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Couldn't understand the negativity on the Game Day thread - it was a high pressure game. The Aints were fighting us for a top four spot and the came hard at us. We absorbed it and kicked a winning score against a good defensive side. We did enough and ... FFS .... took the 4 points. And .... Woey - a very promising debut. BBB - good signs and added a positive factor to our forward line. S. May - You will not see a better defender's game. BOG !!!

Jokes on you Clint. I haven’t been invited to a party in years.

My god the negativity on this site is too much sometimes… you realise they were fifth right? And any impact for fewer subs would’nt have played a part until later 4Q. Was it perfect? No. But there were still things to like including some awesome individual performances.. and straight kicking. Enjoy the wins when they come people. Yeesh

Best win since 2020. Backs against the wall against a top team at full strength.

Take a bow Trac.. Great kicking effort and turnaround.

I'm worried we won't be able to keep them under our score of 4.28.52

Love that we are contenders. C'mon Dees, keep our season rolling along. Lose, back with the pack and the pressure that comes with having to win. Viney, Rivers, McVee, Tracc, Salem, have been great. Backline are a beautiful unit, the role players give us the style we want, need marking and turnovers to lead to goals. Great chance for Woewodin to cement a spot. A bit of media pressure and hopefully the team responds. Go Dees.

God, Brereton is a tool.

Far out, some people are never happy.

The irony isn’t lost on me that we won this game because we kicked better than the Saints

Steven May take a bow what a great game.

Positives: Maysy. Trac remembering where the big sticks are. 4 points.

Absorbed plenty. Got the 4 points. Sad sacks still gonna be sad.

Geese that win felt a lot like a loss. Thank god for May and Trac. Grundy and Gawn need to take a long hard look at them selves letting Marshall completely dominate that game. time for Kozz to head to Casey

We'll win, but it won't cure the MFCSS pandemic in here. You must all be fun at parties.

I missed the boat in the pregame thread to respond to @A F, so I'll respond here. Yes, this is something I have access to. I have looked at the locations of the result of kicks inside 50 and categorised them according to distance (0-20m, 20-35m, 35m+) and corridor v pocket. To determine the corridor, I extend the centre square to the 50m arc and then draw a line from that point to the goal posts. Melbourne has gone to the 'hot spot' (20-35m out in the corridor) about 26% each of the time the last three matches, up from 20% for the season. We are far more likely to go to the hot spot in the third quarter. The last table below shows that you are more likely to turn the ball over kicking to 20+ metres out in the corridor than kicking to the pocket, which is something that @binman has spoken about quite a bit. Location of Kicks Inside 50, Melbourne 2023, by Round Round Corridor Pocket 0-20m 20-35m 35+ 0-20m 20-35m 35+ 1 9.4 22.6 5.7 3.8 28.3 30.2 2 15.9 18.2 15.9 6.8 18.2 25.0 3 6.0 28.0 8.0 4.0 28.0 26.0 4 19.6 25.5 9.8 3.9 23.5 17.6 5 5.0 17.5 30.0 2.5 22.5 22.5 6 8.5 14.9 14.9 6.4 23.4 31.9 7 17.6 9.8 21.6 3.9 21.6 25.5 8 8.3 33.3 18.8 4.2 6.2 29.2 9 21.4 12.5 19.6 3.6 17.9 25.0 10 7.1 19.0 31.0 0.0 14.3 28.6 11 12.5 18.8 22.9 4.2 22.9 18.8 12 5.7 7.5 13.2 7.5 32.1 34.0 13 13.2 26.4 17.0 0.0 17.0 26.4 15 15.2 26.1 13.0 4.3 10.9 30.4 16 9.7 25.8 14.5 3.2 21.0 25.8 Location of Kicks Inside 50, Melbourne 2023, by Quarter Period Corridor Pocket 0-20m 20-35m 35+ 0-20m 20-35m 35+ 1 11.6 15.1 13.4 4.7 24.4 30.8 2 9.3 19.8 16.3 3.5 19.8 31.4 3 12.4 27.8 18.0 2.6 19.1 20.1 4 13.6 18.4 18.4 4.9 19.9 24.8 Location of Kicks Inside 50, 2023, by Team Team Corridor Pocket 0-20m 20-35m 35+ 0-20m 20-35m 35+ St Kilda 8.0 27.8 19.4 2.0 19.8 23.0 Essendon 10.7 26.5 19.1 4.0 18.5 21.1 Greater Western Sydney 10.6 24.4 21.2 3.9 18.1 21.8 North Melbourne 7.5 24.0 25.1 4.4 18.9 20.1 Gold Coast 11.2 23.9 18.8 4.4 20.0 21.7 Port Adelaide 9.0 23.4 23.7 3.6 17.4 22.8 Sydney 11.7 23.3 23.3 4.6 15.4 21.6 Fremantle 7.0 22.5 22.3 4.1 22.3 21.7 Hawthorn 9.3 22.0 21.7 4.3 21.2 21.5 Collingwood 12.5 21.2 17.7 5.5 16.5 26.6 Western Bulldogs 9.9 20.6 13.8 5.7 23.3 26.8 Adelaide 9.6 20.5 20.7 3.4 18.6 27.2 Melbourne 11.8 20.4 16.7 3.9 20.7 26.5 Geelong 7.4 20.2 19.9 4.0 21.0 27.4 Carlton 9.3 19.9 16.6 5.4 20.5 28.2 Richmond 9.4 19.7 18.6 5.6 22.9 23.8 Brisbane 9.8 18.4 15.2 6.6 23.6 26.4 West Coast 8.0 17.4 19.0 5.2 24.7 25.8 Location of Kicks Inside 50, 2021-2023, by Chain Result Result Corridor Pocket 0-20m 20-35m 35+ 0-20m 20-35m 35+ Score 51.7 33.9 33.2 44.7 29.3 30.0 Stoppage 11.6 12.5 9.6 24.3 25.2 19.9 Turnover 36.7 53.5 57.2 31.0 45.5 50.1

