Red But Mostly Blue

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 ☹️

And we're done. (Today and for 2022).

Maybe we'll show some ticker in these last 7 minutes? It would be timely.

VERY LUCKY Why the hell was Maxy the choice there? We had guys free in much safer spaces! This team is going to kill me

Wtf how does that work?

You called it hahaha

Looks like the Blues want it more. Average side making us look even more average than we are right now.

Gonna be tough for the anti Melksham brigade to drop him for next week. He's kicked half our goals, and has been just about the only guy willing to lower the eyes and direct the ball TO SOMEBODY i50.

Sigh. Just can't get a clear break.

Never in any doubt... 😂

Playing like this, it doesn't matter where we finish up next week, we'll just be making up numbers. We keep kicking to the wing, but we have hardly anyone who can actually take a mark or kick the goal when they do, and we have Max who doesn't know where the goals are anymore. I hope they have written "buy a good for forward" and a proper forward coach on the whiteboard. The window for "we'll come good" is getting smaller by the second. Ugh, what a waste.

This outcome takes me back to Chandler, whose only real fault on that night was not being a Cripps :-(

I don't have any major issues with 'no change', we didn't lose last week because the team isn't right (as such), we lost because we missed a few we should have slotted (and probably would have most other days). 13-11 is not a terrible day at the office. And the Pies were having a day in front of goal they likely can't replicate, and got the rub of a few frees they shouldn't have. I will add, I'd have liked to see Harmes get a game, maybe at the expense of Jordon who has not looked right, but I guess the faith is being shown in Jordon and the likes of ANB getting the job done. I reckon the boys now have additional fire in the belly from the loss to the Pies, and will look to atone bigtime against Carlton. On the topic of JVR, what's the point of bringing in someone underdeveloped, who will most likely suffer from the same issues plaguing most forwards in our team - poor delivery/bombs i50 etc. I don't think many forwards would survive with our current approach. If we work on our delivery, we might just find Brown, Fritter and the rest in better positions to score (aside from Gawn - his misses have generally had little to do with delivery). JVR would almost be set up to fail, and there'd be a loud contingent of people calling for his premature exit. Nah, let's get him right, but specially our delivery and approach. We've got this. Pound for pound, we demolish the Blues. Let's just get it done, then tear the Lions a new one.

None of this Grundy talk appeals to me. Maxy is not a good enough kick to have up forward (in fact, he terrifies me every time he kicks for goal - although he is not alone), and there is no assurance Grundy will be fit enough for FIVE years to warrant that kind of money. I get that we'll need another ruckman if Jackson goes (and we are in a premiership window), but we should look for somebody younger to learn the craft, or maybe throw some good $$$ at someone like Tom De Koning when out of contract. Flynn? With the quality of our midfield, it almost doesn't even matter... I think we need someone decent/good who can help out to give Max a chop out, and let him *gulp* roam forward to kick *goals* On the topic of goals, instead of plonking money on a ??? Grundy, we should probably focus on landing someone up forward who can kick goals, Fritter should not be our #1 goalkicker.

100% - we need to (and should) destroy the Blues this week, with or without Cripps.

Due to concussion, Ah Chee will miss this week - but he should also miss the next 10 for allowing his face to interfere with Cripps' elbow.