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Get stuffed.

I've only just started posting too, hopefully some of you find value in my posts. Seems like a good bunch of people here and glad I found the site. Best wishes to all and go Dees!

Ummm, where are the new posters...

The call to drop Tyson is one of thee best in-jokes on Demonland.

Hi. I'm Uncle Fester, and I'm an alcoholic. Whoops... Sorry. Wrong support group Hi. I'm Uncle Fester and I drink like a fish because of my football team.

From the thread title alone, i thought it was the early betting odds for this week's game!

I've been lurking here for years so not a new member as such, but I've only started posting on a regular basis in the last few months, so I guess in that respect may appear to be new to all the forum vets. So, erm... Hi!

I am a newbie. Signed up in July. And to further put myself out there, I AM FEMALE. I love the dees, hate the hawks & have brainwashed one of my daughters to support the grand old flag. The other daughter is a work in progress....

I'm going to stop eating pies and start training for a track and field event. Discus.

I've been eyeing the 4 and 20 Beef Chilli pie the past 2 months but haven't dared messed with my hotdog and dim sim pre match ritual. I can't change it up this deep into the season with so much on the line.

It's been a great run of podcast guests...it had to end at some stage though.

so if I stay on the forum long enough, Ill end up crazy like you lot???

Mostly lunatics and perverts. .............. and that's the better ones. and then there's the lawyers.

I've always rated Jon Ralph.

Frost is depth, he would only be a big loss if we were competing in the footy olympics. He's never going to tidy his disposal at AFL level because it's his decision making that's the problem and it's hard to fix. If he's a part of getting Lever over the line then it's a no brainer...

Love the thought of Lever but Frost would be a big loss.

Remember the name Scotty Thompson? F'em I say, offer them the same as they offered us for a young kid wanting to go home. Nothing more. Its called Karma!

How rude. And most aren't crazy, just drunk or stoned.

I'm tipping Nasher has a deep, sweet and, soothing Barry White-like voice.

22Under23 isn't quite as catchy.

I watched the replay for the first time last night, having gone to the game. Some random thoughts: I found it a very tense game to watch live and i was unhappy that we did not kick away. But it was actually a pretty good game of football and we played pretty well. Credit to Brisbane who played terrific. Their midfield smashed us in the first quarter and a half. Gawn does not look right and we really miss Viney. But by god Oliver is something out of the box and Tyson is a terrific hard ball winner Watching AFL live is so much better than on TV. I find it so frustrating on TV not knowing what is ahead of a player. The classic is when they don't go and chip sideways or backwards. is it because there is no one up forward - as is often the case - or are they being risk adverse? I though the commentary team of Healy, Brown and Hudson was really good. Hudson is the best caller on TV these days i reckon. Quite dry humour that often seems to go over the head of his colleagues. as an example straight after Jessie got his 6th he said 'the joy of six for jessie'. Very droll Brown is actually a pretty good special comments man, particularly on forwards. Some interesting in game analysis One good example was his analysis of Jessie's first (?) goal with about 4:30 left on the clock in Q1. He highlighted that Brisbane are learning the zone defence that most teams are now employing and so McStay (i think) was a few metres in front and to the side of Hogan allowing him a free run at the ball as he didn't come across quickly enough (this happened a number of times, gifting Hogan and pedo simple marks). He said they will get better at this Healy noted that the issue was that there was not enough pressure on petracca, who kicked the ball in and zones will always struggle if you allow a player with the kicking skill and depth of someone like trac to kick without sufficient pressure Their midfield pressure was one factor in how poor some of our entries inside 50 were but the real culprit was again our poor disposal skills. Again too many missed targets. For me that is the key reason we can't put teams to the sword. We blow easy chances. That said were pretty efficient in terms of scores v entries As were they. Which was partly a function of our insufficient pressure in the first half but also some poor one on one efforts where our defenders were out marked. Hibberd gave up 2 or 3, Hunt one against the much stronger Rockcliff and TMac had a shocker with Nadal out bodying him a few times. His younger brother was not beaten once one on one and nor was our second AA back man nev. Pedo played another awesome game and looks super fit. Geez he has lost some weight since last year I really liked the Melks game (how about that left foot dart?) and Hibberd is fast becoming one of my favourite players Jones was awesome Vince got better. is slowing down but i think at the point end of the season that is off set by experience Lewis is coming good at the right time. I've loved his composure in the last 2 games and his kicking seems to have improved Can't wait until saturday

Season defining.

