I thought we'd lose by 10 goals today: Port overdue for a win, our midfield depth/options severely lacking, Adelaide Oval, The Dom Cassisi factor, our form in recent weeks etc.

BUT - we genuinely deserved to win that game. Some of the umpiring decisions were bordering on criminal. At key moments in the game too.

I was genuinely surprised with, and proud of, the Dees today. Very unlucky. They deserved it.

That said, I've no doubt some absolute numbskull here will suggest otherwise.

frawley looks like a natural forward with the exception of his kicking for goal.

agree completely re blease and tapscott being intermittently exciting. it's all they've ever been, and all they're ever likely to be.

Blease and Tapscott did exactly what they have always done. They did not do much but Tapscott had one moment where he played with elite hardness and Blease had one moment that showed elite pace. We then hang onto these moments thinking they can consistently use these facets and become good players ignoring they were but moments of the game.

They both should get at least a few more weeks to see if they're up to it. I said it earlier in the thread, but Blease is an upgrade on M.Jones and Tapscott is an upgrade on Terlich... even if their impact only comes in patches.

And Neville Jetta. He has turned himself into a required player. Top work.

Matthew Whelan Mk 2.

Like many downtrodden MFC supporters.... too easily pleased with 2nd best.

if you think i am pleased you are way off the mark

They both should get at least a few more weeks to see if they're up to it. I said it earlier in the thread, but Blease is an upgrade on M.Jones and Tapscott is an upgrade on Terlich... even if their impact only comes in patches.

Why do you say that? Blease ran at 40% efficiency today. Terlich and Tapscott aren't exactly a like for like. I would say for us to become a really good team none of those 4 will be in our best 22.

I know wins are paramount but so many positives out of the day.

Jetta - not many better small defenders at the moment, Garlands return to form, Riley's tackling, Kents last quarter, Jamar in the ruck, Tysons a star, Viney is coming along nicely, Dunn is a general down back, Tom McDonald will be a fine key defender, Blease showed a bit.

On the debit Grimes continues to frustrate, Dawes doesn't do enough and Watts needs to play more quarters like his third.

Need to try for Cameron or Patton.

They showed effort and resilience after a really poor second quarter and seem to understand the game plan.

Any chance the little fairy tap to Cornes throat from Vince gets looked at?

Sorry Deeoldfart I don't agree.

We conveniently forgot when the poor decisions go our way and only remember the ones that go against us.

I disagree. I can think of several match changing shockers paid against us, but can't recall one match changer we got and possibly no more than a couple of absolute shockers that we have got this year,that didn't affect the result anyway.

and the game was disgusting to watch. all i saw was 2 hours of ball ups, boundary throw ins and players throwing the ball to each other

welcome to the Paul Roos game of afl

The expectation from me now is that they will take the form of the 2nd half and the hurt of the loss, then go out and punish the lions in 2weeks

Don't know about giving him a pass mark DA; it's fair to say I'd have preferred he hit Tyson inside the boundary rather than outside it.

I believe this to be true.

Positives first:

- I marked this down as 40+ loss and all I wanted to see an effort that pushed port all the way. We more than did that.

- Tyson got back to some great form and the rest of the competition should take note because this kid has something special about him. I have never been more impressed with a Melbourne player at his age.

- The defence held strong for most of the day, but the same old story is that we lack polish back there.

- Jamar played a really good game as a ruckman, I'm not sure if his contract is up but he's earned another trot around.

- Effort was up for pretty much the entire game, except for when port were up by 30pts, but they came back and this is an important step again.

Negatives

- We should've won, I'm not going to dress it up any differently. There's only so many times that you can just be happy with the effort. We had 2 prime opportunities in our forward line where we could've a) pressed for another goal or b) hold it up and stop Ports run.

- Dawes, I think he's struggling with being shouldered so much pressure. Either way he is not in good form, vs Brisbane he needs have a big game.

Good game from us today, but I really hope we turn these close losses into wins next year.

