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Well here's an untold Uncle Bitter story, In the early 70's myself and my mate got [censored] as nits at the Croxton Park Hotel. My beautiful 16 year old girlfriend (later to be my beautiful wife, now my late wife) drove us, unlicensed, to Mernda. We weren't worried, in those days, we knew the coppers would have accepted that it was the best option. Different times. PS. My wife and I laughed about that for years. Sadly not enough years.

They sound like we did before the Brisbane game, hope it turns out the same for them as it did is.

Their confidence is not misplaced. They have the wood on us.

I'm going to interview my family and five mates ahead of the interview tomorrow. Interview loading. Taper Wednesday. Talking on top of the the ground come interview time.

Got nothing to do with Football Carry on

If it's a points issue, it's possibly [censored] poor communication or, at worst, carelessness - I've done the same. Vic Roads or whatever they are called are borderline incompetents.

They totally deserved to make the GF. Not only did they beat us they beat Collingwood who fell just short of the eventual premiers (yuck Geelong) They should be respected - they are a very strong team, very well coached and we will need to play very well to beat them. Our form line so far this season is pretty average - WB look hopeless atm and we were comprehensively outplayed by the Lions until the game was well and truly over. This week will tell us quite a bit I think about where we stand amongst teams with finals aspirations.

Jackson will be laughing if Jeremy McGovern comes out to play on Sunday with a big padded bag on his back.

From Bigfooty. They don't think much of the Dees and their thread title 'Roasting Demons' sums it up. They should be concerned about the work rate intensity and efficiency of our midfield group. the AFL paid Paul Roos to instill some Bloods culture. It's got them to a Flag but they still seem relatively easy to rattle and too rigid in structure, won't be able to deal with the True Bloods chaos and multi-faceted attack. First hands on the ball in the centre. Make lever accountable. Melbourne are rubbish Melbourne are the Los Del Rio of the AFL Can someone tell me which week Melbourne won the clearances this year or contested possession. They lost both in the 2 games I saw, so not sure why we would s**t ourselves about it Rowbottom has been very off at the beginning of the season. Imo, he's one of our most important players vs Melbourne Pretty confident going into the game without Gawn. He killed us in last year's regular season game. …He played the best game i have ever seen a ruck play but guess what it still wasnt enough for them. May will be close to goal. If we play Buddy on the arcs, May will be inconsequential. …Well I hope so, but I thought Buddy was running all over the ground last time and May was hugging him the whole time. That 50 metre penalty May gave to Buddy for example was in the center square. …Franklin got into May head last time and effected his game allowed others to hit the scoreboard. Well yeah, so we beat their full strength team twice with and without Buddy last year, so I'm actually extremely confident going into this week (Demon lurkers, sorry if I forgot some random jerk who was left out of your team. I just meant generally speaking). Wonder if the players will be a bit nervous returning to the MCG after the GF shellacking. Good to get it out of the way early in the season. Really excited for this week's game. As we did last year, think we match up really against them and i'm backing Ladhams in to hold his own. The two best sides at scoring from defensive 50 will be going at it this week. Somewhat takes away our advantage we usually have over most teams, and further increases the need for the midfield to start generating more scoring opportunities themselves. Grand final week we were shuffling deck chairs regarding Amartey, McDonald and McLean, who would be less useless As a casual F1 viewer in Melb, why does this match have to be scheduled at the same time as the race?!? :triumph: My Favourite: Noting witty or insightful enough to capture my interest. Wood love us to win this just to shut up their fans and to get the monkey off our back. Not confident.

I don't mind May accumulating points as long as he stops the goals.

And nobody has taken that moment away from him. He’s always going to be a premiership player. But let’s not pretend like we won a flag because of him. He won a flag because he played for us.

Jackson played 2 decent games last year and one of them he was as our number 1 ruck when Gawn was out of the side against Brisbane. He's clearly a better ruck than forward and yet Freo are going to play him as a 75/25 forward because Darcy is clearly their number one ruck. Unless Jackson can start taking 1.5 contested clunks a game up forward and kick his 1.5 goals a week, I can't see how he'll be justifying his hefty wage.

Their confidence is warranted. They've beaten us in 17 out of the past 20 encounters. Our record against them is the worst of any team and frankly it's embarrassing. We are absolutely their bunnies and I expect this weekend to be no different unfortunately. We love to beat them and get the monkey off our back. They have a mental hold over us and we need to break it.

Maybe if Freo didn’t go and dump 5 experienced players for Jackson, they wouldn’t have such an inexperienced team.

Okay death riders, here’s the bad news. Freo’s narrow 1 point loss was enough to lift it one spot on the ladder which means that Melbourne’s notional draft picks gleaned from the Dockers are now 6 & 24 instead of 5 & 23. Let’s just hope the Weagles win the Derby.

Having watched last week's replay a few times, I reckon it was more to do with a failure to adapt to the conditions. The humidity seemed to be our undoing. We made so many basic skills errors, all over the ground, that seemed to be a result of a slippery footy. Petty dropped three basic chest marks, just as an example of that. Our mids double touched everything. I expect that we will be a lot cleaner this week and we will see a return to method that we had in the preseason. I am hopeful of that. If we can win the midfield battle, we will win the game. That final last year was turned when Buddy sucked the umpire in on two occasions. I really hope we have addressed that with the AFL and umpires. The bloke was completely outplayed by May, and resorted to his usual dirty tactics. If they fall for any of his rubbish this week, i'll be ropable.

