Seems like a lot of people on here forgot that we are still a below average team. Pretty predictable result really, I'm just glad I wasn't in a position to watch it. We'll win a few more for the year and I still believe we have improved overall, but gee we have a long way to go.

If Salem has another injury riddled season I would consider trading him out.

We have all seen what happens to injury prone players...get what value you can

Haha, you [censored] nuffie

The MFC players cannot handle a big win (referring to Geelong). 2 sub standard efforts since. Lloyd it said on radio after the game a Melbourne player told him that 5 weeks ago. Sounds like he had a reliable source.

Perpetually stuck on 4 wins a season forever.

Brisbane will definitely beat us.

Repeat of last year's disaster.

Very quiet on the iron horse on the way home. Just the normal third quarter induced depression permeating the carriage. Just who were our four 'occupying' the centre square during the first 15 minutes of this period and what were they thinking? Looked like a pretty fair job of opening the gate from where I sat. High quality match losing stuff.

IMO big Max was good and a real handful for them , but where was the blocking and necessary work ethic to get the pill and then use it properly. We really can fall down when it gets to the grit and getting your hands dirty stuff. Some sides have people like Mitchell , Judd, Ablett ,Fyffe , Kennedys and Swan who just love thrive on this sort of stuff. The tougher it is , the more they love it. Unfortunately when it gets really down and dirty for us, we find new ways of screwing this up.

Prior to this of course we played like millionaires and bombed away wildly ,but even so still were somehow in the game.

To the bombers credit they worked for one another, sharked Maxy's hit outs, blocked ,scratched and scraped , played with fierce determination and they were away.

Truly depressing stuff.

I wish Viney had been let off the chain to find his own ball rather than worrying about bloody Heppell and I wish big Max had been instructed to mix up his pattern of hit outs a little earlier than the last quarter when he began to knock the ball our way.

Whoever deals with coaching midfield blocking has some work to do, the four in the middle need to stay tuned in and toughen up and if one way of tapping the ball is not working , how about we get our sh.t together and capitalise on our advantage.

Appalling stuff from the coaches box today.

I've not said Hogan had a good day, but blaming the forwards for today's loss just shows a lack of understanding of footy.

There were many factors causing todays loss and underperforming forwards was a part of it not the whole but a part !

Just collecting my thoughts after what was a tough game to endure....

Here's my 10 cents worth:

1. Max Gawn is now our #1 ruck (he needs to play all remaining games this year);

2. Jack Watts has found some consistency in his effort;

3. All three first year players are not up to yet and need some more time at Casey (ANB, Stretch & Harmes) - all have shown enough to suggest they will be serviceable;

4. The game has past big Chris Dawes and I think he will have some currency up in QLD, let's trade him on;

5. We played today as if we were scared to win - this group still isn't ready for any expectation (Petracca looks like the kind of personality that will help erode this toxic mentality, let's draft more guys with ridiculous self belief);

6. Aaron Vandenberg has been the club's best recruit since I can remember;

7. Tommy Mac will be a star but it will take time - he still doubts himself too much; and

8. Garland's signature needs to be more of a priority than Howe's - Jeremy can be great and he will help a team who needs to add polish, we aren't there yet (he also has more currency despite his mediocre season thus far).

FWIW, I am really disappointed with today's performance but subconsciously expected nothing else - the patience required with our club is utterly painful.

Agree, Except point 7 & 8 to a degree!

When a team kicks 7.18 and has 58 inside 50's whilst keeping its opposition to 69 points I'm not sure how you can blame the coach.

This ones on the players and in particular that muppet chris dawes who's only value to the team ever since he has arrived has been 'providing structure' that is being the only tall bloke available on a poor football team.

There were many factors causing todays loss and underperforming forwards was a part of it not the whole but a part !

Totally agree. Not letting the forwards off at all.

The bears of old would smash us next week if we keep not putting in for 4 qtrs. As soon as we did it at Geelong & won out 4 games at the half way mark, our players are happy with their progress......

What was said in Roos presser

Gawn and viney were ok

Forwards couldn't bring the ball to ground

Pretty much said poor accuracy lost us the game.

No mention of the past

I'll have you know that I'm actually a corporate lawyer and part-time seal-clubber. Not sure why I stir up your grumpy side more than others. Joe the supposed spud kicked half their score today while our Great White Hogan caught a case of the Dawes.

I just hate posters calling out other posters for being excessive in their appraisals of players. This is the AFL. It's big business and affects hundreds of thousands of people. If someone lets down the MFC we are allowed to discuss it without PC cops telling us our terminology is anti-social.

No, those same fans have not been happy with Roos coaching for quite a while and the losses are not the issue. The issue is the poor selections, the inability to motivate the players and the one dimensional game plan. Remember this guy is paid $1.5 AUD a year. He is supposed to be one of the best, that does not appear to be the case for the majority of this season. Tyson and Vandenberg were underdone and so was Jay Kennedy Harris. We would have been better with 3 fully fit alternatives this week.

Was our best in the second hAlf but whatevs.

He was alright in the first quarter, but he was absolutely killed in the premiership quarter and in the fourth continually tapped down the throat of the opposition, with look away dinky rubbish. He had one great centre clearance in the last, which was a tad fortunate anyway.

