The Most Un-Awesome Post Match Thread Ever

[Gator 16,921]

Supporters ride too high after a great win and too low after a poor loss.  Their season sways too much over isolated games.  

It was a poor loss by a very young team that is still learning the caper.  I'm annoyed, the players would be annoyed and so too would the coaches, but they also understand where we presently fit in the world of AFL. 

The result was borne out of the fact that the team has been the youngest and least experienced more often than any other club this year. We fielded the youngest team we have since 2011 on the weekend.  18 of our 22 had not played 100 games.  Carlton had 9 that had played 100+.

In this context 2016 has been phenomenal.  

2013 - 2 wins and 54%, 2014 - 4 wins, 2015 - 7 wins, 2016 - 10 wins and 103% with the youngest and least experienced team in the competition. 

The Melbourne Football Club is perfectly placed to have a crack at a flag over the next 3-5 years and the weekend's results don't change that one iota.

[GawnWithTheWind 604]

I haven't felt this flat from a loss in a long time.

Carlton are horrid, and poor selection decisions cost us a shot at finals.

Its just fkd.

[jnrmac 19,340]

49 minutes ago, DubDee said:

yesterday wasnt about personnel or tactics for me.  it was attitude.  Somehow, in typical Melbourne fashion we went in without being 100% switched on.

I could tell within 3-4 minutes we would lose - just like it was clear within 3-4 minutes against the Hawks that we were up for it and would push them. they literally walked the ball forward for the first goal in 30 seconds.  we werent even trying. the culture/attitude issues have improved but are still there and this should be the main focus as we will never win anything if we are soft mentally - expect the LG next year to reflect some change in this area.  Goody will pick players who front up and have self belief

This annoys me more than anything. Its obvious early on generally

[Willmoy1947 3,815]

At this time of the season how disruptive for the AFL and The Kangaroos would it have been for Melbourne to displace them (the latter) in The Eight? 

Would this have been an organisational, statistical and financial nightmare? I think yes. They (AFL) like it settled well before the end of the season and the Media does as well.

Think of all the functions, bookings and and organisation that would be bloody mayhem. No destiny was not on our side in more ways than one.

[ArtificialWisdom 3,935]

7 minutes ago, willmoy said:

At this time of the season how disruptive for the AFL and The Kangaroos would it have been for Melbourne to displace them (the latter) in The Eight? 

Would this have been an organisational, statistical and financial nightmare? I think yes. They (AFL) like it settled well before the end of the season and the Media does as well.

Think of all the functions, bookings and and organisation that would be bloody mayhem. No destiny was not on our side in more ways than one.

What??? The AFL and media would much rather us have won yesterday! They love stories, and a late charge forcing North into winning Saturday night is exactly what they would have wanted. They dont want the 8 to be set they want every game to be of interest, the intrest in the Geelong - Melbourne game this week just dropped tenfold with that loss. There is no conspirecy to fix yesterdays result and if there was it would have been in our favor not against it. God I hate when people start to blame a poor performance on the AFL. Both teams played on the same ground in the same conditions and unfortuatly our team was flat, deal with it.

[Undeeterred 2,883]

12 minutes ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

What??? The AFL and media would much rather us have won yesterday! They love stories, and a late charge forcing North into winning Saturday night is exactly what they would have wanted. They dont want the 8 to be set they want every game to be of interest, the intrest in the Geelong - Melbourne game this week just dropped tenfold with that loss. There is no conspirecy to fix yesterdays result and if there was it would have been in our favor not against it. God I hate when people start to blame a poor performance on the AFL. Both teams played on the same ground in the same conditions and unfortuatly our team was flat, deal with it.

Maybe we told the boys to lose so we didn't lose our deposit on the Palladium for B&F night.

LOL.

[Willmoy1947 3,815]

3 minutes ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

What??? The AFL and media would much rather us have won yesterday! They love stories, and a late charge forcing North into winning Saturday night is exactly what they would have wanted. They dont want the 8 to be set they want every game to be of interest, the intrest in the Geelong - Melbourne game this week just dropped tenfold with that loss. There is no conspirecy to fix yesterdays result and if there was it would have been in our favor not against it. God I hate when people start to blame a poor performance on the AFL. Both teams played on the same ground in the same conditions and unfortuatly our team was flat, deal with it.

