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Idiots will say we weren’t good. They’ll also say Pies are going to win the flag because twice they beat Adelaide by under a goal. Go Dees!

Joel Smith stood up when it's counted, great job son.

Melbourne win close games: “ooof they’re no good” Collingwood win close games: “flag”

Adelaide were playing for their season, to say this was a disappointing win is absurd. We held off their surge and got it done.

Joel Smith starting out of the Goal square next week thanks. Too valuable to be wasted as a substitute.

Top 4 locked in for 3 years in a row. not a sentence i thought i’d ever say

Gus stepped up today. 16 contested possessions and 8 clearances to go with his 7 tackles. A couple of fantastic kicks going inside 50 as well. .

Trying to look through the stress a bit, I actually thought that was a high standard game. Would have been really good to watch as a neutral. Most heart warming moment for me was Woey Jr kicking it down ANB’s throat in the third.

Not enough is being made of the fact that we have been without arguably the best player in the competition for close to 3 months now. Oh and missing our best forward and one of the best medium forwards in the competition. We just do not appreciate what a loss Oliver is. That we’ve managed to beat 2 top 4 teams without him is bloody excellent. Very few sides would cover this type of loss for as long as we have.

The typical response on here. Never mind that Adelaide was playing for their season. Never mind that a few weeks ago the best team in the comp had the same result at the same ground. Never mind our best player, and best forward, are still out. I thought the Crows were great. Gave it everything, and I thought we won the game back and did some good things to slow the game down when it mattered.

Are we watching the same game? Lachie seems to take contact all the time from what I've seen this season.

Without Viney we lose that game. Hope his limping in the last is nothing serious.

What else do we have left to complain about if not small children singing the song with their dads? 🙄

Brilliant again today. His will to win is simply out of this world. I think he deserves to sneak his way into the AA team at the end of the year but he seems to fly under the radar as he's been living in the shadow of Oliver and Trac over the past three years.

The Collingwood love in became nauseating about 6 weeks ago. It’s now at vomit inducing levels. I truly hope they get smacked in the finals and if it’s us doing the smacking even better.

Thank you, this is a team that should have beat Collingwood 2x and their wins were gritty and tough. While ours is disappointing? Come on

Don’t love that we had to sweat that out, (and the 50s were sloppy) but the truth is the Crows were pretty good, we were inconsistent (sometimes good and definitely plucky), but they were desperate, with their season on the line and at the end of the game, we were on top. Good teams do that. We just need to make sure we play 4qtrs from here on in because there are no easy games. Go Dees!!

Thank god for Tomlinson, he should dominate for Casey next week.

Kozzie was great, chin worked hard and that love that he took his chances. But he needs to play close to goals (which i expect he will once spargs comes back in), not high half forward. Why? Because with kozzie up around the ball or at half forward, we don't apply enough pressure inside our 50. If we had lost that game It would have been because our pressure inside our 50 was appalling. I think it was 13 tackles inside 50, to our paltry one. It was 10-1 at half time I think. That's not good enough. They won in it back in their front half, and we let them waltz it out of ours.

Good teams win close ones

Got to say, it was a pretty disappointing performance. Need to be a lot better than that. Will take the win and forget about it. Very strange game.

Melbourne have recently played in a couple of "eight pointer must win " games. Today's game is more a "must make a statement game " . Melbourne need to win by 6 - 8 goals to show that we own the 'G and that all pretenders had better beware! The Crows are down a couple of key players and ,with May to control Tex, plus a dominant midfield, I can't see them kicking anywhere near a winning score. Like most, I like our ins this week and hope that both Chandler and Tommo cause the selectors headaches. I'm meeting up with some Demonlanders pre game so the victory celebrations will start early. Dees by 40 +

The Demons have consolidated their position in the Top 4 creating a 2 game and percentage buffer with 5th place by beating the Adelaide Crows by 4 points at the MCG.

Just my opinion but I'm nearly convinced that Kozzie is a midfielder/forward rather than a forward/midfielder His first half was dynamic and for centre square stoppages especially, he's the man ... so is Oliver obviously, but Clarrie is currently unavailable

He may not sneak an AA, but is well on his way to his second Bluey

It's kid's round Let them enjoy and remember

Jason Taylor has an impeccable record with mids, not just the players we've drafted but the ones he has coveted e.g. Butters, Humphrey. I have total faith he'll have a definite view on Reid and other possibilities like Duursma. We will actually be in a position to execute on his plan with the Freo pick. It will be interesting to see where Curtin is expected to fall and that will influence WC. North have a lot of mids and he may appeal to them more than say McKercher, especially if they succeed in their bid for Sanders. They may have two picks before our Freo pick too via McKay.

Miles behind Collingwood? We beat them King's Birthday. Miles behind Brisbane? We beat them last week. We lost to Port by 4 points in Adelaide. I'm rapt with the win today. We won. That's all that matters. And Adelaide aren't going to play finals which is another bonus. If Adelaide play like they did today and kick a bit straighter they're a very big chance against Port next week.

