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And also ranks now with Barrassi and Flower as aDemon great

i don't think we acknowledge often enough that gawn, oliver and petracca are three of the greatest demon players in the last 50+ years gawn is a brilliant player and an outstanding leader

I don’t understand all the negativity tonight. The Rona has gone through the Club over 2 weeks, and we are still undefeated 5 Changes and Senior Coach not available Viney and Lever were cooked in the last Quarter, but we got the job done I am proud of the boys….

Was rapt to see his 100th game recognised in the banner yesterday even tho it was the previous week. when appropriately the ANZAC banner took priority. He has become our lock down of small forwards. Completely shut down Shai Balton. He is our new Neville Jetta. Not as great, yet but it is terrific to see his has found his niche in the team. It is a niche that plays to his strengths and minimises his weaknesses. It is the sort of role that the less you are noticed the better you are doing the job. I'm biased but think his performance in that low profile role deserves more recognition. Interview post his 100th A humble and honest guy. Just love him!!

I watched the game yesterday evening from the stands and while looking at some Supercoach stats to see Max dominating once again I wondered why he had never been in the discussion as the best player in the league? We all know Dusty has rightly dominated that label in the past based on performance, but when you look overall at the package Max brings to the AFL you'd be hard pressed to find anyone else at the moment that matches him for influence on and off the ground. His leadership qualities on field (which can not be measured by us in the cheap seats), and for being instrumental in turning this club around, as well Max's continued contributions on the ground week in and week out. We saw what he could produce when the game is on line. For me big Max is first pick, and I really do wonder when the experts, which most have been at club land will stand up and say we need to recognise the package and not just stats. Or... are we that shallow as a society that only stats matter?.

I’ve heard the full audio from the Dogs box - most of it is just Bevo ranting about Tom Morris and saying what a bad journo he is.

Watching Essendon cop a merciless hiding never gets old. Nor ever will. Go Dogs!

Will be incredibly important for the likes of Higgins and Cameron/Bailey Has improved the defensive side of his game significantly, but still creates an attacking threat - particularly in concert with Langdon or through the middle. Still iffy disposal, but now seems to take an easier short option or long to a 50/50 to limit poor turnovers. was noticeable yesterday how many times he managed to square marking contests when one on one with the key hawk forwards to help cover for the absence of Petty. Is not a marginal selection in our team anymore - in fact, with Hibberd seemingly struggling for fitness now, he is the one player that I don’t see that we have an obvious replacement for.

I've only seen highlights but some early thoughts: These are the sorts of games we're "supposed" to be losing. We had five changes from last week, we have seven premiership players out (six of whom are clear best 22 players), we had three key forwards playing in the same side, none of whom are ruckmen (yet we asked one to ruck), we had Smith and Hunt in the same backline, we're playing Melksham who for long parts of the last 12 months has not been at AFL level form. But we're not just banking wins, we're doing so at a percentage of 146% We conceded 11.15. That's 26 scoring shots. That is the most any side has had against us since Round 20, 2019. Obviously 2020 was shortened quarters but that's a worse result than all of our premiership year. The 81 points against was the worst since we lost to the Dogs in our last loss, but inaccuracy stopped Hawthorn scoring more. That indicates we were not at our peak defensively, and arguably quite a fair way from it

Ummm….yes, probably. Max is generational football fairydust. He was the difference yesterday, and for all the reasons you state, the best big man I’ve seen play. Underappreciated and always will be. Until he retires, maybe. The good thing being it seems he couldn’t care less.

Maybe the biggest positive to come from seeing the team without its ‘regulars’, it’s so many people waking up to how important Nibbler is to that system. Not the perfect footballer, he is perilously close to the perfect all-ground, all-the-time competitor. The no. 30 isn’t going to adorn the jerseys of many little Dees, which is a shame, cos he’s unquestionably one of the first 10 picked every week.

Watched the Bedford running goal a couple of times now. How good is the gather (kick from TMac was a scrubber) and handball from Melksham? Perfect. Vintage Melksham. Well done.

