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We played [censored] football. Too many passengers. Dreadful disposal. Outnumbered too often. Also we gave them a couple of Junk times so if that is Geelong's best on their own dungheap, I don't fear them on the G in September.

That’s a shameful post

Let the Bastards drink champagne tonight. It’s July

What a [censored] Get rid of this Muppet @Demonland

It isn’t September and it ain’t the MCG

My take on Ben Brown. Is he is great form? No. Will he be dropped if he has a poor game stats wise this week. No Is his form over the last 5-6 games related to being fatigued. Yes, the eyes suggest that is the case. He was more mobile and energised against the lions, but noticeablely sluggish in the other games, including last week. For example, he struggled to jump in those games. To be honest any assessment of his game based on stats is next to useless. Have people not been listening to goody over the last few years? Goody has made it crystal clear that in terms of the expectations on performance there are three fundamentals - selflessness, team first and role execution. Those are the club's KPIs. So, judging a player on numbers is all well and good but goody has said literally dozens of times that players are not judged on them. Sure you could dismiss that as spin, but then you have posters periodically calling for, say kozzie or spargo to be dropped because they have had mutuple weeks in a row with single figure disposals and/or no goals. Thankfully such calls are less frequent now, because people now better understand that spargs and kozzie's role is pressure - and that is visible. So, I try to assess performance on tbe metrics the club uses. Of course, we don't know exactly what Brown's role is. But we can have a pretty good guess (to be clear this a guess, so please don't come back with a how would you know spiel) First and foremost, his role is to be involved in aerial contests - up forward and up the ground. These contest invariably imvve big packs of talls, including our talls. The number one priority is bringing the ball to ground. A mark, either up forward or on tbe hbf is a total bonus. The next part of his role is the incredible up and down the ground running he dies. This is critical on a number of fronts. It means, foe example that May's standard 60 metre kick out goes to a pack that includes at least two of our talls. Again, the key here is that the opposition don't mark it. If we can't mark it, our mids and defenders know where it will likely hit the ground (watch how brown palms it forward if he can't mark it) and win the resuting ground ball. The running he does also means he can create one on ones on the wing for a bail out kick, or a long searching lead from the 50 yp to the wing, or turn us opponent around and runs back inside 50. But his running also messes with the opposition defensive system. On a basic level, if his direct opponent, always a big, has to go with him and if he is not as fit, may blow up. But Brown's run also stretches the defence and messes with their structure and zone. For example they need to decide whether his opponent goes with him up the ground, or as we usually do stay inside 50. If they go with him we have forced Brown's opponent to go one on one with him. And then they also have one less defender inside 50, which messes with their ability to set up an effective defensive zone If they dont go with him, his opponent has to make sure they hand off to a teamate when he goes up the ground, and there needs to be another handoff as he runs back towards our goal. All game. Up and down the ground. And all game the opposition have to sort out how to cover him. For context, brown is in the all tome top 10 of distance converd in a game (sculls heads the list). That was whilst he was at the roos. And no doubt is a key reason why we recruited him. Brown is regularly, with langdon and nibbler, in our top 3 distance covered in a game. And that's it. If he does all that to goody's satisfaction he has executed his role. And could do so without recording a single disposal. And playing rhat role is also completely team first and selfless. Which is Goody's non negotiable It's also a role that is super impacted by fatigue. So what about goals you might ask. Surely a kpi of a forward is to kick goals. For fans maybe, but not goody. Again, as Goody has pointed out he doesn't judge individual forwards on the goals they kick. They are part of a collective. Which was partly his point when he said the forward line had had 60 scoring shots in the last two games. Brown is part of that forward line. But if you do want to judge him on goals, well I'm not sure why tbe fact he kicked two last week seems not to register - or worse are perhaps discounted because one was a crumb and the other right at tbe end of the game. BB will get fresher and fresher and will remain a critical cog in tbe machine.

If I never have to lay eyes on that dump of a ground or that degenerate fan base ever again, i'll be a happy man.

