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Tomlinson outperformed expectations Hats off to him

We have found one in Judd McVee

As if we needed another reason to love and respect Big Benny, he's refusing to have his image used in betting ads. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/high-profile-players-refuse-to-play-ball-on-afl-betting-ads-20230228-p5cobo.html

Not a lot of optimism which isn't surprising after last week's game. Overall their focus was on underdone players, lack of speed, poor attitude and little aggression. Lamented the absence of their tough guys: Robinson (retired), Zorko (injured), Matheson (not selected). From Big Footy Dees bring this pressure it’ll be round rd 23 2022 in rd 2 2023. Team balance is wrong at the moment t. We had a speed problem, now we’ve overcompensated and have a grit problem. Friday night against another fast moving side will be enlightening, the Demons will be fired up after us beating them last meeting. We lack fierceness and need to do something to shock these gentlemen players into desperation effort levels. i just want the players to care and reverse that putrid attitude and effort from yesterday. Maybe I'm getting too pessimistic but if we plan on losing the ruck contest, which is going to happen anyway , how do we expect our guys to shark it with Oliver, Petracca , Brayshaw, Viney ,Harmes etc getting service. Demons mids hit the ball hard. Based on what Horne-Francis did to us, Petracca will be unstoppable. IF Zorko was playing yesterday he would not have changed the result, but I reckon he would have become more aggressive in that 3rd Q and the team might have responded. Another concern I have had the last few months is the lack of defensive players in the forward line. Whether we win or not against Melbourne is not as consequential as to whether we turn up with intent and keep it going for the 4 quarters whatever the state of the game. If we just fold and poonce around again I'll be genuinely worried. There is something fundamentally wrong with our team all down hill skiers. Of our last 5 games we have been belted 3 times that’s not a team that should be contesting for a flag. I watched the Dogs v Dee's last night, and even though the Dogs lost by 50, still looked light-years better than we did this weekend. The big worry for me is how hobbled Gawn and Petracca were and won't be this time... Payne and Andrews don’t get close enough to their opponents to tackle them. These are two defenders who seem to have a major deficiency in defensive skills. Yep the old “are we pretenders?” conundrum starts again for another year. Melbourne look deadly dangerous already and last couple of years have had the measure of our midfield. Bailey is not an inside mid and neither is Berry. If Berry played for the Dees or the cats he wouldn’t get a game. Fritchs is about to rip Rayner a new one… …Fritsch will run Rayner into the ground in the first quarter, if Rayner tries to run with him. Even in our best games there are quarters we sleep in, let alone whole games we just don't wake up. My favourite – for its reality and light hearted humour Right, you go whack Petracca in the tibia with mallet, and I'll ride a mini scooter in Max Gawns' back. That oughta help Melbourne replicate their team from that semi final win. Coleman was excellent against us in the final so his unavailabilty this week will help. Dees by 4 goals!

Just a Short report Demonlanders, Got to Casey at 10.00 Could see most squad members indoors possibly doing weights sessions, however Witches hats were set up indicating training was to be completed. At 11.00 all Defenders from the Ones and the Two's came out and did drills and skills sessions. Of most note about this was that CHRISTIAN SALEM and JAKE LEVER BOTH TRAINED. Had to leave so cannot speculate on rest of the session but given they are usually out by 9-9.30 and train till about 12.30 this could be just a light session. Given its Tuesday I would speculate main training session would be at Gosh's on Thursday before game Saturday! Cheers P.F

Just an update on Kynan Brown and a little bit of Noah Yze. A contact within Murray bushrangers attended the Oakleigh Chargers practice match on the weekend against Sandringham. He's an opposition club scout. His opinion was he thought Kynan was close to BOG for the chargers playing as a midfielder. Was quite impressive around the stoppages and showed a high level of grunt and speed as well. He reckons he'll push himself into top 20 draft calculations if he keeps this form consistent all year. Noah Yze also played as a bottom ager and he reckons he showed some really exciting traits and little bit of X factor at times throughout the game. Played forward majority of the game and he reckons he's a genuine watch for 2024.

A shout out to Rivers - not mentioned much but played a great game IMO

Tomlinson 19 possessions and 7 marks. Essentially Steven May stats. Massive kudos for his performance tonight and has proven to be a good insurance policy.

Tomlinson looked so much more assured with his body than after coming back from his ACL last year. Hats off to him, I thought he was done. Wonderful to see. First game live for my two boys tonight. Great way to break them in. 😀 Carn the mighty Demons!

