Deenooos_

I've been thinking maybe Goodwin will pull the short straw on this in the finals as a tactical advantage as it's become obvious and predictable to our opponents. Maybe that's just wishful thinking though.

Also a possibility. The only thing I worry for is if we play the pies at the MCG. I'm not familiar with how Finals ticket allocations work, but we will most certainly be outnumbered 70% to 30%. That would be a nightmare, given how much the Collingwood crowd lifted the players at last weeks game...

Are they though? I admit we didn't play that well last night but we have played genuine flag contender football over the last 3 weeks. We are sitting at 5W-3L since the bye with two narrow losses, one against a top 3 contender. *That's also why I said "if"

I don't care if it's because we are playing the percentages, but the stupid i50 entries and the left side kick-in to the pack has to stop! It's infuriating! It was pinballing back and forth in and out of our d50 in the 2nd half. We simply couldn't win the 50/50 contest when it went to ground or it was intercepted. It puts our defence under unnecessary pressure. So many times there was a short kick option to Hunt on the right side. Why not run the ball out of 50 or chip kick it to the wing? It baffles me. It's just as ridiculous as our kicks inside 50. Viney won a clearance in the last 2min of the game and kicked it over the head of ANB who was leading with no-one on him in the 50. It went to a pack with 2-3 CFC defenders. This stupid kick could well have cost us the game. It's so frustrating because it seems like such simple fix (especially use forward of centre). 1 in every 3 kick-ins should be to the right side, it would add a touch of unpredictability for a change.

(If) we win next week against Brisbane what is our preferred outcome for the QF? 1.) Finish 2nd and play Sydney at the MCG 2.) Finish 3rd and play Sydney at the SCG 3.) Finish 3rd and play Collingwood at the MCG I for one think a 3rd place finish playing against Sydney at the SCG is actually the best option. We play really well away from home and I think the hostile environment will be a good intro to our finals series and it will give extra motivation.

What is wrong with us? We suck

Different team they're coming up against now though... If Melb are serious about making it to the end we are winning this. Last two weeks are proof of that, have played pretty good footy

Not really, the dogs game was after a win against port and the pies after a really good game against freo, hardly backs to the wall like the other two. I’m saying in games where we absolutely needed the wins, we got the job done.

The blues usually get home crowds in the 40-50s even against interstate so it seems low especially when you consider the importance of the game for both teams. One should expect a decent crowd but who knows

We usually get up for big games. Think the games against Brisbane after the bye and after the dogs game against Freo. We play well when we’re under pressure. But from now on it needs to be fullthrottle every game.

Just win boys! What crowd numbers are we expecting today? 50k or 70k ?

Carlton fans thinking having Cripps back will be the difference between winning or losing, they should prepare to get smashed

Cocky or modest?

Melb now $1.24 vs Carl $4.10 drifting as expected.

I agree it was stupid to tout around and let everyone know “we want to go back to back” so publicly, it has not helped. Maybe the club should have remained humble. It is obvious that the goal of every team after a flag is to do it again but that goal should be kept internal imo. Although things could have been handled differently, there’s no denying we’re still very good. We should take care of Carlton comfortably.

Good points. Although it would seem we are at "full strength" right now, it is very different from last year. Alot of our players who have been injured: Salem, Lever, Hibberd, Langdon, Gawn, Jackson, JJ, Oliver, Petty have all struggled to be at 100% upon returning, some still not fully fit imo, they are just not performing and haven't regained confidence in their game.

Win against Carlton and lose against Brisbane has us finishing 6th and playing Tigers in an elimination final fml. Why did we have to make it this hard on ourselves.. can't see us winning 4 finals in a row for the flag. It would be such a wasted year but let's just see how our form is against Carlton and the prospect of playing Brisbane may not look so daunting after all.

Yes

Yeh but Carlton are still a top 8 team... Hard to see odds of $4+ for two top 8 teams going head to head. I get what you're saying though, if we converted all of that midfield dominance into scores against Coll we'd be talking completely difference odds. That's my point, if we can deliver the same and not cough up opportunities we should be golden. Just look at Saints 9th ($2.36) vs Lions 5th ($1.60) or even Tigers 8th ($1.37) vs Hawks 13th ($3.14) at the MCG. We've drifted to $4 for the flag though, time to chip in lol?

Pressure and all may be a factor but an even more concerning stat is that we are ranked 18th for scores from turnover mentioned on 'On the Couch'. For reference we were ranked 5th for this stat last year and the previous 4 premiers all in the top 4. But this stat is also indirectly correlated to our pressure so they are interlinked and if it isn't addressed soon it will cost us big time.

Can understand why they're not very confident about this game, missing almost their whole midfield, this will be an absolute belting in the middle by our bulls. There is no way we lose this if we play with last week's intensity, it'll all come down to the lions game.

Right? Does he think he has any relevance in the comp? He gets taken in as an American, gets paid a ridiculous amount of money for being a [censored] player and behaves as if he's something special. He should be humble for being given the opportunity to play AFL.

Oh my bad, I guess I interpreted wrong thanks. 3rd sentence, same they should have gotten right back into them after ganging up on Langdon...

Mason Cox is an entitled disrespectful c***. Gave the Melbourne supporters the middle finger on the way to the bench smiling, thinks he's good it's actually sad. And that dog act on Max was inexcusable but nothing to report unfortunately, it was just dirty.

I don't think we can win it from 5th. We have to finish inside the top 4, we are a top 4 team and we will. Imo the Collingwood game will be an outlier to our remaining 4 matches and we will steam roll Carlton and Brisbane. Collingwood are the best defence in the comp at preventing goals once the opposition goes inside 50. I not only attribute our poor inside 50 conversion to our players but also to their very good defence. Brisbane and Carlton on the other hand are poor defensively and if we deliver anywhere near that sort of clearance and contested poss. dominance they are both very winnable games.