I see in the little paper Geelong are still banging on about the "virus" that "swept through" the team prior to the Preliminary Final and how they wanted to ask the AFL to postpone the match. 'It's not an excuse mind you Melbourne were very good.' I want to smash this team like never before.

That wasn’t Geelong, it was the game plan and the narrow ground. It’s not rocket science why they make finals every year and then bomb out.

Beware Cats. The Demons are very, very good at top-of-the-ladder contests!

Picket had to kick that goal

Regarding Ben Brown. I agree he is down at the moment, and gets outmarked and moved out of the way too easily, but he does quite a few intangibles that aren't obvious in the play or on the stats sheets but I'm sure the coaches would value it which is why he continues to play. Below is a few grabs form Petracca's first goal. You can see he is being held by Doedee who is also trying to move him under the ball so O'Brien can take a simple intercept mark. Ben manages to get an arm free and spoil the mark, the ball lands in Trac's lap and results in an easy goal. Ben creates this type of contest multiple times per game as well as any tall forward we have available at this stage, which is why I think (IMVHO) he continues to get selected despite a relatively dry run of goals himself. He allows our superb fleet of smalls to go to work by creating that contest.

Can't compete against the best when you are beaten in clearances 54-36. They turned that into forward half dominance, with 66 inside 50s to our 46. It's no wonder they had 31 scoring shots to our 18. They did to us what we did to Brisbane. For all our failures, we worked so hard to get it back to a goal difference at the start of the last, but Pickett's miss, Fritsch's miss, then Bedford fumbling when he had the entire forward half empty in front of him killed our momentum and they got their tails up. Gawn and Jackson didn't look match fit, Bowey played his first genuinely poor game of his career, Harmes didn't learn his lessons and kept getting caught trying to break tackles, and we were too short up forward and therefore couldn't take enough get out of jail marks when we needed them. We can't play one tall forward without having one of Gawn and Jackson playing forward as well, so either we do that or we bring Weideman back and drop one of the underperforming small forwards (Bedford was great against Brisbane but really no good since). We don't have much wriggle room with our fixture, so it hurts to drop this one to one of our major competitors, but the swing between the Brisbane game and this game shows that we have to be on for most of our run home or we're going to drop too many games and cede ladder position.

The new Geelong theme song for when they play the Dees: We are Geelong, we’ve always got the flu We are Geelong; half the game spent on the loo, We play the game, the way Maxy wants us to play At home or far away, With our pants down below our knees, you don’t give a phark Down at Kardinia Park.

Put two steering locks on and tighten the wheel nuts.

Some things to watch from Geelong: They used O'Connor to tag Oliver in April list year but it didn't work. Oliver had a good game and Petracca was BOG. Can't keep a good player down for long. Cameron is playing up around the midfield a fair bit then races back i50 trying to catch his opp out. Stengle is a wild card re their forward line. They have changed their game plan to be more direct and 'play on'. They have Shannon Byrnes who may give them good intel on our key players strengths/weaknesses They have set themselves all year for this game by resting players, experimenting with players with different positions, different ball movement etc. Scott very often pulls last minute changes an hour before the game or even during the warm up. Scott could manufacture a minor injury to bring the fresh sub in the last quarter They want revenge Other than Richmond a few weeks ago they haven't played a good defensive side nor a high pressure side since Freo in late April. We are back to our best in both defence and pressure. Despite all their actions above they won't deal with our pressure and defence for 120 minutes. When they lapse that will be our time to score. Hopefully, we kick straight early and take the crowd out of reckoning.

5 years ago who would have thunk we'd ever get to 65k or even close to it outstanding effort

Car fuelled and chips on hand. Hopefully scarf out of the window on the way back.

Whoever would have thought that we would miss TMac so badly?

Carbon copy of the dogs game at the g last year. get close but overrun late because you can't get away with it when a lot of your team are well off their best.