Positive: great to see garlo back in form

Negative: that was an appalling error by Dawes and one that goes completely against the Roos game plan not to mention terrible given the situation in the game. He had to go to the boundary side, just had to. I'm a huge Dawes fan but that was an almost unforgivable error of judgement. At least Grimes had the excuse of the ball being in a play on situation. Poor execution but still. Dawes had all the time in the world to choose the right option and elected to go the corridor.

The umpiring was terrible, just terrible. How on earth could have they pinged Jones and Viney. And what about Vince getting his head ripped off?

I thought we'd lose by 10 goals today: Port overdue for a win, our midfield depth/options severely lacking, Adelaide Oval, The Dom Cassisi factor, our form in recent weeks etc.

BUT - we genuinely deserved to win that game. Some of the umpiring decisions were bordering on criminal. At key moments in the game too.

I was genuinely surprised with, and proud of, the Dees today. Very unlucky. They deserved it.

That said, I've no doubt some absolute numbskull here will suggest otherwise.

post of the year

I agree with everything you have said

Any chance the little fairy tap to Cornes throat from Vince gets looked at?

Wouldn't think so... I'm more concerned by jones punch to the face on cassisi, happened in the last qrt just at the top of screen behind play. Think our skipper will be given a holiday

I would love to see the holding the ball decision against Dunn side-by-side with the tackle by Pedersen in the last quarter.

Dawes had all the time in the world to choose the right option and elected to go the corridor.

Not only that, he called Jamar forward as the target and kicked it to where he had run from, straight into the arms of a port [censored].

Grrr

Positives:
- We didn't drop our bundle

- Riley, whilst not as prolific as last week again showed something. Very keen to see him with a preseason

- Same said for a potential combination with Tyson and Viney

- The ball movement overall was positive

- Jack Watts responded from an ordinary half to show something

- Tom McDonald, Garland and Bail both played much better

Negatives

- We lost

- Port are currently playing closer to bottom 4 footy than top 4

As an aside I reckon Tapscott and Blease were both played for the sake of it more than anything. And they delivered what they deliver if that makes sense. Despite Blease's long running goal and speed I probably think Tapscott (if not injured) remains slightly more promising but both are likely on the way out. Kent when he came on looked a class above these 2. Salem just needs fitness and JKH didn't have a great day but showed his class and smarts as well.

For a few years now I've felt, well just one more preseason and we will be back. But surely we are now close to that moment. Injuries will hurt, but overall I think we are close to having a 22 made of the right stuff to play Roos' style and get results.

I would love to see the holding the ball decision against Dunn side-by-side with the tackle by Pedersen in the last quarter.

The spoil by Watts on 3/4 time compared to the manhandling of Pederson early in the last, it's a two goal turnaround caused by nothing but the incompetence of full time umpires

Why do you say that? Blease ran at 40% efficiency today. Terlich and Tapscott aren't exactly a like for like. I would say for us to become a really good team none of those 4 will be in our best 22.

Fair enough but I still think they deserve a 4-week block to see if they can make it at AFL level. I thought Blease was OK today but haven't checked the stats, and Tapscott never gets much of it (which is a concern) but what he does do is good. Jetta had an ordinary first game back against Sydney earlier in the year, and most thought his papers would be stamped, but Roos gave him a nice block to show his worth and we all know what has happened since then. I hope the same treatment is given to Blease and Tapscott.

Wouldn't think so... I'm more concerned by jones punch to the face on cassisi, happened in the last qrt just at the top of screen behind play. Think our skipper will be given a holiday

I saw it and didn't think there was much in it. Might get a reprimand

MFC supporters should be thankful that AAMI stadium doesn't exist anymore

We embarrassed ourselves there for over a decade with countless losses by an average of 12 goals per game to both Adelaide based teams. .

Remember that feeling of dread knowing we had to go play there?

Well we play Adelaide Oval as good as either of them

I thought the Grimes kick was a high degree of difficulty kick

I think you're being somewhat generous.

What aspect of it made it a "high degree of difficulty?"

Yep and Dawes, Jones and Grimes. Our 3 most senior players making critical errors in the last 5 minutes. That hurts.