That's why I planned it during the bye week. My partner still hasn't worked out why I picked that week.

I have some stats from our 2017 fixture. After looking all this up i am stunned we are now in a position that we can make finals considering. This is remarkable job considering the fixture we had & the injuries. These are not excuses these are just facts hopefully we make it but i will send this to the club so they can make a request for their 2018 fixture hopefully we don't get such a shocking fixture. 6 Day Breaks We have had 9 six day breaks this year yet our opposition going to matches against us have only had 2 6 day breaks going to a match against us. Those 2 matches were against Geelong in rd 3 we had a 6 day break aswell & against Essendon in rd 3 were they had a 5 day brerak & we had a 6 day break. Consecutive 6 day breaks we had 3 consecutive 6 breaks together from rd 13-15 yet none of our opponents had any consecutive 6 day breaks leading into a match against us. 2 days extra break or more We only had on 1 occassion a 2 day extra break against our opposition at that was against Collingwood on queen's birthday as we had the bye the previous round so we had a 16 day break & collingwood had a 8 day break. Yet our opposition had on 5 different matches at least an extra 2 day break. In particular was the bulldogs game when we played on the monday on queen's birthday & the bulldogs played the previous thursday night & the week after against west coast were we played on the sunday aginst the bulldogs & the eagles played the previous thursday night again. Bigger Breaks We had on 6 occassions a bigger break then our opponents yet out opposition has had 10 occassions where they had a extra break on us. This is just very interesting i thought.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-08-23/get-em-while-theyre-hot-pies-on-sale-for-r23 Great idea - but only pre-game?? Talk about classic AFL tokenism. Imagine if you were still in a line for your cheap pie and the opening siren sounds! Gil reminds me of this guy in the picture ----> . Discuss....

That this is a must win game is typical Melbourne. If we hadn't put in a couple of "Barry Crockers" we would be sitting comfortably now. FMD we are a tough team to love!

Jones has been top notch the last couple of weeks, he can smell finals after all these years and is leading the charge

I remember in 1987 I think when we had to win the last round against the bulldogs to get into the finals for the first time in a gazillion years and we did it. I was so excited that we finally made the finals I was running through the house yelling "we r in the finals" about 10 times. That memory has stayed with me to this day. I hope this Saturday afternoon will be another long lasting memory for all the right reasons and with any luck I can repeat the above Go dees.

Bombers are playing Dockers here. Dockers are on holidays. Bomber % will jump.

Lol, way to scare off the newbies guys.

My Other (please specify) is Brownlow Pedersen.

I just don't get people calling for Tyson to be dropped. Makes me think I know nothing about footy..

I know, right? He'd be one of the first picked every week.

We need Salem in the team, I can't believe people would think otherwise. He needed to work on a few things no doubt, but his upside is as good as anyone's in our team.

That's the spirit.

I enjoyed Brown's commentary too. His comment on the McStay zoning mistake I thought showed terrific insight in to the modern game for a player who didn't play against those types of defences. BT would have just accused him of being too loose. It's a step in the right direction for footy commentary. The callers should be professionals who are easy on the ear and know the players names (Hudson). The special comments person should know footy backwards and be articulate enough to get the point across; being a bit rough around the edges is fine (Brown). The ex-footy player flog who just wants to banter with his colleagues should be confined to Triple M only.

Oh dear.

Some key words for Jack," nine contested possessions" " significant role" " gave us some composure, plus some fierce ball movement" "opened up and gave us some scoring opportunities" " team first attitude" " big influence on the game ".