Childish gotcha rubbish nev. But, if you are going to bother using quotes from two different posts of mine to make some sort of point, at least quote me correctly. I did not say he is not in form. In the very quote you picked, I said he was not in GREAT form. Please don't bother rebutting, but they are two different things. So, I could say something like Brown is in form, but not great form. The point I making is his form is at a level that his coach deems acceptable. You don't think he us performing at the required level, which is fine. No disrespect intended, but I'll go with the premiership coach on this one.

We made it!! dees-reach-milestone-surpassing-65k-members Melbourne’s membership tally currently sits at 65,472. And membership numbers do not close off until the end of this month. More growth to go!

Corporate box tonight at the Presidents Dinner, dress code = Melbourne Demons Tie from the late 90's adorning my suit.

A beautiful comment i just saw on Facebook

What can I say? I completely expected this result. Two teams coming off a 5 day break, one plays a real physical and grueling game over in Adelaide, the other has a bruise free training run at this very ground. One forward line struggling, the other buzzing. Advantage Cats. Throw the loading theory in there for both teams and you've got one lacklustre standard of game. I'll get this out of the way. A lot of people like Thursday night football for some reason. I know it's harder for some to fill the time in their pitiful lives themselves so we need to create this new shiney object called Thurs night footy so all these drones are happy. Well as a result of this and crappy fixturing, the game of the year turned out to be anything but. Geelong looked that bit slicker in the end. We did start with a bang but the moment Bowser gave up that holding the ball we were in for a night of crappy, crappy decision making and execution. So many skills can be put down to fatigue it's not funny. Please no-one act like we were 'a bit off for some reason'. You know the reason, it's obvious. I couldn't give a rat's ar*e about this result tonight and the little boost it will give those nitwits down the highway. We were so crap tonight and still kept the twin towers to 1 goal. You think they will beat us with midfield and smalls goals again? Ha! We had a lot of crap performers, let's not hide from that. May was garbage early, was literally a coach killer. His influence is nothing when he's not performing. Gawn was not good, I'm not a doctor but I wasn't thrilled about him coming back early. Salem was crap, one of his most wayward kicking games. Spargo was down, Bedford was non-existent, Bowey very average. It felt like half our side was Under12s players chasing the footy and when they hit a target once in a blue moon you felt so proud. To the positives, Pickett worked his socks off. Honestly thought he'd nailed that shot but I don't think we would have won regardless. Viney and Clarry worked hard. Petracca took his chances, the backline held firm I thought Lever and Petty did their bit. Brayshaw is some player now. As of right at this minute he's the one I want to retain. Thought Jordan was crap. Thurs night football stinks, if you like it then more power to you. I'm gonna go sleep in a cave for 9 days or whatever it is till our next game.

Was sure we were going to win going into tonight. Really kills my weekend losing. Fair play to Geelong they had circled this game from a way away, got their stars right (Dangerfield looked explosive over 10m) and as was well written in the gameday thread, Geelong have come up with a better plan. I also think a short break hurt us a bit, a few players looked NQR, May won't play another bad game like that. There were also some individual acts of excellence. Trac kicking goals again is a positive, ANB had some great touches, Petty has grown all year, Viney had another ripper game. In the grimace department, Harmes wasn't his recent damaging self. Sparrow had a bad game, but get off the kids back, he is working hard, gets another run, I felt like he got a lesson tonight he will take on board. Brown does not survive on that roving goal, was furious in the 4th with the dropped mark. If he is going to play like that then might as well blood some new players like JVR, something is not right with BBB he needs to fix it out of the team. I would rather it was kicked in front of Kozzie than Brown right now. My temper goes through the roof when I see posters criticizing effort/heart, they all try, every last one of them, yes the execution goes wrong sometimes and can grumble about that but the stuff that goes to the integrity of a player is just wrong. @Demon1987 is a dead set troll, looking at his history he only turns up to bait posters, not even funny, just a mouth breather. FWIW I didn't think the umpires missed or gave too many, Oliver had a high shot missed and Hawkins is kissed on his bee [censored] regularly, but overall was a par performance from the baby flies. Have now shifted to Bowey needing a spell, swap for Rivers, Bedford gets maybe one more game but wouldn't complain if Kade got a go. Spargo has mad credits with me, he does a power of work, he stays. Was a cracking contest though for the 1st half, sucks to be on the wrong side of the result.

