Preview Round 15: Essendon vs Melbourne, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Saturday 26/06/2021 @ 7:25 PM

[Call Me Cake]

Clever seeing Parish smuggling his highly anticipated contract into his jumper for size



IN: Ross



Neck game stiffer than a

 

[The Devils Advocate]

They’ve done a video to credit every kid’s drawing. Cahill may have questions



View attachment 1162885

That is iconic

 

[eth-dog]

Melbourne going smaller inside 50 is great for us. We really don't have a match up for Brown.

Zerk - McDonald (McDonald is less agile than Jackson and probably better suited to McDonald)
Stewart - Jackson
Laverde - Fritsch
Heppell - Neal-Bullen
Hind - Pickett
Ridley/Redman - Sparrow/Spargo/resting mid

And at our end:

May - Hooker
Petty - Wright
Lever - Jones
Hibberd - Stringer
Rivers - McDonald-Tipungwuti
Hunt/Salem - Smith/Waterman/Perkins/resting mid

I still think they'll get us but it'll be closer now

 

[84859300]

They’ve done a video to credit every kid’s drawing. Cahill may have questions



View attachment 1162885

Loving Gus's work with Stringer - even has his wing tats showing through the top of his sleeves.

Excellent attention to detail Gusso!

 

[BrunoV]

Clearly Devon Smith drew his own photo.

Great idea, by the way, to have kids draw the players.

 

[JayJ20]

Why did Melbourne drop Weideman without bringing in Brown? Bizarre given that our defence is the weakest area of the ground. Plays right into our hands. Brown usually smashes us even back in the Hurley and Hooker days so our defensive match ups look far better on paper without him.

 

[The Devils Advocate]

Clearly Devon Smith drew his own photo.

Great idea, by the way, to have kids draw the players.

Yup, payrise for whoever came up with that!

 

[faible]

Boy we are in for a tough 2 weeks

Will tell alot. Eagles performance was huge but outside of that i don't think its been anything special outside of Jake Stringer since.

If we are to win one of the next 2 id say we are well on the way to being quite successful and id be quite confident in playing finals

Thought we were quite competitive against Richmond, just ran out of legs in the last 10 minutes. The scoreline really didn't reflect the game.

 

[DallasCrane316]

Why did Melbourne drop Weideman without bringing in Brown? Bizarre given that our defence is the weakest area of the ground. Plays right into our hands. Brown usually smashes us even back in the Hurley and Hooker days so our defensive match ups look far better on paper without him.

Lot of Dees supporters happy with it - believe they’re more dangerous with a smaller forward line.

 

[Mercurial89]

Melbourne going smaller inside 50 is great for us. We really don't have a match up for Brown.

Zerk - McDonald (McDonald is less agile than Jackson and probably better suited to McDonald)
Stewart - Jackson
Laverde - Fritsch
Heppell - Neal-Bullen
Hind - Pickett
Ridley/Redman - Sparrow/Spargo/resting mid

And at our end:

May - Hooker
Petty - Wright
Lever - Jones
Hibberd - Stringer
Rivers - McDonald-Tipungwuti
Hunt/Salem - Smith/Waterman/Perkins/resting mid

I still think they'll get us but it'll be closer now

I don't think we will have an answer to them in the midfield to be honest so whatever they run with it will make their forward line look decent.

 

[11kgm]

Why did Melbourne drop Weideman without bringing in Brown? Bizarre given that our defence is the weakest area of the ground. Plays right into our hands. Brown usually smashes us even back in the Hurley and Hooker days so our defensive match ups look far better on paper without him.

id sure be looking at him for cheap clearly out of favour

 

[kleanr]

2 of 25,000 technically

+2 for me and my gestational parent. I won't be storming to AFL house........ this week

 

[revival_mode]

first live game for me since early '19... just want a good show

 

[JayJ20]

Lot of Dees supporters happy with it - believe they’re more dangerous with a smaller forward line.

I believe not bringing in Brown comfortably favours us.

Instead of having McDonald, Brown and Jackson on Stewart, BZT and Laverde, we have Stewart and BZT on McDonald and Jackson, which allows Laverde to play on someone like Fritsch who he beats for size or resting mids like Petracca who he matches for size and speed. It frees Ridley up to intercept instead of making him accountable.

Tall forwardlines usually expose our undersized defence. Brown is also a player we've traditionally struggled to contain.

 

[Keystone agony]

Thought we were quite competitive against Richmond, just ran out of legs in the last 10 minutes. The scoreline really didn't reflect the game.

Look i probably said otherwise right aftsr the game. To be in front against the reigning premiers half way through the last is decent, but we were pretty well outplayed for 3.5 qtrs

They let us back in like they did with west coast

 

[Vander18]

Quietly optimistic of being highly competitive. Rain in the morning but easing off, sounds like it will be a dry game which is definitely good for us.

