Leaderboard

Bring back Hogan then trade Hogan to Fremantle for Cerra.

Yeah he’s a ducker but he’s our ducker.

Losing Rivers or Jackson is unacceptable. No deal.

Some red and blue glasses need to be taken off if they think Spargo doesn't duck his head. Plays its smart due to height, but its bordering on Joel Selwood levels.

Saturday was a bitter/sweet day for me. I awoke to the news that a family member in Australia had succumbed to cancer after a long and painful battle over the last 7 years. Unfortunately over the last few week she went downhill very fast. To make it more difficult, it is impossible for me to get back to be there for the rest of the family. I spent the morning on the phone sharing stories and tears. Football was not in the forefront of my mind but I did sit down to watch the game to try and distract my mind from the morning's events. My heart was not really in it but I watched through the first half with a heart growing heavier by the minuet. I stayed watching it and did have a thought at the end of the third quarter that with an extra goal or two we might have been a chance. The way the team delivered really lifted my spirits and brought a smile to my face. I thought of the Pink Lady round, the Big Freeze game and the recent Reach game, but mostly the Pink Lady round and thought about how proud I am to support a club that works so hard to promote good causes. The footy is important but we need to ensure we all look more broadly at life. Go Dees.....

With thanks to Bluelegs over on Bigfooty, nice job!

I haven't posted for a long time. I was just listening to the latest podcast. Andy and Binman defending Spargo as NOT being a ducker. I love Charlie Spargo and I'm glad he's playing for us. He is smart, tough and seems to be a wonderful team player. However, he is rivalling Selwood and Mathieson as a pro-ducker. he has a different technique from Selwood and Mathieson. Selwood drops his knees as a first response to feeling a tackle. Mathieson does the same and throws his head back dramatically. Spargo is like a cat rubbing its head up against your leg. He immediately leans his head into the armpit of the tackler. Being small he gets rewarded for it consistently and has made it an important part of his armoury. Yes, it's smart but if I was an opposition supporter I would hate it just like I hate it with Selwood and Mathieson. But Spargs, keep doing what you're doing.

People throwing up Gus and Rivers need to think very carefully about team harmony and unity. The players are very close knit bunch, and a lot of the way they play is because of how much they love one another and enjoy playing together. Our culture is finally one that other clubs can be jealous of. We need to be very very careful not to just throw out key players in our team. It will cause big disharmony and could backfire. We also can't bring in someone who will demand huge money. Remember Oliver and Jackson will both be out of contract soon enough. That is a big chunk of money gone right there. Have to be very smart, and I think for where our list is at now, our best chance is to target specific needs with free agents or players really keen for success willing to play for less money.

The second Rivers hit a centre bounce he'd be regarded as a better midfielder than Cerra

Any chance they build a dunny?

The future is bright.

Feeling blessed to be able to be there on Saturday night with my Wife, and 2 fanatical kids 🙏 Ticketek is a tough site to navigate when it comes to AFL games but managed to get some amazing seats in the Eastern stand! We will make as much noise as possible for those who cannot be there 😢

Good to see him, but all this premature MFC coverage has me nervous

I remember walking past him after we beat hawthorn in 2018 in that final. He had a massive smile on his face. He was on that Sam Edmund show this is your sporting life on SEN and said it's embarrassing that we are still the reigning premiership players. It would just be fantastic to break this drought. There may be a few old past players hanging on to see this happen.

No one is suggesting removing their teeth and becoming unemployable.

Rivers?!?! Kid is a gun, how many kids you see slot into the best defence in the league and play as consistenly as him? If Rivers wanted to leave, i'd want a HIGH first round pick for him at the minimum.

@Jaded do you want me to find out how many teams have won the flag from Top Toss Spot?

He doesn’t throw the ball and get away with it like Selwood does.

15! Far out, we’ve dropped the ball. We had a Billy Stretch thread when he was about 12.

