We lost it in the second quarter. We always have an early blowout and then have to fight back. This needs to be addressed.

You could forgive Grimes except for the fact that he is a serial offender. He does that far too often. A captain has to be better than that.

The side benefited from having some speed. Boy do we need Hogan plus one more key forward.

Better game from Garland. Agree with query about Riley being subbed off. Reinforces how much I hate the sub rule.

The umpiring this year is disgraceful.

Hate to say it but it seems clear we made the wrong decision not picking Wines.

Did we get done by 10 goals? Going by the above it feels like it.

Jones made a costly error which is inexcusable but if it wasn't for his 31 touches we aren't in the game.

Dom Tyson is back in form, our forward line finally functioned properly for the first time in a few weeks and the changes made were telling. Jones and Terlich try hard but lack some poise and class. Tapscott and Blease, while not necessarily winning much of the ball, kicked a couple of important goals and gave us something around the ground. JKH and Kent also provided some spark and will give us more going forward.

Disappointing loss but still plenty to like and we can look at the Lions game at Etihad in a fortnight with far morwe confidence.

I guess its the build up of losing yet another game there for the taking... Every potential win we give up builds the angst.

I'm fuming ..... and not because my team let another close one slip. Both teams made plenty of errors, but not as many as the idiots who were supposed to be controlling the game. 90% of line-ball decisions went against us, and they are supposed not to be influenced by crowd noise. Total and utter bulldust!!

Jetta = first name on the team sheet

Tyson = the rock around which our midfield will be built

TMac = Future All Australian FB

Percentage boosting loss

almost laughed...then didn't.

No way, that was the thing that cost us the game, why centre it to 3 on 1 when you have all your forwards leading to the pocket and we were dominating the stoppages in the last quarter, absolutely dominating. Crazy crazy absolutely ludicrously rediculous decision by a supposed leader that swung momentum back to Port (we had all the momentum up to the point and the lead FFS) leading directly to their go ahead goal. Roosy, must be just dumbfounded at how stupid his players are.

Who was he going to kick it to???

U can argue all day the about obvious or you can look at what they're trying to do - Dawes put it in to space for the boys to run on to (no one did why aren't you asking that question why no one got to the contest???)

And what about the butchering of the ball going forward in the last - there was 3 occasions in 5 mins in the last qtr melb butchered taht could have been goals or scoring shots - that blease miss highlights how poor we are moving the ball (that should have been a goal they [censored] up)

There r more reasons then Dawes boming to space as to why we lost - but if you want to continue to argue the obvious u see on TV then I refuse to amuse u

Edited July 20, 201411 yr by Unleash Hell

Did we get done by 10 goals? Going by the above it feels like it.

Disappointing loss but still plenty to like and we can look at the Lions game at Etihad in a fortnight with far morwe confidence.

I understand you point but this to me is the attitude that needs to go. Was it better than a 10 goal loss? Of course. But I am sick of competitive losses. It is not good enough. We need to start winning games when they are there to be won.

Tyson was brilliant. What a complete game. 32 touches, 2 goals and 7 tackles.

Agreed, let's pick up a strong bodied mid (petraccas) or two, stick Hogan up forward and natural progression of Salem and hopefully, Toumpas, and we will really be up and about IMO.

I guess its the build up of losing yet another game there for the taking... Every potential win we give up builds the angst.

Not arguing that, but the blatant player bashing isn't exactly the way to go about it.

The club should lodge a formal complaint about the umpires that seemed genuinely scared to upset the crowd and made some unforgivable errors that cost a side the game.

Dyson has been a revelation.

always thought Kevin Dyson was pretty average

There seriously needs to be an independent inquiry into AFL umpiring... We all saw it... This match was fixed...

Donation made to umpires by D.Cassisi??

Did they suddenly change the holding the ball interpretation in the last quater. Its tiggy now? FFS

Guys Grimes is never going to learn how to kick or more importantly...Not to kick it so near the frickin boundary line so often. Its part of the way he rolls. Like many others in this list who are flawed/NQR footballers, they need to be traded/delisted at years end if we are ever going to turn this [censored] around.

