deespicable me

If you asked this question Monday I would have howled you down as a poor excuse for our last two weeks. It's now Wednesday and I'm nearly accepting of where we are and what we still have to achieve. It's hump day.....maybe By Friday I'll be very happy with the team and thinking really if we can beat the Saints,,,,and we can definitely do that..... then we could come roaring into the finals full of confidence and spunk! But at the moment my words still feel hollow .....but maybe by Friday

Yes, I did say pretty much though and all those games they lost were against other contenders. West Coast are probably the most disappointing side in the league for potential versus return. If we lose the next two weeks I think unfortunately any gains will be lost and we will be on a par with West Coast for the team that is showing the most unrealized potential. That puts everyone under pressure and sets us up for a poor off-season. We are not a destination club, supporters start eating their own, the coach starts getting criticized and other teams and their supporters reckon you're a soft touch. We absolutely must win 2 of the next 3. I reckon we might lose all 3. My mate reckons I'm an idiot. I am looking forward to this game against St Kilda. Both teams should be hungry. No excuses. It's our Grand Final.

The thing upsetting me the most is that pretty much every other team in contention is fighting hard and winning games they have to, quite often coming from behind. Two weeks ago against North half way through the 3rd qtr we were still just in front of North who had the wind and we had the last qtr to come home with it. Meanwhile in Perth GWS were 15 points down against Freo. I'm thinking wow next week we may be playing GWS for a top 4 spot. Oh the possibilities! Instead GWS manage to get over the line, we manage to do what we've done for the last ten years and capitulate and then we back it up a week later with a further poor performance just to prove to the football world "No we weren't kidding, we are crap. You want a win, you need a win, come and see us. We'll roll over for you." They've got to be hungrier. The main problem with Jack Watts is I think he becomes pleased with himself too easily just when he should be looking to further improve his game. Good teams improve into the season, they become focussed. Melbourne are scattered to the winds.

and that's just the supporters....

Both Hibberd and Melksham had great games yesterday. Hibberd was sensational. Robbie Grey and Wingard hardly got a possession. He's fast, heavy and he closes space so well, then his tackles stick. Port were badly outcoached letting Hibberd roam free like that. We used him so effectively coming out of defence. I think he'll get tagged more often.

Oh yeah, 3 definite outs.

We've got 2 hours to guess the outs. I'm going out on a limb and suggesting Vince and Kent are definite outs The other two. Smith and Pedo?

What does success look like?................Not last night

Gawn to thump the ball 30 metres every time so no need for a midfield

I beg to differ, I'm pretty sure the sky is falling.

I hope you're right about Watts but in my limited experience watching training it's always good to see them back running after an injury coz it means they aren't far away. After yesterday I think maybe Garlett and Jones are ahead of Watts in their rehab.

I thought Kent looked sharp. I've seen him a couple of trainings and he came back pre-season with a bit of pud, got injured for a while and has taken a while to get in good shape. I was thinking he is pretty close now. Watts not there would make me think he is possibly two weeks away yet and may not get back for the game against Carlton. Garlett and Jones both looked good, both probably step it up next week and both are a chance for the Blues, running at 75%. Viney was interesting, he is still not 100% in the shoulder (in my opinion). They tested him with some bumps but he rolled his shoulder away on impact. I don't know anything about shoulder injuries so I'm not sure what the treatment is for his problem and whether it will be an ongoing problem or is nothing more than sore. Hopefully he doesn't have to carry it for the rest of the season. They may be rolling the dice a bit with him and considering what he is in for against the Swans mids on Friday I will be watching him closely and hoping like hell he can get through unscathed.

We are up way early, but after dropping a couple of close ones early we needed to be. Maintaining our form will be hard to do, but if we can keep winning and get luck with injuries you never know. It's the timing of having your best team available, fit and in form for those four weeks when it really counts. Many teams can win it, at least we are counted amongst those that are in with a show.

Apparently after last nights win Frawley has made himself available to play again.

Looking forward to Viney running straight past the ball and cleaning up Shuey with a shoulder bone to the head.

They've lost the plot. Which is stupid on my behalf for believing there was a plot. No-one knows whats going on. Players, commentators and the public. They change weekly. One of the worst years ever for inconsistent decisions. Scrap it, rip it up, start again.

I liked it last year and thought it made for a great Finals series and I hope they stick with it. There were massive crowds at training sessions which is a great initiative for getting fans close to the stars. The build up to the first week of finals was really exciting and the crowds at the first week of finals were records. And good games right through the finals were fantastic, I had mates who barracked for Dogs and they had the best 4 weeks of their life, even travelling to Sydney for the GWS game. I'd love for Dees to be alive in September and to be alive for an extra week certainly won't mean I'll lose interest. And I didn't last year. I'll go to training and enjoy the build up. Along with Dreamtime, MND big freeze, Pink day, Anzac day and Womens footy etc we are the envy of every other sporting code in Australia for crowd numbers and engagement. The league do a lot wrong but I think this is one of their better ideas.

I followed a link in there from the After Game thread and after reading a few posts I got out before I caught a disease or ended up on some terrorist watch list. Very sad little pocket of the world.

I'm pretty confident with this game. I actually think we'll win easy. I was worried about both Hawthorn and North because they had talls to worry us. Especially North with Brown and Waite. Collingwood will have to kill us in the midfield to win and while they may get the better of us at times I think if we plan well to limit Pendelbury, Treloar and Adams we should win easily. I think they probably should play Cox to try and stretch our defence but he is no Roughead or Brown. Dees with ease.

Yeah, I have. He is 22, only played 13 odd games, 7 this year, mainly because of injury and put into the right system and structure I think he would be a good addition. He beat Tommy Mac in many one on ones which was a good effort. Also he will cost half what May would. We need another tall defender. I may be wrong but I think your confidence that he is no good after only 13 games is a bit premature. I also think O'Brien is developing into an O.k player.

He's not average. Yes he was good against us, but consider his game versus Oscars with those terrible dropped marks and I think he is an upgrade certainly over the next couple of years when hopefully we're contending. If Thompson comes back in even more reason to contact him and put in a good moneyball offer. Watch the game again Trav and you can see he's the sort of player we need for next year.

I preferred their player Jack Leslie, if he was available, or gettable. Probably on a lot less than May so an offer of around 500 a season would be a good deal for us I reckon.

Yeah but at half time on Saturday I was sure we were a bottom four side. I would like to beat GWS interstate in round 20 and sit around where we are now and the uberhype clactometer go absolutely beserk. Demonland has record number of posts as we anticipate the last 3 games v Saints, Brisbane and Collingwood all at the "G", and a potential finals birth for the first time in a long time. Imagine the permutations. If team A,B and C all lose 2 of their last 3 games and we win all 3 we can make top 4 etc etc. I will give up work and live for the final 3 weeks and what may lie beyond in a state of euphoria. Till we lose to the Saints of course.

There is a truth. A reality. The obvious thing about the game is that Scott coached North to target Oliver. Not unusual. Sheedy always had a thug or two in his sides. The thing that is so upsetting is that we got reamed by the umpires, neither of the incidents did we receive a free kick (thats fu#### terrible umpiring and if they had of given a free to Oliver when they should have all the spite for the rest of the game would have been alleviated) reamed by the commentators who were calling Bernie a head-hunter, we lose the game and now we get one suspended and North get off Scott free. F### the lot of them.

I hate North and I hate the umpires. I had a bad day.