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Think BBB getting reported is a small, very small blessing. being at the game on Thurs it was very obvious how hard it was for our Fwds to get leading lanes and take marks. Weid needs to do more but port flooded back and made it hard for our fwds all night, which is why is took Gawn and Jackson floating fwd to get some marks inside 50 from key targets. Hopefully Weid can feel a little more comfortable knowing his spot is safe for a week. T-Mac should not be dropped all year, he is a key link up player and the reason Gawn and Jackson get goals. he drags the key def up the ground and allows our rucks to switch and get miss matches in our fwd line. stuff you don't see on TV. he is a big Key to our set up. No change this week I'm not a fan of Hunt but he did nothing on the weekend to be dropped. Petty for Thommo but only if he is back to 100% fitness, if not let him build in the magoos whilst we are 0 losses

Must say I'm enjoying flinging sheet from the top of the ladder on social media ATM.

Very slim pickings this week. From bf: ...and please be gentle Demons. Maybe I'll break out the rum instead of gin 3 new umps .... please Apart from cloning Tom Green a few times, there's probably not much we can do that would make a difference. I don't care what the game plan is I just want to see us score 100+ points. I wouldn't care if we list by 10 goals doing so. It is better than watching the rubbish they are dishing up at the moment. With Ash we recruited a line breaking half back and we have turned him into a tagging mode who doesn’t know what to with it when he gets [it}. Watching him get on the wing in a canter in space and get run down and tackled is infuriating. Looks like VFL HQ is getting ready to stitch-up Preuss again as a scapegoat to cover up, and deflect attention away from, the umpiring crime scene. ...its onwards to the MCG against the Demons. Oh dear god please stand up and make a game of it. Don't blame them for wanting 3 new umps! Each week ops supporters dread playing the Demons. Never much optimism from them. Only occasionally is there some hope, albeit futile. It feels good to be feared by them.

I was at the game at the MCG last year when GWS beat us. Melbourne were listless, flat and seemed disinterested. About a week later I went to an MND fundraiser night where David Schwarz spoke, and he categorically stated that Melbourne would win the premiership. When I said that I had been at the game on the weekend against GWS and they looked far from premiership contenders, he said that Burgess had really upped their training loads and that was why they were so flat. He said that barring injuries they would win and he was right!! I would like them to smash the orange maggots.

I thought that last week was going to be a close game and came out looking like a goose, so i wont be making any bold predictions this week. Dees by only 80 points.

Great to see JJ gets some recognition.

To be fair they have about 30 fans! That's a decent job on BF there 😝

I’m on no hurry to underestimate GWS this weekend. They’re out of form but they have some genuine weapons in their team. They troubled us twice last year. (With that said… they’re a franchise, not a club and they have no real supporters)

A week is fair but two weeks (before early plea) when I saw Hawkins break May’s face and get 0 weeks? Please. The head is sacred unless you’re a star footballer playing for a big club. Brown has a perfect record. Never been aggressive. Two weeks is a total overreaction when the player didn’t even flinch.

Now he'll probably only make the bench as the backup ruck in the All Australian team this year.

Garry and Bucks on SEN this morning jokingly suggested the fourth most likely challenger to ourselves are the Casey Demons.

A fair few were saying the exact same thing with the like of Jayden Hunt and James Jordon as well after their first year. What they proved was that sometimes players just need a little bit of extra time more then others. Just to point out a little perspective on Laurie, he has basically missed 2 years of competive footy. His under 18's year was completely wiped out with covid, and then his first year in the AFL system last year he only managed 3 VFL games due to a severe injury and then covid as well wiping out the VFL competition. Right now the way I look at it is that this will be a development year for him and people expecting him to play AFL games need to temper those expectations. He needs to just have a year of getting use to playing against the bigger bodies and the pace of the game as well and then hopefully with another full pre season under his belt we'll see him come in and start to make an impact in the way that James Jordon did last year after spending his first 2 years just toiling away in the VFL.

I have a record I think, my sons and I caught the first Jetstar fight to Vietnam in two years. We are riding motorcycles from HCMC to Hanoi (about 2000km) On the front of my bike is a Melbourne Member 2022 sticker. I am prepared to bet that's a first. Go Deees.

Looks like he hit him with the elbow or the forearm, behind play when unsuspecting. I think we will accept the one week.

I saw the incident live. It was a coat-hanger tackle early on in the game. It was a clear free kick, and I thought a harsh judge could make a case for a fine or even a week, but two weeks for that?!? Seems outrageous to me. EDIT: Different incident my apologies!

I know it is hypothetical but why would we 'rest' Max, our captain, when he has just played his best game for the year. He would do a big dummy spit at the thought. Max gets plenty of rest when he goes forward or back to let Jackson take the ruck. We are all about building physical resilience in players, not resting them.

