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Could have been a Pies type disaster, we stood up after a poor start. 65 point turn around 14.6 for the season. 5 straight. GO YOU DEMONS!

Sh.t happens, it’s a footy match. Not every kick is going to be perfect

I think you just have to give us credit for the character and ability to dig in today. Collingwood have been getting credit for it all year and it looks like we are building that aspect and never say die attitude too.

The ground is looking good from here! I'm looking forward to the walk down to the ground shortly.

Just the quiet 33 disposals.

It’s a blow, but to all the wrist-slitters might I gently remind you that we beat Collingwood with not only Oliver out of the team, but Petty as well.

Trac was great in the interview. We were soft at the contest early great mentality

It’s Game Day and the Demons have a massive opportunity to propel themselves into 2nd place on the ladder with a big win over the Kangaroos today. Apologies to @McQueen and anyone else who posted in the other GameDay Thread as I was trying to merge the thread I pressed the wrong button and deleted the other thread. Sorry 🤷‍♂️. It's my first day.

Jack Viney what a man. After the game when the boys were about to head off the ground he grabbed Petracca, Salem and Hunter and made them run nto the complete opposite side of the ground to give out a few high 5s to the punters over there. Made some kids very happy indeed!

Out: Harmes, Petty In: Oliver, Tomlinson Joel Smith to play forward if Petty is cooked.

I hate playing this team and I hate playing that ground. Glad it’s done.

Wouldn't get a kite airborne down here at the moment, hope it stays that way.

Not sure why JJ gets lumped in with HArmes? Everything Harmes touched turned to [censored]. JJ had 24 disposals at 88 percent with two goal assists and six score involvements.

Melksham - Held all game or Robbed of frees

all teams get injuries. Port are shorthanded at the moment and pies just lost Daicos. we'll adapt and win the flag anyways

Unless I am wrong Sparrow ran with D-U - thought he did a brilliant shut down job.

Viney BOG for me. Stood tall and lead from the front when we were not switched on. 10 clearances, 10 inside 50s An absolute beast

And that folks is why I have a lot of whisky.

Would have been 68 today! RIP GREAT MAN😘

Sitting second or better 3 years in a row now we are at the pointy end. we are doing a lot right, enjoy this time, much better than the 70’s

Usually it's gawn who gets pulled, man handled and hung onto but gee Melksham was very stiff not to get a few frees today. I'm pretty sure nearly every contest he at least had an arm held

Hopefully they have learnt from the Pies/Hawks game and won’t be going at anything less than 100%

My 18 year old daughter was happy that happened too. 😁 ... although secretly I think she would have preferred Viney grabbed Rivers and Sparrow to join him!!

You might do well to take a leaf out of his book.

Seriously though, Petty could injure himself in a chess tournament

A very shabby start - hope we've got that out of our system !! Then the big guns said enough is enough and opened fire - Max, Viney , Petracca and Brayshaw. ...... but what about Kozzie ? Fair dinkum, a few moments of Kozzie magic cures much of the pain we MFC supporters have endured over the years. I reckon it's happening this year !!!!!!

I believe our best strategy in the second half is to keep it away from Harmes at all costs.

Some on here abandoned the ride - if we lose top 2 it’s because we lose top 2. We have two games at the G and then Sydney. We should win all three of those games. The Lions have the Crows and the Saints at the Gabba but the Future Premiers at Marvel. And Port have GWS and the Tigers at home and Freo over there but you won’t see me barracking for Freo. We are now in a top 2 position - it’s ours to lose.

Injured because of a terrible kick inside 50 that should've hit him on the chest 🤬

Hugely disappointing but on the bright side we have our number 1 key forward locked in for the foreseeable future. He looked good again today before he went down.

Jordon, Sparrow, Harmes in the same side is a no go

It's rational and fair to argue that this shouldn't be close given the respective formlines. But we cannot disrespect them. This isn't even about moving up on the ladder. It's about our form. Collingwood's lost two in a row. Port's lost four in a row. Brisbane lost to a non-finalist last week. Geelong lost to a bottom four side last week. This is another chance to build our form, build on the last four weeks. But it's also a chance to win at a different venue (10 of our 13 wins have been at the G) and to win interstate (2-4 record on the road so far this year).

We are right up to our eyeballs in it again this year. The cards are falling nicely with others being found out and a youth led revival propelling the final rounds of which we haven't really seen since 87. Our champions are all in form and hopefully our finest midfielder of all will be fit and firing to go from next week. Add a touch of Fritsch class and knowhow and we could well be on the way. Embrace the ride, have fun, it's is going to be epic. ** What I post here has absolutely nothing to do with how the team will perform. There are no omens. Supporters simply cant get ahead of themselves and therefore impact the team in some way. It makes no sense to be pessimistic and stressed. Time for that later.

Your commitment to negativity in all six posts on the forum so far is impressive.

Appreciate all the positive thinkers showing optimism but its hardly abnormal to be frustrated at this injury when we've been having selection headaches about the forward line week after week, finally feel we've hit gold, then have to go to the drawing board again.

