Demon17

31 minutes ago, Fifty-5 said:

We look no chance vs Carlton from here in sunny Alberta. Just like last week.

If we can win it will be a tremendous result!

Not my favourite place in the world Jasper by any chance?

I watched last years GF there in a packed house.

1 hour ago, Demon77 said:

Smith moved well throughout the session and by observing him from ground level I was surprised at how smooth and quick he moves.

Watching him move with confidence was pleasing and my first thought was, he would be a great match up for Cripps when he has a stint forward.  

I realise his selection has surprised a few but Goody has shown us before the faith he has for certain players. Best example, Wagner. Wagner missed the first part of the season and was brought in on the back of one game for Casey. 

 

Report much appreciated D&77  I was hugely impressed by Smith's JLT game against Carlton and seeing him up close on the fence thought we have a real player here. I reckon Goodwin thinks also and will be worth going tomorrow just to see his progress .

1 hour ago, DeeWiz said:

I said it after the game on Friday (watching on Fox Footy) and I'll say it again now...

Paul Roos was the only person on that commentary team that had any idea what he was talking about post-game (e.g. not pumping up Swans, not bashing us, citing valid points regarding the 6-day breaks, injuries etc). Maybe it's because of his ties with MFC, but maybe it's because the rest of em are clueless imbeciles. I'd go with the latter.

Not just Roos. All on SEN Crunch Time, including David King, said it means nothing, 4 games in 18 days, swans 4 games in 22 days, can't ignore past month, best 6 out injured, great Goodwin coaching around no ruckman. This was also  reflected by those who know elsewhere.

The rest are just content-chasers like Sam McClure etc.

In this environment, relevancy and publicity is everything  - except T. Bugg issue of course - but still in that case  this issue enabled Captain Nathan Jones to come out with a class act media interview which made all news services and the Age that day.

And illustrated the strength of the leadership group. as well

All good.

8 hours ago, fndee said:

They'll go Oliver I reckon.

Our fortunes rise and fall more on his back than on Hunts. Also they have a bit of ammo from the events of the last few days. Having said that we know that neither of these kids will take a backward step and the Swans may find they have bitten off more than they can chew.

Clayton Oliver has the perfect one line comeback.... Schofield dropped this week by Methtoast.

Hilarious full stop to this issue.

Go Dees!

36 minutes ago, stevethemanjordan said:

This has been covered to death.

if "...covered to death..." is the measure for this website then by definition it should be empty.  My thoughts were specifically on the team yesterday making more critical errors  but still wining by a mile. Is this common?

Sheeesh!!!

Looking at the stats from yesterday, and after leaving Etihad seeing but not believing...

Top 5 clangers were:

1.Oliver                      5

2. McDonald - Tom   5

3.  Viney                    4 

4.Lewis                      3  

5. Tyson                    3

All the above are locks each and every week IMO.

Oh, and  McDonald - Oscar - ZERO.

All the above midfielders were fantastic inside yesterday as they usually are. Message to JoeBoy - start thinking about some of your 3 - worders before irrelevancy sets in mate.

Let's get off the turnover issue - nothing ventured nothing gained. Its just a sign of playing bravely IMO , and sometimes that sort of plah doesn't come off.

The Dees had 7 more critical errors than the Dogs, but won by 10 goals.  How does that work?

11 minutes ago, Chelly said:

Jordan Lewis = 6.

Neale Daniher  6

Simon Goodwin number at the Crows  - 36 , or 6 squared

Holds the record for 6th highest games for the crows

In his career he marked the Ball Inside 50,  104 times - the winning score yesterday........

4 hours ago, jane02 said:

I am interested in this as well. I made a pact to myself that if we won yesterday I would go to the place in Melbourne that I hate the most (Etihad) and watch the game on Sunday.

Are you kidding.  We've made it our fortress this year (should've beaten Geelong - won the other 2)

We got GA tickets for 25 each and will sit behind the goals on the top level.  If you get there early you can get front row . Not bad views. Did it for Essendon with nearly a full house and worked OK.

18 hours ago, McQueen said:

There's seriously not one single winner on the ch7 commentary team.

 

The whole Ch 7 crew ( ling included) tell you the bleeding obvious and feed endless stats fed in turn to them by a producer to make them look informed.. We have eyes.  Fox actually have good and insightful discussions during play with the likes of Roos and Brereton, King etc.  They know we can see it, but they detail the issues on what we see.

I just wish I had Fox.

And they've got the best caller  - Huddo.

5 hours ago, dpositive said:

 

to reinforce the  message that  this win will begin an improved position on the ladder and a new perception of MFC.

