Demon17

In the dees team of the century painting it depicts norm smith giving a pre match address to the team. On a blackboard are 3 points. One is "expect to win". I assume this was his mantra. All of your comments above ring true but i would add smiths point too. This dees outfit always think they are never beaten till the end. E.g. round 23 last year. This mindset can't be just created but must be learned via experience. This imo will seperate our team from many challengers this season. some cats players internally will be wondering what do we have to do to beat melbourne. 7 goals up at 1/2 time won't cut it now.

Club members and Public release go on sale at Ticketek at 2.00pm tomorrow Tuesday 1st March. Mcc and AFL members are on sale same day from 9.00am There are limits on guest tcikets, obviously 1 ticket per member bar code. The entire MCG will be fully ticketed. No Ticket, can't get in. i.e no walk ups for this match as per MCC Ticketing info, even if not a sell out.

You make a good pint WCW . But if the Dees do to the Blues even closely what they did to the Roos last week, then that's two teams ( and their fans) that will be saying that 2022 will be another lost season without finals. Maybe that's why your friends don't want to go - seeing that scenario live would be deflating for sure as it used to be for me in the old days.

A great pick-up. But to be fair I do appreciate that Eddie gave this game as a home game for a number of years to give us a leg up in the dark days. But as a financial powerhouse now, its good to give back this year to the struggling Pies and give their players some 'finals-like' experience. Naturally in the Call Daisy will be giving her insights on just what casued the Pies implosion on the day.

Excellent post Watson. Dermie always says you make your name in finals unless you are an outright genius such as robbie flower but even he killed in finals when the dees finally made it. . I agree and none of those you listed will be remembered in the same light as fritsch. Or others Eg Darren Jarmen, Jezza etc famous for gf heroics. Hell they'll be talking in 30 years even about jake bowey and tom sparrow ahead of the above non performers. The cats resigning garry rohan tells us something about the cats mindset.

Makes sense thanks. But the current 'boys club ' commentary rarely behaves in this fashion which is why the bt gf approach stood out for me.

5 in the top 21, next best is 3, and some are dubious or based on pre-2021 performance (eg Dusty, Danger) That's the indicator I reckon.

Spot on M. The discussion during the season was often how a team needs to stop Salem (amongst others) to succeed. No-one ever did really, and he had 10 posseis in the GF first 1/4. All effective. Yet rated in the 40's. Go figure. Better than Daniel for sure.

I have no idea what this post means? BT's job is to call the action and add a bit of colour. Nothing more or less. Leave the brainpower work to the experts - like Daisy , which he did on the GF call.

The benefit of thrashing north means media will he looking elsewhere for a story this week. If it was close you'd have the Hun predicting flash in the pan stuff. Etc. Dees taking it easy then arrogance etc. Now we've just further frightenef the competition . With J Viney to come back too.

Thanks and good luck to him.

Can you elaborate on Joel Smith.? Iv'e always had my doubts and saw a 30 sec clip of the game where he charged through won the ball then butched it. Not representative of his game? Hitting targets?

As Daisy said in the GF - "...this team doesn't have an off button..."

And credit to him for the number of times during the GF and deferred to Daisy to explain what the hell is happening. He's not all bad.

Spot on. An excellent example in the GF was her dissection of Tom Sparrows kick to BBB (which IMO sealed it for me). She discusses at length the difficulty of the kick, the way ANB drew defenders to him, BBB's instructions for 60m to Sparrow, etc......

With respect I still disagree with the above. As I said Buddy got a Godfather Clause, so did Ablett - $1.50M for 5 years. He took this for family security reasons. Both after 2 flags and thus members of the Dynasty already. Rance was injured and retired for personal/Faith reasons. The overwhelming Flag members of the 3 Dynasties stayed - nearly all for less cash than they would have commanded elsewhere. Anyone who left were fringe players and so fringe I can't even think of any examples. My point is that almost the whole 23 Dees players are nowehere near fringe, least of all Gus. This team has Dynasty written all over it. We have the best and only (IMO) premiership-standard defence and defensive system in the AFL for the next 3 years. I'm hoping the great Steven May can play to 35.

I disagree overall on the history since 2000. Unless a player gets a Godfather offer like Buddy did, and well-deserved, then the Hawks, Tigers and especially Cats have set the template for sustarined success by the team staying together for the common good, but slightly less money. Your'e right its hard - for the salary cap manager - but its a 2-way deal and the players collectively will take the dynasty approach IMO. Otherwise we'll just be another flash-in-the-pan Dogs style success. Pert won't stand for this outcome. Gus can go for maybe 150K more than the Dees offer, then less 45c in the dollar tax, why would he.?

Enjoy the season watching Ed weave his magic DG.

The AFL Supporters Survey released today, and hightlighted on The Age back page, talks about, among other things, fans fed up with the boys club commentary ruining the watching spectacle on tele. Who'd have thought? But the good news is Ch 7 is allocating this season Daisy Peace to the Friday night commentary team for special comments, moving Wayne Carey to Saturday. How good is that, but a good call by 7 after Daisy's suberb comments contribution on the GF. At times it was emabarrassingly good. Well done to 7 on that. She even had BT saying during the GF's 3rd quarter "....Daise , can you explain just what's happened...?" So she did. Priceless.

Nailed it.

Its a nice problem to now have, but as with the Cats and the Tiges, we are now at a time where the players need to decide if they want less money to stay together and become a dynasty, or not. Its up to them really and time will tell. I suspect we won't lose anyone short of a jesse Hogan-type scenario where compelling personal reasons override staying. The upside is that key players have "come home" to us - Lever, Langdon, May(sort of - ex Melb Grammar boy so knows the city). But the engine room - Gawn, Viney Petracca and Oliver are rock solid. Who wouldn't want to play with them - unless you can't get a regular game?

Excellent suggestion, and execllent move for Gus to Half back. Centreline: Flower - Oliver/Petracca - Langdon. Wow!

Many on here refer to how "...good so and so would be oppsoite Ed Langdons wing...". (esp Robbie F) We have the Robbie Flower wing (MCC side) at the G, but at games we now talk about the Ed Langdon wing (AFL Stand side). He's made it his own, and as he's admitted as he doesn't come off during games he doesn't need to play on the side closer to the bench. Good for efficiency of team rotations too.

Flower was consistently brilliant in State games , esp with the talent around him (which only amplified his class) So Imagine how good he would be in this 2021 Flag side. Pencil him in for the Norm Smith.

If true, this is good to hear. You wonder about CD doing a sense check of their analysis. It must occur to them the flaws now apparent. Would they be now thinking if they've kicked an own goal marketing - wise? Usually there's outrage on these sites when the list come out like Robbo's or Sheehan's, but they are subjective anyway and good for initiating arguments. CD are the opposite, portraying these as facts, the data doesn't ie, etc, etc,....... Highlights maybe their limited programming expertise.