Pates

Preuss Out Gawn In Sparrow Out Rivers In (give Harmes minutes in the middle and up forward) Other possible ins would be Oskar Baker for Sparrow and Hunt for Hannan perhaps? Melksham is a bit like Fritta they keep bobbing up for cheap goals here and there but both I feel aren't fulfilling their roles. Both should be aiming for 15+ possies and 1-2 goals a game.

Lions should've been up by 5 goals going into the last quarter but had to scrape it home. Felt not dissimilar to the game against us where they should feel lucky to have got away with it. The Lions are a good team but I could very easily see them going out in straight sets again.

I think the dogs game gave the players a harsh wake up call, I've got very little doubt we have players in the team that drink their own bathwater a little too quickly. By all means drink pints of it after you've won the premiership but until then we are still a side that has done nothing! At the start of the year I had us pegged at about 6th-10th, we've got games against 4 teams that we really should be beating + the saints game next week. I've done a little ladder predictor with us dropping two more games, Saints and GWS. It has us finishing 9th. I think it's actually really simple, we beat the Saints next week I can't see us missing finals. We lose and we have to win the rest of our games to make finals, 3 wins means we're in the lap of the gods.

Just watching a passage of play that concerned me for next match was how easy the Saints were able to get the ball out from a kick in to their half forward line. The dogs tore us to shreds off the back line and it looks like the Saints are more than capable of doing the same. Our pressure and desire to work hard is going to have to be on all match next week, and like what the Saints are doing right now, take our chances when they come (I'M LOOKING AT YOU FRITTA!!!!!!!).

Their set shots for goal are awful, keeping the Saints in the game.

Going into the match I felt like we were evenly matched and and placed in the same area on the ladder. I think they are good enough to be a top 6 team, we're a 7th-10th team. Outplayed and out coached.

Definitely don't think it should extend out to 34 games, that's too much. I feel like it could get out to 26-28 games with a "festival of footy" style in the middle but they need to manage it so there aren't 4 day breaks, that has clearly been an issue for teams. At the very least there shouldn't be a dependency of one team on a 4 day break and the other on 6+ day break. I also worry about the season becoming very tough to watch if the team is awful like what Adelaide are dishing up.

Watching the dogs walk the ball out of defence was maddening, our kick outs are an absolute disgrace. I have zero confidence in it turning into a goal on the rebound, when are they going to come up with something other than “long down the line”?

It’s becoming a worrying trend that every week we give up moronic 50m penalties/free kicks that are costly and totally down to undisciplined acts. Interestingly Melksham could’ve had a 50 himself in that last quarter as he took the mark just inside the 50m line and the dogs player went over by almost a metre. But yeah that 50 in the third quarter was a back breaker when we actually needed to hold strong.

I saw the second half (sadly), firstly I’m going to give credit to Beverage. Right now if there was a coach i would have at the Dees, Bevo would be at the top of the tree. Goodwin was 100% out coached by him today. We looked like plodders again, and while you can say the breeze was big and all that for the dogs in the 3rd quarter we had our chances to slow the momentum and kick goals, we even had repeat inside 50s but botched all our chances. 4th quarter we looked a bit like the old Melbourne, unsure of ourselves and no one was willing to take the ball and say “I’m going to make something happen”. Weid took big grabs but until he starts nailing big time goals he will not be anything more than a handy forward. Fritch has become one of my biggest frustrations at Melbourne, he’s got potential and shows lots of really good traits but like Weid until he starts nailing big goals his talent is going to be wasted. That miss from directly in front (yes the wind took it) was a prime example. When we needed everything to go right the old Melbourne shon through. Now we have a huge game to keep in touch with the 8 against St Kilda and we’re firmly entrenched in the group fighting for the 7th and 8th spot. Big loss.

The first couple of wins from our run were against quite clearly the two worst teams in the AFL right now, and we comfortably beat a depleted Pies outfit who were also off a shorter break. I’m not saying we dismiss those wins but this is the major test. The dogs are on the same points as us but we have the better percentage, a win here gets a little separation while gets us closer to the top 6. This is most definitely an 8 pointer.

