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.

+1

Sure the umpiring wasnt the only reason we lost but they were extremely influential at crucial times, as mentioned above. They swung the momentum many times and i believe being on the end of such appalling decisions can really affect your morale.

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

Not finding cheap mindless excuses. The umpiring is never good.

We were beaten by a stronger more experienced side on the day. I trust you did not miss that.

I've noticed that the umpiring is always worse when you lose...

Spending the majority of the game in Hawthorn's half of the ground had nothing to do with the loss, of course.

The umpiring is never good.

So true. I usually just laugh. I guess I had more at stake today.. next .. time .. gadget.

Not finding cheap mindless excuses. The umpiring is never good.

We were beaten by a stronger more experienced side on the day. I trust you did not miss that.

That is a fair analysis- however be fair and accurate- the umpiring was shameless.We definately got beaten by a better team on the day. Too strong for our inferior built mid field. We surely missed the strength of Maloney today. A good day to show our team what we need to do. However, we are not far off being a top four team.

That is a fair analysis- however be fair and accurate- the umpiring was shameless.We definately got beaten by a better team on the day. Too strong for our inferior built mid field. We surely missed the strength of Maloney today. A good day to show our team what we need to do. However, we are not far off being a top four team.

The Hawks aren't a top 4 side.

On current form at the business end of the season MFC would not get close to a Collingwood, Geelong or St Kilda atm. We are 2 to 3 years away from top 4.

The umpiring was shameless, Buddy is a fine actress, but thankfully the Hawks only kicked one or two of the five or so goals they looked like being gifted by the umps. The rest was down to us losing clearances imo.

Four quarters of Flash would have been handy too...

I've noticed that the umpiring is always worse when you lose...

Spending the majority of the game in Hawthorn's half of the ground had nothing to do with the loss, of course.

This is correct.

What I think is fair to say is that there were some terrible decisions, some of which occurred at crucial times in the game, some of which really didn't help us. But we need to focus on what we can control, and that starts with working on stoppages and wet weather footy.

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.

Exactly what I wanted to post. Not a bad result today, great for the future.

The Hawks aren't a top 4 side.

On current form at the business end of the season MFC would not get close to a Collingwood, Geelong or St Kilda atm. We are 2 to 3 years away from top 4.

I'm getting old but I seem to have a recent memory of doing ok against the maggies this year??

I'm getting old but I seem to have a recent memory of doing ok against the maggies this year??

forgot to add... but you're right about the years to become top 4.

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

Yeah. But they were still preeeeeetty sheet.

Have been handing us a few false results this year.

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.

Rioli was suspended

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

Agree

Sylvia was out for weeks for a broken jaw

Jurrah was out for months with a shoulder

Bell and Morton? were also injured

not forgetting wona still recovering

I've noticed that the umpiring is always worse when you lose...

It is, often because the winning team is first to the ball but the umpire that paid the deliberate rushed behind should not be umpiring next week. McLaren was dropped because he made the same mistake and so should that umpire.

OK so we're not blaming the umps for todays loss. That's fair. I guess... But Frawley (despite the umpires best effort) beat Franklin today. He didn't smash him, he beat him. Looking at Frawley you can see he is built like brick sh*t-house, but it is his speed that has impressed me of late.

Hughes WILL NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER wear an AFL premiership medal around his neck; so at the end of round 20 with the slightest of chances of playing finals, we should not be talking about him.

We all know why we lost today. Hawthorn aren't exactly a better team than us. They executed their game-plan better and had a nice run with the umps n injuries etc. But it was about 3 weeks ago they where being touted as a premiership chance!! Hard to believe yeh... I think I'm rambling...

We lost today and it sucked! But how good can we get over the coming years???? GO DEES!!

.............................

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.

.......... plus a blindingly obvious one that wasn't given to Green, who was in range at a critical time in the last quarter. I agree that the umpiring errors probably didn't cost us the game, but momentum is a huge part of modern football!

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.

The only thing that is strange is that you cannot see it.

They are strong around the stoppage and have a freak forward. As our bodies get older and bigger those tackles against Sewell, Mitchell and Burgoyne will start to stick. Their forwardline in fact anyones forwardline holds no fear for me with our back 6.

I actually did not think they were that great. Our poor stoppages cost us the game.

Blaming the umpires is a cop out.

It often is, but sometimes it's just reality. Would we have lost to Collingwood if the umpire had payed either of the two frees in our forward 50? Would we have lost to the Bulldogs had the Umpires not been wearing our colours? Perhaps, but highly unlikely, given that both directly contributed to the loss in the final few minutes of the game.

