Leaderboard

[censored] yes!

It's been a massive few days for former MFC skipper Jack Trengove. Won the Keith Sims OAM Medal (the Brownlow equivalent) in the Adelaide Football League on Thursday night. He was then BOG in a premiership victory as his Prince Alfred Old Collegians beat Payneham Norwood Union in the Div 1 Grand Final on the weekend. Said it's the most enjoyable season of football he's ever played. Congrats Trenners!

The Bulldogs’ total domination over Port Adelaide is great for us - removes any chance of treating the game as anything other than a contest to be won by hard work against a strong opponent. Heads firmly fixed on the ground and concentrating fully on the job ahead.

Some of these comments….Suddenly people are jumping of Melbourne. The Dogs beat the Bombers who haven’t won a final in however many day, the Lions with an intentional rushed behind, and they flogged Port, a team which struggled in big games for most of the year and choked in a home prelim last year. Our team has made changes with our fwd line through out the season but now we are now playing with a synergy that will deliver us the premiership. Our defence is the best in the league, all of our fwds are genuine weapons and have all had games where they have kicked multiple goals. We have the no.1 ruckman in the comp, Gawn had a career best game against Geelong, Jackson is a freak, I’ll back Oliver, Trac and Viney against Macrae, Bont and Libba any day. I’m sick of hearing about Caleb Daniel, yes he has good vision and uses the ball well but the majority of his kicks to me seem to be barely 15 metres. I was nervous last week but I was adamant if we win the prelim we’ll win the flag and that hasn’t changed for me. We need to tighten right up defensively and not be caught just guarding space allowing the Dogs to pick their way through. This is our year, the Mighty Demons will be bringing the Premiership home.

G'day all! Need an excuse to watch Max's glorious goal from 55m last night 7 more times? Then here's a lil' multi-call clip I put together featuring 7 different commentary tracks all basking in the brilliance of the effort! Enjoy!

This travel narrative around the dogs is wearing thin already. The fact is they finished 5th. That means that other than week 1 you are always going to be the "away" team. So in the first final they got the Bombers on neutral territory, then quite rightly as in any other year they got an away game at the Gabba and then an away game at Adelaide. Now they play at a neutral venue against Melbourne, who finished top and throughout the finals have had no home ground advantage either. The dogs in 2016 went Perth in round 23 and lost to Freo, flew back, had a bye as all finals teams did, went back to Perth for the elimination final against WC, flew back to Melbourne to play Hawthorn, then flew to Sydney to play GWS and then back to Melbourne for the GF against the Swans. The Sydney teams had it way harder this year. As to our chances, we comfortably beat them in round 11 on a nice dry deck. Our round 19 game was brought forward from round 20. It was terrible weather in the first quarter and despite multiple early chances we had some bad misses and finished 1.4 at QT to the dogs 3.2. You might recall Tim English kicking a goal out of his backside that he just sat up in the air and it got carried through the middle. A late rally saw us within 4 points midway through the last before Bontempelli, Ugle-Hagan and Hannan kicked three goals in three minutes to get up by 20 points. Our heaviest loss of the year, despite having the same number of scoring shots. The dogs kicked a crazy straight 13.7 in those conditions. We were 9.11. Macrae, Daniel, Smith and Bontempelli all caused us a lot of problems. Gawn had 56 hitouts but our mids were well beaten. That was our last loss for the season. Goodwin was quite positive post game believing that we had turned the corner after a bit of a flat patch. Notable changes will be Martin, Treloar and Dunkley in, with Josh Bruce the biggest out since that game (he kicked 2.1 that night). For us, Bowey has taken Hunt's place, and Sparrow in for Jordon. Our best is better than theirs and I expect that if we play at our best we will get the job done.