Jetta 0 tackles

Cross 1 tackle

McDonald 1 tackle

Tell me again how it was all the forwards fault?

We weren't good but we kicked 7.18.

He dominated. Good sign. The only one in fact.

No idea. He played against McKernan and failed to give our midfielders first use anywhere near enough. In the first quarter, he was one of our best. After that he was well and truly beaten. A pathetic effort given who he was playing on.

Agreed. He should've had a plethora of effective hit outs today, I'd be surprised if he had more than a handful. Dawes was actually better in the ruck when he went in, we should've subbed out Gawn for JKH.

At one stage, he had 38 hit outs, 10 to advantage. I think most of those 10 to advantage came in the first quarter, because he barely hit another MFC jumper after that.

One point of difference today was that all our first years had poor games which is a rarity.

I didn't think T-Mac was as bad as others think and he nearly won us the game. 28 disposals, 10 rebound 50s, ran very hard when moved forward. Just needs to work on his kicking for next time, looks like he was trying to kick it too low

Press conference is up: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/2015-07-11/rd-15-paul-roos-media-conference

Things Roos said:

• Bad goalkicking makes things much harder (compared the 18.5 vs Geelong to the 7.18 today)
• Noted our inability to bring the ball to ground - was discussed during the game and after it, we didn't get it done
• TMac made a good contest at times as a forward
• Simple to analyse - when we went forward and made a contest, we did well, when we didn't make a contest it went straight back out
• Not always the forwards fault. We're young and the 22 haven't yet developed the required 'synergy' together
• Denied that the Essendon situation had an effect on our players mindsets
• Noted we had 10 players under 50 games and 5 or 6 first year players
• No question about it, both from a mindset perspective and a game-result perspective, missing goals hurts us
• What will we do about it? We have to practice executing under pressure
• We also have to practice 'being in that position' (i.e. being favourites)
• To avoid another fade out, need to focus on the things we did well - statistics showed we did things well
• Players feel it when you're 4.15 and losing the game despite doing well in general play
• We tried the two ruckmen thing, Gawn doing well but still has bad habits
• Viney's been 'really consistent' since returning, liked his game today
• Disappointed we haven't won since Geelong, affects confidence
• Thinks we're still playing better than we have been, but there is an 'inability to win games'

One point of difference today was that all our first years had poor games which is a rarity.

I didn't think T-Mac was as bad as others think and he nearly won us the game. 28 disposals, 10 rebound 50s, ran very hard when moved forward. Just needs to work on his kicking for next time, looks like he was trying to kick it too low

It's reflective of the ineptitude of the forwards and also McDonald's own ineptitude as a defender that by swinging him forward we were a better side.

That said, he should play there next week.

Essendon were coming off a 110 point loss. We should have beaten them today and dig the hurt into them a little deeper.

Any Demon surprised by this result is, dare I say it, not a true Demon supporter

The irony.

That we won last year when we shouldn't have with less inside 50's;

and

this year we lost, when we really shouldn't have with more inside 50's.

Balance is restored.

It was disturbing that it took Roos until 3/4 time to give the players a real rev up. We lacked intensity today. Both Vandenberg and Tyson looked injured still and with fully fit inclusions we would have won the game. I think Roos is not a good match day coach, he is a strategist and I really hope Goodwin is given more of a leading role soon. Before others criticise, there is definitely a ground swell of dissatisfaction with Roos coaching from the supporters that I talk with every week at the games, particularly today.

The thing that scares the bejesus out of me is - how do we know if Goodwin is not another Neeld/Bailey?

I don't think being surprised is the problem, it is the lack of effort and intensity from our players and the constant excuses from our highly paid Head Coach.

Yes, but the context of that is yes we missed a few easy ones, but we also had A LOT of difficult shots due to the horrible delivery inside 50. Is a snap from the boundary expected to be a high percentage shot?

Context please.

Oh, come on, mate. Now you're clutching at straws. Was Vince's shot in the third tough? Even Howe's earlier miss in the pocket. That's not a particularly difficult snap. McDonald kicked two on the full in the last. Viney misses his, Dawes kicks 3 or 4 points, Jones missed a carbon copy of the one he kicked at the top of the 4th down in Geelong etc etc. They were all very gettable and should have been.

Did anyone post "relax we've got this"? I felt very uncomfortable about this game during the week. There was too much confidence on D'Land. It mirrored the attitude of the players. We are so good at losing the few games where we actually go in favourites. This has been a problem at Melbourne going back even before Dean Bailey's time. Sometimes I think our players believe the hype that is out there in football opinion world.

Of course Essendon were going to put in a 'backs to the wall' performance its just that we were too pathetic to snuff it out early.

PS why the f*** didn't TMac pass it off to someone who can kick????

I said this too. The second one he kicked on the full, Tyson was standing pretty much next to him without a player within 15-20m. I'd back Tyson to kick the goal before McDonald.

Tyson needs a good hard look at himself. His disposal has been unbelievably poor this year.. He is too slow to react and always gets ping for holding the ball.

Our blokes never talk to each other and they never shepherd for one and other. That's why we see MFC players caught so regularly or turning it over.

The MFC players cannot handle a big win (referring to Geelong). 2 sub standard efforts since. Lloyd it said on radio after the game a Melbourne player told him that 5 weeks ago. Sounds like he had a reliable source.

Thats a worry..