Pates

New team, we start again and reload. Dogs might be in woeful form but match day can be a totally different story. We need to be switched on and I hope the coaching staff is making sure the players keep doing the simple team things. It’s what got us to where we are now, keep it going. Jonesy’s 250th should be motivation enough.

Great man and fantastic player, well deserved. So many great performances to pick from but one that sticks in my mind was a games against St Kilda where I think he kicked 8, and I think 4-5 of them were outside 50. 1 in particular was right on the boundary line in front of the members. Boy when he was on he was unstoppable!

This is still one of my favourite Dees related images. Crossy was (and I’m sure still is) well love by the players, Gussy chairing off his son at the same time was just a beautiful moment.

Soccer has long had the dominance in participation but it’s rarely translated into anything more solid. Remember that Soccer has had both genders for a lot longer and it’s played across all states. Netball is surely number one with girls but I think soccer is number two. Australia will always be a Rugby/AFL country. As for these ratings I say this is exactly what the AFL needed to wake them up to gifting so many did Friday night games to Carlton. It’s finally biting them in the ass. Ironically they finally caved and pulled back Richmond’s Friday night games just in the year they got good, maybe they were worried about Carlton doing the same thing. No danger of that now! FWIW I think they should have two “floating games” that can be moved. The Friday night and Saturday 1:10pm slot should be the two, they’re as close together as you can get so it lessens the change in days and break. It should be chosen 6-7 weeks out as well. Would definitely minimise the potential of dud games on Friday night.

I’ve got no problem with the media not pumping up our tyres, I feel in the past they’ve been too premature with saying we’ve turned a corner etc. We’re well placed and playing good football, if they don’t want to acknowledge that then that’s their issue. And for that matter I do think we still have something to prove in my books. Adelaide we’re very undermanned, they still had quality but if you look at how much of a difference TMac and Viney make for us the same can be said and more for Sloan and Walker. What I can say about us is that there’s a ruthlessness that I haven’t ever seen in a Melbourne side. Remembering that we really would’ve killed the suns by more were we more accurate and efficient going forward. Still lots of footy to be played and this is a new week.

The guy has given everything to the club and through tough times has always left everything out on the field. I know lots of Dees fans hate Etihad but no excuses, pack the stadium to show your support for one of the most loyal blokes to ever don the red and blue.

If there are no forced changes leave it as is. Can’t mess a team that’s won by a combined total of 200 points over two weeks.

Me too, happy to be wrong! We all knew he was working his butt off off the ball but things weren’t clicking for him in terms of finding and using it. Boy has that flipped around! I managed to wake up to see the 2nd quarter onwards, call me a pessimist but I’ve seen a few games where we’ve burst from the blocks and I’ve started watching from there only for us to fall into a heap so part of me was just hoping to see us go on with it. To use BT’s catchphrase, BOY OH BOY WOWEE did we ever go one with it. The crowd had maybe a couple of little dips where you thought they were trying to find a way into the contest but every time we did we just managed to halt their momentum and reload for another burst. Even the 4th quarter when the game was over and they were winning the quarter we just reset and managed to get the last 3 of the game. The two players I am so happy for right now are Gus and Lever. Gus had such a difficult road back and many wrote him off, but he is easily playing career best football right now. Lever must’ve been feeling a bit of pressure coming into this game but if he did he sure didn’t show it. I’m still on the fence about how much we have up for him but he is delivering in spades now. Also want to mention Gawn has been a monster in the ruck the last 5 weeks and also played a good game from memory against the tigers. He is definitely going at AA form. Finally I have to say Hogan is proving to be a pleasure to watch week in week out. Some weeks he’s not getting the goals, instead he’s setting them up, today he did both and more. 5 goals (no behinds!) 20 disposals, he is absolutely flying! So many more players I could mention (really could go through the entire 22). I also just want to say I’m finding Daisy Pearce to be one of the best boundary riders going around at the moment with her analysis at ground level. Maybe just needs to polish up some of her interview techniques. ? What an awesome day!!!

I’m stoked for the fact we’ve named an unchanged line up, obviously a cloud will hang over TMac’s fitness but a settled side is exactly what we need. Hopefully Viney is better for the run last week and will start to show more this week. Stating the bleeding obvious to say this game is our chance to really put ourselves on the map. Time to prove ourselves.

I'm sure the players have been building themselves up for this match, and they have been improving every week since the loss to Richmond so we really are hitting Adelaide at the best time with their injuries and our form. The most exciting thing for me is watching our forward line start to gel; TMac, Hogan, and Melksham in particular. If we can get Jeffy in there in good form that is a very serious forward line.