It’s only reasonable that she move out for a couple of weeks

Gotta beat the best to be the best 🟥🟦

I can’t agree with this. At least half the time Beveridge out coaches himself. His strange insistence on flexibility and playing people out of position has put a random element into many games, often to the bulldogs detriment. Grand finals are usually pretty simple affairs, won and lost in the ability to dish out and handle pressure. Their midfield is all we need to worry about, not their coaching. They bat deep and they can definitely bring the heat. I’m backing us to soak it up and return it with interest. We already have the blueprint for how to stop their run and gun game. We lost round 19 in forward half stoppages (their forward half). We leaked 7 goals that way. We have made mistakes this year, no doubt, I haven’t seen us make the same mistake twice though. This is going to be a high pressure game but it is unlikely that tactical coaching is going to have a big effect. Both us and the doggies showed our respective opponents what unrelenting pressure looks like this week. In 2 weeks it will be an arm wrestle to see who cracks first. I’m shaking off the old MFCSS, I believe in this group, I know what they will bring. The question mark is on whether the doggies can match us. Good luck with that doggies

My mates in Jan Juc got busy today:

Fixed

Spent the whole year on top of the ladder. Beat every-one. Strong all over the ground. Just put together the best game I've seen a Melbourne side play Goin' in absolutely red hot and just gotta do what we've done all year on GF day. Show every-one why they finished on top. And they will. And it will be glorious.

As per request!

Viney to Libba, Harmes to Bont and he has to hit his legs every chance possible. Martin hobbled around half the game, won’t keep up with Gawn or Dogga. Must watch Smith slowly creeping goal side at stoppages and suddenly being 10 meters alone. Id play Petty on Naughtin early and May on Schache. Who ever tackles weightman must be told if it goes high from him ducking, rip his head off and bury him into the ground, the free is already given, but make him not want to do it again or knock him out again. When Sparrow is half forward I’d play him on Daniel. The interesting conundrum they have is Keith will be back but do they keep Cordy in? It makes them slower in their back half with both and who ever has Cordy take him to the goal line.

When we beat them earlier in the year, we smashed them in close with high pressure. When they best us, they conceded the ruck and roved off Gawn very well. Think Jackson will play more ruck minutes to be less predictable, and Gawn forward to stretch their defence. We can do this, we really can.

Since the comeback at Kardinia in Rd 23 we've been playing with real confidence and belief. 2 dominant finals wins. Beat the Lions by the equivalent of 10 goals (if we kicked straight) and we obliterated the cats. We're on a mission and i have no doubt we will deliver a performance in 2 weeks time. Whether that's good enough to win time will tell, the doggies are worthy opponents, but i reckon they'll be very worried about dealing with our weapons. Maxy is in rare form. Our mids are flying, BB taking contested marks, kozzy will be buzzing about. We have the system and can apply the heat to take away their main weapon, their outside ball movement. We neutralised them in the game at Marvel this year and we will set-up to do so again. Their win at the G came when we were in a form slump and they benefited from some questionable umpiring, particularly in the first half. I'm confident we will get the game on our terms and end our drought Really looking forward to the next 2 weeks and can't wait for the game.

I’m so bloody over hearing about the bulldogs and their underdog status. “Backs against the wall” mentality. Completely manufactured narrative from Bevo. They found themselves in that position because they lost games. Meanwhile, we have come from outside the Top 8 last year. Won 9-0. Been on a tarmac for hours before flying home to win by 98 pts. Then, we win the minor premiership and get the reward of no home finals and 2 weeks in quarantine. Then after winning both finals, our GF opponent gets the luxury of a 2 week break for god knows what reason. Absolutely over the “working class hero” narrative the Dogs dish up. Half their team are elite private schoolboys, but because one grew a mullet the Western morons think he is some battler like them. I hope we smash this pack of phonies

I’m struggling to understand the narrative developing that the Dogs are the “story of the year” and it will be the “greatest flag ever” if they win it. Why? Because they lost games they shouldn’t towards the end of the regular season which dropped them into fifth? Is that what makes them the “story of the season”? Failure? I don’t mind the Dogs. I’m just a bit perplexed how their story trumps that of a historical cellar dweller finally coming good to dominate all comers and break a 57 year premiership drought. But maybe I’m biased.

That wont work. Did you see Martin last night? He's cooked. He'll compete in the ruck, but I don't think he is any chance of keeping up with Gawn or Jackson around the ground. It's an area we can, and need to, exploit.

Fun fact. Jack Viney plays his 150th game on grand final day. Is there not a better stage for him to completely rise to the occasion in your 150th game!

I think it’s easy to forget that Port beat the Dogs at Marvel in rnd 23 and the Dogs had an even better side playing that game. Port Adelaide simply didn’t show up. The Dogs eclipsed them in contested possession by 25 in the first qtr. It was an AFL record. There’s no way the Dogs are getting anywhere near that against us. In fact, even when we lost to them in rnd 19 we won the contested possession by 20 overall. We’ve been the number 1 team with scores from stoppages they last 4 weeks, which was our weakness in rnd 19. Like others on here, I think if we are even in the contest and it’s a dry game, we will win.