Lever and May instead of OMac and Frost. No contest. Brown over Weideman. Weid was fantastic in the Elimination Final against Geelong but has never recaptured that form. I have a lot more confidence in Brown. Petracca has taken his game to Elite levels and Oliver has taken it to the level above Elite. Langdon over any warm body played on the wing. Players that no longer play at the club but played finals in 2018: OMac Frost Lewis Hannan Tyson Players Not Currently in the Team but played in finals in 2018 Jones Hibberd Melksham vandenBerg Jetta Weideman New Players to the club since 2018 that are currently in the team to play finals Kozzy Jackson Jordon Sparrow Petty Bowey May Lever (correction - was at the club but out of finals with knee injury) Langdon Rivers Hunt was at the club but did not play finals - currently injured

Kicked the goal from the boundary against the dorks to secure top spot at the end of r.17 in 1964. Deserving of praise.

Jackson said on the Gus and Gawny podcast that he absolutely loves Melbourne and has no home sickness. Kid doesn't sound like he is a good enough liar to pull off such a convincing story.

I don't really understand. Why are we the only other viable option, if we're not an option unless we lose a player?

In days gone by, there'd be a post or three that would suggest three of our spuds for Cerra + a decent pick. I think we've made it.

It's a cruel joke, regardless of flag or no flag this year, that we cannot experience this together nor roar them home. A cruel joke as it's taken dark decades to get here & a seemingly lifetime of dreary Sunday's shuffling home from a loss all hang-dog. Tracc's words & emotions nailed it for me. Bring on the new season & give 'em hell.

Success I'm there Sat night.

Not there yet but we can reflect on where we’ve come from …

My favourite player in the early sixties. I'm thinking Clint may be a tad effusive.

2018 we just scrapped into the finals and from memory had hardly won a game against a team in the top 8. 2021 we hace finished top of the lot, not only had a finals birth secured early, but top 4 as well, which has ment we haven't had to cruel players carrying significant injuries into finals without being able to manage them throughout the season (on which note, we now also have a Burgo). 2021 we hace beaten every team in the top 8 during the regular season. I also think our maturity, disipline to play to team structures and belief as team is poles apart 2018 to 2021.

Well I can tell you all definitively that Paul Callery, Barry Bourke and Stan Alves are absolutely pumped for the dees! And like Hassa from that era how could players NOT be excited🤩

I wonder if dees supporters will remember Max's goal on the weekend like this in 50 years time?

I’ll do this if we win the next 3 flags

That was the most bizarre Melbourne forward 50 entry for the night. Behind Max as he marks it are both Rivers and May. The boys had been told late not to let them get an out number in our forward line. The entire team seemed to know what Lever was going to do, and Jordan Lewis said after the game on Fox that he knew he wouldn’t have the distance from there - and that all his teammates would have known it too. We have played the most consistent team line up all year for this very reason. In the big moments you know what your teammates will do. Watch Lever take that huge intercept mark in the last quarter deep in defensive and he just instinctively turns 90 degrees and kick it to Salem - because he knows he’ll be there, because he always is. Brilliantly prepared.

We are going to.

Agree 100%, I despise those guys for doing it and hating how Spargo has picked up this habit. Needs to cut it out of his game.

leave him alone - other sides have been doing it to us for years.

He's clearly already been found out by the umps, tried it a couple of times in the Cats game and got donuts. TBH don't mind it that much though, need a bit of 'craftiness' to win a flag.

This part seems especially important. We haven't really talked about it much given we've been mostly at Casey for 2 years, but there used to be a lot of talk about the hard surface at Gosch's and it's impact on our soft tissue and foot injuries.

As a youngster in '64, my younger brother and I barracked for the Dees. Just down the road we had close friends (brothers the same age as us) who also supported Melbourne. Thinking back, I cannot remember why we all supported the D's. It was strange because their father had played full forward for St Kilda, and our father had played wing for the Swans. My friends mother had grand final tickets and asked if we wanted to go with them. Of course we did. On the way to the 'G driving down High Street Prahran, not long before Punt Road, we developed a flat tyre. We stopped in what seemed like the middle of the road (guess we were soon to turn right at Punt Road) in very heavy traffic, which were probably all heading to the G as well. As we sat there not knowing what to do - but sadly thinking we were going to miss the GF - the traffic, which included a tram, piled up behind us, and none of them appeared sympathetic with our plight, nor in a happy frame of mind. In fact I think the only thing we all had in common was that we thought we were all going to miss the Granny. Ultimately a kind policeman came along and put us all out of our misery by changing the tyre for us. I've never seen so many happy faces in my life as our car was on the move again - that is, until about 3 hours later. Again it's funny that I can remember details about a flat tyre, but can remember so little about the game itself - the Gabelich run and goal, and the winning Crompton goal are about all I can still see - and of course the sea of joy among the red and blue at the conclusion.

