Adam The God

I've said it before but I'm conservative when it comes to AFL. Do not touch the [censored] rules. 6-6-6 is ridiculous. Unlike the economy, the game will right itself. My only hope is that the devil's number somehow means my Demons win more flags.

And there's some similarities between both sets of forwards. Each have crumbled in big finals before...

You're becoming one of my favourite posters mate. Love your passion and vulnerability. Totally get you on this too, although if it's any consolation, I had a dream after the last West Coast game that we would play Geelong in the Elimination Final and lose to Hawthorn the following week. Fortunately, only the first bit came to fruition. Let's hope only the first bit of your dream comes true and it's a Collingwood v Melbourne GF and we're the winners by 8 points. ?

My old man says a lot of the Hawthorn supporters he knows were Melbourne when he was growing up (1950s and 60s). This also explains why there are a lot of toffee Hawthorn supporters and a lot of Hawthorn MCC members (nowhere near as many as us, but a few). As soon as Hawthorn supporters get a whiff that they will be up against it, they go missing. They have a great many of soft supporters. However, on one level I admire what they've been able to do since 1996 with their membership base, but on another level, given all their success in the 70s, 80s and 90s, they should never have been in that position by 1996. Likewise, it's a lot easier to build a membership base as they have, given the sustained onfield success they've had. If they were to fall for a generation, I reckon you'd find we have far more rusted on supporters than they do. And here goes my usual rant. In many ways, we're the most resilient supporter base in the league. Yes, we've got a few coming on board now, but we had 45,000 before the other 25-30,000 jumped on in the last month and a bit. We've endured at least 2 or 3 generations of lost supporters (1970s and early 1980s, as well as 2008-2015), yet through all this managed membership base in excess of 40,000. No other supporter base could claim this, except maybe Richmond, although even their successes weren't that long ago (1980). It's a bit of a rambly point here, but if we have some sustained success and win some flags, we will start to re convert a lot of those lost supporters. In many ways, I love the aspiration of getting Gary Pert in at this stage, because the platform for sustained success has been laid. He can now build on it like he did at Collingwood and all being well, we'll be out of the wilderness of AFL irrelevance and within a decade, could be in the same position Hawthorn find themselves in right now. 70,000+ members, multiple premierships and a powerhouse once again. As Jake Niall's article in The Age suggests, we're better placed than anyone else in the league to achieve sustained success, and in a time when the sporting landscape is more competitive than ever.

Kennedy is the one though. He's their Tom McDonald. Completely straightens them up. He barely played in any of those matches. We're a chance, but I can't see our game holding up enough to restrict their forwardline. We'd have to play better than we have all year. Pressure like we did against Geelong and GWS and convert in front like we did against Hawthorn. All this is possible, but Kennedy, Darling and their smalls are dangerous. More dangerous than our forwards IMO. My only hope is Kennedy and Darling crumble on the big stage again. I'd back us if it was at the G, but not next week.

It's worth noting that if Richmond win it this year, they're level on 12 flags with us. If Collingwood win it, they will equal Carlton's 16 flags. I'd rather Richmond win it, than Collingwood. Or ideally, we win our elusive 13th flag and pull one closer to Collingwood and two away from Richmond and equal Hawthorn's 13.

Go hard for Whitfield now. Another failed year for them. We're hopefully on the up and challenging for the next few years now. We play our home games at the MCG and have the only list that rivals GWS', and Whitfield is exactly the sort of player we lack. When Lewis goes at the end of 2019, Whitfield will be a great replacement off half back. We could play Whitfield on a wing or off half back, releasing Salem and/or Fritsch. I think Lever will allow Fritsch to play further up the ground anyway, but Whitfield's ball use and transition running would be the perfect addition to our cake.

The fireworks were arrogant and embarrassing. They stopped them in the second half didn't they?

And no desire to get an AFLW team in the formative competition.

Can't do that against the Eagles though. Must lower the eyes again next week. Keep the ball away from McGovern and Barass.

Viney's last ten minutes of the third won us the game IMO. He's such a superior leader to anyone else we've had in a long time. And Harmes actually went to Smith in the fourth after he kicked that goal on the run. Nice move from the coaching box. Smith didn't get much of it after that.

What I found so impressive and a first for us, was our growing pressure into the game. Usually, when we start slightly off, you know that's it for the day and that's the intensity you're going to get for the duration. We started a little poorly and were outplayed in the second quarter, but in the second half, our forward pressure went through the roof and we looked like we did last week. This is a really good sign of maturity. Let's hope it continues.

Absolute clutch. As was Spargo's goal from the free kick. Oliver's handball to Brayshaw who got it to the contest where Melksham critically goaled, was also incredibly clutch.

Why do we need to go taller? Oscar goes to Darling and Frost goes to Kennedy.

I am over the moon!!! I have nothing constructive to say. But I did have some tears tonight. Go you [censored] redlegs!!!!

The hype on Demonland this week is ridiculous. Even from normally rational posters.

Did he knock back our offer too? Intriguing what has happened here.

This is where Stratton out helps us big time.

Hang on, hang on, hang on. When was it announced that O'Meara was missing? That is a massive, massive out for the Hawks. Wowza. I feel more confident now. And that's slightly worrying as Clarkson is a genius.

I say this every time we play them now, but I have been with my now wife for 12 years. She is Hawthorn. We have beaten them once in that time. Despite this being the worst top 4 team Clarkson has coached, I don't expect us to win this weekend and I'm surprised by the confidence in these parts. I hope you're all right though.

I'm tempted to say TMac, but I don't want any of them injured.

Hmm. We'll have to agree to disagree then. In a tight finals game, the difference between Hibberd and potentially Smith is so critical it could be the difference between 2 or 3 goals.

Disagree mate. An enormous out if he doesn't get up. Smith can tackle and that's about it. Hunt can run and on his day defend quite well, but Hibberd is a mile ahead of either player. He refuses to be beaten in the contest and is one of our better kicks. With Hawthorn's small brigade, I reckon we'd miss him massively, not to mention the drive we get from him.

Yep, I'd go a step further mate and adjust the definition of bandwagoner to those without an MFC membership. If you can afford MCC, you afford an extra $80 for MFC, like I do.

Coming from just about their softest player. Turn it up, ya gronk.