praha

Collingwood supporting mate of mine said it was destiny that we'd meet in the Grand Final and Melbourne would win. A bit like Geelong always beating Hawthorn during the season but Hawks always got them in finals.

I'm going to be in the AFL Reserve. May Got have mercy on my soul.

Maybe I'm crazy but we are far and away premiership favourites imv. We have A-grades on every line. Not a single player in our Best 22 wouldn't get a game at another top 4 team. At our best we beat anyone. Looking forward to people taking us seriously when we bury the Pies on Monday.

nah, he's too white.

pickett's game on Friday is underrated for this reason.

we're the highest scoring team in the league lol get a grip.

I know highlights and goal packages have a purpose to show, well, highlights, but we looked very good in patches last night. The hysteria around our performance is weird. I really don't know what people expect. Carlton defended as they do and we defended better. We had the ball in had far more and never looked like losing. It was clinical and a great dress rehearsal for next week.

Haven't been more confident of a win this year. We'll bury them.

Let 2021 go mate. We're not going to dominate every week.

Scoreline flatters Carlton. We dominated. Carlton were awful. Convert a few of our missed shots to goals and it would have been a landslide. It was very a clinical performance. I thought we looked very good in patches. Some of the best passages of play for weeks. Carlton defended really well I thought. Outside of that never looked in doubt.

Blistering is wrong

"sell out" simply means all available tickets for sale have been sold. it has nothing to do with how many people actually rock up and scan their ticket.

His answers are going to [censored] some people off but I thought he spoke well.

Every time there's an article about Melbourne, Collingwood supporters come out from all angles. I have never seen a more threatened support base. Deep down they know we are the only genuine challenge to them. They are trying so hard to convince themselves we aren't that good. I very much look forward to belting them in 12 days.

Bulldogs fell off almost immediately and missed finals in 2018 and 2019. Consistent finals is a minimum. Winning flags is hard.

Good thing we're playing Carlton then.

We wouldn't have gotten 29k to Dockland though. Of that 29k, maybe 8k were in the MCC reserve. Throw in the MFC Member who doesn't attend Marvel games anyway and attendance would have been 12k-14k.

Brisbane, Melbourne and Collingwood are all absolutely primed for the flag. Good spread of young and experienced. Pies and Power are almost guaranteed top 4 imo. Lions have home ground advantage so Melbourne at most risk of falling out. Port, Bulldogs the smokeys. Crows, Saints, Bombers, Dockers, Cats will all win more games and push for 4th-8th. 15 wins normally nets you top 4, sometimes 16 wins is needed. Hazard a guess it'll be 16 minimim, 17 to be safe this season. Meaning we'll need to go 9-3 to end the season. Sounds like a tough ask but that's the reality of top 4. For top 8, 13 wins will guarantee you. We *should* beat Carlton x2, Geelong, Hawthorn, North, Sydney, GWS, Richmond, Adelaide, St Kilda. That's your 10 wins. At least one win against Collingwood and Brisbane would guarantee us top 2. Any game we drop against the former group will need to be made up when we play the latter. We have quite literally 10 games we're going to go in as favourites in. Missing top 4 from that position would be a disaster tbh.

SEN and AFL Media both with articles tonight about Melbourne needing to beat a top 4 side. Our record against top 4 and top 8 sides across 2022 and now 2023 is starting to give me Daniher-era vibes. We'd linger around the top most of the season but as soon as we faced a genuine contender we'd get convincingly beaten. We're no where near that but the vibes I get from neutral fans is similar.

I mean we've done that every game this year barring the Port game.

Timing has a lot to do with it. We're in a slump and spent literally half the season to date interstate. We've gone periods without Gawn, May, now Oliver, Salem, Hunter, Pickett, Petracca played hurt for a few weeks... atm we look like a middle of the road team. Which we might be. But we're losing games we probably kind of sort of expected could result in a loss. Some seem genuinely surprised by Freo, I was frustrated during the game but in the pre-match thread I said it smelt like a loss was coming. Form means something, some of the time. Carlton just seems like the kind of team that could push us on current form. They have the talent up forward and some pace. We really struggled against them last year and probably stole the win. We should win but won't be surprised if we lose. They are also due for a win. They aren't anywhere near as bad as form line suggests. Evidently neither are we. Collingwood will be coming off a trip to Perth albeit against Wet Toast, and on a day less break, with a six day break from today through to next week. We stay in Melbourne and lead into KB's with a 10 day break, potentially Oliver back, Grundy and Max with another game together, Salem with more fitness, Hunter back. I just think the game is primed for us to kickstart our season leading into the bye.

Not taking anything away from Collingwood because they are a good team, but I am more confident against them than I was against Freo and against Carlton.

I think that if people start looking at the team like a mid-table team pushing into the contention equation, rather than already being in contention, then the record and performance aligns more with expectation, and it makes it easier to handle. I think it's clear now that atm we are probably at the top end of the 5th-10th ranked group of teams, which puts us into contention for top 4 but an outside chance for the flag relative to genuine top 4 contenders (Brisbane and Collingwood). Thinks can turn very quickly though and 7 losses generally nets you top 4 but this year could be anywhere from 4th to 9th. We are on track for 8 losses. Suggest we persist with JVR, McVee, get Laurie, Turner into the side, blood Woewoden. Improve our draft hand. And maybe lure some free agents. Worried that persisting with the likes of McDonald, ANB, Harmes will cost us in the long term. We've pushed Jordon out the door. And for what? ANB's turnovers. Then start preparing for 2024 and 2025 flag push. Because it's not happening this year. People have to let 2021 go and move on.

Yep about right after a 100 point loss.... 😏

We are 14 wins 19 losses in games decided by 10 points or less under Goodwin.