I think you forgot Jake Spencer!

Yes everyone it was a hell of an improvement over last week however we will not win a premiership with " a great effort if only he had grabbed it in the last few seconds"

I am tied of respectable losses. We still did not win. Only winning counts. Collingwood are 8 points and we are ZERO!

Didn't get to watch the game today at all, but listened to it on the radio whenever i could duck away from an easter function. Sounds like we really took a crack today, shame we couldn't get a win. Bloody hope we can win the next 3(or more)!

Even my Collingwood friends on Facebook are saying they didn't deserve it.

Yes everyone it was a hell of an improvement over last week however we will not win a premiership with " a great effort if only he had grabbed it in the last few seconds"

I am tied of respectable losses. We still did not win. Only winning counts. Collingwood are 8 points and we are ZERO!

Don`t bother going to the footy OD. The scoreboard is irrelevant today. If you can`t be happy with the kids efforts today you are very hard pleased. I hate losing too mate, but take a look at where we have come in 1 week.

Why close the gameday thread and start a new one?

Last week we had 175 kicks and 176 handballs at a 1:1 ratio which was a huge mistake by Bails and i'm glad he tweaked the gameplan today for 198 kicks and 154 handballs (TICK).We were so much more direct coming through the corridor and the stupid 2 foot handballs didn't cost us as much as last week.Strauss was relieved of the kicking in duties today (TICK) and as i said a first gamer shouldn't be under that pressure and giving up 3 goals.Newton in for Miller (TICK) Newton was never going to be a matchwinner in his first game but he reads the play better and is a better kick.Spencer should be dropped (TICK)no where near ready at this level.Drop underperforming players and put every player on notice and watch the intensity rise (TICK).Play Pies man on man,shoulder to shoulder and take their space away (TICK)

Everthing i wanted after Rd 1 was done,I'm happy.

Yes everyone it was a hell of an improvement over last week however we will not win a premiership with " a great effort if only he had grabbed it in the last few seconds"

I am tied of respectable losses. We still did not win. Only winning counts. Collingwood are 8 points and we are ZERO!

I get tired of respectable losses too but I thought even the toughest Demon critic would take alot away from today. I guess not.

SUNFLOWERS by Whispering Jack

Those final ten seconds seemed to last forever.

Terrific report but those last ten seconds seemed like um, well ... ten seconds to me:) !

Why close the gameday thread and start a new one?

Last week we had 175 kicks and 176 handballs at a 1:1 ratio which was a huge mistake by Bails and i'm glad he tweaked the gameplan today for 198 kicks and 154 handballs (TICK).

Err, you really think his game plan is for every kick you must handball? It was pretty clear that due to lack of confidence, they weren't backing themselves and at the same time were making poor decisions, which coupled with young heads and occasional skill errors are bound to turn over the football. You can't seriously think just because we played better today, Bailey changed his game plan. It was the players that were overusing the handball. Their direction is pretty clear- use the handball to spread the play and create space for team mates and the ball carrier. It just worked a lot better today and the players took the game on a lot more. They also attacked every contest, whereas last week they limped to every contest. That's the difference this week. Not a change in game plan. We just happened to witness Bailey's game plan working effectively.

Why close the gameday thread and start a new one?

Last week we had 175 kicks and 176 handballs at a 1:1 ratio which was a huge mistake by Bails and i'm glad he tweaked the gameplan today for 198 kicks and 154 handballs (TICK).We were so much more direct coming through the corridor and the stupid 2 foot handballs didn't cost us as much as last week.Strauss was relieved of the kicking in duties today (TICK) and as i said a first gamer shouldn't be under that pressure and giving up 3 goals.Newton in for Miller (TICK) Newton was never going to be a matchwinner in his first game but he reads the play better and is a better kick.Spencer should be dropped (TICK)no where near ready at this level.Drop underperforming players and put every player on notice and watch the intensity rise (TICK).Play Pies man on man,shoulder to shoulder and take their space away (TICK)

Everthing i wanted after Rd 1 was done,I'm happy.

Posts like this annoy me. If the players play badly it's not because Bailey told them to play that way. If you think Bails instructed the team to handball to a stationary player in a worse position than themselves you are a FOOL!

