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There's a sense of history about today - much like it was with the final round of 1987 when many of us travelled to Footscray and watched Melbourne's famous victory. Back then, we depended on Hawthorn to beat Geelong and Jason Dunstall's late goal saw us in into the finals. We went all the way to the preliminary final and the Jim Stynes 15 metre penalty that deprived us of a grand final appearance. This time, it's clear - we depend on no one - it's up to us. Let's do it!

Reality was that Collingwood came to play. They ran with numbers, used handball effectively around the ball, ran into space all over the ground and took contested marks when it counted. They simply outplayed us all day. And you would have to think that Buckley outcoached Goodwin. Same old bad habits by Melbourne. For me, the game pretty much depicted where MFC is at. All the warning signs were present in the Brisbane match.

I was there that day as 9 yo Jack. Still one of my favorite footy memories and pretty hard to beat from that perspective. What great day of drama. Standing up the back of the hill, up against the corrugated iron fence at the back of the Western Oval. The Demons mascot running round pre game with the Flower Power sign on his back, for what I was told by my father to expect was probably the late great Robbie's last game. The come back, people listening to their radios and then the second round of roars and cheers when the results of the other games fell our ways. In all honesty, I don't actually remember that much of the actual game, but the rest will stick with me forever. The elation of my fellow Melbourne supporters that day, was something I have only seen surpassed after we smashed Carlton out at Waverley a year later to make the GF. I don't think I'll ever be able to truly match those moments again until we finally win a flag in my lifetime, but should we win today and make finals after such a long and painful 11 years, it will certainly be a real smell the roses moment.

Just heard Drew left us yesterday he was 69 Great guy and a class commentator ABC Legend

Supporters attitudes do NOT matter. We do NOT influence the outcome, no matter how far ahead of ourselves we may get.

Simon will say its all part of the journey An optimist will say, we're ensuring Buckley gets reappointed for mediocrity A pessimist will say - we're not comfortable with being favourites still... This particular realist says - 7-10th is about where we are, in a really really even year. Overall, behaviourally we (and all teams) struggle with sustained pressure - its how do we as individuals push back and regain composure under heat.- we're young (and some are old) and we're not great at it - and it will come in 2018 and beyond methinks. Little things affect our psyche so much - first goal to Jeffy would have helped the mood to free us up.. for the first qrt - was relatively even after qrt time. This was about the 10th defining game in a row - we've had significant injuries to significant personnel - I still maintain that this (in a sample of one) is disappointing BUT not indicative of the same old flaws... we can't help to buy into it when we care so damn much though.

The magpie in the gum tree out the front was warbling at 4:30 this morning .......... taunting me. But he's silent now!

I hate this "we don't deserve to play finals" crap. If we finish in the top 8 then we do, by f*cking definition. It's a 22-game season, not a one-game season. The Dogs lost to Fremantle in Round 23 last year.

Think you are horribly wrong with Petracca, Salem and Lewis calls.

Dont know why so many of you are worried. We are playing half a team whose season is already over. Dead-man-walking Coach etc etc Have not felt this confident since the last time we played North. Ahhhhh cra.p

I wasn't at the ground, but I didn't get the impression of players coasting. It was more that they looked immensely under pressure, and many players who fall back to poor 'habits' when under pressure, did. Brayshaw fumbles. T.McDonald shanks. Jones barges and hoofs. At least Bernie refrained from punching anyone. It looked to me more that they fell apart under the pressure - probably because they were well aware of the stakes. It's still mental weakness, but it's a less contemptible version than the accusation that they just didn't GAF I think.

West Coast aren't beating Adelaide. They are as soft and as likely to drop clutch games as we are. Even with the outs, Crows are too good for them. I know falling over the line in a last team standing battle isn't how we all dreamed of it happening during the week, but if that's how it happens, I for one will take it over missing out.

The umpiring was undeniably poor. BUT what actually killed us was Jamie Elliott pulling a stack of one in a million goals against the run of play. We dominated the second quarter, only to have it completely neutralised by absolutely arsey goals. We then missed super gettable set shots. It killed all momentum. By half time, it was clear we were the better side. But it was also clear that we were not going to win the game. One of the more frustrating games I have watched in recent times.

