JTR

I moved to Melbourne from NZ in late 1999, and after many 'recruitment' attempts from Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon & Richmond fans I settled on the Demons. 2000 I thought I'd enter myself in an online tipping competition and I guess with no pre-conceived ideas about the teams or who the players were, I managed to win. Prize was 4 tickets to each week of the finals series, including the GF, so the first game I saw live was the Qualifying final vs Carlton. Probably still my favorite game, ahead of the 2 x 2018 finals. Been to plenty of bad games, but the worst, probably because of how disappointed/mad I was afterwards was round 23, 2017 where had to beat the Filth to make finals, but choked and finished the season 9th.

Considering some still question what ANB brings to the table and are apparently happy to trade away Brayshaw and/or Sparrow I'm not sure a subjective opinion on an anonymous forum is going to appease too many here. If it's true....

I'm sorry, but my red undies, red socks, dark blue trackies, royal blue superman t-shirt and home made red & blue beanie (thanks MIL) beg to differ. Stuck with that same combo all season 😎

Apologies if a re-post...

As do I

Nothing specifically, but it does say pass the barcode on, not buy the ticket and pass the ticket on, so would assume it does need to be in name of person attending?

Me too

That's crazy when you think about it! Certainly a bright future ahead if we can keep the list together. FYI... here's the side named for the first final: Jake Bowey 18 Luke Jackson 19 Trent Rivers 20 Kysaiah Pickett 20 Tom Sparrow 21 Charlie Spargo 21 Harrison Petty 21 Clayton Oliver 24 Bayley Fritsch 24 Alex Neal-Bullen 25 James Harmes 25 Ed Langdon 25 Christian Petracca 25 Angus Brayshaw 25 Jake Lever 25 Joel Smith 25 Christian Salem 26 Jack Viney 27 Ben Brown 28 Tom McDonald 28 Max Gawn 29 Steven May 29 Average 24.09

That reminds me... Off topic, but speaking of age, did I hear correctly that the side we played in the last round of the season (unchanged for the final) was the second youngest in the league? 😳

Watts for pick 31 Pick 31 for Fritsch 👍

Can get this for for same story hosted on another website before paywall kicks in "Nathan Jones will make the emotional decision to remain in Perth with his teammates chasing an elusive flag despite the impending birth of twins in Melbourne" Probably captures the crux of what we wanted to know though?

Anyone who still doesn't recognise what a crucial cog Nibbler is, either has no clue what they are watching, or are still going through games from 2015 - 2017. His impact on our game (structure, forward pressure, two way running.. etc) is huge.

Gee some posts near the start of this thread did not age well 🤣

The only downside I see to Port winning is that we then MUST win tomorrow to avoid going down the path that would lead to a Prelim in Adelaide. Whereas If Geelong wins, and Covid situation stays as it, we'll play all our remaining games in Perth, regardless of our result v Brisbane.

Just one point on this.... since playing us in round 12, they have only come up against one team inside the top 8, which was Geelong in round 15. (in the same period, we have played five top 8 sides). No doubt they are a tough opponent, and their current form is good, but for me they are a little hard to get a read on when they haven't played any of the higher ranked sides for a couple of months.

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/changes-and-discussion-qualifying-final-v-demons.1282559/ Note the thread started before our game vs Cats finished, so one of the first few posts said this... "Cats 40 points up against the Demons, almost certain now to be playing the Cats next week, we are going to need Marcus Adams to do another job on his bunny ie. Tomahawk" Nek minnit... "We might be playing Melbourne after all and that scares me, we don't match up well" 😁 A few more highlights from the first couple of pages... "Keeping Lever occupied is going to go a long way to winning us this game. He'll probably go to Fullarton or McStay (with Petty going to the other one, and May to Daniher), and it'll be important for whoever it is to keep him accountable. He controlled the defensive 50 for Melbourne tonight. The big battle will be the midfield where we were well and truly roasted last time. McInerney needs to do a better job this time in neutralising Gawn in the ruck. Gardiner will be a big in compared to the round 12 match defensively. McDonald ran a bit rampant last time, and the extra lock down defender will be handy" ================== "I still have nightmares about the last time we played them. Probably the best first half we’ve played (taking into account the opposition) followed by one of the best second halves Demons have played under Goodwin. They’re fast finishers and will never give up regardless of how far they’re behind and we’ve been known to concede very quickly against the best sides in recent history. Had a think about how the match could pan out… Footy is a game of momentum so you would almost want Melbourne to lead us at half time, then for us to hunt them down. Probably the most realistic way we’ll get the win over them" ================== "Need to set up better defensively. We looked so impotent when they would win the contested ball and move it by hand. Looked like they had 20 blokes on the field. Just no pressure and our mids don't have the speed to pressure a clean breakaway by hand. So disappointing after that first half but they really worked us out"

-14

Thanks - did not know this. I'd always assumed picks were based on H&A finishing position. (Probably because I've been so used to finishing 9th > 16th where I guess they are... 😉)

Just to add some extra sugar to the story, last nights win ensured we got maximum value out of this trade. Two first rounders in last draft (Bowey & Laurie) for our first round this year + 25 😎

Any chance at all of the MRP finding issue with Lever in Q1? /MFCSS

I wasn't able to watch live, but recorded and am watching now. We are 44 down with 7 mins left in the 3rd. I gather it would be worth my while to stick it out? 😎😁

Harsh on Petty. I thought he was fantastic today