I shall be watching this epic from the balmy confines of The Manor surrounded, naturally, by canapés and matching beverages. I simply hate Darklands and will not view football from that hole. Certainly looking forward to young Woey's debut and wish him well. On the other hand, I'm not sold on our forward set up and am most interested to see if we can straighten up - in all senses. The aints , however, are going to have their own forward issues when confronted with Messrs May, Lever etc. Dees by 27. Three Brownlow votes to Trac.

Gawn - far from effective Grundy - had little impact Salem - class was evident McVee - was rarely sighted May - perfect defender’s game Lever - safe and steady Petty - not always convincing Rivers - fumbled but effective Brown - had a presence Brayshaw- better second half Pickett - was invisible again Melksham - experience was important Petracca - was the difference Sparrow - tough and brave Viney - great first half Jordon - an important ingredient Woewodin - some good signs Bowey - always under control Neal-Bullen - quiet after first Spargo - didn’t justify selection Hunter - consistent and important Langdon - great first half

Jayden Hunt currently on 25 disposals with 100% efficiency. The cleanest player on the ground and continues to give his all. Well done Jayden. Wish you were still in red and blue!

Does anyone else remember when we were competing for the wooden spoon….?? just saying…. A ten win season so far with 7 home and away games to go we’ll finish with a 15 or 16 win season before finals not so bad I reckon …..

Steven May. What a beast. And he took out three of their players!

Never before have I worried much about the commentary but Luke Darcy's barracking for the "brave Saints" was so damn irritating it drove me to the mute button. Yes, if they'd won against the injury gods it would have been historic but wait until it happens FGS. And don't comment on any of the dodgy umpiring at any cost. Since when was an over the head handpass penalised as a throw? As in, almost never, until Spargo fired one off tonight. Elsewhere I've moaned about the non-free to Grundy directly in front of goal when he appeared manhandled by a bouncer. Some good stuff in there - Sparrow has grown these last few weeks, young Woey showed promise, May, Lever, Petty and Salem were brilliant and Trac should have gained confidence from that. Brown was better and threatened. Glass half full.

Useless stats edition #104: We haven't lost to St Kilda since Richo has been here..

I call that a professional performance. Well done Demons!

How the hell did Grundy not deserve and over the shoulder free then???

After the AFL photo scandal during the week the clubs were told no more behinds. MFC took it the wrong way.

That was the best kick into the 50 in 4 weeks

Oh my god is that the first lead up full forward hit that we’ve had this year?

He'll never keep up with him, Lyon's gotta be 60 or so

School holidays are a great time for open days at training. The last open training was the reconciliation day, and was posted at the last moment, and only a few outsiders were there. There was one that was during school holidays, but was a 10 year consecutive members viewing, and therefore not posted. A few have been captain's runs, where it is little more than a 1/2 hour run. Great that at all the trainings I have been to, the players are always happy to present for photos, signings and chats, for those that wish that kind of thing. There were some preseason open trainings that were great. As they had plenty of kids activities and the Demon Army's BBQ. The media are always there. Rarely and probably impossible to have closed sessions anyway. Why not post training times and encourage the retirees, centrelink's, others with time on there hand, or a spare hour, to enjoy and create some atmosphere for the squad. Especially during a time when the club is enjoying some success. Can only help with greater membership, etcetera. I think they could do much better, less than a handful I'd say, have been posted this season. Why not have a Casey open day training, especially during school holidays?

