AFL Grand Final AFL 2021 GRAND FINAL - Demons v Dogs Sat September 25th 7:15pm EST / 5:15pm WST (Optus) Congratulations Demons! 🍾🏆 Match Highlights in OP

[H2F]

3 goals in a minute to put the game away will go down in grand final folklore. We can talk about centre bounce setups etc but no one was stopping that rampaging Melbourne midfield in that minute. It was meant to be. Petracca just stood up when he needed to. I just knew he wouldn’t retire without a flag. Same goes for Oliver and Viney.

Petracca and Oliver are like nothing I’ve seen. It’s like having Buckley and Voss together or Danger and Dusty. Amazing.

 

[SportsCentre]

3 goals in a minute to put the game away will go down in grand final folklore. We can talk about centre bounce setups etc but no one was stopping that rampaging Melbourne midfield in that minute. It was meant to be. Petracca just stood up when he needed to. I just knew he wouldn’t retire without a flag. Same goes for Oliver and Viney.

Highly likely he won't retire with just one either...

 

[BringFevBack2021]

you'd be lying after bonts 3rd to put us 19 up you thought the game was nearly done if we kicked another 1 or 2

Melbourne will belt these campaigners - no doubt in my mind

Nope.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

If Hunter was aiming at 4 parked cars he would have kicked that

**** this made me laugh, well done

 

[Black Saab]

If this happened to my team in a GF I'd be pissed big time.
To be 3 goals up midway through the 3rd quarter with all the momentum and utterly fold like a pack of deck chairs to the tune of a 12 goals defeat smacks of a team that basically threw in the towel when it all got a little bit hard.
What happened cannot simply put down to mental and physical fatigue.
And all you get from the coach is "we couldn't stop the momentum"... well no sh*t.
Let me put this a different way...had the last 40 minutes been the first 40 minutes Melbourne would have led by 15 goals midway through the 2nd quarter.

Nah, I think this is being too simplistic. Melbourne put on an incredible show to the force almost no team (other than Richmond ) could have stopped. The Bulldogs weren't giving up, they just couldn't stop what was happening no matter what they tried. Surely the second qtr was evidence of the Dogs fighting spirit. But what happened late in the third and on into the last was a rare quirk and the Bulldogs were on the wrong side of it. Melbourne were unstoppable.

 

[DavidSSS]

I think you can go back further than that. We paid a premium for Lever and May, it‘s a ballsy move to trade multiple first round picks for defenders but it’s paid off massively.

I remember before the 2018 finals, looking at the ladder and noticing how many points Melbourne had conceded. That was when I thought they were not going to contend in the finals as defence is critical. It proved correct. I was surprised when Melbourne missed finals in the in-between years, thought they would make it and rated them higher.

But here's the thing. The powers that be at Melbourne would have noticed the same thing way way before I would have. They saw they had the makings of a contender, but there were a few pieces missing. Better defence was a big one and you might say that was a big call, I would call it a smart call.

Add to this a few smart recruiting moves - yeah Brown is a bit limited, then again, he kicks a lot of goals. Maybe not many tricks but as a key forward do you need more tricks than kicking goals? Also they clearly did something about the culture at the start of this year, and I reckon that is important and also much harder than people think. Melbourne play a more selfless and team oriented game now. Add in a couple of guns coming into their prime and all the pieces fitted together. A little luck, yeah, what premiership team doesn't have a little luck? None.

There you have it, recognising that they had the potential and were close to being contenders, fixing the missing parts and they managed to pull it off and now look like they can be up near the top for a few years to come too. That final step is damned hard, it means looking at deficiencies even when you are close to the top. Melbourne did a good job, now they have the reward.

DS

 

[Rod Stroker]

brown can play. north messed up with that one

He wanted 800K+ a year to stay. He ain't worth that, and the market agreed. Melbourne picked him up for 500K+. Good luck to him.

Larkey kicked twice as many goals this year as Brown, and cost us a lot less.

 

[Rod Stroker]

Too early to call the draw?

I was close. Only off by 74 points.

 

[Rod Stroker]

vnodngepgne[gne' md[g[eegj[we !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You took the words out of my mouth!

 

[Lampers]

He wanted 800K+ a year to stay. He ain't worth that, and the market agreed. Melbourne picked him up for 500K+. Good luck to him.

Larkey kicked twice as many goals this year as Brown, and cost us a lot less.

That may be all true, but Brown played a role at the right time of year that I’m not confident Larkey is ready to play (I know Larkey was never a possibility to come to Melbourne).

Larkey and Brown both averaged 1.9 goals per game and Brown’s average game was slightly superior to Larkey’s in most statistics.

Larkey was available more often though (22 games vs 13 although Brown also played four or so VFL games), so the question mark on Brown’s durability was proved to be real early in 2021.

Melbourne turned pick two into Salem and Dom Tyson, Dom Tyson into Brayden Preuss, and Brayden Pruess into Ben Brown. It’s a bit more complex than that, but that’s the gist.

North turned Ben Brown into Jayden Stephenson, and already had Larkey waiting in the wings so they didn’t need Brown anyway.