Players don't always execute the coaches plan, that doesn't mean what they did was the plan.

Plenty of coaches arounbd here claiming that Bailey finally listened to them, you all make me sick

If Melbourne was a racehorse it probably would have been swabbed after the total turnaround on Round 1's effort ( or lack therof).

Very pleased to see it happen mind u and I was stoked to see the scores come up on my phone. I was working and gave my mum the assignment of watching what I thought would be tantamount to torture for her. She took it on cos she is my mum and despite all disappoinments she is a Dees fan. She was so proud of them too and we were both gutted by the loss. Not just cos we could have won it, that the ump didnt give Greeny the free when he well and truly earned it, that Petterd couldnt hang on or that seconds before that Bate overlooked his teammate alone and went to a contest that was swept away quickly. Because it was Collingwood it hurt that little bit more.

I thought it was a tad arrogant of Malthouse to say that we treat games v them as Finals. We get up for them cos we hate them so much not cos we necessarily think they are that good that its equivalent to a final. I guess playing in finals year in, year out, having a massive supporter base and some pretty fair players in the team might make you arrogant but I am sure the Dees plan on wiping that smug look off his face come QB!!

Posts like this annoy me. If the players play badly it's not because Bailey told them to play that way. If you think Bails instructed the team to handball to a stationary player in a worse position than themselves you are a FOOL!

Players don't always execute the coaches plan, that doesn't mean what they did was the plan.

Plenty of coaches arounbd here claiming that Bailey finally listened to them, you all make me sick

What?

Jack7 said that we kicked it more than we handpassed it, and that was a good thing. Nothing wrong with that statement at all.

I'm sure Bailey didn't change his game plan at all. But there is no doubt that he employed a forward structure this week that allowed us to use the ball by foot more than last week, and that's why we had more kicks than handpasses, and it's why the game plan looked so much better.

What?

Jack7 said that we kicked it more than we handpassed it, and that was a good thing. Nothing wrong with that statement at all.

I'm sure Bailey didn't change his game plan at all. But there is no doubt that he employed a forward structure this week that allowed us to use the ball by foot more than last week, and that's why we had more kicks than handpasses, and it's why the game plan looked so much better.

I disagree.

I think our players getting first use of the footy more often than not and backing themselves to move the footy quickly and through the middle meant that we were able to employ a more potent forward structure that could stay there for the majority of the game. When the tide turned in the 2nd (?) our forwardline was non-existant, but when we started winning the footy again it re-formed as we found more of the ball.

That's just my take on it anyway, and I'm not 100% if that's the best way to go about it.

I disagree.

I think our players getting first use of the footy more often than not and backing themselves to move the footy quickly and through the middle meant that we were able to employ a more potent forward structure that could stay there for the majority of the game. When the tide turned in the 2nd (?) our forwardline was non-existant, but when we started winning the footy again it re-formed as we found more of the ball.

That's just my take on it anyway, and I'm not 100% if that's the best way to go about it.

The chicken-and-egg debate returns...

See, IMO, we started our forwards closer to goal at centre bounces, and they didn't all always run in off the line (Bate does that a lot, but last week 3 or 4 would sprint into the middle and the rest would creep to CHF).

Yesterday seemed like we had forwards who started deeper and who remained well forward of centre even when the ball was up the other end of the ground.

We were also helped by Collingwood's decision to remain man on man when the ball was up their end. Last week Hawthorn zoned off and that hurt us on the rebound.

But it just felt like our forward line gave us something to aim for yesterday.

watching the end of the game on tv it made me think if bate could have kicked it straight to the man on the forward pocket how things could have changed instead of pettered who had thomas on him.

it hurts but its over now time to look forward to next week.

get down there dees fans its time to really get behind the boys and watch them.

im so proud of them.

go the dees

I'm watching the game on bigpond right now. Scully has more balls than brains at the moment I think. He's throwing himself around with no sense of self-preservation. Great to see in a young player. Once he improves his consistency he's going to be amazing.

watching the end of the game on tv it made me think if bate could have kicked it straight to the man on the forward pocket how things could have changed instead of pettered who had thomas on him.

it hurts but its over now time to look forward to next week.

get down there dees fans its time to really get behind the boys and watch them.

im so proud of them.

go the dees

I think you`ll find that it was Petterd who was on his own in the pocket off Bates kick. Watch it again and you`ll see him standing with his arms in the air wondering how Bate missed him, only to see the ball back in Bails hands and on its way back to him! Would have been a pretty gettable shot on goal too!