Credit to Geelong ... they've made a noticeable change to their game style which involves a ton of pressure on whoever has the ball on the opposition And we couldn't deal with it tonight. For a good amount of time we couldn't get past the centre area. Also, we played the boundary line way too much If we are going to win away from home we have to take risks and that involves using the corridor But there is always a next time and you'd like to think that we'll be better prepared on our next encounter No excuses either, we just got beaten by a better team. We didn't give up but they were the better side The road to the premiership is a tough one and the other teams have done their homework on us. That's 4 losses out of our last 6 played So we need to learn from this loss and then improve and get better There's no point plucking out names. As a team, we were outplayed. Outcoached as well as tactically, the Cats knew what we were going to do once we had the ball

Hate losing to those stinking tu.rds But it’s July. We had a flat spot last year and came good in round 19. Don’t show your hand early. We can obliterate them when it counts

July Premiers. Won't beat us at the G.

Ludicrous comment.

Need to stop trying to break tackles

Get the train to south Geelong, go to the pub, Barwon Club or sawyers Arms… maybe grab a burger at Kardinia Cafe for a ‘cultural’ experience. celebrate the win long and hard, fall asleep in someone’s flowerbed 👍

It's not been explicitly called out but I think what the Cats have changed in both personnel & method this year is in direct retaliation to our matches & flag salute. For that reason, I think they'll be absolutely primed for this and ready to make a statement (unfortunately). They've built their side this year to knock off Melbourne. The fact pattern is pretty clear: For years Geelong relied on slow chip play to set up the ground & then strong marking forwards (Hawkins, Cameron, Rohan/Esava/other to a lesser extent) to kick a score (3+ tall setup forward). This was good enough against most teams but they then witnessed both Richmond & Melbourne go past them, despite persistent top 4 finishes, as full ground pressure systems collectively outweighed their star power up forward. Fool them once with Richmond - they backed in their system & went back to the well, doubling down with another elite KPF (Cameron). Didnt work. Fool them twice though...I dont think so. Our rise has made them take notice: Our comeback goals at KP in Rd 23 was largely ground ball and/or small/medium forward/midfield goals. Spargo did damage (2), Pickett (3), Oliver (2), Fritsch got out the back for the important one. Brown kicked 2, but Gawn's mark & goal after the siren was actually the aberration - it wasnt he, Tom Mac or Ben Brown that got us over the line. Fast forward to the Prelim - the smalls went to work again - Pickett 3, Fritsch 2, Spargo 2, ANB 1 and 4 goals out of the midfield. Max taking them to the cleaners was a by product of them being worried (rightly so) about our smalls against their slow/strong/tall backline (& of course, an outlier virtuoso performance no one could have stopped in any case) Our strength last year was full ground defense and in particular, key backs / aerial balls into the 50. Their traditional slow gamestyle played into our hands, as has been widely reported. Their plan B for attack was lacking - they had very little by way of crumber/non set-shot goals, particularly with an ageing midfield that cant get forward & back as much as other teams to add scoreboard pressure. Cue - Stengle, Atkins, Close all in the same fwd line with Miers on the bench & reversion to a 2 tall / even 1 tall setup with Cameron roaming around the ground. That is the same number of small forwards we have in the side (4 - Spargo, Pickett, Bedford, ANB). If our strength is/was aerial balls into the D50, this would appear a poor strategy if they continued to play slowly - so of course they've upped the speed of ball movement across the ground - quicker, less chipping & more playing on, creating more space for the speed of these small forwards to be a weapon. Hawkins & Cameron are the trump cards and threatening under any system of play which gives them a constant competitive baseline as/when smalls have down days (common for all but the very best). That ties into their defense. Traditionally dour in a 1v1 sense with strong, tall, slow-ish but tight checking lockdown defenders (when your smallest defender is Bews, you know that's a big backline) as opposed to interceptors - this year their quicker ball movement means they can't rely on their back 6 to be in position all the time. Cue - a roaming & intercepting game plan utilising the height they have in Henry (a very good player), Blicavs and most importantly De Koning for this role. Stewart can play any role & we're lucky he's not in their side at the moment. Kolojashnij is the exception to this role as he still plays a lockdown role. They're better off without Henderson who never had the craft to go with Fritsch. The comparison above shows they're significantly smaller across the ground - 3 talls out for 1. This enables all of the above & means their running power is improved on last year. I trust the FD has studied them in anticipation for this game but don't expect it to play out like last year - they're a different side. In their forwardline alone - Hib was always our matchup for Rohan. Bowey will therefore have to play on one of Stengle, Atkins, Close or Miers. All would back themselves to beat him 1v1 & for pace/craft. Our remaining 'small' defenders are Salem and Brayshaw, neither of whom are close checking, so it wouldnt surprise me to see one of their smalls kick 3 or 4. Hunt for all his flaws could have been a good option in this game. Ditto Rivers who played on their smalls in the equivalent games last year. If Hawkins/Cameron add their customary 2/3+ each, they'll go a long way to getting the job done. Dees by 85

