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Fairly late with this thread as there was little of interest to show. Incredible lack of passion and enthusiasm for their team, a new season or the game. Not even after May's likely out did they get very excited. If that is any guide, not expecting many WBD fans at the game. From WOOF Forum. Game thread caption is Melbourne, The Reality Check! Will be a huge test against the Dees. I read about Grundy & Gawn and I guess I'm not surprised they got a few goals in a pre-season match. I'm still not shaking in my boots about Grundy up forward... I think we'll match them and our forward firepower will win us the day. They worked so hard to gut run and outnumber the Tigers on the weekend. They created overlap and had multiple options moving the ball forward for large parts of the game. At times it was a training drill. Richmond aren't slouches the Dees look good and are going to be a challenge. Hunter isn’t the best anything in the AFL anymore my man. Unless he’s had the best pre season ever or access to a Delorean he’s probably the player I’m 19th or 20th most worried about. Oliver, Petracca, Fritsch, Gawn - limiting their influence goes a long way to banking the four points. We generally play the MCG fairly well. Having Naughton/Marra hit up the wings will be important at different stages, but the bigger ground should help us isolate the talls in the forward 50. From Bigfooty: Game thread caption is Hyped up Dees v the land of the giants. The major worry here is as always the midfield battle, If we win in the trenches given we now have a vastly superior forward line to theirs and one that can actually now stretch their defence it will come down to how much we can limit their opportunities going forward and if we have learnt to stop teams getting massive run on's against us. The last side to go into most H&A games with 4 tall forwards were the Crows when they made the granny. Dees look pretty settled and ready to fire. Hunter will provide them with some pretty major scouting reports on us I'd say. Massive for the Dees will be a fit Tom McDonald who was a key role-player in 2021. English and Lobb going up against G&G is a massive problem for us. Whilst we did it easy in the praccy game we were still out-tapped by Goldstein and Xerri. Bad signs. We’re looking pretty switched on too, so I see it being a hard fought close contest and wouldn’t surprise if either team win by a small margin. Hoping it’s us, but would settle (reluctantly) for a narrow loss. Won’t be able to stomach a similar result to the same match last year. Confident that won’t happen though. Lobb and Marra both gave Petty a bath in games last year. Will be interesting if that repeats or if Marra or Darcy can take full advantage of getting someone like Trent Rivers if Lever isn’t more accountable. May is one of the best full backs, Lever is pretty good but I think Liam Jones will be better. Long way from best wing combo Hunter is past his best. Agree best ruck combo. Pickett is inconsistent and long way behind Papley. Agree Fristch in top 3. We may be lacking quality smalls but Naughton and Marra are quick on the deck, they can make May and Lever look like dinosaurs. Just need to get the ball to ground and we will be fine. My real worry is the the Dees out run us late in quarters. Fritsch gives me nightmares He is the only one in their forward line that worries me He'll score 3 goals in 5mins and you will be like wtf just happened…Sucks so bad. I watched the Demons play the Tigers in the practice match. Their ball movement was incredibly slick; they were humming like a well-oiled machine. They didn't even seem to have any of the normal early-season rust. That's what scares me more than any of their individual players. On pure talent Melb, even with all their outs are still ahead of us. Gawn, Oliver & petracca is still better than anything we have in midfield. That's where the game will be decided. My Favourite: Good to see on this Bulldogs thread that some sensible comments can be made about Melbourne, unlike the sh*tshow mega threads over on their threads. Kudos fellow Bulldogs. OMG!! At least our threads have passion and good analysis and we don't abuse our opps! I didn't print the nastier comments. Dees by three goals!

Tomlinson has been selected so lets all just get on board and support and encourage him. This negativity is getting tiresome.

cmon guys, but if support for Tommo. he is a big unit and just needs to spoil and bring it to ground. he gives everything. get behind him

Spot on. I wish the media would get off the stupid topic of crowd size. They are just a shill for the AFL on that front. The world has changed since COVID - there will still be some mega crowds for specific matches, but as a generalization the numbers will never go back to what they were pre covid. One, people have got used to watching footy at home. And some people have perhaps come to the conclusion that, all things considered, it is a better experience. No hassles with bar codes, no ridiculously packed trains on the way home (with zero masks and plenty of yahoos), no 'game day' experience (eg blaring music and ads at EVERY SINGLE break in play) to suffer through. No insufferable oppo fans. And no shelling out $10 for flat mid strength beer in a plastic cup. But above all, as you note jnr it, it is expensive for a family to go to the footy. With inflation and high interest rates, going to the footy is a discretionary spend. And many simply can't afford it.

