Northern Summer

I went along for part of it yesterday. I said it before and i'll say it again, I still think it would have been better to stage a massive Best and Fairest count whilst replaying highlights of the entire season throughout (i.e. passages of play when each round's votes read out). It would have been a 'live' event, and unique in that it is something that is generally too exclusive for most to attend. Don't get me wrong, it was obviously a successful day purely based on crowd numbers, but I think that would have been far more engaging than replaying a game we have already watched a million times on what are small screens from our seats at the MCG (which they are from a distance) for 2.5 hours. A live Best and Fairest count would have led well into the winner celebrations and the belated Premiership celebrations.

1 minute ago, Clintosaurus said:

Traded out 43 for a third next year

Has anyone matched a bid for Woewodin then? Or don't we know yet?

3 hours ago, Cassiew said:

They had a great coach, but they seem to get rid of good coaches in favour of former players. Stupid really

St Kilda get rid of good coaches in favour of former players? Who?

The last St Kilda coach that played for the club was Grant Thomas some 15 years ago now.. since then, none of Ross Lyon, Scott Watters, Alan Richardson or Brett Ratten are former players...

Even back in 2001, Thomas took over because Malcolm Blight was more interested in playing golf than coaching...

I guess the question to ask here is, if his surname was not Woewodin, would anyone be taking any notice of him whatsoever? We've certainly moved beyond the point of getting blokes onto our list because of any perceived loyalty, such that we didn't keep Farmer's son, didn't draft Brett Lovett's son, and we let Billy Stretch go too without playing him much. From the sounds of it, he was only a late inclusion into the WA state team. If he gets drafted, particularly to us, that would be awesome and I totally trust our recruiting team who have performed second to none; however, it probably doesn't look overly likely.

1 hour ago, KLV said:

I used to listen to Stan alves on the abc, never heard him say anything positive about the Dees.

Happy to hear he’s got passion for the red and blue.

wasn’t Crackers also on the abc for a bit?

I mean, let's be honest, there probably wasn't anything positive to say about the Dees during the period he was commentating!

13 minutes ago, WERRIDEE said:

Missed the followers again damn, just gives me an excuse to do the best 22 again.

B: RIVERS, MAY, LEVER

HB: BOWEY, PETTY, SALEM

C: LANGDON, PETRACCA, BRAYSHAW

HF: NEAL-BULLEN, JACKSON, SPARROW

F: PICKETT, B.BROWN, FRITSCH

FOLL: GAWN, OLIVER, VINEY

IC: HUNT, SPARGO, HARMES, MCDONALD

SUB: TOMLINSON

EMERG: JORDON, DUNSTAN, HIBBERD

 

CASEY

B: HORE, TURNER, J.SMITH

HB: HIBBERD, TOMLINSON, D.SMITH

C: BAKER, DUNSTAN, DECLASE

HF: MELKSHAM, M.BROWN, ROSMAN

F: BEDFORD, WEIDEMAN, CHANDLER

FOLL: DAW, JORDON, LAURIE

IC: DRAFT PICK, DRAFT PICK

I really wouldn't be surprised if Weideman secures a spot in the starting lineup early next season in lieu of McDonald. I have a feeling Mcdonald re-signed knowing he was first choice this season but likely back-up after that, and Weideman ultimately stayed because he was told he'd be given every opportunity to land a starting gig with a full pre-season and promising form...

Gary Buckenara was a fair bit more brutal than Cornes... makes interesting reading now :-) 

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/melbourne/recruiting-guru-gary-buckenara-analyses-melbourne-demons-list-after-the-2020-afl-season/news-story/47bf22e9451e0df2d38d1aaa5fb16b44

3 hours ago, JTR said:

Another good read over on BF re our 16.4.100 to 1.1.7 run...

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/best-30-minutes-of-football-ever.1287418/

 

Bit inaccurate. It should read '4 of their last 4 matches'. Our second quarter against the Lions was akin to our last quarter against Cats in Round 23, 3rd quarter against Geelong and last 28 mins yesterday, we just didn't capitalise and kick straight. We should have been up by 10 goals at half time in that game!

This really hasn't sunken in yet. 30 years of going to just about every game I could in Melbourne and interstate a few times a year, included the dreaded years when there was lucky to be 15,000 at the 'G and we knew we'd get smashed. We stuck with them, stood by them. Massive shame we cannot be there in person but the feeling is surreal at the moment. I'm a grown man and have been in tears for hours. This forum has been such a great way to stay connected. The best feeling would be to be hugging strangers at the MCG tonight after the siren but we've done the best we possibly can. Enjoy this one everyone!

5 minutes ago, Demonland said:

 

It's a blessing we have so much depth! Obviously we couldn't afford an injury to any of our AA players, but we can cover injuries to our 16-22 players I would think. Hopefully he is all good and the swelling will go down with some ice. Otherwise, Milkshake probably comes into the side.

A great deal given my 30+ years of support. As someone that's been to just about every game over this period when i've been in Melbourne (aside from when I used to play on the same day), I can't help but feel it won't exactly be the same as being there in person to watch and witness it. That aside, I went to all of the Vic games this season when allowed, which is a great deal more than those that have jumped on the bandwagon in Perth in this past week for a one-off game...

1 hour ago, Mickey said:

Sam Edmunds starting to get on board with Cerra to the Dees.

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2021/09/18/sam-edmunds-trade-update-on-cerra-lobb-clark-and-more/

"I struggle to see how Melbourne would go to the trouble of being the only other club to compete with Carlton for his services if they didn’t have a plan in place or a possibility of getting the deal done. When you look at it, it has to involve a player.”

