Lord Travis

For Thursday night game against an interstate team, that crowd was a brilliant result. We pulled in more than Richmond vs Port on Thurs night, despite nearly 50,000 less members across teams playing. Brilliant effort Dees fans. Ignore the noise about our crowds for dopey pelicans like Caro. We’re third highest average home attendance in the league. Were more loyal than anyone. Hats off!

That’s more like it! Most Melbourne game this season.

[censored] it’s so much more fun watching footy when our mids are healing on pressure. Viney having a ripper and might pinch Brownlow votes

Trac will kick one eventually lol

Brilliant kick into the corridor from Spsrgo

Keep the pressure up and we’ll get the points. No fade outs tonight please!

Nibbler is such a great pressure player. Wish we could clone his desire and inject it into our whole team haha

May and Bowey both playing like [censored]

Much better pressure around the ball. Keep it up boys!

Lever playing well. No love from the umpire getting his head bulldozed though!

Have Kozzie or Bedford had a touch? We need to get more out of their dash

Weid looking better in the ruck and around the ground than Dogga 🤣

Their inaccuracy keeping us in it here. Midfield getting done on turnover again. Goodwin looking annoyed in the bench

Gonna be a long night if our midfield doesn’t generate more movement!

Crumbled under pressure quickly lol

Lions haven’t played at the MCG since early 2020. They’re a more mature team now. Tonight is a 50/50 game with big ramifications for both teams fortunes in 2022.

Disappointed Hunt didn’t come back in. He’s been our second best lock down defender this season behind May, and the best for smalls due to pace and agility. Would’ve been handy tonight. Our current backline with Salem, Gus and Bowey for smalls is not working defensively or offensively. We’re 17th for scoring from back half, so that half back dynamic needs to change. Need Hunt or Rivers back in, Bowey out, and Gus shifted further up the ground to fix the balance and get us back to something closer to hat worked last year.

Midfield needs to fire tonight. Clarry is a jet every week, but Petracca has been down on impact since illness. If he can return to form it’ll go a long way to us winning. Mids need to lower the eyes going inside 50 and forwards need to stay in motion and present. It’s really that simple for us. Dees by 11 points.

In: May, Weid, Hunt, Rivers Out: Turner, Gawn, M Brown, Bowey Thoughts: - May straight to full back. - Weid to play second tall forward and backup ruck for Jackson. Jackson and Weid to rotate as second tall forward. - Mitch Brown out, so one less permanent tall up forward. Go smaller up forward to create more pressure and mobility, force mids to lower the eyes and hit lead up targets. - Bowey out. He's been poor recently and needs a spell at Casey to regain form. Rivers and Hunt in. Both to play defence and lock down on plethora of smaller Brisbane forwards. Hunt to play deeper as he's better defensively, Rivers higher to aid rebound. - Brayshaw to play further up the ground; midfield, wing and rotating half forward with Trac. As good as he's across half back, it's the one position we have lots of depth, so we can afford to play him elsewhere to help strengthen middle and forward half for the benefit of the team overall.

There’s obviously some elite players missing. Andrew Brayshaw, Gawn, Petracca, Mills, Heeney have been elite and impacted games this year. Trac and Heeney more so early on, and there’s probably others that escape me. Marlion Pickett is not elite in any measure or stat, even if classified as a wingman. That’s probably the most baffling selection in recent memory. Not sure why champion data exists at this point as their analysis is always wrong.

Take the gun tall forward every time. The rarest position to find a gun, yet a gun tall forward can completely change a teams fortunes. Max King is 21 years old and on track for 50+ goals already. Easy decision to pick him and build around him for the next decade.

Meaningless stat in isolation as they presented it, but it does show how hard it is to reverse form. If we continue to lose, we'll be similar to Dees of 2004-2006 where we were top four for most of those seasons but had a period in the second half of the year where we capitulated and lost 4+ games in a row. We bowed out earlier than we should've those years, especially 2004 where we were top of the ladder heading into Round 18 but lost every game thereafter to finish fifth and lose an elimination final to eighth placed Bombers. Let's hope the short bye break gave the players a chance to reset and we can get back on track. The talent is still out there even with injuries, just need to switch on mentally and bring the intensity.

Will be barracking for the Tigers tonight to keep the Blues a game behind us and keep our top four hopes alive. Feels dirty though.

The scumbag better stay out of prison this time. Much harder to get out out of prison in Bali than in the US 😆

We await the results of the scan. Our season could depend on it. Fingers crossed it’s nothing serious for the skipper. And yes, a 10 day bye seems unjust when other clubs get over 15 days break. We’re struggling with injuries so it’s going to hit us hard.