15 hours ago, Wrecker45 said:

This is the problem. He is a pure midfielder. In my (not so)humble opinion we play kids out of position who need to go in where they belong.

it easier to get Nathan Jones or Bernie  Vince to play off a back flank.

Brayshay plays the frenetic game style  Goodwin demands. Play Hin the midfield.

The problem is that for the most part, even heavy set strong bodied kids don't have the mature, conditioned bodies to match it with battle hardened AFL midfields without burning them out.

That said Angus is a few years into the system now and should be able to handle being amongst the action.  That is where we want and need him, as with the aging of Bernie our midfield is crying out for more grunt, thoughness and class, which Gus has in spades.

This whole issue really does make me think that Paul Roos has it right when he suggests that the draft age should be lifted.

1 hour ago, watchtheeyes said:

I just can't let this one go...

Watts had 1g, 10d, 3m and 2t last week.

Pedersen had 1g, 8d, 3m, and 2t

Weideman had 1g, 9d, 3m, and 3t IN THE VFL.

Watts has played some big roles in AFL, this year. Just a few months ago. While Weideman has shown signs, but never consistent and often awol.

How can anyone justify Watts being dropped, for effectively a final. He must be carrying and injury, because it just makes no bloody sense to me.

 

 

You left out the two or three clever goal assists the Watts had as well.  I actually think Watts's endevor was ok.

On numerous times last week he was double teamed and whilst that's generally the lot of a key forward, our disposal going into the foward line last week (directionless high bombs) was an utter shambles.  Bar small bursts and passages of play, our ball movement and the game in general represented a moving rugby maul.

If the team can better execute, take risks and find space around the ground back at the MCG we should dominate the Saints.

1 hour ago, david_neitz_is_my_dad said:

For those dreaming of the F word grab the lube and read this http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-08-10/who-plays-finals-who-wins-the-spoon

One thing I like about this is that most of the pundit's have Carlton picking up the spoon.  Just a pitty the AFL doesn't have that bottom 4 draft lottery in place yet, so they weren't garrenteed the No.1 draft pick.

2 hours ago, leave it to deever said:

Watts had 3 weeks now and Tyson's form was right back in his first game back. Your argument doesn't hold water.

Gawn wasn't his usual self for a good few weeks.

Watching the game over the last few days, I actually think Watts's output was ok against GWS, given the woeful delivery into our forwardline.  He made a few pretty handy goal assists and kicked a few himself, as well as having 'some' impact around the ground.  Let's face it, the way the team has performed the past few weeks, it's been hard to pick any grear players, let alone a forward returning fron injury.

My argument completely holds water Re Tyson as I think I mentioned 'some execptions'.  Each player has their own unique injuries, recovery path and/or personalities.

Overall what I am saying is that generally speaking this is the same team that produced some great footall which had us all salivating at various stages earlier in the year.  We now know what they are capable of at their best, let's hope they can turn things around and project us into September.

2 hours ago, dpositive said:

We can and should win all three and hit the finals series with confidence that we can beat all teams above us.

North and GWS we did not adjust our structures and style to use the wind. This was disturbing as with little effort we could have won both and not have the current pressure.

To be in a situation where a final round of us or pies to get in would be the worst outcome as AFL, umpires and crowds would conspire to get them up at our expense.

The Adelaide match showed what is possible, just need to get the players heads right. I reject any issues of a young side being tired at the end of season. I'm old and tired but can still put in for one game of squash a week. I get over it by managing activity, these guys are full time professionals with masses of support. 

Select the players who  understand what success will do for club and them personally and are desperate for success. If they don't know tell them. I have said it before and in past seasons players should be exhausted at the end of this game having put every ounce of energy into a win. If they don't recover we have a replacement in the squad. Our injuries during the year showed we were able to win without Max Hogan Lewis vince. No one single player is indispensable, they all need each other. I can only hope that that was the structure and method that led to North and GWS losses.

GO DEES

Absolutely, next three weeks are almost like finals for us now.  All our players should be absolutely desperate for success by now and leave the ground each week with nothing in the tank.  We do have some depth to rotate players like Brashaw, Hannan, Wagner, Stretch, JKH, Bugg and Hogan back into the side if needed.