Well done to Salem on 150 games

Clearly not. But it'd be nice to be able to take some inspiration from what Fly has achieved with that group. How positive and proactive game-plans can reinforce the idea that footy is fun. Providing the perfect environment for players to be 'up' for every game. Giving your supporters and members no option but to want to come and watch the style of football you play. The reasons are many. And it's just consistent positive feedback loop after loop. Goodwin is burning out players and supporters with his rigidity and sameness. Few list changes, few change-ups to positions. All little too late. And now we're coming to the pointy end of the season and we have a completely dysfunctional forward half and have two 'elite' ruckman who are just completely ineffective forward of the ball. Mids who just refuse to use the ball well. A full back who is instructed to kick to the same spot every kick out. It's a snore-fest. Give me some excitement!

The Demons got back on the winner's list and finally got some breathing space for the time being in the Top 4 with a hard fought 21 point win over the Saints at Marvel Stadium.

That's a better win than many Demonlanders are giving it credit for. 4th v 5th, lots of pressure. Not perfect, and not our best, but a good win. F50 play looked as good as it has all year. If BBB wasn't blocked all night it would have looked even better. Fumbling mostly fixed. Horror handballing unfortunately back in a big way. May and our backline are immortals. Not sure why we kicked long to so many forward contests where Kozzie, Spargo and ANB were the targets. Ground ball and spread from contests continues to be a worry. The Saints killed us at these 2 things tonight.

Tbh I thought we defended and attacked well. Last week was a hard slog and we still had some legs at the end which is a good sign. People put too much into numbers on the bench. If coached well it can work to your benefit. Saints threw everything at us because they all had momentum and extra time on field. Loved Woewodin's attack on ball. Same as McVee and Spargo. Pickett had the worst game of his career. Looking forward to pumping Brisbane next week.

4 points. All that matters.

Pickett continues to be useful as Anne Frank’s drum kit.

The viewing experience at this ground is atrocious I will never understand why you bother coming to the footy only to spend half the game going in and out of your seat to drink. Like why not get drunk for free at home?

He needs to be dropped. He is not impacting games and nobody is doing him any favours by keeping him in the seniors. I’d give him 2-3 weeks in the 2s just to get his mojo back.

It’s an 8 point game as winner goes a game clear in fourth, so we need to win tonight. Saints have some bad outs so no excuses if we lose. Looking forward to seeing young Woe and hope he shows a bit of dash and skill.

Trac to lead the minors with 5.

Would have been an ideal opportunity for JVR to come along further in perfect marking conditions. I think he will be missed.

We are a tall forward short IMV

Dees by 42 in a training run. to think otherwise is to deny our Greatness

Nah, sorry that's complete rubbish. How do I know that? Well, i don't need some 'expert' with an agenda to protect the reputation of his profession. I have all the experts I need right here on DL. I mean, how could Bruckner hold a candle to people who can confidently say we have botched oliver's treatment with zero access to his private medical information or zero knowledge about what his injury is, or what the complications might have been. Or limited or no medical training whatsoever for that matter. You don't need years of study and training to understand the medical team have stuffed up. It's just common sense. That's all that is needed If covid taught us anything it is that experts are dangerous.

Great. Fans gets the warm and fuzzies. Footy is about winning flags not selling badges. Mcrae had achieved nothing. Zilch. A bunch of home and away wins. Three finals. Two losses - including a preliminary final to a team who proceeded to get flogged by 15 goals in the gf. Meanwhile we have a coach who has actually achieved something - he has won a flag, breaking a 57 year drought. He has coached 150 afl games, with a 58% win loss ratio. Won 5 of 8 finals he has coached, including 50 50 in prelims. By way of contrast, clarkson, often hailed as the best coach of the modern era, had a win loss ratio at the hawks of 60%. Get back to me when mcrae can boast a record anywhere near as impressive as goodys. Mcrae is on a hiding to nothing this year. The pies are a fantastic team. But given the fact they have no record of success, other than some home and away wins, the expectations on them are just ridiculous. People just seem to be accepting they will win the flag and are streets ahead of their rivals. The last time I can recall such expectation is the tigers in 2018. The big difference is the tigers wete coming off aligning a flag, not getting bundled put of the final in a prelim. What happens if they don't win the flag? It will be viewed by most as a failure. Team and coach fail. Which is just ridiculous. What does that do to the optimism and postive energy everyone seems to love about the pies? How does the team rebound? Say it continues to dominate the 2024 home and away season. Two failed finals campaigns will hang over the club like a huge question mark shaped shadow.

We’ve won 8 of our past 11 and 4 of our last 5 at Marvel. With the injuries the Saints have, and all the pressure on us during the week, I’m expecting a 5 goal win. Marvel is actually pretty convenient for me as I live on the west side so I’m making the trip tonight to the soulless stadium.

Good to be back on our fortress lol. Zero expectation today. We should win but I've lost trust. I want to see lace out passes to a leading forward but Ross will not let this happen. He will love it if we repeat our standard F50 entries. If we do more of the same we lose this game. A lot rides on the coaches box tonight.

Kick straight, we win. If we're inaccurate again we lose it's as simple as that.