DubDee

Make sure you head to the royal on punt road for a pre game beer

good ummm, atmosphere

time to get worried about Spencil?  injury still TBC and now training with Dawes (he is 4 weeks away at least).  we need him fit and playing well at casey in case Gawny goes down

far out Bucks talks so much shite.  sometime has a good point but he takes so long to get to it, ive tuned out.   just answer the question!

360 is going downhill fast

wow will this saga ever end for the bombers?  ongoing legal action, players still not knowing what they took, this wont go away!

Although I agree Heppell sounded naive, it would be very worrying for fans to be hearing from their next captain that he feels let down and angry at the club and several people that were running the club.  for him to say this in public is pretty big for me. wouldnt surprise me if he leaves along with others. 

Essendon brought all this on themselves and have made it 100 times worse by being arrogant, dismissive and misleading their players.  no sympathy from me

that photo just gave me a half bar.

fired up!!  cant wait for saturday.

33428

seems to be going up ~200 per day.  go Dees

wingmen that 'tuck in'?

thats my guess

thanks Deevoted.  have joined the Cordner league.

name: not rebuidling

8 minutes ago, CBDees said:

I just like the fact that our forward half this year, looks to present more of a threat than their respective forward, especially with Cameron out.

I agree.  I think their midfield is slightly better than ours but with

Garlett, Pederson, Watts,

Vandeberg, Hogan Kent  

I reckon we have the advantage

it really does seem like a co-ordinated positive PR exercise.  with the main aim of getting the players to believe.  I think belief would obviously be lacking in the team and perhaps Roos and PJ have identifed this and think some media stuff might help.

"Hey if Roosy is putting his rep on the line saying this stuff - maybe we really could play in a GF"

its partly the reason clubs like WC are only ever down for a couple of seasons

might be an idea to win a few games or even make finals before we even consider this stuff

yes, im still burnt from ~2010 thinking we were actually on the rise.

7 minutes ago, Fifty-5 said:

Mumford, Ward, Shiel, Greene, Griffen, Whitfield, Scully, Kelly, Coniglio

Gawn, N.Jones, Tyson, Viney, Vince, Brayshaw, Vandenberg, Oliver, Bugg

Their midfield is a bit better and bats a bit deeper than ours currently.

would be very surprised if there isnt a lot of biff and the odd melee on saturday considering this lot (especially considering the bolded names)

32 minutes ago, Ouch! said:

Whilst I think the Dees can win this week, not sure if the argument of our players being older, fitter should be that significant given that the exact same thing would apply to their players... 

I think our players are confident going into round 1 which is significant, but again GWS would go in full of confidence also.

Dees by 23

agree.  guess I was more referring to the fact that these guys were either injured or carrying injuries most of last year and didnt play much together when all firing

Cant wait to see Gus playing again - think ive forgotten how good he is.

5 days to go!! anyone care to offer their predictions for round 1?

i had a look at the teams from round 2 last year against GWS for a bit of context/comparison. Dees scored the first 4 goals before bending over and conceding 9 goals to nil in the 3rd term. I actually have some confidence now that we will be able to weather a storm a lot better this time around. 

Interestingly, Giants will be without McCarthy (scored 3 goals that day), Cameron and Treloar.  these are 3 very significant outs. 2 main fwd targets and arguable their best midfielder.

Dees missing Cross, Jamar, Dawes, Howe and Newton. With all due respect, we will not miss any of these greatly. in fact their replacements will improve us.  Importantly, Salem, Viney, Brayshaw, Tyson etc being a year older, fitter, more confident will be significant.

Last week, I was thinking a 3 goal loss but I think we can do it.  GWS are very good and could well win a flag in the next few years but I think if we limit their run ons and play hard footy we can win.

Prediction - Dees by 2 points

N Jones and M Gawn the difference

Dubdee to get drunk post match.

feel free to add your predictions/analysis/thoughts

How did mitchie go? 2 goals but much else?

i think he is building some decent form so wouldn't be surprised if he is upgraded this year

1 hour ago, AdamFarr said:

If Hawthorn can sell their games to Tassie, we can do the same. I'd rather every game played at the 'G, but I'd also rather my club making money.