1 hour ago, Danelska said:

@Rodney (Balls) Grinter - mmmm the topic thread title is hardly pessimistic, nor optimistic - merely a question to get the masses thoughts.Personally, I concur with the fact we have made giant strides this year and would be surprised if we don't prosper over the next 5 years or so.

Sorry, no, the topic of your thread was pessimistic, because it framed the topic in a negative way, which is yet to occur, which somewhat sets the tone of the tread there after.  A neutral topic would have been something like "How will we measure the success of our season" or personally I prefer the positive framing of the question of "What would playing finals mean to our club".

Each to their own and if you and other want to be the Eeyore's of the footy World, then go for it, but perhaps you'd be better on the ski slopes at Bulla than watching out Demons go about their business.  There may well be a time for preponderance of your question, but it is not now.  Now is the time to be getting behind our boys and supporting them onto September glory.

I believe we can make finals and looking forward to the ride.  Scraping into finals after being in a position to make them comfortabley is typical MFC way to finish the home and away since I have supported the might Red and Blue, so why should that stop now.  

It starts again this week against the Saints.

Some of the pessimism on this forum is palpable at the moment, typified by @Danelska's thread Lack of Finals = Failed Season?.  Seasons not over yet, @Nasher, please shut down the aforementioned topic.

We are presently in the best position to make finals thay we have been in over a decade.  Win three very winnable games and we are almost assured of playing finals.  If we loose to any of those teams, we don't deserve to play finals anyway.  Yes our form has dipped over the last month in the absence of our A grade midfield, but few clubs in the AFL could have maintained their best form in the face of the injuries we had over that period.  It happens otherwise sometimes, but again most players take a week or two to hit their straps upon return (i.e. Jones, Watts).  Our best footy this year is capable of beating any side in the comp, we just need to find that in the next few weeks.

Melbourne supporters need to turn out on mass to all of our three remaining games at the MCG, get behind the boys and hopefully some where else the week after that when we will be again playing in September.

CARN THE MIGHTY DEMONS!

1 hour ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

A draw this week to St Kilda is effectively a win... assuming we win our last 2.

Unless the Dons shock Adelaide, the most they can finish with is 12-10. We'd be 12-9-1 in the above scenario.

An interesting observation, but I think (and hope) it's very much an academic one.  Aiming for a draw is one point off getting a loss, when the team should be aiming to put as big a margin on St Kilda as possible to put the game beyond doubt and then not stop there and grind them into the ground for the sake of percentage.

Not that I'm expecting we will nessasrily be in this position, but if we are well on top of St Kilda at 3/4 time, you could imagine they might drop their bundle pretty badly once finals are pretty much gone for them.

Can anyone explain what has happened with Hulett?  Last year I recall punters on this forum thinking he was almost good for a debut in the AFL, but seems to have vanished out of calculations this year.

15 minutes ago, Dee-licious said:

Gus is going to get a hard tag this week and have a guess who it is from.... number 41 for those playing at home. 

Nice Brayshaw on Brayshaw, Spy V Spy.

So long as they keep it clean, no more concussions thanks.

Just in case MFC supporters needed another reason for winning against the Great Wankers Side.

Tom $cully has 'unfinished business' with GWS Giants ahead of Melbourne Demons clash

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/afl/tom-scully-has-unfinished-business-with-gws-giants-ahead-of-melbourne-demons-clash-20170803-gxotln.html 

I really hate these pricks and this one [censored] in particular.  Beyond setting up our spot in the top 8, I really hope we smash GWS today for the benefit of $cully.  

May the boos be long and loud.  

Never forget.

Part of me is actually kind of hoping that the Tigers beat Hawthorn this weekend, just because I hate those arogant Hawks suppoters, their arrogant side and would love to see any faint finals hope for them snuffed out.  Conversely if the Tigers loose, it keeps 4th spot ajar for us, asumming we are good enough to win most/all games from here.

3 hours ago, mauriesy said:

No Dangerfield and Geelong look ordinary.

I thought Geelong looked ordinary when we played them with Dangerfield.  We would have pummeled them that day had big Max not gone down and we had kicked straight.

