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Brayshaw was MAGNIFICENT tonight. GO DEES

Haven’t been able to post all day due to nerves. I’m about to cry. An All- Australian bench on the siren …Gawn, May, Trac and Oliver. Usual suspects very good, special mention to Sparrow. He was good!

And ... THANK YOU S.A. SUPPORTERS!!! GO DEMONS!!!!

Pleasing? PLEASING???? Getting seven dim sims when you only payed for six, that’s pleasing. This is INSANE! Its AWESOME! IT’S OUR TIME!!!

So, how is everyone this beautiful Game Day morning? And by beautiful I mean [censored]ing freezing. Personally my day has had a not altogether perfect start. I locked myself out of my house and had to climb in through my teenage son’s bedroom window. He’d only been asleep for a couple of hours coz… teenager. Let’s just say he didn’t exactly throw a welcome party for me. Then at 7/11 the lid wasn’t properly on my coffee cup (7/11 $1 coffee. I know, I really need to take stock of my life) and I ended up wearing the entire contents down the front of my puffer jacket. And not my black or dark-coloured puffer… no, my pale pink puffer, of course. In my haste I grabbed the nearest rag which unbeknownst to me had just been used to wipe up a blue slurpee spill. (Who tf is drinking a slurpee at 7am and temp of 3 degrees?!) So now my pink puffer resembles a Pro Hart painting. So I sincerely hope y’all’s morning has started better than mine. Regardless, I sincerely hope we all have an awesome night!!! GO THE MIGHTY DEES!!!

We're ready!!!!

Sparrow was devised and grown in a laboratory specifically for the purpose of playing finals football

Clayton Oliver. My goodness if that's a junior game you'd be taking him off the ground at half time as to not destroy the confidence of everyone else. Unbelievable.

Brayshaw best game for the year

Loved Sparrow's game. Can see him becoming something quite special, which I wouldn't have said 10 weeks ago.

[censored] yes! If we can kick straighter we’ll be unbeatable! Well done boys! Great win and we’re onto a prelim

The 2 things I took out of that game: 1. We are a great team. 2. I’m convinced Rhys Mathieson is Dr D

So Dogga only lost his fake tooth. Soft.

28 scoring shots to 15. Absolutely smashed em.

This team is built for finals. GO DEMONS!!!!!!

A very impressive win against a very good side. Viney did a sensational job on Zorko who had 0 score involvements. Sparrow was terrific. ANB did a great job on Rich. Jackson and Rivers so composed under pressure. Fritta brilliant. Gus was excellent. They tried to play down his wing and it backfired. And of course my man Oliver. What a star. He is a genuine freak. Two games away from becoming an all time great for this club.

Trying to keep busy so I can avoid vomit worthy nerves. Gardening. Long walk in the 5km radius. Bought some accompaniments to my cheese platter (I am a Melbourne supporter through and through)… a few coffees before I switch to wine… Going to watch the Covid-derby this afternoon.

How is Nibbler in traffic these days!?!? Would win an egg 'n spoon race on Westgate freeway.

He was great tonight. And to anyone potting Tmac GFkd. He enables Fritsch and brown to have the games they did

He just proved he’s going to be core selection for however long he wants it. If you play the best game of your young career in a final, you’re the real deal. Well done Tommy.

No stress for 2 weeks. Who hoo.

To the lucky demon fans living in SA who can go tonight, you are representing every fellow demon fan who cannot be there tonight. Just make more noise than the lion fans & when the boys run out tonight let them know the support is there. Have fun & lets hope we all see a victory