IMHO this is our best win of the season. Hawks tested our game plan like no team has so far. Petty is key to our defensive unit as he locks down the best forward allowing May and Lever to do their thing. Wasn’t there. Jackson allows Gawn to have a rest but he found a way to step up even higher and dominate. The other key to our game is forward pressure on the defensive rebound from kozzie and ANB causing turnovers and while Bedford was very good, the forward pressure wasn’t anywhere near the normal standard without them, allowing much easier opposition transition to their forward half. Anyone doubting this was a great win needs to watch the game again without the negativity

The ground surface looks like a cow paddock. Substandard. Moniz- Wakefield looks a goer

There was a player in the 50's and 60's called "Big Bob" Johnson and he player in 7 Grand Finals for Melbourne and won 5 of them. He also topped the goal kicking twice and was a giant of a man (198cm) in that era, just like Max is now. Not saying he was better than Max, but you have to consider his record. Team of the century, Hall of Fame, he was a demon great and his father played for the Dees as well. He went to play with Oakleigh and he was great value to watch there he was so big they couldn't' get round him, a lot of the oldies on here will remember him..

I also thought Hunt's game yesterday was excellent. His contests and spoils are a real highlight. I think he is probably a real form and confidence player when it comes to his foot passing. Back end of 2021, before he got injured he had become quite reliable at choosing and hitting targets. First few round of this season he was a bit of a clanger king by foot, but in recent weeks he's really tidied that up and yesterday I really noticed him putting some really precise and well weighted passes to the advantage of our players running back towards half forward.

I love that while pace and drive are key assets of his, he’s turned in to a legitimately hard nosed defender in recent years. Toughness and helping his teammates have become the cornerstone of his game, any time he gets to go for a run is just a bonus. Great stuff.

The addition of Tomlinson and now Buntine seems to have meant that there is no spot for Ellison in the current line up. A bit harsh since he’s been playing well in defence and showed last year that he can also kick goals up forward. Hopefully, he gets his chance today.

MCG said 39000

There will be at least one change as Jake Melksham was called up to play in the Melbourne team. Daniel Howe ended up as the medical sub for Hawthorn as did Kade Chandler at Melbourne but I assume that both might still play today as they only came on in the last quarter. I’m not sure of the rules but believe this has been allowed in the past. The Demons have the advantage in AFL listed numbers but the Hawks are in form and always hard to beat at home. Expect a cracker of a game at Box Hill City Oval.

You can say that again. Two years ago you would murder for this type of position. Now we are whinging because we didn’t smash a competitive side after a week full of disruptions. No doubt whatsoever Lever and Viney were underdone after Covid and we were missing key players AND we lost Smith which threw the defense into chaos with Tmac going down. We keep being thrown challenges and we keep finding ways to win. We saw what we can do when we put the foot down for 15 minutes in the third term. We conserved energy and defended hard in the last because that’s how we like to play. It is great practice for our defensive set ups and it greatly reduces the amount of energy spent and risk of injury. We don’t need to win by 10 goals every week. People forget that we didn’t have big wins this time last year either. Why give up your winning hand this early in the year? Very proud of us for making it work in a week that threw us massive curveballs literally on the daily.