Yes you are so right . The AFL, Media and Umpires love us! They wouldn't expect a bigger look on Sat night than what they will get. Remember its (GWS) a big following in Sydney. I think not. The teams want the Eight to be set for their own organisations and arrangements well in advance. The bloody Geelong/Melbourne game was sold out allready. The rest of your paragraph is conjecture but i appreciate and value the opinion 

[ArtificialWisdom 3,935]

6 minutes ago, Undeeterred said:

Maybe we told the boys to lose so we didn't lose our deposit on the Palladium for B&F night.

LOL.

Does that mean that those who played the worst followed instuctions the best and will get the highest votes for the game?

[Dante 2,562]

57 minutes ago, ProDee said:

Supporters ride too high after a great win and too low after a poor loss.  Their season sways too much over isolated games.  

It was a poor loss by a very young team that is still learning the caper.  I'm annoyed, the players would be annoyed and so too would the coaches, but they also understand where we presently fit in the world of AFL. 

The result was borne out of the fact that the team has been the youngest and least experienced more often than any other club this year. We fielded the youngest team we have since 2011 on the weekend.  18 of our 22 had not played 100 games.  Carlton had 9 that had played 100+.

In this context 2016 has been phenomenal.  

2013 - 2 wins and 54%, 2014 - 4 wins, 2015 - 7 wins, 2016 - 10 wins and 103% with the youngest and least experienced team in the competition. 

The Melbourne Football Club is perfectly placed to have a crack at a flag over the next 3-5 years and the weekend's results don't change that one iota.

What you say might be true, for the most part, but it still doesn't address the problem we have with Carlton, St Kilda and Essendon, they play a style of football that we don't seem to be able to counter.

Until we can sort this out we will be middle of the road and those clubs, if they get their act together, will go past us.

 

[Undeeterred 2,883]

3 minutes ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

Does that mean that those who played the worst followed instuctions the best and will get the highest votes for the game?

Haha probably. 

[Dr. Gonzo 22,642]

1 hour ago, ProDee said:

Supporters ride too high after a great win and too low after a poor loss.  Their season sways too much over isolated games.  

It was a poor loss by a very young team that is still learning the caper.  I'm annoyed, the players would be annoyed and so too would the coaches, but they also understand where we presently fit in the world of AFL. 

The result was borne out of the fact that the team has been the youngest and least experienced more often than any other club this year. We fielded the youngest team we have since 2011 on the weekend.  18 of our 22 had not played 100 games.  Carlton had 9 that had played 100+.

In this context 2016 has been phenomenal.  

2013 - 2 wins and 54%, 2014 - 4 wins, 2015 - 7 wins, 2016 - 10 wins and 103% with the youngest and least experienced team in the competition. 

The Melbourne Football Club is perfectly placed to have a crack at a flag over the next 3-5 years and the weekend's results don't change that one iota.

I agree - but you were also saying on BF that unlike other Melbourne supporters you were supremely confident that we would handle the Blues with ease. Hindsights a great thing, but reality is we should have won that game, regardless of the disparity in age/experience. There is also a disparity in class which was in our favour but the one disparity that mattered was in endeavour and they killed us in that aspect of the game yesterday.

 

I'm not slitting my wrists though, we are clearly tracking in the right direction and as you say the age/experience profile of our list means there should be continual improvement over the next few years. I still have faith in the clubs short-term future I'm just annoyed we lost yesterday when it was so predictable - I thought the Essendon game had weeded those performances out but it seems it's harder to eradicate that culture than I thought. That culture has existed as long as I've been following the Demons which is since 1987/88.

Edited August 22, 2016 by Dr. Gonzo

[John Crow Batty 8,321]

10 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

 

I'm not slitting my wrists though, we are clearly tracking in the right direction and as you say the age/experience profile of our list means there should be continual improvement over the next few years. I still have faith in the clubs short-term future I'm just annoyed we lost yesterday when it was so predictable - I thought the Essendon game had weeded those performances out but it seems it's harder to eradicate that culture than I thought. That culture has existed as long as I've been following the Demons which is since 1987/88.