Today it is far less concrete. I can say with certainty that the Hawks scored 18 points directly from incorrect free kicks and would have had 24 had the kick not gone out on the full. I can also say that they scored a couple of other goals indirectly from free kicks (ie. frees payed in the middle of the ground which led to a goal to another player). This more than accounts for the final margin. I may be wrong, but I can't recall a single Melbourne goal coming from a free kick. Did they pay any frees to us inside our 50?

Sadly, we can not say with certainty that the result would have been different had the umpiring bias not been so evident. Given that two of the poor frees happened in the opening minutes of the game, there is no way of knowing how things would have panned out had they not been payed. The one-eyed supporter in me is screaming that every time we looked like kicking away the umps found an excuse to gift a couple of goals to the Hawks and arrest our momentum, but how can we know that the game would not have swung anyway?

Much like Stephen Colbert - our enemy is RAIN!!

To those who laughed at that - well done.

To be honest, as I walked out of the MCG I was expecting a to see a 5-page thread on the umpires by the time I got home.

It didn't cost us the game and no one here seems to be claiming it did, but there were still some infuriating decisions that left even Hawthorn supporters embaressed.

I've noticed that the umpiring is always worse when you lose...

Spending the majority of the game in Hawthorn's half of the ground had nothing to do with the loss, of course.

Nobody here blames our loss on the umpires, but unless you were at the ground, you wouldn't understand the psychological disadvantage that we had today. A number of times poor decisions from the umpires cost us a good run and momentum and completely sucked our confidence.

I'll just give you one example which stands out to me. Hawthorn win the free, probably fairly I don't know, and Sylvia looks to give the ball back not knowing who the free kick belongs to. He stuffs around with it and is given a 50m penalty. Fine. Late in the game, we win a free and the Hawthorn player flat out refuses to give the ball back and wastes ample time being a tool. No 50m.

So again, we didn't lose the game because of the umpires, but if you were in Chip's shoes today, you would have wanted to punch an umpire or throw in the towel. It's demoralizing for a team working its butt off to continuously be on the end of dud decisions, and when the game is played in difficult conditions and the contest is tight, it is also damn right defeating.

The umpiring didn't cost us the game but it certainly cost me enjoying the game. To say that the umpiring was fine is absolutely ridiculous. It has nothing to do with responding to it after a loss, it was clearly disgraceful.

Bartram should be dropped to Casey for his disposal, poor guy has no confidence.

IMO we should rest some of the boys, give them an extended pre season, get some games into kids like cheney, strauss, Hughes, maric, etc.

Bruce had Hodge beat before the 2 4th quarter goals, and in saying that he got more touches than Hodge and kicked a goal himself.

There seems to be a theme today on Demonland that Chip got beat by Buddy... Buddy kicked 2 goals (great goals), but was given 1 from a free kick that wasnt there! Chip beat him at ground level, and competed well 1 on 1. Where Buddy did beat Chip was with his high run into the centre and this way mainly due to the fact that chip looks to run off his opponent on the rebound. My call is Chip won the battle by a nose, and if not a draw at very least.

MASSIVE steps forward from round 1, we only lost by 21 points so the bright side to today should be:

1. we were missing 2-3 of our best 22

2. We were a man down for ovwer a half, meaning we only had 77 rotations for the game

3. The player that was injured was Davey which clogged us up rebouding out of defence

4. Brad Green had a shocker - not going to happen to often

5. Our disposal HAS to get better, we actually didnt play too well today. We had flashes of good football, but as been stated on other comments "we got smashed today" in the clearances, etc (and we did)so to loose by 21 points was a great effort.

Contested Possessions & Clearances. They were the two main objectives of the club to do well in today against the Hawks, yet in those areas we were beaten.

CP's: Hawks 147-123

Clearances: Hawks 51-41

The umpiring was frustrating - but when isn't it ? Probably more so frustrating because this game meant more in terms of advancing and keeping the season alive. Fwiw, Frawley was stiff a few times with the umps I thought. But that's footy.

The Hawks had stronger bodies and put their body behind the ball more and I thought handled the conditions and ball(the rain) better; higher level of skill.

Invariably that is where it counted today. We weren't far off...

I actually thought our defense did exceptionally well today considering the amount of pressure they came under.

Yes we got smashed at the stoppages, PJ's ruckwork didn't help, and so the ball was parked inside the Hawk's forward 50 for extended periods. But Frawley, Garland, Bartram and Bail (who was definitely in the top 5) fought hard all day and deserve their dues, aside from some occasionally horrendous kicking from Bartram and Garland...and that was when the ball was dry.

Although they handled the wet conditions better, it allowed Jordie McKenzie's gutsy head over the footy style of play to come to the fore. He was another highlight.

I do think the maggots deserve a mention. Some of those decisions, particularly those against Frawley were laughable. And I disagree with Bailey. I do think Franklin's free in the goal square hurt us badly and put a halt to any momentum we were gathering. But in saying that I think the umps were only one factor in us losing the game.