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But for the love of all things holy… NOT TO ESSENDON!!!!!!!

Let's start with this thread

We should not have any sympathy for Essendon. They have humiliated us many, many times before. They should be despised with a passion! In recent memory losing to Essendon by 18 points in round 3 back in 2019. I remember a horrible, mean old man who was an Essendon supporter laughing at us and saying we would be wooden spooners (he wasn't off by much to be brutally honest). Then there was the utter disgrace and ineptitude of losing by 148 points to Essendon in round 2 back in 2013. Mark Neeld had well and truly had his papers stamped to be sacked after that. Then there was the 5 point loss in the elimination final to Essendon way back in season 2004. Ironically the last time Essendon actually won a final. Plus who could ever forget the belting we received when a juggernaut Essendon side beat us in the 2000 AFL grand final by 10 goals (60 points). Luckily I don't have nightmares about that horrific day anymore (breaking our Premiership drought in 2021 cured that!). Lastly there was the massive embarrassment of losing to Essendon by 1 point in round 6 of 1992 when Melbourne were up by 47 at the start of the last quarter! I don't forget those painful losses and neither should any other Melbourne supporter. Fingers crossed the Demons players are focused on the job at hand against Essendon for this Friday.

ffs

Am hearing this too, will put pen to paper at some point. Just not sure what club yet.

Frawley was out the door after round 2 of his last year. He was played up fwd thereafter. Howe priced himself (or his manager did) out of contention. Declined to be traded to GCS (don't blame him there) and found a spot with his childhood hero, FIGJAM, reportedly at the same $ we had offered, in the role we had offered. In return we got Brayshaw and later replaced Howe with Lever. Frawley got his premiership medal, Howe is a bit of a hero at the Pies. We got Brayshaw and later got Lever. Brayshaw and Lever have their premiership medals. Howe is still hoping. Very happy with the outcome.

There’s a full season to play yet. Way too early to be speculating on who leaves

Do you do all these list exercises to distract you from the pong, Werridee?

The pessimism isn't my editing. From 'Bomberblitz': I think the Dees will be a bit flat coming back from the GC on a six day break. If we bring today’s effort, we should give a good account for ourselves, but the Demons will do enough and win by 3-4 goals We haven’t been 0-3 since 1967 we are going to get completely obliterated no matter who we put on the park. heppell on fritsch is the stuff of nightmares For gods sake, can someone please just start a COVID outbreak at the hanger so 38 players are in health and safety protocols and the AFL call the game off? Going to be brutal. Oliver and Petracca are going to get 50 touches each and Brown will kick 10. merrett out only takes the margin from 60 to 80 points Who cares whos in…we have a bottom six that should be in the vfl but are playing so…Dees will smash us. With our unbelievable decision that we are so good we don’t need to use taggers, Petracca must be really looking forward to this week’s game. His main concern would be leather poisoning. ANNOUNCE HS PROTOCOLS FOR MELBOURNES BEST 22. The most hopeful comments: I think the Dees will be a bit flat coming back from the GC on a six day break. If we bring today’s effort, we should give a good account for ourselves, but the Demons will do enough and win by 3-4 goals. We’ll see. We beat them in a great Friday night game at the MCG in 2019. Lost narrowly in a dead rubber game for both clubs (at Metricon) in 2020 and then pressed them deep into the last quarter in our game last year before eventually going down by 11 points. Some questionable decisions also went their way in the second half. We know they’re a terrific team but I don’t think we are going to be overawed. From 'Bigfooty': Just want to see us be competitive and have someone run with Petracca. Cant believe Truck's comments about not tagging Neale. Horror draw to start the season but doesn't seem we were ready for the season anyway. There's a real stench about the team, which to me, has come out of nowhere given how positive last season was. Old habits are back, unfortunately. This will be a big loss and will effectively kill off the season It’s the stench of having sky high expectations, the second most difficult fixture in the league, and a team full of babies expected to pull off a miracle. I think we’ll go okay this week. I kind of hope shiel is out for another week so we get to see a pure midfield game from caldwell. If lever doesn’t play again this week the game will be a lot closer than many predict. I'm not all doom and gloom like it seems so many others are here, we're still a very inexperienced team who only beat one top 8 team last year, playing Geelong, Brisbane and Melbourne to start the year is no free ride even though the effort in Round 1 was poor. Like it's been mentioned already we won several key areas on the weekend so if we bring a similar output and convert a bit better there's no reason we can't compete and finish within 5 goals. To their credit I didn't see any disrespect. Probably just grudging respect. A bit of humour here and there was refereshing.