Fritsch 51 goals 21 behinds A Star. Clutch goals tonight

YOU BEAUTY! We are built to play finals footy and it showed tonight. Their midfield was on top early but Gawn wrestled control back from McInerney and from there we controlled play for most of the match. Had we kicked straight in the second and Brown nailed his third quarter miss we could by that stage have been 10 goals up. Fitness again coming to the fore I reckon. McStay's injury doesn't impact their ability to run the game out as the sub negates the lack of a rotation, but in the fourth quarter we had all the running. Our A-graders carried us but some of our lesser lights were stand outs. Langdon's first half was terrific, Rivers was rock solid, Sparrow might have played his best game in his career, and the much-maligned Brayshaw, Harmes and Viney all played great games I thought. We bullied a full strength dominant clearance midfield and held the highest scoring side in the comp to their second-lowest number of scoring shots and second-lowest score of the year. We kept the king of the fl*gs, Daniher, goalless for the first time this year. And we put up 93 points and 28 scoring shots when everyone says our scoring is our weakness. Now we get the week off, which is invaluable this year, we avoid Port Adelaide in Adelaide, and we set ourselves up for a shot at the big dance. Get the [censored] around us!

McDonald -allowed others space tmac played his role, took a defender and competed. You are way off on this.

MFC membership/marketing whomever is usually in charge of this stuff absolutely nail it these days. Left in no doubt the importance of the members and supporters.

i know what you’re saying makes good sense, but i reckon we absolutely have to strike while the irons hot. THIS year. you never know w injuries and covid how time will play out. look at the cats , they are perennial top 4 now but since their golden era haven’t snagged another one. I’d swap 5 years of top 4 w no flag fr 1 golden year with one. it’s THIS year.. this is the moment. do we grab or let it slip.

Over the years, and particularly before the VFL turned national, there was always a close connection between Melbourne and the Norwood Redlegs in the SANFL. They have similar colours and historically, the clubs played many practice and exhibition matches against each other going back to the 19th century and more recently, in the early 1970s. The Demons recruited Tassie Medalist Graham Molloy from Norwood in 1970 as a potential Barassi replacement but injuries prevented him from showing his best in a 76 game career with the Demons. The ABC used to televise the SANFL grand finals and for success starved Melbourne fans, we used to get a kick out of supporting the Redlegs to premiership victory. Their team is playing North Adelaide in the SANFL this afternoon and I wish them success and hope they also come out in their numbers in red and blue to support our boys tonight.

Alex Neal-Bullen played his best game ever I reckon

Rivers recovered well. Bowey got better and better. Langdon and Brayshaw were HUGE. TMac was unsighted, but so was Harris Andrews. That is a win.

What They're Saying Down At Moorabool Street (reprise) Slow and steady hasn't won us a damn thing in 10 years, has it - not sure our players are capable of throwing off the self-administered shackles and playing with the type of dare that might yield different results, not for a full game anyway. What's that? Controlling our way to another embarrassing qualifying final loss? So unlucky this immaculate game plan falls apart in finals every year. What are the odds of that? I got caned on here a few weeks ago for suggesting our biggest issue was inability to handle serious pressure - Exhibit A tonight. The club now looks like a bunch of absolute [censored] after all the trading sh*t and talking up premiership chances etc, absolute frauds This is depressing. What a bunch of pretenders. Those 3 first round picks we gave off for Cameron looking mighty good for a rebuild about now. We've gone from near premiership favourites 2 weeks ago to... the edge of a cliff. I'll support the boys boys all the way, through thick and thin but THIS is a stinker, a demoralising effort that could end up having huge ramifications in the not-too-distant future... or maybe not. Miracles do happen but not often. Maybe we can get to the grand final the long road, but the mountaintop is a long way away just now As if we were going to look good after last weeks fail. 8 of our last 9 first finals. and the one win only occurred cos Smith missed a sitter after the siren. We then recruited smith. I hate to say it..... Were not made to play finals.... id rather us fall out of the 8 for a couple of years than seeing us being pretenders in playing finals every year in gettour hopes ups... It’s hard to believe a team that is coached to play an uncontested style of football [censored] the bed in finals when the pressure is turned up. Hard to believe for the coaching staff anyway. Chipping the ball, unable to handle pressure and composure as we are not skilled enough. The game plan is flawed in a pressure situation. It is clear to everybody except our coach. We are becoming a laughing stock of the league. It’s just ******* stupid, Scott can not remain as the Geelong coach. It’s the same thing every ******* year. I don’t give a sh*t about H and A record, it doesn’t matter if you lose every year when it actually matters. Out of all these finals losses over the last 10 years this is the most deflating! The realisation this team is done! ain't winning sh*t with Scott at the helm, he is done as our coach! Time to move on Geelong! Our heavy training-load at 3 quarter time last week must be still effecting us. Well that was truly garbage guys looked flat from the start and didn't even look like it tonight, thats our last 6 quarters by nearly 90 points clearly a problem. No point throwing the toys out of the cot tonight, save em for next week. It won't be a melt, it'll be reality.