 

The win will come

GO DEES

 

Good call DP..   A win on Monday puts the team at 6th on the ladder for sure. 

Then its possession is 9/10ths of the law and they have to come and get us.  An earlier post on the training thread from this mornong says GAWN may be back next week. (Joel Smith progressing too)

Good luck to the opposition with the chase if that occurs.

1 hour ago, Demonland said:

WHAT THE DICKENS? by George on the Outer 

Demon fans could be forgiven for thinking that they were participants in Charles Dickens novel, "A Tale of Two Cities" but the location was not London or Paris this time but rather Alice Springs where their team was playing a "home" game against the mob from the Gold Coast.

It is the opening stanza from the Dickens novel that so beautifully summed up the game:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—

Indeed the comparison of the way that the Demons played in the first half compared with the second half was truly summed up in this text written just one year after the MFC was formed!  

Particularly this line ...

we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

Once again, Melbourne got off to a shocker of a start in the game. Gold Coast seemed to waltz through easy goals while the "home" team simply played lazy, going through the motions  football. It was an exact repeat of the previous week ... and the one before that ... and the one before that. 

What gives?

Yes, there was a 3-4 goal wind, and really Gold Coast didn’t make much use of that advantage as they only lead by a couple of goals at the first change but in the second, Melbourne had the wind and by all rights should have iced the game with that advantage. 
 
Sadly, forwards played behind their men, dinky kicks were persisted with, instead of long telling kicks, handballs went sideways and the Demons simply fluffed their opportunities by kicking 2.7 for the quarter.  

With the prospect of the Suns having the wind behind their backs, and still holding a three goal lead into the third quarter, it was truly a "season of Darkness" of Darkness" facing the team and its fans.

That was until Nathan Jones decided enough was enough and almost single-handedly turned the game with as good a quarter of hard, tough football as anyone has seen. Ably assisted by Michael Hibberd off the half-back line they simply dragged the Demons out of the foolishness that they had offered in the first two quarters, and as a result Melbourne found itself in front by the time the ¾ time siren pealed.  

The football gods also intervened, taking a liking to the Demons as the previously strong wind dropped to a zephyr and Rodney Eade made a simply disastrous choice of stacking the backline, leaving the Melbourne mids to have a free run from the centre of the ground.  

The coaches also pulled out plan B in that quarter and moved Tom McDonald into the ruck and Cam Pedersen up forward. This had a dual effect because no matter how it can be painted, Tom is not a forward and doesn’t know how to hold front position in a contest.  

Pedersen is a forward and knows how to bring the ball to ground and provide a target. It was McDonald who started to nullify the Suns rucks and Pedo who provided opportunities for the likes of Garlett and Hannan. He also dragged his man up-field to leave these dangerous forwards with one-on-one contests in space.  

Finally, with the epoch of belief now with the Demons, players who had been unsighted suddenly were everywhere, probably saving them from extended periods at Casey in future games.  How we can convince these players that they need to put in 100% from the start, and not play the game like a half paced training run is a major challenge for the coaching panel.

With its tail up, Melbourne piled on nine goals in the final term - the same number as it put on the board in the previous three quarters!  

Jeff Garlett was superb and probably along with Sam Frost and Hibberd they were the only players in the whole side who played for four quarters. Hibberd has been Melbourne's best recruit for 2017 and one passage of play epitomised how important is his contribution. Taking the ball deep in defence, a 40 m drilled left foot pass broke open the Suns, the ball was quickly moved forward down the wing and centred to ... Hibberd, who then drilled another right foot pass to the leading forward, who goaled.  He had run the length of the ground and hit two players on the chest in quick succession.  If someone knows how to clone a player, please forward the instructions to the MFC.

Finally as the Demons romped home with a 39 point win, after being five goals down in the second, the fans at the game couldn’t celebrate the best of times by singing the club song.  It was the worst of times as the loudspeakers blasted out the Suns' theme song signifying a win to Gold Coast. 

Even when the ground staff put the right song on the public address, it was some strange rendition of the Grand Old Flag that sounded like it was recorded at around the time when Charles Dickens was writing his novels ...

