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The only team I fear is Melbourne, we can beat anybody and lose to anybody.

IN: Gawn, Hogan, Salem OUT: a little squeak of delight

Jake Melksham is not getting enough credit for his game. In fact he was one of the few players putting up any resistance when we were playing like garbage in the first half. He played in a new role and excelled to finished with 32 disposals, 5 tackles and 7 inside 50's.

I didn't realise we played North again, of all the games I want to win that one the most.

FWIW, that free against Harmes for a throw, near the end of the game, gifting the Suns a goal, has also been paid several times in games against Oliver. To me it is a blatantly incorrect interpretation and decision. A handball is hitting the the ball off a stationary hand by clenched fist. If the ball holding hand remains stationary, as it did, then it is irrelevant if it is hit with the fist/ knuckles or gap or fleshy part of the hand around the clenched thumb and forefinger. Oliver does this often punching the ball off his stationary hand and is pinged. IMO that is incorrect umpiring and it needs to be sorted out. It is certainly costing us.

Optimistically, we can get 7, possibly 8 wins in the run home. That's us playing finals. Rounds 13, 14, 17 and 20 look very hard. But we can jag at least one of these And we need to beat Norf, we just need to. Not just because of the points but because I hate that non entity of a club. Watched one of there players stand over Vince when he was doubled up on the ground and scream in his ear. It was just shite and symbolic of how that tin can club has bullied us. That needs to end.

Well, that was bipolar. (Only just watched game not knowing score) Take the 4 points, have a breather, deal with the Pies. Some observations: - the inclusions impressed; I thought ANB was terrific after that howler early on and Harmes actually influenced the game. Leave em in. Milkshake ok. - Lewis' ball use and marking can be really poor, as displayed in the first half, but certainly makes up for it in leadership. So handy lurking around half back as the loose man and organising the kids. But geez he had a few Barry Crockers tonight. - Jones stepping up was a sight for sore eyes. Bless his shiny head. - Tyson has been building the last few weeks, looks to be getting a bit of dash back and tidied up his disposal somewhat. - Not Pedo's best day, but I like how he presents in the forward line and just works so bloody hard. 'Can we keep him, mum, can we keep him?!' - The bye has come at the right time for Watts. He looks a bit wonky. - Petracca had concrete hands tonight. Hope it's an anomaly, because if you squint, he looks a bit like Dawes. (?) - Jeffy on fire! Equal to Tex Walker on the goal kicking tally. - Hannan looks a beauty. Nice mark, can play tall whilst good on the deck. Noice. - A previous poster mention 'we don't give up'. Results prove we are playing with that mantra this year, been in every game and it's such a pleasure to know with relative confidence that we'll have a crack back; even when 5 goals down. - yes we sucked in the first half, but some of the bellyaching on here is OTT IMO (insert more modern acronyms here). We're at parity with a healthy % and a bee's ? from setting ourselves up to have a crack at playing finals. If you offered me that at the start of the season heading into the bye, I wouldn't despair. - The main negative about tonight's match is that this thread will have to linger like a bitter, stale fart for two weeks through the bye! Goodnight, peeps, I, for one, will sleep well. ✊???

There seem to be whipping boys even when we play well and win (Coaching group were reasonably happy with first half, but we failed to convert and ball movement in the mid/fwd lines) Iam am extending Goody's words in his press briefing. SO : How come it is OMac's fault for every mistake on the ground .There are criticisms of his marking (but not Petraccas). I must admit there were a couple of times in the first half that I thought the Knockers may be right, but overall he was playing on either Lynch or" 2 metre pete" so Frosty and OMac really did their jobs teamwise. He had 11 1% and some people are being praised for massively less than that. If you want a high flying KPD who carries the ball 50 metres ( like Jayden Hunt ) , and kicks it 60 ( like David Neitz) at least 10 times a game , be prepared to pay 2 Miliom $. So be thankful we are grooming blokes like Frosty & OMac. Our paucity of Ruckmen means that we have taken our main KPD out of his best area and have two "äpprentices" back there. Let us be fair to them. Jetta and Hibberd' have tightened the defence up really well. Our paucity of Ruckmen means that we have also taken our main Fwd line ball distributor out of his most effective area. Jack Watts is not a natural ruckman and has competed extremely well in that role for some weeks. Over that time he has assumed a "more than fill in role". I agree that he may have got a rocket at 1/2 time, but I also feel a few teamates were informed he was on the ground, makes good decisions and is our traffic director into the fwd line .so why was he not being used Clarrie is in front of Jobe Watson at the same stage of his career and could be anything. Petracca needs to take a leaf out of Nathan Jones/Clarries book because he could be anything. I was a bit critical of his input yesterday until i saw the replay and started to notice how stats can lie because he put really good pressure on when the ball is in his area.Just need to get more of it. Nathan Jones. If he was Cyril dangerfield,, Bruce McAve... would have him as an All Australian. I just feel that the wider football group do not quite appreciate how he has shown enormous loyalty and committment to the Club. He has grown massively as a leader.. Peddo is our whole hearted team man. When Gawny comes back a fwd line with Peddo deep and Jack Watts high Half Fwd and Hannan and Gartlett crumbing and running we could be anything. The future is bright !!!!

