Yeah, I hate it when someone rips me when all I am trying to do is write off a 19 year old CHF that was one of about 15 that had an awful game.

It is just so unfair.

explain to me what the other 14 blokes having a bad game has to do with anything please

oh hes 19 then OK let him play like a woman for the next 100 games, I'll keep quiet

yeah we can all get angry, its good to win but its a bit early to get carried away. by rnd 6-9 we will then have an idea if our kids are going to stand and go to the next level. until then lets jusy hope we actually keep improving.

last night reminded me of a couple of years ago, where we go backwards with the footy and handballed our team mates in to trouble. especially in the backline this costs us on the scoreboard!!!

I hope come mid year we can save this thread and look back at it.

Sure we where pretty disappointing in some important areas, but its the bloody nab cup!

Last year we didnt win a pre season game, and besides round one we had an ok year to standards after finishing last.

Also not long ago carlton won the nab cups and finished Last in the home and away season, so nab cup form really doesnt mean that much to me at all!

I hope come mid year we can save this thread and look back at it.

Sure we where pretty disappointing in some important areas, but its the bloody nab cup!

Last year we didnt win a pre season game, and besides round one we had an ok year to standards after finishing last.

Also not long ago carlton won the nab cups and finished Last in the home and away season, so nab cup form really doesnt mean that much to me at all!

Everything you say is correct.

However I had hoped we had improved on this time last year but it appears we have not gone very Far at all.

Thats what worries me.

It appears that some of the problems of the last three years are still there eg. over using the ball in defence.

Why you would handball to a play in a worse position than your self never ceases to annoy me.

A close tag on Davey makes him useless.

Slow starts, when are we going to come out fired up from the first bounce?

God I hope you are right "carn the dees" because it looks like a long season to me!

explain to me what the other 14 blokes having a bad game has to do with anything please

oh hes 19 then OK let him play like a woman for the next 100 games, I'll keep quiet

No C&B he will be great in 2015 problem is will I be alive to see it!

the close tag on Davey, not once did someone try the create a good block for him. On our clearances we don't seem to have any statagy to try and create space, if we have a good tap ruckman which we have we should be able to work together to create a path for someone to use. Blocking/sheparding doesn't exist around stoppages for us.

explain to me what the other 14 blokes having a bad game has to do with anything please

oh hes 19 then OK let him play like a woman for the next 100 games, I'll keep quiet

What an excellent post.

I was about to answer your question and then I saw your second line and I thought to myself - "why the f..k should I bother conversing with someone who thinks like that about a 19 year old MFC player?"

And that's why I didn't reply to this post.

No one has talked about the effect of having Wellman back in the Essendon camp.Someone who knows everything there is to know about our players. I heard this morning that Essendon picked a team they knew would match Melbourne at their own game and that is why Watson etc were left out because they are too slow. I dont know how much truth there is to that but certainly they made us look like fat old ladies (apologies to any fat old demonlanders)out there. We looked slow and at points disinterested. col Sylvia at one point in front of us, in the third quarter just gave up chasing. Unbelievable. I don't think we can blame Jamar or any of the other rucks our midfield went missing.They were caught napping so many times with Essendon players by themselves on the wing. At one point Joel MacDonald and Rivers looked they were arguing as to who was going on whom. Honestly amateur material. I just wonder how bad are the Crows and Port.

There no excuses last night and the players should hang their heads. I did however searching for a couple of positive indications - Maric's improvement, some good things from Evans and Liams sublime talent.

No one has talked about the effect of having Wellman back in the Essendon camp.Someone who knows everything there is to know about our players. I heard this morning that Essendon picked a team they knew would match Melbourne at their own game and that is why Watson etc were left out because they are too slow.

I'll pull you up there longsuffering. Wellman has been mentioned a few times elsewhere in the surrounding threads, by several posters.

The press they applied on our defenders and the dominance in the midfield were the telling factors.

I don't ever want to see Bate in the red & blue again. He's just not good enough. I thought Howe looked ok

Ok, let's be constructive. List me the key attributes that Jack lacks and needs to work on whilst he is still 19 that would go some way to making you satisfied C&B.. :

Martin, Warnock, Strauss, Jones and a couple of others are complete dead wood and I hope none of these blokes get seen in the red and blue this year.

Ok. And coming back to the real world, all will play... and a couple of them will play the majority. Not necessarily applauding that idea though of course...

Watts must have read his article 5 mins before the game as he was back to his 2009 perform. I can't believe people actually think we'll play finals.

Shocking. Not an Etihad player.

