DeelightfulPlay

Buckle up, crash helmets on, let's dive through... only 4 pages of content? Guess Hawk fans aren't the most enthusiastic at the moment! Those who are posting seem keen for a win against us It'll be a big challenge, the Dee's have the best midfield and the best ruck in the comp. Walking away breakeven out of the middle would be a massive win in my book. I sense another win incoming. If we get this, it will be the first time we've won 3 games in a row since July 2022. Setting us up to potentially win 4 in a row (in a single season) for the first time since August 2018. (We won our last 3 in 2019 and first game in 2020) Worst top 4 in my lifetime. We’re a big chance again this week. GO HAWKS. I reckon we win this one Response: By plenty. Get the feeling we may now play 4 talls. Interesting times. Also reckon our midfield is keen to take this scalp on the way out. Response: Beating 3 out of the top 4 will give a lot of confidence going into next season. If the reports from the Box Hill game are correct and Brocky couldn't be bothered then we can't reward that behaviour with a game in the 1s just in the hope it might keep a promising player at our club especially against a team like Melbourne. Some discussion about players and the like Lever and May (and Gawn) are very hard to get past. We always seem to kick it straight to them. If the game plan is to bomb long to 4 talls... we will get slaughtered. We need fast, precise ball movement. Use the angles. Keep possession. Ryan should come in for Lewis. We know Lewis is a no brainer.......... Lewis to play high up the ground at CHF roaming at will as lever doesn't like leaving D50 to take intercept marks so have kozi doubling back to lever when in transition. I really like to see that set up and it works best with Ryan more than Denver Re Lewis being out for injury: This bloke is made of tissue paper Someone has been reading Demonland... Hopefully with our new look midfield we don’t spend all game kicking it straight to Gawn. Or the dees just play Grundy as well. He seems to do a fine job nullifying Gawn just by being out there. My fave (for the vocab use) Ryan has had the flu for 5 days now. Doesn't augur well.

I'm not sure if we didn't give enough respect or if we simply had our balance off from various forced and unforced changes. Obviously Clarry is great, but our midfield seemed a little less settled (eg Sparrow seemed less certain of his role), plus the combo of Smith back early and Grundy up forward... altogether seemed to upset us a little. Going to watch the replay tomorrow when sober and see what's what though

On a different note, please can we never put Smith in the backline again. I understand we need to keep Hibbo fresh, but Smith is too unpredictable up back. He is much better off using his athleticism to advantage in the forward line.

Watch by yourself, preserve your sanity Layzie!

Well, I think I am the notorious nut job today 😂 Wearing my Dees scarf, cheering for the Suns, sitting 10 rows from the ground amongst the (surprisingly quiet) Sydney nuffies...!

Hey, I'm screaming as loud as I can for the Suns! From the Swan cheer squad 😂

Forgive me Demonland, I'm at the SCG watching the Sydney v Sunshine match... the paper fans thing they do here is quite obnoxious!

Just good old fashioned pencil! Started with a 2H and then slowly layered in using HB and 3B, then used a mechanical pencil to ensure some of the sharper details were still defined... very much a slow art piece (maybe done over a month?)

Yes, thanks Layzie! Filling in all the dark spaces was very calming while watching TV!