This is the type of game where the playing group announces their desire to win a flag again. Up against a team that has your measure. Up against a top 4 team without your best player. Up against it. We will see a win or more excuses on here.

Good player but needs to work on his consistency. We can’t afford to carry guys who go missing every 149 games and only get 37 possessions.

The MFC this last week

I thought JJ and Hibberd we're the stand outs last weekend at Casey. JVR just consistently contests, marks and makes the second efforts at ground level. He does a fair bit of ruckwork up forward. BBB and Friita aren't great at defensive pressure and TMAC was moving like a prawn trawler on Friday night. We gotta give the kid a go and rest TMAC. Melksham and Harmes we're both pretty putrid on Friday too. I doubt Goody will swing three or four changes. But he should. Tommo will be stiff to miss considering how little Hipwood did and how fast and hard the ball was coming in.

For teams that are poor there is no reason to tank these days. When it was endemic 15 years ago, it was because the AFL was handing out priority picks. Tanking provided an additional pick at the top end. If you finish 18th today, you get one pick ( at No. 1), and your next pick (19) is one behind the Premier at 18. Other poorly performing sides have picks 2,3...etc so there is little difference in quality there. Petracca or McCartin? You cannot build a decent side around 1 good player alone. Hawthorn aren't tanking, they are just bad. North weren't tanking last year, they were just bad. Look at the difference a decent coach ( Clarkson) & football manager ( Viney) have made to them. Same as happened to us.

That article is virtually saying there is no position for Jackson. Lord knows where Freo will hide him or where to play him. As an aside, wasn't it well known he didn't like and didn't want to be a forward? He is used to being protected and lauded at the dees. Over there he is exposed and hunted. The kid must be wondering what has hit him. This trade could be the worst 'own goal' in a very long time: Bell gets the feather in his cap but messes up his team. I wish Jackson well but would love to see Bell squirm!!

i didn’t know that mate. love and best wishes your way. i’m having a beer for you and your late wife right now

God damn I had to pay 800 bucks, he only had to pay 500

Not sure I entirely agree with this logic (bolded part) If we had come out and smashed two middling/lower teams we'd be loving life and super confident right now. Fact is - only the very good/best teams consistently smash the teams they should. What would make it more difficult to get a read on their form is if they beat both by 10-20, which would indicate they weren't functioning at a top 4 level. But that's not what happened. As it is, the magnitude and manner of their wins are indicative of their quality - which is that of a top 4 side. It's not hard to tell how good they are - they're clearly very good, as they were last year. They may even be better now, as a young side with continued growth and very few veterans getting to the feared 31/32 mark other than Buddy (who they were without in any case). Without Buddy, Mcdonald and Amartey combined for close to 10 goals. We know how tough, dynamic and accountable their midfield is. We should not be taking any confidence from them 'only' smashing GCS and Hawthorn. It's what the best teams do. Separately on us - I have a niggling concern that something we have changed - game plan or mindset wise - has resulted in far less accountability from our mids both at stoppage and in transition. I thought it was very obvious in the Dogs game that Treloar/Mcrae/etc were running relatively unchecked in transition. Repeatedly. It was extremely obvious during the period they were on top. For whatever reason, it ultimately didn't hurt us too badly as the Dogs were hesitant with the ball. It then clearly happened again vs the Lions - even worse - the Brisbane midfield appeared to play entirely unchecked for the majority of the night. At clearance, at stoppage and in transition. At different times, neither felt like Dees games and I felt more uncomfortable (yes, including the Dogs game even though we got on top) than I have since 2020. I can't quite put my finger on it but I wonder if in trying to have a little more dare and respond to the flavour of the month - attacking footy, Collingwood etc. - we've lost the balance that's served us well now for some time. If I'm right, the Swans (who have the most accountable midfield going round) will be a big reality check (and potentially, a really sizable loss). Don't hate on this btw - sky is not falling, far from it - but I can just feel something is a little awry...

You’re only as good as your last Grand Final appearance.

“No action Jackson” 😂 ok it got a laugh out of me. Honeymoon period didn’t even make it to week three. I have no ill will towards Luke but I’m happy for this season to be a disaster for him and the Freo club. If he continues to struggle then those around him that have been advising him would want to take a long hard look at themselves. Kossie take note- leaving the Melbourne to go play in a two team town is a bad move.

It is that time of the year to make Sam Reid look like Plugger!

Not confident this week. Feel like we are flaky, when it doesn't go our way we fall to bits. Again all these comments about TMac but nothing about BBB. BBB played well yes? Maybe because TMac is doing his role? Not every player has to get 30+ disposals and kick 3 goals, even in the forwards line. What about Clarrys game? That was very Tom Mitchell like. Horrible disposal, dump kicks, weak tackles. No I don't want Clarry dropped but it's not all TMacs or Melkys or any one person's fault. We lost our Captain in the first 5 minutes, it rattled them, they feared the worst just like us. Imagine how Viney felt knowing he was the one that did it? My point is we have to be better at overcoming what we can't control and concentrate better on what we can.