The reality is if we don't  get rid of that culture we will never ever win another flag. We may become a good side, play regular finals and with luck get into a GF but that is about it. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory will be our future legacy.

Edited August 22, 2016 by america de cali

[Sir Why You Little 34,980]

Yes we have improved over the last 3 years BUT the soft underbelly culture is unmoved  

within 2 minutes of first bounce listening on the radio i thought we were done. 

Against Carlscum for Christ sake!

A chance to earn real respect and give ourselves a chance to make finals

And the Team didn't show up.....

Big Job for Goodwin. 

I thought beating Port over there was the sign, but no it was a mere tease. 

[Hellaintabadplacetobe 4,110]

Well the ride to the finals was bloody awesome up until yesterday.

I was pretty filthy sitting in the Olympic Stand at the match, but have moved on. Carlton clearly wanted it more than we did and deserved the win. As bad as we played, we had ample opportunities to win that game but we just never really looked like it which is what disappoints so much with what was riding on the result. 

The delivery into F50 was abysmal, I lost count of the times we kicked to 2 or 3 on ones but usually just direct to a free Carlton player. It really was a combination of zero forward structure, and hurried kicks from perceived pressure, often when there wasn`t anyway. Carton to their credit pressured us nearly all match.

We will finish with 10 wins which I expected at the start of the year, but I think we are more advanced than many diehards would have expected prior to Round 1. Its a solid pass mark from me

I expect to make Finals next year, anything else will be a failure!

Oh and whilst we can`t blame the umps for the loss or our poor attitude yesterday, some of the non-decisions we missed out on were mind boggling, 3 umpires could not possibly have missed some of those atrocious decisions, but miraculously, they did.

[Cards13 9,117]

14 hours ago, A F said:

Except Cripps, who has lead the clearances all year. For the competition.

How good did he look yesterday?! What a gun they have in the fing navy blue..

[Binmans PA 26,531]

31 minutes ago, Cards13 said:

How good did he look yesterday?! What a gun they have in the fing navy blue..

Is my favourite opposition player, along with Prestia. Though I didn't like watching him much yesterday.

[Demonised 1,220]

A weird year for us. We took it up to teams above us - we beat Hawthorn! - and struggled with teams below us.

[ArtificialWisdom 3,935]

I have been growing conserned by our midfield. I Criticised the West Coast midfield for being usless withough NicNat hitting it down their throats. But it was painfully obvious yesterday that when Gawn has a down day we are also in all sorts of trouble. Our players seem incapable of reading of opposition ruckman and if gawn doesnt win the tap we are consistantly our of position and we cant stop the clean get way from there. We need a plan B structure for when Gawn is out or non-influential.

The structure we have is lethal when he is dominating but without his dominaton we are hopeless. Players need to be able to make the call to switch between Gawn and non-Gawn structure depending on the state of the game. If he starts to get on top again then go attacking but if not just prevent them from getting on the outside, because we are too slow on the outside to defend once a team is out

[titan_uranus 22,853]

5 hours ago, stuie said:

We lost by 20. They scored 40 more points from clearances. That seems a pretty obvious equation to me.

One of the main reasons we failed to score from clearances is that our forward structures were nowhere to be seen. That was, in no small part, because Weideman wasn't capable of contesting.

Pedersen would have at least given us a second option to aim for when going forward.

[Gator 16,921]

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I agree - but you were also saying on BF that unlike other Melbourne supporters you were supremely confident that we would handle the Blues with ease.

So what ?  I thought we would.  Carlton are rubbish.

Do you get every tip right ?

[stuie 7,374]

8 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

One of the main reasons we failed to score from clearances is that our forward structures were nowhere to be seen. That was, in no small part, because Weideman wasn't capable of contesting.

Pedersen would have at least given us a second option to aim for when going forward.

The main reason we failed to score from clearances is because we were smashed in clearances 41 - 26.