10 hours ago, jnrmac said:

He tries to a little too much on the field with his dinky kicks to the corridor but overall he is a great asset and a good bloke to boot!

He isn't the only one guilty of that.  Some of Jordan Lewis's exits from back 50 have resulted in shocking clanger type turnovers.  But for the most part, I think these two guys are pretty reliable kicks and decision makers.  I'm guessing that due to their maturity and implied security in the team they are given and accept the licience to take a few more risks on occasion.  We probably forget the times it comes off, because they start the chain which ends in a goal and it's the final goal and goal assist that gets remembered.

16 hours ago, CBDees said:

I equally like this story of his background and family connection! A committed Demon!

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2017-08-04/maynards-remarkable-sporting-journey

Awesome stuff.  Favorite part of the whole article is:

“I remember having a meeting in this room [in the football department at AAMI Park] about five years ago with [national recruiting manager] Jason Taylor. I told him – and I meant it, when I said at the time – that if I ever come back to footy, I want to play for Melbourne,” he said.

“I was about 20 [years old] at the time and I was back from my second year of college. Jason told me where the club was heading and I told him ‘my dad played here and I couldn’t imagine myself playing for any other AFL club – I want to play for Melbourne’.

 Love this stuff and love that we are building a core of young guys like Viney, Stretch, Harms and now Maynard that bleed Red and Blue.  A few others which I think you could probably add to that list that weren't born into it are Jones, Maxy and probably even Nev Jetta.  Was so encouraging to here how much Aron Davey loves the club.  Player loyalty and passion in football isn't dead after all.

20 hours ago, Adzman said:

His contested possession numbers have been Oliveresque in the VFL. He might suprise a few people on debut.

Hmmm Oliveresque, I like the sound of that.

7 hours ago, DemonAndrew said:

well, it's 30 years since 87, i'd say since then our best mids have been, in order of what i think of as 'eras' of football before our current captain became our best mid:

- robbie
- brian wilson
- todd viney
- stephen stretch
- sugar healy
- glenn lovett
- stephen tingay
- andrew obst
- kevin dyson
- andrew leoncelli
- shane woewodin
- cam bruce
- stephen powell
- travis johnstone
- james mcdonald
- brent moloney
- brock mclean

i think that oliver can be significantly better than all of them

If Brock McLean makes the list above, then surely players like Guy Rigoni and Paul Hopgood do as well. Did Flash play enough midfield to consider him as one?   Mentioning McLean in the same list as Jnr Mac, Stinger, Viney & Co is a huge insult to those genuine Melbourne mids.

Seriously McLean, you might as well throw in his mate Col Silvia as well.

Thanks for the tip off Jnr.

Great article.  Not a heap of new info, but all told in Bernie's words.  Huge fan of Bern, he has that great mix of knock about country attitude and not taking himself too seriously, combined with high motivation and intelligence under the surface that have made him such a great acquisition for the club.

Such a great clubman as well.  Saw him on on AFL 360 a few weeks back and they were hinting at his drop of in form and where his career might be heading, to which Bernie basically responded that he just loves playing footy, even if sometime in the future that was just at Casey helping the development of the young guys.  The 360 guys didn't probe further, but I get the impression that Bernie would be happy just to play in a playing mentoring capacity as a Casey/VFL listed player rathere than an AFL one at some point.

He definitely hasn't had the same impact this year as he had previously, but I'm looking forward to seeing what he can produce out on the park for us this week against GWS.  Still an important player for us.

2 minutes ago, Chook said:

Yass! Cam Pedersen in. I expect to see the old Pedo Win/Loss ratio updated again come Saturday evening. It's my favourite stat in footy.

Didn't disagree with him being dropped as his form certainly dipped, but like you I'm very glad to see him back.  Often has a good impact in big games.

22 hours ago, DemonOX said:

Last season we needed to beat both Carlton and Geelong to have a chance to make finals and we all know what happened there. 

I hope this season that we  dont fold under the pressure again as we really need to win the last four games to guarantee a finals spot. 

These next four weeks will show if we have improved between the ears imo. 