Yes aside from that first quarter shot at goal I thought ANB was ok yesterday.

Milkshake was borderline BOG alongside Garlett - genuine four quarter performance

Let's not get ahead of our self with not seeing a more impressive first game. He literally played 15 minutes and had a few touches..

Competitions so even that it's pretty pointless looking further than a week ahead. None of those games scare me all of them are eminently winnable but we could also lose any one of them too (though losing to the Lions would be a massive kick in the nads) All in all its entirely in our hands

The post hoc analysis by some shits me to tears... and @Older demon this is not about you, its about the simplistic way people try to make sense of things. None of the players out there 'drink their own bath water'...and its exactly the same issue in qrt2 that becomes the launching pad to win the game (going into the corridor). No player aims to eff a disposal up, yet it happens... thank god they continued to do what they did in qrt2 and the pay off came for the rest of the game. Maybe its a generational thing (older demon (hell, you could be 20 for all I know) but to fall back into - them being lazy, arrogant, not hungry enough, chose when to play, to make sense of not performing well is at best naive and at worst ignorant at how people behave in contexts of high stress and scruitiny.

Spencer would be a terrific in against the pies . He would stop Grundy having a free run and allow us to have Pedo forward and Tmac back - a much improved structure.

All this bathwater to sup from. Watch me follow it up with a shocker in the changes thread.

I cannot cope with the doom and gloom around here sometimes. We won - as ugly as the first half was - we won. I will take that any day of the week and I for one are celebrating. Go Dees.

Knew instantly which you were referring to!

I was very disappointed in our leaders in the first half - simply in terms of composure with ball in hand. But Jones and Lewis were exceptional after half time. They fully deserve the kudos and really stood up when needed. I also just want to acknowledge that Jeffy Garlett is quickly become a leader for our club. He kicks goals he should kick, he chases and does all the hard things. He's been fantastic this year and I'm wrapped for him.

Hogan could return for Queens Birthday. Sauce - Fox Sports news, channel 500.

Tick for the umpires too. I hate to bring up gender on the internet, especially with such broad statements, but maybe less ego getting about? I helped to officiate a carnival recently, and a female umpire was by far the pick of the bunch on the day as well. I'm sure it's just a coincidence, or maybe just no crowd influence or not a particularly physical game, but worth a mention that they did well when they were so heavily slammed on here last week.

This is a weird one. We won comfortably, but the first half was that bad most of us have cracked the shits. But was it really any different to nearly every other game this year? We've been bog ordinary for patches in all games. It was a wind effected game and we kicked like [censored] when we first had it. I think now the dust is settled I'm pretty happy with the win. It could've been another loss where we're trying to peg them back and they just counter with easy Chinese-checker goals and finish us off. Instead we changed the style, hit lead-up targets (shock horror) and pretty much blew them off the park - with no ruckman and no marking key forward. Crisis averted.