I thought Trac was enormous in the guts today when shifted there. For pure effort he is probably the only one that deserves credit. He single-handedly tried to win the game for us when all looked lost, this kid is a keeper!

Mentally weak football club. To lay 3 tackles in the first 20 minutes of what was a finals game for us was pathetic. We lack pace and good users of the footy. Tyson is the turnover king of the AFL, as I have said a number of times. Bernie and Lewis can't play in the same side. Goodbye Bernie. Note that Roos smashed Lions at Gabba for their 2nd win in 10 games. Their other victim being us and we struggled against the Lions last week at the G. I don't know another club that could have done what we did today and giving up a 5 goal lead again in the first quarter is just pathetic.

We deserve to play finals more than West Coast so [censored] them.

The umpiring was reprehensible. Baffling call after baffling call. How was that a free against Pedersen after he got a clean handball away?? Ridiculous

I hear Lever is on the phone to adelaide asking where he signs?

And I honestly hope we don't make finals. We don't deserve to.

How many [censored] contested marks did they take compared to us. And it's been a big problem all year. We never looked like we were going to win it.

Peter Jackson just interviewed on SEN What an impressive spokesperson for the club.. takes and speaks no BS. The standout point made was that the club appears on target to post a million dollar profit this year?

I want to see watts breathing fire. After all he's copped and the team has copped. Beating the pies the team who attacked him to lock up finals if jack can't find motivation to rip a game apart today, he never will

absolutely packing it... pretty confident, as per demon77, that jones will NOT allow us to lose today

Casey win by 15 points - phew Peter Jackson VFL 2017 Casey Demons 3.4.22 7.6.48 9.10.64 11.15.81 Werribee 2.2.14 4.3.27 9.7.61 9.12.66 Goals Casey Demons Fritsch 3 Maynard Scott 2 Bugg Gordon Kennedy-Harris King Werribee Corbett Munro 2 Cleeland Fordham Hodgson Sharp Xerri Best Casey Demons Trengove Wagner Maynard Keilty Scott Fritsch Werribee Hanson Gribble Barrack Iles Corbett Fordham

Just go home, after a drink or two for solace. I vowed not to come near here, but like a moth to a flame, I'm drawn to the suffering of my type. how frustrating was that? If you had to write a template for a typical effort surely that would be it... a let a 5 goal lead happen in quarter 1, don't bother too much tackling, and make sure we handball and kick straight to the opposition at least 10 times a quarter. Yep that should get the job done. [censored] off.

Jones was one of the few that desperately tried to get us over the line. If you think otherwise you werent watching the game

We needed him most when we were 7 goals down. He stood up and did his job. We needed leaders in the last. Blame them. The kids aren't the problem.

Please don't tell me to boot off cos I barrack for Essendon. I'm not here for any other reason that making a comment (not gloating, which I seem to get accused of) Anyone who says "I hope we don't make finals, we don't deserve it" are kidding. The big game experience that the team will gain from playing even 1 final, whatever the result, will be an important building block to future success. If you qualify, you deserve it, it's simple as that. North has knocked off Brisbane by 50 points today, so perhaps after last weeks performance against Brisbane, todays result isn't surprising. But I think the week off will help all teams to regroup. If I was a Dees fan, I'd be barracking hard for Freo and Adelaide and hope like hell you can play a final. You just never know. On todays game, what were peoples thoughts of Petraccas last quarter? Obviously he is still young and probably needs to build a greater tank, but failed to impact the game when you needed him most.

Poor mental prep for the start of the game.....played like they had a lot to lose, which we did, and coughed up the win. The bigger problem, and sad to say it's going to stop us going much further in the coming years, is our contested marking. We are the worst in the AFL, and oppo teams are now exploiting it. That and the fact we've lost our clearance and stoppage domination due to who knows what, means the future's not so bright as it might have appeared, finals or no.