I’m a Liverpool fan, he wasn’t Allison but he held up decently. As you said he had some of the best defenders in front of him, but he did alright (better than Mignolet and Karius) and better than I expected given his lack of time at the club. My point is more than you need players to step in to the team to fill a role.

Would’ve given the suns an extra days rest to make it fairer as well. EDIT I said the F word, the AFL doesn’t do “fair”!

I’m not sure if there are many Premier League fans on here but Liverpool lost the first choice keeper who had been one of their best pick ups in years early in the first game of the season just gone. Didn’t have him for about 6-7 matches I think, everyone thought the sky was falling and Liverpool were stuffed. Up stepped Adrian, who’d barely been at the club a week. He stepped in and did a bloody good job in Allison’s absence, Liverpool won the title. A lot of teams over the years win premierships off of incredible injury runs but most have to cover for their stars at some point. Preuss could be our Adrian!

That is actually a very good point, our forward line has functioned quite well at times with Weid and Jacko. With Tom back in its been equally decent and I think Tom could have a late season resurgence, he just needs to clunk some marks to get some confidence. So with that in mind where would Jesse sit? Would he be our second forward behind Weid and Jack moves into a midfield/back up ruck role? Team balance and whether we can utilising him to the best of his ability would definitely be a question mark.

There’s little doubt there’s the element of romanticism in Melbourne fans having him back. The bare bone stats, issues, and health question marks would leave most to say no. But in his first year with Freo he was injured the whole time, this year he started injured again and now I think he’s probably struggling with more mental demons. Talent is there, the question is whether it’ll ever emerge again.

I really liked in the Pies game when he did that big first towards goal and I think it was Clarry that ran onto it. I think with Preuss it might be better to get the a bit of separation from the pack, obviously as long as it’s towards a plan that everyone is work to. Only concern is that the dogs have good speed in the middle and if they get onto it it could backfire very quickly.

I heard they’re playing him in defence at training, is there any particular reason for this? I’d be keen to know where is mind is at before looking at bringing him back. Coulf be a Mitch Clark situation where the damage has been done.

What was the question mark on English? Any way we can exploit it? I felt that Preuss held his own against Grundy (with Grundy clearly the classier player) so hopefully that may give him some confidence going into this match. Settled teams are usually good teams, happy to take the same group from the Pies game. I feel like we win this week finals are well and truly in sight, and we can push further up the ladder. A loss and we’re back to the pack again, back to fighting. I thought he was starting to gain a little confidence over the last couple of weeks, he’s getting to more contests and bringing it to ground he just isn’t clunking marks. His hands just don’t seem to being coming up in a confident way, it’s more like he’s swatting. But through his contested work we got a few goals last week, steps ahead.

And dodgy 50m penalty.

“The Demons are believed to have had the fewest membership refunds of any club.” Anyone that says we aren’t passionate and care about our club can suck on that! ? I never like our club going the early crow though saying we’ll be debt free by this time next year, if there’s one certainly in football it’s that nothing is certain. Still they have done a truly remarkable job in difficult times.

Barracking for a scrappy 35 - 35 draw between Dons and Tiges now, with half of the tigers players reported and suspended for 2+ weeks. Lynch to miss a shot after the siren to win the game. I also would like us to face them first/second week of finals and knock them out. Jeez him bringing the GF has definitely brought out some feelings I repressed!

Past: The Wiz Present: Hard to go past big Max

That makes my blood boil so much seeing that incident again. Let's put something into context here, Long got 4 matches for that sickening, disgusting, dog act of which he served 2 matches in the pre-season. 2 home and away matches against one of the worst act of cowardice on Grand Final day. Wallace also served his 3 match ban in the pre-season so essentially no punishment handed down. Should never be forgotten and Dimma is pathetic for making Schwartz sound like a cry baby for wanting to stand up for his mate.

Chat to Apple and Co's auto-correct, I think most Bradshaw's come from that.