One of the most boring, uninspiring and poorly skilled game I've seen in a while.

Nothing excites me anymore about this season.

Tommy Mac kicking across the face of goal and hitting the opposition on the chest just made me cringe. Either I'm really really dumb, or our gameplan lacks a plan.

I suppose the lack of forwards doesn't help.

From watching today, I think Bate, Bail, and Moloney will not be there next year. Stellar, J Mac, Sylvia, Strauss, are border line, Dunn may be the unlucky one, thought he was ok today

One really bad quarter (the third) cost us. Once upon a time that would have opened the floodgates, but we worked back into it, which is a positive.

Didn't mind some of the younger brigade today, starting to look like they could be players: Blease, McDonald (except for a couple of brain fades), Jetta, Strauss, and not to forget Jake Spencer, who did some nice things around the ground. Decent game from some of the mid-tier players as well, Joel Mac and Dunn didn't disgrace themselves, and it was great seeing Rivers down back again.

Odd, I got more out of today's loss than last week's win.

Me also! I left feeling upbeat and making a decision on Cloke. The number of times we had the ball in forward 50 and did nothing with it, caused me to imagine what it would be like with Clarke and Cloke there. A different result I suspect. And add to that the impact on players like Blease , Jurrah and Howe with those two brutes drawing defenders.

Also could the Spencer knockers please give him at least a provisional apology.

Agree, "Betty" was great today in the ruck. Although he seemed to go off for about 20 min half way through the first..?

Moloney was clearly our worst player today. Would love to know what is going on in his head.

>...........................................................................<

Stay where?

Stay on our list. Worse depth players than him. He can play a role

I think Dunn has been ok this year as well. He is versatile and can play in several positions. He was on Milne for a while and didn't concede a goal. I know many on here don't like him but he is not our worst.

Im not a Dunn fan, but he didnt have too bad a day. Hes about half a decent player.. *sigh*

Boy we really missed Clark today, there were periods where we really controlled play but just didn't have a target up forward.

Throw in Watts, Frawley et al and the imminent influx of players from trading, the draft and FA and I maintain we're not too far away.

I'd like to hear more about that

Very early he went for a mark and got hurt. Was on the southern stand side and he went off. He grabbed his back the minute he went down. When he came back on his opponent took every opportunity to get into his back and Col was less than impressed. Got into a few scuffles as a result.

Will watch the replay tonight and confirm. Huge Saturday night at my place

We are improving. We had one player with 150+ games, StKilda had 10. 'nuff said!

I watched Neeld today addressing the team and he looked about as frustrated and bewildered as we were.

I notivced that...all calm and such interviewing.. but he wasnt too happy with the boys watching his face at the 1/4/ & 3/4 addresses. Nor should he be.

Chin up Mark...that axe youre sharpening can be used soon

One of the most boring, uninspiring and poorly skilled game I've seen in a while.

Nothing excites me anymore about this season.

Tommy Mac kicking across the face of goal and hitting the opposition on the chest just made me cringe. Either I'm really really dumb, or our gameplan lacks a plan.

I suppose the lack of forwards doesn't help.

spotted him up beautifully didnt he lol.

Not fairly unfair but still fair enough.

I realize Tom Mac made a couple of bloopers today but don't be too hard on him. He is a massive talent and if he doesn't make a footballer for the MFC I'll eat my collar!

There actually were positives today. Keep the faith.

From watching today, I think Bate, Bail, and Moloney will not be there next year. Stellar, J Mac, Sylvia, Strauss, are border line, Dunn may be the unlucky one, thought he was ok today

last I heard we were in negotiations with Bail. he gives me the Sh!ts the last two weeks. No defensive game, silly mistakes and he can kick a good behind this bloke

I'm really not sure where the negativity is coming from today. We dominated for large periods of that game and apart for the third quarter looked like we could go toe to toe with them. Obviously the fact that our entire forward line is out injured is causing some issues in terms of not scoring from f50 entries, but the fact is that we broke even on forward 50 entries. We also matched them in clearances and contested possession, both of which are focuses for the team this year. On top of that, we've seen drastic improvement in a number of players. If we'd had a couple of legitimate forwards in the side (say Clark and Jurrah) we'd have been able to capitalise on the possession and kick a score.

A couple of specifics to note:

I have often noticed that collingwood players all have a very similar blocky body shape, obviously due to the way their fitness staff train them. Today I was somewhat impressed to see that many of our younger brigade are beginning to look like this as well. I think this is a good sign that they are getting their bodies into the sort of condition Neeld wants them in to be able to play the way he intends.

We've clearly witnessed a couple of our youngsters coming of age in the last few weeks. Spencer seems to have figured out how to play AFL, and today was truly competitive, and of course, Blease is looking like he may be the answer to our crumbing forward dilemma. We also got to see what Jetta does best, although not enough of it, and Grimes is showing himself to be a massive ball-magnet in the midfield.

All in all, while it would have been nice to snatch a win today, I can't really complain. We came to play and if not for a lack of legitimate forwards would probably have stolen it.