The trek will soon begin. I have booked an uber canoe to get across the swollen croc invested river to the landing where I will be met by a dog cart pulled by cassowaries for the trip to the landing strip translates as The Mrs is driving me to the airport in air conditioned comfort. Go Dees

Given our outs I think this is about the best we can put on the ground on Saturday evening. Tomlinson has the size and experience and needs the confidence to compete. I think that as long as our defensive structure hold up we can limit the doggies scoring to something manageable. A lot of the outcome will rely on the midfield doing the defensive things to ensure pressure on the ballcarrier and delivery into the forward 50. If Tomlinson dose the simple things well he will have done his job. he will have the support of the defensive unit and the team, if not some of the supporters on here. Similar thing with Laurie. does his job simply and well and we can not ask for more. Interested to see that he my spend time in the middle as an inside mid. will be interesting to see how he is used. Good to see Chandler in the team freeing up Kossie for a bit more time in the mids. Could see Hibberd or JVR as the sub.

It would be an incredibly negative attitude to go into round 1 with Tmac thrown into the backline. We have options, and to rob our forwardline of Tmac, who's absence last season showed us how pivotal he is to our setup, is just defeatist. Turner, Tomlinson and Sasche can all come in and play down back, pushing Petty to the FB role, which we know he can do well. We can also push Gawn back behind play, which I suggest we might do if we need to stem momentum, which still leaves this guy named Grundy in the ruck. I hear he is not bad.

People are underestimating Daniel Turner, I think this guy can seriously play and this could be the perfect chance for him to announce himself.

Can't believe some of the above posts. People actually go to the footy and don't drink booze!!! I just opened a Shiraz to help recover from the shock.

The players were informed by List Manager Tim Lamb that, to keep the team intact and under the salary cap, some players might need to take a haircut. Kozzy, Ben Brown and Lachie Hunter took this literally.

Tomlinson is my least preferred option too. I watched him get destroyed by some kid versus St Kilda and it made me unwell. Having said that, he is experienced and is also a big body. We might think that with McVee and Laurie we can't bring in another virtually untried kid in Turner (half a game last year is hardly experience to hang your hat on). Schache has a point to prove and probably knows the Dog's forward set up better than most. Can he cut it as a defender? Who knows. Look you can't replace May with a second rate player. He is arguably the best defender in the game. We just need to make do until he cherry ripe, because we can go without him for a few weeks now, but we can't afford for him to break down in finals. He is far far too valuable.

I’m sorry to have offended you. I can’t speak for other areas but In my neck of the woods it’s only too well known that pensioners can’t make plans that cost $ in the days leading up to Pension Day, in particular, the eve of such. Bulldogs supporters by far and away outnumber any other teams’ supporters where I live. I speak to many of them in my capacity as a volunteer at our community centre once a week. As sad as it is, the fact remains that the timing of matches in relation to Pension Day affects the crowd numbers, as regards these supporters. Again, I’m sorry to have clearly upset you. Wasn’t my intention. Oh and btw, these hardened old Doggies supporters don’t hold back from giving me shiiiit for being a Melbourne supporter. I cop all the snow and Range Rover and cheese platter jibes imaginable. This despite being a local.

Nice rant. This was done to death last year. If you look at attendace figures relative to teams supporter and membership bases, the MFC does outstandingly well.

Our members and supporters are phenomenal. We had the 5th highest home attendance and highest attendance vs membership of any club. Numbers back up our supporters being the most loyal and best in the league. The outdated stereotypes about going to the snow or not drawing big crowds are flat out wrong and anyone sprucing them is a liar. Anyone having a go at our members and supporters is a fool. Keep it up Dees fans. We're the best there are!

Just turned on the footy and the first thing I cop is Lynch's stupid mug! FMD! Time for a refill.

We train with incredible intensity. Tracc said in a presser this week (the context was a question about playing hurt in the finals) that our training sessions are harder than the games. Injury is an obvious risk of our approach to training and preparation.

