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Hawthorn will be tough to beat, people are crazy if they think we will walk all over them.

Would like to see this again on the weekend Still my favourite piece of play. One handed against a 3 time premiership player. Impressive

To be fair neither can Wattsy.

That Hawthorn side is very strong on paper - I know they are aging but they are very capable of putting together a complete performance - see the West Coast game. After Clarkson talking about 'catastrophic changes" and then not making any this is just about Custer's last stand for this Hawthorn group - they'll be fired up with Cyril and Birchall back and it's the best 22 they can put out there. Plus they will be fired up v Lewis and they will still believe we are brittle. We need to start well and not give them a sniff, once they've been a few goals down their spirit has dissolved, but if they get ahead early - look out. This is a very tough game for us and any type of win will be a great result.

Steve I'm not going to bang on about the same issue but I will say that your comment about a coach spending the entire game watching his own team play hugely off the mark. I spent a year in the coaches box, admittedly about 10 years ago, and I can assure you that the coach spends as much time watching the opposition as he does his own. He has assistant coaches who watch "their" group and their opponents and will give regular feedback to the coach. The coach will have his own take. There are stats people in the box giving continual feedback on what the opposition is doing and I'd imagine from my day the stats are significantly superior. I think you are quite wrong about coaches not knowing what the opposition players are doing. As far as who I listen to and how far it extends that is based on two things. Firstly their experience in the game and secondly the quality of their observations and how accurate they have been historically. I also look to their dogmatism on issues and their ego. But having worked in an AFL environment for a number of years it is absolutely clear to me that experienced AFL footy people have forgotten more about footy than the vast majority of those here know. So when JKH is retained in the team when everything I see says he shouldn't be there rather than call the FD idiots I question where I've gone wrong.

Renewed my daughter's membership this morning. Just turned 8. 9-year member. Go Dees.

This is what people expressing their views looks like saty, notice how your comment is only a pop shot at posters with no real arguement again??

Don't over sell it, we're persevering with him to give him a decent run at getting it right. It's true they rate him but he needs to do more.

We traded ourselves into a position to draft Weideman because he wasn't going to make it to our next pick, he was the best available. He attacks the ball in the air with ferocity, he's clean with his hands and he's both a good set shot and field kick. What he needs is 10kg so he's not move off the ball so easily both on the ground and in the air. I have no idea how you've come to the conclusion that he has 'no hunger for the contest'?? In the games he's played this year he's been battered from pillar to post flying for marks against 28yo, 95kg, KPDs. He's made the contest and brought the ball to ground. The one match he struggled to get the the contest, he had a corked thigh which kept him out of the team for the next round. Weideman was on the radar for pick 6 all year, I fail to see the desperation.

Just like last week we owe these pricks, after 7 of the previous 13 wins being over 50 points including 2 100+... I've sat through all those floggings & could only dream of a day we'd flip the ledger in our favour & sink the boots into them while their down, just like they've done to us so many times. C'mon dees be ruthless.

How-to win afl games injure 2 opponents in the first half.

Round 7, 1987 I went to my first VFL game.. Melbourne v Collingwood at the G. Melbourne won 18.18.126 to Pies 12.8.80 I decided right then that Melbourne were my team. This weekend marks exactly 30 years as a Melbourne supporter. Dees by 46.

Probably his turn for a rest, like Stretch the week before.

We dont need a big fish. Save our cash for Gawn, Oliver, Petracca, Hogan, Salem, Hunt etc etc They will all field huge offers from other clubs when they are out of contract next.

You're a company-man through and through Saty. Employee of the Month for mine.

I'm not so confident.Will be happy to get the four points.

Not a big fish but keep an eye out for Tim Taranto from GWS.

Also heard that Jayden Hunt will be wearing a pink headband and will also be auctioning it off after the game.

I thought this thread was about Paul Salmon.

I often think Champion data should stick to what they are good at. Counting kicks, handballs and tackles etc at games....their analysis is often wide of the mark and they really are not qualified to give it. A couple of examples come to mind but according to their analysis the Dogs had no chance of winning the premiership last year and we have the worst midfield in the AFL. Stats have their place of course and are a good tool to have but many have been fooled into placing too much emphasis on them. My eyes tell me that Petracca is heading in the right direction to becoming a very good player at a minimum and with all things going well could be an A grader, even a champion. Still a bit of water to go under that bridge but I'm happy to have him.

Yeah my Wife a Dees member, from pies family, the pretends to hate it. She hates it so much she got annoyed last year when I forgot to get Jonesy on the membership card!

I was listening to SEN when it was announced one ex demon was absolutely wetting his pants with excitement. Theox. Of course I was almost doing the same but at my age you do that without any excitement.

Takes Goodwin too long to make the obvious decisions. We can't afford wasted seasons, matches or even quarters. Slow to bring in Pedo, Frost. Slow to drop Oscar,Melksham. I'm particularly unimpressed with Melksham and his use of the first 6 rounds to justify recruiting him.

