Bang Bang Bang

The irony is we’re going to lose a [censored] load of cash on King’s Birthday now our season is close to cooked. An extra 15,000 would have gone if we’d won today and we would have if it was at the G. Sold our souls for yet another ****ty loss at that ****ty ground. Every other team builds a little fortress, Gold Coast in Darwin. Bulldogs in Ballarat, Hawthorn in Tassie, Port in China, even North are hard to beat in Hobart. But no not the Melbourne Demons. [censored] morons, 7.21 I can’t even.

Not capable of blanketing an opponent either. Has Dan [censored] Butler had a kick since 2020? Jeez

Pickett, Chandler, Gawn, Sharp… ya gotten [censored] kick them.

Am I missing something with May? Every week multiple people come on here and give him a bake. He’s not the AFL’s premier defender anymore but he’s still easily one of the first picked.

[censored] me what a game. Our best win since, well since last week, and incredibly satisfying. I can’t remember us bullying a team like that since the famous month of ‘21. I still had to pop in to the gameday thread at HT because it was shaping up as a classic Melbourne Demons loss and at times in the second half it threatened to go that way, but I’m so glad we flipped the script. That Clarry goal was pretty regulation and the game was iced by then, but how good was that? That’s what footy is all about. I watch a lot of teams and there are definitely some awesome players going around such as Jeremy Cameron, the Bont, Toby Greene etc. But I think 2025 Kosi Pickett isn’t too far behind these guys. Just unstoppable, he could have kicked 10 today. I said after watching him once against North in match sim that Langford would play every game this year (technically I was wrong) but who honestly expected Lindsay to be this good? Essendon’s pick is now at 8 and sliding and they don’t have Lindsay. Suck eggs! I reckon there’s a fair chance we can make the 8 now. Clean bill of health, confidence up, soft draw. That would be an amazing result. Even better if we can win one. [censored] yeah the Dees.

Why am I depressed about a 22 point lead. This [censored] team man.

Wow, I'd argue that 32 year old Tom McDonald currently offers more to this team than 29 year old Jake Lever, the latter of whom has been very patchy since 2021. Very stiff. I understand we're top heavy down there but did not expect this. And look, Sharp tries hard and could be an AFL player with a different skill set, but how many chances does he get? Spargo deadset lucky too. LOST AT SELECTION! (getting in early)

OK I may have posted a little too quickly and full of emotion after the game with some of my comments on page 1. Nevertheless, I regret nothing. That was our best win since we knocked off Port early last year and probably the most surprising one since we knocked off the Crows in 2017 (Goody's first season). I was expecting it to either be a harsh reality check or a game similar to last week and it was shaping up as the latter all afternoon... until all of a sudden it wasn't! Incredible scenes. Even when Trac missed at the end, I was expecting heartbreak. At least a Brissie goal to make us nervous. Enter Harvey Langford, the hero against Freo at one end and the hero against Brisbane at the other! In terms of the season it surely has huge repercussions. 3-7 is basically lights out, but 4-6 makes things interesting. Beating Brisbane at home surely gives the players belief they can beat anyone and I'm sure Goody is driving this notion. We have two winnable games and then could knock off Collingwood, if that happens the lid will well and truly be off. Unfortunately this performance will be cancelled out pretty quickly if Sydney win next week. Either way, I'm pretty pumped that the season is still alive as a fan. Individuals? Well it's all coming together all of a sudden. We're getting our best team on the park. Our old guys are still performing at a really high level (even May looked pretty good yesterday). Trac and Clarry are starting to find form, the younger brigade of Bowey, Rivers and Kosi are starting to hit their prime years and its showing, and role players like AJ and Disco did their part on the day. McVee is starting to find touch after injury and Fritsch played like a man possessed as sub. I absolutely love Xavier Lindsay, was expecting him to be a bit on the vanilla side when we drafted him but he's the complete package, and it wasn't Langford's best game yesterday but he still bobbed up when he was needed. Negatives? The Sharp experiment is surely over. I like his effort but he's a real momentum killer. He is basically Billings-lite. Spargo shouldn't be playing. Windsor was playing some good footy but his kicking is becoming horrendous. He can be so much better than another Jayden Hunt. As a team we're still missing too many chances. Petty, Petracca, Spargo, Pickett and of course Sharp missed easy ones just off the top of my head. That's what made Melksham's game so important. He nailed absolutely everything. I thought Goody was cooked after zero 5 but I reckon he's well on the way to salvaging his coaching career. [censored] yeah the Dees!

AJ > Messi

Jake Melksham is my father.