The Box Hill Hawks score a goal on the siren but it’s a 7 point victory to the Casey Demons. CASEY DEMONS 3.7.25 5.10.40 7.15.57 10.19.79 BOX HILL HAWKS 2.2.14 4.4.28 6.4.40 11.6.72 GOALS CASEY DEMONS Chandler 3 Grey White 2 Laurie Steele Van Rooyen BOX HILL HAWKS Jeka 3 Greene 2 Brinker-Ritchie Butler Cavarra Parsons Phillips Serong BEST CASEY DEMONS Baker Moniz-Wakefield Chandler Laurie Munro Bell Tomlinson Grey BOX HILL HAWKS Phillips Grey Mascitti Howe Horner Blanck Statistics Zac Andrewartha 2 kicks 9 handballs 11 disposals 1 mark 2 tackles 35 dream team points Oskar Baker 1 behind 13 kicks 3 handballs 16 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 60 dream team points Riley Baldi 7 kicks 1 handballs 8 disposals 17 dream team points Jake Bell 2 behinds 4 kicks 5 handballs 9 disposals 4 marks 11 hit outs 47 dream team points Mitch Brown 3 behinds 9 kicks 3 handballs 12 disposals 8 marks 57 dream team points Matt Buntine 7 kicks 5 handballs 12 disposals 3 marks 40 dream team points Kade Chandler 3 goals 11 kicks 5 handballs 16 disposals 6 marks 4 tackles 95 dream team points Majak Daw 8 kicks 2 handballs 10 disposals 4 marks 2 tackles 31 hit outs 81 dream team points Luca Goonan 1 behind 4 kicks 9 handballs 13 disposals 2 marks 2 tackles 45 dream team points George Grey 2 goals 2 behinds 11 kicks 3 handballs 14 disposals 5 marks 68 dream team points Matthew Johnson 9 kicks 4 handballs 13 disposals 5 marks 51 dream team points Bailey Laurie 1 goal 2 behinds 15 kicks 9 handballs 24 disposals 4 marks 2 tackles 89 dream team points Judd McVee 4 kicks 7 handballs 11 disposals 2 marks 1 tackle 34 dream team points Bryce Milford 3 kicks 4 handballs 7 disposals 1 marks 21 dream team points Andy Moniz-Wakefield 11 kicks 6 handballs 17 disposals marks tackles 61 dream team points James Munro 2 behinds 12 kicks 11 handballs 23 disposals 5 marks 3 tackles 81 dream team points Harvey Neocleous 1 behind 5 kicks 1 handballs 6 disposals 2 marks 1 tackles 28 dream team points Fraser Rosman 8 kicks 3 handballs 11 disposals 6 marks 5 tackles 45 dream team points Deakyn Smith 3 kicks 3 handballs 6 disposals 1 mark 1 tackle 20 dream team points Roan Steele 1 goals 5 kicks 1 handball 6 disposals 1 mark 1 tackle 30 dream team points Adam Tomlinson 10 kicks 4 handballs 14 disposals 5 marks 2 tackles 61 dream team points Jacob Van Rooyen 1 goal 1 behind 7 kicks 2 handballs 9 disposals 6 marks 2 hit outs 52 dream team points Mitch White 2 goals 1 behind 12 kicks 3 handballs 15 disposals 5 marks 3 tackles 58 dream team points

Max is miles ahead of Nic Nat.

It's a little off topic but i thought it worth a mention Port and GWS are starting to show some form. Port knocked off the Saints last night who are a rival to us this year. GWS have Geelong and Carlton up next at home. You wouldn't bet against them winning those 2 games We've already banked the points against Port and GWS when they were playing poorly. Our rivals will have to deal with them when they are playing better. Another factor which is working in our favor

Agreed. Tmac was clearly unaware of surroundings and exact position and did the conservative action by marking the ball to ensure a goal. And he didn't juggle it over the line. Smart. He quickly apologised to Harmes when he finally became aware of what he had done. relays shows the immediate "sorry mate". Well done Tmac on both counts. I'm amazed this issue has even become a talking point.

A fair assessment. I think there are several reasons for poor crowds, in addition to not enough dee fans attending. 1) opposition fans don't turn up. 2) We and most teams we play at the G don't have AFL members so that stand is near empty for many games 3) Few if any Friday night games means we don't get the 'neutral' fan to our games. Hopefully, more dees fans go to our forthcoming games vs 'better' and some 'bigger' teams. But I feel the 3 points I mentioned above make it difficult for us to regularly get 'big' crowds to our games. Edit: Now to put the counter point of view😉 our average Home game attendances have been better than most clubs and better than some 'big' Vic clubs. We sit 3rd. Being Home games it excluses the ANZAC Eve game. So perhaps we aren't as bad as we think. Source: Footywire after round 6.

Simon Madden and Dean Cox were the two best genuine rucks I’ve seen in my life. Maxy is now well in the conversation, ahead of Cox for me and perhaps Madden, but comparing players of such different vintages is very difficult.