This rubbish about NT=loss of premiership points, is just that. Rubbish. How anyone could have a problem with the selling of one match for $500k is beyond me. We haven't won up there because we've been an incredibly ordinary football side. There are other factors, yes, but once we're up and about we'll be winning these games and getting a $500k paycheck. I'm glad PJ is running the club. What a star.

are you seriously suggesting that us playing in Melbourne does not give us a better chance of winning versus playing in NT?

4 hours ago, btdemon said:

Nobody replied to this post when I wrote it in another thread so I'm bumping my own post to here (probably not cool, I know), but I've poured a little cold water on my expectations for this season......... mind you, I'm still EXCITED!

"I've just been looking over the draw. It's very tough. 10 wins would be more than a pass mark. We play Essendon, Brisbane and Carlton only once. On the current predictions they are the only wins I would 'pencil in', and I would be ready with the eraser in regards to St Kilda. The "10 wins" target requires us to rack up some unexpected wins, and no doubt, I'm sure there might be a couple. I'm talking about wins against teams that are expected to finish in the top eight, such as GWS, Suns, Richmond, Collingwood, Nth Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Doggies or Port. However, it is going to take a few of these to reach 10 wins and I'm much less hopeful after looking over the draw. We have to play Hawthorn twice and thankfully Geelong, Freo and WC only once. To start with the momentum of 3-0 in the preseason is great but I'm less bullish about it than some on this site. I think PJ's target of finals in 2016 might be a season too early. I hope I'm very, very wrong".

Realistically, I'm thinking we can sneak a couple of unexpected wins and get to 7 or 8. Anything more would be great. I wish the ladder predictor was up and running on the AFL website. it'd be good to map some scenarios.

you cant say these are expected to make the top 8.  firstly there are 9 teams there and secondly there are top teams missing.  this is the middle group - 3-4 of which will make finals.  tough draw but we need to start seeing ourselves as the equal to these teams.   we beat the Tigers, pies and adelaide.  we can certainly beat the suns and hopefully GWS and dogs.   im hopeful of a 50-50 record aginst these teams.

this is our year to take the jump!

9 hours ago, jnrmac said:

It never quite turns out that way though because teams always under or over perform. Based on last years team performances it might be hard but who knows how this year will pan out. I reckon we have a chance at 13 wins if things go really well.

 

I agree.   by "hard" it means playing teams twice like dogs/crows and not playing twice the Pies, Cats of GWS. I think id prefer the hard draw if thats the case!

there are so many middle teams that the rating doesnt say too much.  unless you have Freo/WC/Hawks twice or something extreme like that

Watch city play tomorrow night at aami. Get on the sauce after. 

Rest of weekend... Replays of old Dees matches

"we are Melbourne" apparently

try to re-connect with our city

wtf

what a joke, more NT home games?!  fk me

i thought we were going to take winning seriously and our finances were under control.  this deal could well be the difference between making the finals or not. the travel, the heat, backing up the next week

9 home games out of 22 is a joke. well 8 if we continue to play one at etihad.

Gee we are looking good injury-wise.  anyone know who is definately unavailable for round 1?

Dawes

Newton

JT

and these 3 are short termers.

great position to be in.

They finished in the bottom four and now are missing 12 of their 22 for the year.  replaced them with retirees that have no reason to care aside from their pay cheque 

Morale low, talk of any decent players they have leaving. kids will get played to early. goddard will get tagged and is mentally weak so will not lead well

i am honestly tipping zero wins for them, there is a some chance of an early win, but its unlikely.  chances are Hooker or someone will leave so whats the motivation to finish second last?  miss out of pick 1 and 2

I AM ENJOYING EVERY MINUTE OF THIS!!!

And some people think nab is not important. Has created a lot of positivity and confidence heading into round 1

go Dees!!!

well im glad we haven't over-analysed this media interview