Reality check incoming in 3, 2, 1...

I take it back - great effort by the team today could have won with a bit more luck and composure. Reality check for me.

great effort by the boys..

if we starting winning the i50's I reckon we will we start winning these close ones...

Decision making killed us in the end, early in the fourth if we had of kicked a few instead of 1.4, we could have got on top, three centre clearances attempts that should have been slammed on the boot instead of trying to take on the opponents also resulted in port goals.

And Dunn was awesome all game except for that stupid torp with four mins to go.

I think our 1.4 in the last quarter was offset by their 2.5 in the 3rd.

Sorry Mods.

[censored]

We still need to find a way to score more goals. While we dominated for most of the second half we should have at least another 3 or 4 goals from the play we generated. Without regular offensive pressure we cannot stop good sides from having having a sniff to steal a win. I thought there was a little timidity going forward in the last quarter. Going short too often upfield when we really should have tried to keep the ball deep in our forward line. In the end they took the game on and got rewarded for our callow mistakes.

With Dawes in there it would have been a little easier.

Footnote : We still seem to be on the wrong side of the Umpires the Holding the ball decisions against us were Bloody Ridiculous in most instances and those not awarded to us just as damaging

Bloody infuriating and it seems we are on the wrong side of the HTB decisions every single week. The inconsistency drives me nuts!

I think that performance today shows what a slow start does.. Theres a stat that once a team is down by 30 its near on impossible to win.. I think 1 out of 56 games before this round a team has come back.. But we showed some heart and endevour.. It looks like we've made a masterstroke taking Tyson and salem.. One a ball magnet and the other all class.. I see alot of Yze in Salem!

I think this sends a message to the competition.. The demons can match it with the top 8 now.. And on our day, we will ruin a few teams season ( like carlton!! Haha) The question now is how much has this taken out of the players playing in this heat.. And can we back up against the pies.. Because if we do.. We can win!!

I take it back - great effort by the team today could have won with a bit more luck and composure. Reality check for me.

Port have made some good sides look rushed this year.

I think their pressure, tackling and run is right up there with the best.

We did well today, especially given the slow start.

With Dawes in there it would have been a little easier.

Maybe yes but this was the same as against the bulldogs. We could not stop them keeping the ball in their half and they just converted one after other from essentially random play. We left the desperation play up to them. For me the turning point was when Howe took his hanger then proceeded to turn the ball over with a short kick. His kick should have went deep to half forward to a contest and a throw in at worst.

Edited May 31, 201411 yr by america de cali

Port have made some good sides look rushed this year.

I think their pressure, tackling and run is right up there with the best.

We did well today, especially given the slow start.

No doubt - ater the first 10 minutes the game was played on our terms, we shut them down and played a very physical game. It's great seeing opposition players go off with minor niggles etc after getting crunched in a Demon tackle - no more bruise free footy for us.

No doubt - ater the first 10 minutes the game was played on our terms, we shut them down and played a very physical game. It's great seeing opposition players go off with minor niggles etc after getting crunched in a Demon tackle - no more bruise free footy for us.

Exactly, i was just thinking, most of our opponents end up getting pretty beaten up and either play out a man down or some decent niggles. like my U16s coach always said, go harder than the other guy and you wont get hurt

Can't believe the difference this season

Passes land on chests and don't bounce off, hand passing is crisp in close, and those midfield trades are beginning to look like recruiting master strokes.

It is not all that long ago someone was quoted as saying that our efforts were not acceptable as being to AFL standards, as I seem to recall. And what is quite remarkable is that these are the same players.

We have a team that can play!

And better yet is that our youth is developing and next year could see further honing of our stocks through delistings and trade/drafting

It seems to make a difference having top people on the case

The game was lost with 6 minutes remaining.

We had the ball at half-back, 1 point down. We chip it around half-back, against the most dangerous team in the league.

It was bound to go downhill from there. We turned it over and they scored a goal. Game over.