Playing a team role beautifully. He's two good possessions off his 2021 and that's all, while clearly taking an accountable role to neutralise opposition rucks. He may have another comparatively quiet game against Essendon on Friday, looking to physically evaporate Sam Draper, which will again give Jackson a chance to play free and wild. Gawn is giving Jackson the kind of support and protection that few young rucks would dare dream about and it is also giving the Demons the very best attacking output from the young gun. This is dynasty-building stuff we're watching.

Nailed pretty important goals in both games. Max has the runs on the board as both an individual player and as captain. I think we've got so use to him dominating each week that it's become an expectation that isn't exactly normal for most players. If Max can pace himself, really turn it on in the games he has too and share, duties with Dogga when the opportunities are there, I think that's great for the medium to long term development of the team and both Max and Dogga as individuals.

I think it's out of Essendon or Hawthorn. Then a Tassie team could come in.

BECAUSE!!!

ANB is brilliant. I don't know how he does what he does seemingly without breathing through his nose. I am serious! Imagine his stamina if he could correct this.

Likely they're trying the old "copy the premiers" trick, have a foot in each camp, and now don't know what TF they're doing. Hey, things aren't working. Let's go back to the guy who really put us on our arses. The problem with a guy like Sheedy, although his football pedigree is amazing and his record of success up there with the best, is that they can stay in an organisation for so long that they become the organisation and the organisation becomes them. The joint has suffered an identity crisis since he left, and his input doesn't help. Their best shot was with David Evans but Golden Boy threw him under a bus. So let's bring back Golden Boy! Yes, go for it. I don't boo at the footy but if Hird shows his mug I definitely will.

Jack Watts and Hogan

I'm putting this thread on ignore

Don't undersell ANB's leadership qualities either. He is a player with a 'team first' ethos which has been the making of the current team and he keeps others focussed on the task at hand when the game is still to be won. He's been through the real hard times, improved his game to another level and, though he'll have a quieter game, he never throws in the towel.

Alan Richardson was just asked about this on the DeeBrief podcast. He sounded extremely confident about Luke staying (mentioned he's involved in the actual process), and also mentioned that he had been involved at eight different football clubs and has never seen a player of that size move around the field like Luke does.

Bundle him up in a package deal with Luke Jackson, which should get us something decent in return.

Fritta and Brown - due to turnaround form from last week and certainly have the weapons Petracca and Clarry - the best and most consistent in the AFL ANB, Spargs and Kozzie - most dangerous pressure smalls going around, as one onfield and mentally switched on to the network Gawn (owes himself one) and Jackson - unbeatable by any measures Our backline - makeshift but reliable and integrated, almost unbeatable Our flankers - knock-out, 2-way, space-makers, distributors, opportunists Nah, we will kill them in the 3rd and 4th quarters. Dees by 60 points.

All good points Sydee. That said, brown was terrific - clunked some good marks and took his chances. He is such a smart footballer. Weed must have had mixed emotions watching brown go to work. To be fair to weed Brown played deep as a true full forward, which is really weed's natural position. Weed played higher up the ground and spent plenty of time in the ruck. The Casey set up is largely a mirror of the senior's set up in terms of players playing specific roles. Which is super smart in terms of players ready to slot into the system, in the event of injury, and play a designated role in that system. For example, daw is gawn and rosman is langdon. Using that idea, Brown played the bb role, JVR the tmac role (contesting, bringing the ball to ground, blocking and screening for Brown etc) - and weed the Jackson role ie high forward, relief ruck, up and down the ground. I think it is a good role for weed, in part because I reckon he is a pretty good ruck, but it also means when he is in the ruck he is in the game. The downside is, like has often been the case for Jackson, the role doesn't lend itself to getting high possession numbers or bags of goals. So, a tough gig for weed. Hopefully he embraces it and it helps him address some of weaknesses, for example inconsistent intensity levels.

