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Steven May and Jake Lever were incredible really. As good as I've ever seen from a defensive duo in our colours.

Just won an auction and bought a house. Melbourne are winning. This is the best day of my life!!!

You guys are a [censored] miserable bunch. I'll take the 4 points any day of the week doesn't matter how we get them.

I didn't log on once during pre-season. I thought I'd take a bit of a Demonland break. I watched round one and saw us cruise to an easy win, that never at any stage looked remotely in doubt, that should have been bigger than it was. I saw Steven May and Jake Lever lead defensive team put on an absolute clinic. I saw an extremely exciting debut from James Jordon. I saw TMac and Nev Jetta back to close to their best. I read the posts on here and the rate in which my mood sank was actually tangible. You guys have become so jaded, that you have actually become physically incapable of just enjoying good things when they happen. And when you do it, it rubs off on me. You make me feel shitty. I honestly did not feel one shred of anger and disappointment, until I logged on to Demonland. I'm out. And you have no idea how sad that makes me.

So, I took a stroll on a fine Saturday through the beautiful Fitzroy Gardens to the MCG and caught up with some old friends. There also happened to be a game on. Bonus! I know some people stayed away because they weren't comfortable in crowds and that's understandable. But things ran smoothly and we took our seats in time for the show. And what a show it was. Yes it was frustrating at times, but that's Melbourne. Everyone was a bit rusty. I had a ringside seat to witness a flying Kozzie nearly emulate the great Jeff Farmer. Lots to look forward to from this young player. He had the fans screaming with excitement. Saw the amazing Maysie take strong mark after mark and together with Lever repel the Dockers umpteen times. Saw the big Mac kick a booming goal from the Southern Grandstand. Breathtaking. Trac and Tommy Mac must have had a bet to see who could break the goal post with their wayward shots on goals. Through the middle next time lads. When is holding the ball not holding the ball? Answer: when a Fremantle player is given an eternity to find a team mate to throw it to. Clarrie was closely tagged and once more not looked after by the umpires. No matter, Melbourne won, the song was played, people were smiling and we didn't have to stay home to watch it on TV while it was played in Cairns or some other place. Win all round.

Watching this guy in the last quarter, I honestly believe that he is our next bona fide superstar. Quiet for three quarters, then someone or something flicked the switch. His marking became clean and precise, and his delivery by hand was perfect. He will improve his set shot kicking I'm sure, and will boot a few bags in the future.

Top of the ladder

You don't need to be playing champagne footy in Round 1 to win a flag. You just need to bank points. I'm sure we'll lose games this year. Some games will be more frustrating than others. But I prefer to live in the present. We won a game of footy. I genuinely feel sorry for those who can't savour that.

TMac is back! Well done Tommy!

The old flag can fly grandly this week. Just the start we needed - team effort also

Top of the ladder and people will still complain...

Pretty much what I expected. An uninspiring win against a severely undermanned Freo. May and Lever will keep us in many contests this year. A Round 1 win is welcome but none of the other teams will be shaking in their boots watching that performance.

21,365 Very disappointing after 580 odd days of no LIVE footy, perfect weather, Saturday afternoon and 40,000 signed up members. Understand that we were playing an interstate team but would have thought we could hit at least 25,000 if not a 1,000 or 2 more.

Have finally managed to watch the entire game after work. While I understand some of the frustration on here, I don’t think there’s a need for panic stations just yet (perhaps because I watched the game knowing the result). While we were at times (very) rusty, we were in control all day and could easily have won by 7-8 goals with better kicking. Things I took out of it: - Gawn and Petracca had average games and will get much better. - Brayshaw was hot and cold but had a massively interrupted pre-season. Plenty of rust. - May and Lever have finally clicked and thank the lord for them. - Our small forwards were good and applied good forward pressure which is something we’ve badly missed. - Welcome back Tom Mac. I’ve missed you. - We will improve immensely with the inclusions of Viney, Brown, Weid, Hibberd and dare I say it Melksham. - Great first game from James Jordan. - I love Kozzy. Hoping for a more polished performance next week as we are going to need it. I’ll reserve judgement as to where we are at until post the Saints game. Go Dees.

The weekend is always better with a win. For those constantly knocking Spargo just have a look at his game today.