I thought our first quarter was fairly good, could have probably had a few more goals if we were a bit tidier with our handballing. Second quarter was below average but if we didn't waste so many shots on goal it wouldn't have seemed like such a disaster and our 2nd half was excellent, albeit against a below par looking Gold Coast

Never in doubt! When we got to 30 points down, I went out and put a rack of lamb in the weber. Came back in a little while later and we were in front. Was I surprised? Nah... staggered more like it. Those who are negative about this win need to think back to not so long ago when a 30 point deficit would have turned into a 90 point debacle. Those days seem to be behind us. Praise the Lord! GO DEES!

Likewise. Engaging with you and WYL is tedious - your response to everything is "scoreboard". I have zero interest in that level of analysis.

Okay, so we aren't exactly at the midway point yet, but with the bye coming up for us next weekend and a fortnight before we play again, I thought it would be a good chance to gauge how everyone feels we've been going so far this season. Here are some questions to answer: Best game so far: Worst game so far: Most improved player: A player who needs to lift: Who is currently leading the Bluey?: Best recruit: Will we make the finals?: For me, it's: Best game so far: The win over Adelaide. The St. Kilda game came a very close second, but everyone thought the Crows would smash us off the park and instead we gave them a dose of their own medicine. In the process we got a glimpse of what this team can be. Worst game so far: I don't think we've played a bad game as such, but the loss to Hawthorn is the one that sticks out for me. We were outplayed that day and, apart from one blistering quarter, we were average for most of the day. Freo game a close second. Most improved player: Jeff Garlett. 25 goals to this point suggests he could kick 50 this year. Totally different player to last year and he has become one of the best small forwards in the game. A player who needs to lift: Dean Kent. At this point of his career you would have expected him to have nailed down a permanent spot, but he has been very poor so far this year and needs to improve in many areas before he gets a gig in the seniors again. Who is currently leading the Bluey?: Clayton Oliver. Easy. Best recruit: Michael Hibberd. Had no idea how he was going to go after 18 months out of the game, but he hasn't put a foot wrong since he came into the side. Great user and just cool under pressure, he makes us a better side. Mitch Hannan has also been terrific, especially over the last fortnight. Will we make the finals?: Yes, we can, but we need to improve our first halves and win a few we aren't expected to. It's an even competition so 12 wins may be enough to get there, but I still think we can do it.

We went into a game as favourites and actually WON. Wow that makes a nice change.

It amazes me how some posters were questioning Lewis motives in playing for the MFC! His leadership continues to help develop our team and help set a culture of success!

Personally I'd persist with Bugg...not sure what he has done to upset people... disappointing to miss goals...but hey it happens to champions as well, and he is getting pill, so the goals will come. He is a terrier, can take a mark, and he's far from simply been picked for being a 'pest'. He could had one goal that was attributed to Hannan if Hannan wasn't so greedy so he'd be 1.7 over the past fortnight

Jack Viney started the round second on the ladder for tackles, and had another 11 tackles. What a machine. Unbelievably the leader, Rory Sloane, had 13 to pull further ahead.

Watts 3rd qtr was awesome which helped turned it for us. 5 marks (couple of which were contested), 7 disposals and score involvements. 2 of Hanan's goals were Joe the goose to be fair.

A Rising Star nominated game. Often think people forget he's also just a kid/there's unfair prejudice based on his draft number. If he continues to clean up his disposal, he has all the other attributes to make it. Did everything yesterday that Kent should be doing.

I know other will laugh at me, and im also quite pizzy on whiskey atm, but i have to say that i actually see a footballer in O'Mac. He is still a kid ffs. Why do so many people agree that you have to give "talls" time to develop but wont give Oscar the benefit of the doubt? OK, so right now he isnt setting the world on fire. I have also had several "facepalm" moments with him, but im betting that many will be happy to have his number on their MFC guernsey in 2-3 years. He, along with ANB will be long term players for MFC. Dont be afraid to bump this post in 2 years time if im wrong. Ding

we are a team that never gives up.

If we`d have won just one of our 5 winnable losses, we`d be 4th on the ladder this evening. Considering we`ve done it without a ruckman for the majority of the losses, we are in a pretty good space right now.

First time poster very long time reader but here goes: 6 - Garlett. 5 goals, enough said 5 - Jones, turned the game 4 -Hibberd, not sure he had a bad disposal. His awareness is first class 3 - Melksham, easily his best game for us. He was fantastic and loved his aggression 2 - Oliver, in 30 years of following our great club I have never seen a better kid. Unlucky to only get 2 votes. 1 - Pedersen. Massive effort around the ground and great delivery into the forward line. A re-born footballer.