BBB definitely executes his role in team. If he gets a free every 2nd week (and he should number of times he gets blocked or arms punched vs golden elbows treatment of Hawkins) and takes one extra mark every 2nd week, should add to nearly an extra goal per week and everyone will be quiet about BBB! Last week he kicks that snap means 3 goals for game and everyone happy. He isn’t too far off solid form, hopefully it is training loads as he came home strong last year when he came back into the team.

Not great if they both say they’re off to Freo.

The free to May that wasn't when Hawkins tackled him to the ground and then Hawkins snaps a goal at the next stoppage. People are making out like it was a diabolical performance. It wasn't. We were a bit off and it showed from the first bounce. May was off all game. We tried to work our way back into it but couldn't get our noses in front and they had the answers when it counted. You could tell this meant a lot to them after r23 and the Prelim last year and they really set up around the contests to stifle us and worked our talls under the ball so they couldn't take contested marks. Well played and coached by them but I'm not giving up on the season on that performance. Plenty on here prepared to jump off at the first hurdle, get a grip!

You can’t be serious re May absolute complete stinker of a game

We could point the finger at the small forwards like Pickett, Spargo, ANB and Bedford... but the reality is our midfield got smashed all game and had us on the back foot. Shocking disposal and decision making from a lot of players as well. Can't see us playing that badly for the rest of the year, I hope anyway.

Trash comment, as most of yours have been tonight.

I don’t understand the holding the ball rule. Hawkins took on 2 players and got caught red handed. Its the one rule the AFL need to fix as there’s far too much interpretation based on context and player involved.

HtfB Hawkins

That was HTB against Hawkins

The selective quoting is a low act. Always appreciate your considered posts and replies Bin.

Niall undersells what Jackson will become and the flexibility he provides. Jackson is already a star ruckman despite not winning many hit outs and he could also become an elite forward and midfielder. He will be unstoppable if his marking keeps improving, particularly if we can manipulate him forward on a smaller defender. There is no reason he couldn’t be Adam Goodes as a midfielder, Grundy as a ruckman and (good) Mitch Clark as a forward.

Well argued opinion piece here from Jake Niall on the Jackson and Brayshaw situations. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/why-luke-jackson-shouldn-t-be-priority-for-fremantle-and-melbourne-20220706-p5azmq.html

If we win the game, it was thanks to the input it Choco, Richo and Yze. if we lose the game, it was entirely Godwin’s fault and he on thin ice.