I'm calling it now - season over.

We can't withstand pressure.

And we need another key forward.

Does anyone know how many games we have lost in the 4th?

O Mac needs to get some shoulders ....... And a brain

Yes, season over.  I don't think we would have made the finals even with a win today, but it would have been nice to dream a little longer.

Disappointing to lose today.  We obviously still lack the ability to win these sorts of games - we have lost close ones to North, Hawthorn and the Crows, and they are games we most certainly could have won.  Turnovers and some skill errors hurt, and while they are covered against lower sides, a side like the Crows make you pay for it.  Too much quality there.

I thought there was still plenty to like.  Hunt was terrific.  Jack Watts stood up for 4 quarters, as did the captain, as he always does.  I thought our key backs, apart from a few mis-fires, gave a good account of themselves and it was great to see Jeffy back in good form today.  Just shows you how important he is to the side going forward and was always too good for the VFL.

We are a better side with a much better gameplan.  We just need to learn to execute better under pressure and make sides pay on the rebound.  Exciting times ahead though, we are building a strong list that just needs more games in their legs.

We are dumb. Period.

we handball way way way too much. So many times we handball when a long kick will give our forwards a one on one chance.

and that leaves us running around in circles over using the ball. 

Viney needs to learn to stay on one side of the centre square or learn to kick in his right.

Should have easily won that.  Fell asleep in the 4th quarter.

Now time to blood Weideman and Hulett and get Dawes out of the team permanently.

I just don't understand why we would continue to handpass the ball on the half forward line when we could kick it long to our forwards and put the opposition defenders under pressure.

Is Pedo fit?

I'm well and [censored] truly over Dawes.

Disposal, disposal, disposal.

Too many poor decisions and turnovers. OK, lots of pressure, but so many times we got ourselves into trouble when we didn't need to. A few poor games today, overall looked very rusty.

21 vs 22 with Dawes out there, we need a genuine fwd ruck if we're to be a serious competitor

Same story. Poor decision making. Overuse of handball and loose marking of opposition players. Lose the clearances, lose the game

We still have a few NQR players who have poor skills and poor decision making. Frost, O Mac, and Dawes who still can't mark, to name the worst offenders.

I'm interested if anyone knows if we have won a game with Razor Ray as head umpire? 

Dawes has played his last game of AFL.

dean kent needs a spell at Casey

So impressed with Watts. He has become a really consistent player with sublime skills.

51 more handballs than the Crows, and we lost the clearances.

From a broader perspective, we have not beaten anyone this year that we didn't beat last year. For all the talk of improvement, that is damning.

 

Great effort, but some really bad turnovers. Adelaide turned over the ball a lot too.

Big thing for me is we are still 2 midfielders short of a good team. We need Petracca, Brayshaw and Oliver to all come on in the back half of the year and get bigger tanks so they can roll through the midfield. Coming off an extra 4 day break we still couldn't run it out and honestly looked shot with 5 minutes to go in the 3rd.

Dawes' days are coming to an end. Should keep him on to add bulk for the winter months but we need another forward that can compete in the air.

Positives - Hunt is a ripper. Jesse Hogan has great hands in close. That 2nd quarter. Frost needs to be better in the air but looks so much better in defence.

Melbourne Attribute Adelaide   187.2cm Height 187.0cm 86.2kg Weight 86.0kg 24yr 0mth Age 25yr 3mth 69.2 Games 96.6
	Melbourne	Games	Adelaide
	10	Less than 50	8
	7	50 to 99	5
	3	100 to 149	5
	2	150 or more	4

Just now, leucopogon said:

dean kent needs a spell at Casey

Not sure about Casey, he must be on the cusp for sure. Just not damaging enough, and often poor with ball in hand.

Still, Petracca wasn't much better today.

Dawes and omac need to go... 

 

If pedo is fit he comes in for dawes, if not its time to bring in weed or hulett.

 

And literally bring anyone in for omac he is hopeless. 

Just now, stuie said:

51 more handballs than the Crows, and we lost the clearances.

From a broader perspective, we have not beaten anyone this year that we didn't beat last year. For all the talk of improvement, that is damning.

 

It's not the wins in my opinion - it's the competitive games against better opposition, and the ability to take the game on in spurts and score heavily.

No doubt we have improved.

We need brayshaw back, Oliver back, Weidemann to develop.

Take Dawes out of that (who is probably Gawn after today) and its 9 vs 4 players who have played 100 or more games.

That's more than double.

Time to blood Hulett?

That was winnable. Some of our ball use was just so frustrating. I hope that's an experience thing and something that will improve with time, because it is the difference between winning and not at the moment.

At least we're fairly consistent in effort relative to the last decade.