Melbourne 2.1.13 4.8.32 9.10.64 18.14.122

Gold Coast 4.5.29 7.7.49 9.8.62 13.9.87

Goals 

Melbourne Garlett 5  Hannan Harmes Jones 3 Neal-Bullen Petracca Tyson Watts

Gold Coast Matera 3 Barlow Lynch Wright 2 Hall Kolodjashnij Lemmens Sexton

Best 

Melbourne Oliver Jones Hibberd Lewis Garlett Melksham

Gold Coast Hall Swallow Kolodjashnij Leslie Matera 

Changes

Melbourne Nil

Gold Coast Nil 

Injuries

Melbourne Nil

Gold Coast Nil 

Reports

Melbourne Nil

Gold Coast Nil 

Umpires Williamson, Jeffery, Glouftsis

Official crowd 5,072 at TIO Traeger Park 

A genius review. Dickens also wrote OLIVER twist, and Great Expectations.  He had 11 Children  too - Big max's number.

I think you're onto a theme here.!

1 minute ago, Return to Glory said:

Optimistically, we can get 7, possibly 8 wins in the run home. That's us playing finals. Rounds 13, 14, 17 and 20 look very hard. But we can jag at least one of these

And we need to beat Norf, we just need to. Not just because of the points but because I hate that non entity of a club. Watched one of there players stand over Vince when he was  doubled up on the ground and scream in his ear. It was just shite and symbolic of how that tin can club has bullied us. That needs to end. 

Eminently doable.  Shows the impact of losing the freo game, but 5 and 5 without Gawn and Hogan I would've taken any day. 

Gawn back soon and self belief should get us there. Great % position also.

The 8 pointers mentioned earlier means once we beat the Pies in 2 weeks  we are in the 8, and then in the clubs hands entirely to stay there.

On ‎16‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 10:42 PM, Deestroy All said:

Could be the beard, which has been proven to enhance performance. 

 

I'll also add that he gets ripped off for holding the ball after his tackles at least once a game. 

We saw him at the team hotel last week after the crows win.  There's nothing of him, but looks taller than on the ground. Kudos to his courage in frightening big defenders and more than not is better than even money to win his one on ones against them. Cue last week. Chasing is sensational .

On ‎18‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 11:07 AM, Deeoldfart said:

Settle down a bit guys.  This thread is getting me all excited, and at my age I'm not sure it's good for my longevity.

KB said yesterday we are one of only 3 Victorian teams that can win the premiership this year!.

How's that for exciting.

23 minutes ago, Stingray said:

Was reading the age article going through what they deem as the most successful trades of last year - and whilst lewis got a tiny nod, was amazed to not see one word written about Pig.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/the-best--and-the-rest--of-2016-afl-trades-20170518-gw8akg.html

yes he was injured but he's been huge for us since coming into the side and just gets better each week.

Broader accolades outside the club or not - he's been a phenomenal pick up for us and I've no doubt if this article is re-visited at seasons end his name will be well up that list. 

Thanks Stingray.  Hibberd is a great ball distributor in defence allowing the not so good kicks to do their thing , but he provides great outlet, like Salem.   Watching him end to end at Adelaide last week was insightful.

Huge pick up by Goodwin.

5 hours ago, Nasher said:

Our top 5 clangerers are Tyson, TMac, Vince, Oliver and Hunt. All 5 of them are also top 10 in disposal average (Tyson 5th).

Gee, what a revelation that the players who get the ball the most are the ones with the greatest chance of misusing it on occasion.

A scary analysis Nasher.

I guess we better drop them all this week due to their unreliability?

7 hours ago, mo64 said:

How about the OP outlines what constitutes a clanger. It's one of those stats that doesn't tell a true reflection on the overall performance of the player. Pretty sure that Dangerfield and Fyfe were "clanger kings" in their Brownlow year.

IMO, Tyson has played pretty well in the past 3 weeks.

He sure has. 

Harmes is a consistent butcher. Tyson's last half at Adelaide showed what a clever link player he is, and was always laying the tackle.  Smart footballer and important part of the engine room.  Our captains, great thought hey are , can also be problematic - cue the hawks game.

This is a silly thread with no meaningful analysis on the premise and statistics.

4 hours ago, Fifty-5 said:

I think "no change"

Fully agree.  I was at Adelaide last year for the Port game and last week.  There were clear similarities with the way Frost played and last week I thought Wagner did miss a few handball targets , but I could see looking end to end the backline starting to come together. Wagner's tackling was great. 

Downside is as David king said we have a few backs that can't hit targets 100%,  but at least Hibberd is brilliantly filling the role.

FWIT - I love Dom Tyson's work.

On ‎25‎/‎02‎/‎2017 at 3:20 PM, Jack son 5 said:

It is what it is. Been there a few times. Problem was the car parking. Eftpos? WtF?

Its called planning your day.

It was a great day.  Picnic rugs, chairs in the outer, great playing conditions. Just need  to be flexible.  Got out of the carpark in a 1/10 of the time as at the ' G ' too.