Most amazing day of my life. Celebrated hard, Demonfolk. @AmsterdamDeesFan and I took to the canals of Amsterdam and made sure everyone could get familiar with the lyrics of the song in prep for the Granny in two weeks. Need fifteen hours of sleep before I watch the replay for the third time. One more win! Go you beautiful, magnificent Demons

Geelong traded pick 13, 15 and 20 for Jeremy Cameron We traded pick in Ben Brown for effectively pick 26 I reckon we got the better deal

Please can we have the same umps we had on Friday!

Lot of people here suddenly nervous because the dogs had a good win against a team of witches hats last night. Fully agree our system (and personnel) are superior. If we arrive and perform in a similar fashion to Friday night, we’ll be celebrating by 3/4 time

For his birthday some troll online put together a video of all of the times he screwed up during the finals...

Got a funny feeling Viney will get the Norm Smith. The man is simply built for finals.

And whist the panic is high here, I wonder who the doggies fans are worried about? the 5 all Australians? the rising star? kozzie? We can do this, if we stick to our method and bring the pressure.

We have been challenged all season and passed them all. Early on everyone doubted how long we could keep the unbeaten run going. It was going to be the clash of the undefeated Dee's v Dogs and we comprehensively beat them. We played the Lions and the first half the Lions were outstanding evrrything on there terms, and up by 5 goals and we beat em. The 2nd time we played the Dogs we were off by 10-20% and they played very well with the rub of the green on many decisions, yet I still felt in the last quarter we could have pinched the game. The cats round 23, 7 goals down in the graveyard of yesteryear and we won. It all comes down to effort, want and trust like so many things in life. Our boys have been unbelievable this year and I believe and trust the boys to complete there mission and beat the Dogs again. Over the whole year Dee's and Dogs have been the best teams, we have to beat the best to prove we are the best.... Let's get em Dee's

I distinctly remember being unworried by the dogs after that game. Everything went right for them and still we almost got them. Anything can happen in a GF but we should go in with a lot of confidence.

And no mask. And the scarf is a 2017 EJ club which only has 500 members. The club can provide all names to police. Here’s to a 5k fine.

Not quite the same scale as some of the other efforts, but important nonetheless...my old keg fridge.

Yes, the one that gave Geelong the virus.

This will be one of the great grand finals we'll see. Star factor on show from both clubs. Here's my analysis on the dogs from watching game from start to finish. I thought it was one of the most softest performances I've seen from an AFL club in a long time. Seeing the likes of Rozer, Motlop, Fantasia, Amon and Dursmma shirk or pull out of contests was unbelievable first hand. They just failed to apply any pressure throughout the game and dogs was just able to waltz through traffic with such ease. [censored] poor effort by Port, and it gives me great confidence that Melbourne won't allow this to happen. Midfield Doggies won the game last night through sheer midfield dominance. Like completely slaughtered them. They were +30 in contested possession, +7 in stoppage clearance and +6 in general clearances. Port rely so much on Boak and Wines that it became too overwhelming for them when you're coming up against Bontempelli, Libratore, McRea, Smith, Treloar, Hunter etc. After Bosk and Wines, there's a considerable drop in midfield depth for Port. Again, Doggies are coming up against Gawn, Jackson, Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Harmes, Langdon, Brayshaw and Sparrow. To me this is where I think the game will be won. Last time the doggies beat us, they didn't have Treloar or Dunkley. So they definitely bat a bit deeper then us, but we're better defensively. Defence Their defence is interesting. They've got some good honest defenders in Wood, Cordy and Gardiner as key talls with Keath to come back in as well. They're not stars, but they get the job done and are good honest players. They don't worry me. What worries me is Bailey Dale and Caleb Daniel. Their run and carry along with their elite kicking is exactly what sets them up off half back and create scoring opportunities. They put themselves in a position where they're able to receive and execute length and metres gain. The stark contrast with both games this year was we were able to negate their influence first time around and put enormous amount of forward pressure on both players. They weren't able to provide the metres gain like usually would and this played an important part in us winning. Second time around Daniel and Dale were just given too much freedom to do what they did. Daniel especially was dominant, and Dale was able to piece through our defensive wall as well. Last night Daniel had 7 rebound 50s and Dale had 8. That's far too much space and freedom that Port gave them and it worked in the doggies favour. The difference again? Both Daniel and Dale combined for a total of 5 rebound 50s when we beat them earlier. Stop these two and it'll go a long way to us winning. Forward Ports defence is a shambles. To give you a reason why, they had a guy by the name of Trent McKenzie playing on Naughton. Same guy that was picked up as a delisted free agent. Naughton got completely hold of McKenzie last night. Naugjton had a total of 9 marks in which 6 were contested. He simply does get that luxury against Steven May. They had Schache play a defensive role on Alir Alir and played it really well. He was able to not only curtail his influence, but also engage in the one on one contests. Look for them to do the exact same on Lever. Rivers takes Weightman which is a given. Hibberd could take Hannan who has been inconsistent this year except his past 4 games where he's played a good role up forward. With Martin back in, expect English to play more minutes up forward. Petty will obviously get the job and needs to watch him in the air because he can be quite dangerous when he gets a good run and job at it. If May can negate Naughton, and we stop the likes of Weightman and Bailey Smith who is good up forward, then I think it'll play another element to us winning this game. In summary, expect this game to go down to the wire. They do scare me to some degree, but I also back our system against theirs. The only concern for me is the fitness of Steven May. If there was a guy that you want putting all his heart and body on the line for the biggest game of the year it's Steven May. If by unfortunate circumstances he doesn't get up, does Tmac go down back? Does Smith come back in? All intriguing questions.

