Lucifers Hero

At least we didn't have that blaring music at the breaks! Big improvement.

Under the new rules he will get two weeks. And Buddy should also get two. Players were warned a few months ago: "Under the amendments ...the League has ruled that the potential to cause serious injury must be factored into the determination of impact in cases where there is head-high contact...Under the new guidelines, high bumps will usually draw an impact grading of at least medium, "even though the extent of the actual physical impact may be low". harsher-penalties-for-high-hits-crackdown-on-umpire-contact If Kozzie is deemed to have hit Smith's head under the old rules he should get a week: Deliberate, high contact, low impact. Under the new rules he will get two weeks. If not 'high' it is a fine. Buddy's hit: Careless (but I thought it was deliberate), high contact, high impact. I don't have a problem with the new rules but they must be applied consistently. Every head high contact has the 'potential to cause damage' so they should all result in a ban.

The AFL members stand was almost empty as neither mfc nor bulldogs have many AFL members. That stand is always nearly empty at our Home games vs smaller clubs and i/state clubs. When it is fuller at our games it is opp fans.

Some observations: The rucks had no influence on this game. Cats relied on Stanley and Pies on Cameron. Geelong's all ground defence was poor. They missed Stewart and his leadership. They missed Selwood and his leadership Stengle and De koning looked injured who knows how much Collingwood's domination after Howe went off was driven by emotion. I wonder if Pies will come to rue the day they let Grundy go. Last night wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement of that decision. It was a mighty win by the Pies but not sure the Cats were that bad. imv Collinwood will be tested by a team with better ruckmen and better all team defence. A team like the Mighty Demons! Bring on KB Monday!!

Weather should be ok for our game. Temp forecast to start falling around 5pm to high 20's at start of play and 25 around quarter time with a light southerly wind.

Bulldogs have named their 4 head monster in the starting 22. But their bench looks very pedestrian: J.Johannisen 39 J.Bruce 17 O.Baker 13 M.Hannan 29 Their sub from listed emergencies: B.Khamis 24 H.Crozier 9 T.McLean 16 J.Sweet 41 unless Beveridge does one of his last minute switcheroos!

Surely, the temperature will drop by the time the game starts🙄

Congratulations. Exciting times!

Due to forward lien injuries Saints will go all out defence. Freo won many games last year because of their stingy defence rather than high scoring. This will be a battle of attrition of the defences! Saints could cause an upset

As did Langdon!

He would have won last year if Selwood hadn't kicked his hand with some force.

In that case @Diamond_Jim doesn't need to download his membership. He can just have the mobile app barcode info scanned. If he or anyone needs more info instructions are on mfc's website: https://membership.melbournefc.com.au/member-hub/mobile-ticketing

do you mean the ticket info and barcode for this game appear in the app...

That time machine will need seats for Grimes, Lynch, Picket and maybe a few others... They want to copy Geelong and rest their ageing players but they won't get enough early wins to do that in the back half of the season.

The AFL should just hand us the Premiership 🏆 now. ❤️💙

Curiosity question. What ticket/barcode info (if any) appears in the mfc mobile app when there is a membership card?

Anyone else notice how much bulk Bontempelli has put on? I know all players bulk up in the preseason but he is much bigger than in other years; he is Hulk like! I wonder whether he has bulked up to Dunkley's size to take over his inside role? If so that will limit his impact outside the contest and makie quick plays into the fwd line/snaps for goal harder. I wonder if Beveridge outsmarts himself with all the magnets he seems to be moving around. He may keep the opps guessing but it may also confuse his own players.

Yes but not with cash...

This is why according to one poster: "...just in the last two seasons; 21 goals in 9 games against us, but 17 in the last 5!", six of which were in a GF

The ticket and info is now in the mobile app. Maybe check your app to see this appears for you.

That is just it - they didn't say much at all about our outs. Their enthusiasm barely went up a notch on the richter scale! I'll check in again tomorrow and see what they are saying and update the comments.

