I was at the game. Watts was good. He was one of the few players that actually worked hard for 4 quarters. He made some mistakes, but aside from the dropped mark, he looked pretty good. In the last quarter he worked harder than anyone on the ground, at one stage he beat Sandilands one on one in the ruck. His leap in another ruck contest was huge. If Natanuai played the game that Watts did today the media would be raving about him. The two goals he missed were tough kicks. The pockets at Subiaco are much deeper than they look on TV. I suspect at most grounds he would have been up against the fence.

I liked MacDonald today, adds a bit of mongrel to the backline, was very good in the first half. Last week I said Rivers should not have been given a two year deal, and while I still believe that, I thought that he was pretty good today when Sandilands went forward. Bennell was good when Melbourne was in attack, not sure he works hard enough when it is going the other way. I though Morton did a few things today that showed a lot of courage, thanks to the idiots on the footy show he has a bad rep, but I have no worries with him. And Jamar broke even with the best Ruckman in the competetion, and negated one of Freo's biggests weapons, didn't get many stats, but football isn't always about that.

I was disappointed with Jurrah today. In the first half he was lazy. Several times he watched his man run off him with the ball as he made a half hearted chase. The reason he had a good third quarter is that he actually started working. He needs to work much harder if he is going to make it.

The other disappointment was Dean Bailey. The players again were not ready to play in the first half, and it cost us the game. The buck must stop with him. Also, with a couple of minutes to go, and 1 goal down, why bench Melbourne’s two best players? Jamar and Green on the bench. They had not been great today, but when a game needs to be won they should be on the field. Very poor coaching by him today.

And the umpiring was terrible.

Finally a post with some logic in it.

I think teams will realise how lazy Jurrah can be and start putting a playmaker on him and trying to expose him. Liam needs to work on this and be aware.

I must admit I haven't seen any of that game.

Yeah so you just selectively remember stuff or fail to get all the info and then make a wild stupid post.

Yeah so you just selectively remember stuff or fail to get all the info and then make a wild stupid post.

Of course he has won a 50/50 contest (I forgot to hit the sarcastic button), he just doesn't do it often enough.

This post reminds me of why I rarely write on here any more.

Has Bate ever won a 50/50 marking contest?

When he is on, he's got sticky hands and clean grabs everything. but he's generally got cold hands in contests.

Watts had a good solid game. No doubt ppl will over look it to highlight his misses which is generally his strength.

Has Bate ever won a 50/50 marking contest?

agree, he cannot pack mark, and is rarely able to compete with an opponent, when he gets the ball in a bit of space he is able to break away, but never really takes contested marks.

Sh!t umpiring but we still had our chances. WTF is with these starts??!!

Jack Watts had 20 odd touches, 7 marks & worked damn hard. Needs to be harder and with a bigger body will be. Anyone remind me if wrong but pretty sure he has NEVER got through a pre-season as yet. Dumb post above saying his kicking always lets us down - today at goal it did but this is unusual for him - non issue - going to be Fing good!

Bate worked I thought but struggled to finish anything or make an impact. Bartram played a bit more attacking & ok but his opponent kicked 4.

Another good game for Riv keeps the hounds around here at bay.

Another good game for Riv keeps the hounds around here at bay.

Hear hear. Riv has been phenomenal!!!

And I also love how the Joel Mac doomsayers have all hidden away...

Overall the bad was reasonably balanced by the good. Shocking first half followed by dominant 3rd quarter and solid 4th.

Bate was absent in the first half but regularly involved in the second half (unfortunately with some costly errors).

Watts showed more promise today than any other game. He ran hard, presented often, chased, won contested possessions (7 - equal 3rd for MFC) and generally played with more confidence and a better understanding of his position. Ofcourse, he game was blighted by some clangers (5 - equal 1st for MFC). These included kicking for goal and dropping a simple handball. However, we know from previous games that these are areas he is normally strong in, so no serious concern for the future. A month ago posters wanted to see Watts play with intensity and keep his feet. He's responding.

I just have to add one thing to this thread. If we're going to start blaming individual players for the loss, and in particular the abysmal first half, why has nobody mentioned Garland? Plenty of people are willing to jump on the Bruce and Dunn bandwagons, but Garland gave away at least two (maybe three?) goals in the first half directly from his own poor kicking. Surely he deserves a mention?

It was no particular person. It was that bit of grey matter between all the players ears that only sparked after half time (with a couple of exceptions).

That`s it in a nutshell Roj! It was a complete Jeckyl and Hyde match,hard to believe it was the same Melbourne team in the 2nd half.

Taking pot shots at Jack Watts is just dumb. I am seeing improvement every game he plays. Yes, he should have kicked that goal with 2 or 3 minutes to go and he knew it, you could see how gutted he was after the game. Funny how nobody is bagging all 6 Freo players who missed very kickable goals in the last 1/4. That`s what pressure does, some handle it better than others and I reckon when Jacks played a handful of games more than a dozen folks, he`ll handle it better himself!

Just got home from game...absolutely gutted. Really thought we would run over them in last qtr.

OMFG!! Can't believe some of the crap I'm reading here.

Watts worked hard all day won more contests than he lost and was good enough to get his hand on the ball come crunch time!

Dunn = Ditto

Bate won most of the contests he entered, his dosposal was, however, attrocious!

But if you're looking for people to blame for the loss, look at our senior players.

Bruce's kick to Ballantine???? WTF??? He was horrible in the first half.

Garland's disposal was even worse. Rivers' efforts were average and Davey, Sylvia, Green & Jones were picking and chosing when thier efforts were required.

Crucifying Watts for missing shots on goal is f^((!#g retarded! It's like saying we lost the game because our first gamer didn't perform. If you 're relying on the first gamer, you were always going to lose.

