Skuit

Chol is a free agent. I doubt he will get them anymore than a third-round compo pick. CCJ a third-rounder at best as well.

Of players originally drafted at pick 57 to play in grand finals, 75 percent have won.* Step on down Jayden. *This factoid might not be entirely accurate.

Such a glorious outfit.

Excellent. Critical now though that our footy dept. brains-trust comes up with some creative compromise to retain the services of Burgo too. I would pay him the same amount for half the hours, current soft-cap restrictions be damned. He can do a pre-season intensive and then fly over once a month, with some zooming and program-writing in between. It's a half an hour flight from Adelaide. And half of that cash-sacrifice would be simply to keep his IP from other competitors. It's easy to forget what it's like not having full confidence that our team will come out in the last and compete until the very end. It wasn't always like this.

Indeed, looking back on our 2011 margins (as a repeat of 2001 and other seasons), it's crazy how erratic we were, when compared to right now. It's often forgotten that even after conceding 233 points against Geelong, we were still actually right in the hunt for the finals. When we were looking semi-decent in 2017, I posted something along the lines of not being ready yet as a supporter - I wanted a run of supreme dominance first. I never imagined dominance would look like this; not blowing teams off the park, but never remotely looking like losing. But I don't agree with your thesis jnr. Vince and Lewis and co. were probably the right signings at the time, but they aren't what ultimately brought Lever and May to the club. That was Goodwin and his vision. Roos did well, but any competent coach with the same mandate should have been able to do the same, in my opinion.

The red & blue were running rampant at the end stages of 2018, only for it to all fall apart. The MFC were unceremoniously bundled out in the prelims, with both Norwood and West Perth going down in their respective grand finals. (I also maybe recall another red & blue north-eastern seaboard team in the mix?). As it stands, all three are still alive this year, but with quite mixed hopes.

Edit. Forgot the serious content and language warning for the above. Teenage Demons fans should be advised to go back and watch whatever wholesome online content they usually do.

I probably would have done the same [censored] as kid. Maybe we should lay off her a bit until the full details emerge. If she's a young adult or underage, I hope she cops the fine and is then left to deal with that out of the public spotlight. It's not representative of the Dogs' fan-base, and shouldn't be made out to be (not suggesting you have done so Gorg). This isn't the motivation we should be tapping into. Every club has its undesirable fans, and we're not immune.

This isn't intended as a criticism of any of these coaches in any way, but it's quite crazy the circuitous route we've taken to get to this point over the past ten years, or even just the past five or so. Following Bailey's free-flowing game-plan (forget Neeld), Roos came in an immediately instilled a stolid if uninspiring defensive approach, as was his style, but if only to stem the bleeding. Goody then takes over with all guns blazing and we become the highest scoring team by some margin, but leak like a sieve. Somehow since then we've now found ourselves as one of the best defensive teams that has ever graced an AFL paddock (actually through shrewd recruiting, and at least by far eclipsing anything MFC in my time), while retaining decent firepower up front. This grand final is definitely a product of all those parts. Goody rejected the approach of his mentor - knowing it would likely get us nowhere - but then probably had to go back a bit and embrace some of that philosophy, and rebuild his team from the back-end.

Yup SPC. Had to remind myself today as well that ours isn't a flash-in-the-pan team either. No matter how our last grand final outings felt, this MFC squad is right in its prime and built to contend for a number of years. Should we be beaten by a better team on the day, it won't be the end of the story. It may sound like softening any potential blow in advance, but until Gawn, May and Brown start fading we're not going to go backwards. This is just the start of our window. I feel quite serene about any outcome, as if my hard work as a supporter over the past however many years during our darkest of times has already been done. I might even 'retire' once Oliver and Trac are done - can't remotely stomach the thought of going through our next rebuild - and hopefully we snag a few flags before then. That said, I hope our older, potentially fading members get a chance at glory this year.

I definitely think anyone joining this site to hopefully score some GF tickets - and I don't begrudge you in that desire - should swing by the 'First game, worst loss, best win' thread first as a courtesy. A lot of tragics on here who have contributed plenty to this community over the years who will sadly miss out. It's not a time for desperate poaching, but respect. I was very kindly offered a ticket on here for the PF (and GF! but can't make it), but was up-front that the PF ticket would go to an Eagles' supporter ready to cheer on the red & blue. Even if you're a fan of either of the WA teams, be honest and tell us what your best and worst memories are as a supporter, and you'll probably earn a lot of respect in return. We're not stupid.

