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Ok, I'll start by recognising I'm not a regular poster but a very regular reader, but I don't want to discuss where Watts went in the draft, how hard he is at the contest or what we think he will become. I don't want to discuss how we think he has turned out after all these years or how he should be playing right now. I am a demon fan as you are all obviously on this page. We have all seen Watts play very well at times and very bad at times. We are reluctant to give him credit while we will give Hogan, Oliver, Gawn et al the praise they deserve. I just want to say that while you are all celebrating that not quite convincing win, I'd like us all to acknowledge the impact he had in the last quarter. As much as Hogan lifted, make not mistake, Jack Watts, our favourite whipping boy, won us that game. Not Salem, not Petracca, not Brayshaw, not Jones. We might give him a bit but we know we love him. Watts just won us a game as the underdogs. Think about saying this a year ago, it sounds ridiculous. You want to know what makes it more crazy? He has a history of going to water after he loses his confidence. He and the whole team lost it in the 2nd quarter. For the first time in his career he took charge. I truely believe that something has changed. He set the tone in the last quarter. I want to talk about this but if there is already a thread or discussion, feel free to merge or delete.

Jesus Christ... Not sure what's worse, your comment or the fact 7 people liked it. Melbourne controlled the play all day bar a few patches. They didn't capitalise but GWS had all the run and as you said, at times played like a team that *seemed* 10 goals ahead. But you know what? It was always a 50/50 contest. Even when they were 20 points up. We couldn't score, but we pushed them to the boundary and defended an explosive and transitioning team SUPERBLY. Have you not watched this team for the past 4 seasons? In 2012 that would have been a 15 goal loss. They took it to us, we toyed with them, let them get some air, and then took control when it mattered. That was a superb win. A great team effort. They didn't lose it. We won it. They wanted to play a certain way, and 9/10 we stopped them from playing their way. It was 50/50 all day. Grunt vs speed. Defense vs attack. We took control and demanded attention at the pivotal moment. We finally play like winners and that's the crap you post! Gee whiz!

My favourite moment of the day

He will be in a red & blue next season. Deal done Dangerfield style.

Jack was immense yesterday. Loved how he backed himself on the wing in the first quarter, but by far my favourite part of the day (aside from winning) was his mark/goal/celebration in the 4th. He was seriously fired up after he converted - the casual, lackluster, high five was replaced by screaming and sprinting, forcing his energy into teammates and ultimately kickstarting a 4th quarter comeback. I've never seen him so pumped in his entire career - love it.

I've said many times before that Jack loves the club and there is no one happier after a win. Really hopes he stays a life-long Dee and he ends up being the legend that his talent demands.

Worked it out. if anyone has any gif requests let me know... can do them without the cheesy captions I added on

Whatever happened to the old adage of taking things one game at a time?

he went way out of his way to go to every player within 65 of the goal to rev them up, he did a little tour, when traditionally it is players going to the goalkicker, not the other way around. Absolutely made a statement that he wanted to drag us over the line

I'm pretty sure I would've drunk myself into a coma if they had marked and goaled from that last play.

