1 hour ago, Deeoldfart said:

Mixed emotions from me tonight.  A strange mix of pride in my team for their effort and 'never-say-die' attitude, anger at some of the umpiring decisions and disappointment at the final result.  

At the end of the day we were right in the match until the very last kick, and were only just beaten by a physically stronger and more experienced Top 4 contender playing on their own dung heap ............. but with a little more composure in the last 10 minutes would have won against all the odds.

We made a positive statement today.  The task ahead of us is to bring the same attitude and ferocity to the G next Sunday, and make Buckley's start to the season even worse.  Get it done Dees!

Yes The old enemy Howe sweet that will be

9 minutes ago, ding said:

Just got a PM pointing out how fcuking stupid i sound....

read back through the thread and sadly i agree.

Im just so goddamn sick of losing

Sorry all.

 

 

Learn from it and move on....

That is what champions do 

2.20 against Collingwood. Jumping on it.

Just now, KrazyJay said:

Learn from it and move on....

That is what champions do 

Cheers but im probably too old and stupid to learn.... Im sure i will make the same mistakes next time we lose to a team of soft k...... see there i go again..........

 

 

OK, I've only seen the game on a 7" tablet, so I'll need to have another look, but first thoughts:

As has been mentioned, the umpires gave some utterly bizarre free kicks to North which resulted in goals.  I hope that the club is raising hell behind closed doors over that, because they had a significant impact on the game.

That being said, Watts cost us the game.  So did vandenBerg, Kent, Stretch and whoever it was who kicked to Stretch rather than taking the shot themselves. 

On the above, Watts gets his own sentence because it should have been the moment he stood up and lifted the team, showing the way to victory.  That mark was as good as anyone in the AFL, he hit the ball at full pace with two opponents coming at him, didn't flinch and came up with the ball.  That's the sort of thing guys like Jonno Brown and Nick Reiwoldt did for years to lift their teammates and lead the way.  The difference is that those two wouldn't have even considered passing it off.  Watts NEEDED to kick that goal, not just because it was the percentage play, but because it would have finished off the great mark and given him the chance to do a lap of the 50 and pump the team up just like he did in round 1 when he kick-started the big last quarter. 

GAWN! 

Overall, despite the issues with silly play, bad umpiring and missed kicks, this was a great game.   I honestly expected North to thrash us in their home away from home and it looked very much like it was going that way in the first.  I joked with a mate at work that it was going to be worse than 186 when they hit the 50 point mark in the first quarter.  The commentators were rightly over the moon at having a game go 20 goals to 21 and were also most impressed that this was MELBOURNE kicking 20 goals in a losing game. I think it's amazing that we did this to North who, contrary to the blind belief of some posters, have made the preliminary finals the past two seasons and are looking like giving it a shake again this year.  I would have been thrilled to get the win, but even with the loss it's football like this that will get us Friday Night Home Games next year. 

13 minutes ago, ding said:

Just got a PM pointing out how fcuking stupid i sound....

read back through the thread and sadly i agree.

Im just so goddamn sick of losing

Sorry all.

 

 

Mate.... I was so upset after the game today, I just try and look for the positives. In contrast to last week I thought we played very well. We have a decent team building for sure.

I'm going hard and early.

It's a ridiculously small sample size, but I can't think of a better "first dibs" midfielder in my time watching the Dees.  His ability to get first hands on it and then execute clean use under immense pressure is extraordinary.

9 minutes ago, KrazyJay said:

 

 

 

18 minutes ago, ding said:

Just got a PM pointing out how fcuking stupid i sound....

read back through the thread and sadly i agree.

Im just so goddamn sick of losing

Sorry all.

 

 

Mate.... I was so upset after the game today, I just try and look for the positives. In contrast to last week I thought we played very well. We have a decent team building for sure.

 

 

I cant just see positives any more. I have tried... all i can see any more is the end result. As i said the the other poster who sent me a PM, if we had beaten Essendrug i would probably have been really happy with todays effort.

Bloody druggies........ i blame them............ and Whiskey...... Whiskey is also to blame.

1 minute ago, ProDee said:

I'm going hard and early.