What amazes me about these types of rankings is that Fritsh never gets a mention. FMD! Do they think he flukes 50 goals a year.

Happy to take the 0 points.

Disappointed Tom McDonald couldn't kick that goal to replicate the 2021 grand final ending

That’s a wrap from Preseason Training. A massive thanks to all of our trackwatchers over the summer. You’ve lifted the bar for future seasons. Thanks to @kev martin @picket fence @Slartibartfast @george_on_the_outer @Gator @DeelightfulPlay @DeeSpencer @dazzledavey36 @Nudge @Wizard333 @McQueen @Tough Kent @Yokozuna @Dee Zephyr @Stiff Arm @EMDE @Bitter but optimistic @stinga @RedLegs23 @waynewussell @DemonWheels @Deespicable @old dee @dworship @Tim Apologies to anybody I missed.

Ben brown is copping a bit and whilst stats wise he may not have had an incredible practice match, one view, for what it’s worth, is that he will take the best or second best tall defender every week….and like today that may just allow our other tall forwards (think Max, TMac, Grundy) to outplay the oppositions third or fourth best tall defender they have….. food for thought 💭 🤷🏼‍♂️

Just posted in the trade thread, but thought this deserved a thread of its own. The culture that Stinear and Daisy have built over the last eight years must be absolutely exceptional. Every single premiership player (minus Daisy obviously) and all our most significant players who missed out (including McNamara and Colvin) have just re-signed en masse. Mammoth AFLW re-signing, article at melbournefc.com.au How do you spell DYNASTY?!?!?!

Fairly late with this thread as there was little of interest to show. Incredible lack of passion and enthusiasm for their team, a new season or the game. Not even after May's likely out did they get very excited. If that is any guide, not expecting many WBD fans at the game. From WOOF Forum. Game thread caption is Melbourne, The Reality Check! Will be a huge test against the Dees. I read about Grundy & Gawn and I guess I'm not surprised they got a few goals in a pre-season match. I'm still not shaking in my boots about Grundy up forward... I think we'll match them and our forward firepower will win us the day. They worked so hard to gut run and outnumber the Tigers on the weekend. They created overlap and had multiple options moving the ball forward for large parts of the game. At times it was a training drill. Richmond aren't slouches the Dees look good and are going to be a challenge. Hunter isn’t the best anything in the AFL anymore my man. Unless he’s had the best pre season ever or access to a Delorean he’s probably the player I’m 19th or 20th most worried about. Oliver, Petracca, Fritsch, Gawn - limiting their influence goes a long way to banking the four points. We generally play the MCG fairly well. Having Naughton/Marra hit up the wings will be important at different stages, but the bigger ground should help us isolate the talls in the forward 50. From Bigfooty: Game thread caption is Hyped up Dees v the land of the giants. The major worry here is as always the midfield battle, If we win in the trenches given we now have a vastly superior forward line to theirs and one that can actually now stretch their defence it will come down to how much we can limit their opportunities going forward and if we have learnt to stop teams getting massive run on's against us. The last side to go into most H&A games with 4 tall forwards were the Crows when they made the granny. Dees look pretty settled and ready to fire. Hunter will provide them with some pretty major scouting reports on us I'd say. Massive for the Dees will be a fit Tom McDonald who was a key role-player in 2021. English and Lobb going up against G&G is a massive problem for us. Whilst we did it easy in the praccy game we were still out-tapped by Goldstein and Xerri. Bad signs. We’re looking pretty switched on too, so I see it being a hard fought close contest and wouldn’t surprise if either team win by a small margin. Hoping it’s us, but would settle (reluctantly) for a narrow loss. Won’t be able to stomach a similar result to the same match last year. Confident that won’t happen though. Lobb and Marra both gave Petty a bath in games last year. Will be interesting if that repeats or if Marra or Darcy can take full advantage of getting someone like Trent Rivers if Lever isn’t more accountable. May is one of the best full backs, Lever is pretty good but I think Liam Jones will be better. Long way from best wing combo Hunter is past his best. Agree best ruck combo. Pickett is inconsistent and long way behind Papley. Agree Fristch in top 3. We may be lacking quality smalls but Naughton and Marra are quick on the deck, they can make May and Lever look like dinosaurs. Just need to get the ball to ground and we will be fine. My real worry is the the Dees out run us late in quarters. Fritsch gives me nightmares He is the only one in their forward line that worries me He'll score 3 goals in 5mins and you will be like wtf just happened…Sucks so bad. I watched the Demons play the Tigers in the practice match. Their ball movement was incredibly slick; they were humming like a well-oiled machine. They didn't even seem to have any of the normal early-season rust. That's what scares me more than any of their individual players. On pure talent Melb, even with all their outs are still ahead of us. Gawn, Oliver & petracca is still better than anything we have in midfield. That's where the game will be decided. My Favourite: Good to see on this Bulldogs thread that some sensible comments can be made about Melbourne, unlike the sh*tshow mega threads over on their threads. Kudos fellow Bulldogs. OMG!! At least our threads have passion and good analysis and we don't abuse our opps! I didn't print the nastier comments. Dees by three goals!

