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TBH, I never understand this view of some, that they are only happy if you beat a side at its best. I just want wins. Who gives a rats’ who is in or out, if you win? Do we go back and examine premierships to see who was in and out of the losing side? Get the wins, make the GF and win it. The rest of it is just hot air.

So sorry to hear that.

Brown and Disco Turner are both out of the Casey team due to injury - not promotion to the AFL. And Jimmy 🫎 Munro is back!

Other teams on a winning streak = Very good form Melbourne winning games = Papering over cracks

Thank you tiges for breathing some life back into this thread. Hopefully Freo's mini revival is over and we can all start enjoying our death riding again.

Just throwing my leg over this old horse to see if it still rides…..

No fan of Adelaide but I hope that every arrogant Eagles supporter that I ever encountered in my trips out west are miserable watching their team these days.

Daicos boys should rest in bed to get better, for the next few days and watch the game on TV. Wish them a speedy recovery Tuesday.

Credit to the Tigers for not putting the cue in the rack this season. They're like a big old jobby that won't flush.

A great side? Maybe it's a semantic thing. They are a very good team. And def a flag contender. But a GREAT side? Not by my defintion of what a great side is. A great side does not have their 2022 finals record. They lost 2 of 3 finals last season for pete's sake - their first finals appearance in years. They didn't even make the grand final, let alone win it. We won the flag in 2021, having completely dominated the finals series, playing some of the most dominant finals footy ever. I don't recall many posters or pundits calling us a great team after winning our first 10 games straight in 2022. In fact, papering over cracks was a more common phrase used on here. But the pies, coming of a very disappointing 2022 finals series, and on the back of being 11-1, aided by the gift of 7 games at the G, are a GREAT team? Give me a spell. Fair dinkum, they are very good, I'm not arguing with that, but how about we wait till they actually achieve something before collectively anointing them as some juggernaut, generational team. The most over rated team I can ever remember.

If only he wasn’t an insufferable racist

Me too. But I'd still be happy to beat them because they are unwell. There are so many 'luck' factors that determine games, many go against our (or any) team, so I'm happy to take the ones that go our way.

I’ve come to the conclusion that we won’t miss Clarrie at all on Monday. His last two appearances for Melbourne vs Collingwood: • Queens Birthday 2022 - Kicks 21, Handballs 22, Disposals 43, Contested Possessions 16, Marks 7, Tackles 3, Disposal Efficiency 81%, Clearances 6, Scores 1.0, Goal Assists 0, Score Involvements 6, Frees For 3, Frees Against 1. • Round 21 2022 - Kicks 14, Handballs 28, Disposals 42, Contested Possessions 24, Marks 3, Tackles 8, Disposal Efficiency 69%, Clearances 14, Scores Nil, Goal Assists 1, Score Involvements 7, Frees For 3, Frees Against 1. Meh! No pressure on Tom Sparrow and James Jordon who collectively will probably be called upon to replace him. At least they don’t have blisters.

Wowee.. 🤣 we're a sensitive bunch. Some on here are so easily sucked in by words from pies supporters on a different forum. Only thing that will shut them up is getting the 4 points. Simple. Go Dee's.

And with everything going right for them. First goal Grundy fails to just tap it through for a point, SPP kicks a goal over his head . Butters plays best game of his life. 7 metre pass to Lord ok another goal. About 5 goals from frees. 10-2 frees last quarter and our 2 in back pocket. 7-1 frees in forward 50 to them. Our disposal atrocious.They kicked them from boundary in wet, we missed from 20 out straight in front.They played very well and we didn’t. Lost by under a goal.

Robbie Flower did not wear glasses in his debut match. I sat in my usual spot - on the upstairs fence on the wing, Great Southern Stand, and he was right below me. When the teams were announced, Melbourne brought in two players on the two wings - Flower and Fitzsimmons - and Alves was moved to the half back flank. On the Saturday this still seemed outrageous to many of the Melbourne supporters who were naturally very happy having Alves on the wing. It took some time in the game for them to stop heckling about it. Not only was Robbie's surname a bit hippie-ish sounding, but Fitzsimmons had the full afro. It seemed like the club had gone very left field, and in those days the expression "flower-power" had a definite San Francisco whiff about it. By half time we were utterly mesmerised - as were the Geelong players - nobody could get the ball off him. Stan Alves would be proud today, I reckon, that he gave up his wing for the great Robbie Flower to get a start. I sat right behind the goal that he kicked - late in the game from the forward flank, by which time it seemed only right that he should get into the scorebook as well. My most memorable day ever, at the football, and that includes the 100-to-7 rampage in Perth. There will never be such an improbable-looking start turn out so quickly to be the best thing you have ever seen. In the rooms afterwards, the ten pounds award went straight to the skinny seventeen-year-old. Thuggery and brute force, stand aside. I was teaching poetry for a living at that time...

