Why are people picking Melbourne to WIN?

[Bulldog Revolution]

Melbourne are a good developing side - they are awesome when you don't match their intensity in the middle - but the don't always appear to have much else if they aren't dominating centre square.

I'd back Mike that our senior players are better and more consistent performers - so it will be exciting to see what we serve up on Saturday

[josie]

We seem to do better when considered underdogs. Happy we are not favourite although hope we can shake off that stigma and become a power club like cats sometime soon.

[SonofScray]

To answer the thread title:
Because our club has eroded a lot of trust that we'll get the required effort and ability on the park, on any given game day. I feel like we need a lot more to go right for us to win than most other teams. It all just comes undone too easily.

[Bulldog4life]

Year on year of going to the footy seeing our doggies play I ALWAYS thought we would win. I have no reason to change my way of thinking now. That's part of the fun in supporting our great club. We will destroy "The Dees":

[Remi Moses]

Didn’t realize Melbourne had morphed into Richmond
In all honesty they should have a decent side as besides 18 they’ve been on the bottom
They got Collingwood at the perfect time let’s be honest . They beat two sides we beat convincingly also .
We need to make May and Lever accountable and not bomb into the 50 . I’d be confident if we can fix the springboard teams get off our f 50 .

[DOG GOD]

Hmm. Even Gawn coming back from injury should destroy what we have and give the demons mids first use. If they get it in quick to McDonald, Weideman and Fritsch, then they could have a field day. Remember McDonald kicked 4 or 5 against us one game and Fritsch took 14 marks.

If we allow the demons to get easy access from our fwd 50, then I expect them to score quick and score well. If we bomb it, I’m confident May and Lever will counteract Naughton.
I don’t think it will be an easy game. My best friend is a demons man, so I’m praying we can get the job done.

[Bulldog Joe]

Well, I entered season 2020 full of confidence and had it destroyed in the first 10 minutes of the season, when I was badly in need of some joy.

When we resumed it was more of the same against St Kilda and I have seriously questioned the coach and the team regularly since then.

However, when I look at the personnel available for this week, there should really be no excuse for losing to Melbourne.

I know that Max Gawn is better than anyone we can put up against him, but if we turn up to play we have more midfield depth and polish and should not be allowing them to deliver comfortably to their forwards.

At our end Naughton is a more dangerous forward than anyone they have.

We should win.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Well, I entered season 2020 full of confidence and had it destroyed in the first 10 minutes of the season, when I was badly in need of some joy.

When we resumed it was more of the same against St Kilda and I have seriously questioned the coach and the team regularly since then.

However, when I look at the personnel available for this week, there should really be no excuse for losing to Melbourne.

I know that Max Gawn is better than anyone we can put up against him, but if we turn up to play we have more midfield depth and polish and should not be allowing them to deliver comfortably to their forwards.

At our end Naughton is a more dangerous forward than anyone they have.

We should win.

You're bang on. On paper we should win and we should have faith. Sadly we just haven't come to play often enough this season. A poor quarter here and a poor quarter there where our defence without the ball is non-existent and the oppostion run rampant. This has lead to the loss of trust in this team to get the job done.

Whilst Melbourne aren't contenders and we can point to their loss to Port and their easy wins against the bottom dwellars, we're talking up our most recent win against Adelaide and they did push all of Richmond, Geelong and Brisbane. Something we weren't capable of doing (Geelong still to come for us but I wouldn't be confident). So I think, whilst on paper we are ahead of the Dees, in the context of this season we are fairly level with them which is what makes this game so important and what will make it so telling. We don't want to hear again "except 10 minutes in the X quarter, we matched them". No more excuses.

[mjp]

Melbourne are a good developing side..

3-weeks ago they were terrible and their coach was getting sacked - their president was publicly questioning the right of the players to wear the guernsey. Since then, they have played the bottom 2 and a Collingwood side basically devastated by injury and workload (4 games in 14 days)...

I think that they SHOULD be a good developing side. They aren't. They are NO GOOD.

I am (of course) concerned about our up-down-down-up effort but our last few games we have been down on personnel (or, have seen the return of a couple of long-term injured who werent QUITE ready to fully contribute - Dunks and Naughts)...we should be right.

[CarnTheScray]

All I can say is if our inconsistency is not solved next season then there is a problem with the coaching panel.

[Grantysghost]

All I can say is if our inconsistency is not solved next season then there is a problem with the coaching panel.

Is it not just kind of what you expect from a developing side? I get the angle for sure.

[Bulldog Revolution]

I think that they SHOULD be a good developing side. They aren't. They are NO GOOD.

Thats kind of what I meant - I think they are a hopelessly performed side based on the talent on the list over the past 4+ years.

They found a way to not make the finals in 2017, performed well in 2018, were woeful in 2019 and have been inconsistent in 2020.

They are one of the great under-performers in the competition - but they have a lot of good players

[Grantysghost]

Thats kind of what I meant - I think they are a hopelessly performed side based on the talent on the list over the past 4+ years.

They found a way to not make the finals in 2017, performed well in 2018, were woeful in 2019 and have been inconsistent in 2020.

They are one of the great under-performers in the competition - but they have a lot of good players

Under performers ? Surely you jest....

[Dry Rot]

I think that they SHOULD be a good developing side. They aren't. They are NO GOOD.

Yes, they are useless pea hearts.

[MrMahatma]

I’m always optimistic. I’ve been to each of our matches in SE Qld this year and have seen us get spanked by Carlton and Richmond. I’m still optimistic. We don’t need much to go our way and we’ll win well.

Lots of Bruce bashing in the Mach committee thread, but if we bring him in he’ll (hopefully) finally get an extended run with another key fwd. if we Mark more inside 50s, we’ll not only score more, but stop the turn over goals. That alone could be a 6-7 goal difference in a match for us.

With JJ. Crozier and possibly suckling in the mix, we would have our most physically mature and experienced team for a long time, and structurally, apart from Cordy, prob our best 22.

Hunter, Naughton and Dunkley are now back and a few matches in. There are many reasons to be optimistic.