deejammin'

Their equivalent of our final round loss was against Adelaide in round 20. Their last two performances were remarkable considering their outs and the quality of the opposition (hurts me to say it but the Pies just won’t die!). Interestingly we’ve reached full maturity. We went 11-0 against teams outside the 8. The knock on us last year was we were off our game and dropped games against bottom teams (Pies, Hawks, Adelaide, GWS). Our 5-6 record against the top 8 is less impressive than last years 8-1 but let’s make up for that in the finals!

They beat us. They’re a glass cannon, their best is very very good, their worst is very very bad.

Simon Goodwin’s finals coaching record is something we can be proud of! Best W/L percentage of the current top 8 coaches (I will update if this changes but seeing as I am barracking hard for the pies to lose, purely out of hatred, I’m hoping I won’t have to). Finals Coaching records: Simon Goodwin: 5W-1L, 83% Win, 1 Premiership Damien Hardwick: 10W, 5L, 67% Win, 3 Premierships John Longmire: 10W-11L, 48%, 1 Premiership, Michael Voss: 1-1, 50%, No Premierships Chris Scott: Finals 8W-15L, 35% Win, 1 Premiership Chris Fagan: 1-5, 16.7%, No Premierships Justin Longmuire: NA Craig MacRae: NA

So very proud! Bring on the finals!

I’d prefer both the Swans and Pies lose and we play Freo. Not for us, I think our best can beat all three, but because I love watching the swans and pies lose!!!

This is the worst I’ve seen Casey play in a long time. The game is totally on Brisbane’s terms, the pressure is lacking and the limited forays forward we’ve had in the second half have been rushed and messy.

Merrett would be a gun in our midfield…

Clarko is even more committed to a Tassie team than I thought 😈😈😈 Also, suck it Essendon!

Win, lose or draw this week we are destined for finals multiple years in a row for the first time since 2006! 16 years is a long drought to break. Win this weekend and we will play in consecutive Qualifying Finals for the first time since the modern top 8’s inception. We’re all nervous and disappointed that after a remarkable start to the year we don’t have top four sewn up heading into the final round. Some perspective however, this team continues to smash all the embarrassing records of our past, has backed up equally as strongly as 95% of reigning premiers in the past 30 years and is in this season up to its ears. Smash those lions!!!

Before watching the VFL today I thought the one obvious change that would be made was Harmes needing to come in to tag Neale. As a fan of Harmesy I’d still be ok for him to get that role but his VFL game today wasn’t great. He got a huge amount of the ball but kept trying to break tackles, take on too much pressure on the handball and bombed most of his kicks. Meanwhile Bowey was excellent, never wastes a kick, was hard at the tackle, had some brilliant spoils and kicked an important goal. It looked like he was pushing forward more today also, so maybe he’s aiming at Spargo’s spot, although maybe the wet weather just had them all pushing up the ground to lock it in. Sadly today also showed me why JVR is being held back. On a tough day for forwards he was well beaten by Plowman and co and despite trying hard it took throwing him into the ruck for him to have any impact on the game. I see a big future for him but on the first defender being pushed hard he was found wanting a bit today. Meanwhile Weid was excellent. Long story short, either Bowey in for Spargo or no change. If we desperately want Harmesy to tag Neale then he comes in, probably for Sparrow.

They’re not anywhere near as good a team when they 50/50 their set shots. Far more normal today, against us they couldn’t miss. Still I wish I could see the alternate universe where Gawny kicked all his set shots against the pies. That would’ve been a very different, very fun night I suspect.

Would Sam Reid be a possibility for our tall forward woes? I can see he signed a one year extension for this year. FA. Any good?

I’ll raise you:

Geez Gulden gets a disproportionate amount of dodgy frees….

This is nothing like the pies team we played last week. Their pressure is way off, they’re missing easy shots, maybe it was Langdon’s spray that go them going? 😭😭😭

Hawks playing Sicily in the midfield allowing Lynch to kick 8…. Nothing to see here, certainly not tanking…. 😳😳😳

I think Goody is cagey because Harmesy is going to play a negating/tagging role on either N Daicos or DeGoey. The MFC website has already declared “Demon Duo to return for pies clash” with pictures and an article about Brown and Harmes. I’ve never seen our website declare someone would play and then they didn’t. Goody also went to great pains to say that Gus would play any role for the team, that tells me he’s back to half back this week. Im sticking with my initial call of In: Brown, Harmes Out: Weid, Hunt despite the facepalms it received.

Ouch! I’d love to take the risk with JVR watching him all year in the VFL he looks like he could explode at AFL level. But it’s a risk. Ben Brown has the runs on the board and if fit was in better form in the Geelong and Port games than Weid has shown. I liked Angus in the guts and think Harmes could play the Melksham role even better than he has the last two weeks but admittedly Melksham has been good, logically he stays in, Hunt, (who wasn’t bad, his speed adds another dimension, but did lose a few contests including stupidly tackling Walters in a marking contest) makes way for Angus back to HB and Harmes back to his usual role. Bowey has been outstanding in the VFL and I’m a fan while Rivers had some good moments but also a few turnovers and shanked kicks. It won’t happen but Rivers for Bowey would warm my heart. I think the logical changes will be the changes, the heart ones are risky and may not pay off but I’d kinda love to see it.

It’s pretty funny. They are our bogey side and I’m always concerned when we play them but the confidence is strange. In the last six weeks Pies have beaten GWS narrowly (11), beaten GC when they should’ve lost (5 points), just beat North when they were losing the majority of the game (7 points), just beat Adelaide (5 points), beat Essendon after the siren (4points) and narrowly beat Port when they easily could’ve lost (6 points). That’s six teams outside they 8 they struggled to beat. Meanwhile we beat two top 4 contenders by 7+ goals each (Brisbane and Freo), Beat Adelaide and Port pretty comfortably, lost to Geelong in Geelong after leading by four goals, lost to Bulldogs narrowly after leading the whole game. On form I’d take ours over theirs, we’ve been in tough games against real contenders or pushing away lower teams, they are scraping to beat the worst teams in it. It saddens me to say it, the pies are a good team, but I’m hoping they’re in for a shock as their form hasn’t been up to it the last 6 and they’ve got away with a lot of ordinary performances against very poor opposition.

Heart says: Out: Weid, Melk, Rivers In: JVR, Harmes, Bowey Head says: Out: Weid, Hunt, In: Brown, Harmes

If we get 75k+ for both the Carlton and Collingwood games we will get our highest average home attendance ever, despite Anzac eve and QB big freeze both being away games. The narrative that Melbourne fans haven’t turned up this year is a myth, we haven’t had the huge upturn in crowds many have hoped for, partly due to COVID, but it has still been one of our best years ever. Even if we only get 40-50k for the next two games, it will still be in our top 4 best attendances ever! Hardly a disaster. https://afltables.com/afl/crowds/melbourne.html oh and I’ll be there, always am.

And now we have to win four in a row to finish top two. Missing top four is massively on the cards. Gawny’s “missed a chance” is understatement of the year. We’re in huge trouble now.

Beat the dogs then Freo and 2 could be enough if the dogs beat Freo round 21. Obviously we’d all prefer to win our next five but if we beat the dogs this week top 4 becomes possible with as little as two wins and top two with as little as 3. Let’s start with a win tonight.

Just win Dees. Gawn Jackson, Salem, May to regain top form.

Outstanding!