Both clubs would be very happy.

 

[Sphynx]

That may be all true, but Brown played a role at the right time of year that I’m not confident Larkey is ready to play (I know Larkey was never a possibility to come to Melbourne).

Larkey and Brown both averaged 1.9 goals per game and Brown’s average game was slightly superior to Larkey’s in most statistics.

Larkey was available more often though (22 games vs 13 although Brown also played four or so VFL games), so the question mark on Brown’s durability was proved to be real early in 2021.

Melbourne turned pick two into Salem and Dom Tyson, Dom Tyson into Brayden Preuss, and Brayden Pruess into Ben Brown. It’s a bit more complex than that, but that’s the gist.

North turned Ben Brown into Jayden Stephenson, and already had Larkey waiting in the wings so they didn’t need Brown anyway.

Both clubs would be very happy.

Congrats to Ben, but I don't think we'd really want him (or need him) back.

Club is clearly moving into a different age bracket.

 

[Squarky]

Luke Jackson is a fine young player but I must have missed the part where he became a top 5 ruck in the comp already.

About the third quarter on Saturday night, I reckon

 

[Satan]

I know kossie did not have direct scoreboard impact but at least 3 of his efforts led to goals , spargo goal in 1st q
And Brayshaws 3rd q goal and Tracs 3rd q dribble goal.
One sees a lot more watching the replay without stress

 

[Lampers]

I know kossie did not have direct scoreboard impact but at least 3 of his efforts led to goals , spargo goal in 1st q
And Brayshaws 3rd q goal and Tracs 3rd q dribble goal.
One sees a lot more watching the replay without stress

That’s the beauty of Pickett, in his second season with his fitness up even when he’s not doing much with disposals, he’s consistent with his effort based pressure.

 

[wowlace]

Gifted? Nothing about this campaign was "Gifted".

We flew down to Tassie to beat the Bombers.
Then flew up to Qld to beat the lions.
Then flew to the other side of the country to WA to quarantine.
Then flew to SA to beat Port.
Then flew back to WA quarantine again before preparing for the GF.

Should have finished top 4

 

[wowlace]

Another win for the rich white men.

What the actual

 

[TheBont]

What the actual

Cmon dude I was taking the piss.

 

[timokane]

Turning point when caleb dumped gawn on the floor i felt was a cheap shot the dees fired up from then. Was the tinyest player decking the tallest player. Dees said how dare you. Dees tore the dogs apart from that point onwards.
Thought Caleb daniel

5

Caleb Daniel

Age

28

Ht

171cm

Wt

72kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.3

5star

K

11.5

4star

HB

9.8

5star

M

3.5

4star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.4

4star

D

19.5

4star

K

11.1

4star

HB

8.4

4star

M

3.6

4star

T

2.0

3star

CL

1.0

3star

D

16.4

4star

K

7.2

3star

HB

9.2

5star

M

3.4

4star

T

2.6

4star

CL

0.2

2star

was lucky not to get reported too.
Was a low act and cost the dogs the cup i think.
Dees ran all over them from that point.

 

[CarnTheScray]

Turning point when caleb dumped gawn on the floor i felt was a cheap shot the dees fired up from then. Was the tinyest player decking the tallest player. Dees said how dare you. Dees tore the dogs apart from that point onwards.
Thought Caleb daniel was lucky not to get reported too.
Was a low act and cost the dogs the cup i think.
Dees ran all over them from that point.

Our structure cost us the cup.

Could see it in the Richmond game in round 7. Our lack of a ruck, another KPD and maybe another defender around 190cm were exposed that night.

 

[timokane]

Apart from that Daniel and Gawn incident thought the GF was pretty clean and played well all night

 

[thedank]

Apart from that Daniel and Gawn incident thought the GF was pretty clean and played well all night

Agree however I think Gawn went to ground too easily in that instance. Both Libba and Viney took on the instigator role and both played it well without crossing the line

 

[Stabby McGee]

Turning point when caleb dumped gawn on the floor i felt was a cheap shot the dees fired up from then. Was the tinyest player decking the tallest player. Dees said how dare you. Dees tore the dogs apart from that point onwards.
Thought Caleb daniel was lucky not to get reported too.
Was a low act and cost the dogs the cup i think.
Dees ran all over them from that point.

That was nothing to do with anything. Gawn was trying to milk a free and ended up looking silly.
Jackson in the ruck was huge as we had another mid once it hit the ground. Tracc going up another level. Libber and Mcrea ball watching. Bont having a rest (he was huge and was almost single handedly keeping them in the fight) but mostly it was we had a team prepared to do their job but Footscray had more than a couple of players that were hoping someone else would do it.
But even that doesn’t really cover it properly. Sometimes teams get a run on and everything they do turns to gold. There were two periods in the third where that happened and after that it was only a question of how much

 

[Beerfish]

As if that midget could actually 'deck' Gawn.

 

[dopefish]

That was nothing to do with anything. Gawn was trying to milk a free and ended up looking silly.

Yep. It's still funny...

 

[timokane]

It fired up the Dees.