Clarry back next week and petrecca spends more time forward.

So losing out one tall forward capable of splitting open packs couldn’t be costly? I mean that’s cool if you don’t think so. I bet Goodwin is not in agreement. Doesn’t mean we can’t or won’t win without him.

I often wonder if it’s a psychological thing that some people are just unable to enjoy anything after they get put under stress. I seethed and swore my way through the first quarter and a bit, but after we regained control in the second, we never looked like losing. The play that got the van Rooyen goal on half time was pure bliss, and the third quarter was dominance. The cue went in the rack in the last. Don’t forget that the two top teams failed this week, for the second week in a row. This competition is so tight that the bottom teams CAN beat the top teams. Hawthorn proved that last night. We got the job done, comfortably in the end. I’m content.

It's pretty nice to be a supporter of a team who genuinely feels that even if we are 5 goals down, I have an expectation that we can certainly kick 10-14 in a row. Never had that for the last 30 odd years of my football supporting life.

ANB was sensational

Even if Clarry’s not ready please get Harmes out of our side. I suggest we may see the Grundy forward experiment. In Oliver Grundy Out Harmes Petty

Just hope Petty is not out for too long, seriously unlucky footballer with injuries

No - it won’t be as easy as last time. The mindset and makeup of both teams has changed over the past few months but we do know that the team can get the job done by applying itself in the same way it has done over the past month. A good win could well see us in second place on the ladder, with a top four place all but guaranteed, some challenging games to keep us focused ahead of the finals and some handy players to return to the side. What more could you want at this time of the year?

C'mon. Choco? Wotcha talking about Willis? Our most successful coach since norm smith for pete sake. The last time we finished top 4 in three consecutive years was 1958-60. He stuffed up last year? Waste a generational list? I would have thought as a long time dees fans you'd appreciate how hard it is to win a flag. We have one. And are likely contenders for several mote years. All under goody. Seriously, he deserves more respect.

You don't have to sit in the cheer squad area and you probably keeps as far away as possible anyway. No different to any banners, flags, large pom poms, spinning targets, etcetera. Those kids with small flags probably antagonise you. The ground needs their atmosphere and the energy they bring. Game day is only a little of what they do for the club. "Unnecessary and annoying", I think you may be on your own with that opinion. Another guess is you don't Mexican wave, or dance, during dance cam. Not making the most out of the live experience are you? They are so much fun, I have often heard our young supporters getting excited about the giants heads. I don't understand your antagonism. Well done Demon Army, we need you and you are at the cutting edge of supporter's accessories. Keep us entertained, and continue making lots of fun, colour and noise for our teams.

I’ve always liked Harmes, but what exactly did you see today that you liked? He slipped over all day. Tried to do too much as usual. Kicked the ball out on the full with no pressure. Constantly goes backwards with the ball and takes on the tackle. Was caught holding the ball too often. Missed his opportunities on goal. Dropped marks. Happy to hear what you liked

Viney has stepped up massively since Oliver went down. Imo he is in career best form and at the right end of the season.

It's not a willingness to run and score. It's is the ability to do so. Big difference. Impassible to play we have in the last few week when fatgued. Look at port and the pies, the two teams most consider to he the most agressive, high octane teams (I don't- we are). Both look very fatigued yesterday which given how intense their previous two games were is not surprising. The mighty pies scoring machine was 29 points at half time! A reminder that in 2022 at this stage we were also trying to score heavily and were also really aggressive with our ball movement. And that followed exactly the same pattern as 2021 ie dour in the middle of the year(because of fatigue) before ramping it up big time as we neared final. Which is exactly the same pattern as wer'e seeing agsin this year. Coincidence? Possibly- but unlikely. In 2021 we could only manage to score 65 points in our 20 point loss to the dogs in round 19 In round 20 we scored 128 to demolish the suns. And didn't score less than a hundred for the rest of the season- including of course our barnstorming finals run The common thread in all those wins games was, on the back of phenomenal fitness, running over teams in the last quarter - stronger for longer in 2022, we scored 100 points in our loss to the dogs in round 19. Hammered freo in Perth in round 20. Went out super hard against the pies in round 21 and blitzed them the first half. We were less dynamic in our narrow win over the blues in round 22. And absolutely destroyed the lions at the gabba in round 23, leading by 11 goals at half. The common thread in all four games in 2022 was running out of gas in the last quarter Signs on that front look so, so much better this year. We didn't run out any games in the back half of 2022 like we did against the Lions, Crows and Tigers

Just read OP and now I understand ! I shall repost ( rather than riposte ) my previous confidence. Just because there has been a number of very odd results recently - it means nothing to what the Dees will do today and we shall not suffer the fate of other recent favourites. The only matter that concerned me was the possibility of ****ty Taswegian weather evening things out somewhat but @DeelightfulPlay 's post above has reassured me! I confidently predict a 60 point win.

Robbie was the best thing to ever come out of Murrumbeena where I spent some of the early days of my working life … Robbie (r) with his last coach John Northey