We were doomed as soon as the rain came IMO .

Our game plan is fast and precise movement of the ball , we don't have the mature bodies for a wet slog as yet .

I know you weren't there so I'll excuse this comment.

Saw the game live on the net. We had a few go against us but it wasn't the be all, end all....

How many [censored] easy goals did they get from clearances in their forward pocket???

Please don't blame the umps.

It's the most [censored] weak excuse after a loss.

The only [censored] weak part was the umpires. A bloody disgrace. IMO full credit to many of our boys today, I actually thought we were the better team, with the better passages of play through the day. The umps made some shocking calls at some critical times that really cost us.

I am more than happy to admit that there were some stinkers from us that cost goals, but Hawthorn made as many errors as we did, they were not crucified as harshly as we were.

I might calm down, but I doubt as I am severely pi$$ed off and thought our effort deserved better today.

From Rnd 1 to Rnd 20, what a turn around though? We could pretty much count Davey out of that side today which added to many other players, a lot of Dees supporters could make an argument for 12 players to come into that side that were not there today.

We were never pushed around today and still have a hell of a lot of upside.

1. Inability to win enough contested possessions around stoppages

2. Poor defensive set up around stoppages inside Hawthorn's forward 50

3. Poor leading out from half forward - Watts, Dunn, Jurrah and Green did not present on the lead often enough for the midfielders to use the ball effectively

Yes, there were some mind-boggling poor umpiring decisions today, 3 resulting in shots on goal, but only one was converted and this didn't determine the outcome.

Strange. I don't see why we would beat them next time. We can never contain them. They are a bloody good team with a scary midfield and forward line.

well well lets look at a few things now that the season is coming to a close. the coaching staff gave danny hughes the biggest rap of all time "the new robbo" could take the mark of the year or kick the goal of the year !! has the x factor ! and he does,but after only two games , both of which he did extreemly well they dropped him. why ? because it was the indiginous round in darwin and the indiginous boys would be better suited, but they still picked miller whom they dont want next season ! hello! meanwile the hughes kid injures his ankle playing in the v.f.l and may not get a gig for next season ! so through bad luck or bad management have we lost another robbo and have we given another club the opportunity to pick up another poddsie,all be much younger.my reason for saying this is benell has enjoyed playing every game without being dropped to the v.f.l. he is timid has no defensive skills and whilst he is quick ,so is usain bolt, but he cant play footy either . paul johnson is a lialibility and surely must be moved on next yeay,there are others who will have to go ,bell,healey etc but as a long time dees & sandy supporter having (a number of us )watched danny hughes get his first game against the bullies,we are gutted that he was so badly managed. go dees go zebras .

^^^^^^^

Ripper first post mate! Some good points and some bloody shockers.

Strange. I don't see why we would beat them next time. We can never contain them. They are a bloody good team with a scary midfield and forward line.

That IMO is the problem. To me They, had about 30% more, roughly of the possessions, that I noticed flashed up on the scoreboard. I didn't have time to study close as they disappeared soon after I noticed them. But they backed up what I thought I was seeing, that they were mostly,,, during the 2nd Qtr & on, controlling most of the clearances & the first ball use,,, as well as creating & controlling stoppages at will, with their bigger bodies.

What I'm thinking, is that we really achieved a lot in our defence, controlling most of their attacking drives. This, I don't think is the major problem, our defence in absorbing the pressure. Yes, we need to improve here & we will, with more physical maturity & experience.

Here is what I'm saying. We have a blue Chip & dour defence. We NEED to improve this as Riv is operating as a 2nd Tall Defender, when he should be the 3rd tall, not more.

IMO,,, we need an Elite CHB to turn this defence into the leading defensive Unit, one that doesn't baulk at advancing that second kick into an attacking foray.

Too often, as seen in the 2Qtr, when we relinquished our proactive attitude to take the game on, by allowing ourselves to get bottled up & intimidated to move the ball on fluently. This to me, was due to a lack of self belief in our ability to hit targets, which culminated in us going into our shells, & playing conservative slow footy. This played right into the Hawks bigger bodied hands, where, if they couldn't win the ball back outright, they would cause a stoppage where they had the clear advantage in strength. We brought this on by not moving the ball fluently to our advantage, with as direct football as we dared. We allowed them to push us wide to the boundaryline & corralled us easily.

Our backline in not there yet & while we have backup to Chip, = Warnock. Backup to Riv, = TMac. we don't really have that big bodied mobile key defender who should take the 2nd tall Key forward. We need an Elite one. Then releasing Rivers to the 3 tall option.

This should allow us to control more efficiently & look more to turning defence into attacking moves.

