The heart beats true

How dare you insinuate I’m old! I’ve only seen highlights of those 2 on Tik Tok. 😉

I’d pick Tasmania over Surfers Paradise or Bondi every time. Actually both of those places would be very close to the bottom of the list of anywhere in Australia to live.

The Sicily comments are quite interesting to me. Admittedly I’m not 21, and am in the demographic that knows a little too much about ‘small batch’ anything, but isn’t Tassie incredibly popular now, and rents are insane? Do we really think player retention will be an issue? Love to hear the local perspective.

Oddly the norm across the comp is eerily similar to regular life - don’t act like a smug, bitter tool.

That day is September 25 2021. Facts. I find it funny that supporters think professional athletes who literally spend all week reviewing and preparing for games would continue to make the same ‘mistake’ for 3 years.

I feel like we need to lower our expectations of forward line players, particularly given our game plan. Unlike other sides that go out of their way to isolate players forward of the ball we do the opposite - instead setting up for stoppage plays. It means some weeks some players will just, by the nature of the game plan, not have much impact. The forwards who are currently out of the side aren’t out of the side because of their inability to convert, they are out of the side because of their ability to compete. It’s a very role oriented game plan, even more so for our forwards. Koz is a star. When he gets on the end of them he usually makes the most of it. He can’t kick 4 every week, because we don’t set up needing him to do that.

Even though parts of this season were super patchy (stunt casting Lizzo and Jack Black!) I still love that show and think it’s the best Star Wars anything since 1980.

I vote for the ‘Totally not related to anything to do with any sort of day of remembrance, complete coincidence of a game, that could occur before any other public holiday that just happens to be towards the end of April (but is also in no way connected to Easter) Eve’. Rolls right off the tongue.

Where the hell was that Essendon team last week in Adelaide?

Why do the umpire just let Sidebottom dictate that he was taking :30 seconds then, when anyone whose seen any game of footy knows he can’t kick that distance?

Yeah that was me. But I bet the $30k I made on Essendon today.

Essendon look spent.

84,000 last night, 95,000 today. Does Melbourne have the best sporting culture of anywhere in the world? Thats incredibly impressive.

This is the kind of footy the AFL love. Low stoppage. Ball pinging around in every direction.

Weed has been great

He’s now going for a poor man’s Bjorn Borg. A kind of Sweden meets Broadmeadows vibe.

Our pregame is the story every year now. We’ve basically stolen the Anzac Day narrative in the media with a much better spectacle.

I still have a soft spot for ‘Big Sexy’ Weed. Him and Jayden Hunt are 2 players I’d like to see succeed.

I’d say it was 2:1 Dees to Tigers. The Melbourne supporters came, and they really brought the noise. The booing at the umpiring early was only out done by the cheering in the last. I thought we sounded great last night. Was a really proud night for the footy club and it’s supporters.

I’m not sure we can ask Clayton to go to another level. He’s one of the best players in the game, and I’d say he’s the best, hardest working Melbourne player I’ve ever seen (I’m 44). He was playing last night after having the flu last week. I’m not sure what more he can do. I agree with you about our forward line, but I reckon we need to persist with Max/Brodie, JVR and Petty. Last night was the first time they all played together. It sure got better as the game went on.

Totally agree with this. There were 84,000 people there, and we outnumbered Richmond supporters 2:1. I reckon the club would be thrilled with that - as they should be. The noise at 3/4 time was incredible.

I feel like the magical work of our Demonland track watchers will go a long way to helping discern the team this week. I’d say we are looking at 3 changes, based solely on the thinking that we didn’t rotate enough last year. Harmes and Laurie both seem ready to go. Disco looked really good again at Casey. Schache might come in if Grundy feels tired. Dunstan is in if any insiders need a rest. Either way I don’t mind any of the changes. We all felt like we needed to take a squad mentality into 2023. So let’s see it in operation.

I don’t mind it from the wingers when it’s boundary side. Seems like a low risk attempt at keeping the ball moving. At least we can’t be accused of not trying to evolve with the game. Sometimes it’s hard to notice in game, when I’m too busy abusing the umpires and fretting about the scoreboard. Credit to the coaching department for trying new things.

Agree Dazzle. I feel like in the first half in particular we looked very much like the Demons of 2017-20. Everyone right in at the coal face, no one outside with any speed. We couldn’t carry away from the contest, and I was surprised Koz wasn’t used.

Just got home. This is spot on. Richmond brought the heat tonight, and the umpires just added to it. That was an incredibly hard game, and we came from 25 points down to win. For those of you critical of that game give some credit to the competition, and acknowledge that on the whole teams have had 2 years of watching us and trying to figure out how to beat us. Our system is a known entity. That it holds up so well under pressure is a credit to the effort of the players.