[censored] yeah lads!! I'm putting my hand up, Tomlinson was bloody excellent!

Just got into bed to discover the cat had spewed all over it. I think he’d seen the clearance differential.

Harmes had 42 pressure acts which is exceptional. Next best was Kossie with 30. Your views on Harmes are no longer objective.

I don't reckon Im going out on a limb here but geez I like the look of Sparrow. He appears to have developed/matured and I'm tipping a monster season from him.

Best possible outcome from that incident (excluding no injury at all)….no ACL, no medial meniscus, no joint surface trauma. No legacy either once it’s healed. He’ll be good as new, ready to hoist the Cup (assuming the rest of the team can atone for last night, and play like we know they can). Rehab is straightforward, and lucky for Max, he loves cycling. 👍🏻

The Demons took the first step on their road to redemption by thrashing the Western Bulldogs in their opening match for the season to the tune of 50 points at the MCG.

Folks have talked about fitness but did you see Petracca flip off the ground, off his back onto his feet. Never seen that happen on the footy field. Now try doing that in the backyard. It is impossible for most of us, it requires incredible strength and flexibility in the core. That was my highlight. No wonder he is impossible to tag. A raging bull. Once in a generation. Oh, maybe we have two or three once in a generation players. It’s like looking back and saying how lucky you were to see Barassi or all those other champs from those days. We are very lucky to see our current crop of players.

Some great signs. Defence was rock-solid. Tomlinson was fantastic. Had my worries about May being out but that proved to be unfounded. Tommo deserves high praise. Maxy, best ruckman of my lifetime hands down. I’ve never seen another ruckman cause as much damage, as consistently, as he does. So adding Grundy on top of that is absurd. Couldn’t ask anymore than a 50 point win!!!

Me this morning Me now

I’ve been watching tonight’s practice matches and have noticed that the music blaring after goals has returned. I absolutely hate it. The MCG did away with it, but then it started to creep back at the end of last year. Are we stuck with this [censored] now? It’s so unnecessary. Adds nothing to the game. Our crowds generate the atmosphere. Get rid of it. It’s garbage

Lampers from bigfooty did the stats on the game for the 4 quarters and provided the following. Jake Bowey 14 kicks 2 handballs 7 marks 1 score assist Angus Brayshaw 13 kicks 3 handballs 9 marks 2 score assists Ben Brown 7 kicks 2 handballs 6 marks 2 goals Kade Chandler 8 kicks 5 handballs 5 marks 1 goal 1 behind 2 score assists Max Gawn 10 kicks 6 handballs 7 marks 15 hit outs 2 goals 1 behind, 1 score assist Brodie Grundy 4 kicks 4 handballs 2 marks 20 hit outs 1 goal James Harmes 3 kicks 3 handballs Lachie Hunter 17 kicks 10 handballs 9 marks 1 goal 3 score assists Ed Langdon 10 kicks 5 handballs 6 marks 1 goal 1 score assist Jake Lever 6 kicks 3 handballs 4 marks Tom McDonald 4 kicks 3 handballs 2 marks 2 hit outs 1 goal 2 behinds Judd McVee 12 kicks 4 handballs 6 marks Steven May 19 kicks 2 handballs 5 marks Alex Neal-Bullen 11 kicks 4 handballs 5 marks 1 goal 1 behind Clayton Oliver 10 kicks 16 handballs 3 marks 2 score assists Christian Petracca 14 kicks 8 handballs 5 marks 3 goals 1 behind 5 score assists Harry Petty 7 kicks 2 handballs 5 marks Kysiaih Pickett 15 kicks 2 handballs 7 marks 2 goals 1 behind Trent Rivers 11 kicks 8 handballs 9 marks 1 goal Charlie Spargo 4 kicks 3 handballs 4 marks 3 score assists Tom Sparrow 6 kicks 4 handballs 3 marks 2 behinds Jacob van Rooyen 1 kick 2 handballs Jack Viney 9 kicks 10 handballs 5 marks 1 score assist

Simon Goodwin played a straight bat to the unpleasant questions. I admire his self restraint. I also wanted to state that Simon Goodwin is a hero of the Melbourne Football Club. He is a Premiership coach who broke our 57 year Premiership drought and for that I will be forever grateful.

