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Ordinary for 3 quarters and then we did what GOOD TEAMS do and buried the [censored] in the last!

Is anyone else being driven mad by the constant barrage of deafening music being played at the footy? It is played right up until the bounce starting each quarter and is so loud, you can't even hear the person next to you speak. People are screaming at each other and it is destroying the experience for me. If I want to go to a concert I will go to one, but this is footy, so at least turn it off 5 minutes before the bounce, so we can soak in the atmosphere of the game. It is a disgrace!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Play of the game. Hibbo's desperate dive to save that goal. He had a great game.

While we're still several hours away from the first bounce, I thought I'd share with you all this little story about Hawthorn ruckman Jonathon Ceglar, who has been omitted for today's game. Not many of you would know that I went to school with him and, while he was good at sport, he was no chop at any other aspect of life. In fact, I'd say that Jonathon is without a shadow of a doubt the dumbest kid I ever met growing up. He never learned the body mechanics required to climb down ladders/trees/etc because he fell off literally every time, mostly by choice. He once kept a bottle of apple juice in his schoolbag for five months thinking it would turn into alcohol. He skolled the lot and instantly threw up everywhere. The next year he tried it again but left it in the bag for even longer, thinking that THAT was the flaw in his plan. He’d turn up to school with all these cuts and scratches and say it was from playing with the cat that lives in his street. However, once he elaborated it became very apparent that he was describing a koala. When he got called out he threatened to fight everyone. Even after someone went to the library and got an encyclopedia and showed him a picture of a koala and said “Is this what the cat looks like” and he said "Yes" he still insisted that he was right and it was a cat. He wanted to bet us $50 that he was right, but the whole drama repeated when it turned out he didn’t know what $50 looked like. When we were in Year 8 we didn’t see him for the whole of Term 1. We assumed that he’d moved schools or died falling out of a tree or something, until we found out he’d just kept going to the Year 7 classrooms. And he was getting worse grades than the year before. He straight up didn’t know the difference between left and right (not like confusing them sometimes, just didn’t understand they were two different things) until I think Year 10, when we worked out that he was left handed and because he wrote with that hand he assumed that was his right/write hand. When we started going to parties, he kept insisting that the beer he was drinking out of a plastic bottle was better quality than glass or cans because “plastic is more technological.” He once gave out invitations to his party but instead of an address there was just a drawing of three houses with an arrow pointing to the one on the right. One day I saw him in a shoe store holding up the shoe (a left-footed Adidas trainer) that was on display and asking the shop assistant if he could get a discount if he bought the right one as well. It’s just as well this bloke is okay at footy because he is NO GOOD at anything else.

5-0

Ways to kill a football club and destroy a team: drop their ex captain and longest servant on the eve of his 300th game, which he has earnt after putting his body on the line for a crap team for over a decade. Will. Not. Happen.

Can we talk about how good Langdon is?

Without elevating this above all the other great plays and players that have been mentioned, how good were Hunty’s multiple highlights of running and gunning and delivering cleanly today.

Some of the comment about Melksham on this site are ridiculous. He a class player. Also dropping Jones one game out from 300 would be a disgrace. Heart and soul of club.

Welcome back Hibbo Hibberd lays claim on spot Former Bomber Michael Hibberd has been made to earn his place back in the Demons' defence and was brought into the side for his first appearance of the season. The 31-year-old made a seamless return, gathering 21 disposals in a polished display out of the back line. The tough and physical left-footer also had a moment of brilliance in the third term, when his effort to smother and stop a goal deep in defence helped set up a Melbourne goal at the other end of the ground.

Very, very pleased with that. Scrapped and fought and wrestled for an ugly lead, then blew them off the park when the young opponents tired. Super mature performance. Loved it.

100% Watched soo many teams do it to us over the years.

He plays next week We've killed former Captains numerous times over last 2 decades The team is obviously happy to take Jonesy to 300 so let's all embrace it!!

Big Max an absolute Leviathan of the game.

All on board the reality bus

An unconvincing 50 point win against Hawthorn isn't something I thought I'd see in this lifetime. Love it.

One day we’re going to kick straight and absolutely annihilate a team. Ed Langdon is so dreamy.

So great to bury a team by 50 pts that challenged us all day by playing 15 mins of football

Think the kids were a bit scared of me and my calm and rational behaviour after Jones missed that sitter

If we put this one away you’ll have a lot more trust... until gameday next week. It’s only you, me and every other scarred mofo on this site that feels that way ?

Anyone thinking Melksham should be dropped is clearly not considering his 9 score involvements, not to mention 3 goals. Thats role playing perfectly

Langdon's disposal count may have been down a tad but his 3 goals were valuable.

Hibberd played at a level I thought was behind him today too. I’d almost forgotten how good his best footy was.

Wasn’t that a typical Frost game? I mean that in a light-hearted banter way, not a bagging way. It had everything, his desperate best and... the rest. I actually felt a bit bad when he kicked the clanger straight to TMac, but I also 100% expected it. Completely to script. Contrast that with Lever’s game. Just wow. Hard to fathom how far we’ve come in defence.

We need to appreciate being able to see him play each week.

One of life's greatest pleasures is giving the Hawks a good pantsing. Even better is that we did all the destruction in a quarter. Imagine if we connected for a whole game!? We went from no firepower last year to an abundance of potential goalkickers! AND we have Weed and Brown to return, who had great games in the 2s. The future is here!