I agree with all supporting comments with regards to Max. He has made a bit of a pledge to try and play off in a Grand Final and hopefully the ultimate success, on the MCG. He is only interested in the 4 points. We are 2 for 2, maximum of 8 points. That is his focus. We will have to go through tough times yet this season one would assume and Max will be there for us. He is the best Captain in the league and one of the major reasons I believe we can go back to back. He is much loved by his players, his coach and us. In Max we trust.

……… and regardless of his current form (which is of no concern to me whatsoever!), Max is the very best leader in the AFL by a country mile. He’s pacing himself beautifully, with Dogga at his side. There isn’t another team in the AFL who wouldn’t be envious of our ruck duo.

"We've had some really good discussions with Luke about his contract and his position at our club moving forward. One thing I know about Luke is he loves his teammates and he loves his footy club. We're really comfortable where it sits with him," Goodwin said. I very much doubt this comment is unfounded. For Goody to come out and say this when that wasn't the case would be a huge mistake, and I trust Goody isn't silly enough to do that.

They are infatuated with their 'Baby Bombers' label and its a handy excuse when things go wrong.

Really? Showdowns are often some of the best football played, it's actually a shame we never see these games on free-to- air.

Well I believe in Luke… For those that remember the dark times…

Who?

Not sure where to put this but I thought I would start a running total of scores conceded from defensive i50s. In my view it is a good measure of who has game plans that stand up under pressure and who doesn't. The dogs last year were 14th in this stat, and fell apart in the GF. So far the sample is too small to really provide much insight but I will update every few weeks. We have started this year where we left off last year, which without Lever and Petty is a great effort.

Please don’t use the word cull.

I can't for the life of me understand why Weid doesn't try something like a glove on one hand? Maybe he has but plenty have used them including Mathew Lloyd and Travis Cloke etc His two grabbing is the biggest problem for mine. His kicking is shot because of confidence most likely but that can turn around reasonably quickly given his reasonable kicking technique 6 years and he has basically played one decent game. Something wrong here.

ANB has always had the work ethic, team ethos & stamina to play his role in the team. The single biggest difference in the last 18 months - 2 years (and I'm with @Clint Bizkiton this). Clean hands. He was a fumbling machine, up there with the likes of Simon Godfrey & "Tackles" McKenzie. The times I've sat in the stands wishing for a sniper rifle as ANB turned potential scoring chains into turnovers as he failed to take the ball cleanly ! Fumbles invite pressure and at the speed at which AFL footy is played, the split second it takes you to recover the ball means you're tackled. Or your disposal is rushed & inaccurate. Or an option downfield is covered. Or the next link in the chain has run forward of where you can get the ball to him. So I can't pay enough credit to Nibbler for turning this around. He must have put an unbelievable amount of work into his skills to become a "one-touch" player.

This is quality reading, what a difference a year makes! I still find it so strange to listen to analysts, commentators and football fans talking about how good we are instead of: 'when we they going to sack their coach' or 'who will they pick up as their number one draft option'... So good.

I’m not sure they are increasing in frequency, @Cards13. What used to be called a “high ankle sprain”, they were viewed from the outside like standard sprains, but took longer. It’s just how they’re reported now that makes them seem more common. Essentially it’s an injury to the ligament that holds the bones together (tibia/fibula) that form the ‘mortice’ grip for the talus (articulating bone of the ankle). Sometimes need surgery, but either way take longer to accommodate to weight-bearing. Impossible to prevent in Australian footy, whereas ‘stirrup-lock’ taping is a good prevention for standard sprains (lateral ligament or talo-fibular ligament). On the Petty injury, it seems likely his calf corky lead to an acute posterior compartment syndrome (bleeding into the connective tissue ‘bag’), which puts other tissues at risk. This would have been released - the ‘bag’ is slit - and thus needs time to heal, with care not to over-work the blood-flow and re-pressure the bag. Not common, but not complicated. Just needs time. Good to see he and Lever back out there.