Like a good nibling, I've followed Uncle BBO's directive, got on the hazmat suit and waded through the Bluebaggers' Big Footy forum... The supporters keen on NEW Carlton... Please bookmark this: WE WILL GO THROUGH THE REMAINING GAMES OF 2023 UNDEFEATED. Response: You’re a bit late to the party, but ok Further response: 98% here thought we won’t be playing finals. Just saying…. Our team is full of confidence & buying into a beautifully balanced gameplan. Importantly - playing at the G, a ground we love in front of a massive Carlton Home Crowd. The Oppo's have a dodgy forward line, devoid of quality marking threats - granted they have a few handy smalls! They are spluttering along - behind Vs North for 1/2 the game last week. Winning this would be one of the biggest statement wins this century. It would make us premiership favourite, or equal premiership favourite ... All the bad luck, all the things which have gone wrong all the injuries and all the bottom end finishes over the last 20 years, if any side is due for some luck it's us. Roll into the finals series with a fit list and all our stars available then good luck to anyone in stopping us. And the unconverted... We can't win! Response: is that you Stephen May? Demons by 34 points ... Don't worry, all is not lost, we will meet them in the last 2 weeks of the finals and with our players back, it will be a different story. The winner of this game is almost premiership favourite On intensity and momentum swings... There was enough evidence to believe we can sustain the pressure and intensity for four quarters, but could the Saints? Turns out they couldn't. Now I ask again, can the Dees bring the intensity for 4 full quarters? They bloody better, because we will. Dees havent been flash in the last two games however having so much quality out against a bonafide top 2/4 side is going to be difficult but we are talking about the NEW Carlton. Melbourne would have to play close to four solid quarters to beat us I reckon … they tend to fade in and out of games … I think we’ll jump out of the blocks quickly and they won’t catch us Someone thinks Bigfooty is the only forum in town... Judging by the measly 43 contributions to the game thread on the Melbourne board, I would say we can aim at making up a massive chunk of the crowd and spurring the lads on again. Response: Hoping for a big dump of snow at Falls and Buller this week. Further response: Due to their recent success, they now do ski season in August to be back by finals. They mainly focused on their own players, but some fun posts are... Must sit on picket and rough him up. Put him in a cage with Crippa for pre game warm up ?? Up againt man mountain Gawn, some people want to drop Pitto for JSOS? No chance. Gawn the X factor - Pitto to batter him fairly, but incessantly (he doesn't like that).... Huge opportunity this weekend to cause havoc and fear in the top 4 teams' heads. Stopping Petracca is not realistic, just hope he doesn't murder us ... Plenty of other things to consider against Melbourne, too. Gawn is a beast, so both TDK and Pitto need to be up for that. May could totally blanket Charlie, so he'll need to get on his bike and be selfless. Kozzie is electric and only needs a sniff and Melksham is the type to break our hearts - and has done it before! Don't even know what's happening here... One of the many reasons I hate Melbourne is because the West Perth Football Club, mortal enemies of my beloved East Perth the home of Chris Judd in his one sublime game for us when he was three classes above every other player on the ground and Syd Jackson have stolen Melbourne's God awful club song, I only wish I could be there on saturday, do some screaming for me folks and lets have a win. On Oliver being back... Hope he plays, awesome footballer and wish we’d gone through with the poaching attempt, but he hasn’t played for 3 months and just won’t be able to play his normal role to anything near his ceiling. Just saw a clip on AFL360, he hasn’t completed one single training session yet. From his own mouth Response: He literally couldn’t even put a sentence together. He sounds like my brother after he tried to take enough acid to travel to another dimension. Clayton Oliver is most likely back this week. I honestly think he should switch codes to Union. The Wallabies need all the bloody good throwers they can get 🙂 Oliver might be back but has had a long layoff and might be nervous. re the Saints v Blues game... It was like Muhamad Ali taking punches against the ropes for the first 5 rounds, then comes out and unleashes his special combination punches for the knock out. I am trusting we can do the same to the Demons. My favourite... Melksham also sees it as his God given right to ice games against us too. I fear he'll be up for that again.

There was a beautiful bit of video analysis by someone on YouTube (if only I could remember their username) about how that staging cost Carlton 10 seconds, and how those crucial seconds gave us the time to win with no response from them. Sooo satisfying 😇😈

A little something something from the past year in honour of Rick!

Yep, definitely just standard Clarry! Having listened to a few podcasts with him being interviewed, this is almost exactly what he sounds like when he's trying to give a nuanced answer but doesn't really know wtf he's saying 😂

This imagery had me rolling around in laughter, thank you! Echo NC in wishing a full recovery has been made in the intervening 23 years!

Not my finest, I can be literal at the best of times! 😅 Thanks for being a good sport about it

Oops, sorry @monoccular! Been a bit of a morning at work and that likely coloured my perception towards offence rather than laughter

Mate, he was just chatting with a friend. Hardly anything sinister! Plus it turns out most of the team lined up like... 25 mins early (esp since the flight had a minor delay). It's not rumour mongering except for you reading into it. I can't even tell you the name of the Roo's player or whether he has any connection to Tassie

Mainly separate because it was a packed joint, but generally some talking going on between both camps. The coaches kept separate (unsurprising) but a few players were quite friendly (Spargo had a long chat with a Roo, someone was chatting with Kade and Trac, and Grundy also had a long one on one). I'm pretty lax when it comes to knowing opp players, so anyone's guess is better than mine!

As promised! Definitely not quitting my day job to become a sports photographer... Maysie, Melky, Smith, Salo a few can be spotted in this Where's Wally lookalike photo

Maybe we got a tad too positive and hopeful about things feeling like 2021 again, this is the universe rebalancing 🤠

So that means 2nd and draft picks won for us this week! Now to capitalise next week in our own game...

Sorry, saw this too late! They've all just left now. I did shake hands with Grundy and told him to keep on keeping on!

@Jaded No More surprisingly cannot see Petty! But also they're lining up for the flight behind where I am standing so that might explain it Terrible photo incoming when I get my internet to work Edit: Grundy is sitting with a North player and there are a few trainers kicking around. Spargo also chatting with a friend rather than lining up

The entire MFC and NMFC are in the food lounge in Hobart. AMA except I'm chicken sh** and will not be saying hello to anyone (Andy if you can edit this to add that Jonah Hill freaking out gif, much appreciated since I can't get my internet to work 😂)

Separate to the above, what did you all think of Joel's game? He had a bad first quarter (like most of our players) but seemed to perk up a bit in the second half Edit: in terms of forward options, Fritter is still 3 weeks off. Joel or Grundy (hah?) might be able to stay forward if we bring Tomlinson back. And we can have Petracca playing more minutes forward with Clarry back in the side next week.