Pates

In fairness to those fans, a few of them are still recovering from the $cully burn.

I felt towards the end of the year a lot of Melbourne fans were turning on him a bit, I think as a defence mechanism to expectations that he would ditch us. Now that he's committed and essentially said he's in it for the long haul I hope those people give him every bit of support and credit as he could've taken some big money.

Is it me or apart of Hibberd, does it sounds like we're going to have a very quite trade/FA period? Is it a case of we're comfortable with what we have available? I feel like we're still lacking in a bit of outside run and that's something we should be targeting.

Must mean the end was Dawes. If given an injury free run at it I think he would have been a good signing. Ah well, we'll always have his game v Crows at the Adelaide Oval. Good stuff Pedders!

Great stuff Jesse! Now you can focus on pre-season with all this behind you!

Well this is disappointing finish for Casey's year, losing the GF to a team they smashed a couple of weeks prior. I wasn't able to see the game and went to bed at half time, but it sounds like all the things Casey (and the Melbourne listed players) were praised for leading into the match, the dogs were able to smash them in. Particularly in the 3rd quarter. Its particularly dissapointing to hear much of the failure came from senior Melbourne players not stepping up. Finals footy is another step that our guys don't recognise, whether it's AFL or VFL. Well done Casey on a brilliant season, let's hope both Casey and the Dees can go another step better next year.

Can someone post the score?

Dogs winning into the GF will have the dogs fans on a big high and wouldn't surprise me if they get a few more through the gate because of it. C'mon Scorps, bring them back down to earth!

Choosing Hells Bells came about from the League's desire for fan engagement after Port made "Never Tear Us Apart" such a huge success amongst their fans. Now Hells Bells hasn't generated anywhere near the support or significance but as i said it came from us moving with the leagues fan engagement push. If it's something our club feels they have worked on making a special part of our match day experience then I think they should request the AFL make it special to us. And if the AFL gives us nothing then play Never Tear Us Apart and see how Port react.

Very happy about this result, watch the rough 23 bye be given the flick for next year! Cpuld this be the year of the unlikely premierships, first Leicester now the Dogs? Get stuffed GWS, have some heartache before you get results.

Really hoping for a Sydney v Dogs final! Must say I didn't see this result coming though, wonder how Gillberts will feel about the pre-finals bye if the Giants lose tomorrow.

Sadly almost every time we've had it it's gone the other direction. And now $culldog Millionaire is playing in a prelim. I see Trenners as a no lose situation now, a lot of pundits have already written him off but he's yet to have a full pre-season since the injury first occurred. Worst case, he's depth and experience at Casey for our young guys coming through. My only question mark is where he fits into the team.

It's hard to keep up, he's driving the Oliver Express at full throttle! He must work for Public Transport Victoria!

Well a certain former coach wanted us to be the hardest team to play against. We may be finally getting there now.

Always a cool head in discussions Picket Fence!

Honestly I feel it's an excuse to put it off. I don't genuinely think that's the reason he's putting it off, I think it's just a convenient thing to utilise. When you're talking the money that he's going to be receiving I doubt the CBA is going to play much of a part in his decision unless the CBA will result in a big salary cap increase.

Go. Support the Scorps and support the Melbourne players. The Dogs fans get behind their VFL team so we need our fans out there and in full voice!

Jeez Salem's having some bad luck, thyroid issues, hammy issues, helps Casey get the GF only to be concussed in the prelim and would have to be in doubt for the Granny. There doesn't appear to be any doubt that we're getting behind Casey in the finals which is great to see. I don't know what the BOG medal for the VFL grand final is but I reckon Clarry would be a massive chance at it. Finals were made for guys like him.

I'm not a subscriber to the Hun but is Dunn contracted? If not surely he's an unrestricted FA. If he is contracted I would prefer we hold onto him, can't hurt to have some depth and when he comes in he does his job well.

Well if he's available where we rate him then go for it! If Gus is anything to go by then I'm sure he's got guts and heart.

Being overseas it's probably easier for me to avoid this Hogan stuff, but seeing the Ox weigh into a discussion with Hogan I thought I'd throw in my two cents. People are talking like this is an easy decision for Jess to make now, when his contract isn't up until the end of next year. This really sucks for us and for him because the idea of him signing a longer contract was to put this sort of thing off. The Ox makes it sound so simple, if he wants to go then we trade him this year. But what if at this stage he genuinely still doesn't know? A lot can change in a year. Something I do agree with the Ox on is that if he were to leave it wouldn't be as much of a disaster as it might've been say 12 months ago. Our push up the ladder has been largely base on higher output from the midfield and an evenness across many players. The emergence of Watts as a productive forward and more goals from mids has meant his output didn't mean success or failure for the team. And with Weeds coming through and Hulett as well it won't be a dire emergency were he to leave. The big test for Jesse will come once the CBA is finalised as this was something he pointed to as a reason for holding off, although it hasn't stopped a lot of a other players in the competition. I really didn't like West Coast coming out so boldly saying they were targeting him, are there any promising Victorian players or their list we can say the same thing about?

I'm kinda repeating myself here but I'll say it again anyway. If you can go to the GF, do it! The doggies will no doubt have a very strong contingent of fans that couldn't get tickets to the final in Sydney and will be full of voice. Not only that but it could be your last chance to cheer on a few players who will be moved on at trade/delisting period. On a completely different note am I the only one that thinks it's a bit unfair that the Dog got an extra day of rest compared to Casey give we finished higher on the ladder? Also I would've thought it would be better to play it on the Saturday as a sort of lead in to the the final on Saturday night.

I have to admit I was on the fence about the whole debate with GWS playing at spotless. Seeing the G packed to the rafters with a large amount being dogs fans you know the AFL have screwed the dogs fans out of being able to go the final just to look after their love child. Well done to the doggies, hard to know what I'm happier about: Dogs going through or Hawks out!

His whole speech is like a stand up roasting routine! Love the guy!

As long as we're there and they aren't! I hope they keep sliding! PJ's comments clearly struck a nerve, but then it's always best to just focus on your own club than drag the other clubs into an announcement. That said I don't think PJ said anything wrong, the transition was poorly handled and Malthouse (and some players for that matter) said he didn't want to go. Our transition has been very smooth, but the proof will be in the pudding this time next year (hopefully).