The midfield also IMO, was partly at fault today not leading @ the defenders to create options out of the backline, remaining fairly static until their defenders settled & our backs & mids had stopped.

Once we got forward I thought we weren't too bad looking for space & running well into attack.

I've changed my thoughts re the drafting of a key forward at first pick, but would take one with the second pick. IMO we need that big mobile skilled back to compliment Frawley.

also our forward line was well held

although jurrah and wonaeamirri looked dangerous thehy didnt do enough

watts didnt get a sniff

dunn worse

green didnt hold to his form of this season

hawthorns defence held out, as well as their pressure from the midfield.

The only [censored] weak part was the umpires. A bloody disgrace. IMO full credit to many of our boys today, I actually thought we were the better team, with the better passages of play through the day. The umps made some shocking calls at some critical times that really cost us.

I am more than happy to admit that there were some stinkers from us that cost goals, but Hawthorn made as many errors as we did, they were not crucified as harshly as we were.

I might calm down, but I doubt as I am severely pi$$ed off and thought our effort deserved better today.

From Rnd 1 to Rnd 20, what a turn around though? We could pretty much count Davey out of that side today which added to many other players, a lot of Dees supporters could make an argument for 12 players to come into that side that were not there today.

We were never pushed around today and still have a hell of a lot of upside.

+1

1. Inability to win enough contested possessions around stoppages

2. Poor defensive set up around stoppages inside Hawthorn's forward 50

3. Poor leading out from half forward - Watts, Dunn, Jurrah and Green did not present on the lead often enough for the midfielders to use the ball effectively

Yes, there were some mind-boggling poor umpiring decisions today, 3 resulting in shots on goal, but only one was converted and this didn't determine the outcome.

I agree with you 'speed demon'...

1. Inability to win enough contested possessions around stoppages. Too small physically.

2. Poor defensive set up around stoppages inside Hawthorn's forward 50. Too often they got the ball out goalside of the stoppage with us way behind.

3. Poor leading out from half forward - Watts, Dunn, Jurrah and Green did not present on the lead often enough for the midfielders to use the ball effectively. Way too conservatively minded half forwardline blaming the mids for their cautious approach to the ball.

This is a positive we can take out of the game as well,

Injury list

Melbourne

Max Gawn (knee) - season

Jack Grimes (hamstring) - test

Jordan Gysberts (back) - indefinite

Danny Hughes (ankle) - test

Neville Jetta (shoulder) - season

Stef Martin (hip) - season

John Meesen (foot) - season

Brent Moloney (quad) - 1 week

Ricky Petterd (shoulder) - season

Jake Spencer (back) - indefinite

Aaron Davey

Hawthorn

Max Bailey (knee) - indefinite

Cyril Rioli

Plenty more upside for us as far as I am concerned.

well well lets look at a few things now that the season is coming to a close. the coaching staff gave danny hughes the biggest rap of all time "the new robbo" could take the mark of the year or kick the goal of the year !! has the x factor ! and he does,but after only two games , both of which he did extreemly well they dropped him. why ? because it was the indiginous round in darwin and the indiginous boys would be better suited, but they still picked miller whom they dont want next season ! hello! meanwile the hughes kid injures his ankle playing in the v.f.l and may not get a gig for next season ! so through bad luck or bad management have we lost another robbo and have we given another club the opportunity to pick up another poddsie,all be much younger.my reason for saying this is benell has enjoyed playing every game without being dropped to the v.f.l. he is timid has no defensive skills and whilst he is quick ,so is usain bolt, but he cant play footy either . paul johnson is a lialibility and surely must be moved on next yeay,there are others who will have to go ,bell,healey etc but as a long time dees & sandy supporter having (a number of us )watched danny hughes get his first game against the bullies,we are gutted that he was so badly managed. go dees go zebras .

Danny Hughes will do what he does best, play VFL.

Correct decision by the club

Plenty more upside for us as far as I am concerned.

Good news, but I feel as though this has been our most stable year at selections since 2006. Been an OK year as far as injuries are concerned.

Good news, but I feel as though this has been our most stable year at selections since 2006. Been an OK year as far as injuries are concerned.

I was probably pointing as much to the fact that the Hawks, outside of the suspeneded Rioli, had a full list to choose from.

If that is the best they can dish up to us, with some fine assistance by the 3 monkeys, then looking forward i am optimistic.

Good news, but I feel as though this has been our most stable year at selections since 2006. Been an OK year as far as injuries are concerned.

I think you are forgetting the Pre Season. Those injuries set us back a long way.

Please don't blame the umps.

It's the most [censored] weak excuse after a loss.