Was about to post this. Wonder how Jackson's family are feeling seeing this? They put ample amount of pressure for him to return only for their son to be back page for being [censored]. They don't hold back in WA..

Just thought this deserved a separate thread on Demonland. As mentioned by @WalkingCivilWarin another thread, it will be Clayton Oliver's 150th game for the Melbourne Football Club. Clayton Oliver, only one third of the way through his career, at 25 years of age has to be one of the greatest Demons players in the modern era. You gotta love Clarrie. I hope he wins more Premierships for the Demons and also grabs that elusive Brownlow Medal one day. Clayton Oliver is a Champion for the Melbourne Football Club. I hope he goes on to play at least 350 or even 400 games for the Demons. I encourage as many Melbourne supporters as possible to attend the match against the Swans on Sunday at the MCG to say a massive THANK YOU to Clarrie in his 150th game for the Demons! His "bang, bang bang!" goal late in the 3rd Quarter of the 2021 AFL Grand Final will never be forgotten! Fingers crossed Clayton Oliver plays, many, many more magnificent games for the Melbourne Football Club! Congratulations on 150 games for the Demons Clarrie! 🔴🔵👹

I was actually driving Maysy’s car that day, so it was me who got the last 3 points. Apologies everyone. Nothing to see here. Will call Vic Roads in the morning and clear this all up.

Happens all the time. People’s MDL’s are fine/demerit point suspended and they can be unaware until they’re pulled over. It’s on the driver to know the current status of their license so unfortunately “know knowing” isn’t a defence, hence the fine. Demerit point suspension.. probably racked up a heap of speeding fines. I’d argue against anyone suggesting or questioning if it’s alcohol related (as it’s not). Years ago back when I was a Detective, I was driving an unmarked police car around whilst fine suspended. It happens, move on.

That aint happening.

He seems to have mastered the half mark.

Yeah. Way to double down and put more pressure on the kid. FMD No need to post 12 almost identical photos trying to prove that their unicorn can mark a footy at training under no pressure on a piece of plastic.

Gees I hope Kozzie is watching all of this unfold, and thinking about his future.

He needs to do 3 years of purgatory at GWS first. So I propose a 3 way trade involving Hogan to us and our 4th to Freo

Would love to know his thoughts on what learnings he took from 2022 and what is likely to change in 2023 to hopefully have us hitting finals more in the sort of shape we were in 2021

I hope their day is as miserable as it was in the GF. Go Demons!

They tanked before the season began by gutting their list for very little return. What is the best pick that they got for Gunston, Mitchell, O’Meara, and Shiel? Maybe pick 27 this year from the Dogs. Otherwise it’s picks on the 40s. Some of you are so naive about what ‘tanking’ is. The Hawks did it 20 years ago and they are doing it again.

True. Hence why I want us to win to get the monkey off our back. It is their arrogance and complete lack of respect for us that annoys me. Hope we show them up.

We just want resolution on how accurate binman’s loading theories are.

About the same. Young Kynan is a hard nut though. Played majority of the game on ball and more forward in the last quarter. He's an in and under who's got a good burst of speed out of the stoppages. Honestly he's like a cleaner and quicker version of Jack Viney. Sometimes I even see Josh Daicos as well with how nimble he can be around stoppages. He's a left footer at similar height. One thing that caught me by surprise watching him was his vision and awareness especially going inside 50. There were times I thought he was going to blaze away when he would burst out of stoppages but he lowered his eyes and would hit up the leading forward. His ball use is very clean and certainly won't have any issues with delivering the footy inside 50 or around the ground in general. Really intrigued to see how he's goes this year especially when the under 18's championships start.

Kynan had a solid game today picking up 23 disposals and kicked 1.1 Watched the whole game today and all I will say is that Melbourne fans will be excited when he officially becomes a Dee.

It’s fine JVR will debut this week and kick 10 and go on to win the rising star, the Coleman and a flag.

There is something true to all walks of life about the Jackson trade - rarely do people who achieve significant emotional (premiership, fulfilment, contentedness) & financial success at a very young age go on to even better things. It's the reason child actors seem to inevitably go off the rails, happens in the Corporate world all too often and especially with junior sportsmen who very quickly achieve what they always dream of. There are exceptions of course - Joel Selwood would be one -but he has clearly always been driven by something internal (competitiveness, pride, a chip on the shoulder?) rather than external factors. All professionals need to be self-motivated - they'd never make it to the grade otherwise, but there would be degrees of it. Jackson is physically gifted, but could have picked basketball, and achieved plaudits, success and now money in his preferred environment very young. There is something to be said for the journey and discovery of delayed gratification. IMO those close to him have misguided him and selected short term outcomes over long. Nonetheless he has all the tools and I wish him well long term....but not so much this year for our draft hand sake! There are many other examples in the AFL of a newly hyped player achieving enormous success/money only to fail to carve out a long term career. Boyd, Patto, Hogan, you can keep going