Who was the provider? We should consult them on the deliberate out of bounds rule. They could probanly clear up the confusion.

So does our current CEO, was at an event recently and PJ was speaking. He noted the branding change was to do with promoting the name Melbourne as part of the MFC name, it has huge value if and when we start to win but more importantly have sustained success. The mantra is to compete for a flag on or before 2020 and to develop the club for sustain success.

If you can find one player that can beat 22 on his own then pay the man. If they can't, invest your money in building a championship team instead. Overspending on one player in the AFL is short sighted when you have a hard salary cap. A soft cap (NBA), or no cap (MLB) doesn't matter as much. I will stick with the Dees current approach. I like the roster and the developing talent we have.

On our terms. If they want a flag they shouldn't be too greedy.

They must rate Wagner very highly. He was injured in the first JLT game and if I'm not mistaken played one Casey game were he hurt himself again. Came back last week and is in this week. That's about two games over 3 months! Having said that Melksham is in awful form. I don't get Bugg and JKH ahead of Kent and Stretch but there you go. Bugg has grunt which is good but I'm damned if I know what JKH has, it's certainly not getting the ball or kicking goals! Saty might be good enough to tell us what his "role" is so we can watch for it on the weekend.

Why do we need a big fish when we have a school of piranha?

I'd be happy to hear that we are going after Steven May or Jake Lever. They are big enough fish for my liking.

This is interesting for future reference in team selection conversation: From the AFL site "Coach Chris Scott said midfielder Sam Menegola, defender Tom Stewart and ruckman Zac Smith were all chances to come into the team after being left out of the 22 on Thursday night. “Sam’s still a good chance to play for us … unfortunately the rules dictate that we don’t have any flexibility with the way we pick the side on a Thursday night,” “If we've already named them managed they can’t play. “So don’t read too much into the fact that players are named omitted." So this may explain why players like Stretch have been listed as omitted in reason weeks. This may be public knowledge, but I'd never heard that before and thought it was an interesting thing to note when seeing players getting 'omitted' and then not playing in the VFL.

So they lost to THE SUNS by 86 points. Then played Geelong the next round, at the G, and lost by 86 points. Next they played the worst travelling team in the comp and beat them by 50 points. And last round travel to their second home and get beaten by 75 points, which is less than the last 2 hiding they had, but they won't drop their pants again. I think their pants will be dropped and a damn good, well deserved spanking will occur. I too am weary of the old Lion, but have much more faith in the hungry young one.

I don't think Hawthorn's drop in form can be 100% attributed to acquiring Vickery, but I really hope it is for the sheer comedy value. Vickery as some sort of team-killing plague bearer is hilarious, particularly if he's offloaded to several other teams before he retires. Then he can go into coaching and infect some more clubs. It also makes Richmond ground zero. Bahahahahaahahahaha

Good thinking Jane. A much preferred course of action than having your front teeth removed.

Me too nervous about this one. Hawthorn at the G are in my opinion a much tougher proposition than Freo and we know how that ended. They look good on paper and have a good team in paper with enough talent to click at anytime. Will be happy with a win of any kind

We got Oliver being touted as a potential brownlow medalist, Petracca being compared favorably to Ablett and Gray at the same age. Meanwhile Jayden Hunt is absolutely carving up sides with his run and carry. Good times.

my opinion of JKH needing to be replaced has purely been made up in my mind while watching games live at the ground with him not being able to hold simple marks, and not having clean hands to be able to pick the ball up off the ground.... that is all

Thanks DC i just wasted an hour looking for the bl00dy rule. I can't cut and paste it on my phone for some reason. http://m.afl.com.au/policies Click on AFL Regulations and it is regulation 12.2 (b) (i) on page 39

I hate all of you.

Just played a half with jack and clarry close game but they won ha ha got em to sign a few things and had a quick chat cool dudes were happy to talk a bit

Just do it. My husband, much to his horror gets a Dees membership every year for Christmas. If he bought me a Collingwood one in return I would shred it.

Hmm as he scans the 2015 draft. Daniel Rioli... Such a waste of time doing retrospective drafting. It's pretty easy though. I think Weid will work out just fine. Good pair of hands and likes to fly at the ball.

Well, it looks like they have at least got a fairly accurate representation of the commentary team then.

"Oliver is a great mark, but when the ball is below his knees he struggles to get down and get it." lol yep. It's not as bad as I thought it'd be, it's a bit worse.

Richo's commentary re: TMac "He's a great kick"

Thread has become udderly ridiculous. I'll beef hooked if I'm opening it again.

Eye can fillet !!

Weid is in his second year and already playing AFL footy. Cook was delisted after 2 years. Weid is clearly a vastly superior player. I take your point, but if you want people to take you seriously, probably best you lay off the hyperbole a bit. Casey watchers last year said he attacks the ball in the air. We've seen first hand that he is also capable of moving the ball very quickly and involving himself in general play - see Hawks game last year. He's only 19 - you have gone way too early I reckon.