Weightman not playing is arguably a bigger out for them than may is for us, particularly given their other small forward crumbing option, Arthur Jones, is also out (though given he is yet to debut he is not a huge out). Even with may out, their tall forwards are not going to clunk many marks inside 50. The keys for them, if they can't mark it inside 50, will be ensuring oppo defenders don't intercept mark and winning inside 50 ground balls. Weightman is critical for them in terms of winning inside 50 ground balls. It will be super important we win most of those inside 50 ground balls - one to prevent them from scoring and two to bounce from defence and set up offensive transitions and scoring chains. If we win most of these contests, we will win. McVee, Bowser, Rivers and Gus (and players like Nibbler and Spargo pushing back) will all have key roles in terms of winning contested ball inside 50 and being the first links in the chain out of our back half.

I think this is a big one. Unless you are like me, and never ever buy food or drinks at the venue, and have a pre paid membership that gets your free entry to all H&A games, footy is a very expensive outing. Add to that the price of petrol/parking/public transport, and you are looking at $100 for 2 people at a minimum. That's money a lot of people just don't have to spare right now. Unless you are a hardcore fan, like all of us on Demonland, most people will absolutely pick and choose which games to go to given the cost of living. Whereas they might have gone to 10 games a season, they might only go to 5 or 6 and they'll make those games the ones they are really keen to watch, rather than every game on the schedule.

He's a Blues fan that hates the Dees. The dig doesn't surprise me. I agree that our fans need to turn up and we can't complain about not getting blockbuster games and timeslots if we don't bother rocking up especially when we have a once in lifetime genuine A-Grade of a side to watch. Why is he only targeting Dees fans for not turning up though? Why do the Bulldogs fans get off scot-free?

Oh how I have missed these threads 😍

Someone is still scarred...

On team selection, I'm surprised Jordon has fallen behind both Laurie and Chandler, but many have bemoaned our lack of depth/variation to our side, so it's not surprising we're trying something new with that position. It's disappointing in some respect that the FD think Tomlinson, off the back of a poor pre-season form-wise, is a better option than Turner, but whichever of them got the spot we were always going to look thin without May. Reality is with May, Viney, Fritsch and Salem missing, and our opponent being a top 4 contender and missing just Weightman (Gardiner too but I do not rate him at all), we should not be favourites. I'm firmly of the view that a win on Saturday will be a massive achievement and should not be expected at all.

We need early 2021 Tommo ….remember that game Hawkins smashes Maysie in the face and put him out of action, from memory we rolled Tommo onto him he did a great job and we won comfortably

This game is brought to you by melatonin. zzzzzzzzz

Compared to Bowey, Rivers and Judd, they are not going to be able to compete on the spread. Neutralise the contests and we win easy

You have only just realised this about Demonland, hence why I only skim through these days.

Big chance for Tommo to prove himself.

How do all the teams that don’t have Steven May in them cope without him playing each week?

Sone massive overreaction going on here regarding the May news. I see this as a great challenge for us. We've been blessed with May staying fit since 2020, but now I see this as an opportunity for someone like Petty to show the competition by he should be spoken on the same level as May and Lever. Or perhaps someone like a Daniel Turner who can come in and grab their opportunity with both hands. Good top 4 teams still win games regardless if an individual goes down. Richmond lost Rance to knee reco back in the early rounds of 2019 and went on to win a flag. On the two debutants, I love it! We, including myself were desperate for fresh young talent last year to inject a bit of enthusiasm and spark into the line up. Well I'm glad to see it happen round 1 and regardless of whether Laurie deserves it or not it's a great opportunity to further improve our depth with these two now getting a taste of AFL action. Go well lads.

Wow... I thought that Reiwoldt looked old and slow in that game.... a season too far?

So neither team win. Gotta be happy with that.

VFL Standard so far

Either these two sides are hopeless, or they're very, very rusty. Not a great spectacle

ANB is not on the 'periphary'. Critical player for us who does not have a like for like replacement in the twos. Our game plan relies on out numbering the oppo at contests. Nibbler is a critical part of our ability to do so. Outside of Langdon and Hunter, no demon player has nibbler's combination of athleticism, ability to cover the ground at pace, elite endurance and discipline. Howe might get there, but aint there yet. No one else in the twos comes close.

