deejammin'

I know this is incredibly unlikely. But how awesome would it be if the dons lost to Freo?!

Enjoy beating Collingwood for the 5th time in a row!! Breathe a huge sigh of relief and look forward to enjoying MFC in a final, no matter where. GO DEES!!

Tough call on Tyson. I'd be ok with it but Tyson's game against the Saints was massive and in contested ball finals I'd want him in. It's a nice dilemma to finally have close to a full team to choose from.

I agree but who do you drop for him if Viney is fit?

I'm really hoping Viney plays, I don't think it's a coincidence that in the week he was out we got smacked in the contest, particularly early. For me I hope: Viney in for Stretch Watts in to play Wagner's Wing/HF role as he leads up better, can kick for goal, is a brilliant pass and is quicker than Wags. I'd like to see Salem in but right now Gus, Vince, Lewis, Hibberd and Jetta are rotating through that HBF role he plays. I don't see any of them getting dropped, though Bernie needs to stop the kick out clangers. If Viney isn't right Salem comes in for Stretch to play mid/HBF rotating with Vince and Lewis. Or he could rotate with Trac in the forward line. God I hope we win.

I think Watts has to come in for Wagner to play the roaming wing/HF/HB thing he's been playing. Watts is quicker, leads up better, has better skills, can register a score from 50 metres out and if switched on can lay just as many tackles. If not switched on he'll miss a few tackles but Wagner has been doing that too of late. Wattsy looked good in the VFL in trying conditions and his score involvements will really help against the pies. I think Salem is better suited to the role Brayshaw, Lewis and Vince are playing off half back as he is not quick enough for the wing. I think Watts is in this week for Wagner.

I honestly do not understand the negativity in this thread. We won. Brisbane never led in the second half. We have seen how bottom teams play and the reality is while Brisbane challenged us, you do actually have to get in front to win games of football. We saw it time and time again during the dark times, bottom teams challenge but don't actually win, good teams can win when not at their best. We have finally done that this year. Heres the facts: We've won 12 games with a good positive percentage in the most even competition in decades with our ruckman, full forward and both captains having missed big chunks of the season. in 18/21 games we have led or drawn even in the last quarter. That's super competitive even compared to last year where we only did it in 13/22 games. Against bottom 4 teams we've won 4 lost two with a percentage we'll over 130. Against teams outside the 8 we've won 9 lost 4 again with a good percentage. Against teams inside the 8 we've won 3 lost 5 including beating the top side at home and beating Port and Essendon convincingly. Were above average against teams outside the 8 and as the youngest team inside the 8 have been very competitive against most with only our games against Adelaide, GWS and Sydney being uncompetitive. We are a 95% chance to make finals for the first time in over a decade. We've improved in every category despite immense adversity and we still have huge potential for improvement both with our youth and implementation of the game plan. Clearly people on this forum weren't going to be happy unless Melbourne won 16 games and beat every side outside the 8 by massive margins but the reality is that's totally unrealistic for any team, let alone a young inexperienced group like ours. They're playing some great footy and giving us something to be happy about for the first time in years! A wins a win!! Enjoy it!! Get on board!! Go Dees!!

It's bizarre. Footy Classified showed all 5 last night and in only one does Gawn have a straight arm. I've paused them all and if this is the rule they are quoting they clearly got 4/5 wrong.This clarification is not clarification at all, it's more confusing as he didn't break the rule at all! We should get an apology, but we won't, they'll claim it's always right as they always do.

With all due respect your logic is bizarre. By your logic when GC lost to GWS in round 2 it was a "loss to a bottom 4 team" in spite of GWS having been one of the two flag favourites for the majority of the season! It would also mean that every team that lost to Sydney between rounds 7-12 had had a "loss to a bottom 4 team" despite them being likely to finish 5th and currently being third favourite for the flag. It is ridiculous to call a team bottom 4 until they've at least played everyone else at least once and in a tight season like this right until the end. I'd say the four teams I've listed will finish where they are due to the 2 game gap between 14th and 15th but it could still change. Freo and Hawthorn are unlikely to be bottom four teams, they will finish below us and we should've beaten them but your logic is deeply flawed. Freo had only played 3 other teams when we played them! And the two they lost to are Geelong and WB. If they'd played Brisbane and GC in the first two rounds by your logic we would've lost to a top 4 team! Anyway sorry to be so pedantic, I am also very nervous about this game.

