold Coast would be fine and it's just what they needed.

35 minutes ago, Redleg said:

You know the saying Bin, opinions are like a---holes, everyone has one.

Seriously though, if you asked him now, I bet he would have a different opinion. Exposed form changes opinions on where teams are at.

BTW, I have thought we would could make finals this year, but yesterday didn't think we could beat the Suns.

My opinion has changed a bit now. Injuries are going to be very important as usual.

He was certainly a lot more complimentary today ..no “bad team” talk

17 hours ago, VNightCityLegend said:

As long as you have 100 true fans, you won’t ever achieve anything. Gold Coast is this. They lack soul, they lack an identity and they lack anyone giving a [censored] about them. They are essentially pay to win like free to play mobile games.

Handouts by the AFL allowed them Hardwick, Judas, Anderson, Rowell, MaC Andrew…. God, I hope they get picked apart, even if it strengthens Geelong or Collingwood. We may even get a chance to land Mac Andrew in a couple years time as Lever winds down to an end.

I watched the replay last night.

Mac Andrew was responsible for half our score I reckon. His defensive positioning and reading of the game is still pretty poor.

Maybe it's a coaching thing?

Well can I just say what a wonderful Easter Sunday, breakfast with three daughters, son in law and his family, turned up an hour early due to not changing clocks. Quick trip home to change for footy and five of us caught the train to the “G”, lots of Dee supporters on board.

Beautiful day for footy although the sun was in our faces in the Warne Stand for two quarters. What a game, scintillating hard tough fast free flowing footy with a lot of tackles, marks, elite fitness and teamwork, Demon Army kept up the chants, drumming and cheering the boys on. Sounded like 40k at the ground, the crowd was so animated and we let the umpies know how poor some of their poorer decisions were.

Gawn, Steele, Kozzie, Melksham, Sparrow, Salem, Rick, supported by every other player out there slowly ground the Suns down and totally dominated proceedings, I think only a goal each in the last 10 minutes of play showed that we can defend just as well as attack. Loved the mix of songs after the goals, my coffee and pie the pure delight of everyone around us, singing the song and talking about the game on our trip home.

Best Easter Sunday in years.😁👍❤️💙

1 hour ago, DiscoStu17 said:

He would have been leading the Brownlow votes now – if it wasn’t for Koz!!

And Max

All 3 would be taking votes of each other but Kozzie stands out the most

But Steele only getting 1 vote yesterday would feel unfair. He dominated in Clearances, Score-assists, Hard-ball gets, Disposal efficiency and Tackles

If he kicks 2 or 3 goals it's the complete game

4 hours ago, binman said:

Yep super evident at the ground.

We pulled apart their defensive structure and made jt really hard for them to transtuon the ball and enter 50 cleanly. And they were gettimg very frustrated

I think that’s because King was able to almost instantaneously react to whatever changes Hardwick made to his game-plan…something that it seemed Goodwin had a little trouble doing (I might be wrong, but to me he tended to wait until the break when all the players were together, to implement his changes). King is going to make life tough for more than a few coaches this year, particularly as the playing group get better at implementing his requirements.

Look I know at times they'll frustrate us & probably under perform but so far they have been fun to watch.

Also the media had us at 0-4. Well they've proved them wrong

Okay, I’ll do the right thing and not mention the F word…..but I’m keeping September free.