It’s honestly ridiculous. Windsor scrubbed a simple kick and apparently it was Clarry’s fault for ‘stopping’? Just an easy target for the media at the moment. Haven’t heard it since Jack Watts was out there.

Can’t complain too much with the effort so far. But this is the gameday thread so I need to let all the negativity out. The quicker we can replace Sharp and Spargo with proper AFL players the better. We are wasting Windsor down back who by the way has suddenly become a huge ball butcher. Get him playing in the right spot would be a start. May has been OK but what the hell was that effort on Gardiner? I honestly like AJ. I’m sure his stats suck but he gives us something. Just quietly Clarry is …. back?

Fritsch as the sub could work. For starters he shouldn't really be in the side IMO. He's also the kind of guy that come be injected into a game late and snag an important goal or two. It's more likely to be a behind and an out on the full in his current form. But still, worth a thought.

When LJ left us in 2022 we got two firsts and a second. He's three years older now and not quite as advanced as hoped, so that might shave some value off. But he's still worth 2 firsts IMO. Kosi is in the same boat. Brad Green has stated three firsts or busts. More likely two will get it done. So a straight swap for Kosi OR if by some miracle Kosi stays, then two firsts is what it will take. I've already stated it on this thread but I'm 1 million percent on board with this.

I think he’s shaping up to be a bust. It was a pretty ordinary draft though. Some players around MJ’s range have been delisted or traded already. Our other option was Ed Allan who looks OK but certainly no world beater. In hindsight, we probably should have traded the pick.

Lindsay had IMO the best individual effort of the season for us and it led to a goal, so I definitely noticed him.

May is getting a bit long in the tooth but he was fine today TBH. Bigger problems than his form. Jefferson put in a stinker after a puzzling selection to begin with. I want him to succeed but I can’t see it after that. That was almost papers stamped-level bad. Can’t have Fritsch playing that badly and keep his spot. JVR is a worry but I think he can contribute as second ruck again. In. Viney, Melksham, Petty Out. Jefferson, Fritsch and Spargo/Sharp/Tholstrup Can see us putting up a good show at the Gabba and still losing by 40+.

Sad but predictable. When we kept missing those goals in the second quarter I could have told you almost exactly how the game would pan out from there. Fact is, we’re not going to win many games this year if we only show up for three quarters. Gawn missed a gettable one then we didn’t even look like scoring outside of a Kosi masterclass. Huge concern, especially as it was our strength up until recently. Individuals? JVR continues to go backwards. Fritsch is useless if he can’t take his chances (that was his one wood), I’ll go easy on Clarry but that wasn’t his best. Sharp I like but not sure he’d AFL standard. Jeffo is most likely a bust. That’s a lot of passengers. Maybe it’s my Melbourne goggles but Langford screams “best player in the league” one day potential. Anyone his size that is good overhead, uses it well and hits the scoreboard is an A grader. Lindsay looks really good too. We will be 3-7 next week and probably headed for mid table this year. It sucks, but there’s plenty to work with.

I’ve been a Jeffo believer but he looked miles off it today. Losing faith. Perhaps he was just a miss. That 2022 draft looks pretty ordinary across the board in hindsight. The form of Langford and Lindsay however, wow Lee. That play from Lindsay on the far side was unbelievable.

I remember when Weid played for us he’d go long periods without even being seen on the screen let alone touching. Got similar vibes from Jeffo that quarter. Is he out there? Solid enough start. JVR and Fritsch killed us at the end there. Langford could one of the next big stars of the game. Complete package.

Just checked and we had Umpire 22 for four out of the last five games. Not sure how that's even allowed. Granted, he wasn't too bad in the last couple, but I'm glad to see the back of him for at least a week.

Makes sense. The Jackson/Darcy combo is as ineffective as Gawndy, we need something juicy for Kosi if he leaves, and Gawn is nearing the end (or is he?). If Luke wants it and who knows what goes in that guys head, but then i think this trade would be mutually beneficial for all parties.

I get that, but one thing First Crack was really reliable with in previous years was dedicating time to every game that was played. Sure, the [censored] teams would be wedged in at the end, but they still got covered. They can do better than telling us Max Gawn is a good player then cutting to an ad break two weeks in a row.

First Crack has definitely taken a nose dive. I understand that we’ve beaten the two worst teams in unconvincing fashion, but literally the only analysis they’ve provided in the last two weeks is that Max Gawn is a good player, and maybe given us 40 seconds total. Seems like they have pacing issues but come on.

But we are catching up to a lot of teams and we are now only one win and % out of the Top 8. I feel like that’s pretty good for a team that was zip 5 what felt like five minutes ago. I personally can’t see us making the 8 this year (we will most likely be 3-7 soon) but it’s nice the season is still alive.