Posting this 2 rounds in with Casey playing 1 match suggests the only cull should be WERRIDEE.

This will be a good test. We are the hunted. Back on the ‘G with a Home Crowd Will the Flag be flying above the Scoreboard? kill Essendrug

I wouldn't mind if Max, TMac and Brown didn't compete for the same mark as they often did vs GCS. Also, Max and Jackson were regularly doing two-handed tap downs instead of marking only for the ball to go straight to a GCS player who spun around and went fwd. This was often in our def half; a dangerous spot for a turnover. No idea where our mids were. Overall not sure the communications were up to scratch last week. Changing the above by our talls will reduce the turnovers, help us keep control and get more direct shots for goal.

From the coach "We've had some really good discussions with Luke about his contract and his position at our club moving forward. One thing I know about Luke is he loves his teammates and he loves his footy club. We're really comfortable where it sits with him," Goodwin said.

Forgot to mention but I walked past Jack Watts as I was leaving, he was heading in to the Presidents function. Pleased to see him there as a supporter.

Thats ok SB I will have a crack at it. I parsed 'Oops wrong thread' through my Uckranistan translator, and then back again, if you get my drift, and it came out as Please pick Wines.....wtf (In my defense can I say I had 3 dental implants this morning and the pain killers are magnificent. As they should warn -Dont make any life changing decisions, drive a car, operate heavy machinery or post on demonland.....)

On merit we're a 6 goal+ better team... My MFCSS unfortunately still runs deep - this feels like a danger game. If we bring the sam intensity as the GC game - lookout game on and... who knows These [censored] seem to get the better of us... maybe I'm still scarred from Hird pulling 2 out of his butt in the last minute to beat us in 99 (or 2000 or around then anyway) but I hate them with a passion and would rather be weary of them than overconfident and only bring 70% effort

You have to feel for Kade and anybody who suffers from something debilitating and potentially misdiagnosed.

I am amazed how Petracca and Oliver and Gawn with a bit of Fritsch, Brown and Jackson has so many footy watchers in awe of us. But the aura is just that. We are a system team - the cream on top is why we are the best but it is because we have this system that allows Trac or Oliver to look so dominant. So anyone is a chance (maybe not NM) if they bring similar commitment and we are slightly off. Hate to be boring but there it is.

Doubt he plays but this shot was from today's training. You aren't wearing footy boots kicking a footy around if you are not close to playing. Hopefully hes back playing competitive footy in the next week or 2 at either VFL level or AFL.

Like most of Ralph's offerings he gives the impression he's telling you something while telling you absolutely nothing. He's wasted in the footy media. A highly successful career in public office has gone begging. Luke's manager will be loving this. His young client's profile is being pushed further skyward and his value to Melbourne & all other suitors is appreciating by the week. I hope he signs for MFC - in his own good time - for obvious selfish reasons but also for young Luke himself. I can't begin to imagine the pressure he'd be under should he return to WA. He'd be seen as a saviour & messiah and the scrutiny on his performance would be intense. The goldfish bowl over west is a hell of a lot smaller and contains fewer fish. Even for someone who appears as laid back as Luke, that would be hard to handle. There a quite a few cautionary tales about unhappy homecomings. He's still a very, very young man

Meh he goes alright.

Mitch Brown consistently puts his hand up and form wise looks like he is ahead of Weed and maybe even TMac. Brown and Fritsch are locks , so maybe give Mitch a game against his old side. Even though I’ve always liked Weed, the more times I get to see him, the more I realize he is just missing that bit of mongrel you need to succeed in this game.

they need to go to the supplement-ary draft.