I agree we underestimate Brisbane at our peril, that they are the best last placed side for a long time and that Brisbane will fancy themselves a chance given our losses to North and our far from impressive wins over Carlton but your stats are way off: We've played bottom four teams 5 times( North x 2, Carlton x2, Gold Coast x 1 and Brisbane 0 as yet), for 3 wins 2 losses with a percentage of 111.4% across the five games and a mean average margin of +2 goals. So ultimately we are actually travelling pretty well against bottom teams. We should've beaten North and if we don't rock up with intensity this weekend we will lose BUT I'm hoping for a big win and the stats say we're a strong chance.

The umpiring was horrendous and one sided today. We were legitamitely smashing St Kilda in the first half yet they had the rub of the green on free kicks and had a few questionable ones get them goals. Then the 3rd quarter was totally baffling and some of the most biased, one sided umpiring I've ever seen. The Max Gawn decisions weren't just a weird rule of the week thing, they were a weird rule of the week, only being enforced in one game, against one player thing. Not only do the AFL have to stop this tinkering with the rules mid-season that leaves players, fans and clearly umpires confused, but they need to explain better to the players BEFORE the game what the new focus is and how it will be enforced. Clearly Gawn and Longer had no idea what frees were getting paid for, but bizarrely Longer could shove Max in the front or face for no penalty, whereas if Max put an arm up to protect himself when Longer jumped on him it was a free. It was totally pathetic and the only reason St Kilda got back in the game. 5 easy centre clearances is what it gifted the Saints and that is massive in modern footy. As for the general umpiring the reason missed decisions hurt us so badly is our contested style. We rely on winning the ball honestly in the contest, or winning it back from tackling (HTB), incorrect disposal or turnover. When umpires constantly miss HTB, drops, throws or players holding the man at stoppage it allows teams to get on the outside and pull apart our structure. Numerous times today we nailed holding or dropping the ball in a tackle only to see it illegally get out to St Kildas runners and let them go forward. We were held, jumped on high and in the back all day for no free We also had numerous times where we won the contest but had wrong free kicks gave the ball back to St Kilda. This hurts us far more than teams who slingshot from the back and rely on intercept and turnover for obvious reasons. It's the main reason why bad adjudication kills us for playing a good game style and must be fixed! Some of my favourite terrible decisions were: All the Max ones, just complete trash The Jetta one, so so wrong. In the third Petracca nailed a tackle on Geary who dropped the ball yet was awarded holding the man as we streamed into goal. Then a minute later Bradshaw was clearly held in their forward line without the ball, no free, nails a tackle and the player tries to kick and fails to in the tackle, no free, St Kilda goal. Umpires need to be full time, highly paid and only focussed on umpiring all week, with strong performance review and thethreat of being dropped if they fail to meet performance criteria. We have players, coaches, administrators who all live by the sword with their performances but the people who hold the integrity of the sport's rules within their grasp are part time moonlighters with no culpability. It's baffling!

I understand the frustration many others are expressing at the moment. The reality is MFC has played well this year and given us hope of finals and if not for a few close losses we could be booking our tickets now. Even more frustrating is that in most of these games we've led late into the last quarter only to see it slip away. However, while for all of us hope has led to our expectations getting higher and higher and the disappointment that comes when we fall short is tough to take, to this point in the season we have clearly improved. With three rounds left our percentage is better, our ladder position is better and looking at our losses we have not only been far closer but in our top 8 losses last year we were nowhere near in the last quarter whereas this year in all but our top three losses (6/9) we have led or been even in the last quarter. This is a mark of a far more competitive and consistent team, particularly given that our injuries in 2017 have been far worse, to more important players than 2016. And given that 2017 is a far closer year across the competition. 2017 Won 10 Lost 9 104.8% Ladder Position 10 2016 Won 10 Lost 12 97.6% Ladder Position 11 Losing margin (largest - smallest) 2016 Geelong 111pts Sydney 55pts Port 45pts St Kilda 39pts St Kilda 36pts Bulldogs 32pts Adelaide 22pts Carlton 20pts Hawthorn 18pts Essendon 13pts West Coast 6pts North 5pts 2017 Crows by 46pts Giants by 35pts Swans by 35pts Geelong by 29pts North by 14pts Tigers by 13pts North by 4pts Hawthorn by 3pts Freo by 2pts No doubt the last few weeks have left us gutted, and a pessimist would say we can still go backwards and not have improved if we lose our last 3 games. But to this point in the year we have clearly improved in almost every category, have been far more competitive across the board despite considerably more adversity this year and have a chance to go to the finals if we can beat the Saints this week. The last two weeks were frustrating, disappointing and worrying but not the end of our season. Back the boys in! Let's smash those Saints and get back on track!!

