titan_uranus

I don’t know if we’re playing Fullarton, or whether we’ll try to ruck Petty or even Tomlinson. What I do know is that after JVR’s game yesterday, the last thing we should do is make him ruck any more than sporadically. It’s not like the prospect of Gawn missing games this year wasn’t foreseeable, so it’s now up to the FD to implement whatever plan they have. It’s as bad timing as we could have given our ladder position and the upcoming opponents, but I’m hopeful we’ll view it as a chance to learn something new about our list.

To be fair, breaking even is probably as good as he's been for a few weeks now, and I get why you argue that's a bad thing for us but it's also a good thing - it's not like our good football of late has only occurred with Gawn going berserk. But if we're going to make a charge for finals, with the opposition we have and the lack of ruck depth on our list, losing him is, well, not good.

I think the link, if there is one, is that the spleen injury led to a "reset" of his immune system, e.g. he needs all his immunisations again, and maybe that increased the chance of appendicitis? But obviously I have no actual idea.

'Very sore' Melbourne Demons ruckman Max Gawn in doubt to face Essendon Bombers after scans on sore ankle (afl.com.au) "It's pretty sore, I must admit. I woke up very sore. Obviously played the second half in a bit of distress," he said, while on crutches and wearing a moonboot on his right foot. "At this stage, I'm thinking that (I will miss), just because of how sore it is, but I've seen some stuff that the human body can do and it can certainly turn around pretty quickly." Come on down, Tom Fullarton?

He himself has said today he thinks he'll miss. In a moon boot and on crutches.

Don't want to be too much of a dampener of our spirit on here, but Gawn missing this week is terrible, and missing anything beyond that is even worse. This week is Draper/Goldstein. Then Darcy/Jackson. Then Briggs, who beat an in-form TDK this week.

Yeah. Sort of. But also Sydney supporters have been so arrogant this year. Seeing them start, ever so slightly, to wobble is delightful. And a reminder - you don’t win flags in June.

No, that isn't. That's pessimism. If you don't think we're in the hunt to make finals where we sit right now, that's your pessimism talking. You're entitled to your view, but FFS please stop calling it "realism". It's just your view. PS what were you expecting when you said pre-game "win, and win well, and we'll build momentum and belief". 54 points isn't winning well?

Fair chance there's some truth to the rumours that Simpson's lost the players. On paper, you're right, they should be better than this.

@beelzebub, Mr Realist himself, "thanked" it. In other words, he also thinks it's "delusional" to say we're back in the hunt. The same guy who pre-game said "win, and win well, and there's some momentum and belief". And in response to a 9-goal win which gave us 5% and puts us a win and 5% behind 5th. It's not delusional. It's correct.

We were younger than them today (25yr 8m compared to 26yr 1m) but slightly more experienced (114 games to 105.4). As promising as that is for us, how bad is that for them? They're older but less experienced than us when they're supposed to be in full rebuild mode.

Really promising to see us win like that despite no Trac, no Petty, Gawn off in the fourth, Oliver ineffectual and Viney having sub-20 disposals. Yes, it would have been nice to kick one more goal to pass Collingwood on percentage, but it's not Round 17 when we need our percentage to be better than theirs, its Round 24, and to make that even relevant in the first place we need more wins. That starts with Essendon on Saturday night when we have a six day break, one less than them. So taking Gawn off as a precaution makes sense. And to the extent that we eased off late, that makes sense too. And how good it was seeing a 32,000 crowd for a Sunday game against a bottom 2 side. I know we let kids in free but that's a smart move when faced with this sort of match in school holidays. We've given our club plenty of heat this year, maybe we should applaud them for this idea because it seems to me it worked a treat.

I’m hoping today is like that Gold Coast game at Marvel in 2021, the first of our winning streak. Put up a big score, looked flash all over for the first time in months, gained serious confidence despite the opposition not being strong. Honestly though, can’t shake the feeling that we’ll struggle through this one.

Jeepers, tough run for Trac. Let’s all hope this is his last trip to a hospital for a long time. https://x.com/davidzita1/status/1809561283538403452?s=46&t=TxNWR8IQfpnCS5ZUkmzG9A

Went into this round thinking Essendon, Port and GWS were the sides above us we wanted to aim to catch. Now it feels like it’s Collingwood, the Bulldogs and Gold Coast. Such is the evenness of this season. Which should be a reminder to all of us - don’t write us off. There’s still something to make of 2024 for us yet.

Best case scenario is we win by heaps, GWS and Brisbane lose, and we finish the round 7th (requires us to increase our percentage by 4.7% to pass Collingwood - requires roughly a 10 goal win I believe). If Brisbane wins we can’t finish higher than 8th. If GWS also wins (they currently lead Carlton), we’d near certainly not catch them on percentage and would finish 9th or 10th depending on percentage. (If anyone’s wondering, Hawthorn’s loss means we don’t drop if we lose.)

Melksham and Salem for Petty and K Brown. Bowey for Tomlinson the only other possible change I reckon. West Coast is tall up forward so if we wanted four tall backs last week, surely we’d want them this week too. Bowey or, if he’s not in, Tholstrup to sub I guess.

That’s a rather measured way of putting it. If we lose this weekend, I and probably most of Demonland will be filthy AF.

Do you seriously think this? You think the players go hammer and tongs, play exceptional football, build a solid lead, then stop because they’re frustrated with the coaches? Like some sort of protest? Seriously?

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1591511/injury-report-melksham-reaches-return Have to say I get the sense from this that Petty and Salem are in doubt.

Not sure we can be this definite. If we win the next two there's a good chance we'll be in the 8, but we need 5 wins from the last 8 games and even then, with our poor percentage, that isn't a complete certainty of getting us in. To get 5 wins, the next two are essential but we also need to beat GWS and Port (both of which are at the G), and find a win out of the four harder games, being Fremantle in Perth, the Dogs at Marvel, GC on the GC and Collingwood. Dropping any of the WC, Essendon, GWS and Port games requires us to find more than one win in the Fremantle, Bulldogs, GC and Collingwood games.

The glass half full response to that would be that we played one of our better games for the year without Gawn dominating. Mostly this year our best games have been driven by Gawn, so to play well when he’s not starring is probably a good thing.

I'm on the bandwagon, don't worry. Just posted about it in another thread. Being 12th and sub-100% right now feels bad, but most of the sides between us and Fremantle are within one win and 10% of us. The thing about our fixture is that it's full of the classic "8-point game". We play most of the contenders for spots 3-8 on the ladder (Fremantle, Essendon, Dogs, GWS, Port, GC, Collingwood). Almost any win from here on out does double damage in our attempt to make finals (the converse of course is also true, last night being the first example of it).

If you think there's nothing to play left in this season, or that we're no chance, have a look again at the ladder. We may be 12th, but we're one win behind 5th, and only 1.5 wins behind 3rd. We may have a percentage of 99.9%, but 6 of the next 8 sides above us have a percentage under 109% (i.e. within 10% of us). It's a season of pretty fine margins. Holding on last night and only losing to Fremantle by 60, not 90, would have us 5th and right in the thick of the top 4 race. Hell, holding on last night even with our sub-100% we'd be 7th and a draw behind 3rd.

Dropping last night's game hurts even more now. Had we won we'd be 6th and sitting just a draw behind Essendon, who are proving themselves to be fraudulent. 7 of their 9 wins are against the bottom 6, and they're being flogged by a side on a 1-6 form run who haven't done almost anything right for two months.