Game Day West Coast vs Melbourne : Sunday, March 22 at 3.40pm : Status Pending ** WE’RE ON!!

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Good luck everybody. Stay safe
 
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futile. Jonathan knew it was futile to catch the train once it started moving but he continued to run after it anyway. The definition of futile is something that won't succeed or is unimportant. An example of futile is someone trying to stop a plane that has already left the ground. Gil knew it was futile to start the AFL season but he continued to press ahead anyway.

What times we live in.

Our world has been turned upside down as things we thought were important or actually were, you know, important have been obliterated whilst we now seek the holy grail of the next roll of toilet paper.

In times of crisis many of us turn to sport, and in my case like others - especially football, as a means of escapism. To shun the harsh realities of whatever was troubling us for a couple of hours to cheer on our team in their pursuit of victory or revel in the ineptitude of Fremantle.

Never have we been in more dire need of such a distraction but alas even the great temple of sport has been decimated. Leagues the world over have been postponed or cancelled.

The AFL know better though and they’ve bravely, some might say foolishly, forged ahead with a bastardised version of our game in front of empty stadiums.

Watching the early exchanges of Richmonds ritual execution of Carlton rather, than distract the game only served to sharpen the focus of what we’d lost. A game without a crowd loses its passion.

Football as we knew it has changed like so many other aspects of our lives.

After an off-season filled with the joy of finally acquiring Tim Kelly, discussion over whether we paid too much, the merits of who we might draft, the deficiencies of those we did, Willies suspension, Venables head, Naitanui’s ubereats addiction, training session lockouts, Dark Sharks MVP, folding clubs, Keys is old, rock and roll and cola wars I can’t take it anymore, we didn’t start the season.

Well we actually did, sort of, so now I have a game to preview.

WEST COAST vs MELBOURNE - SUNDAY, MARCH 22 : On your TV screen at the newly revised time of 3.40pm

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This is where we sent Melbourne after the 2018 preliminary final who’s 2019 campaign was an abject failure finishing 17th ahead of only perennial footnote, the Gold Coast Suns

In 2020 they’re determined to find redemption and even made a documentary to convince themselves they could

Meanwhile, West Coast had an equally disappointing year in 2019, managing only a 5th place finish and a semi-final exit from the finals race.

Preseason form for these two teams were polar opposites. Melbourne had solid wins over Adelaide and Hawthorn whilst we went 0-2 with indifferent losses to Essendon and Fremantle.

But that counts for nought as the (almost) real stuff begins




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We’ve named a very strong side and are virtually at full strength. Other than Rioli and Venables, who are both sadly unavailable for whatever this seasons duration is, only Allen, Cameron and Cole were unavailable for selection

From the extended bench named I think Nelson gets the nod ahead of Schofield, Waterman and Petch to edge out Hutch and Sneeze, leaving Williams to make his debut ahead of Hickey.

I’m not doing matchups as my knowledge of Melbourne’s preseason is Gawn was made captain and this year is going to be a breakout season for Petracca. (Only one of those things is new)

So what to look to from the good guys (for the benefit of any Melbourne lurkers - hello and welcome, but that’s not you)

Kelly - debut in the wings. Showed flashes of brilliance in the preseason games but I get the feeling he held back a little as he focused on finding a rhythm with the rest of our mids. Simpson has been at pains to play down expectations on Kelly throughout since he arrived but my gut feel is TK11 will be unleashed on Sunday and it’ll be glorious.

Brander - imagine playing your first three AFL games in s**t conditions at the SCG, Ooga Booga and the Gabba in big losses then finally getting selected to play at a capacity Optus Stadium that’ll be empty. Looks to have been developed over the off season to replace Masten on a wing with some promising signs that he could succeed

Williams- a slight hamstring strain slowed his march to a debut but fingers crossed he passes a fitness test and gets to run out on Sunday. A raw but exciting prospect I for one am looking forward to watching him strut his stuff on the big empty stage

Naitanui v Gawn - fun fact, these two have only played in the same game once (a 54 point triumph for the Eagles at Marrara in July of 2015) so this battle is a rare treat. Gawns guile and aerobic capacity vs Naitanui’s leap and raw power will be intriguing

Kennedy - after his best preseason for years JK bolted out of the blocks with 6 goals straight against Essendon but went goal less against Fremantle, hurting his elbow in the process. Remains to be seen how much that limits him but if we get on top between the arcs he could have aday out

Shuey - our newly minted skipper leads the boys out for the first time and will be keen to do it with style.

Our midfield - didn’t quite fire against Fremantle but Naitanui feeding Yeo, Shuey, Kelly, Gaff, Sheed and Redden is a tantalising prospect that I been frothing over all preseason. When it clicks, and it might not be Sunday, it’ll be a sight to behold

I expect Melbourne to put up a good fight. In a disappointing 2019, they took it right up to West Coast in both games and actually led at 3/4 time in those matches. So this game is just as likely to be an arm wrestle

I’m going with West Coast by two and a half dunny rolls (15 points) with Kelly BOG

As a final note imagine this without a crowd

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Ah * it, it’d still be brilliant

GO EAGLES
 
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Feb 5, 2009
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Without the crowd I fear we might be vulnerable against the Dees. I dont expect the season to last long anyway so my feeling for this one is 'meh'.

It's more the Dees fitness that concerns me. They've had a full pre-season with Darren Burgess. Could get overrun in the last. Good test first up.
 
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It's a preview
If the game doesn’t proceed, which I don’t think it will, then it doubles as a review

Can also count as a game day thread
 

ioppolo

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I don't think I've ever cared less about a season or season opener in my life. That includes the start of 2008 after the 2007 off season s**t show.
 

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I don't think I've ever cared less about a season or season opener in my life. That includes the start of 2008 after the 2007 off season s**t show.
It was already a very meh fixture before they removed the crowds.

I imagine for Melbourne fans it’s like their grand final though.
 

ioppolo

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It was already a very meh fixture before they removed the crowds.

I imagine for Melbourne fans it’s like their grand final though.
This whole season though I really couldn't give two shits about now. Even with our midfield addition and flag favouritism.
 

Eastcoasteagle

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It's more the Dees fitness that concerns me. They've had a full pre-season with Darren Burgess. Could get overrun in the last. Good test first up.
This, I'm very worried about Dees first up. No crowd, and Dees fittest they've ever been. Also they're keen to have a big year after last year.

Even last year we only just beat them twice.
 
Dees suck, we’ll roll them, cannot understate how easily we will win this game. Bring on Round 2/the cancellation of football forever.


I think what was easily going to be a smooth sailing win, with Kelly starring in his first game in the wings, will end up being a tighter and more frustrating affair for us watching on TV.

Home ground and crowd means more to us than most other teams. I'd certainly much rather be the traveling team this week.

Could go either way. We barely scrapped home against them in both games last year, and that's when they were absolute rabble.
 
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Big Cox 88

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This preview gave me a fever and a chesty cough.
 

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