Jaded No More

As soon as the earthquake hit I knew we would win. The only insane thing left to experience in 2021 is a Melbourne premiership. In the bag guys.

Can the world just take a 3 day break from the dumpster fire that is 2021 and let us get through Saturday? Cheers.

We destroyed Jack Trengove. He really could have been something. I am glad he still loves the club and that he gets to see us play in a grand final. Gawn again is just proving to be a star on and off the field.

You can only plan to do so much. While we know that the Dogs live and die by their midfield, we can try and really work on that and also limit the influence of Daniel from the backline. The Dogs have to contend with, two quality ruckman, a very good midfield, a world-record setting defence and a dynamic forwardline that will stretch their underdone backline. At the end of the day you can do all the planning in the world, but grand finals are won on the field not in the box. Whoever has more contributors and plays their gameplan better on the day without letting the occasion get to them, will win. It could just as well be the Dogs, who have been there before and who carry less pressure than us. Both teams at their best are very very good, but I think head to head we have more quality players and our best 22 at 100% output is better than their best 22 at 100% output.

As long as the world ends on Sunday after we win, I'm fine.

Can confirm no flags were damaged in the earthquake. Carry on.

Yes but do I still get to watch us win a flag?

I swear the world is conspiring to kill me before I get a chance to watch Melbourne win a flag. Let me live goddamit!

When was the last time Melbourne won a flag the week of an earthquake? We are doomed

Congratulations Simon. Well deserved.

I think we have an armchair membership which doesn’t get you access to games so is not too expensive and you must get some merchandise with it. I suggest sending the membership department an email.

Lockdown will be extended

Well thank god #22 isn’t there. He is the absolute biggest Melbourne hater.

Also Melbourne as a city is a very depressing place to be. The weight of expectations to deliver joy to the millions of sad sacks locked inside would be very crippling. Would be easy to have it out of sight and out of mind in WA.

Just a phenomenal human being. Kind, selfless, thoughtful. He made tough choices for his family and he also made a lot of tough choices along his journey for the betterment of our club. How easy it would have been to go to another club that wasn’t a mess, that wasn’t losing weekly and relying on you to carry the heavy load. Honestly who would have begrudged him if he went to Geelong or Hawthorn for a cheap flag? Absolutely nobody. What he has done for our club few will be able to lay claim to. I hope he has a big smile and feels incredibly proud of this club on Saturday. Win or lose, we are where we are today because of the few like him who had the courage to stand up and be the difference and lead the way to be better.

Well my poor husband who has spent 18 months following every rule and who has all his employees and himself vaccinated, is now out of work for two weeks because people in this country don’t know how privileged they are. Thanks to the constant selfish sooking, pathetic anti vaxx tin foil hat wearing mother [censored] and lazy politicians sitting on their hands, I am not only missing my team play in a grand final that I’ve dreamed of all my life, I’m now trying to work out how we keep our business and employees from bankruptcy. [censored] wonderful.

Been wildly reported today that unless Clarko has a late change of heart, Voss will be announced senior coach. Honestly, good luck to him. The fish is rotten at the head over there.

Last team to do that and win a flag was Essendon in 2000....

Honestly if they put English on Lever that is a win for us. The problem with trying to shut down Lever is that he has the support of May and Petty. We lost May last week and our system still stacked up down back. We are a team defence. Yes Lever is important, but if he doesn't intercept it, May will, or Petty will. Oh yeah and this fella called Gawn who goes alright in an emergency. I agree though that Weightman is a worry. In fact, their small players worry me far more than their talls, although I recognise that Naughton is a very very good player who can hurt you. But ground ball is definitely our defensive weakness. It is why I would want Hunt to play over Hibberd. I think Hunt is better suited to play on Weightman. I worry Hibbo doesn't have the zip to go with him to be honest. If he does get off the leash, we can put May on him and shuffle the talls around though. Also need to watch out for Weightman ducking and throwing himself around like a sad ragdoll. He loves a free. Rivers on Hannan for me as Hannan will push up the ground and that suits Rivers. Unless they give Hannan the task to try and shut down Salem. That's what I would want if I was a Dogs fan. Salem is far more crucial to us than Hannan is to the Dogs. Same as I want ANB to literally not let Daniel out of his sight, and if ANB gets 2 touches as a result, than so be it. Who plays on Bailey Smith is going to be fascinating. Do we go head to head and let him and Langdon do their thing? Does Gus take him? Harmes? We match up well on the Dogs around the ground and I think their backline will be at panic stations if we start winning some clean ball in the middle and BBB and Fritta get a run at the ball. It will be a good game. I don't think either team will win by a big margin. It probably will come down to small moments, structures and who can capitalise better on turnovers and in front of goal.

Damn it, how will he get back in time to quarantine before the GF?! We are screwed!!!! 🤣

He definitely doesn't have the physique of a ruckman. I think he is very raw, but definitely has a lot of talent, and if Dogs weren't desperate for a ruckman, I think he would spend a lot less time in the centre square and lot more time forward. It's why they are pushing Martin who is 35, barely going, overweight and underdone. They needed a physical body to compete with Lycett and they know they need one to at least try and half Gawn's output around the ground. Where the Dogs excel is winning clearances from opposition's taps. They have played with a terrible ruckman all year, and that hasn't bothered them one bit. They won the clearances against the Lions 47-37 but lost the hitouts 45-32. Against Port they won the clearances 41-35 but got smashed in hitouts 49-24. So it goes to show they can play well regardless of the influence of the ruckman at ball ups. Where Gawn becomes so important is his play around the ground. Martin will try and shadow him, but there is no way physically he can keep up with Gawn who plays close to 100% game time every week. I suspect they will send Martin into the backline when Gawn goes forward, but more importantly I suspect they will use their smalls to try and block him on the wings and down back.

I would love to know what long term list planning they have going on. I doubt he would tell us who we are targeting in the off season, but just more around do we keep recruiting and trading for the now, or are we focused on long term sustained success by going for younger player and the draft?

I will lol if English tries to get physical with Max. Can you imagine. Libba on the other hand is a dirty little scragger, and if this goes on early in the game I hope Max has a chat to the umpire to say they are trying to block my run. At the end of the day they are not the first team or the last team that will try to limit Gawn. It has rarely worked, because he can go forward where he can't be blocked without getting a free. Same goes for trying to stop Lever. Sache will get a defensive job on him. First contest May runs into his back. Tactic over. The Lions are a big strong contested team. Dogs limped over the line thanks to some very handy umpiring. Then they came up against the weakest side I have ever seen front up to a prelim. Port did nothing. Physically tactically or otherwise. They were limp like 12 day old lettuce you forgot at the back of the fridge. Whereas Geelong couldn't keep up, but they certainly weren't soft at the contest.

Salem has been managed all year with his training load. Viney you'd think would be the same with his foot. Salem missed one game all year with soreness. Literally 0% chance he isn't getting jabbed and suited up for the grand final. Same with Viney. I would assume Viney would cut his own foot off before missing a grand final, just like May would rip out his own hamstring. We had a big session on Saturday, so today would be like a normal post game recovery session. Also probably why they aren't bothering to push Spargo's ankle. Whoever doesn't do much on Wednesday is in trouble though.

While I hate Scully for many reasons, I sort of understand why someone trying to be a professional footballer had no interest in being surrounded by teammates who had no standards and just wanted to get wasted on a work trip. Our culture was in the toilet back then. It's no wonder so few draftees went anywhere, or went elsewhere.