Crows have lost 3 games by a total of 7 points? against theoretically the two best sides in the comp. Coll 2 Dees 1 Cant be all that bad a side. Good win.

a real mixed bag but in no way did the crows deserve to win that. We made them kick from long range and angles so its not like they were missing sitters. 2 50 metres (the Melksham one wasnt even a free) in the last quarter and the Lever bump as he kicked it is downfield was a freebie goal. please. Then inexpilcably we made some horrible turnovers to gift them goals, so we almost lost it, but in no way could the crows really think they deserved to win. I did love how they whinged re holding e.g Woewoedin mark and goal, with all their off the ball holds on Gawn, Petracca Viney all day. Apart from short periods of wonderful footy it was a wokmanlike perofrmance. Job done, so now please start rotating and resting some players as we play the weaker teams.

He will probably need 40 possessions, 20 marks and to kick eight goals from the backline for Goodwin to not drop him next week so long as Petty can still stand upright.

I just really hope that we can put the hammer down today against the Crows. We really need to put up a ‘point of difference’ in these last few rounds against teams, that on paper, are middle of the road compared to ourselves. Having good wins against these teams now without Oliver and Fritsch available shouldn’t be underestimated. We get those lads back into the team as finals begin - that should prove massive for our chances. (Verging on ‘loading’ conspiracy levels) is there however a possibility that all of this supposed meticulous planning and player management is about to come through to fruition? Or… …… is it just a relatively controlled week-to-week gamble. I have a feeling we’re getting primed against a measured approach towards Finals. Injuries can’t be planned for unfortunately and should be treated as outliers. It really is a strategic league - none more so than this last month of H&A matches. I would like to think that we are capable of a 20 to 30 point win tomorrow. What a sport this is.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/982456/young-demons-best-game-only-a-hint-of-whats-to-come Looking forward to Rivers producing more and more of last week’s final quarter. Chaplin on Rivers, scary. I had a meeting with him yesterday and reviewed his tape and I was pretty honest with him, I said I think you're only at about 75-80 per cent capacity for what you're capable of.

The fact is we’ve just beaten Collingwood and Brisbane and just lost to Port away and in dreadful conditions. Since mid way through the Season we’ve a 5:2 win loss record , with a small loss to Geelong away and a 2 point loss to an in form GWS at Alice Springs in wet weather . Im far from despondent about that state of affairs. Seriosly some supporters would only be less than critical if we won every game by 100 points plus ! Fantasy stuff. This is AFL and opposing teams are mostly very talented, professional and hungry to win.

We are very likely going to finish top 4 and we have shown we can beat any of the top 3 teams … Collingwood only beat Adelaide by one and two points this year and yet they are praised for their close finishes… Adelaide are a good , plucky , young team with some very talented players like Rankine. Since Round 12 ( midway point ) we have won 5 and lost 2 games. One was small loss to Geelong at the Cattery, where they hold a formidable home ground advantage . The other to an in form GWS at Alice Springs in wet conditions and only by a couple of points. All of this without one of best players , Clarrie , and more recently without last year’s best goal kicker, Fritsch. I simply can not understand the unjustified, negativity of so many so called Melbourne supporters

Jack Viney needs to be in the conversation as the toughest and most courageous player in the AFL. He is as tough as nails and probably eats broken glass for breakfast.

Played 100% game time, and looked fit and competitive Rather him play than watch a busted up Petty

What fantastic preparation for finals. Adelaide plays a very similar game to Collingwood, and to hold off their charge and come away with the win is so much better preparation than a smacking or a loss. You have to believe we'll be playing Collingwood one or two more times this year and if all goes as expected we'll be likely to be in the exact same spot defending a slim margin in the final minutes then too.

Did anyone think Adelaide were just going to sit by and do nothing. Rankine’s season is done. They gave it everything. Umps were very poor in the last quarter and were directly responsible for 3/7 goals . promising sign was our response when the kicked 4 to start the 4th. What is concerning is that all 3 of the other top 4 can play that way with their running game off HB. Have to learn how to defend that better.

Joel smith the super sub, what an impact off the bench!!!

The second string midfield really struggled. Sparrow, Jordon, etc. May a shocking second half. Viney is top two best and fairest. Good stuff Kozzie and Chandler. Langdon played a good contested game. Tomlinson some good things.

That game from Kade means we won't see Spargo any time soon.

Joel Smith and Tomlinson have played crucial roles for us recently. We need to keep them both in 2024.

Good teams win the close ones. Four points is four points is four points.

Adelaide have Burgess. Never forget that. They are extremely fit and have IMO the best forwardline in the league.

Langdon bombing in the last minute, when you need to keep possession, wow. Our disposal is still a real worry and the bombing into F 50 oh dear. But, we won and still in top 4. Viney just a bull. Gus was good and I thought Tommo was very steady. Kozzie best game this year and with Kade kicked valuable goals.

It’s still loading.

The pies are a fantastic team . We beat them and were clearly the better team on the day. The lions flogged them. We just beat the lions. Port are a fantastic team. They beat us in very similar wet, tough conditions at Adelaide oval. But it was the mirror image of that game last night - like Port we lost a game by the slimmest of margins that we should have won, and would have if we kicked accurately. If you rate the pies and Port, on OBJECTIVE form, it is logically inconsistent not to also rate the dees. Great game last night. But I saw nothing that changed my view the pies have vulnerabilities and that we are very well placed to exploit them. And nothing to dint my confidence that we will win the flag.