Adam The God

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!!!!

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

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.

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...

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.

Here's the thing about VDB. He's probably the worst handballer of all time. Seriously, so bad. He's not a great kick either. But his tackling in a tight congested game makes him worth it. He did give away two goals though from turnovers. However, his tackling has the capacity to lift him out of our bottom 6.

Bring tonight's pressure game and convert a bit better and we should account for Hawthorn. Anything less than that though and we're in trouble. But on tonight's performance we were brilliant. Weideman, Harmes and Max were the standouts for me. Quite incredible to think Weed could stand up in a final like that and Harmes is a truly dominant mid now. He is matching it with Clarry and Gus. When you add Viney's tackle pressure, our midfield really could rip any other midfield in the comp in two. I want to see more composure inside 50 next week, but generally, they made us proud on the big stage. We go again. And how was that MFC crowd!? Incredible. At least 65-70,000 were Melbourne. At least. We keep this up and we'll walk in 50,000 members next year. It shows that if we can have some sustained success (and I mean flags), our dormant supporter base has the capacity to reach at least 65,000 members. And if you win flags, you get the kids jumping on board and 70,000+ becomes very attainable in the next 5-10 years. The most exciting aspect about tonight was ticking off the mental barrier of winning a final. We saw what impact that had on Richmond for years. Well, we've ticked that off now. The other thing this victory tonight does is really announce us to the footy world and stamp us as contenders over the next 3-5 years. We play a brand that stacks up in finals and will only get better as our younger players develop. This finals experience too will hopefully hold them in really good stead for next year, whatever the outcome from here on is in 2018. And if I'm an opposition player, I'm wondering how do I get to Melbourne to play with these guys. Andrew Gaff, Dylan Shiel. These types. Lever saw it. Lewis saw it. Nights like tonight I'm front of 91,767 put us in that destination club conversation even further. Well done, PJ! And well done MFC.