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James Harmes best game in a long time

10 - 1

Brayshaw was brilliant. Probably the best across all 4 quarters I reckon. Just a solid team effort.

I just love my footy club. Finally, I can say it with pride and real belief. Dad, I hope we can do it for you. If we do, I'll make sure the fridge is stocked with Abbotsford lager. By the way, can you please have a word with the big fella up there, to make sure he smiles upon us for the rest of the year and tell him to have a word to Norm and let him know it is ok to let go of the curse..... finally

From the Bulldog Bigfooty. Sounds like a reasonable doggie: Melbourne were absolutely first rate. That was a benchmark win and kudos to them. We aren’t that far away though and I’d really love to see us go round 2 against them with Dunkley and Treloar back in the team. They might still roll us though. Reminded me of Geelong at their best. Hard and skilled and Gawn is a deadset superhero.

ABSOLUTE STATEMENT - Shoved it up everyone - me included

An outstanding article on how we changed over the preseason. Players went to Stafford's farm on the Mornington Penisula with no other coaches. The rest flowed from there with some big changes and little changes. It has been an all club effort. Far too many positive descriptions in the article to list. Special mentions were for Gawn, Viney, Petracca, Goodwin, Williams, Yze and the Board (for quietly changing the president). My take is that everyone has bought in and the whole club is now on the same page. Have we ever had that 'luxury'? This may not be the year of The Demons but I am confident we will be in contention for a lot of years to come. Premierships are incredibly difficult to win. If we there abouts for the next 5 years, playing prelim and grand finals I will be fairly happy. Get a flag or two and I will be ecstatic!

This was very funny!

How dare anyone go above us on the ladder..

Take a bow James Harmes. So good to see him back doing what he did best in 2018

Shout out to Gus for his game. Epitome of sacrificing for the team. Only got it a dozen times but regularly won or halved 1 on 1s. Deserves votes

Controlled and hungry. A beautiful thing.

I now believe the Grand Final guarantee I've been paying for 15 years will finally pay dividends !!! Now where is the maid hiding ?

If the Dees bring the elite heat they have demonstrated they can on any given contest, we will expose the greatest weaknesses the Bulldogs have in their backline. We destroyed the Reigning champs at their own game, the Reigning champions exposed the Bulldogs greatest weakness. We played Tiges at full strength and conquered, there is more to these Demons than meets the eye. What an occasion to send out a clear message that we are the Demons and were here to play for keeps. Anywhere, anytime, Forever Demon Strong.

I think we will come out determined tonight. They blew it last week and they knew it. Last week I felt we didn't bring our 'game face' of earlier games when goals were taken in their stride with little fanfare/celebration and quickly ready for the next play. Handballs were targetted and purposeful. Last week I saw the 'hollywood hand ball' come back. Early goals received more than their usual backslapping/laughing. They celebrated hard after Clarry's last goal thinking the game was won so forgot to defend a very good lead. Tonight I want to see that steely 'game face' again. The one which says: we are here to be serious.

The Dogs had 19 scoring shots, that's their lowest all year (they had 20 against Richmond). And we kept them to that amount on Marvel.

A rare occasion when it might be important to be negative, rather than positive.

Anyone else loving Gus’ defensive game tonight?

Couldn't boo Hannan after 2018. Amicable split, good luck to him.

What about Cordy mouthing off at him after obviously getting him high. Fritsch just went back, curled the goal around, and got on with it.

Yze......."no one will be tagging anyone" ...(except half the team)

Harmes tagging worked at not only at stopping a dangerous opponent but he also played his best game for a long time. Who would have thought?

Great team performance, will put my hand up as one who thought it was more important to tag the outsiders as opposed to cutting off the source. Really good move cutting Libba out and anyone who uses Brayshaws stats to judge his performance doesn’t know what they are talking about

Fantastic team effort. Tomlinson was a big loss and good to see the trust in Petty by the backs and some nice synergy building. Our usual suspects were at it again but massive games by Gus, Harmes, ANB and Rivers. Really liked their games.