What a win! To win such a pivotal game without 5 of our most crucial players with some of the most biased umpiring ever is remarkable. Carlton struggled when they lost one of their best minds, we did that without 4 of ours!! The season is wide open for us now. The next two games are a free hit, win either of both and top 4 becomes likely. The next must win is North in 3 weeks and by then we will hopefully have Watts, Tyson, Salem and Jones back. Win North, Brisbane and Collingwood, play finals. We are sooo close!! On Carlton, they are improving but are still far too reliant on Cripps, Murphy and Gibbs. Were the roles reversed today and our best in with those three absent we would've pumped them. However they did run Adelaide to within a similar margin last week having led in the last. Which bodes well for us as Adelaide had a full squad and look like they'll be without Tex. Go Dees!!

Please Melbourne, please....

We're 9 points up with a quarter to go. Yes a number of our senior players MUST lift, Vince, Lewis, Gawn, Pederson, Melksham, Kent, but they all have huge upside, if we barrack hard in support of them maybe they will show us their best. This is a must win game while down 5 of our best players. We just need to win.

This is it Melbourne. Win and win well, anything is possible. Lose and we're struggling with the pack with one of the tougher runs home.... We're up against it with injuries but sadly neither the fixture nor ladder care. So please Dees, win!

Geez we've had bad luck with injury this year. I'd have Gawn, Hogan, Hibberd and Jones in our top 5 most valuable players and they've yet to play a single game together and still won't until at least round 16. It's frustrating but also remarkable that we are still in a great position. Id play Vince more in the midfield in Jones' absence, perhaps in a negating role on Mitchell or Priddis. Tmac goes back with Hunt, Salem, Lewis to cover Bernie's role. Id be a little worried about being too tall down back. But Frost and TMac are such good athletes it might be an advantage. In: Gawn Out: Jones

No worries mate. I was getting sick of whinging dogs supporters sooking it up about the umpiring (the hypocrisy!). I hope Buggy keeps it up, I was also grinning!

Because he plays for the Bulldogs and Bugg plays for Melbourne. They're a protected species and we get suspended at the drop of a hat.

Im ok with flying under the radar. Beat the Weagles in Perth to go potential top 4 and no-one will ignore us.

If I was any of Bernie Vince, Jessie Hogan, Jordan Lewis or Christian Salem I would be writing a letter to the AFL about the MRP threatening to sue. what they did was no worse than any of: Thompson, Cotchin, Selwood, Shuey, Daisy and many more. Tom Hawkins getting one week when Hogan got two for much less was also a total joke. Some players are getting the most bizarre bias from the MRP while others get hung out to dry. It makes the competition uneven and the Brownlow a joke. It's a disgrace and if i was a player that has been suspended I would be ropable. No one wants what Selwood did in our game or anywhere for that matter. Inexcusable.

Sorry mate but this has been overplayed and is wrong. Bugg bumped Easton Wood after the goal, it was cheeky but not free kick worthy, Wood got him back and clearly hits him in the face with a round arm while bumping him from behind. That's too high and a free kick every day of the week. Bugg milked it but he also bled from the face so he milked it a lot less than both Cripps and Rowe against our players. Brad Johnstone* clearly finds Bugg annoying and so failed to point out the high contact in the commentary but it was clear as day at the ground and the right decision. Stupid act from Wood who should've just bumped him back without smacking him in the face. Don't buy into the Bugg-haters, it was a clear free kick and if it had happened to one of the media favourites they would be screaming for a suspension for high contact outside the play. The MRP would've suspended a MFC player for 3 weeks if they'd done it, but hey, everyone can see that double standard. Edit: Brad Johnstone sooking it up about the Bugg hit not Johnno Brown

Our destiny is all our own, definitely, just keep winning and finals will happen. But with Richmond, West Coast, Port, Geelong all faltering a bit we could be top 4 with a bit of luck. And that would be huge.

Lose. And they did. But I missed Port so unless the Lions shock us all we could be 5th. Still good though.

If the Tigers do what I think they will then I can see us going to fourth with a win this week. Huge game. Very nervous about not bringing in Spencer.