It's a ridiculously small sample size, but I can't think of a better "first dibs" midfielder in my time watching the Dees.  His ability to get first hands on it and then execute clean use under immense pressure is extraordinary.

He's talking about Billy Stretch.

The greatest proof that we're finally building the right 'culture' is that we keep coming back from behind. 

We've been down in every match we've played this year - sometimes significantly so - yet we've come back every time. 

One thing I noticed creeping back into our game today which we had started to eradicate was multiple players getting sucked into the contest, leaving them unmanned on the spread. Happened a few times today and allowed them to move the ball out with ease. 

It's funny to see people saying they were gutted at the siren.  I was at work watching this on a tablet, happily screaming for someone to take the damn shot during that last passage of play, my only co-worker joining in even though he's not really an AFL follower and while I was carrying on about us missing the chance on the siren it was more in fun after a really entertaining game than despair.  While I would have liked to see us win, I honestly really enjoyed the last three quarters and just had a good time watching a really good match when I was expecting a thrashing. 

35 minutes ago, ding said:

Cant, I have all my own teeth.

Miracles will never cease

12 minutes ago, Deestroy All said:

He's talking about Billy Stretch.

Haha

It never occurred to me that I didn't mention his name, but yeah, it's clear who I meant.

31 minutes ago, SaberFang said:

For the love of God, someone please tell me how to put 'ding' on ignore!

I would but I tried myself and it worked out like a Costanza shower. It didn't take.

25 minutes ago, KrazyJay said:

 

 

 Now that i have calmed down, can someone let me know who got us back in the game? I wasnt lying when i said i didnt see or hear a second of the game.

Cheers.

1 minute ago, ProDee said:

Haha

It never occurred to me that I didn't mention his name, but yeah, it's clear who I meant.

Clearly. Kid is an absolute gem. 

32 minutes ago, ProDee said:

I'm going hard and early.

It's a ridiculously small sample size, but I can't think of a better "first dibs" midfielder in my time watching the Dees.  His ability to get first hands on it and then execute clean use under immense pressure is extraordinary.

Yep, exactly. You haven't even mentioned who it is, but it can only be one player. What a beauty. He really is. Hats off to Jason Taylor and co. We've got a gem on our hands. Loved how pumped up he got when Jones goaled too.

32 minutes ago, ding said:

 

 

Mate.... I was so upset after the game today, I just try and look for the positives. In contrast to last week I thought we played very well. We have a decent team building for sure.

 

 

I cant just see positives any more. I have tried... all i can see any more is the end result. As i said the the other poster who sent me a PM, if we had beaten Essendrug i would probably have been really happy with todays effort.

Bloody druggies........ i blame them............ and Whiskey...... Whiskey is also to blame.

His name is Clayton Oliver and he is all you need for positivity. Get around him.

I just got back from a really enjoyable trip to Tassie and I'm looking forward to see the reply because I want to check if they scored six or seven goals from free kicks or 50m penalties.

I'm not one to complain about umpiring because I reckon it generally evens out over the course of the game, but that was the most blatant one-sided performance I've seen. The free to Goldy against Gawny for holding the ball in the first term almost brought the big fella to tears. He knew he'd had no prior and just couldn't fathom that his chance to show the AFL that he really was up to being the No.1 ruckman had gone begging via the little green maggots. Eventually they started realising that Gawny was on top in the true ruck battle and that Goldy didn't actually deserve handouts. Gawn won the battle, but sadly we lost the war.

The key things to come out of the game for me were:

1) Why did we not send Hogan back to play as an extra defender from the start of the first term when the wind was at its strongest? Roosy was innovative in a lot of areas today (eg: playing N.Jones off half back to make the Jacobs tag less effective) but that was his one clear muck up and it cost seven goals.

2) Lumumba knockers need to start switching onto what he brings to the table. Sure he made a couple of poor short kicks into the wind in the first, but along with Viney and Gawn, he got us going in the second. He plays the exact same way that every side wants to play this year - attack, attack and attack. I'd love to see how many metres he gained in the second term alone - probably 400.

3) Bernie may look like a choir boy, but he's a tough hombre and with Crossy gone, has stepped up his leadership and is our best pick up from another club since Brian Wilson and he may be better than him as well. He'll have the week off next week and will be missed.

