Pates

Our pressure has lifted.

There’s Trac! C’mon Dees!

Big goal skip!

Wow Weids first half is playing himself out of the side. 0 kicks 0 marks.

Even before Buckley’s announcement this was a danger game. Every year there’s a team down the bottom that probably isn’t reflective of their actual ability and I’ve felt the Pies fit this. Not saying they’re top 8 but they’ve got quality and that quality is rising to the top today. On the flip side our quality is barely showing itself, Oliver was literally doing everything himself at the start of the second quarter before his teammates pulled their finger out. Gawn seems off, marks not sticking and taps not going our way. Petracca is having a nothing game so far. May and Lever being kept out of the game through good planning. TMac only having a bit of a game (though did well to give LJ the goal). And Kozzie barely in the game. Long way to go, so much to do. We came out of the blocks against Brisbane in the second half, we need a rocket up them for this game as well.

Petracca’s having a mare.

Anytime, anywhere. If we’re good enough we’ll find a way.

I was one that had felt St Kilda were further ahead of us until we beat them very comfortably. Certainly Nibbler and Spargo were two players often mentioned as guys that would never be a regular part of a successful Melbourne team. TMac as well was labelled as “cooked”, Harmes was useless and a wasted 4 year deal. Really goes to show you how much fans use emotion to base their arguments, eg with Spargo his first game last season against West Coast was awful and had posters (I may have been one of them) saying he should never pull on a Melbourne guernsey again. EDIT it’s why I’m backing Melksham to come back at some stage and prove his worth, and why I think BBB will give the coaches a reason to pick him again. That said Langdon for Melksham was correct in/out.

This is insanely crucial any clubs hopes of pushing up the ladder and being in premiership contention. Luck is an element that is supremely undervalued when looking at premiership teams. The tigers broke their drought off the back of a stupidly good year of injuries, even better than what we currently have. The dogs had injuries in their year but their piece of luck was they peaked absolutely perfectly and got an armchair ride from the umpires. Even back to the dominant Essendon team of 2000, they had an incredible run of no injuries and no suspensions (that last part ironic given their thuggish actions on GF day). Luck is the element that I feel like we’ve constantly missed out on. All the way back to Jimmy running across the mark in prelim, to ‘98 getting pushed over to the tougher finals draw despite beating the premiers by 50+ points in the first week, 2000 we came up against unstoppable force, and the years from 2004-2006 even though we were in contention we always seemed to get injuries right at the worst times. So far Lady Luck is shining on us, fingers crossed that continues!

Hard to argue with that, a much more intelligent system would be if there’s an outbreak in the Melbourne metro/suburbs area you put everyone on a 5km radius lockdown from within that area. Mildura is so far away, it’s hard to imagine there being connections if a localised lockdown is done quick enough. Watching from afar I’ve been proud of the efforts with Australia with COVID, but I’ve also been disappointed that in the year they’ve had they’ve haven’t A improved the systems they have in place, B the federal government hasn’t taken on more responsibility for those systems, and C the “us vs them” state to state still exists with very little viable cooperation. I’m coming back in July, I’m absolutely desperate to get to watch us play and I can’t fathom the idea that we get a crack at the premiership with it taking place anywhere but the G.

The quarantine hotels have been far from a joke, they’ve been the envy of most of the world. They haven’t been 100% full proof largely because they hotels (particularly in Melbourne I suspect) haven’t been built to act in this capacity. Because Australia has been the quarantine capitol of the world it’s meant the vaccination program hasn’t needed to be expedited unlike the UK and US where the virus is so prominent in the community the only way to fight back was to get a successful vaccine program rolled out quickly. Now that people realise a return to proper normal life won’t happen without vaccines the government is (rightfully) copping it for their lethargic approach to promoting vaccinations and also making sure enough doses exist.

But that’s the thing Picket, BBB isn’t a 60+ goal kicker right now. He may have done those things in the past but he doesn’t have that in him right now. I’m not necessarily defending Weids for that matter as I think he has to do more than just be a competing forward, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to be expecting someone in his position to be averaging about a goal a game. I would also actually consider Mitch Brown over Weids but the question is what does that achieve? Will we definitely get more output from Mitch over Sam, and is that the best thing not only short term but long term? It has to be crunch time for Sam, he’s had his weeks to get his eye in and feel like he’s a part of the team. Time to start repaying the faith.

I really try to see what Melksham brings every week but I can never see it, he continues to get games so you can only take it at face value that he’s doing his job but I just don’t know what that job is!

I agree there is time but he has to get match fitness. Feels like a similar situation to Bennell last year where he couldn’t get an opportunity at consistency. He’s signed for a few years with us so he might not be what we need this year but given some time could come good.

Ross Lyon really should have won the premiership with the Saints but I agree, his legacy at both clubs seem to be long lasting in a bad way. I’d gladly see him go to the Pies as I think he’d be an awful fit from a Collingwood success perspective.

Inspirational and absolutely heartbreaking. I saw this post come up and was about to click on the video but hesitated because I knew it was going to be tough to watch. What an amazing man, transcends club rivalries and everything that goes with what happens on the park. Hats off to Bec as well, she’s clearly carrying a lot of the responsibility as the illness has progress, must be so incredibly tough to watch her father go through this but she still maintains the trademark Daniher humour. You can see in his eyes, there’s genuine love for the Dees.

I remember Daniher’s last game as coach for us, the players looked completely off the boil and distracted. They came good but we had to play catch up. I also remember the Bombers getting some horrendous decisions go their way that won the game for them. Neitz looked completely gutted at the end of the game, I was genuinely shedding a tear as they walked off.

I understand Clarko being in the conversation but it just seems like a strange move to go fro one club where you’re 2 years into your own rebuild to go to a club where you’d be at the very start of the clean out/rebuild. I’m sure the pies would throw the $$$ at him but for Clarko, does he need that in his life? I genuinely think Yze should be a front runner, I’ll be absolutely gutted if he goes though. He has the pedigree though having done his apprenticeship under Clarko and would be hungry for it. By the by, any senior pies players that we might look at if they’re keen to be in a premiership window?

Wow, that’s absolutely disgraceful from Daniher. Some of the weakest efforts you could possibly imagine. Also great goal from TMac, Trac wasn’t is a much better position and Tommy’s in form. Let it ride!

Jim Stynes

If ever there was a match I want a 4 quarter match from it would be this week. They will no doubt be up for it early but emotion can drain you quite quickly, I would love to see him sent off in the same way Roos was sent off from us.

He’s definitely returned to the Hibberd of old lately, cool as a cucumber when he has the ball.

It’s intriguing to think that pre-season had our forward line based around the tandem of Sam and BBB but now they are competing for that final forward spot in the team and neither seems able to demand it as their own.

Salem doesn’t look quite right since he’s come back, I’d be keen to give him an extended break. Would Bowey in for Salem he worth a go? Every week we keep expecting Melksham to be dropped, and every week he seems to survive. I would really like to hear from the coaches on what KPI’s he’s hitting that’s keeping him in the side. I mean he has to be doing something right to maintain his spot, right? I think Weid gets another chance at it, I feel like I’m saying the things I used to say about Watts but I really want him to succeed!

I was really impressed he was able to nail that goal after fumbling twice, could easily understand a young player losing confidence to back himself after the taking a couple of bites. He was also able to sum the situation up really well, he the quick look for others but saw the square vacant. I really hope he’s given another crack this week against the pies.