After finally getting around to watching the replay, I was much happier with our performance. At the game live I was a bit disappointed, but I thought Brisbane actually deserved more credit on second viewing. We were also quite unlucky a couple of times with Brisbane's goals. (The one on the half time siren was the unluckiest goal of the year.) Key points: We miss Viney significantly, because his pressure around the ball is enormous. This was especially evident early in the game. Hogan was the big plus obviously and his reading of the incoming ball and goal kicking was as good as its ever been. He also looks to have lost a bit of weight. Pedersen was also fantastic and looks super fit. Rockliff is the best value free agent on the market. Garlett is a bit out of form, so hopefully he can find some in the next two weeks.

Possible Ins: Viney is an obvious in if fit, but our flag chances are probably higher if we give him another two weeks to recover. So, I would be inclined to give him another week off, but if he does come in, I would drop Tyson. I am a big Salem fan and think he adds a good mix of class and hardness to our side. So, Salem is an automatic selection for me if fit. While Watts’ endeavour is frustrating, he too classy to leave out IMO. Frost is a super athlete, but his skills were very poor in the difficult conditions in Darwin, Hobart and Canberra. I really like what Frost can bring, but I understand the argument against having Frost, as well as Oscar and Tom McDonald in the same side. This is the hardest decision for me, because I like Frost's intensity and Oscar still makes a lot of schoolboy errors. And maybe we will need all three against the tall forward lines of Sydney, GWS, Port, Adelaide etc. Bugg could come in, but is really depth IMO. I would have him behind ANB, Hannan, Watts, Tyson, Harmes and Brayshaw. Possible Outs: Wagner has been ordinary at AFL level this year. Stretch, who I still think can make it as an AFL player, will likely make way for better players. Hannan is very exciting, but has not been getting much of the ball over the last month. Tyson is struggling to hit targets by hand and by foot. I also think the balance of our side is an issue. Harmes and ANB are often brought up because of their below average skill level, but they play an important role in running hard and enabling our outnumbering game style. This week I would go with: Ins: Watts, Salem Outs: Wagner, Stretch

Hope the presence of Oscar McDonald in the squad shuts a few people up around here. He is tracking beautifully given his age.

Sitting in front of the fire last night encircled by smoke from my cheroot listening to miles Davis on my stereo it came to me in a white lightning moment..... Just one change and it's a point of difference...bring big wild Frosty in for Wagner and play him on the wing like a runaway bull careering up and down the members wing totally out of control...

Chant "Sack Bucks" in a sacrificial satanic cult voice for a good minute.

Stop continually checking the ladder midweek afraid we've fallen out.

I'm not soft. I judge whether the year's a success on the year and not whether we make the eight. 2007 was a failure. Dean Bailey era was a failure. Mark Neeld era was a failure. Every year from 2014 onwards we've gotten better on field and therefore it has been a success. Not to mention off field. Saying this year is a failure is like saying Simon Goodwin didn't have a good first year as coach. I mean, are you kidding me??? The guy's been fantastic for us. We've had a HORRIBLE run with injuries - seriously this has been the season from hell on that front. Meanwhile our young bloods keep developing and AGAIN in 2018 I guarantee we will be better again. If we aren't, then it's a failure for sure. Of course I will be screaming and disappointed if we fail to beat Collingwood on Saturday, but in terms of the bigger picture I'm happy with Melbourne's year and where we're going regardless of the weekend's outcome.

Brown paper bags

I saw the Goodwin interview. My read o it was different. Goodwin knows he must play Watts but is carefully managing Watts to get the best return. Simply Goodwin us trying to put a firecracker up Watts. Worked a treat preseason. Goodwin wants that return again. its a clear play. Watts is clearly best 22 and this is the pointy end of the season. We all know we can't go far without Watts at full steam in the finals. Goodwin is doing his thing. Watts to play a blinder this weekend.

Time to play our best fit 22. In: Watts must come in and play forward flank. I thought he played quite well in very difficult conditions last week. He is a true utility who can fill gaps anywhere on the ground should things go wrong. He brings players into the game in-particular Garlett. He deserves his chance to prove his spot prior to finals considering what he has been through as a true Dee patriot. He simply must play. Salem: Too silky under pressure to leave out for crunch game. Simply a better player than both Wagner and Stretch. Out: Wagner: Stretch: Both unlucky but best 22 must play. Viney needs two more weeks to be primed for finals. Frost: could come in depending on Match-ups,