4) Hoges really respects Jack Watts and knows he will be given a chance the minute Jack gets it. The pair have developed a really good union now and finally we have a forward line with talented bigs - now all we need is the Weed and Petracca.

5) We were way quicker than North, who I suspect will fall away as the season goes along because they lack quality and are relying on 30-plus year olds remaining fit. And for the first time since 2000, we actually beat them at the clearances. In fact we played all over them after the first twenty minutes.

6) Those knocking Frost clearly weren't at the ground. Unfortunately the TV doesn't always show you who is making up yardage to pressure defenders and his athleticism is really handy to have. Sure he's still unrefined but give him a bit of time - is Darcy Moore nailing it each week? Ultimately though, he is a defender and once Weeds comes in, that's where he should play.

7) Well done to Harmes for shoring up his spot after a poor first two weeks and also to Kent, whose horror run kept going all the way until midway through the third term. Both will play next week. Not sure if Vanders is injured or just a little unhappy at not being given a run on the ball - but he's not the same spark player as last year - yet.

8) Did Billy do enough? He certainly worked hard and has a knack of getting to the contest, but as last player in this week, is he first player out to make room for Garlett? I hope he stays and that our Matt Jones experiment in trying to make him feel like he belongs at 28 ends now. Basically both can't play in the same side and I'd rather Billy's attack on the game to Matt Jones' outside accumulation anyday. If Matt was a thumping kick like Lewis Jetta then fine, but we all know he's not and he's now had over 60 games to have an impact. It ain't going to happen. 

 

 

 

 

[censored] I hate North. So [censored] we didnt finally beat them.

But proiud of the fact we should have won a game that was effectively 22 vs 25

The effort the boys put in today, only makes me more furious at them for last weeks debacle.

I'm really hoping that game is a driving factor for the team for the rest of they year.

2 minutes ago, Demon Disciple said:

The effort the boys put in today, only makes me more furious at them for last weeks debacle.

I'm really hoping that game is a driving factor for the team for the rest of they year.

Agree. It really shows the lack of commitment last week. Yes, hopefully the penny has dropped

6 hours ago, Chris said:

Was happy with the effort and intensity all day. We couldn't work out how to play into the wind in the first and they couldn't in the second. 

In terms of the umpiring I was not surprised, North always get the rub from the umps, have done so for years. 

Four decisions that for me changed the game. 

1: when one of the tallest on the field clearly ducked into one of yhe shortest in Jetta and got a free and a shot on goal.

2: When Goldstein got a free because Gawn holding the same way every ruch does in every contest. Even the commentators were stumped. Again a shot on goal.

3: the diliberate paid against Vince when he handballed while being tacjled and missed two targets by going over their head by about a foot. He simply missed his target. Again a shot on goal.

4: Clear mark not paid to Harmes, missed shot on goal to us. 

Agree. I also think Stretch was unlucky not to get a free kick - I thought Thomas' spoil was too front on - he had his back to the ball. 

36 minutes ago, Deespicable said:

6) Those knocking Frost clearly weren't at the ground. Unfortunately the TV doesn't always show you who is making up yardage to pressure defenders and his athleticism is really handy to have. Sure he's still unrefined but give him a bit of time - is Darcy Moore nailing it each week? Ultimately though, he is a defender and once Weeds comes in, that's where he should play.

I have no problem with Frost playing in our backline, I just don't want him as a forward.  He's the worst set shot in our team and while he does well with defensive pressure he just doesn't get the ball enough. 

Oddly enough, I atually don't mind his field kicking most of the time.  He's prone to poor aim when he's under pressure, but his actual passes tend to be low and hard and in space I've seen him nail some beautiful passes.  I'd much prefer him playing back and using that power and speed to shut down a gorilla and run off them than crashing into people and missing set shots in our forward line. 

2 hours ago, ProDee said:

I'm going hard and early.

It's a ridiculously small sample size, but I can't think of a better "first dibs" midfielder in my time watching the Dees.  His ability to get first hands on it and then execute clean use under immense pressure is extraordinary.

He's going to be something else when he can run out 4 Q's...the more he's able to get in and around the contest the better we will be.

The kid just reads the ball better than anyone around the clearances.