I have a lot of time for Jack Niall but I think this article is bizarre: why-may-should-thank-hocking-if-he-plays-in-the-grand-final . Sure the bye helps May but it helps the whole bulldogs team a lot lot more as they have virtually circumnavigated the country and in quarantine for 3 weeks. The extra week is an enormous advantage to all 23 of them. Not Niall's most balanced article.

Kudos to whoever got the Melbourne scalf around the Barassi statue at the G. It wouldn't have been easy to get it up there.

Not buying it either. We had the hardest run home of all the top 5 sides. We got stuck on a plane for 8 hours. We quarantined in Perth and played a 60 minute final quarter against West Coast and played Geelong in Geelong. We won all those games and finished top of the ladder. Yet we still travelled to Adelaide for finals and then went on to quarantine in WA. We took our chances and finished 1st! Dogs only have themselves to blame for dropping the double chance and finishing 5th after being top 2 for almost the entire season. They’ve had a very hard run in finals with travel. Finish top 4 as they should have, and it’s a non issue. So cry me a bloody river Dogs. Always with the [censored] underdog story. They’ve had a dream run from the umpires all year. Don’t hear them mentioning that!

Demons by 27. I've been saying since the season started that we'll win the Premiership and the Dogs don't scare me. Gawn, Petracca, Oliver, Viney will rip them to shreds.

Personally I find that reassuring.

A mate of mine sent this pic today, Fleming Park in Brunswick. In black and white.sheesh! Non binary supporters in Brunswick apparently.

I find this thread pretty sad. Really feeling for all of you regular Demonlanders who can’t go to the game. I live in Perth and have 2 x priority 1 memberships so will be going to the game with my wife. Be careful who you hand out info to…a lot of new contributors here. Wishing it was at the G but I’ll be thinking of you all…and bloody yelling loudly! it is an emotional time…gonna be a long two weeks!

I'd be sending James Harmes straight to Bailey Smith. he's been the match winner the last 2 games. if you can at least prevent him from kicking goals, you go a long way to blunting the dogs.

A shout out from Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamil) himself.

Cats were outplayed Port never turned up at all. Would have spent the week reading the local papers.

Arrrrh Star Wars !!! Wonderous fantasy. Pizza the Hut was my favourite character

If the game between the Dogs and Port had been a really low standard and one of them had just stumbled across the line, our boys might have felt they had the Premiership in the bag. Especially after how they carved up the Cats yesterday. But today they witnessed a really worthy opponent and they definitely won’t be complacent. The Dogs were great, but they may just run out of steam after all their travel, one extra game and a week of quarantine. Go Demons!

We're gonna choke these fools to death just like everybody else. Kick straight and we'll run over them.