Is it humanly possible for MFC supporters to hold your breath for 40 minutes?
by Darren Spence
……I think I did on Sunday! After being 40 points up half way through the 2nd and then the Saints got back to within a goal it wasn’t until Hannan popped up and kicked 2 in a minute that I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief as the Mighty Dees enhanced their finals prospects with a 22 point win on the weekend.
Following Melbourne has never been easy…. We just don’t have many days where you can sit back and watch us demolish another side. Right now, however, you won’t hear me complain as we find ourselves in unfamiliar territory of being on the verge of playing finals for the first time in over a decade.
To get to this position a win against fellow finals aspirant in St. Kilda was paramount and the initial onslaught in the first quarter and half showed the football world that we belong playing in September.
Jones was fantastic with 35 possessions. It’s no surprise we had a dip in form over the 6 weeks he was out injured – he is so vital to our side. Lewis also showed how valuable he is to our team with 25 important touches and I don’t need to tell you how many Oliver had! It was fantastic to see Brayshaw back and playing well. After a solid hit early, which could have proven disastrous, the club would have been ecstatic with his game ending up with the ball 26 times.
I was very impressed with some of the players that don’t seem to get the credit they deserve at times for their respective games on Sunday. Harmes with 3 early goals set the boys alight, Hannan with 2 in a minute, book-ended nicely to seal the game and Pedersen had probably his best game in his AFL career with 26 touches, 8 marks and 2 goals.
You can’t win a game with 8-10 players and we need each and every one of the side playing their roles and these guys did this and more and were all match winners on the day. To be honest there appear to be some tired boys at the moment, they are a young team that plays a taxing game of footy, but to dig deep when it was needed most was ultra impressive and I was a happy man Sunday.
Another early Sunday game beckons this weekend against the Lions. They are in good form at the moment and with a full compliment of players they will be a tough side to beat – tougher than I think many are giving them credit for. These are games that we have lost in the past….it won’t happen this weekend!
Go Dees
Up there James Harmes!
How good was it to see James dominate the first quarter kicking three goals and taking a spectacular mark and then combine with 21 disposals and 6 marks for a great four quarter performance. Congratulations James on a superb game!
The mark has been nominated for Mark of the Year and you can see it here https://markoftheyear.afl/vote/round/21
https://markoftheyear.afl/vote/round/21
15 minutes of madness
by Darren Spence
15 minutes of madness. That’s all it was. 15 minutes. Just like a team losing 5 wickets in 3 overs in a test match can ruin the game for a test nation, so it was for the Demons on Saturday with the Giants piling on 8 goals in the second half of the first quarter in what proved to be a match winning spurt of play.
It’s been discussed at length how important it has been for us to get away to a good start…and we did… 3 goals into the breeze in the first 10 minutes gave us all high hopes for optimism but that soon faded with 2 freakish goals in 2 minutes setting the tone for the rest of the quarter.
The second goal, a huge off break bounce by Scully, resulted in a little bit of vomit appearing in my mouth. Yes I am still bitter and there is absolutely zero chance I will ever barrack for GWS against another team as long as he his playing in their side. The fact that we outscored the Giants after quarter time was of little consolation and another critical 4 points went begging in what was another disappointing day.
Gawn was our best player. He is now gaining momentum form wise and 52 hitouts and a goal was a good return for the big fella. Lewis has made the general off half back role his own and he finished with a game high 35 possessions.
Oliver again had 32, Vince and Hibberd were busy all day and I thought Maynard did well on debut but in the end we really had too many players that were down on the day and with the final siren came a bitter taste in my mouth – no not from the Scully induced vomit – rather the feeling that a full 4 quarter performance would have won the game for us.
This Sunday sees us take on the Saints. I don’t have to tell you how critical this game is. Lose we can probably kiss our finals hopes goodbye. At the end of the day, if I am honest, we probably do not deserve to be in the finals if we can’t win our last 3 games.
However if you told me at the start of the season that with 3 games to go our finals chances rested solely on our own shoulders, boy I would take that in a heartbeat, heck I would have taken that every year for the last decade! The boys know this and they won’t let this opportunity slide this weekend.
Go Dees
Take a deep breath …. and then exhale slowly ….
by Darren Spence
Take a deep breath in through your nose and then exhale slowly through your mouth. Repeat this 10 times or until you have calmed down enough to ensure you don’t say, write or do anything that you might regret.
Following the Demons can be hazardous for your health. Memberships should really come with a health warning as not only did I have to be at the pub at 10.30 am as the only option to watch the game, it was another close one and I found myself doing the above mentioned breathing exercises for about 5 minutes after the game, a game we should have never have lost, another game against North and another game that even the most ardent North fans would have tipped themselves to lose.
I don’t know why we can’t beat North. They are probably one of the most irrelevant teams in the AFL, I probably could only name on one hand the amount of their supporters I know and for some reason we just cannot beat them. Coupled with the fact that every game is vital right now for our finals chances, losing on Saturday was tough……Right up until the last 10 seconds I had no doubt in my mind that we would win, I had full confidence all day so when the siren blew, like us all, I was guttered.
I am not going to report much on the game, for fear of giving additional publicity to Norf, but they did use the conditions better than us, especially in the last quarter, and that’s why they beat us. Full stop.
Again I will use the cut and paste option and comment that Oliver gained over 30 possessions, 33 in fact, equal with Lewis who spent most of the game as a loose man in defense. I think whoever carves out names on the Bluey trophy can start the job early. I think Oliver has it in the bag, a fantastic effort for someone only in his second year of senior footy. Besides Oliver and Lewis, Gawn had a good game finishing with 52 hit outs, Tyson was busy, especially early on in the piece, and Garlett was dangerous all day with 3 goals in, what was, hang on, I need to do my controlled breathing exercises again…..a disappointing day….let’s just leave it at that.
Another game beckons and another trip interstate on Saturday this time against another top 4 aspirant in the Giants. Hogan will be missing unfortunately and at the time of writing I have just read that Cameron is out….this somewhat evens the ledger. If last weeks’ loss doesn’t have the boys fired up I don’t know what will….we have a good record against GWS and I am predicting the boys will bounce back in what I expect to be a fiery game. Jones is expected to return also to add leadership and I expect us to win.
Go Dees
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