Stay on our list. Worse depth players than him. He can play a role

So can Paris Hilton but she'll never win an Oscar.

anyone else think grimes last month has been really good. getting plenty of the ball and using it well too. starting to lead from the front and showing why he was picked as skipper. as far as jones has been good this year grimes would be behind him and a def top 3 finish in the BnF this year.

I'm really not sure where the negativity is coming from today. We dominated for large periods of that game and apart for the third quarter looked like we could go toe to toe with them. Obviously the fact that our entire forward line is out injured is causing some issues in terms of not scoring from f50 entries, but the fact is that we broke even on forward 50 entries. We also matched them in clearances and contested possession, both of which are focuses for the team this year. On top of that, we've seen drastic improvement in a number of players. If we'd had a couple of legitimate forwards in the side (say Clark and Jurrah) we'd have been able to capitalise on the possession and kick a score.

A couple of specifics to note:

I have often noticed that collingwood players all have a very similar blocky body shape, obviously due to the way their fitness staff train them. Today I was somewhat impressed to see that many of our younger brigade are beginning to look like this as well. I think this is a good sign that they are getting their bodies into the sort of condition Neeld wants them in to be able to play the way he intends.

We've clearly witnessed a couple of our youngsters coming of age in the last few weeks. Spencer seems to have figured out how to play AFL, and today was truly competitive, and of course, Blease is looking like he may be the answer to our crumbing forward dilemma. We also got to see what Jetta does best, although not enough of it, and Grimes is showing himself to be a massive ball-magnet in the midfield.

All in all, while it would have been nice to snatch a win today, I can't really complain. We came to play and if not for a lack of legitimate forwards would probably have stolen it.

great post agree entirely. I agree on the players' builds - and moreso the way they go about it, they are diving in and getting hard, tackling and bumping hard, the way Neeld said he wanted to make them.So that's pleasing. Grimesy averages 27 touches over the last month, he's really coming good. I take back my Spencer bashing, I can't believe how much he seems to have improved in such a short time, I couldn't believe my eyes when he smothered that handpass and gathered against two opponents.

anyone else think grimes last month has been really good. getting plenty of the ball and using it well too. starting to lead from the front and showing why he was picked as skipper. as far as jones has been good this year grimes would be behind him and a def top 3 finish in the BnF this year.

yep, was just typing he averages 27 touches over the last 4. Unsurprisingly, he has hit the magic 50 game mark and you can see the development occurring. He is such a cool customer I reckon he is all over the idea that he is co-captain and he is really giving it his all.

Agree Dunn has proven he can stay

You spelled 'go' wrong.

One of the most boring, uninspiring and poorly skilled game I've seen in a while.

Nothing excites me anymore about this season.

Tommy Mac kicking across the face of goal and hitting the opposition on the chest just made me cringe. Either I'm really really dumb, or our gameplan lacks a plan.

I suppose the lack of forwards doesn't help.

It's a bit hard to try to decipher our plan based on our current form, but the switch seems to be something the defenders are trying to use when they think it's on. Problem is two-fold. One, they use it when there's nothing on, making it a dumb choice. Two, almost all our defender's can't kick with precision, making cross-ground kicks dangerous.

McDonald is as good as we could ask for...until he gets the ball in his hands. Unfortunately he is a terrible kick and his decision making at the moment belies his inexperience. That kick across goal shouldn't be taken by anyone, far too dangerous with St Kilda players near him. That kind of kick only should be made when there's 0% chance of it going wrong.

Really enjoyed Spencer's game. Blease's too.

Tom Mac will be a player, once he fixes his brain farts.

Not great but the doom from some is unwarranted, it's obvious our big problem today was up forward. We are missing Clark, Watts, Jamar, Davey, Frawley, Martin, BARTRAM and Jurrah. In addition to that there is about 8 fringe players unavailable so we are picking blokes who are our 40th best option. Good luck anyone beating anyone with that level of importance dragged out of their side. As usual the odd clanger is the thing that costs us.

-inside 50s: 50-50

-after 12:22 minutes in to the match it was 4.1 to 0.1, after that we lost 12.10 to 11.10

that cant be right we lost by 25 points so it was 12.10 to 12.9

that cant be right we lost by 25 points so it was 12.10 to 12.9

correct, fixed it, sorry all

Melbourne has an injury list of 15 players 5 of whom would be absolute walk up starters (Clark, Frawley, Jamar, Watts, Jurrah), St Kilda has an injury list of 3 players who I am not sure would be in their best 22 right now and had Riewolt off in the first quarter which almost cancels out Clark, thats 4 of our best out as well as another 4 players who if in form would squeeze more players out of our team (Bartram, Davey, Martin, Nicholson). With a huge recruiting, trading, training and development pre-season coming up I'm actually feeling far better about our team. Today we performed well for a large part of the game against a team that not so long ago played off in 2 consecutive Grand Finals and got as close as you can get to winning one (arguably both). Not bad at all for the walking wounded.