ANOTHER STEP FORWARD by George on the Outer Laozi (c604-531 BC) is quoted as saying that “ a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step”. For the Melbourne Football Club, that journey from the despairing depths of the past years must be some way along the path, but against the Greater Western Sydney Giants we saw yet another step toward that final goal. While there is no doubt that had the Giants kicked straight, the result would have been very different, it is worth reflecting upon the following scenario. Three quarter time. Melbourne has kicked a meagre six goals and only solitary one since quarter time. The Demons are 21 points down. There is no doubt that such a situation in 2014 or 2015 would have seen the final result blow out to a 30+ point drubbing. However, such has been the progress of the team under the current coaching panel, that a mere 10 minutes later, the team hit the front. Then they held on, even though Greater Western Sydney reclaimed the lead again for a couple of minutes. We are seeing resilience, belief and simple hard, tough inputs by all the players, that was so very lacking in years gone by. And we should make make no mistake about the capabilities of the Giants. Up until late last season when they lost Shane Mumford, they were challenging for a finals spot, and make no mistake, they will do so again this year. Their depth of talent is extraordinary, with twenty top twenty draft picks in their side. Melbourne also has room to improve. The omission of Lynden Dunn was probably a mistake, (although perhaps he was still injured), as for two quarters the team struggled to get the ball out of its defensive 50. A solitary Dunn kick would have solved the problem. But the backline did hold up under intense pressure to hold the opposition to a mere 10 goals. Oscar McDonald in the early days of his career was probably out of his depth, but he now has a few games under his belt, and another win to boot. He was well served in his apprenticeship alongside his brother Tom and Colin Garland. However, if he also becomes an integral part of this defensive wall then we will take yet another step along that path. Jack Viney was simply magnificent all day and topped the possessions list, proving that he has also probably taken another step forward. Clayton Oliver was a revelation, who only played 72% of game time, but had 15 contested possessions in his first game! This kid is seriously good, and the recruiting team must be pretty pleased with his performance, and theirs as well! Jack Watts was another revelation. 10 marks, with a good number contested are not numbers that we have seen from Jack ever in his time at the club. But he has continued his pre season form and what a change that is from previous years! There were still a number of passengers in the side, and the ¾ time status was damning for these players. In the past those same players would be pulling on the boots next week, but when you have Heritier Lumumba, Dunn, Angus Brayshaw, Alex Neal-Bullen, Billy Stretch not to mention the huge figure of Christian Petracca all not considered or unavailable this week, the pressure for spots is genuine. Hopefully as Melbourne continues to take steps both forward and up the ladder it will be gifted some decent umpires. Messrs. Wallace, Chamberlain and Donlan had numerous howlers today, and it is about time the AFL taught them that the game is not about them, and their egos. Next week, its Essendon and their motley crew of fill-ins. Sadly it will only be round two for them, and while many were de-listed last year, they can still play football. They won’t be in as good condition after 20 games, but that is our lot. We just have to keep taking those steps forward, and this will be another one. Melbourne 5.0.30 5.4.34 6.5.41 12.8.80 Greater Western Sydney 3.4.22 6.8.44 8.14.62 e 10.18.78 Goals Melbourne Hogan 3 Garlett vandenBerg 2 Harmes Kennedy Kent Vince Watts. Greater Western Sydney Johnson Lobb Ward 2 Greene Scully Smith Steele Best Melbourne Viney Kennedy T McDonald Oliver N Jones Watts Hogan Greater Western Sydney Ward Scully Shaw Davis Shiel Lobb Changes Melbourne Nil Greater Western Sydney Nil Injuries Melbourne Oscar McDonald (ankle) Greater Western Sydney Nil Reports Melbourne Nil Greater Western Sydney Nil Umpires Chris Donlon Ray Chamberlain Brent Wallace Official Crowd 28,505 at MCG

And this is one of his many strengths FD, he has a cool head and the more he plays in a team that's on the improve the better I think he will become. Watts won us the game yesterday.

I cannot believe it. Ten posts in a row, all complimentary about Jack!

I have consistently had Watts amongst my favourite players, he gets the contested pack marks, creates multiple goal assists and kicks freakish goals. He also wears his heart on his sleeve. He will be a crucial part of our success going forward as much as Salem, Petracca, Hogan, Viney, Gawn and Oliver and he will lead by example. The haters on this site will always hate him, because they don't look at him objectively as one of 44 on our list. He has been best 22 from the outset but a lad with the highest (unrealistic) expectations on him due to his draft position. He is never going to be Wayne Carey but I suggest he is a far better role model than him and a better role model than Tom $cully of the same draft pick legacy who was one of the best for GWS yesterday but who I wouldn't swap for in a mile. List me as a fan.

Roos on Watts: "He is super smart, a good ball user, definitely a lot fitter now, his contest work is really terrific." No greater praise could be given to Jack, especially from his coach. Time for all the JW knockers to pack up!

After last year's last minute loss to the Saints I read comments by big Max. He said in hindsight he should of just tapped the ball to his feet & tried for another ball up again and again to use up the time. Yesterday 10 seconds to go & he taps it down the throat of a GWS player who banged it forward where they had a chance to take a mark. Looks like not much was learned.

I would, but I'm unprofessional and just want to entertain myself. But the club won't. We already have Oliver only playing 58% game time. Petracca would be the same or less, can't afford that. He's just not ready, needs fitness and to earn his way in. Sadly. Edit ps. It'll probably be at one of our home games too.