Until Petty plays a full (good) Casey game, and Tommo plays poorly, they surely will stick with the current defensive group. We are really hard to score against, no need to mess with that.

Looking forward to seeing Carlton's lack of defensive running in prime time!

Point of order ... it's actually 'fuchsia', named after the German botanist Leonhart Fuchs. For Fuchs' sake ... get it right!!! 🤣🤣

I agree also. I am in no way trying to shame Ben and I hope it doesn't come across as such If you see my above post I think from all reports Brown was targeted to off the ball tactics and in that case it's meant he retaliated. Exact what Williamstown wanted. Umpires have a duty of care on the night in making sure this off the ball stuff doesn't happen. It's a complete disgrace that they failed in their duty of care for Ben.

Added % goals conceded and number of i50s conceded. Some teams are conceding lots of i50s, and lots of scores from them.

It’s worth a week, can’t do much except cop it and move on

Lucky to be offered to get it down to 1 week if I'm honest. Intentional forearm/elbow to the head, miles off the ball.

And in fairness to Brown it sounds he was targeted off the ball all night. If that's the case then it's the umpires duty of care in looking after Ben and they failed miserably once again.

Because you can't elbow a bloke to the head area. Regardless of what people think he deserves the 2 weeks. The AFL are trying to stamp out this behind the play stuff. If he's had a delay concussion out of this then it justifies a suspension. Braydon Pruess copped the same suspension for his exact same act. The head area is sacred. Pretty simple.

Bizarre! Literally the last bloke in the league you'd think would get suspended for anything, let alone striking.

ah....previously known as the alabaster larvae

Gotta love Titus O'Reily 😁 Port Adelaide (36) v Melbourne (68) Port Adelaide spent most of this game trying to figure out new and exciting ways to be terrible a football. And Port Adelaide fans spent most of this game trying to figure out who will coach them after round ten. To be fair, the Power did try to take it up to the Dees, but like a boxer facing an opponent who doesn’t have a knockout punch, Melbourne just sat back, absorbed whatever Port were trying to do, then hit back when the opportunity presented itself. It was a night where Melbourne’s best defensive players were Port Adelaide’s players. Like Zak Butters who gave away an off-the-ball free kick to Jake ‘11-0’ Bowey, just as the Power were a chance to kick their first goal. And Mitch Georgiades, who managed to not kick a goal despite being in a position where a goal was the only possible outcome. It was interesting stuff. Melbourne it must be said seemed to be in first gear, hardly dominating the game, but the big difference was the Demons had a second gear and even used it occasionally in the second and third quarters. The only interesting part of this game was seeing how long it took Port Adelaide to score their first goal. The answer was 22 minutes into the third quarter, which, if you’re new to Australian Rules football, is quite bad.

'Cos they are running out of whipping boys... ...and they notice his 'mistakes'. In focusing on 'mistakes' they ignore that all players make mistakes/have turnovers and ignore that Goodwin has repeatedly said we don't aim to be perfect, which tells me the odd error a player makes won't affect their selection or otherwise. It is difficult to tell on tv but I think Hunt could be playing the lockdown small defender role that Jetta used to play. It looks like Bowey and Brayshaw have had the more attacking small defender roles. If those observations are correct we aren't going to see Hunt in the highlight reels. imv, he isn't given enough credit for what he adds to the team. I'm with you Hunt stays.

Best defensive game i've seen us play so not sure why they would drop i.e a Tomlinson to rush Petty back in, as good as he was last year

I’m genuinely keen to read why people keep suggesting for Hunt to be omitted every week. Hunt was having a very good season last year until he was injured and would’ve been a lock to stay in the team. Bowey replaced Hibbo against Gold Coast for his debut, Hunt was injured the following week and Smith came in for him. Smith was hurt between qualifying final and prelim and that’s when Hibbo came back as Hunt wasn’t quite ready following the ankle injury. Happy to stand corrected, but that’s how I remember it. Hunt might be playing a deeper role this year until Salem returns and I believe he’s doing well again. I’ll be interested to see how we change it up when Salem returns.

Any time during day please! I need to go to a game please.

Forget the players in this game. Having just seen the Hawkins push in the back , I reckon the officiating umpire should be suspended this week for stupidity. Not for the decision - we all make mistakes - but the ridiculous explanantion trying to justify the error / non-call to harris Andrews.

in 2018 Richmond finished 2 games and 15% ahead of second. 3 games and 16% ahead of third. Third ended up playing second in the GF that year because the Tigers had one off night in an amazing season. In 2008 Geelong finished 4 games ahead of Hawthorn but still managed to have an off day on the one that mattered. We are going ok but the gap is never as wide as it seems and on any given day we can be made to look ordinary.

