1 hour ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Classic Dave.

Yes, I think Dave will be paying a fine commensurate to his arrogance and subsequent stupidity at footy training this week. 

4 hours ago, Ted Fidge said:

This is the real sign of the Armageddon.

I thought it was OD saying "Armageddon carried away ... " 

I really had to laugh out loud at Demonland.....In the first half there were calls that nothing had changed, we are so crap AGAIN, half the side should be sacked.   Our drafting was crap.

Players were harshly criticised for making a few mistakes in the first semi serious hit out of the year.

THEN.....In the second half we all of a sudden become a finals side.......Players, all 26 of them will be playing in the first game......Players became champions and we are finals bound.

Seriously      It was the first practise game in a very long year.......I loved the win and enjoyed the hardness of our team but I wonder if we can stop calling for players heads even if they make a few mistakes.    

Case 1      Ben Kennedy.......Hardly sighted in the first half.........Posters saying "Boy did we lose out in that trade"...........Played quite well in second half ......"Picked the right trade there"

I was going to list a few more examples but you get the drift.

How about we give all the players a chance to get into the playing side of things and give them all a go. before stating they will be duds o r champs.      

6 minutes ago, Bossdog said:

I really had to laugh out loud at Demonland.....In the first half there were calls that nothing had changed, we are so crap AGAIN, half the side should be sacked.   Our drafting was crap.

...   

It's not just the players who were mentally scarred during the Bailey/Neeld years.

Moved ball far quicker

Spread far better

Better setups at stoppages 

Still poor kicks to leading forwards inside f50 - Viney, Hunt, Oscar,  Garlett, etc.

 

It's amazing how big an impact Hogan has without really going near it, you can see defenders panic just because he's near the drop of the ball, it's like Carey in his day

Nice to be able to write atypical Melbourne performance and not a typical Melbourne performance.

 

Roos will get a great chance to look at the players in action without the distraction of coaching. Giving Goodey the job during the NAB should prove great for the team, Roos and Goodey.

Cheers,M

If we can keep the contested ball win rate up then Watts should be very dangerous up forward as a tall leading mobile forward.

Cheers,M

No one here seems to acknowledge the increased level of belief this young team will have. We can all just say it was only a NAB game but after a long preseason training with a new game plan this win will now confirm that not only does it does work but they are capable of carrying it out. There is nothing like playing against a real opposition and the hard hits on Brayshaw and Tyson show that Port were more than playing a practice match. There were important player improvements but it is a team game and to my eye it was the team as a whole that have reached another level. There was a sense of the team playing for each other - we have seen that over the past seasons with our defenders gelling - now there is a new feeling in the Club. Roos and Goodwin have the Players confidence in their training methods and game play. It is wins like these (albeit a NAB game) which will instil a new belief in their own abilities.

This win has confirmed for me that we will go to the next level and lose the "easybeat" tag but 2017 will be our year. Allow some of our younger brigade get to the 50 game maturity level and with a little bit luck we will all be scrambling for finals tickets.

Just watched the replay. Didn't know the score till I got home at 7 o'clock last night.

I am hugely impressed. They played good football, especially in the second half. Their skill levels were as good as their hunger.

So impressed with Vandenberg, Hogan, Gawn, Kent and Viney. Oliver looks good too.

I feel we're in for something good this year.

I watched the GWS v Dogs game and if the Western Bulldogs can provide a 85%+ full strength team. It'll be a really good test for our group. 

They looked very fast and very slick at most times. If we execute well, i see no reason why we can't win the next one too. All comes down to our skill execution. 

How great was big Maxy. Linking up in the ball movement. Getting around the ground. Second efforts in the middle. If he keeps this up, he'll be hotter property than our big Hoges. 

Like my 70 year old man will always say. "Every game of football is won out of the middle and it all starts with your ruckman". 

I'm keeping a lid on this win.

6 hours ago, old dee said:

"these games are practice matches after all and we can't get carried away - yet. "

For  a decade we have been the chopping block of the AFL.

This season we finally have a reasonable list with some depth and IMO we will win 10 games.

In past times yesterday would have been a 8-10 goal win by Port.

But this time we fought back and won.

It is the first sign that 2016 is going to be a much more enjoyable year.

Guess what WJ I can get carried away.

 

Wow! OD, you've turned the corner. You are back in town and looking forward to preparing for next week. When was the last time you felt this good at the start of a season?

I agree with you. I think there were enough signs yesterday to suggest that our underlying fragility is a thing of the past. The win will have done wonders for the players' self belief and should stand them in good stead. We were missing some key personnel from our best line-up and still managed to find the discipline and tenacity to stick at the task and turn a likely defeat into an unlikely victory. When was the last time we saw a Melbourne team do that?

I'm happy for you OD. It's great to see you sharing the dream. I'm happy for me and I'm happy for all of us long-suffering supporters. Go DEES!

At one stage in the 2nd quarter Port were 30 points up - 50 to 20.

We "just" beat them by 19, but before Boak got 2 junk-time goals, it was a 10-goal turnaround. And interstate.