I think our fans will turn up. It is the Footscray fans that will be missing. McClure is click baiting failing to mention that the combined membership of the games he compares us to, is about double the combined membership of our game.

Yep, all clubs do it. The bigger the club the more inflated their figures🙄

Fairly late with this thread as there was little of interest to show. Incredible lack of passion and enthusiasm for their team, a new season or the game. Not even after May's likely out did they get very excited. If that is any guide, not expecting many WBD fans at the game. From WOOF Forum. Game thread caption is Melbourne, The Reality Check! Will be a huge test against the Dees. I read about Grundy & Gawn and I guess I'm not surprised they got a few goals in a pre-season match. I'm still not shaking in my boots about Grundy up forward... I think we'll match them and our forward firepower will win us the day. They worked so hard to gut run and outnumber the Tigers on the weekend. They created overlap and had multiple options moving the ball forward for large parts of the game. At times it was a training drill. Richmond aren't slouches the Dees look good and are going to be a challenge. Hunter isn’t the best anything in the AFL anymore my man. Unless he’s had the best pre season ever or access to a Delorean he’s probably the player I’m 19th or 20th most worried about. Oliver, Petracca, Fritsch, Gawn - limiting their influence goes a long way to banking the four points. We generally play the MCG fairly well. Having Naughton/Marra hit up the wings will be important at different stages, but the bigger ground should help us isolate the talls in the forward 50. From Bigfooty: Game thread caption is Hyped up Dees v the land of the giants. The major worry here is as always the midfield battle, If we win in the trenches given we now have a vastly superior forward line to theirs and one that can actually now stretch their defence it will come down to how much we can limit their opportunities going forward and if we have learnt to stop teams getting massive run on's against us. The last side to go into most H&A games with 4 tall forwards were the Crows when they made the granny. Dees look pretty settled and ready to fire. Hunter will provide them with some pretty major scouting reports on us I'd say. Massive for the Dees will be a fit Tom McDonald who was a key role-player in 2021. English and Lobb going up against G&G is a massive problem for us. Whilst we did it easy in the praccy game we were still out-tapped by Goldstein and Xerri. Bad signs. We’re looking pretty switched on too, so I see it being a hard fought close contest and wouldn’t surprise if either team win by a small margin. Hoping it’s us, but would settle (reluctantly) for a narrow loss. Won’t be able to stomach a similar result to the same match last year. Confident that won’t happen though. Lobb and Marra both gave Petty a bath in games last year. Will be interesting if that repeats or if Marra or Darcy can take full advantage of getting someone like Trent Rivers if Lever isn’t more accountable. May is one of the best full backs, Lever is pretty good but I think Liam Jones will be better. Long way from best wing combo Hunter is past his best. Agree best ruck combo. Pickett is inconsistent and long way behind Papley. Agree Fristch in top 3. We may be lacking quality smalls but Naughton and Marra are quick on the deck, they can make May and Lever look like dinosaurs. Just need to get the ball to ground and we will be fine. My real worry is the the Dees out run us late in quarters. Fritsch gives me nightmares He is the only one in their forward line that worries me He'll score 3 goals in 5mins and you will be like wtf just happened…Sucks so bad. I watched the Demons play the Tigers in the practice match. Their ball movement was incredibly slick; they were humming like a well-oiled machine. They didn't even seem to have any of the normal early-season rust. That's what scares me more than any of their individual players. On pure talent Melb, even with all their outs are still ahead of us. Gawn, Oliver & petracca is still better than anything we have in midfield. That's where the game will be decided. My Favourite: Good to see on this Bulldogs thread that some sensible comments can be made about Melbourne, unlike the sh*tshow mega threads over on their threads. Kudos fellow Bulldogs. OMG!! At least our threads have passion and good analysis and we don't abuse our opps! I didn't print the nastier comments. Dees by three goals!

Have faith, folks! Trust our captain: Breakout player of 2023: Harrison Petty. I think he’s soon to take over as our number one defender. Don’t show that to (Steven May) ‘Maysy’! www.foxsports.com.