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Taking my 71 year old Mum from Perth to the game tonight. Hard not to think she’ll bring us good luck. Last time she saw the Dees play was the 2021 Grand Final at Optus Stadium.

My blue-bagger mates are very confident. I’m also noticing a few neutrals making the call that the Blues will be the come-out-of-nowhere premiers this year. We need to put a hush to this malarkey.

Sometimes I need to remind myself to enjoy the moment we are in as a football club. What an amazing point in time where we can go about our Saturday knowing we are one of the premiership favourites going into a blockbuster on Saturday night. During those endless dark years, these are the times I use to dream about. We are going to look back in years to come and be in awe at some of the talent we have. Gawn, Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Pickett, May, Lever, Brayshaw and co. Don't think too far ahead, enjoy the day, enjoy the night and sit back and watch our players give it all. No matter the result, we are going into finals with a double chance. Go Dees!

Brayshaw played his guts out tonight.

JVR’s legs taken from under him. The advanced hair treatment has gone to Ray’s head - had some absolute howlers.

I have major issues with Salem running into an open goal, unpressured, and not making the distance from about 42 metres. I just don't get it. Furious with that. Great game of footy, but we were beaten at our own game and looked slow around the contest, especially at stoppages.

No idea what you were looking at Dazzle. One angle showed the ball miss his hand by a fair way.

Thought JVR played his heart out tonight. Such good signs of things to come. Still backing us come September.

No he isnt

What a great place to be from 5pm. You get to go to G, have a chat with mates, go to the Robbie Flower Terrace and have a drink and watch the Matildas and get inspired and then watch some footy with the greatest player I have seen back from injury. Times like this I hate being 700kms away from the best city on the planet.

I sat behind the goals. IT WAS NOT TOUCHED AFL loves to see this pack of wild animals make finals. Good for rating. Disgraceful.

32 or so here in Manila where I'm reinforcing a classic Demon stereotype in the Cathay Business lounge.

Both correct points @binman There’s a fair bit of shame and self loathing from Dees fans about our crowds, probably stemming from the sledging we cop on socials from halfwit oppo fans who don’t do math good and also only watch on tv where they can’t see a packed MCC and Olympic stand. Per the tables below, we’re 5th for overall average match attendance so far this year, and 4th for average home attendance (including whatever handful we got at Alice), in line with the last couple of years. Our numbers are good, don’t let any peabrain tell you different (especially hawkers who still think it’s 2015).

1. Bad umpiring ruins our great game. 2. Carlton are the best team in the AFL as of this moment. Just a shame it was blighted by the umpiring. It’s the AFL’s greatest shame and embarrassment.

I shall be watching today's game at Fitzgerald's Sports Bar in Nana in the company of defrocked and disgraced Demonlander SWYL. We shall get outrageously drunk while celebrating both Clarrie's return and giving the blue baggers ( who, according to some local supporters, are apparently 2023 premiers) a dose of reality. PS. A cultural observation. A lot of the sheilas around here have very husky voices - something in the spicy food, I suppose.

I hope the Melbourne faithful turn out for this one. Carlton supporters will be flocking in and I just hope our supporters show up as well. Should be a cracking game.

His fingers move, only problem is the ball is on his palm side, not the finger side.

Salem should have iced it

2 best teams in the competition going head to head in an absolute 18 round belter. bloody loved the game, hated the result. there was SOOOOOO much to like about our performance and i am more confident we can win it all. No team outside of the two that played tonight is capable of playing at that level. and the scary part is neither were at our best.

SWYL is very Angry That was a goal i HATE everything about Carlton. There is no difference between them and Collingwood Never Forget that

Hell of a game. Carlton can win the flag. Score review sucks. We looked 100 times better once Jordon was off, Hibberd went back and Smith forward similar to what the smart ones here (me) proposed all week because the overall balance was so much better. Grundy isn’t a forward but he’s an excellent ruck and stemmed the centre clearance bleeding in the last quarter which ultimately lost us the game.

Said it last week. Losing Petty will cost us a flag. We are not going to kick the scores we need against quality opposition without a decent power forward.

Our girls won their first match of the season, a praccy match vs Carlton at Ikon this arvo. The Matildas will beat France and our boys will beat Carlton and there’s your trifecta! GO TILLIES! 💚💛 GO DEES! ❤️💙

Tonight's game will be a cracker - can't wait but also nervous. Pros Gawn and Grundy will dominate tonight's game. Apart from Cripps their midfield is tepid I am hoping Kozzie tears the game apart - they have no-one who can go with him. Concerns Curnow. May has been far below his best for a while now. Weitering will blanket JVR (no way do they risk playing him on Grundy) Cripps Opportunities Viney will love 2 teams going head-to-head over a contested game and will be BOG. Oliver is back. The best Dees player I have seen and I can't take my eyes f him when he plays. Go Dees - by 16 points

Ten minutes into the last - Judd McVee channels his inner Mary Fowler and hits a running Petracca on the chest, with a perfectly weighted, long pass who then kicks truly from 50. We go 30 points up and extend our 8 game winning streak over Carlton.