Ultimately, that moment was representative of the final 10 minutes: Port took the game on, Melbourne didn't.

Edited May 31, 201411 yr by Cudi_420

I love our team.

JUST BRING ON THE PIES.

I was very excited today with that little glimmer of a possible massive upset against the number one team in the comp. I'm sad we didn't do it in the end but thrilled that we are now a competitive team giving themselves every chance to win. To come so close against Port is a great effort. I am looking forward to next week and every week after because now I will be listening with every hope that we can win will win more games this year.

I'm a happy little demon and everyone else should be too.

Be interesting to see what sort of crowd we get against Collingwood, I'd expect around 75k and a fair few of them will be ours.

I don't think I've looked forward to a game against Collingwood as much as I am this one.

Hey all! Launched a massive twitter jibe on our favourite Damien Barrett get around this tweet!!

https://twitter.com/hazey_07/status/472642272442327040

Daniel Cross kicking backwards instead of down the line directly led to the Westhoff goal that put Port 8 points up. Was a terrible decision and pretty much cost us the game.

It's good we are now as supporters [censored] off at getting close to good teams instead of being happy with being competitive.

26 points down before we scored would be the end of it . mental fatigue in the last imo . umpires annoy me .

How good is Roosy .

its all up from here guys.
we almost knocked off the top of the ladder team, and we know where we need to improve.

The boys have come so far, shame to let it slip, but we took it right up to them and really rattled them for most of the game.
I feel like we could win more games than originally predicted.

especially once dawes comes in.

peders was fantastic, made a silly mistake with high conduct that he might get pinged for but i reckon once dawes is back, the forward limn will function better.

who would've thought that we would have a reasonable forward trio in frawley dawes and peders.

at the beginning of the year i might have laughed at that.

Would have loved the win, but can't knock the effort and progress!

For us as a club to move forward we should all be shattered, as long as we are saying good effort, tried hard or valiant we are going nowhere.

Players,Coaches and supporters should all be asking how and why we couldn't complete the job and act accordingly.

We need to start winning these games and the fact we lost this one, along with the games against St,Kilda, Bulldogs and the Suns, when all were there for the taking is not great.

We have improved markedly but need to turn these into wins, and shed this losing mentality.

At this stage in our development we should be pleased with today.

Just ran out of puff in the last 5 minutes ( hence some of the decision making brain fades). And that was after running with the fittest team in the league. How could we criticise the efforts of Jones Tyson and Viney overall. Hearts and bodies on the line all day

Look at Thursday nights game. That will be us in 3 years IF we amintain our effort.

I was very excited today with that little glimmer of a possible massive upset against the number one team in the comp. I'm sad we didn't do it in the end but thrilled that we are now a competitive team giving themselves every chance to win. To come so close against Port is a great effort. I am looking forward to next week and every week after because now I will be listening with every hope that we can win will win more games this year.

I'm a happy little demon and everyone else should be too.

Yeah, absolutely wrapped hey, so good to watch a competitive, exciting and potentially great side.

Roos came in and picked the eyes out of last years draft.

Tyson is the most promising kid in the comp, Salem looks like Ooooze - and JKH is just damn right dangerous.

VERY exciting football side, but I am one eyed.

For us as a club to move forward we should all be shattered, as long as we are saying good effort, tried hard or valiant we are going nowhere.

Players,Coaches and supporters should all be asking how and why we couldn't complete the job and act accordingly.

We need to start winning these games and the fact we lost this one, along with the games against St,Kilda, Bulldogs and the Suns, when all were there for the taking is not great.

We have improved markedly but need to turn these into wins, and shed this losing mentality.

true but there needs to be some honest reflection on how far we've come and the valid reasons for not quite getting over the line. its not realistic to expect the side to be playing 4 solid qtrs against the no1 side at this stage. had they not put in effort then yes we should be gutted but for rd 10, a 3 1/2 qtr effort over the top side is very good . we shall demand more but lets not ignore the realities of the teams potential at this stage

i reckon we can knock of the pies