Whispering_Jack

The last time these teams met it was a spiteful encounter at Point Gellibrand that was dominated by the visiting Casey side which had 18 AFL-listed players and went on to win by 38 points. The difference now is that injuries have intervened against the Demons which, on my reckoning, are unlikely to have more than ten players from their MFC contingent. I’m not counting on Jayden Hunt or Joel Smith playing on the basis of the club’s conservative approach to players coming back from injury although both need the match practice if they want to break back into the senior team for the finals. With Williamstown looking to hold their place in the top four, it should be another tough game for the Demons who face a possible away final at Geelong if they lose.

I rarely do this but I've had a gutful. This thread is closed and new threads on Jack Watts can only be started if they raise something new.

The cue might well be in the rack but there is such a thing as pride Nasher. ? Seriously though, the question is worth asking as to whether it’s possible for teams to come back after a thrashing like the 133-point Fremantle debacle. What happens next? The commentators have latched onto the Round 23 game from 2016 when Sydney beat Richmond by 113 points. A week later, the Swans lost their Qualifying Final game to the GWS Giants by 36 points at ANZ Stadium although they did recover in time to make the Grand Final which they lost to the Bulldogs. The Tigers’ next match was the opening game of 2017 in which they beat Carlton by 43 points and, by year’s end, they were the premiers. On the way to winning that flag Richmond played St Kilda in Round 16 when the Saints won by 67 points at Etihad Stadium after leading 14.8.92 to 1.4.10 at half time when a pall of smoke from plastic melting in microwaves hung over Melbourne. The Tigers won 9 of their next 10 games including the return game v the Saints by 41 points and of course, the grand final. And what happened to St Kilda in the game immediately after their big win over Richmond? They returned to Etihad and endured a 10 goal defeat to Essendon. But the most outstanding comeback would have to be in Round 18, 1979 when Melbourne beat Essendon by 29 points after suffering the biggest defeat in VFL/AFL history by 190 points one week earlier to Fitzroy at Waverley. That’s a turnaround of 219 points - a result that would give great solace to those of us who are hoping against hope that the Dockers can make a similar recovery and beat the Pies at the weekend. Not to mention, the Cats falling from grace and losing to the Suns to allow Port Adelaide back into the premiership race.? Anything could happen!

Buried in last Sunday’s GAMEDAY thread, I made the comment at half time:- “We are poised for a big third quarter - they don’t call it the premiership quarter for nothing and this is it for us. “We look the better team and I think we are ready to exploit their weaknesses.” As it turned out I was wrong in that we didn’t win the third quarter but I was right about the final outcome and it was achieved with a positive mindset in the last 10 minutes. Now that we’re back on home turf we really do need to harness this among supporters so they turn up in their numbers and really support them with noise. We were like that in our golden ere.

I have a feeling that Josh Wagner will get a call up this week at Charlie Spargo’s expense with Tom Bugg in as the carry over emergency.

Imagine him pointing the finger at Jonesy and telling him what he’s done wrong.

Ah Robbo. They don’t call him the dolt from Old Regret for nothing.

Why don't you go for it?

Someone over there has a clue ~ Welcome back to the big time, Melbourne

While we’re all rejoicing about the prospect of Nathan Jones’ return to finals football in the coming week and some are feeling good about Jack Watts missing out, it’s worth sparing a thought for former Demon work horse Lynden Dunn. He was nudged out of the club a couple of years ago and went to Collingwood where he worked his way into the position of their senior key position defender destined to play in his first ever finals series before rupturing his ACL. As much as I dislike the club he’s at now, I have to feel for the bloke who came to the club a year before Jonesy, made his debut in 2006 but didn’t play finals that year. He played 165 games in the red and blue and is stuck on 196. I hope he gets to 200.

Agreed. With little likelihood of having picks in the top 25, our focus might well be on players from the state leagues - Sam Mitchell clone ripe to be drafted WAFL Watch: Suns, Eagles tracking tough mid Pickett AFL Draft 2018: Luke Foley spurred on by last year’s draft snub

With apologies to @Supermercado, a volume of this prizewinning literary work because The Great Deepression is over ~

There was blasphemy in the air at the weekend with shocking revelations from some Demon fans who admitted they were rooting for the Magpies to win their game against Port Adelaide. That is completely unacceptable for anyone dedicated to the red and blue cause and I call upon the Melbourne faithful to get behind Fremantle when they play Collingwood at Optus Stadium on Saturday evening at 4.35AEST. Forget the Dockers’ disgraceful effort against Geelong at the Cattery - we all knew that coming from the temperate climate of Western Australia, the assignment of playing in blustery conditions on the cold windswept expanses of GMHBA Stadium was always going to be beyond them. However, they showed enough in the first quarter and a bit against the Cats to convince me that against the injury-depleted Magpies, with Nat Fyfe playing his second game after returning from injury and Ross Lyon pumped about his team’s rebuild, Fremantle are ready to exit the 2018 season with a Big Bang. Dockers by 27 points.