That was a slog. I wouldn't say the Saints shot themselves in the foot. If they tried they would have missed

I’m sure I am taking it for granted. But we are witnessing our greatest ever ruckman and one of our best players ever

Who chooses Weid over McDonald tonight? Really. McDonald is more aggressive and smart and competes in the air. Weid hasn’t taken his chances and hasn’t taken a contested mark in weeks. Jackson back in and Weid out. Just my opinion.

Surprised that Ellison got dropped thought he looked good

I don’t get the love for the Dogs. They hate pressure. They beat up on nothing sides and haven’t improved a single issue they’ve had last year, primarily their defense which is god awful. Brisbane will absolutely challenge us. They have the only forwardline that will really push our defense. A strong midfield and a good defense. Freo are another one I reckon could really challenge us. St Kilda don’t have enough talent IMO but we will know more next week.

It was only 700 behind the highest crowd for the round (Carlton v north). So maybe ask a different question: "What is the AFL going to do about lackluster crowds?" This isn't an MFC issue. For context, all year we have been the 2nd or 3rd most attended game of the round, except for the GWS game (no surprises). Again this shows we are actually doing pretty well. In round 7 we were the 3rd highest crowd (only 5 ppl off being the 2nd). In round 6, the 2nd highest crowd. Round 5, we were very low, vs GWS though. Round 4, away in Adelaide. Round 3, 3rd highest (pies v cats and blues v hawks were bigger) Round 2, away in Gold Coast. Round 1, 2nd highest for the round. I'm not sure why people think success means we magic 80k potential attendees over night.

Mick Malthouse has just predicted Johnny Depp and Amber Heard will remarry.

I went to go watch. Gawn/Weideman/Mcdonald/Weideman/Taj Woewodin/Daniel Turner/Blake Howes/Lever/Aaron Davey/Matthew Whelan/Mark Williams/Troy Chaplin all watching together. As well as Sam Frost :) It was good to see Bailey Laurie find some of the ball. He still needs to work on his conditioning and get fitter. Still carrying excess weight.

It's nice to watch one of these without Campbell Brown prancing around like a dork.

My thoughts after watching the replay.. Outstanding effort by our guys to win. The system and confidence they have in each other is a joy to watch. They never seem to panic. Umpiring was atrocious even though we got the better of the count The 3 marks to May that were not paid were outrageous and cost us goals. They tried to drag May up the ground at all costs and leave Smith one out. JJ was very fumbly Bedford did very well. Our kicking to the fwd line was abysmal. So many times we kicked to a pack or directly to a Hawk player. The defence was uncharacteristically out of sorts. Lever was very fumbly as well. Missed Petty big time. Hunt played well and made some great spoils Langdon being tagged was unusual and was quite a successful tactic by Mitchell Tom Mitchell got some very soft frees. Frost is a liability Hawthorn were very aggressive all day trying to niggle us and their supporters are tireless bores. Hawks played well off a short break and were running hard at the end. I suspect more of our team was not feeling well than reported. Max is a gun. Oliver needs more protection from the umps. You can't have a player at stoppages not facing the stoppage and instead trying to impede Oliver. Pathetic umpiring

They called Deakyn Smith Oskar Baker when he got a free kick. It is hard to tell the difference between the two I must admit.

Qtr Time Casey Demons 3.7.25 to Box Hill Hawks 2.2.14 Goals Grey Steele White

Was listening to SEN a few days ago and Hinkley was asked which player he would like to have in his team if he could have anyone outside of Port. He chose Gawn without hesitation.

With Covid it depends how sick you get. I know they are fit athletes and in most cases it is nothing more than an inconvenience where the time out doesn't justify the level of sickness, but some of the players, not necessarily ours, will get next level sick and develop a cough that may take a bit of time to clear. People here talk about Covid like it is a week off and back to full output and while we certainly have seen that with Viney (warrior spirit) I will be very happy to see each of those players, fit and healthy and back out there. It's just not a given.