The big story of the day for me. Considering the last quarter finish many people on here during the game wanted Misson sacked on the spot. The guy has trained Olympians & now he has a list that contains Hard Nuts could well train our 13th Flag watching the last quarter this morning i still cannot believe Neeld wanted Toumpas. The guy truly is a clown Clayton Oliver take a Bow.

and a couple of brutal clearances from Oliver in a row to turn the game on it's head, not bad for a first gamer

Hogan's been getting a lot of praise for his last quarter effort (and rightly so), but let's not lose sight of the fact that two of those three goals were set up by Watts.

Matt Jones on current form is cemented 22 - I don't think his name should have even appeared in this thread to be honest. The only players who need to watch over their shoulders at this stage are Harmes, Bugg, OMac and one of Frost/Pedersen in my opinion.

He can be even better. Hogan said on MMM his eyes light up when he sees what's watts with the ball. Keep it up jack!

Great OP - I've always liked Wattsy, mostly for the silk he brings, although I recognise there have been a few games where he has gone missing. However, there were 4 or 5 moments of absolute class in yesterday's game, 2 of them in the opening minutes, where he sold candy to 3 or so GWS players before dishing off a perfect pass. As the OP says, his 4Q lifted the whole team (I have to say, I thought we were done at 3Q time) and the crowd. We talk about the development of players - well, this guy has had it harder than most and is still up and fighting.

He is the player that has most impressed me this year. He seems to have grown up and accepted responsibility. He's started playing like a 100 gamer. Is this Macca's magic? I really hope the change is permanent.

Firing up the whole team. What has possessed Jack Watts, hes a completely new player chock full of confidence and its bloody brilliant to witness..

So now when a player plays an off game with start a thread for him to be dropped?? Why couldn't this op just be added to any number of other friends devoted to preview and changes for next week?? Glad we didn't drop Tom McDonald after that atrocious thread.

I was the anti social bloke at a mates BBQ watching the game on the Gold Coast, a mates son watched the whole last quarter with me and asked who number 7 was, I said Jack Viney, after the game asked his dad can he get a Jack Viney jersey, we're on the Melbourne football club ordering a jersey now for him! Little steps but this big beautiful club is Coming back to life!!! Great win

Anyone questioning whether we need Prestia... Didn't Matt Jones plays yesterday? He did ok, but if he is sneaking into our 22 there is certainly room for Prestia.

Suggestions we n longer want him are insane. He is a star.

It's staggering how many people seem to have the memory of a goldfish. Since last year, all we've added to the midfield is Oliver, Kennedy and Bugg. Okay, Viney seems to have taken another step over pre season, but if we think our midfield is set up now, we're going nowhere. We will not be able to compete with the aforementioned teams in years to come unless we continue to strengthen our midfield.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves when it comes to the strength of our list. You can't have too many quality mids. Prestia allows vets like Jones and Vince to spend time down back and prolong their careers.

It was Viney's fault also. He was on Shiel at that moment and for some reason gave him his own space right in Maxy's strike zone. He should have been right on his hammer and just blanketed him as soon as he hawked the tap, secondary ball up, game over. Oliver and Tyson were both wearing their opponent which was the right thing to do in that situation.

Yep, I said it at the game he needs to Jamar this ball straight to his feet and fall on it, even if it eventuates in a free against it would waste the whole 11 seconds before the decision and kick was done.

Interesting to see M Jones 95% disposal efficiency and T Mac 91% - that is a quantum leap.

It'll go in a report to the authors of the software to track down, along with some people's posts appearing twice. Currently every post I make produces an error then appears twice, very annoying.

Ahaha this is so stupid. watching the replay now, yes he did some clambers but geeze he got a lot of the ball in the packs out to jones, Oliver and co.

If Roosy and PJ get to have their little icon picture thingy then surely this bloke deserves a gig!! In all seriousness is this one of the best recruiting guru we have ever had? Think about who we have had in the past and you look at Jason Taylor's record and the type of players that fit into the culture and game plan. Salem, Tyson, Brayshaw, Petracca, JKH, Stretch, ANB, Omac, Vandenberg Harmes. Now add Oliver who is a future 200 AFL game player and by all reports Weideman who is impressing everyone down at Casey. We also have KPP in Hulett and Mitch King who both should be handy contributors for Casey this year and push for a debut next year possibly late this year. And just a quick note to finish off, he was part of the recruiting team that selected Ben Kennedy at Collingwood and apparently was a big advocate in bringing him to the Dees. Wagner and Mitch White are also two who have seen senior exposure too. Lets not beat around the bush, he has an eye for talent.