Very few clubs will go into round one without missing one, or more of their best 22. Of the potential/likely finalists: The dogs have weightman out. The blues have Walsh out The lions have Zorko and Gardiner out Hawkins and Duncan are probable outs for the cats (and menagola is def out), Toby Bedford is out with a serious hammy for the giants (who probably aren't a likely finalists i guess). The tigers will be missing soldo and tarrant (and have 6 non best 22 locks unavailable) And the swans will be missing three best 22 plsyers in Hickey, Clarke and Fox. I'm pretty sure most, perhaps all, of the players noted above were injured during preseason (as opposed to a carry over injury from the 2022 season). [censored] happens. Particularly given, as Voss noted on 360 the other night, preseason training now involves match simulations and game like drills from the get go. For example, we apparently basically play a scratch match every week.

Anyone else notice how much bulk Bontempelli has put on? I know all players bulk up in the preseason but he is much bigger than in other years; he is Hulk like! I wonder whether he has bulked up to Dunkley's size to take over his inside role? If so that will limit his impact outside the contest and makie quick plays into the fwd line/snaps for goal harder. I wonder if Beveridge outsmarts himself with all the magnets he seems to be moving around. He may keep the opps guessing but it may also confuse his own players.

What a silly thing to say/think. On this logic there would be 0 injuries at all clubs going into Round 1.

I have a newborn son, and my train line is undergoing major works, so I won't be attending matches until later this year. TV for me for a few months. My little guy will be decked out in a Demons onesie watching his first game of footy on tv Saturday night.

Plus the monster TV's available nowadays at a reasonable price.

This is why according to one poster: "...just in the last two seasons; 21 goals in 9 games against us, but 17 in the last 5!", six of which were in a GF

Their biggest strength for the last decade has been their midfield. It is what they have based their entire game plan on. So while they have improved both ends of the ground in the off season, their midfield has gone backwards, having lost Dunkley and Hunter. Will be interesting to see how that changes their game style. Bont will have to play a lot more midfield minutes now, and they will need Treloar to stay healthy. Otherwise it's fairly slim pickings in terms of pure class. McRae and Libba are accumulators, but they don't hurt you like the other two do.

A champion team will always beat a team of champions. It appears to me that this year we have recaptured the culture of being a champion team. Even with our outs we will be competitive. GO DEES!

That's one way to look at it. Another way is that it's only May coming out of the team that easily accounted for Richmond last week. Without Salem, Viney and Fritsch our defensive rebound and midfield output was still very good and the team put 121 points on the board on a hot and windy day at Casey.

Couldn't agree more Harmesy, but at the same time, I think the Buldogs are one of the few teams that I see genuinely challenging us this year. Been watching that 2021 GF on repeat again a bit myself of late, along with the 2021 prelim. Can't wait for the contemporary 2023 versions - BRING IT ON I say!! GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS!!

Let's just cool it on Laurie. He was a damaging player in U18s around goal and delivering to the forwards. He has a way to go and I don't expect him to light it up first game - but what separates us from the FD here is they are playing the long game. They seem to think he can make us better long term. Only way that can happen then is to play him - put his feet to the fire, build his experience and his confidence. The knock-on against Richmond I think showed them all they needed to see - smarts, poise, courage to take a hit for the team. They've always known he has the skills to play the game. They spoke at the end of last year about being bolder as an FD and giving the Casey talent the promotions they deserve. They're staying true to their word, starting round 1. We might lose the game but you never know what it could be the start of.

Don’t forget last year guys for the 1st 4 rounds we were without lever and petty, lever returned round 4 and petty round 5 and we were just fine, if our structures hold up then it goes a long way to winning plus we lost Salem round 1 aswell I bet our back line will look better than what it was last year on paper go check it out

Yep we don’t need any individual stars on Saturday night. We need a solid Team effort. We have some top line soldiers unable to contribute So it is a perfect time to try out some new blood. How many people expected Jake Bowey to hold his spot in the side back in ‘21?

How about being a little bit more positive. May’s injury will give an opportunity to Turner or perhaps Schache. Either choice would be great to see. We complained last year about playing injured players and not blooding players. Well now we have the opportunity to rectify that. I’m sure these guys will not let us down. Can’t wait for Saturday night.