While the guys that came in generally did ok and had some really nice moments, I think the team defence was way down. In particular, ANB and Pickett were massive outs in this regard. Can also throw in that ANB is also arguably our most important link up player forward of the ball as well as being ranked elite for score launches and ground ball gets - on paper the guy is one of the best in the league at what he does. While our system and depth are strong, losing the players who are best at maintaining the structure and creating pressure is always going to hurt. While Hawthorn did very well to hurt us on the switch and cut into the middle, I think that with our better system players out there, their aggressiveness would've invited more turnovers and it would've been a more comfortable game. The fact that we can have the outs that we had and still do enough to bank the points is awesome. I really think that while we didn't lose any of our "key players" (although I think the club would rate ANB in the same category of importance as the superstars) we were still greatly impacted and our ability to constrict and suffocate the opposition was heavily reduced - although was clearly good enough to get the job done! I think the game will be great for the club from a learning perspective and was great to get another game into Bedford and Dunstan. While Bedford's pressure output was way down on what we usually get from Kozzie in the role, he still worked hard and kicked some vital goals. I think his pressure output would shoot up with regular experience although am not sure how he will get it. Saints may be more trouble although I think Hawks style was perfectly placed to pick us off while we were down. Hopefully no more covid outs and the boys that missed don't have it too bad, go dees!

Early in the last quarter, we were up by 33 and one more would have killed off the game, but Tom McDonald burned half the forward line, kicked a point, and they ran up the other end and kicked a goal. Lost me.

His 20 metre off-direction bullseye handball to a sprinting Bedford was old-school Melksham….beautifully skilled. His goal as much as TB’s.

Very happy with the win. The good: We are now two games + percentage inside the top three, this is really all that matters. Beat the Saints next week with Eagles and North to follow, we could have finals locked away and be as much as 4 games + percentage inside the top 4. We have still never been truly challenged, “scrape home” AFL.com? We were never behind in the last quarter, we were never one goal away from being behind, we were only 2 goals away with 1.30 left in the game, that’s not a scrape, Port vs St Kilda is a scrape. We had 6 of our starting 18 out and we still won, nuff said. Port went 0-5 when confronted with similar outs. The frustrating: I get it but I don’t like the rope-a-dope last quarters. It would’ve been far more fun if we simply kicked straight, (particularly Bailey and Jake), we need to ice games, not try to smash teams and leave ourselves vulnerable, but just kick a sealer. A single goal would’ve completely broken the Hawks, see Sydney last week. We let them keep hope, understandable but frustrating. Our forward line needs to get back to separating and leading, the number of times Brown, Gawn, McDonald and Weideman all jumped into each other, or at least two did was very frustrating. Stop bombing to packs, lead! Ultimately, a wins a win and the Hawks are pretenders. Mark my words, they will fail this year and then get worse next year, Mitchell, O’Meara, Wingard, Gunston, Shiel and Breust are still their best, they’re all on the way out. Enjoy the pain Hawks, there’s plenty to come! 😈😈😈

Madness to bring back 5 players who have been sick and who probably won’t train much, especially Neale bullen who’s 7 days will end Friday, so he is no chance so Bedford stays in and we will need a 100% fit side against the saints so I can’t see there being many changes if any will depend how sick they got, when I got Covid I was still fatigued 2 weeks later I’m not a professional athlete however

With due respect the only trash I've seen today concerning Melbourne Football Club are your posts. I've heard of doubling down but I think in your case you've quintupled down with increasing overstatement and inaccuracy with every post. Right now the only thing that matters is racking up the wins. Would any Demon fan have believed someone saying pre-season we'd be 7-0 with a percentage of 145.9% after 7 rounds? We are not playing perfectly, but so far have beaten 4 finalists from 2021 including the 2nd & 3rd teams. Yes, on the balance of play we should have a percentage of 165% (which shows how dominant we've been) but 145% is hardly shameful. Deedubs, the issue isn't with the Dees, it's with you 😞....

That was an outstanding win for the club. We got through despite the enormously difficult circumstances of losing the coach and five players through Covid19. It’s not just the disruption in terms of coaching and player loss but the psychological difficulties of getting through the regime of testing, the uncertainty and all of the issues surrounding the situation over a period of more than 72 hours - we did it and overcame a very spirited opposition. Congratulations to all concerned at the club on scoring another famous win for the Demons!

Great win. Players fading in the last. 2 weakened by covid. 3- 4 hadn't played AFL tempo for a while. Bank the 4 points and move on.