Bottom line. Love watching the NAB cup, but don't care that much about the result. All I could think was that this side can't play Etihad yet. And that's something I can live with PROVIDED we can call the G our fortress this year. Winning against average sides at Etihad is something we'll do in the coming years when we look for that one or two extra wins that get us to the top 4.

Individual players... meh... I don't reckon they turned up. They SAY we're trying, but then most of the time they do. I'd be VERY Surprised to see that effort come Queens Birthday, put it that way.

Humdrum day.... no fun for us.... but I'm not slitting my wrists just yet.

I find it hilarious that the pre-season is suddenly so relevant.

Am I the only one not concerned about that loss?

the close tag on Davey, not once did someone try the create a good block for him. On our clearances we don't seem to have any statagy to try and create space, if we have a good tap ruckman which we have we should be able to work together to create a path for someone to use. Blocking/sheparding doesn't exist around stoppages for us.

That's because the players were bewildered as to why you would tag someone in a practice match!

Am I the only one not concerned about that loss?

No. Just look around.

Bommers and Hird read that as Loins and Voss. Just like last year, lets see where they are after 6 rounds of real footy.

I like winning but I'm also glad we are out of it.Bring on the real stuff.

AAAANNNNNNNNNNNYYYYYYYYYYYYYWAY

last night 2 things stood out for me.

the first was essendons pressure - not only on the person with the ball, but also his options. inferred pressure. this made it very difficult for us to get the ball out of our backline. it was also telling that we were useless at this. we had 4 blokes running at the man with the ball while he just squirted out a handball and 3 blokes took off with it.

the second is related to the first. our skills and decision making were deplorable. handballs to bad options, not taking the first option etc etc. and i think it took its toll on our confidence as the game wore on as well.

also, essendon wanted it more and were more desperate. but they wont have fletcher around for ever either.

So... what colours were the umpires wearing tonight?

Red & Black.

I find it hilarious that the pre-season is suddenly so relevant.

Am I the only one not concerned about that loss?

Massive over reactions are the norm this time of the year! If you delve deep, you`ll likely find that some of the people venting had us top 4 after winning at AAMI 2 weeks ago.

Yes we were disappointing, but fair dinkum....wake me up in a month!

Sure there was some negatives but lets not dwell on the obvious

Still too early to tell but are we seeing the emergence of Maric

Could be a case of realising he can play at this level rather than just hoping

Now lets see what he does next week as Bailey would say

yeah instead of discussing Watts' shizen effort let's bag the bloke bagging him, that will distract us

maybe next time i'll stay sober, i'm sure he will kick some goals then

Please do stay sober, because bagging young players who have actually played well in their previous game is a productive process, i thought we were meant to be called supporters mate....

Please do stay sober, because bagging young players who have actually played well in their previous game is a productive process, i thought we were meant to be called supporters mate....

well said.

explain to me what the other 14 blokes having a bad game has to do with anything please

oh hes 19 then OK let him play like a woman for the next 100 games, I'll keep quiet

I'm optimistically hoping you're way drunker than what you suggested you were before because currently Costello's comments are looking smart compared to yours. Go and re-read your player assessment of a NAB cup game on the group of players whom most have played less than 30 games in any AFL capacity. Not only do you look quite the fool, I'm embarrassed to hear such crap coming from a fellow 'supporter' of my great club.

If this is your attitude every time we lose, give me your bank details, ill pay you back for your membership and you can go support someone else.

We got ambushed at a smaller ground by a side with the former defensive coach of the Demons. They killed us in tackles, clearances and forward 50's. Who on earth has 80 tackles in a NAB cup match?

They played it like a regular game, putting huge pressure on our ball carriers and getting at least 10 goals from turnovers. The coaches have to work out whether our defensive errors were because the backmen lack skill, or whether they didn't get enough support from midfield.

My disappointment was that when we did do something well, we relaxed. There were two occasions where we kicked 3 in a row - starting to look good - then they kicked the next 5 or 6.

We are suffering from long injury lists for the past two years. I think we had 15 on the club list at the end of 2010 and 18 in 2009. We just haven't been able to get enough gametime into Strauss, Blease, Gysberts, Tapscott, Gawn an Fitzpatrick so they are ready to step up and replace Bruce and Junior.

With all the talk about Hunt and Falau switching codes, we have to be careful that the NRL clubs don't start poaching AFL players. We have 3 guys in Moloney, Jones, and Sylvia that play the game like rugby league - They have this mindset of 'let's see how many tackles we can break in a game!!!'. It fails too many times.

Good to see Maric do well. Our conversion from entries into the forward 50 was very good, and will get better when Petterd returns.