Trac changed the game in the second quarter I thought. My favourite play was in the second when Grundy roved off the pack, did an underground handball to Langdon and Lingers centred it to Spargo. Spargs and Kozzie electric.

Couldn’t ink a new deal?

My eight-year-old has never seen his footy team win. I don’t want to lie to him cry me a river of wees and poos they’ve only been [censored] for about 2 mins about as fair weather as it gets

Was particularly noticeable to me last night too, @old dee (maybe cos I sat top tier, which I don’t usually). And most noteable here is Alex Neal-Bullen. His combination of endurance and consistent speed to the contest is frankly phenomenal. When everyone else (the Dogs mostly) was grinding down, he was running as far and as fast as the first quarter. Needless to say it falls on deaf ears for many on here, but Nibbler’s all-game work is just extraordinary.

I think that's a very cynical view of a serious condition. There is strong evidence of the effects of concussion, just as there is/was evidence for asbestos, cigarette smoking and now silicosis ... you know, all the other tragic conditions the "ambulance chasers" made us alert to.

Not sure if it has been mentioned here but I thought ANB was really good.

From various reports the 5-6 probably were: Fritsch (knee), Max (back), Petracca (broken leg), Oliver (thumb/hand), Langdon (ribs), Brown (knee). Maybe Lever? All very difficult to replace with someone from Casey. To go into a final with 3-4 injuries is risky. Imv with 5-7 is downright foolhardy and inviting trouble. Perhaps we compounded the injuries by also selecting players that weren't necessarily best 22. Would Bowey/JVR have been a better choice than Melksham/Hunt/Rivers (and change some positions). Would we have not got value bringing on our sub: Joel Smith (whose selection had to be cover for one of the injured). Momentum swung early in the last when the injured were spent; no Joel! No idea why we almost never use our sub!! Oh, and btw, it would have been helpful if Jackson had played a half decent game to help Max. A very poor effort by him in a vital game for his team. Not whitewashing the result but imv we beat ourselves in that semi mainly from poor player management decisions before and during the game. Sorry to bring up some 'old chestnuts' but hopefully it doesn't encourage 'whipping boy' posts. 🥺

This is absolutely correct. I spoke to a Board member after the Essendon victory very early in the season last year. He essentially told me Jackson was likely gone. Last week spoke to the same Board member about Pickett. The Board, and the greater MFC don't see him leaving. Pickett nor his manager have ever expressed a consideration to leaving....... to the contrary. This was not the experience with Luke whose mum put enormous pressure on to return to Fremantle. Expect a new contract to be signed by Pickett in the first half of the season.

Players Definitely on the Flight to Brisbane. May, Harmes, Petracca, Grundy, Viney, Lever, Spargo, Brayshaw, Gawn, Hunter, Oliver, Hibberd, Langdon, Bowey, Melksham, Tomlinson, Jordon, Rivers, McDonald, Smith, Neal-Bullen, Fritsch, Sparrow, Petty, Chandler, McVee, Brown

It's a good reminder to have faith in the current Admin/FD. People were up in arms when we traded out Watts, people weren't happy when we lost Hogan but ended up with May. People (including myself) weren't happy when we picked up Grundy and Hunter but they're looking like inspired decisions. The current FD has earnt our faith and repayed it several times over. Relax, we got this

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Don’t think he’s been mentioned yet but welcome back Bowza! All class from the little fire engine.

Contrary to what many on here think, he’s a good footballer with smarts, skill and good vision

Gawn - the perfect game Petracca - prolific and unstoppable Oliver - a selfless game Pickett - offer him anything McDonald - was often bypassed Brown - finest Demon performance Grundy - will be awesome Langdon - was not dominant Hunter - will be vital Spargo - ten important minutes Brayshaw - great second half Neal-Bullen - better second half Rivers - impressive fitness level Lever - defensive general again Chandler - some important possessions Harmes - impressive tagging game Sparrow - impressive tagging game McVee - some important touches Melksham - took his chances Bowey - constantly instilled confidence Laurie - had little involvement Tomlinson - 4 consistent quarters Petty - looked nervous early

The average crowd between us and them is 22,700-odd. Tonight was the second-biggest H&A crowd between us since the 1960s. It was also 37 degrees which doesn’t lend itself to some people commuting in. Plus the majority were our supporters, meaning the Dogs’ fans were the ones who didn’t really turn up.

