Red But Mostly Blue

First things first, we have not beaten any of the other teams in the top 4 this year. One of them has beaten us twice. I won't say who. For those who keep saying they'll go out in straight sets, yeah maybe, maybe not. They keep winning, and they are as many wins from a flag as we are. Scary. If we play them again, and we would likely need to at some point, they will have the crowd and momentum against us. So we need to be at our best. Ok, the good stuff. I think we're coming good, at the right time. But there's still improvement, which is good. We have not maxed out yet, nor would we want to. Until it counts. Some things, like our i50 improving a little, and particularly from unlikely sources, like Melksham. Kozzie hitting a purple patch, the backline looking a little more settled (except for that ridiculous shoot out against the Pies, which to be fair was not all their fault - and the Pies also got very lucky at times - luck they will likely not be able to replicate). Brown is looking a lot better. Had good presence around the ground on Friday, took some good marks, and kicked some great goals. In recent years, we have not played the Swans well at the MCG. I would almost have preferred we play them up there! But that's silly, we will be at home, we need to capitalise on that and earn ourselves a week off before prelim. We can beat the Swans, we had them covered earlier in the year before we let them back in. We can't do that again. We have to make the most of this opportunity, the Swans at home is much better than the Pies/Cats IMO. Let's beat the Swans, then rest up and use the momentum and belief to knock over the Pies/Cats. Would be very sweet.

Loved seeing it. So pure.

Lol what the hell was that with the chocolate milk between Hunt and BT?

Great to see Bowey bank another win, too!

We had a mission... And we DESTROYED the Lions on their turf. Mission accomplished. Great team effort Message sent 🔥🔥🔥

Little man syndrome zorko

Milkshake has such poise and balance i50, such a joy to watch.

No motorbikes for Charlie tonight ☹️

What happened with Petty?!

I wonder what the barometer is reading right now....

Yaahaw, bang bang bang! 🔥🔥👍

How was that not intentional?!

Need a settler.

What a sight to see us so effective inside 50. The eyes are wide, we're looking for targets, it's manic, we're relentless, we're CONVERTING! This is exactly the sort of motivation we need going into the finals. Shots fired, watch out everyone else. Lions = pretenders. Now let's bury em.

They look ready to throw punches at every contest. That's exactly where we want them. I just hope they don't suck any of our guys into a suspension.

What's this crap from Lyon and Brown? Lions have been bad? WE HAVE DESTROYED THEM.

Incredible 🔥🔥🔥 Message sent. Lions look out for the count. But we can't let up. Looking forward to Q3. Let's consolidate and repel anything and everything. What the hell happened to ANB?

What a quarter! Physical, intense, focused, hungry and fast! We look completely switched on for our goal tonight. Let's keep it up and bury these guys by halftime. They will come out hungry though and the crowd is rabid, so we'll need to come out exactly as we started the game. Let's go Dees 🔥🔥🔥

Thanks for this. Completely agree!! If we can tidy up some of our deficiencies, and it wouldn't take a lot - it's not rocket science - we expose those 'contenders' pretty quickly.

This is great! Thanks for putting it together @WheeloRatings :-) On a similar vein, I came across this 'Equity Ladder' from BenCameron23 on Twitter. It's what the ladder would look like if everybody faced each other just once. For any teams anyone plays twice, only the first result is taken into account. Very interesting! Basically, Richmond and the Saint swap places, and Sydney swaps with the Lions. TL; DR, we're doing OK, despite wobbles against the Pies/Cats/Freo/Sydney.

That's what I am hoping as well - that this win really magnetises the team. On paper we have all the pieces (except for an answer to our i50 and forward conundrum), but sometimes you need the intangibles - like a thrilling last gasp win like we did against the Blues. Last year we got it with Maxy's after the siren kick against the Cats. This could very well do the same thing. Agree with the later statement, although I think we have been generally underwhelming against the in-form sides of the comp, such as the Cats, Swans and Pies x 2. Perhaps it's quite fitting that the Cats and Swans sit above us right now. But you're only as good as your last game, and that is especially so in the finals - so I hope we use our momentum and belief from the Blues and put the Lions away, then do what we need to do in the finals.

Absolutely! They played like a team whose spot in the finals was on the line. But I've got to say, we seem to have played a lot of teams this year who have played out of their skins, and you've got to put that down to them for sure, but also us for allowing it to happen and perhaps still being perceived as a beatable team when the right pressure is applied (hence the leads we gave up against Freo, Swans, Pies and Doggies). The team wants to be great, and build a dynasty - well I look to the recent dynasties - the Hawks, Cats and Lions were relentless. Constant drubbings at the hands of those mobs. I want to be there! We have the team, but we've got to use our time well because there are other teams on the rise, as well.

Always liked what Melksham brings, hope this helps to bring some others to Team Melk, because he was the difference. He doesn't rack up the most possessions or tackles, but he generally actually thinks about his possessions and is really crafty.

I love that we won, and it's especially sweet that we've done it to the Blues haha, but we seriously... and I mean SERIOUSLY need to take an actual look at what the hell we're doing, and whether we want this bad enough. We JUST scraped past a team whose midfield was decimated. If they make it into the finals (and I hope they do, because it'll mean they beat the pies), they won't get far, but neither will we until we do something about our gameplan.

Oh, Jack ☹️