 

[Dante 2,562]

5 minutes ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

I have been growing conserned by our midfield. I Criticised the West Coast midfield for being usless withough NicNat hitting it down their throats. But it was painfully obvious yesterday that when Gawn has a down day we are also in all sorts of trouble. Our players seem incapable of reading of opposition ruckman and if gawn doesnt win the tap we are consistantly our of position and we cant stop the clean get way from there. We need a plan B structure for when Gawn is out or non-influential.

The structure we have is lethal when he is dominating but without his dominaton we are hopeless. Players need to be able to make the call to switch between Gawn and non-Gawn structure depending on the state of the game. If he starts to get on top again then go attacking but if not just prevent them from getting on the outside, because we are too slow on the outside to defend once a team is out

Plan B may be as simple as having Spencer in the side, as well as Gawn, in games where we know he has an opposition ruckman he struggles against, like Tom Hickey and Kreuser. Other sides have worked out that if they negate Gawn we are in strife and they either beat him or break even in the centre and use a third man up at other ball ups.

Gawn is the most important player in our side and if we want him to continue to be that, we must rest him more and I cannot understand why we brought in Weed (who is a long way off senior selection, he will be good but needs time) and dropped Pedo and didn't consider Spence. We need someone that can jump in to the opposition ruck and slow them down and we need players to stop the third man up.

 

[Gator 16,921]

2 hours ago, Dante said:

What you say might be true, for the most part, but it still doesn't address the problem we have with Carlton, St Kilda and Essendon, they play a style of football that we don't seem to be able to counter.

Until we can sort this out we will be middle of the road and those clubs, if they get their act together, will go past us.

 

Do you think Essendon have some ingenious game-plan that Melbourne can't crack, or perhaps they just had a bad day ?

And seemingly we now can't beat Carlton because of yesterday ?  I do find it amusing when people come up with absolutes based on such a small sample size.  If I were you I wouldn't fret over Carlton or Essendon and the likelihood of future success over them. 

Clearly the Saints are a different issue. But it's not completely surprising that a very young side has had trouble against a more seasoned side that still has grand final players in good form, i.e. Riewoldt, Montagna, Fisher, Dempster and Gilbert.  

But yes, we need more outside speed and class against St.Kilda and other clubs.  No-one denies we're a work in progress. 

Hogan, Viney, Tyson, Oliver, Brayshaw, Petracca, Gawn, the McDonalds, Salem, Hunt, Stretch, Frost, Weideman and Kent are a core group of 15 x '24 and under' that just about any club in the league would salivate over. 

Hopefully Melksham and Hibberd can add to the group.

Outside speed is often the last piece of the puzzle.  Maybe it's Hunt, or maybe it will come through the trade draft.  And none of our future inside grunt are close to reaching their peak.

Does everyone forget that we had 66 inside 50's to the Eagle's 37 four weeks ago or do they only see an 'L' in the win/loss column ?

I'm super excited by where this group can go, but it will take another 3 years to develop the maturity to challenge.  And in that time there will be performances that leave you scratching your head.  

I'm surprised people are surprised. 

[stuie 7,374]

1 minute ago, ProDee said:

Do you think Essendon have some ingenious game-plan that Melbourne can't crack, or perhaps they just had a bad day ?

And seemingly we now can't beat Carlton because of yesterday ?  I do find it amusing when people come up with absolutes based on such a small sample size.

0-8 against them (Carlton, Essendon and St Kilda) over the last 2 years. Big enough sample size for you?

 

[iv'a worn smith 1,979]

I got the sense from Roos' past match that he genuinely believes that if we made the finals this year, it would do more harm than good.  If we got belted in a final, it is possible that the dent in confidence may be irretrievable.  Personally, I am of that view as well.  Selection decisions were somewhat hard to fathom.  I am not sure if it had anything to do with senior players having to qualify for Casey finals.  I haven't checked the stats on that,  but selection was hard to work out.  That said, right now I think Carlton see us as their Biartch

I think Roos wants something far more sustainable than anything we have had before and does not want to replicate Port's effort of a few years ago, only to drop of dramatically in the years following.  This is a one step at a time process of continuing to educate the mindset.

I only hope we finish off the year with a red hot crack against the [censored] and a launching pad into 2017.