The arrogance on the site at the moment is mind boggling. We've won 3 practice games against under done and under manned teams and we could've and probably should have lost yesterday. No doubt we have improved but we are not Hawthorn. We will get pantsed a few times this year.

Hate the argument that if the opposition kicked straight we would have lost. It doesn't take into account the rushed behinds, kicks under pressure and stupid attempts at goal that were never going to make it (looking at you S.Johnson).

Just watched the final quarter again. - Our first two goals were both started with a C. Oliver centre clearance. - Jack Watts kicks a goal within 90 seconds, and his extravagant celebration with teammates comes with the clear message. "We can win this" - Hogan 3 goals, one assist (shepherd on the line), a nice pass to Kennedy (who missed) and the match saving spoil. True definition of a 'match winner'. - Kennedy was directly involved with 3 goals. He also thwarted a GWS forward thrust at a critical stage with a near 'impossible' spoil (i.e. running back with the flight without impeding his opponent). - Garlett was involved in multiple scoring chains once pushed up the field. - Tom McDonald very involved and regularly hit target by foot.

Have woken up this morning and feel excited. What a great feeling, what a great Easter. And like JC, I feel our beloved old footy club has risen again.

McCartney's influence is very under-rated with all talk being about Goodwin and the transition from Roos. People overlook the fact that we now have one of the strongest coaching structures in the AFL (and an increasingly strong integration with our VFL-aligned side as we saw at training on Good Friday)!

This is all McCartney. His influence on Watts is working remarkably. Notice the way watts is now backing himself in with his run and carry. He is very confident and making the right decision. Go Dees!

I thought he was well below his best today but he is strong in the contest and takes some pressure off our other mids... On today's game I would say AVB was also ordinary at times, dropped some easy marks and made some poor decisions. Kent needs to take his opportunities, he needs to kick the gettable goals and make better decisions. Frost and Pedders didn't give much, Omac is a kid so will cut him some slack, Bugg was quiet, Salem did some good things but at times looked a step behind the play and his opponent. It wasn't a great performance today, there was much more wrong than just Tyson. We got the points because some of our players stepped up and that is a real bonus.

Wrong. Hogan barely attempted a lead or three quarters, he was forcing the midfield to sit it on his head.

That was a sensational feeling in the crowd today when we started stringing goals together in the fourth. Then right at the end when the whisper went around that there was only 10 seconds left and we're two points up... This time we made sure we had numbers back and held the lead. 28,500-odd in the crowd today, and if there were 50 GWS supporters I'd be shocked. Awesome effort from the fans to come out in numbers and get behind the team. For those saying we stole the game and GWS should have had it by 10 goals, how is their missing shots on goal any different from us missing passes to our forwards? If you apply the same standard then we would have had more scoring shots and wound up ahead anyway. On that topic, our delivery to the forwards was disgraceful for most of the match. Too many of our mids still can't hit a leading target and it killed poor Jesse for three quarters. In the second and third the majority of our F50 entries were to the advantage of the defenders. One horrid example in Q3, Harmes was free in the 50. A pass of no more than 30m or so from HF missed him by a good 20m and landed in the middle of three unmarked defenders. To Harmes' credit, he hurled himself into the pack and managed to prevent a mark, but could do nothing to stop them taking it away. Following on from THAT topic, it's no mistake that our success in the fourth came off the back of getting some good ball-users into the middle. Jones to HB, Oliver as the extractor and Garlett and Watts delivering forward made a huge difference and you could see how happy Hogan was when he finally got a decent pass from Watts and clunked the mark. Re next week, aside from OMac hurting his ankle, I'm pretty sure I saw Kent limping off the ground in the fourth. I would think if he's hurt they'd bring in Petracca as a straight swap. It would be a great game for him to debut. Overall, I'm pretty happy with this game. 3 goals between both sides for the whole of Q2 and 3 is a poor effort, but we fought it out, we kept in touch and we saw some really good play in the final quarter to take it away from them. Bring on next week.

I feel sick looking at that 22. I forget we were that bad to kick off the season. What a job everyone at the club has done to get us to where we are now.

Blasphemer!!

I'd like to dedicate this win to Tom Scully