The Dogs' mids and runners are exceptional at collecting front and centre from kicks in general play and quickly finding a handball out the front of the pack (see last night and our breakneck pre-season match-up). I'm not sure that we can concede a number as we usually do - need to wear them tight in packs and need someone blocking the front exit. While they have great distributors off half-back, it suits us if they move the ball backwards as we set up so well. It was the ball through the front which completely broke down Port's defensive structure, that and what felt like Footscray always having one or two extras at the contest. The midfields will probably decide the grand final, and I believe that it's us who needs to adjust to them tactically. A bigger factor though will be pressure. Would love to see the stats for pressure and correlation to winning games of AFL. Both grand-finalists brought it one way in the prelims. Should be a cracking encounter, but who knows. The two positives I like to draw on: we prevailed in all of the highest two-way pressure matches this year, such as against Richmond. Our biggest loss was against Collingwood by four goals, although we admittedly went down to the Dogs by 20 points, after level-pegging half way through the last. The other 'losses' were by 1 point, 9 points, and a draw. It has felt like we've stood up to the challenge whenever it really mattered.

If Hunt is fit then he's ahead of Jordon and Jones as the sub, and what a tantalising sub he would be.

Jones sub. He is capable of what Jordon did tonight. His presence on the bench alone will lift the team.

Almost flawless. As good a drilled team as there has been in the AFL era. Hats off to Simon and the footy department. Jones in for sub.

All of it. Except at even moderate levels I was off my trolley for two days, and then the fever and shivers hit. Prior to that I was floating somewhere between MDMA and weed and revelling in the free drugs, with only the occasional alcohol top-up. I now understand that my reaction was somewhat rare, but not unprecedented.

With such a rich back catalogue, it's impossible to pick my favourite tracks from the three aforementioned deceased artists, but here's a sample of each that I cherish. Lee Scratch in imperial form: Not my favourite Gift of Gab track, but hard to go past as a demonstration of his uniquely dextrous linguistic prowess: On a personal note, the last one is a Cambodian bootleg with Doom and RZA over the top. I lived there for a while.

My game-plan is as follows. Come out hard in the first quarter (get drunk in the morning), consolidate for a period (have an afternoon nap), and then staunchly defend (deal with a day-time hangover) before launching another all-out offensive assault (tequila at kick-off). It may be a flawed approach, but seems pretty solid to me at this particular moment in time.

I might have knocked off work a little too early . . .

I've thought about your earlier reference to the Chemical Brothers, and while I love their first two albums (and sporadic tracks since then), I think the most appropriate track would be 'Galvanise'. A mantra for the team and our defensive brick-wall. Don't hold back, the time has come, to galvanise. Some sample lyrics: Be cool, man, look smarter, don't hold back! And you shouldn't even care about those losers in the air. Don't hold back! If you think about it too much you might stumble, trip up, fall on your face. Don't hold back! Don't you think it's time you get up, crunch time like a sit up, the monkey pace. Don't hold back!

With Gift of Gab in between. A [censored] year in music. Two of the finest ever hip hop lyricists followed by the greatest dubman to ever grace the planet (I feel fortunate enough to have seen Scratch live one; he was wearing a saucepan on his head). So now that I've established a bit of music street-cred I can segue into what I really listen to on gameday . . For a period during the mid-90s, SANFL matches at Footy Park led out with 'It's Raining Men', by the Weather Girls. I've never been able to disassociate that song from the excitement of seeing the team run out. And I really don't care about the homoerotic overtones, I still can't help but bust it out full-voiced in the build-up. Hallelujah!

WCW, you should hunt down a compilation from the British label 110 Below - Journeys in Dub. On there is a seriously brooding and rumbling remix of 'Open Up', Lydon's outing with Leftfield. I think the remix is by Sabres of Paradise (Andy Weatherall and co), from shaky memory. An absolutely perfect track to get you pumped before a prelim. Unfortunately there's two versions of the album, with different Leftfield remixes (not the 'Open dub' mix). I can't find the one I'm referring to anywhere online except for a brief snippet here, without the slow-burn intro and mad breakdown: https://www.muziekweb.nl/en/Link/JK72793/110-below-Journey-in-dub I'm guessing that you probably don't have a Dutch library card to listen to the full version? (I actually do happen to have one as it were, but borrowed a couple of books to take on holiday to Sri Lanka right before the world was plunged into chaos and international borders closed. I've probably racked up about €5,000 in overdue fees by now, lol).

it might also be because Melbourne haven't played in a grand final since almost the invention of mobile phones.

Instead o So in place off Smith out, it's Smiths in.

@Jadedwill probably appreciate this, but I nervous-ate 85 percent of my Cheezles already, some eighteen hours before the match. The whisky reserves have also taken a hit (not a recommended combination by the way).