Not wanting to get carried away, and more than happy for Tiges & Pies to get all the plaudits for now.

But signs are good so far.

.

1 minute ago, Akum said:

At one stage in the 2nd quarter Port were 30 points up - 50 to 20.

We "just" beat them by 19, but before Boak got 2 junk-time goals, it was a 10-goal turnaround. And interstate.

Not wanting to get carried away, and more than happy for Tiges & Pies to get all the plaudits for now.

But signs are good so far.

.

I liked the dominance. 

Half the teams in the comp are rubbish when the game goes against them as much as we are. The difference is they have the ability to right the ship and they have the ability to dominate when the game goes there way. I'm talking about North, Port, Rich, Adel, GWS and several other mid tier sides from last year.

 

8 hours ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

Thanks, bloody typical....I had to work yesterday and only caught about a qtr and a half in the radio. Was wishfully thinking there might be one on this afternoon. Pub won't be open at ten....think it's time to get Foxtel.

The replay by quarter is on the AFL match day site.

Just a few thoughts on the game...

I think early on we got sucked into the ball too easily and lost our positioning, an old fault which allowed Port to spread and dictate the play.

This is how we have played footy over the last 10 years and it has been obvious from the early preseason games that we would be going nowhere. I was really concerned early in the game with how we approached it.

Whether it was Goodwin or not, as the game went on the players settled, got smart and started to position themselves and play like real AFL footballers in an AFL team and not a bunch of Auskick kids.

Let's hope this is the norm now.

We all get excited when we get a win like this and there is a lot of back slapping.

Let me give Oliver a backslap, I think we definitely pulled the right reign with this guy. Looked at home out there and just hunts the ball so well, then distributes well.

We do need a bit more class from defence and maybe with Oliver coming on Vanders showing he's very capable and a bit more mid depth we may look at something like running Bernie off HB or ever Trenner's when he get's up and running. We need smart's back there who can distribute.

I think Hunt probably needs a bit more time, he has attributes that we can use but yesterday looked off the pace and couldn't find his place. He's missed a lot of footy and I hope he gets another run in the NAB for his development. Not a round 1 selection on this performance.

Wagner looked lost early but settled and looked like he would be a good depth player at worse.

I like Jones, I still think he is a depth player but it was good to see him playing within his limitations. Also good that he was first at the ball and getting ridden in the back and not the other way around. He will always give it his best shot and that's what I like about him.

Watts is going to be a handful as a 3rd tall drifting around the forward line, I also enjoyed see him and also Jesse dropping back and mopping up in defence at times. We looked like a real football team prepared to back each other up.

To sum up, looks very promising on yesterdays performance. Let's see if we can put a few more games together then come into the real season with a head of steam..

I really hope we can get Weideman and/or Hullet up and running soon, despite Pedders doing some good things we still lack another good tall forward who is really dangerous and take some of the heat off Jesse.

Might be a few trips to Casey to check out Petracca early in the season, he will give us another real option up forward and spread the load a bit.

Well I certainly hope Hunt is given another NAB game before the VFL season starts.

He clearly needs the exposure.

An word of praise for the AFL - for the first time it was possible to hear all the questions asked of Goodwin in the post-match interview.  I hope this is the norm for the season and not a result of there being few journos attending NAB games.

5 hours ago, Moneider96 said:

Copy and pasted from Bigfooty:

Jimmy "Come on, yuleh"

Tom "Thank [censored] Viney didn't go to Port"

35 minutes ago, McQueen said:

Well I certainly hope Hunt is given another NAB game before the VFL season starts.

He clearly needs the exposure.

Hunt was told to concentrate on the defensive side of his game, being his first hitout. I asked him.

Jesse Hogan was happy to play his role and not be the only goalkicking target.

Asked Clayton Oliver how it was, reply "bloody awesome".

 

Starting to see what "buy-in" looks like.

It's been a while.

4 hours ago, Ted Fidge said:

It's not just the players who were are mentally scarred; during the Bailey/Neeld years.

You're right of course  TedF ... but either you're under 20  (Bailey/Neeld years) or you missed the last 50 years. Try every coach since Smithy, except Barassi-Northey & possibly Balmey.

.... all others have been nightmares that have promised something,  & left us in a right old mess.

We've had only 5 top coaches in the last 90 years of Aussie rules footy.   Checker, Smith, Barassi, Northey, & now Roos.

Shell Shocked is a description apt for long term supporters of this club ... damaged definitely!

That was a bloody good win. 

Port wanted to win that game. They are good team with a seriously good midfield. On home turf. Brayshaw down within the first 10 secs. Jones out. Vince out. On the back foot for the first half.

We then adjusted a few things and flogged them.

With some luck on the injury front, we're playing finals this year.

I. Am. Pumped.

 

4 hours ago, ProDee said:

Moved ball far quicker

Spread far better

Better setups at stoppages 

Still poor kicks to leading forwards inside f50 - Viney, Hunt, Oscar,  Garlett, etc.

 

That sums it up for me too.