Has Bate ever won a 50/50 marking contest?

yes

guys like Bruce, Bate, Rivers, Moloney, Sylvia and Davey can pick and choose when they feel like going hard at the ball. Even Green had a terrible first half.

Bruce, Bate, RIvers, Sylvia and Davey, fair enough. They are patchy at the best of times. But I won't hear that about Moloney. Even his bad games are ok. He can't do it on his own. And Green was sensational today I thought. Seemed to do more than what the stats sheet said. You can't blame him for not getting enough ball when he was playing deep forward in the first half. Both those guys deserve to be let well and truly off the hook. Both fell out of the consistency tree earlier this year and hit every branch on the way down.

I'm as one-eyed as the rest of us on here, but to blame the umpires for today's game is stupidity.

Aaah. You've got me there. I think what I meant was that when we got our poor decisions (which we did this game. It wasn't as bad as the Pies game, but I saw a number of just stupid calls. Scully holding the ball between his toes?), we seem to get them in close games when the game is on the line. Or in important plays that arrest momentum. The Davey Fifty. Wasn't a free kick, and was nowhere near a fifty, going by what we've seen this year. But you're right of course, we only have ourselves to blame for the loss, and I'm sure that's the way the players and Dean will look at it.

FWIW - I think we really missed Trengove today. Big call for a bloke playing his first season.

Huge call, courageous call, correct call, Gary.

More proof that Bailey does not have what it takes to be a premiership coach

I think you need to look up the word proof.

And maybe the rest of the words in that sentence.

If you're still happy with it, maybe go out and buy a book on Australian rules football.

I'd play Bruce up forward.

He's smart, strong hands, decent kick at goal.

It's funny because jurrah has played one less game than watts.

They're both pups, let them learn.

No one is to blame. It's a team effort and the first half was disgusting.

Loved the comback. Umpiring was terrible!!

It doesnt help, But again 3 weeks ago if I was asked losing to freo by 11... I'd be ok with it..

Yep. How dare a kid who has played 12 games of footy not stand up and carry an entire football club who played pathetically for 60 minutes.

YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS. Foolish post.

Just another worthless Watts basher. Have a real look at his development before you pot him. What about LJ. His defensive pressure was abysmal for a half and he looked dis interested.

Instead of singling out youngsters. If you want to put the blowtorch on anyone apply it to the leaders who should lead by example.

Ditto ( absolutely)

It's funny because jurrah has played one less game than watts.

They're both pups, let them learn.

No one is to blame. It's a team effort and the first half was disgusting.

Loved the comback. Umpiring was terrible!!

It doesnt help, But again 3 weeks ago if I was asked losing to freo by 11... I'd be ok with it..

Agree it does no good as to individualise blame. They were all to blame for the first two quarters. Absolutely no one put their hand up to take on the game but they all certainly did in the third quarter. Last year we would have been beaten by 100pts this year we took it up them and wiped the silly smirks of their faces. So lets remain positive about the improvements that have been made. There are too many negative threads posted here sometimes and thats not looking through rose coloured glasses. Lets improve gradually or we can do an Essendon. Who expected to be in the eight. We Im sure just wanted to see improvement and for mine we have done just that. It is frustrating because standing/sitting in our loungerooms we can see that we are just not quite there yet but from where we have come we are so close to our destiny. Remember we have a hard second half of the draw and the time for retribution/acclaim will be at the end of the season when we can all see how far we have actually come. I think we lose sight of the fact that we are "supporters" of the mighty Dees so lets support them instead of continually knocking them or looking for the negatives.

Bate Dunn and Watts?

Or the yellow maggots?

Who else is shaking with anger right now . . .

Did you actually watch the first half?

Mind boggles.I really think it was Matthew Knights fault.

Everyone is to blame for falling 44 points behind. You rarely win football games from 44 points behind. Melbourne can be sublime at times, but every week there seems to be one quarter where the intensity drops off and we get rolled. This was the first quarter against Freo, and they built on that lead in the second to go 44 ahead and seal the game.

Good effort to make it a contest, but the first quarter more or less sealed the game for Freo.

Playing without Beamer and James McDonald does really hurt our leadership in the trenches. We will see how the pups go without these two against the swans.

Let's be honest, Watts and Dunn could've won us the game. Two gettable shots on goal each that were missed. They're forwards and kicking goals is their job.

Having said that, some part of me is glad that we showed enormous spirit but didn't quite get over the line. It will just teach the team that you have to play four quarters to win (and don't get me wrong, like all of you I was desperate for us to get up).

But these tight negative learning experiences are better. We are 5.5 from 16 and could easily be 9 from 16 and in the eight. But being in the eight wouldn't be giving us anything as we'd be bundled out fast. Sitting where we are now just tells our young group that there is still a mountain to climb and they need to work harder and be more consistent. So we are seeing positive signs but it's clear there's still a ton to do. I think that's about right.

When will we learn that we are a very good team when we play attacking football. The problem yesterday was we started with a defensive mind set. Look at the starting bounce instead of taking the game on from the start we had 2 defensive tags. We spent to much time running to a defensive position then trying to beat on man. When the game was gone at half time we took the game on, this is the way we need to start. IMO this goes back to the last couple of years we have been blown away and the game has been over by quarter time, it seems we are trying to limited the damage in the first quarter but we are getting smashed.

Note to the coach, attack, attack, attack we have a forward line that can kick enough goals to win games we just need to get it into the forward 50m arc more and have players in there.

I've Been a Bruce supporter but his game yesterday was his worst for the year. Matthew Bate continues to really [censored] me and Rivers rounds out our 3 worst players yesterday.

OUT THIS WEEK: Bartram, Moloney (inj.) and Bruce.

IN: Cheney, Maric and McDonald.

This Aug 21 ....VOTE NO to Catch Up Footy !!