2 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

Salem with be in our top players whatever position he plays in.

The main reason Roos played him in the back line is because we didn't have the right people to play there.  Anyway, it was good for his development. 

We now have several players who can be attacking and accurate out of the backline so don't see a reason for him to play back again.  He is much more dangerous around the middle and forward.

I agree. He was one of the few who could hit a target from half back  - Roos needed at least some quality in past years.  He was great yesterday and this will be his year.

Also he wears No.3 and is the dead ringer for Garry Lyon.

11 hours ago, jane02 said:

I remember that day well - it almost broke my heart. Worse still - he was traded to Collingwood.

Agree.  Was the start of the slide we are only now coming out of.  Not quite the sacking of the great Norm Smith but a sliding doors moment.

4 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Not that GWS would take Garland, but how is Stewart worth our 2017 2nd pick and Garland?

How is Hibberd then worth Stewart and pick 37?

I don't understand why Hibberd doesn't just take Essendon to court and have his contract terminated for the Bombers negligence and lack of Duty of Care to him as an employee.?  And seek the court to order his costs payable by Bombers while he's at it.

No brainer.

9 minutes ago, hemingway said:

The Hogan thing sums up the disconnect between supporter and those who ply their trade in the Industry. We supporters are loyal, sentimental, nostalgic and for entire lifetimes committed to our club. It is our heritage, it is part of our blood line and DNA. Yet we folliw a game that is professionalized, corporatised and bastardised. We invest our emotional energy and passion into this crazy unreality. Do I want Hogan to stay a Demon? Absolutely. Do I accept that he may go?  Yes. He is a player who was drafted from far away WA. It's a long way away. It's not Melbourne. It's unique like all other parts of the country, with its own culture, lifestyle, behaviour and way of thinking. Melbourne is not Perth. We are a product of our upbringing, our connections, our family.  Jesse will always be a Western Australian as that is where he belongs. Any Melbournians who have lived interstate or overseas remain at heart Melbournians as that is where the heart lies.  There will be many who will get upset if Jesse flies away home. Yet who could blame him. If this occurs this meat market of professional sport will see another player or group of players ripped away from their home turf to ply their trade in far away Melbourne. God help them.  Poor buggers having to put up with the traffic, the aggression, the road rage and lack of courtesy. What a dog eat dog world Melbourne has become.                                     When I look at the way the game continues to change I see Hogan as a CHF of the past in the image of Brown and Carey.  He is a key position player in a game that no longer has key position players. So it will not be the end of the world if he goes, which he will sooner or later..  Yet emotionally I want him to remain a Demon, how crazy! 

This is a  great analysis and in line with some very insightful thoughts by Dermot Brereton recently who talked about how hawthorn now play not needing a large forward. He believes those days are not necessarily over but teams , including hawks, have leaned how to score without now the traditional KP forward. I have always been concerned at Hogan's lack of kicking depth and think his value to the team isn't the be all and end all now that other talent is on the horizon, and as David King said this year , Melbourne now have a premiership standard midfield.

20 hours ago, Dante said:

Yeah, I hope they win the next 5 flags and create a record that will only be surpassed by the third franchise they create in NSW, if they can win 6 that will really make the game huge in NSW, it may however have a bit of a detrimental effect on crowds in Victoria, never mind.

I don't mind going to the football each week knowing that we will never win a flag, as long as I know I've been part of the Australianisation of good old Aussie Rules, it may never be a completion again but boy will we get beat by some really super teams.

Go Sydney/Whoever.

 

GWS are, as they say in the movie the Matrix - an artificial construct - and always will be.  No passion or interest in the vein of traditional clubs and the heartland. But the TV rights pay all our bills so they need to succeed.

The common theme this week has been the swans making the finals 18 out of last 20 years. A great effort but is code for treading water in the Sydney market.

Keep paddling guys, for to sink means disaster for AFL/NSW., a la Brisbane Lions.

9 hours ago, KrazyJay said:

Pedersen = 10/10 for effort

Hogan = do we allow margin for effort?

Whatever is going on needs to be fixed

Watching the game live standing up on the hill you get a better idea of what Hogan does and leading isn't one of his strengths and he's a lousy disposer of the ball.  A largish contingent of demon supporters in our area and thought the same. Great contester in packs but that price tag must be based on some future upside. On the other hand, that real love for jack watts is now fantastic - his forward pocket goes in the last steadied the ship for sure.  Tyson is straight our engine rook material too. Another 10 possession first 1/4 when it was needed.