GREAT START! We were missing 4 of our top 10 but the rest of the boys stood up. Kozzie, Lever, Trac awesome. Judd awesome start. Great to see BBB get 4. Grundy worked a treat first up. BUT, what I loved was how we were still running and hungry at the end. We could easily have rested in the last 5-10 minutes. We did that a lot last year. Not tonight. We put ‘em away. Once the machine is firing. We get a few back, Grundy is full power, we are gonna be scary. Great job, boys!

No second half fadeout and we finished full of running

In short, I think it was decided Baker didn’t have enough AFL traits (as opposed to VFL traits), and the others either do show those traits or there’s faith they will develop enough of those traits. Baker is 24 and I he’s probably pretty much peaked as a footballer. He’s fast, but aside from that I’m not sure what else would set him apart at AFL level. He mostly blasted the ball forward, not much finesse. The acquisition of Hunter put him one player further away from a senior game on the wing, but ironically meant the Bulldogs needed a wing. With Howes and likely Woewodin also competing for depth at wing (and Jordon who was preferred in 2022) that’s just too many wingers to keep. Laurie and McVee were not competing for the same spots as Baker. Laurie is clearly more highly skilled than Baker and is a forward. McVee also appears more highly skilled and more capable as an actual defender. Sure they got nowhere near as much ball as Baker in the VFL, but James Munro and Mitch White also get more of the ball in the VFL. Laurie and McVee are also 4 and 5 years younger, so more scope to develop and improve than Baker.

I could probably name about six regular posters and maybe a few who post occasionally. Probably 10 overall. Not many in the scheme of things. Nonetheless, kudos to all male posters😘. DL is a much nicer place than when I joined about a decade ago. Thanks guys especially those who have gone to bat for me when others have taken a variety of swipes or insults. It was especially those guys that kept me involved. Over the journey I've taken some self enforced DL holidays when it got rough. But really glad I stayed the distance.🙃🙂

We all know that Oliver is the best player in the game...Robbo still hasn't figured it out.

Watched the replay again this morning just to make sure my observation was still on par with how how I felt watching it yesterday 1. Steven May is on his way to a 3rd All Australian off the back of the last 2 games. He's a giant down back. Looks incredibly fit. 2. Jake Bowey is now a seriously good player and opposition clubs will start putting time into him. He reads the play so well off half back and isn't afraid to drift across and take an intercept mark. He'd best 22, and an important one now. 3. I thought ANB work rate was first class. Liked him playing in the midfield and didn't seem so rushed and hesitant as he has been in the past. His ability to put work his opponents through his sheer running power will come in handy as teams start to run out of gas towards the end of the year. 4. Petty looks fit and significantly bigger in size. Got outmarked towards the end by a no name. But i put that down to Samson probably not being on their list of players to watch whilst reviewing for this week's game. I think he just caught Petty off guard. 5. McVee was surprisingly not overawed by manning one of the greatest players we've seen this decade in Dusty. Kept his composure and thought he halved a few contests well. Coaches would have been wrapped with his performance. 6. The Gawn Grundy combo certainly overawed their rucks and defence. I know I've had my concerns with how this combination would work but fair to say it was a success yesterday. Grundy is still on managed minutes due to his huge lay off from injury while Gawn looked imposing and strong up forward. Grundy has a history of smashing Tim English so will be interesting to see how this goes against the dogs. 7. I thought Laurie was disappointing. Saw nothing that says he's close to being AFL ready. Concerning for me. 8. Ben Brown still worries defenders and that was justified when he was getting all those free kicks. He'll still get the 1st or 2nd best defender which then means this could release Gawn/Grundy to have significant impact up forward. 9. Woewodin came on an made an impact straight away. Did not once look overawed and I have no doubt this puts him right in thr frame for an early senior debut. Showed more in 1 quarter then what Laurie did for the 3. Its potentially exciting that we could have a Woewodin running around on the G again. 10. We looked 2 levels above Richmond and this was without Salem, Fritsch Viney which is genuinely exciting and scary. So pumped for the season ahead if we can stay fit.

To the generation of Demon fans who grew up supporting the club in the golden era of the 50s - 60s, Ronald Dale Barassi remains the greatest!