Deenooos_

Yeh tbh for some reason pressure completely dismantles our game which is odd because it's part of footy. I wonder if the teams in last year's finals were poor pressure sides or were we able to handle it better? I guess there's no way around Sydney or Coll so I don't see us winning but making a prelim or granny is huge even if we come up short. We will have to look at how we can become a better pressure side over the summer because we need to get back up into the top 5 in the comp like 2021. When I look at our young guys nobody can really bash them for being mediocre at times or inconsistent: Sparrow, Spargo, Rivers, Jackson, Pickett, Jordon are all under 22 and are already showing their talent. I can't wait for next year after another full preseason and think JVR will probably become a consistent part of our forward line! We will be top 2/3 again next year and the hunger will be back. I think the whole year has just been mentally and physically draining and that's understandable.

I said it before and I'll say it again these results may end up going our way. I would much rather play Geelong in a prelim than Collingwood! I think Geelong are definitely overrated and we played the best team in Sydney on Friday and really couldn't have played any worse but almost got it done. Pump Brisbane next week, and play the cats at the MCG where the crowd will likely be 50/50 rather than 70/30 in a prelim against the pies. We make the granny everything can happen. Who knows Petracca may be back to 85% by then which will be huge. I'm not writing us off!

Imo the result today couldn’t have been better for us. We struggle against the pies and Sydney because of their elite pressure, they must be in the top 3 for pressure in the comp. I was barracking for Geelong because I think they can be handled better by our boys in a PF. Geelong are bottom 8 for pressure just like us. I honestly think they are a bit overrated. Geelong almost got beaten by the pies whose profile is actually pretty average except for defensively. If we can beat the lions and beat Geelong (they will remember how we dismantled them) and play swans or pies in a GF anything can happen. Petracca should be mostly recovered from his fracture in 3 weeks. It’s not all over yet.

His job is to be a defensive forward similar to what TMac was used for. TMac ran opposition defenders under the ball in marking contests to let Brown get an unimpeded run and jump. Sydney’s interceptors had a pretty quiet day. Goals are a bonus.

Absolute rubbish, this is a 4 week injury at the least. You saw how impacted Clarry was by his fractured thumb for 3-4 weeks, how do you think a fractured shinbone is ? Not good!

I have had a hairline fracture in my tibula when I was 15 and was in a cast for 6 weeks. He should not be playing let alone walking Jesus! How unlucky are we with injuries. Even if he rested until the Grand Final he shouldn't be playing and he will be way below his best.

I think you have maybe over analysed the situation a bit. That's footy. Turnovers are made and mistakes happen otherwise one team wouldn't win. I assure you if you go back and watch the game without red and blue glasses on you'll see many things the swans could have done better to prevent a goal to the dees, I'm sure swans fans could identify plenty. Then again some of the passages of play you mention involve some of our leaders in Gawn, May, Lever and you would have liked for them to stand up and set an example...

You're right. It only lasted 18 months. We have to take a long look at our gameplan over the summer because too many teams now have a style that comprehensively beats it, the talent in our group is keeping us in games, but Geelong, Sydney and Collingwood are overtaking us pretty quickly. Can the FD make it work? Who knows but we can't let our list waste away over the next 3 years...

Yep I rewatched parts of the 2nd half and we were abysmal with our disposal. I almost smashed may computer screen out of frustration. On so many occasions. Brayshaw too slow to handball gets tackled, ANB absolutely butchering a simple kick i50 to Spargo over his head, Gawn with that pathetic embarrassing set shot in the last, Petracca bursting through with an epic ball win to completely miss. These are the times to step it up. It's cringeworthy Borderline embarrassing effort really, if we're a premiership team we certainly don't look it. Good teams capitalise on their chances when they're presented and we did nothing of the sort. Clarry was our best kick for goal, I mean seriously...

It happened so often tonight. We couldn't win a ground ball to save ourselves, always outnumbered and in the wrong position.

Weak supporters, too nice. The team too. We have turned into a nice guy club. We are good enough to win a premiership but maybe only last year on the quest to break a drought, something is missing now.