Absolutely agree. A lightweight and incorrect excuse for a loss.

I know you weren't there so I'll excuse this comment.

Its even worse if you were there and you blame the umpires.

You go and play footy in the wet and tell me how easy it is to move the ball with "speed and precision".

Think about how the top teams do it.

Might be a good idea for our mid fielders to stand between their opponent and the ball rather than behind them. Happened at nearly every stoppage today

Come on Rhino.

Buddy, clearly, deliberately punches the ball OOB 10m from the line and claims a Melbourne player did it.... free kick Buddy.

Buddy gets beaten pants down 1 on 1 vs Frawley ... free kick Buddy.

Melbourne players get front and centre and pushed in the back, play on, goal Hawks (x2)

....

We did not play as well overall as the Hawks.

4 goals was the minimum influence of the umpires.

Pathetic.

Come on Rhino.

We did not play as well overall as the Hawks.

That's better. You can forget the rest of the venting.

Blaming the umpires is a cop out.

Blame is different to calling shite shite. The umpiring was shite.

Ed: My catch cry this week when someone almost comes within 5 metres of me? Free kick Buddy.

well well lets look at a few things now that the season is coming to a close. the coaching staff gave danny hughes the biggest rap of all time "the new robbo" could take the mark of the year or kick the goal of the year !! has the x factor ! and he does,but after only two games , both of which he did extreemly well they dropped him. why ? because it was the indiginous round in darwin and the indiginous boys would be better suited, but they still picked miller whom they dont want next season ! hello! meanwile the hughes kid injures his ankle playing in the v.f.l and may not get a gig for next season ! so through bad luck or bad management have we lost another robbo and have we given another club the opportunity to pick up another poddsie,all be much younger.my reason for saying this is benell has enjoyed playing every game without being dropped to the v.f.l. he is timid has no defensive skills and whilst he is quick ,so is usain bolt, but he cant play footy either . paul johnson is a lialibility and surely must be moved on next yeay,there are others who will have to go ,bell,healey etc but as a long time dees & sandy supporter having (a number of us )watched danny hughes get his first game against the bullies,we are gutted that he was so badly managed. go dees go zebras .

There's a reason he's 24 and he's only played two games. He doesn't cut it at AFL level. Neither does Miller.

Podsiadly was never played by Essendon and Collingwood, then he went to VFL and kicked bags of goals. Hughes managed one goal in the VFL reserves.

Please don't blame the umps.

It's the most [censored] weak excuse after a loss.

We looked tired by the last quarter- we seemed slightly overwhelmed by the occassion. But by gee the umpiring was BAD.

Blame is different to calling shite shite. The umpiring was shite.

Correct.

We lost the game in the middle, but that doesn't mean that we should sit back and not react to umpiring decisions which are plainly and simply WRONG. Not 50-50, not complex, just plain wrong.

The DOO was a load of shite, the free against Frawley for a nice push IN THE SIDE was a load of shite, paying high tackle against Aussie was a load of shite, NOT paying several throws made by the Hawks was a load of shite, and the list goes on and on.

I just feel sorry for Chip. Being an AFL defender sucks!

Absolutely agree. A lightweight and incorrect excuse for a loss.

Its even worse if you were there and you blame the umpires.

Think about how the top teams do it.

Where are your eyes at a match- can't you see we did not get a fair go today.

We were smashed in the clearances, and that was the number one reason we lost. We could not get our hands on the ball, which put enormous pressure on the backline.

I was also disappointed with some of the coaching today. In the pouring wet, we suddenly decided to stop handling and start bombing the ball long. WTF? It reeked of panic and immaturity, and so hopefully it was just our players losing the plot, and not a directive from Bailey. Because we had no chance in hell of ever scoring like that.

Of course the relatively poor output we had from Green and Dunn didn't help, and made our forwardline redundant once more, and some of the kicking from the backline, especially that of Bartram, made me want to burn my eyeballs. Seriously, Bartram has to handball AT ALL COST!

On the plus side, we played average with an undersized midfield, and a man short for 3 quarters, and we still stayed in touch until the last 10 minutes of the match. The backline was gallant as usual, and I was particularly happy for Rivers, who seems to have found his touch again. Frawley again was very good. Beat Franklin for pace, beat him at ground level, and of course had the misfortune of being on the end of some of the most pathetic and soft frees in history. Lance 'fat gut' Franklin, was KOTD today by 4 umpires. Trust us to cop it from all angles when our season is on the line

In round 1, we were 10 goals time at the main break. You have to appreciate the great inroads we've made. We can definitely walk away proud today.

Very accurate summation -which we need to learn from.