30 years ago....

Being married to a Collingwood supporter I am not particularly looking forward to Monday. Should it end up being a Dees/ Pies GF I think my marriage might be doomed. My husband is a much nicer person than I am. I sulk for days after we lose but he just shrugs it off. He also goes to most of the Dees games with me so he really is one of the good guys. It will however be a long walk home for him on Monday should we lose considering we live two hours away from town.

Giddy up.

Go tiges.

Can’t believe I’m going to say this but Go Tigers.

Oh please, what a load of rot. The game is two days away and you're already putting caveats on a dees' win. We win by being brillant defensively, but too defensive for your liking and so there is still 'a clear gap in the capabilities of the sides'. Sheesh.

Show them no mercy!

If I ever feel happy for Geelong, know my account has been hacked.

Yes, but feeling happy for Hawthorn earlier today was worse.

Freo fans booing the umpires! You couldn’t make it up.

Shai bolton is some player.

Freo booing for frees is rich

They don’t cope well with pace on the ball on a big ground unfortunately when we played them in finals we weren’t able to take advantage of this susceptibility because we were carrying too many players with knocks and knacks

10 for Tex. Fair effort in a 250.

o no what a shame Should we offer to split the points

Bears just locked themselves out of their house.

Hawks 2 points behind the Blues their 3 year rebuild looking a lot better than Carlton’s 20 years one 😂😂

A win on Monday can secure us third place through the bye

On the first point, i personally think that is myth, one goody is happy to persist. Sure he doesn't throw the magnets around like say Scott likes to, but he has been very tactically innovative from the get go. And this year he has been experimenting with all sorts of innovations and changes to our model.

I'd be happy to take the points...and leave all the arguments to others...i couldn't care less. You play who's there. Let's play...Let's Win

Not sure what you mean?? Jack Darling never became much of a player and then turned up in South America running a drug fueled junta. Now he is doing 15-20 in a Florida super max. I am so glad we went with LUCAS COOK WITH THAT PICK INSTEAD. Very glad.

If it is cellulitis which is related to staph, it can quickly become septic. From there it is very dangerous if not brought under control quickly. Hopefully it has been and the extended hospital stay is for monitoring and being extra cautious.

The pies have been playing their high-octane game style for about 18 months or so now which is about how long the competition take to figure out how to combat it. They are also showing signs of tiredness (understandable given the demands of playing their style) and although winning games are not as convincing as they were. They remind me a little of us this time last year, winning games unconvincingly. As we know the wheels came off for us. I think the same will happen to the pies. I’m convinced we’re going to beat them on Monday.

In a way I am glad he is not risking ripping his hammy. He will now have 4 weeks to get it absolutely back to pre injury.

Jeez, I dunno. I don’t think he is that good. And the rumours around him are pretty out there. I wouldn’t touch him, no sir. Not in this universe. Nup.

I like long weekends except when i have to wait until Monday for a dees game.

Exactly and it makes us less predictable without Clarry in there. Don't get me wrong, he's my favourite player and we need him there for finals, but we can and will win without him.

Yeah they’re definitely frothing… but how good are they! Butters, Rozee, JHF, Wines, Boak… that’s a powerful powerful midfield. & they’re seriously coming.

Flower was a football genius - pure and simple. It amazes/disappoints me that ( outside MFC) he doesn't get the recognition he deserves.

Forgive me I'm sure its been posted on here somewhere. But there's a terrific interview Max did with Whateley on SEN this week (search youtube) where Max mentions that the team wouldn't really be chasing the level of form shown in the last 7 odd games of 2021, simply because it was fairly unstoppable football at the highest level and it seems unrealistic to reach that height of play again. But he followed up by mentioning we didn't need to play that extremely high level to win a flag. Its an interesting perspective and one I think @binman has probably brushed on in different ways. This team has a lot of belief. When we played poorly against Port and home we still found a way to almost snatch the game. When Fremantle found ways to break down our defence (again with us not at our best) we were still in it to win had we kicked straight down the stretch. I think the reality this season is this team isn't going to be pretty like the 2021 team. Teams last year worked out our method (one being the forward handball out of stoppages) and have greatly reduced our ability to score in quick succession like 2021. We have found different avenues to score while maintaining a top four defense. There's been a big focus this season on swinging back momentum in games. The team doesn't panic when the opposition get a run on. They are absorbing that pressure much better and grinding out games knowing they have a fitness level and method that can put them in a winnable position in last quarters. I think we might be able to win ugly on the weekend. But even if we don't to me it doesn't change the fact this team is building for the back end of the season.

Yes totally comparable to a weekend long camp that traumatised Indigenous players and attacked players who had lost family members. Totally comparable.