This was always going to be a fascinating game. The top two teams in the AFL atm, and not just on the ladder. We are clearly the two best performed teams. Two different tactical models, but not distinct in the way say ours and the Eagles are. Of course all team have a focus on pressure and winning contested ball. But the dees and dogs have pressure and contested footy as foundation stones of their model. Where we differ is our defence system, the ways we transition the ball and the way we look to generate scoring opportunities. But no crowd and the open roof, no to mention the craziness of this week and both teams having covid scares, add random variables into mix. Last year, i found our early games with no crowds painful to watch in terms of the atmosphere, but also from a perspective of not knowing if the games would ultimately count for anything. And it felt like the players were going through the motions. But tonight those factors, particularly the last two are not really in the equation. Yes, the game won't have the same atmosphere, and will miss a lot because of it. But unlike the games with no crowds last year, in some ways it will have its own special atmosphere. Just the sound of the players, like a suburban game, playing a match for real stakes and two teams desperate to show who is the best going head to head. Might even have better umpiring without the noise of affirmation! Can't wait

Last weekend we played far and away our worst football for the year, had one of our key playmakers missing, and we were crucified by a couple of late umpiring blunders ............ and yet we still only lost by a point to a team that played ‘out of its skin’. If we return to playing ‘the Melbourne way’ with everybody playing their role, we can defy the odds and win this. Should be a ripping game. Dees by 10 points.

Baker has not shown anything and does not run as hard devensively, I’d give someone else a go. Push ANB to the wing and bring in Bedford

Tough call on Bradshaw. Super important.

Unleashing the Demon within: The inside story of Melbourne’s revival

Agreed. Not sure why anyone would boo him. We offered him 2 years, he wanted 3. We said you're not worth that, he said ok. We move on. Nobody here did anything wrong. Like Kent he was within his rights to try and get himself a better deal knowing he was a fringe player with a dodgy body. Can't begrudge him that.

The dogs are good but let's not forget they struggled to beat Carlton and lost to Richmond. If we play our best we can win.

Harmes job on Libba was exceptional

The lesser likes for me. Harmes, Spargbol, ANB, Jordon. So clean and hard and don’t stop working. Really good from those 4 plus Brayshaw shutting down a wing. Oliver is head and shoulders above their much lauded midfield. Great win in a weird to watch game.

Brayshaw had a cracker of a game. Best game of the season imo.

Tonight we have the chance to finally beat someone above us on the ladder.

Tell you what, 1 ''pupil free day'' and trying to work from home, and I am looking forward to yelling at some umpires tonight... and a large glass bottle of wine.

It's a great article and in its own way explains why Melksham keeps getting a game. It isn't specific about Melksham, but makes reference to players doing the team thing rather than worrying about their individual performances. Viney is actually named as the example of this selflessness, but the hint is there for everyone to see: the team will be picked based on players doing what the coaches want, not on individual statistics. So, working backwards, if a player is selected, he's doing what is asked of him, even if we don't know what it is and can't see it play out on the field.