Same old week after week... year after year...for 7 years now.

We scrap and fight a little in the first 5 or 15 minutes... only to see a harder running, faster, more clever team blow out a lead in the last 10 minutes of 1st quarter to see us behind by a good margin at quarter time.

This lead is either extended or maintained in the 2nd. 3rd quarter we come out and either match the opponent on the scoreboard or catch up a little to appear as if we've made a decent fist of the game.... usually after the game is either lost or almost put to bed in the 1st half.

If we get a sniff or a run on we get our noses in front now and then...only to be killed by our own poor execution around the ground or in front of goal allowing the opposition to sneak in a few quick ones against the run of play for the win. When, if ever, do we bust open a game from behind or even when in front.... and go on to cruise to a decent 4 to 6 win!!??????

As we are all too familiar, we rarely ever win matches and we mostly try to win them coming from behind.

This is no way to play a "Winning Brand" of AFL football and is never going to get us very far at all.

Port were in terrible form yet we still allowed them to kick 6 unanswered goals in the 1st half with some players racking up only 2 or 3 disposals for a whole half of footy.

15 to 20 minutes of playing ok footy in a first half is rarely going to win you a match at this level.

As always, we leave too much to too few and we push the accelerator too late after the horse has bolted... crap footy all round... not going anywhere until we get some class some run and some decent kicking skills into this team.

Edited July 20, 201411 yr by Rusty Nails

Please...the first to suggest an honorable loss should be banned for a week.

Tis hard enough wiining games but to give it back on a plate is both unpalatable and outright stupid.

Looking at the captoons here !!!

I understand you point but this to me is the attitude that needs to go. Was it better than a 10 goal loss? Of course. But I am sick of competitive losses. It is not good enough. We need to start winning games when they are there to be won.

I don't disagree - but what else can we do right now? We need to start winning these games, but we simply lack that killer instinct right now. I take solace in the fact we are clearly getting better and we will, if we stay the course, learn how to win these games in the future.

Not arguing that, but the blatant player bashing isn't exactly the way to go about it.

True...

Well played for the 3/4 we had a crack

Umpiring and the rules continues to deteriorate to almost unwatchable levels. And I know it's not just my Melbourne bias, be cause watching neutral games even gets me [censored] off.

Please...the first to suggest an honorable loss should be banned for a week.

Tis hard enough wiining games but to give it back on a plate is both unpalatable and outright stupid.

Looking at the captoons here !!!

So we can't actually look at the play the got us to that point then? Sorry Dad, didn't realise you dictated what get's said on this board.

A loss is a loss is a loss.

When the wash up is completed we were just not good enough.

We have blamed the umpires every week.

They are not the reason we are third last.

Who was he going to kick it to???

U can argue all day the about obvious or you can look at what they're trying to do - Dawes put it in to space for the boys to run on to (no one did why aren't you asking that question why no one got to the contest???)

And what about the butchering of the ball going forward in the last - there was 3 occasions in 5 mins in the last qtr melb butchered taht could have been goals or scoring shots - that blease miss highlights how poor we are moving the ball (that should have been a goal they [censored] up)

There r more reasons then Dawes boming to space as to why we lost - but if you want to continue to argue the obvious u see on TV then I refuse to amuse u

How can you defend that brain fart?!? Kick it within 20 m of the line and force a throw in, or chip it sideways or backwards FFS, we had the lead, he put it to 3 port players vs 1 demon player in the corridor FFS, crazy!

Did they suddenly change the holding the ball interpretation in the last quater. Its tiggy now? FFS

Haha yep they did - they made it up as they went

I don't care if they pay holding the ball just be consistent with both teams and the umps weren't

The boys took it up to a side near the top of the ladder. For mine, it was a cracking effort. Very stiff in the end to lose.

The holding the ball decisions were hot, especially Dunn's he hadn't even been tackled when the whistle went.

Happened twice to Jones as well. Then in the last few minutes exact same to Boak and it was play on.

always thought Kevin Dyson was pretty average

He was actually quite good.