Won that purely on talent rather than workrate. Clearances/stoppages and defensive running by mids still a massive issue. Lot to like about our next generation though, thought Jordon was great, Sparrow cracked in hard all day, Kozzy was a sparkplug, and Rivers and Jackson showed snippets. Lever sensational, as was his partner May. Great to see TMac find a patch of form too. ANB and Spargs leading the way for inside 50 delivery, but need their team mates to take notice. A front-running win.

Back on the hallowed turf of the MCG before a crowd of the Demon faithful for the first time in ages. Time to revive the spirit of 2018 and move forward from there. Go Dees!!!

I just got home a few minutes ago. I have to say that it was a great afternoon for football, not too hot or cold, slight breeze, overcast. Basically as good a day out as you could get. SO WHERE THE HELL WERE ALL THE DEMON SUPPORTERS? This game should have been a sell-out. The AFL backed us in and refused to let the Hawks and Bombers pinch our home game, and we get a pathetic 21000 on a perfect Saturday afternoon? That's shameful. Now that that's off my chest... How good were our backline today? 22 marks from our three tall(ish) defenders. May BOG. Lever was impassable, although there were some poor efforts when he pushed into attack. Tomlinson hasn't had the love he deserves, although admittedly he didn't have much in the way of opponents. He still dominated them. That back six a gelling nicely. Also huge props to Spargo and Pickett. They are both firmly in the best 22 at this point. Spargo's creativity and play-making are becoming really important, and Picket's pressure play created opportunities for everyone around him. Also love how Pickett upped his attack in the fourth and went looking to crash some bodies and land some hard tackles. Someone fed him angry pills at 3/4 time. Jordan had a very solid debut. Nailed a couple of beautiful passes and should have had two goals. He's another one who needs to work on his set shots. I'm not entirely sold on the midfield mix we had today though. Our output was pretty low, with only Oliver really racking up the disposals. Very happy for TMac. He's had a lot of pressure after last year, so to come out early and clunk a few contested marks on the wing was a great effort. Could have used a better conversion rate, especially since his misses were pretty easy shots. Overall, pretty happy with the game. They missed a lot of opportunities in attack, but the skills were much better than expected and our backline kicked their [censored].

JOnes and Jetta will not and should not be dropped. Jetta won a lot of 1:1s today and was very solid down Back

Was out for the day, watched it on delay so avoided Demonland - and boy I’m glad I did; the response to a win on here, and the first game of the season is genuinely sad. We were like 1-10 on clearances after the first, so won clearances for the rest of the game. Out defence was fantastic, and the transition out of it for most of the game was also great to watch - Rivers, Hunt, Langdon; even Spargo and Kozzie having decent runs. The link up will only getting better as the season goes. Yes there were fumbles, so did both teams - and so has every game so far. Yes we dropped marks and missed goals, but so has ever game so far in round 1; 29 behinds Tigers v Blues and 20 Pies v Dogs. Lighten the [censored] you sad miserable pessimistic old bastards, footballs back and we’re on the board!

In other news, Ticketek finally sent me an SMS with my tickets, an hour after the game finished.

Spargo with 108 SuperCoach points ?

He’ll be really happy to read this.

I will take a win when 2 tall forwards are in the Grandstand

Demonland logic: Round 1 2020: 26 point loss in Perth = season over, we are terrible Round 1 2021: 22 point win at the G = season over, we are still terrible. Not perfect, but plenty of positives.

So excited I can’t sleep. Cannot wait to sit down in the MCC with my Dad and two brothers for the first time since 2019. Just quietly, really looking forward to a few frothies while seated in the stands too. Let’s go Dees!