We match up well enough with their forwards and think we can stretch their defence. As is so often the case, game will be won and lost in the midfield.

Merrett, Parish and Stringer v Petracca, Oliver and Viney. Massive battle that will ultimately decide the game. Wouldn’t Shiel, McGrath, Snelling and Caldwell be handy this week!

And a nice little side note is Ham v Langdon. Match them up and let Donny get a feel for what it’s like to gut run for 4 quarters on the MCG. I think it’s a good match for him.

Seriously pumped for this one.

 

[DapperDon]

Need to play much better than we did against Hawkes. Dees will destroy us if we mess around with the ball.

I think we will go with them for 3 and a bit quarters then they'll get on top of us for a 5 goal win. They are a seriously good team when on, and unluckily for us they had their off match against Pies.

A good test for us either way

 

[NorthcoteDee]

Hope you don't mind me popping in. Really interesting (in a good way) comments above.

Personally I would have preferred BBB getting a game this week. Otherwise too reliant on McDonald playing well. Having said that the team played well without Brown or Weiderman early in the season. I can't help thinking that the predictions of rain may have influenced team selection.

In terms of match ups, I think Hibbert will get the first crack at Stringer. If Stringer gets 'off the lease', then May or Harmes would be the next to have a go.

Parish/Oliver ... picked in the same draft. Both fantastic players.

Bombers in great form, and really good to watch. Demons very flat last week.

Can't wait. Should be a close match.


P.S. I'm bunkering in for the inevitable 'p#@s off to your own board' comments.

 

[tomcruise]

Hope you don't mind me popping in. Really interesting (in a good way) comments above.

Personally I would have preferred BBB getting a game this week. Otherwise too reliant on McDonald playing well. Having said that the team played well without Brown or Weiderman early in the season. I can't help thinking that the predictions of rain may have influenced team selection.

In terms of match ups, I think Hibbert will get the first crack at Stringer. If Stringer gets 'off the lease', then May or Harmes would be the next to have a go.

Parish/Oliver ... picked in the same draft. Both fantastic players.

Bombers in great form, and really good to watch. Demons very flat last week.

Can't wait. Should be a close match.


P.S. I'm bunkering in for the inevitable 'p#@s off to your own board' comments.

Oi, p#@s off to your own board

Battle of the teams most likely to build up their supporters hopes only to crush them. I always like going against the bombers, you seem to be the best bunch of oppo supporters.

The biggest point of difference I can see for us is Gawn if he plays well. Got touched up by a three-gamer against Collingwood and played trash when we struggled to get over north. Need him up and about to stretch the dons.

We're probs a bit better on the contested side and I reckon you have us for run, but maybe not fitness. I'm not super confident but it should be an exciting match to watch.

Demons by 3 goals.

 

[LB#16]

Managed to snag two tickets. Thanks to the reserved seat folk who left some for the flexi member peasants

 

[Beerfish]

I think Hibbert will get the first crack at Stringer.

 

[mzuppit]

P.S. I'm bunkering in for the inevitable 'p#@s off to your own board' comments.

Not at all. Other supporters welcome provided they are not trolling. Thanks for your thoughts.



We won't win, but it'll be a good test against the best. The issue is Stringer's consistency and whether he'll be able to put in two good games in a row.

 

[Ambrosia]

Melbourne made some interesting changes.

Viney isn’t good when he’s not the go to midfielder and is a clear downgrade on Oliver and Petracca in that role. Sparrow has struggled big time playing on a flank which you expect him to have to do even more with Viney replacing Weideman.

Still can’t see us challenging them. Our intensity round the ball is too inconsistent and I expect there to be periods throughout the game where the game looks easy for Melbourne.

 

[JayJ20]

Still can’t see us challenging them. Our intensity round the ball is too inconsistent and I expect there to be periods throughout the game where the game looks easy for Melbourne.

Like Richmond, Melbourne usually beat us by kicking a crazy amount of goals in like 10 minutes to kill the game off. There's always at least one quarter that they smash us.
I'd be reasonably happy if we can keep it to a 2-4 goal loss all things considered.

 

[Hird05]

Oi, p#@s off to your own board

Battle of the teams most likely to build up their supporters hopes only to crush them. I always like going against the bombers, you seem to be the best bunch of oppo supporters.

The biggest point of difference I can see for us is Gawn if he plays well. Got touched up by a three-gamer against Collingwood and played trash when we struggled to get over north. Need him up and about to stretch the dons.

We're probs a bit better on the contested side and I reckon you have us for run, but maybe not fitness. I'm not super confident but it should be an exciting match to watch.

Demons by 3 goals.

Could be right about Gawn but personally I'm more confident with the Draper match up than almost anywhere on the feild. He's seriously underrated just because he's young. Brings some agro to the team which we desperately need too.