MurDoc516

Please remember that even though we were undermanned the Swannies last year bodied us on our coming out party. We can argue we would have done better with less injuries, but so will Adelaide this week. Real test is these next two weeks. Win both and the world can't ignore us, because the Pies are a finals contender and the Dogs are hot and cold depending on the week. A good scrap with the doggies will set us up for an 80k test against the side who put the final nails in our coffin last season. If we smash both of them then the argument stops being who have we beat and turns into who can beat us. As a fan i'll take the each week as it comes and enjoy the reaction from the media every week. Let's not start talking premierships here okay.

As Crawf and Hirdy mentioned on their pod. Wet games usually provide a great platform to attack from the week after. Look at Gold Coast and North at the start of the season and in Round 2.

We went from being so hot and cold in games to winning 18 straight qtrs. Shout out to Goody and his coaches, they've done something right.

Preseason camp bowl winners baby!

Members numbers are nice but we need to get ground numbers up so the AFL gives us some Friday Night MCG games. They always seemingly move the goal post when it comes to letting us back on Friday Night.

I'd bring Garlett in for Spargo maybe

Let's just see how we go. I think our run at the moment is similar to last seasons, just lesser quality opposition. We shaped up to the Cats, Tigers and Hawks and lost. We could've won 2 of those game if we had just been better with the ball or had a much better set up, all of which has changed since this run started. I'll take what the players say at face value. They said they learnt a lot from Hawthorn and it feels like this team won't let that happen again.

Lever was one of the best on field IMO. The amount of times he cut out a Carlton attack was amazing. You can always highlight the quality of an opposition, but i'd give the boy the benfit of the doubt considering he really turned it on post Hawthorn.

Real test next week. will be interesting to see if the Crows still have key players missing, we might hit them at the right time. Weirdly i'd be more confident against them at Adelaide oval then in the NT.

Lever was superb with the intercept marking today. The Max Gawn 50m incident after the first qtr and Viney going in and fighting 10 carlton blokes at once was inspiring. Petracca needs to play as a forward more. If he was a decent set shot he'd avg 2 goals a game as a medium forward which is close to All Australian form. Neal-Bullen, Harmes, T. Smith and Hannan all superb. Spargo was chasing Carlton players relentlessly when the game was over, it's something we haven't done when in these situations. We are basically playing Richmonds manic pressure with 4 talls. Says something about the athleticism and endurance our big boys have.

Gerard is okay, i like BT and people are allowed to be down on us after the shocker against Hawks and the poor last qtr vs the Tigers. We've only beat 3 of whats probably going to be the bottom 6 sides in the comp. We ain't beating the best in the comp, so let's not get ahead of ourselves and start calling media people out for not kissing our toes. ALSO we did have the most to lose (= with Essendon) we are on the repair after two poor games and losing to gold coast would be a disaster when you consider our easy draw for the next month and the difficult draw that lays ahead.

Anyone remember young Hoges tossing Rance around like the little [censored] he is?

Brayshaw may be more all rounded but i don't think he has the highs of Petracca

are you talking about Lever bouncing up and down on 3qtr time trying to rev the boys up?

Bunch of softies in here my god. Commentator didn't jerk us off enough i'm outraged anti bias [censored].

If you look at who has beat who you'd realise this comp is dead even with Maybe Richmond as the pace setters and GWS being the sleepers. We wil lose to anyone and beat anyone, but it's round 6. We have 10 weeks to find our feet and with how the comp is going we will still be in reach of the top 8 (if not in it) and we can set ourselves up for a september push.

Oscar McDonald, Lever, Hibberd and Jetta all clicked today. Intercepting and positioning in ways to help each other out. If Lever was a better field kick we'd be mint.

Oscar been putting in the shift for Tom this time around. How the tables have turned.

We will [censored] Richmond if we can figure out how to stop Dusty in his new FF role. Oscar Mac master class or is it time for Jake Lever to announce himself i wonder

We've had games in which we didn't give up 4+ goal runs. We've also had games in which we did and still won easily. Our best football with the talent on our list means we are a good team in the grand scheme of things. However i doubt we will ever be a great team if we can't stop this habit or atleast match the numbers of the current top teams.

It depends what value you put into the words of media pundits. As i mentioned above Paul Roos and Brown both believe Lever is playing way too high and we aren't setting up behind the ball correctly. Crawford thinks we are a young team who play for themselves instead of doing what good teams do and following the plan given by the coaching staff to the letter for four quarters. Crawford also mentioned that this is normal for a young team that's on the verge of being a good team, but i don't think that patience is going to solve everything. I personally take a lot of stock in what Roosy has to say. The set up behind the ball is wrong, but our defence is lazy and he also showed footage of players not tracking loose runners into defensive 50.

We are a "good team" our best is better than most. Yet we allow teams to give us a game, when we should be burying them like good teams do. Before you bring up Carlton, Brisbane and North as examples to show this isn't a Melbourne problem, please realise we are playing to be the best while they are rebuilding. Compare us to GWS, Hawks, Cats etc. and see this problem of giving up runs of goals in a game is the reason why we are not two steps ahead of our current position. I watched the Couch earlier this week and our former coach showed some damning footage of our set up behind the ball. Lever is playing infront of our key defenders (O. Mac and Frost) instead of behind like traditional sweepers do. Our defensive line is 15 metres too high and is exposing us to a ball over the top and allowing smaller forwards expose our lack of pace in defence.

21 times in 26 game we've conceded 4+ goals on a run.

Everyone here has something against every player in the squad. It's almost pointless asking who should come in and who should go out. All i can say is play Hogan at full [censored] forward so we have an out ball. Bring Hannan IN for Harmes and have him and Jeffy play off Hogan. Hunt in for Frost, we don't need extra talls and i've accepted the fact we can't defend so bring Hunt in for his attacking strength. Also bring Tyson in for any of the crabs we don't need. I'd expect a big response, but if it's another [censored] performance the season isn't dead, but hope is lost of doing anything meaningful in finals. Edit: Also any chance we can pump Viney up on painkillers and get him to go out and there and rip the tigers apart. Can't stand that muppet [censored] Rance. Bernie can get a life time membership if he goes in knocks that [censored] out.

Hawthorn clearly aren't a threat if we are spending the day getting a tan.