Thanks, I noticed he kissed the armband after his last goal.

Bernie shouldn’t go for his bump but then NikNat shouldn’t have gone for his tackle so you never know. No change.

I was wondering that myself, it was only Nibbler wearing it am I right?

Carlton might be the unlucky side that face us when things clicked. We’ve had the ingredients for a massive win for weeks but have lacked the polish and ability to make the opposition pay. Today we well and truly did that. We became a team that every time the ball went forward you thought “here’s a goal”. The most pleasing thing for me was the even spread across the park, and the varying avenues of goal kickers. A few weeks ago I said one of my concerns for the team was that we weren’t putting teams to the sword and belting them when we had the chance. Two weeks in a row we’ve done that. Now the next test, bring on the Crows!

Those writing him off, he was in the conversation at one stage last year for AA selection. He has a magic that no other player at the club pocesses, he’ll be back in and I’m confident he’ll play an important part of our push towards finals football.

Hopefully the Crows will have heavy legs after their wet weather slog. As for other results we’ve really just got to focus on our own results. Keep getting the wins on the board.

Although I’m happy for Smith to be getting another shot I have liked TMac being a forward and not having to worry about chopping out in the ruck. I would’ve been quite happy for Pedders to come in as a second ruck/forward, but the reality is that he coaching staff is trying to move on from him. Viney back will be huge for the team, I feel like Tyson is unlucky to miss out but a week or two in the VFL might be good for him. We have pretty much our best 22 available and I’m not one that buys that AvB is in the best 22 when fit so there are no excuses vs Carlton. That said we should be wary of them, they’ve hit us hard early before and had us on the back foot. Let’s be sharp from the beginning. Can’t wait to see Viney’a first tackle, hopefully he’ll get a goal or two as well just to really pump up the Demons faithful!

He’s still our best small forward but he’s had a poor start to the year (except for him saving our bacon against brissy). Now he has to fight to get back in against players who might not have the same magic but work a lot harder.

For the time being we need to win the games in front of us. The Hawks game was an unmitigated disgrace, while I feel the final margin for the Richmond game justified the way we played, particularly in the 3rd quarter where we were bent over and f—ed by the umpires. So for now getting the three comfortable wins was exactly what we needed and hopefully we can keep it rolling into the Blues this weekend. Really looking forward to seeing Jack out there this week.

I love Trac but he’s not having a great start to the year, and his goal kicking is definitely one of the things that’s suffering. He had a very good year in front of goal in 2017 and he’s mostly a very good kick so I can’t fathom why he struggling when face with getting it through the big sticks. That said I’m not too worried, I think it’ll click for him and god help the team that’s on the other end.

He’s got some real X-factor about him but you need consistent traits to be able to fall back on. He still seems to bomb it long in no clear direction, but I’m not necessarily worried about him. He’s just having an off start to the year and I’m confident he will find his mojo again. Remember he also showed some serious talent when played forward.

I remember when Bailey got the sack and he was asked his opinion on the list, he was resolute in his belief he’d built the makings of a list that could play finals quickly. Now everyone has their own belief on the state of a list but clearly they were in different universes of opinions as Neeld tore shreds to the entire list and seemed to destroy any confidence that Bailey had built in them. FWIW in hindsight I think they it was somewhere in the middle of the two opinions. Bailey (when the lads played their best) were playing his way and it was exciting, but when they dropped off they had no discipline or structure. Neeld seemed to come in and rip out the confidence for their positive ball movement and (I believe) try to build a game plan based around rigid structures. He didn’t do anything maliciously, he did what he thought was right. He was wrong. His one (positive) legacy is that he did create more professional training ethics in the playing group. We were woefully behind on that for a long time and he at least gave Roos and Co a starting point for that.

I'm actually starting think that Collingwood created Neeld to be a trojan horse at other clubs, destroy the competition and all that.

And we almost conceded a goal. We’re better when we move forward.

Is it bad that I’m disappointed we didn’t get the inside 50s record? Like seriously why did we go backwards with a minute to go with 69 point lead? All that aside it was really good to see us put a team to the sword and get some much needed %. It was also a bit of a announcement to the competition, if/when things click for us we can score big. We were inaccurate and wasteful at times tonight and we still won by 69 points. Great to see Brayshaw back up his excellent game last week with another really good performance, Salem also slotted back in really well, Lewis was a cool head and played a great game. But the standout performances for me were Clarry, Gawn, and TMac (although he had a very quiet last quarter). Great to see us have a big win. Blues next week who might be up and about after their first win. Big chance to build something this season now.