G'day fellow Demon dee-votees! As a way to kill some spare time and because there's seemingly not never enough Demon content on the web to enjoy over one lifetime, I've been clipping together some Melbourne player highlight reels (typically the best 3-4) from each game so far this season. I've posted them in the postgame threads, however, it was suggested by a couple of posters that I make a separate thread so they can be easily found, and here we are! Will try to update after every round. Always happy to field any requests from this season to date if you have them! Enjoy! ROUND 1 VS WESTERN BULLDOGS

I think we need to be a little bit careful about reading too much into Max's comments about Smith / May I really think Max's comments were largely tongue in cheek and trying to be a bit funny - he is not going to publicly can a team mate Of course May is going to say he prefers Level down in the D50 supporting him - who wouldn't ? Lever is one of the best defenders going around and a real general helping to get the other backs into the right position - that by default makes May's task easier

He was def on the ground in each quarter- but for how long I'm not sure. Seemed to be pretty high tog % though. And he was on the ground right to the final bell. Late in the game (maybe 5 mins to go)he seemed to limp for a bit after getting across to impact a contest. Heart was in my mouth, but he was OK. They kept him on tbe ground.

We're still playing Brayshaw in defence. That's one spot that can be "freed up" for a defender with Brayshaw going back to the wing. But would we now do that? Brayshaw is playing excellent football off half-back and Jordon played his best game of the year, if not his career, on the wing as Brayshaw's replacement, against Port.

Or, he's being very smart. Knows he can't beat Gawn and Jackson so finds a way to avoid that embarrassment.

This is what I don't get about the Underwood criticism. Sure she doesn't have the loveliest voice, but does Gerard? Then we have the ones who do horserace-style commentary on TV, and then we have the clown prince of commentators, BT. She doesn't really stand out that much.

Petty’s height and mobility will be key against King when we play the Saints if May can’t bustle him

If he's competing with Petty for a spot he's not going to be playing a lot of senior footy. If you're talking stats Petty is 197cm v Smith's 191cm...Petty is a great foil for Lever and May taking out oppo talls and plays his role well.

Don't get me wrong, I think we're the best side in it and I think our first four games have been fantastic given the opponents, the fixture, the back-to-back six day breaks and the missing players we've had. I'm incredibly pleased with where we sit and IMO we're playing football that is better than anyone else so far (our percentage exceeds everyone except Brisbane, who belted North by 100 points. We're nearly 10% clear of the rest of the competition). I just don't believe we're so far in front of Brisbane, Geelong or Sydney that it's a lay down misere, and even if we are that far in front, it doesn't guarantee anything.

Bedford and Chandler certainly are on the edge of selection. Spargo is ok and gives enough but his spot is still one that Bedford or Chandler could grab in my opinion. Laurie is in a development year. I agree he is more half forward than midfielder. We have plenty of small forwards so he’ll need to find some more tricks or pace to get an opportunity.

They have a very, very good midfield, and then no other real strengths. Some individual players have real skill but our defence mindset should cover them.

Nah. I have every intention of being a smug arrogant pr..k around Hawthorn supporters and supporters of most other teams. The same way that Hawthorns supporter 'friends' have behaved all my life. The exceptions are if they support the Saints ,North, GWS, GCS or Freo in which case I'll just be condescending. I've waited my whole life to behave like this. I'm going to enjoy it.

Players in good clubs who can't get games, but play ok, are seen as targets by other clubs. Some of our boys not making it into the 22, will be seen by the club as tradeable. This improves ours draft position and helps add further layers of talent to the list, while giving the players the chance to play senior footy.

I agree not many there are showing clear form to push some one out but as others have mentioned a dominant VFL display does not always translate and vice versa. Some of that is quality of opposition and game, the grounds played at as well as likely playing a VFL primary role to elevating to AFL in a supporting position. You are looking for the key attributes, fitness and touch that will translate into the required role at AFL level more so than volume of touches and significant impact. Bowey as some have mentioned is a great case in point. What excites me is whilst getting low touches, our kids in Laurie, Howes, Woewodin, JVR and others are just doing some of those things that are AFL level attributes whether it is one touch moments, speed of decision making or defensive intercept that show that with development they will be quality up a level when their time comes. All going well that time wont need to be in 2022.

I think Bedford is clearly doing a lot of things right in the eyes of the coaches. His intensity seems to have really lifted, which is a credit to him. Im not sure I agree with the idea that you need to dominate at VFL level. Bowey looked handy and clean at that level, but certainly never dominated. Brown looked out of form last year in the VFL and then came into the seniors and looked clean and assured. The system at VFL level is quite different because of the experience of the players, and that a 3rd of them aren’t able to be full time footballers. Forward of the ball you don’t get the pressure you would at AFL level, but also not the clean delivery and consistency of team structure. I think that works against all the boys mentioned here and the role they play. Ultimately Laurie was rated highly in his draft year with skill and poise. On bigger grounds and with better system he’s got the most upside for mine.