We will likely face Geelong in the prelim, I think we will beat Brisbane, their defence just isn’t good enough and can’t be compared to Sydney. Geelong is the one team I’d most want to face in the prelim out of Coll and Sydney. Their pressure game just overwhelms us and we lose all composure. That’s not to say we will beat Geelong but I think it will be the best matchup we could ask for. - Max is ruckman not a forward! We were smashed in clearance use our best ruck in the middle for 80% game time. [censored] - Salem is not the same player. He had groin soreness for 2-3 weeks, he is not fit just play Bowey. - Brayshaw’s kicking is horrendous at times, 11 turnovers! Back to halfback. - Get Brown out and put Mcdonald in. He is a liability in anything but a mark on lead. Mcdonald can crash a pack, Brown is as weak as a baby giraffe. Melk Tmac are better together up forward.

Well played Sydney! They were great and deserved the win in the end. Just couldn't get our game going largely due to Sydney. Disappointed...

Last year our cornerstone was to respond to adversity. Can we do it this year? We will need to do it .... come on dees

And that’s why we DON’T drop Spargo!

Our odds have shortened considerably from $1.50 to $1.41. The more interesting thing is that we are paying just $4.10 for a 40+ point win vs the swans $14.00. That is a huge discrepancy. Punters seem pretty confident..

Boooo.

Be loud today dees fans I have a feeling the crowd will be 70% in our favour, let the boys know we're there. Dees to come out firing like in round 12, only this time we will run the game out and protect the lead. 35 point win.

Make some noise! ❤️💙

[censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] - use imagination Shouldn’t Hibberd and co. avoid the main group at all costs? Can remain contagious for a while..

A little update on some recent posts: “Nervous as s**t, I hope we don’t go to water, I don’t think we will” “A win will be extraordinary for this group bigger than beating Port in 2003. “super confident could be us by 10 goals” “IMO this will be the closest game of the four as we are the only two teams who can win the flag I reckon.” “The longer the week gets the more confident I get.” re - “I’m the complete opposite. I'm settled down for 30point loss.” “Hope the boys go into this with no fear. We've worked for the double chance and I'll back us in to do it the hard way if we lose. Pressure is on Melbourne here. Just have to go in with manic pressure and hope they break at some point.” “David King tips us...... We are screwed” “The more I think about it, the more I reckon we'll win this by 40+. Gawn, Oliver, Petracca are no where near their form last year and can't drag their side over the line this year.” - lol what? "Some big statements being made here around the outcome of this game. 40 and 50 point margins in a QF against the reigning premier on their home ground who once again finished top 2. Ridiculous." “More I think about it, the more I think no matter what happens we are likely to concede in the midfield. Luckily, we are very good at absorbing inside 50's and generate majority of our scores off turnover/ from defence. If we can break 40/60 in the midfield it will go a long way to winning the game.” "I tipped us but by less than 2 goals. Anyone thinking a 30+ win might be very surprised by how good the Demons are. They could belt us tbh." “More I think about it, the more I think no matter what happens we are likely to concede in the midfield. Luckily, we are very good at absorbing inside 50's and generate majority of our scores off turnover/ from defence. If we can break 40/60 in the midfield it will go a long way to winning the game.”

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/purefooty/pure-footy-david-king-and-daniel-hoyne-look-at-key-stats-trends-for-first-week-of-finals/news-story/015e0e44a1fb36eed07f5cff487396ce - Interesting video with David King reviewing his 'core four' premiership metrics for each finals team over the last 6 weeks and how this influences each of the finals matchups. Surprisingly, considering Geelong's easy draw they rank 3rd in these metrics and we rank 2nd. Daylight between top 3 and the rest. Obviously it isn't surprising that Geelong are not miles ahead like the media would have you think, and on the other side we are still right up there.

1. If you actually read my post I specifically said that MG is not an indication of fitness and I was just using it as a thought experiment. 2. After having a look at the numbers to see if they would marry up with our supposed period where we load and sure enough there was a definite drop in MG from r11 and the highest from r1-8. 3. If you think MG has more to do with the “style” you play rather than the fitness to move the ball forward and keep it in our forward half then what do you think is the cause for us to play a different style midyear? We aren’t changing our gameplan so what other reason is there? When we are at our "best" our MG is 6500+. When we are fit players are running parallel and receiving forward handballs and running forward. We are also rebounding better from our d50 by winning contests better all of the ground, whereas during the middle of the year our running and transition game was just not there and it was stagnant and boring. If you can't see how this stat would in some way reflect our running ability I don't know what else to tell you.

Because being fatigued would decrease all of those. Not as much run and carry with the ball. Our ability to move the ball from coast to coast and quickly by that, is minimised therefore our MG is less as a result.

Exactly. The comments were in no way positive about us…