FWIW I like the look of 20 year old Casey player Luca Goonan. Skilled, tough and strong as a bull. Worth keeping an eye on.

We are the real deal, though the bath water can look deceptively refreshing. I think the question is, are we one of the top 4 clubs? It won't be answered against the Hawks today. It is a long season and by round 16 I reckon we will know. This game, is about being able to bring the effort and skills required to put away failing teams. The old flat track bully, would be great to see. A win will keep the momentum and confidence. A loss, there will be some soul searching, though it will not be the end of us. I hope we don't fall into the trap of playing at their level, need to keep up the standards. Make them look ordinary, with our relentless pressure and no unforced errors. Jackson to have his breakout game. Jordan to get 30 disposals. ANB and Sparg's to get that forward pressure stat above 200. Clearances in our favour. Oliver, Rivers and Tom to be in our best. Go Dees. ,

On Jones, yes he had a quiet game today but i'm backing him in next week. If we were losing then yes I'd say you have to look at his spot but I'm sorry this guy deserves to play his 300th on a big game and in front of a huge crowd. The thing is we don't need Jones to get the 20 possessions anymore because finally we have other mids that can step up now. For years this guy has carried us and he has been through the worst and stayed loyal. The players love him and have already mentioned after the game about it being his 300th next week, It would just feel so flat if we dropped him this week and what do we want him to play his 300th the week after in tassie in front of no one? Play him and the players can use it as extra motivation to win. He deserves it. Let him enjoy his moment as only the 2nd player to reach the 300 club for our team.

My car proudly displays winning record. Don’t mind if I’m in 22 Litre V8 come September

Thought Hibberd was great from the start. Great call.

Same stars again. Max10 marks. Tmac 10 marks Lever 8 marks. Oliver awesome last quarter.

Tom McDonald was fantastic that quarter

That sounds like a lot of hard work, just move to Victoria instead?

Easy as decision. He’s not so far off that he’s truly costing the team yet if you compare him incrementally to who would replace him (Sparrow et al), so he stays. Plays game 300 in front of a huge crowd, and gets chaired off to a standing ovation after a good win and gets to wave to all the loyal MFC fans who have been on the ride with him. He becomes a week by week proposition after that.

Like you Jaded I believe we are really on the the cusp of being great. I am an oldie who watched the champion Melbourne teams of the 50s. What we saw today in the last quarter was exactly what those champion teams did almost every week. Ground them into the turf. And when did we have a percentage like we have today? Max Gawn? It's impossible to find words to describe this Hercules. What a champion and inspiration to the team..

Pickett is going to be a very, very, very, very, very, very, very good player. 2 goals, 18 touches (at 78%), 6 marks, and 10, count em, TEN score involvements.

AnB fought back really well in the second half. Did some nice things.

Maxy Gawn. What can you say that hasn’t been said.

A game we've coughed up in previous years. We'll bank the 4 points and move on. Huge game next week.

Bit of Tom Hawkins there from Wiedeman just pushing his ruck opponent off and collecting the ball, then through for a goal. Wied is an absolute lock for AFL next week.

We owe alot to Nev Absolute champion Body on the line at every contest

We must apply the heat and pressure from the first bounce. The Hawks are dogged and resolute but are lacking some class particularly in their forward line. They came from the clouds to beat Essendon in rd 1 so there’s nothing wrong with their ticker. Should have beaten the cats on Easter Monday. Were competitive v Richmond. We can’t take them for granted at all. And they still have the master coach calling the shots. He’ll have a plan for us no doubt. We have the advantage in midfield and our defensive structures will hold. Looking forward to seeing how Petty and Hibbo go here. Kicking goals will be our challenge. The forward line has a very makeshift look to it so we could really do with Tmac clunking and converting a few, with an even contribution from the rest and our mids chipping in as well. Perhaps 2 or 3 from Maxxy. I expect a tough hard-fought battle today but we’ll win by 25 points or thereabouts. Go Dees

I am absolutely disgusted at this thread. If anybody apart from Robby Flower deserved to play his 300 th game it is this bloke. And the reward he gets from it is slagging of the first order. Can we please enjoy the moment !!!

We need to remember that he is only a second year player. I can’t think of a second year ruck playing like Jackson, ever!

Even though Jackson isn’t tearing games apart he is holding his own in the ruck and getting plenty of ball. He is allowing Max to drift forward and back and is a big factor in Max having a stellar season.

Jake Lever is the only reason we were still in the game at three quarter time. Our defensive structures were completely broken in the first half and petty looked like a serious liability. Jake was marking or spoiling everything. Things got sorted in the second half and Petty seemed to settle and did some really good things. Our biggest problem seemed to be centre clearances. When Max kicked that goal from fifty the stadium lit up! We never looked back from there. The hawks just couldn’t stay with us once we shifted gears. Great game but we really should have buried them in the third, we need to start kicking goals and not points

That went how I feared it would, until it didn’t. Gawn and Lever were outstanding all day. I think we’d have been in a bit of trouble if Lever didn’t repel everything. Langdon is incredible. Not sure I even knew what a decent wingman was until he came. Jones is a problem. I love him, I hate our recent history of [censored] over captains, but he’s a class below what we’re trying to do, he’s off the pace, and I don’t think he deserves a spot. But he does deserve 300. Glad I’m not making that decision. How we’ve gone from no forward line to an embarrassment of riches is brilliant! Kozzie ?