I have to say folks, while the Umpires did screw us by missing a few frees that a blind monkey would have payed, when it boils down to it if we'd been better with our shooting we would have won regardless. We had plenty of chances in the last two quarters to kill it off and failed to even register a score, let alone a goal.

Also, in defence of Bail at the end, earlier in the game he found himself in exactly the same situation and took the shot rather than passing. He missed everything and had Brag Green screaming at him. The second time he did the team thing and passed to the open man rather than take the shot. In hindsight it would have been better to go for it, but he couldn't have known how little time was left. Possibly a more experienced player would have had the situational awareness to sum it up and realise that any score was better in that situation, but maybe not.

SUNFLOWERS

Nice touch. Tormented Dean Bailey. Van Gough. Sunflowers.

From gloom to bright sunflowers in the space of a week. Thanks for your insight WJ.

Why close the gameday thread and start a new one?

Last week we had 175 kicks and 176 handballs at a 1:1 ratio which was a huge mistake by Bails and i'm glad he tweaked the gameplan today for 198 kicks and 154 handballs (TICK).We were so much more direct coming through the corridor and the stupid 2 foot handballs didn't cost us as much as last week.Strauss was relieved of the kicking in duties today (TICK) and as i said a first gamer shouldn't be under that pressure and giving up 3 goals.Newton in for Miller (TICK) Newton was never going to be a matchwinner in his first game but he reads the play better and is a better kick.Spencer should be dropped (TICK)no where near ready at this level.Drop underperforming players and put every player on notice and watch the intensity rise (TICK).Play Pies man on man,shoulder to shoulder and take their space away (TICK)

Everthing i wanted after Rd 1 was done,I'm happy.

the use of the corridor was outstanding- it is a long time since I have seen the demons bethat direct. And by the way, Green has to be our permanent FF. He set the game alight in the second half and was mostly responsible for our getting back into it.

Honorable mention for Dynden Dunn as well. Often highly criticised on here, after watching the replay again he was veryinfluencial in the second half.

Also, in defence of Bail at the end, earlier in the game he found himself in exactly the same situation and took the shot rather than passing. He missed everything and had Brag Green screaming at him. The second time he did the team thing and passed to the open man rather than take the shot. In hindsight it would have been better to go for it, but he couldn't have known how little time was left. Possibly a more experienced player would have had the situational awareness to sum it up and realise that any score was better in that situation, but maybe not.

I'm happy Bail did the right thing, he was playing to win against the Pies. Beautiful positioning of the ball for Petterd, and a certain goal if taken. Maybe like you say, a very experienced player would have gone for broke, any score (realising the time factor). But where we're at, and Bail in his first effective game, it was the correct choice for sure.

(If it had meant getting us in the finals, or putting the Pies out, I might feel differently. But just now, we can be happy with Bail and his thinking)

I went hoping we'd be in the game to the end, but not daring to dream of a win. An honourable loss was my hope. If you'd told me before that I'd be absolutely shattered at losing by a point, no way I'd have believed it (either the point or being shattered). But that was how it was. Been a while since I've been as gutted as that by a loss. So that's positive.

When the siren went and Petterd slammed the ground with his fists, I just couldn't stay and listen to Pies supporters gloating. Shattered (unbelievably) - felt it right in the heart. Afterwards, when the head began to take prominence, it was one of those rare occasions where there were two winners. The Pies on the scoreboard, but they were copping all the criticism. And MFC who were getting all the plaudits.

Most Pies supporters I've encountered since have been generous enough to say they stole it, we deserved to win. Cold comfort actually. Gotta win this week! Can't wait...

Pretty much agree with all of that HBT.

Also, on Bail, not only did he fluff the shot at goal in the 3rd, but he also hit up Green and Dunn in the last quarter with passes from a similar distance - both resulted in goals.