K-Rock especially 😂

Would love to know if Mark Ricciuto still believes that Jake Lever is a $500k player and Adelaide are happy that he left.

Honestly, the number of people from other clubs who have told me that if it can't be their team this year they want it to be the Dees is ridiculous. There is so much good will towards this team right now. Everyone can see how hard they have worked and how much it means to them. If it means that the neutral crowds interstate are going to be cheering them on, I'm all for it. Jump on the bandwagon and help lift them to a flag.

As far as i'm concerned, the more support we have the better

I spoke to Shane yesterday, he’s pretty bullish about Taj getting drafted and would love him to play at the Dees. As expected he kept his cards close to his chest, but I got the impression the club have been in regular contact

Good luck keeping up Chayce. Apt name.

I can't remember how old I was but probably about 10 which means it was 1963.Ron Barassi had a segment on the Tarax show and I remember I rang the station and asked if I could speak to Ron. Don't know who answered but heard him call out to Ron that someone was on the phone for him. Next minute I hear the mans voice "hello", can still hear it today. We spoke for a while and I remember him telling me to practice my kicking and marking.

https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/melbourne-demons-star-steven-mays-message-for-max-gawn-in-afl-thriller/news-story/4a2f9afdf10c6f4112e111781faeb2ec I love Steven May. He’s a quality person.

This is probably not the main item of interest this week, but MOPT has an upcoming tender for the Gosch’s Paddock redevelopment. Good to see it’s moving. https://www.tenders.vic.gov.au/tender/view?id=233936 ———————— The Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust will soon be inviting offers from suitably qualified and experienced contractors for the Gosch's Paddock Sportsfield Redevelopment. The Trust will be seeking to appoint a Head Contractor to oversee and deliver the proposed upgrade works below: Remove existing playing surface to a depth of 100mm. Expand the existing field to a size similar to the Marvel/ MCG playing surfaces and extend the existing drainage and irrigation systems to facilitate the larger size field. Upgrade the existing lighting structures. Install a new sand layer and new turf* Upgrade the existing perimeter fence Upgrade camera coverage for both M&OP and the MFC Improve the existing facilities, including but not limited to; access to drinking water and seating for patrons. *The Trust are currently inviting offers for the turf supply and installation works that will form part of this redevelopment program, refer to RFT12082021 The Open Request for Tender will be released on 9 September 2021 and there will be a mandatory briefing onsite at 10am Monday 13 September. Tenderers will need to register for this briefing once the Request for Tender is released, you do not need to register your interest in advance. Any questions are to be directed to [email protected]

Whereas since Rnd 15 we have played 5 top 8 sides (Bombers, GWS, Port, Dogs and Cats). Six if you include the Eagles in Perth who were in the 8 at the time. It has to be better to have that run than a whole lot of easy games, doesn’t it?

I will give it my best effort supporting the Mighty MFC on saturday night. For me as a kid if you wanted to play in the biggest sporting events it was always at the MCG first and foremost. Being an Adelaide lad there is nothing that makes me more prouder when the club i fell in love with as a 6 year old roles in town to play. The Iconic Adelaide Oval is the country's 2nd most historical ground (my opinion) steeped in history its aura has been good to the Red and Blue since its redevelopment in 2014. May it continue Saturday Night and beyond, i will be thinking of all of my fellow Dees who can't attend from all over the country and overseas. Last night was my greatest night as a Dee, I'm hoping the lads have 3 more special games left in them and bring the Premiership Cup home to the MCG. Long live the MFC, It's finals time. Raise Hell.👏👌🙏🏆🇭🇹