Lord Nev

It's either completely dumb or absolutely genius. Either Lingers has fired up a team that may have got complacent given their run of wins OR he's bumped up the interest in the game even though he's so confident we've got them covered. Guess we find out late Friday night which... Side note though - Wouldn't think Simon 'respect the opposition, straight bat in the media' Goodwin was particularly happy.

Well, we won't be accepting magic beans...

Oh well.

This thread seems to be jumping the shark a bit now... (Disclaimer - I'm a loading believer) It started out with posters explaining that loading wasn't the only factor in winning or losing but now it seems to be becoming: If you win - You loaded already. If you lose - You're either loading or should have loaded.

Didn't hear anything about Weid... Full post-match, R20: Demons You're not getting mixed up with the mid-week presser are you @Sir Why You Little?

Didn't realize the VFL was a kids comp...

Darcy fined for the punch, Kozzy fined for staging - far out, seen A LOT worse than Kozzy's one go unpunished... Kysaiah Pickett, Melbourne, has been charged with Staging during the second quarter of the Round 20 match between Fremantle and Melbourne played at Optus Stadium on Friday 29 July, 2022. Match Review: Docker charged for Petracca punch, Dee cops staging fine

Annnnd that's 5... Get him in.

HARRY PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS It’s not just the two-headed Dees defensive ‘monster’ (Steven May and Jake Lever) that makes Melbourne an uneasy match-up down back. As we saw when it mattered last year, you have to include Harrison Petty as the third wheel. The Dees’ defence restricted the Dockers to only FIVE goals - with four of them kicked by small forwards. Big forwards Matt Taberner and Rory Lobb were kept goalless. The credit must collectively go to Melbourne’s back six, and more specifically Petty, Lever and May. They helped to break the spirit of the Dockers’ forwards as well as the hearts of Freo fans. When the triple-headed defensive ‘monsters’ all play together, they are very hard to stop. They have played nine games as a trio this season, with the Demons winning seven of them. Early Tackle: Glenn McFarlane gives his likes and dislikes across a massive Round 20

JVR's game today makes it a bit more interesting...

We all just meeting there? ;)

Please show me where I've accepted him under performing? Just continually surprised by the reactions when he plays a poor game. He's a depth forward who might be traded even though we'll be struggling for key forward/ruck depth end of year. He's on a short contract for minimum chips and the coach's comments whenever asked about him aren't generally encouraging. Then people jump on Demonland and sook about him like they didn't expect him to not play well.

Oh you must have (selectively) missed all the 'break out game' 'take his chance' 'still got hopes' posts every time he's mentioned. Welcome to Demonland!

Think they all came back on the red eye last night, Chandler playing too and he was sub.

It was a pizz take that his brother said he wanted to play midfield and then a few days later he was playing midfield? Righto.

We agree on a lot there mate. Just the messaging piece we differ on but that's footy hey. Good to be up and about for the rest of our season, let's hope we slingshot into finals now. Cheers!

Goody post game: "We had a ruthless edge tonight...." Man, can't believe he's still playing 'ruthless bingo' and baiting the media.

I'm not defending the media analysts mate. I agree we rarely get fantastic in-depth discussion from the majority of them. None of that has been my point.

I'm in the loading camp mate, always have been. But it's obvious from those comments those posters think all the talk from the club during the week about ruthlessness and complacency was a front for the media to hide the fact we're loading. "Hook, line and sinker" "Club taking the [censored] in the media" "Playing 'ruthless' bingo" This conspiracy belief that the club made up a narrative and sent out our coach, footy boss and a couple of our leaders to deliver it in the media is just silly. The simple answer is that was the theme of the week, that's why it was front of mind, that's why numerous people from the club used the exact same words. Because I believe we were loading I think we were more capable of delivering it, playing how we want to play, but we wouldn't be talking about attitudes within the club if our only focus was loading.

Pretty clear narrative here IMO. The 'ruthless' commentary wasn't for real (Goodwin, Richo, Gus and Trac all talked about it), we weren't 'complacent' (Richo said pre-game we were), there was no "pow wow" and even if there was it wouldn't matter (Richo said pre-game there'd been extra meetings and honest conversations this week) it was all just a ploy by the club to say things in the media that weren't true to cover up the fact that we were loading and that was the one and only thing that would change our fortunes.

Wasn't directed at you mate. Hadn't actually read your post when I commented. Just had a read and it's a good post, completely agree, and it's what I'm getting at here - it's not one thing or the other, it's a combination of things.

Yep, and it's pretty clear Goody isn't a fan of Weid and even with our probable lack of key forward depth end of this year he might still be gone. Just staggered some still haven't adjusted their expectations about him and still get so upset when he doesn't play a good game.

Exactly. Personally I believe in the loading and am on record about it, but to think that's the only thing happening at the club and to think they all got together and said 'let's troll the media by saying "ruthless" lots this week' is one of the silliest things I've read on Demonland.