3 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

We’re making this weekend’s banner this afternoon, and yesterday in our WhatsApp chat we were tossing around ideas for the wording. It will say JAKE MELKSHAM 250 GAMES and there were suggestions for what should follow that. Folks were suggesting AGING LIKE FINE WINE and STILL FLYING HIGH, eg. Someone said YOUR LOSS, ESSENDON purely for a joke but I jumped on it and begged for this one. I got a huge bunch of NOPE but ima fight tooth and nail, so if you see the banner on Saturday and that’s what it says you’ll know I won the battle. 😁

Hope you end up winning

Put it up ‘em!

37 minutes ago, Anti-Saint said:

I wish MilkShake would change his post-goal song to: and I would be the lead singer in the cheer squad!

Something a tad more modern and also works with our current strategy of taking some risks and getting some publicity.

Ghosty can do the banner - he can teach you, but he’ll have to charge!

9 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

Firstly Essendon have pantsed us in Adelaide on 2 occasions when we were favourites to win.

Last year we went in about $3 underdogs to Essendon and played like those odds accordingly.

But the point is Essendon play out of their skins at Gather Round against us with a nothing to lose full on attacking mentality.

Given our recent gather round performances against the Bombers i can understand the doubts going into this game

But let's not forget this is a bombers side on an 18-game losing streak. they are genuinely terrible and could well end up with the wooden spoon this year

We have far exceeded expectations and are playing with confidence and belief. Our best can easily account for Essendon. If we produce a performance anywhere close to the Suns game, we will win convincingly

The only concern i have is, notwithstanding our overall performances, we have dished up a couple of dire first quarters against Freo and Carlton. Replicate quarters like that and any team in the league could beat us.

All that said, i reckon we'll put the gather round boggy to bed and win by 30-50 points

23 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

2 Problems

Firstly Essendon have pantsed us in Adelaide on 2 occasions when we were favourites to win.

Secondly they are on a 17 game losing streak & will be totally desperate.

2 Answers:

we are a different team and club this year

Essendon are demoralised and even their captain does not care if they win

Relax, we got this

3 hours ago, heath55 said:

He was average against Freo (as were many), but was impactful against Carlton in a different role - playing ruck relief...to say he has been almost 'unsighted' IMO is far off the mark - Should've kicked two goals against the Suns, had 14 disposals + look at the contests he was involved with - the last goal we kicked was a perfect example of a non stat impact play...similar to mihocek in the second half, his effort and contest directly imacted the creation of that goal but wont appear on the stat sheet. You HAVE to watch more than the stat sheet & the ball and look for what happens around the contest; impact can happen all over the ground that isn't as visible...

Exactly but if it’s not on a stats sheet PF isn’t capable of seeing it

On 06/04/2026 at 17:05, DubDee said:

Thankfully we have the bombers this week

We need some percentage if we are make top 6

Please excuse me if I gag while saying this... We may be the Filth from 2022...🤢

I remember those bastards had a similar all attack game and their percentage was always meandering the 100% mark.

They finished top 4.

Not sure if we can do it, but why not?

Edited 11 hours ago11 hr by ElDiablo14

On 07/04/2026 at 10:47, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

I know this is a danger game and we can't get carried away, but this is how I see it. While we've chalked up some wins that externally weren't expected of us, I'm hoping that much of the playing group just see this as playing to our true potential and won't be taking the foot off the gas.

I think we've got enough experienced players in the team like Max, Steel, Lever, Melky, Petty, Langdon, Sparrow, Salem, Kossie, Chandler etc that know what it takes to put together a successful season week in week out, that we will keep a level head and keep the youngsters grounded throughout the week. Balancing that, I also hope and sense that there is a real hunger to win and succeed within the playing group that well be approaching the Essendon game and every other game this season with (I've certainly seen it thus far).

Also in something of a break with the former Goodwin coached Demons, I hope that if we do build ourselves into a dominant position against Essendon, that we really put them to the sword and bury them early like we did against North in the practice match (a game that now looks more like it was against reasonable opposition). Don't think we should underrate this aspect of putting teams to the sword, as it both locks away games that might otherwise be ground out to tight losses (like we were good at last season) and in a tight top end of the ladder could also be very important to any finals chances - I think there is now even more of a difference finishing higher beyond just top 4 and if we can make finals, I'd much rather us put ourselves in a position of finishing 5th or 6th or above, than 7th to 10th.

I don't think will lose, because the team philosophy is scoring goals, under Goodwin this was not his philosophy, his philosophy was we only need a kick enough goals to win the game. If any team is to beat us this year, they must play Like the Way Fremantle did, where they just went foot to the pedal all game

This is the game one of (hedging my bets) Langford or Culley go bananas up forward and kick 4 or 5

Edited 10 hours ago10 hr by adonski

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

Something a tad more modern and also works with our current strategy of taking some risks and getting some publicity.

Ghosty can do the banner - he can teach you, but he’ll have to charge!

every time he gets a goal or assists one, my co-attendee and i talk about what's he doing? bringing all his boys to the yard!

1 hour ago, Wodja said:

Hope you end up winning

Put it up ‘em!

I dunno, they are past masters at using any type of incentives. Also it personalises a very non personal situation onto one of our great players and clubman.

1 hour ago, Wodja said:

Hope you end up winning

Put it up ‘em!

I lost

😭

We’re going with STILL FLYING HIGH.