“Clearly Adam Cerra believes it’s possible because he hasn’t said ‘I’m definitely going to Carlton'".

I hope it's not the case, but maybe one of our WA players (i.e. Rivers) wants to go home, and has notified the club about that, and it's being kept hush-hush until the season has finished? 

A Premiership or even a top-notch season making a GF isn't necessarily the be-all and end-all for all of the players, even though it might be for us supporters. Remember Joel Hamling walked out on the Bulldogs after their 2016 flag to join the Dockers!

14 hours ago, Clint Bizkit said:

2015 was my reference, I’d forgotten that the royal blue jumper wasn’t West Coast’s home jumper that year.

Geelong and Sydney being in so many Grand Finals muddies the water because Geelong offen wear white shorts home and Sydney often wear red shorts away.

Think you'll find it was WCE's preference to wear the royal blue jumper in the 2015 GF, which is now their home jumper anyway. They did the same in 2005 and 2006, despite no clash with Sydney, when back then they had a predominately navy blue home jumper.

If we are wearing the redback (which we probably aren't), it may be the club's choice to save pushing the Dogs to wear white and thereby given them more ammunition to fire up for the game, and provide better visibility for the players.

Gotta make a quick irrelevant point here. It's amazing how many 'new' Demonland members with one post haven't contributed anything on this page, yet flooded the GF barcode page. I'm sure we will never hear from them again, unless, of course, we make the Grand Final again next year and it's unexpectedly played interstate!

Totally agree with what many have said - we are a more rounded team than the Bulldogs with no obviously deficiencies. We just have to be careful of the ball hitting the ground too often in the backline, particularly if it's wet, because it's not our number 1 strength dealing with it.

Frankly though, the only things I think will cost us winning are:

(1) a ridiculously lopsided free kick count, which we've become all used to with games involving the Bulldogs; and/or

(2) inaccuracy - we were the 17th most accurate side in the H&A season, but things have looked a little more promising recently. We need to nail our shots at goal, particularly early on.

I have one category 1 barcode for sale for the $229 price or whatever it was. Just looking at getting my money back. Contact me if interested if you're a Dees supporter and can go.

The WA papers have reported that there are likely to be 20,000 general admission seats available now that Port didn't make it, as they expected a lot of South Australians to fly over given there are no restrictions for SA entrants. 

Just out of interest to people prepared to sell their guaranteed grand final barcode, would you ask whoever is buying it off you to reimburse you the $229 or whatever amount you paid to the club to get access to it?

7 minutes ago, 3183 Dee said:

I think this bye was brought in to cover any potential quarantine issues - it has given the Doggies a serious hand in resting and recuperating.

Brought in to deal with quarantine issues with McLaughan and his cronies. Even though the bye might appear to disadvantage us, there are a few pros:

- we performed very strongly after our last bye last night, so following a similar program where we have an intense inter-club match effectively again should do the trick;

- the Bulldogs have got some momentum now in the finals... it halts that;

- it gives May a chance to recover and play - he's super important to our structure.

2 hours ago, wonnabeeri said:

I think everyone should be a bit wary of the folks posting here. Lots of 'longtime demon fans' that have signed up for demonland this week.

 

WA are rushing through scalping laws for the gf. You'd hate for someone breaking the law by scalping a ticket to be traced back to your membership. 

Exactly, if someone new on this page is requesting, i'd refrain. Easy to see based on the amount of posts. People can try their luck on the Facebook supporters group where they aren't as de-identified.

10 minutes ago, Chook said:

Love Mitch Robinson. Looks to have already deleted it.

EDIT: Or it's fake.

Looks more to me like 'poster remorse'. Looking at the wording of his other tweets, his profile name and pic, I'd be surprised if he didn't post it and delete it immediately...

Just now, Wrecker46 said:

Bont and Danger both look cooked. Maybe Selwood too. None of them are right.

For once we look like we are going into the last 2 games at full strength.

Injuries do as well :-)

I'm probably going to be hammered for this idea, but would we let go of Tom Mcdonald and try to keep Sam Weideman?

This has nothing to do with McDonald's decline in form over the past few weeks. He is in his late-20's, he's not going to get any better, and he might be marketable to another club now. If he's still contracted (?), it might save us some coin.

Even though we haven't seen enough from Weideman to prove that he can make it, he's substantially younger and there's potentially a lot of upside to him. He might just slot into the side nicely next year now that we have some continuity with our set up.

Just a thought...

2 minutes ago, cantstandyasam said:

I reckon we play Weed med sub and if T Mac is having a mare then Tommy can pull a hammy. 

Just think that Milkshake is a bit more reliable in a big game, where we would get a tangible result (i.e. defensive forward role and an accurate kick at goal - unlike most of the rest of our team)

8 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Honest think GWS will beat Geelong.

They just look absolutely cooked.

I hope so, because I think we'd absolutely smash GWS if they got through given their run of equivalent knock-out finals. It'll all come undone. Mind you, they looked absolutely spent in that last 1/4 today and should have been overrun, so dad's army will probably still get up next week.

In: Hunt; Out: Smith

Regarding TMac & Bowey, if we win the Preliminary Final and poor form by either, would seriously consider Melksham & Hibbard.

Just now, DubDee said:

Anyone else enjoying the Scott presser??

he is suppressing the rage

just said Geelong 'dominated the game against Melbourne' except the last part. He's delusional.