This thread is reaching new lows of Demonland pessmism. What's with the "it's only an injury ravaged Fremantle" stuff? It's not like we went in with a fresh first choice 22. AFAIK they were missing Walters, Lobb, Darcy, Acres and Hill (if he's best 22?). We were missing Viney, Brown, Weideman, Hibberd (plus Melksham and Lockhart, if you think they're best 22). They lost a player mid-game but the injury sub mitigates that impact. And it's not like Fremantle are a widely-tipped bottom 4 side. They're actually widely-tipped to be right around where we're likely finish. As to the match itself, we never really looked like being overrun after the first quarter. We won by 4 goals when not at our best, and but for some wayward fourth quarter kicking we'd have won by 6+ goals. We generated 25 scoring shots against a side whose foundation is its defence. There's no denying our skills at times were terrible (some of the kicking was just deplorable and almost everyone fumbled it at least once), and there's no denying we've got a number of weaknesses in the 22 we just fielded. But we also saw TMac's best game since 2018 (and probably Jetta's too), May and Lever were impenetrable, Oliver's workrate was better than it usually is, Harmes looked far more comfortable in the forward half of the ground rather than the back half, Jordon's debut was impressive, and Brayshaw found his touch as the game wore on. We were clearly fitter than them and ran the game out well, too. If that's all we've got for 2021 then we won't do much, but it's Round 1, it's our first game of 20 minute quarters on the MCG with new rules opening up the game, and by and large we were the better side for most of the match. The panic and disgust on here is ridiculously disproportionate.

Literally no team will be playing their best footy this weekend. Suck it up, enjoy the win and let's hope for a good season!

A win is always a win where this club is concerned..

I counted at least 3 kicks inside 50 today by Spargo that hit a target, leading to a set shot goal. That is why he's in the team. I like him.

Dees win, Geelong loses to last years wooden spooner, Bombers lose by a point after blowing a 40 point lead Great day

Daw Has kicked 7 of our 3 goals.

What an unusual thread, well researched and backed up by indisputable facts. The OP would have started at the 2019 National draft Melbourne pick 3 Jackson (6 games) pick 12 Pickett (14) pick 27 Rivers (9) Bulldogs pick 15 Weightman (3 games) pick 53 Butler (2) pick 62 Garcia (0) 2018 National Draft. Melbourne pick 27 Sparrow (7 games) pick 33 Jordon (0) pick 53 Nietsche (0) pick 56 Hore (14) Pick 75 Bedford (2) Bulldogs Pick 26 West (7) Pick 37 Vandermeer (13) Pick 45 Cararra (3) Pick 78 Hayes (11) Of the players drafted in the National Draft over 2019 and 2020 Melbourne have 5 playing today. Bulldogs had 2 last night. Perhaps I misunderstood the initial point.

Enjoy your day. Am in Sect 4 in outer In Great Southern Stand. Getting 7.40 am flight from Brisbane to o by here on this iconic day which figuratively means so much for us. We must make a statement with a performance like vs Tigers in practice game. That would be good enough to win by 3/4 goals today I imagine.

In Viney, Hibberd Out Sparrow, Hunt

Wtf? Jetta was actually good today. He won a number of critical one on ones.

4 points. Move on to next week.

Geez Jordon knows how to get to the right spots! Very, very impressive debut.

I’m not a Tomlinson fan but reckon he has been good

Great to see Junior back to present JJ with his jumper.

Really hope TMac sticks it up the doubters.

You see it on here though. So many "I'm not going until they play well" comments. Protests in that form don't help the club (nor does refraining from buying a membership when you can otherwise afford it).

Not just pathetic, I reckon it's actually a disgusting performance by the MFC supporters. Congrats to all of us who were there, where are the other 30,000 of you?? Disgraceful, how about you actually support your team? No wonder the AFL treats us like the poor relation.

This confuses me. Langdon played well. Ran hard all day. Is a lone wingman out there but provided good linkage and tackled well. Not the most dazzling performance of his career, but certainly a good game.

Made Freo look a bad team. Good pressure at times. Really rushed at them and gave them very little space. Basically dominated, though both teams didn't make the most of chances. Good defensive marking and set up. Hopefully, that is getting the rust out of the system. A few times we took it a bit easy, AFL requires, 100% concentration. Don't like unforced errors. "Ruthless", still isn't in our vocabulary. Second quarter we could have finished them. We need to read it better of the ruck tap, and at packs. C'mon Maxy, put the ball down their throat. Thought all the players did their bit when they had too, no passengers. Great backline, forwards taking marks, mids controlling it at times. The tempo of the game was well managed by team. Ran out the game. When the score got closer, they were able to apply enough pressure and skill to kick away again.

Freo are not awful. It’s going to be a tight season Half way through the 3rd Quarter I thought we were going to get run down. We didn’t

A good weekend for the McDonald family. Slimmed down T Mac is the best T Mac. I’ve regularly potted him on here but he made a real difference today.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if in five weeks time we are wondering how we can possibly fit Weid and B Brown into the team. To sleep..perchance to dream