Adam The God

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.

Nash, when are you getting a new avatar? Waiting for a Grand Final appearance or will an image do from this weekend's win over Hawthorn?

I still do a bit of coaching and we're clearly not everyone's favourite team. A few magpie fans I know can't stand us and think we'll go to water this weekend. I hope they're bloody wrong.

During a discussion ON THE COUCH this evening, it was interesting to hear Roos proffer and then promote the idea of playing Jesse at CHB. I got the feeling that this is what he'd try if he were still coaching. Garry brought up Jesse's lack of forward half pressure and how the forward set up had improved since Jesse's injury. This is undeniable IMO. But the others interjected and rightly said our Jesse-less forwardline also coincided with us playing 6-6-6, so it wasn't as simple as Garry suggested. However, I'd say at least playing Jesse at CHB would ensure more combativeness from him and the need for a pressure game. His lack of tackling is really an issue for us IMO. And after playing a few games down back, he could then take this back to the forwardline with him. Although, I'm still not convinced you can take a 40+ gun forward out of your forwardline... On the fence as usual, A F.

Understand that mate and I'm sorry if you're in that category (this is directed at bandwagoners of which there are clearly plenty), but as someone who gives up 4 hours of his weekend every weekend and have done through some very dark times, it pisses me off to think I could miss out on a grand final ticket one day, because some muppet bandwagoner comes along for his or her first footy match for the year.

Haha, this is a ridiculous post. Viney, Brayshaw, Oliver, Tyson, Petracca. Not to mention guys like Harmes and Salem. All been drafted or recruited in the past 5 or so years. We've built a powerhouse midfield over the past couple of years and are clearly looking to add to it further, by pursuing the likes of Gaff.

They're expecting 90,000 again. We got reserved seats in the MCC on Level 4. But I reckon I'll go early to get a Level 1 seat. I still think regular H&A attendees should get preference to finals seating, instead of all the bandwagoners...

Spargo should stay. While, even though VDB was ordinary with ball, his tackling pressure will be enough to keep him in the side (and I like PD's assignment of running him through Smith). I've said it a few times but if we can kick straighter and bring the same pressure that we did last week, we'll win. My fear and feeling is we won't be able to. Our poor kicking has plagued us all year.

I'd certainly be looking at zippy pressure forwards who can roll through the midfield in time. Intrigued, @dazzledavey36 by that tweet. I wonder what level of player we can consistently attract now. Clearly, Lever is a wonderful get. But if we could get someone else of his calibre and in his rough age bracket, we'd probably have the best list under 25 in the league (if we don't already). The thing about GWS is that their list is aging and their best players are almost in their prime. Players like Cameron and Shiel will be 26 next year, so if they don't win a flag in the next two years, I reckon they'll lose those guys to Melbourne-based clubs and their window will close. It'll be fascinating to see how season 2019 unfolds. I'm bloody excited for it. I want that double chance, because I don't think we'll get past Hawthorn this week. I know we're not out of it, but I just don't see it. I hope we can delay these list conversations seriously for at least another week.

That's because most of them used to be Melbourne supporters and jumped ship when it got too hard in the 70s and 80s.

Hype-central here, but well deserved. If he can shut down Mitchell and win his own ball like he has been, there's a massive chance we shut down Hawthorn's midfield and make them play counterattack on us. Pretty hard to do in a final. Given our likely clearance dominance, we'd win the game if we kick straight.

Go back and watch the replay. I'd argue he was in our top 10 players and set the tone in every quarter for our tackling.

Having just re-watched the game again I reckon ANB played his best game for Melbourne in a final. Great effort. Just shows that if we keep it simple, work hard and play within our limitations anything is possible. How good is our development coaching? Bloody brilliant. Just about every player in the 22 is a better player than they were in the first half of the season.