Fun fact. Jeffy is the first Demon (aside from Jesse Hogan who's kicked a few bags) to kick five goals in a game since Sam Blease in 2012. Actually...that wasn't so fun...

Imagine living next-door to the MacDonald clan. Mister, can we have our ball back. Mister, can we have our ball back. Mister, can we have . . . .

65 point turnaround, 35 point win and you're not impressed? Melbourne supporters need psychological counselling package with the membership instead of a scarf next year

A lot of negativity on this thread and fair enough for our shitty first half. However 1. We won 2. We played some good footy and turned a 30 point deficit into a strong win. 3. It keeps us in touch in a very strangely even season Let's put Gawn/Spencer and Hogan back into that side. Pedo stays as a key forward and gives us a marking option up forward. Also we don't get continually outmarked around the ground. An oppo defence has to cover Hogan and Pedo so Watts is freed up. Garlett has more crumbing opportunities. Hannan ( who has an innate ability to be in the right spot) could be a real wild card. Our mids actually get a percentage of taps directed to them. Game on.

Just on this, it gives me a reason to whinge about the commentators. Dermott gives me the shits. Has no idea what he's talking about. Labours points and generally has no idea what he's talking about and has no idea what he's talking about. Not to mention that bonehead Lynch, who spent the last five minutes trying to pick out free kicks for Tom Lynch that weren't there. FCS, what a [censored]. Fast becoming one of my favourite posters. Certainly giving DA a run for his money (come on, mate, step up ). Just woke the wife up laughing at this cracker. Great signs. We really are following the Bulldogs blueprint. Agreed. Nice psychological hurdle to overcome there. Interestingly, Jones was the one to put us in front with a set shot in the third. He was also the one that missed a relatively gettable set shot against Hawthorn in the third quarter that would have put us in front. Perhaps, that was the footy gods evening things up?

I'm not trying to say the fact we beat Adelaide makes us the best team in the league or anything like that. But in a season where the closest margin from any other visiting side this year is GWS' 56 point loss in Round 1, our 41-point win should serve as a reminder to all of what we are capable of.

we are 1 of 3 teams to have over a 1000 PF and that is without Hogan playing many games,

Jones, Garlett, Melksham, Hannan and Oliver had 0 one percenters. Another meaningless stat.

And it indicates that we won, and won well. If that's all the indicator we need then it works for me.

I'm firmly in the Goody camp. Even when I might disagree, such as with leaving out-of-form players in for too long, I can still discern and appreciate his m.o. Though I had started to get a bit concerned that he hasn't been able to drive the players across the line in our close ones - as well as the flat starts in the first and straight after the break. Then I read one the players said he's not the 'motivational speeches' type, but just tells the players where they need to improve. Thought maybe it would be an idea to let Macca take the last two minutes of the huddle. But Goody is a numbers man, and it will be frustrating, but modern AFL is about numbers, and their weight will tip in our favour. He's also had a difficult early apprenticeship with KPP injuries - even we arm-chair critics have struggled to come up with innovative stop-gaps or selection solutions - yet he's tried things, most of which have had an impact.

I'm a fan of the indigenous jumper too. Glad that we've stuck with it for consecutive years.

Supporters need the bye next weekend more than the players ?

I highly recommend for those that haven't been to Alice to come up and support - it's awesome. On a very personal note - not that anyone knew... nice win for the old man looking on - exactly one year on. Finally. Jones was immense the negativity that pervades supporters drives me to drink (currently at Montes in Alice again, it's awesome) its not about 2017 and yes finals makes me feel good - but they show grit, time and time and time again. From a coaching perspective they make relevant changes where appropriate- 2018 will be a cracker. oliver is just sublime harmes is stepping up and remember - no defined ruck and no key forward for structure - glad we lowered our eyes in the second half. Melbourne have done effing well for the past 5 rounds without the services of some athletes that really are crucial to structure and planning. Personally I commend the coaching staff with all things considered

One of the most unenjoyable wins I've seen. Ablett plays and we probably lose. A long way to go for this group.