Such an improvement this season to this point though which has put us in a much better position.  Last year we were comming from  behind, had to win every game and pretty much reley on others to loose.  Beating Geelong in Geelong was a long shot on the respective capabilities of the teams over the course of the season.

This year we have the runs on the board and if we win the next two weeks I recon we pretty much stich up a finals birth with the job ahead of the teams below us.  Win all four and I seriously think we are a top four chance ahead of GWS.  Where last year, we had to play absolutely out of our skins to match it with the best sides and almost hope they had a bad day,  this season I feel our team is at a point where when we are in form, I expect we will match it with any side in the comp.  All far, fat easier said than done and I do like Goodwins one week at a time approach.

Our form has been ordanary over the past month, yet we have still found a way to keep a few wins ticking over.  Interesting that despite the loose a soldier, replace a soldier cleches from Goodwin at the time, he even suggested on Monday that our dip in form correlated with missing our A team mids.  We do need to find the sort of form we had going during that streak of wins against the Pies, Dogs etc.  Given the recient form of GWS I don't think we will know if we are really back in form should we only just win and or until we have finished off the season with a good record over the next four weeks.

On Tuesday, August 01, 2017 at 6:24 AM, Biffen said:

No we won't get him.

Just a trifling issue but why does that ugly big [censored] get to wear a black headband and Hunt gets forced to wear the AFL lisenced product.

If they are going to be pathetic and petulant they should do so uniformly or not at alll.

This is the AFL you are talking abut Biff.  Do you really expect consistency and reason?  (Just look at the 'clash' jumper debacle).

I was thinking I might take a break from watching any footy programs on TV tonight (usually find it kida demotivating after a loss), but then I remembered that Simon Goodwin will be appearing on Fox Footy's 'On The Couch' program tonight.

Will be interested in what he has to say.

39 minutes ago, DemonLad5 said:

Weid outplayed Pedo in the 2's so he comes in.

Pedo's early season form irrevelent

No it's not.

I'd still play the Bear ahead of Weid every day of the week at this point.  Weid has played what one good game in a row?  The Bear was reported as our best big man the week before and as being the domaint big man on the ground.

Weid would need to play a different role in the AFL side (as a second tall to Tommy Mac) compared to a main focal point in VFL.  I didn't see Weid's performance on the weekend, but I still don't rate his ability to take the big contested marks, bash crash, tackle or ruck like Pedo Bear.  If we think we need to replace Hogan with another tall, the Pedo's the player I'd be looking to and I think he would rise to the occasion.

I think the form of Weiderman is encouraging, but my view is he still needs another preseason and to bulk up a bit more...if he is selected and plays well, I'm more that happy to be proven wrong.

4 hours ago, Wiseblood said:

We were favourites.  We're still better as the underdogs.

Then we need to get better at winning as favourites.  Most preimers do it from finishing top four and to get there the team would be favorites most weeks.

Perhaps the pre finals bye will help even things up a bit more compared to years gone by (pardon the pun), but playing finals from outside the top 3 / top 4 has been the downfall of MFC teams since the 80s.  Obviously an extreme outside chance of top 4 this year, but getting there is where the team needs to get to in the years beyond this one.

40 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

Well, are we in doubt of playing finals in 2017?

I think we are. If we lose against GWS which is more traveling for us and drop a game against St KIlda which is a distinct possibility, then I don't think 12 wins will be enough in such a tight season.

On the weekend against North we were one goal away from cementing a spot but we failed against a side that has beaten us for over ten years.

That statistic alone should have made us all pause. This year we broke a record about losses at Ethiad as well as a few others.

The fact that there are so many horrible bad records against us (despite breaking a few) reveals that we are a club still in transition.

It's easy to get caught up in all the excitement when we beat big teams but the reality is we are still a team that is growing.

For ten years we have been the proverbial cellar dwellers only to stop the laughing by securing ten wins last year.

To expect us to go from zero to 100 kph in 2 years is unrealistic.

12 wins even without finals is still a pass for me despite how frustrating it is.

We may by some miracle performance win 3 in a row and play finals but even if we don't, we are still a team o the ascendency and next year will go even higher.

At least this time when we say we are building.......this time it is no lie.

I certainly hope the team hasn't given up make finals like you appear to have done.