We are poised for a big third quarter - they don’t call it the premiership quarter for nothing and this is it for us. We look the better team and I think we are ready to exploit their weaknesses.

The AFL is such a moveable feast at the moment. A few weeks ago, I thought the Swans were on their way out after losing to Gold Coast and Essendon and that they would miss playing in the finals. They scraped home against an injury depleted Collingwood and at this point in time seven days ago, I thought they were no chance against Melbourne at the G. When the Demons were dominating early in the second quarter at 3.8.26 to 1.2.8 (with lost opportunities to go further ahead), I felt vindicated. Now, they are a game away from a top four finish. I hope we learned something from playing against them last week: from their self-belief and ability to win against the odds.

The statistics tell the story ~ Jaxon Briggs 7 kicks 4 handballs 11 disposals 3 marks 1 tackle 39 dream team points Tomas Bugg 21 kicks 7 handballs 28 disposals 3 marks 7 tackles 106 dream team points Lachlan Filipovic 1 kick 1 disposal 2 tackles 9 hit outs 17 dream team points Tom Freeman 12 kicks 4 handballs 16 disposals 7 marks 64 dream team points Jeffrey Garlett 4 kicks 4 handballs 8 disposals 2 marks 3 tackles 35 dream team points Mitch Gent 2 behinds 13 kicks 13 handballs 26 disposals 5 marks 4 tackles 95 dream team points Jack Hutchins1 goal 9 kicks 1 handball 10 disposals 5 marks 3 tackles 56 dream team points Dion Johnstone 10 kicks 3 handballs 13 disposals 1 mark 3 tackles 45 dream team points Declan Keilty 5 kicks 4 handballs 9 disposals 2 marks 29 dream team points Mitch King 4 kicks 3 handballs 7 disposals 1 mark 1 tackle 30 hit outs 49 dream team points Jay Lockhart 2 goals 17 kicks 5 handballs 22 disposals 5 marks 8 tackles 125 dream team points Goy Lok 1 goal 1 behind 10 kicks 3 handballs 13 disposals 2 marks 4 tackles 65 dream team points Pat McKenna 7 kicks 4 handballs 11 disposals 3 marks 1 tackles 39 dream team point Cory Machaya 3 kicks 13 handballs 16 disposals 3 marks 4 tackles 31 dream team points James Munro 15 kicks 9 handballs 24 disposals 5 marks 3 tackles 82 dream team points Harry Petty 7 kicks 7 handballs 14 disposals 6 marks 3 tackles 67 dream team points Angus Scott 7 kicks 9 handballs 16 disposals 2 marks 3 tackles 57 dream team points Tim Smith 4 behinds 10 kicks 3 handballs 13 disposals 7 marks 4 hit outs 63 dream team points Will Stephenson 1 goal 1 behind 4 kicks 4 disposals 1 mark tackles 34 dream team points Cory Stockdale 3 kicks 3 handballs 6 disposals 2 marks 3 tackles 27 dream team points Corey Wagner 19 kicks 9 handballs 28 disposals 8 marks 8 tackles 128 dream team points Josh Wagner 11 kicks 10 handballs 21 disposals 2 marks 11 tackles 1 hit out 104 dream team points Mitch White 1 goal 8 kicks 2 handballs 10 disposals 4 marks 2 tackles 55 dream team

I was happy for 30 minutes.

I barracked today for Fremantle.

A win today for the Casey Demons would make it 13 in a row and a VFA/VFL record for the club since it joined the old VFA as Springvale in 1982.

Hardwick frustrated by lack of free kicks for his team in win over Essendon Hopefully, Simon Goodwin can also say much the same after we beat West Coast tomorrow because 27 - 15 would be a good outcome for a team traveling to Perth to play the Eagles.

This is the moment.

True but you can’t deny that he played very well in a winning losing team tonight.

I agree that Mitch Hannan is the likely carry over emergency for the MFC. Normally, I would be concerned about the low number of MFC aligned players in the team but with the likes of Corey Wagner, Lockhart, Hutchins, Munro, Machaya, Gent etc. the VFL contingent is a lot stronger than in the past and in good form. They should at least provide the extra depth for a win today. That said, Cam Pedersen has been an important component of the team structure to date and his presence will be missed.

That there are so many interesting games in this round demonstrates exactly why the AFL should not predetermine the Friday night participants so far ahead. The difficulties of fixturing are appreciated but at least the last four rounds could be left until a bit later so that we don’t have to put up with Friday night games like Essendon v St Kilda as we must do tonight.

Knightmare’s Power Rankings - August