Blues are playing well and are full of confidence. They'll have a crack at us for sure. But there's no MFCSS here. We'll building towards September with the bit between our teeth. We'll get the job done. Delighted to have Clarry back in the team. Would love to see Gawndy contribute 3-4 goals. 20-point win for us in a hard-fought affair in front of a big crowd Go Dees

Good side Carlton. Was surprised with the cockiness of some on here during the week that we'd win easily. They were missing Cerra Walsh McGovern which is impressive in itself. They'll do some damage come September. They're a genuine top 4 contender in my eyes. I think we'll be fine. There is some positives to take out of this game imo and I think a loss like this actually keeps us back on edge. On the negatives. Grundy forward experiment is officially done. It simply doesn't work and we're playing a man down when he's down there. Slow, unfit and brought in off the back off poor form at VFL level. Goody has done a lot right in the last month, but he made a mistake bringing him in tonight. This could mean we may have to rush Tom McDonald in next week.. I love Petracca, but his last quarter efforts in the opening 5 minutes on Cripps was seriously lazy. Allowed him to Waltz out of stoppage far too easily and create score involvements for the first 2 goals that they kicked. He simply had to just lock him down harder and not allow him easy space. Our forward line was lacking big time. It's time to keep Joel Smith permanently there because the Petty out was significant tonight. No more James Jordon thanks. Brayshaw was absolutely huge for us! BOG by a mile in my books. Keep him in there for the rest of the year. All in all, disappointing to lose, but definitely not losing the faith. Win the next 2 and we can set ourselves up well come September.

On paper, having Grundy in our best 22 is a dream. In reality, it’s just not a thing.

For mine: Hibbo on Smith forward JJ off

I’ve never seen the kind of pressure Carlton are dishing up. It’s beyond extraordinary. Playing out of their skins. They can’t possibly keep it up, and when it drops, we’re in. Well done boys, hold your cool.

HTB not exist when Carlton get tackled?

Think you are confusing blue with red states. Anyway almost a moot point as both political parties only govern for the elites. Nothing really changes. They are both warmongers who don’t give a [censored] about their people and happy to keep the con going with politics of division like they export to here.

Good luck to the Matildas tonight but for me its all about us v Carlton.

Showing the Tillies on the big screens might boost numbers.

Look at the side view. His hand was nowhere near it, so what fingers moving are you talking about?

You are right on Grundy, was better than Max when in the ruck.

Well that sucked hard after being on such a high after the Matilda’s game. Those three quick goals at the start of the last hurt. Can’t wait to hear all about Carlton in the media this week 😒

Carlton fans celebrating like they won a flag I guess when you’re a club that’s been on the bottom for 20 years this is like a flag for you.

Insufficient evidence. But we didn't lose it in the last minute. We lost it the first 2 minutes of the last qtr. Gutsy loss

Love you as ever Dees but you let that one slip. Can't lose another one. Lets just go for 5 straight. Really looking forward to see If Tommy McDonald can get into some form - need an experienced tall body up forward. Same goes for Frittata.

why do we refuse to soccer the ball forward and clear the area??

Feel like Carlton can’t play any better than this and we just need to make a few changes and a few less errors and we run away with this.

How Jordon continuously gets a game is beyond me.

Let’s go Suns and North.

I think it’s fair to suggest that our players won’t be going to this game thinking Carlton are the easy beats North are.

Some people might come to MCG who otherwise would have stayed home to watch the soccer. Doubt it's a big factor though.

If you're on the fence, GET THERE TONIGHT! We need to be loud and proud, Carlton fans will be! The premiership run needs to start rolling now and not look back! Let's show everyone what we've got.

Or perhaps he is rewriting history, or perhaps we were just more banged up than them. One side stopped after half time and it wasn’t the Lions. Max as an example could hardly move. Tracc had a broken bone in his leg. Clarry a fractured cheekbone. Ed fractured ribs. Brayshaw a leg injury. Jackson a destroyed commitment to his team mates. Lever I think had an injured ankle. Viney a leg injury and several more.

We’ll beat Carlton. We’ll apply even more pressure on Carlton than we did on Collinwood in Rd13. ANB is on the rise… It looks like he’s in great shape and has a lot of energy. He might have an opportunity to shine in this year's final series. Go Dees!

awful loved it when he and stinga waxed and waned; like hunter and langdon now