If a week is a long time in football, 8 hours is a lifetime in finals. It has been a slow week waiting for our first final in 3 years. In an effort to distract myself from overthinking tonight, I have turned to nostalgia to try and ease the nerves before game time. What is your favourite Dees moment? I think my "first" favourite moment, though there have been many since, was in our most recent qualifying final. The year was 2000 and I was one of the lucky 75,570 to attend the game against the Blues with my old man. I remember distinctly sitting behind two young Carlton fans who became increasingly excited as the Dees progressively slipped away. Come 3 qtr time, I had lost hope. Dad and I were silent as we waited for what seemed the inevitable. Then a young Brad Green and Cameron Bruce perked up as the Dees stormed home with a 7 goal final quarter. My favourite player, Yze, kicked us in front with a freakish goal off the ground with 10 minutes to go, and the rest is history. That memory sustained me through the many tough years that followed, particularly after the Reverend was gone. For all the bad times, casting my mind back to those feeling of joy, when you'd lost hope but come back in the most unlikely circumstances, would be all I had to hold onto when the Dees sunk to those impossible lows. I remember sitting alone in the rain in final quarters in the early 2010's, forcing myself to watch our capitulations, thinking "One day...we'll be back. One day that impossible feeling of joy will return, and this will all be worth it". I felt that same feeling acutely last Saturday night. Hopefully today is one of the final steps on the path to glory, and the feeling will return once again. Go the mighty Dees!

Felt a little sad for Elder statesmen, Jones, Melky and Hibbo . But that’s the story of having a fantastic team, always some hard luck stories. Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca are the greatest midfielders of the modern era for the MFC Gawn the best captain since Barrassi

Brayshaw was huge for us tonight, and Rivers was desperate in defence and attacking in the rebound. Frisch take a bow with his clutch goals.

Mays first final and first win. So happy for him. He seems stoked when being interviewed.

FrItSCh OnLy PlAyS wElL aGaInSt [censored] TeAmS! Nerds.

Great stuff Demons. Looking forward to seeing the flogs who told me we'd be out in straight sets.

How good is spending the final three minutes of a match NOT having a coronary?!?!?!

We're home guys. Has been awesome to watch them live, so proud.

Well, it's been a bloody long 2 years but we're finally back on the big stage. Feel cheated that this game isn't on the MCG in front of a packed 90k, but it is what it is. It's not the end of the world if we lose tonight but it certainly gets harder. We've arrived at the start of the summit. Now it's time to climb it. Go Dees.

Great solid team win! Too [censored] and excited to write more. Matheson is a dirty dog!

Happy for Jesse 💕

I though this might have been a p**stake, expected to see the Geelong list when i opened the thread

Another AFL final won last night by the team that applied the most pressure and played the the highest intensity. When I really think about it, we haven't actually been playing all that great for 4 quarters recently...even with a little string of wins. It's going to take 12 consistently good quarters from us to get to where we want to go. I still think this year is part of a bigger journey for MFC. We need a block of years where we are perenially competitive and ensure a culture shift among the playing group gets cemented. The more times we put ourselves in the kind of spots we are in now, the more likely we will eventually snag one. Hopefully either way they make us proud tonight.

We’ve just got to bring the pressure for four quarters. Brisbane will want to use their speed and quick ball movement, we can’t allow that to happen.