Their analysis English means May and Lever must play a more accountable style imho. That’s good for us. The 3 headed monster is going to be hard for Melbourne to defend. Lever and May defend as a pair, and that is not going to work against a 3 pronged forward line. Their humour I'm just worried some Demon forward will yell out "leave it for Bailey!" and Cordy will duck the spoil thinking Williams or Dale will waltz out with the ball. Meanwhile Fritsch gets an uncontested possession and strolls into an open goal. Could this be first game in history that 4 Baileys have played? Bruce and Naughton 1 and 2 in the Coleman by the end of the night. Canines Outstanding Victory Inflicted on Demons. Their anxiety I don't think Dale will handle a tag well. Gawn will trouble us, Lever will trouble us, probably more than May. No point tagging Oliver, just have libba go h2h. Worried about what Gawn could do to Sweet as well as thinking one of Pickett/McDonald/Fritsh might kick a bag. I reckon the midfield battle will be pretty even and both teams will get enough looks inside 50. What will decide the game will be who is more efficient when they go forward. If we put the ball down May's and Lever's throats we will lose. Spewing Salem got up. I’m loving Sweet but Gawn is a whole different level with his play around the ground. English is only really a second ruck and won’t help the centre bounce cause as much as he will be a huge help up forward or preferably down back intercepting. I wonder a little about Josh Bruce too, I still remember last season. Melbourne has the only midfield in the league that worries me with us at full strength. Now there's is simply better without Treloar. Their decency Great team the D’s but we are on a better roll right now. Go Dogs! I'm sure Gawn will comfortably win the hit out stats but I'm also pretty sure Sweet's instruction is to help win the clearance not the hit out. Felt like yesterday we debating who the best player in the league was, Whitten or Barassi, now it’s Bont vs Petracca. Biggest game between our clubs since the 54 Grand Final. Disappointing we can’t attend but i think this could be the first of quite a few big games between us over the next few years, tonight is all about getting early bragging rights. Petracca has had a great 18 months before that he was all talent not much application. Hats off to him putting in the hard yards and building his tank for longer stints in the middle. His still got to keep up this level of performance for a few years yet to catch up to bont who has been consist for 4+ years. Four of the top five Brownlow favourites in this game. I’m not stating that we will beat Melbourne, but there is no doubt we can beat quality opposition. Melbourne are a quality side and will be top 4 this year. This is a 50/50 game in my view. Their madness Dees are a Max Gawn injury away from being average again but ride the wave while it’s lasts. I don’t expect long term success out of Melbourne myself but time will tell. This is there year if it happens.

No, that was Carey. Daisy Pearce stands out in this commentary line up. The rest are morons.

Best 13 possession game I have ever seen

Print a couple of decent tall forwards once you get it.

Big game tonight. A win means we can return to watching and enjoying every possible footy show during the week

Fixed it for you

We lost by one point when nearly our entire 22 played an average or poor game. Dogs beaten by Blues and Tiges. On both occasions, the Dogs crumbled under fierce pressure. If our boys can play the Goodwin 'start-from-the-contest' footy and do most of the hard work when we they don't have the ball, we win and we win well. If our tackles don't stick, or we let Daniels, Bont and Johannisen play loose and free 5 metres off the contest, we get smashed. Oliver, Gawn, Trac, Brayshaw, Fritsch, May, Lever, Salem are our usual match winners, but this game relies much more heavily on Spargo, Pickett, ANB, Harmes, and Hunt. Dees by about 16 points I reckon (hope?).

All this talk about the Dogs blowing teams off the park. Here's who they've beaten by more than 20 points this year: North Melbourne, Gold Coast, GWS, St Kilda. Us by comparison: Fremantle, GWS, Geelong, Hawthorn, Richmond, North Melbourne, Carlton. Their percentage is through the roof because of those two massive 100+ point wins, not because they're consistently destroying their opponents each week.

Agree, great article. Has been a glut of this kind of article about us of late, so I didn't have high hopes of learning anything new, but this is loaded with intimate insights. The author must have had some great inside access and trust within those individuals, which had been repaid by the author with the absence of any real mud slinging, except perhaps with respects to Bartlett which is pretty inconsequential to the current context and I'm not really sure even he would have an issue with what is stated. I've had a good feeling about the sort leadership qualities refered to about Trac for a while now. Contrast this article to the one shown on the same page by Carroline Willson titled "AFL big boys club" (Or something like that). I've got no issues with Wilson not writing about the match day stuff, given it isn't her expertise and no doubt the exclusive male dominated aspects if the AFL is something which should be written about (by someone) but why she has to always be the one to focus on slinging mud 90% of the time as opposed to using her connections and journalistic tallents to write a ballance of interesting and insightful articles like this one is beyond me. I also find some irony in the trajectory of our team this season, compared to that of St Kilda. At the end of last year and start of the season so many 'experts' , both in the media and here on Demonland raved about how much further advanced St Kilda were as a team compared to us. It's quite possible St Kilda arn't as bad as there season is playing out right now either, but I've sensed a growing capability within our team over a number of years and it's amazing how many were prepared to write that long term growth/capability trend off on the basis of a few games against Sydney and Freo in a compressed fixture period. I still recall the wise words of Peter Jackson when he stepped down from his position, that sometimes growth isn't linear and that we should expect a few speed bumps along the way.

Ah football. The cause of and solution to all of life’s problems.