We didn't deserve to win but so many questionable umpiring decisions noteably in the last quarter - Tyson clearly high tackled in front of goal (not called) - Pedersen takes the ball from the ruck gets two handed touched and handballs to open player storming into 50, umpire prematurely blows his load on holding the ball. I'm not gonna hate on T-Mac. Go Crows!

Couldn't stick a tackle. Fumbles galore. I think objectively we were okay for three quarters, but after the game was bloody nearly put out of reach. Gosh that was a deflating performance. I try very hard not to take losses to heart, but by golly I'm going to struggle not to feel filthy for the rest of the weekend.

We are a soft club. We have no leaders. Our coaching group has no idea how to get us ready for big games. It makes me physically ill to watch our fans at the race clapping this effort. What a joke. There isn't a single player in the leadership team today who deserves to be there next year. This has been a problem for years and nothing has changed. Disgusting effort from Gawn, Jones, McDonald, Lewis, Vince. Even Jetta was ordinary. I take heart from guys like Trac and Hunt and Oliver and ANB who tried and gees I feel for them. It feels like a really wasted season. We had it all in front of us and dropped massively easy games and went to water under pressure from a team playing for nothing. I am so sick of seeing Melbourne players looking deflated after the game. It's your fault. You did this to yourselves. I hope it burns you in the guts the way it burns us. But gees it doesn't look like it out on the ground.

Did you shoot it?

Missing a mates wedding ceremony to be there today.. We better F%#×ing win!!!!

Martin has football now and very little to offer post football. He will not be a media person, nor will he be the type to land a good career. Therefore it would be smart for him to make as much as he can from his football career, to tide him over for the rest of his life. The contracts he is being offered will do just that. I could see him going for the biggest offer, if it is way ahead of the next best one.

Gee-willikers you must be disappointed. This is the closest I've ever seen you come to cursing!

We don't deserve finals any more or less than we did before this game. All the teams in the bottom end of the 8 and below are there because they've dropped games. This result is gut wrenching and a total disaster, but let's be careful not to extrapolate that in to the season being a disaster. It hasn't been.

Hang your heads boys..

And Essendon and West Coast do? We beat them both. We've played better than them at our peak this year. We're the 3rd youngest side in the league, and we're still in a damn good spot to make the finals.

If you need to work out where we lost this game, consider this: we won three out of four quarters, but lost the match. We outscored Collingwood from quarter time, including after HT when Hogan was off injured. The fact that we lost the game in the first quarter, when we didn't have the injury and we should have come out breathing fire, is terrible. Far worse than losing to Richmond/Geelong in the last quarter when we were down players. We end the year with 10 losses, 5 of them (North x 2, Fremantle, Hawthorn, Collingwood) to sides who won't be playing finals. 50% of our losses this year to sides in the bottom 7. Port might stink against the good sides but they only lost one game to a bottom 10 side. The current points gap to West Coast is 17. That will vary as Adelaide scores, but essentially West Coast need to win by around three goals to take our spot.

We had everything to play for and we [censored] it up. A disgraceful and inept performance.

I feel sick. So melbourne, so pathetic, what an absolute rabble.

The 4 I had were

Just got here - FYI our cheer squad is at the usual Punt Rd end (despite our away game)

Without Roos, Goodwin wouldn't have a job Roosy is a Legend

In 2 weeks finals begin, if we can't win today or just scape in how do honestly expect to win a final, even against Richmond. Time to cut the crap and put a side a way.

That's such sad news coming on the eve of the finals. I remember when he first appeared on the ABC that he and Tim Lane took football commentary to a new level that set standards far above and beyond the ranks of others in the industry. He will be sorely missed. Sports broadcaster Drew Morphett dies aged 69 And listen to this ... Veteran sports broadcaster Drew Morphett dies aged 69

Happy to relax at 4.30 pm. Can't now.

Don't worry about who they are missing Mud as it always seems that have the opposite affect on us. Its all between the ears. Lets hope they r switched on from the opening bounce and just keep going for 4 qrts.

The closer it gets the more I'm shittin myself. A rum in the morning has never tasted so good. Just get it done dees.