We have a new thing on the banner this season, a cute little demon with a speech bubble who says something different every week. It’s only A4 size so you can’t see it from afar but we know it’s there and Max spotted it at Sunday’s game and punched it so I guess that’s a thing now. Anyways, I asked if the little demon could say YOUR LOSS, ESSENDON but again it was all nope. Instead…

👍🏽👏😊

1 hour ago, Cranky Franky said:

2 Problems

1 Fix

Firstly Essendon have pantsed us in Adelaide on 2 occasions when we were favourites to win.

Secondly they are on a 17 game losing streak & will be totally desperate.

Thirdly, they are completely rubbish and we aren’t the team we were the last few years. We have hunger and youth, the bombers won’t know what hit them.

1 minute ago, Ghostwriter said:

I lost

😭

We’re going with STILL FLYING HIGH.

We have a new thing on the banner this season, a cute little demon with a speech bubble who says something different every week. It’s only A4 size so you can’t see it from afar but we know it’s there and Max spotted it at Sunday’s game and punched it so I guess that’s a thing now. Anyways, I asked if the little demon could say YOUR LOSS, ESSENDON but again it was all nope. Instead…

👍🏽👏😊

i will happily sing along to dave dobbyn's "footrot flats" songs 4-6 times per game

On 07/04/2026 at 13:38, Bowserpower said:

I would like to see him get a go this week.

....

As ?

I am very worried but excessively hopefull.

3 hours ago, DubDee said:

I'm glad the pressure and spotlight is off the Bombers this week as they had such a great result last week (only lost by 6 goals, lol).

The reason I am so confident going into this game, aside from their pathetic list, is our new attitude of freedom and flair. I feel like our old style of structure and contest and playing roles was more conducive to over-thinking and feeling pressure.

Plus they were smashed in the contest

3 hours ago, DubDee said:

I'm glad the pressure and spotlight is off the Bombers this week as they had such a great result last week (only lost by 6 goals, lol).

The reason I am so confident going into this game, aside from their pathetic list, is our new attitude of freedom and flair. I feel like our old style of structure and contest and playing roles was more conducive to over-thinking and feeling pressure.

I agree and would add that I'm confident because I haven't seen a jot of complacency. If that creeps in, we might be in trouble, but the players are loving the freedom, flair and even the hard work that enables it.

First Crack just showed some great footage of Langford's off the ball running from the Sun's game.

There was one instance where he ran out flat chat from one end of the ground to the other to provide an option forward. I think it was when Chandler marked, played on and hit the post.

They compared his current role with Ollie Dempsey from the Cats, especially with his marking ability.

2 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

Something a tad more modern and also works with our current strategy of taking some risks and getting some publicity.

Ghosty can do the banner - he can teach you, but he’ll have to charge!

hmmm ... so two milkshake songs - DeeSpencer the Village People r easy to dance to! so it's the VPs for Jake for me

6 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

We’re making this weekend’s banner this afternoon, and yesterday in our WhatsApp chat we were tossing around ideas for the wording. It will say JAKE MELKSHAM 250 GAMES and there were suggestions for what should follow that. Folks were suggesting AGING LIKE FINE WINE and STILL FLYING HIGH, eg. Someone said YOUR LOSS, ESSENDON purely for a joke but I jumped on it and begged for this one. I got a huge bunch of NOPE but ima fight tooth and nail, so if you see the banner on Saturday and that’s what it says you’ll know I won the battle. 😁

Just a little nod would be good @Ghostwriter

Thanks for the memories Essendon

Would be enough

1 hour ago, Demon Jack said:

First Crack just showed some great footage of Langford's off the ball running from the Sun's game.

There was one instance where he ran out flat chat from one end of the ground to the other to provide an option forward. I think it was when Chandler marked, played on and hit the post.

They compared his current role with Ollie Dempsey from the Cats, especially with his marking ability.

I saw this and was really impressed by how he reads the play. To be compared with Ollie Dempsey is very flattering.

8 hours ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

Interesting. What's the verdict (from the admittedly very small sample) about whether Heath can be damaging if resting forward?

If Heath plays I don't see him "resting forward" although he can obviously take a grab. We have enough down there with JVR, Mihocek and Fritsch. If he played say 15 minutes of a quarter in the ruck it is more likely that Max might go forward given his greater conditioning capacity. King will still want lots of run in the side to be able to execute the new fast movement game plan. Heath might be the sort of player who plays barely 50% game time when he does play. With the 5 interchange but no change in the number of interchanges, some players miss quite a bit of game time - e.g. Rivers played just 53% game time in Round 1.

We'll win comfortably, I feel. Belief of this group is very high and Essendon are very young and inexperienced. They're shaky behind the ball and I see our speed exposing them badly.

Also think the senior players will make a point about being embarrassed at Gather Round a few times and will go in with a point to prove.

1 hour ago, Demon Jack said:

First Crack just showed some great footage of Langford's off the ball running from the Sun's game.

There was one instance where he ran out flat chat from one end of the ground to the other to provide an option forward. I think it was when Chandler marked, played on and hit the post.

They compared his current role with Ollie Dempsey from the Cats, especially with his marking ability.

I always check the tracker on the AFL app as it's the only publicly available GPS data I can find, or any data for that matter, that gives me any sense of our running power and fitness.

We had the top 5 players for average speed in defence against the suns (confusing name - defence in this context means when the opponent has the ball, not in the defensive half).

That's a great indication of our all team defensive gut running and spread - critical for defending turnover generally, and in this match of how we denied them space and put pressure on players receiving handballs.

Nor surprisingly Langers had the highest average speed when the Suns had the ball (8.7 kms per hour) and Sharp equal second (8.5 kms per hour).

But I have to say i was super suprised who was equal second - Harvey.

By the by, the mext 2 were Kolt (8.4) and Laurie (8.3)

Edited 7 hours ago7 hr by binman