1 minute ago, Delusional demon 82 said:

Set shots disappointing in the last qtr could have really turned the screws 

Especially hogans one. 

He still doesnt chase hard when he doesn't have the ball either. 

I thought the umpiring was bizarre tonight, I think if you were new to the game you would be very confused.

( I don't mean that it was unfair against Melbourne at all, I just thought it was very weird)

We beat St. Kilda convincingly in the final practice game last year.

They then smashed us twice in the regular season.

Some of you need to chill the [censored] out. Pav even admitted that the final 10 minutes is just hoping to avoid injury time every year.

Oliver and Hunt are special talents. I think Spencer will play Round 1. Very unconvinced by Harmes and Tyson was horrific, but will cut him some slack.

hmmm bad habits still there

t.mcd and o.mcd struggle under pressure. skill errors.

 

2 minutes ago, Sylvia Saint said:

We beat St. Kilda convincingly in the final practice game last year.

They then smashed us twice in the regular season.

Some of you need to chill the [censored] out. Pav even admitted that the final 10 minutes is just hoping to avoid injury time every year.

Oliver and Hunt are special talents. I think Spencer will play Round 1. Very unconvinced by Harmes and Tyson was horrific, but will cut him some slack.

Correct   I still reckon sack the coach?

Oliver

Spencer   beginning ro realise he can play at this level

We ran the game out

1 minute ago, america de cali said:

If there has been improvent Goodwin is hiding it well. We saw SFA indication of anything tonight. 

We saw a team that was down on skill still in the game with 10 minutes to go.

We saw a team playing slick footy that was threatening to blow us off the park, but didn't due to our refusal to lie down.

We did this with a number of our better players off their best game, and saw where there is plenty of room for improvement.

Saints match now even betting 1.90 each team.

6 minutes ago, olisik said:

Trengove stormed off on his own in the rooms to the right of screens while rest of the team went into the back room. Anyone else see this?

How did he 'storm off' ? went to the right of screen and then went into the back room with the other players

Just now, Ted Fidge said:

We saw a team that was down on skill still in the game with 10 minutes to go.

We saw a team playing slick footy that was threatening to blow us off the park, but didn't due to our refusal to lie down.

We did this with a number of our better players off their best game, and saw where there is plenty of room for improvement.

Third game of the pre-season, after a week off, and over in WA. Agreed, hardly time for wrist-slashing. 

12 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

Overall the effort was great tonight, but the execution was poor.  There's no denying that.  The Eagles made us pay for it and it won them the game.  I felt as though we matched them around the ground but we exposed our backline which we simply cannot do.  It's not talented enough right now to stand on it's own two feet and our midfield and half forward line need to support it better by eliminating the turnovers.

Lots of positives, though.  Oliver was super and will only get better.  Hunt and Salem are primed for big years, Spencer gave us something, Lewis was a cool head under pressure and Brayshaw is another who is getting better each week.

Lots of our better players were down today as well - Tyson had a mare, Benire turned it over and Maxy didn't exert his usual influence.  When you factor in that, as well as the turnovers, then a 4 goal loss is a fair reflection.

We are a big chance to roll the Saints in a fortnight's time, and if we add a couple of pure small forwards, add Jetta and Hibberd to the mix and make the right selections re: tall forwards then there is no reason why we can't win in Round 1.

Wise.. Thankyou for being a small voice of reason tonight.

We scrambled all night and they were so much cleaner than us, the final score flattered us. They had a line of players coming forward and we just chased them all night. It looked like a well drilled side playing a bunch of battlers, some of our better players were pretty ordinary tonight. 

I know it was only a practice match but our system just didn't work tonight and they played us like St Kilda did last year.

The quickness of WC was likely a reason Trengove was kept on the bench.

2 minutes ago, DavidNeitz9 said:

How did he 'storm off' ? went to the right of screen and then went into the back room with the other players

Walked off on his own in a rush rather then go with the team into the back room. 

Must be pretty [censored] off about having to go to Perth to not play.

Waste of a flight 

Dunstall actually said something worth remembering. 

It was something like Melbourne supporters shouldn't be dissapointed with tonight's game because although Melbournes entries into the forward 50 hasn't been as good as it should of they are atleast creating opportunities which is better than not creating opportunities.

Makes sense. 

Just now, olisik said:

Walked off on his own in a rush rather then go with the team into the back room. 

Must be pretty [censored] off about having to go to Perth to not play.

Waste of a flight 

He walked at a normal pace and followed the rest of the team in 4 seconds later. You're talking [censored]. 

Apart from it being a waste of a game. 

Players are obviously instructed to leave their nearest opponent and push up to the ball carrier, which sometimes might pressure a turnover, but more often than not leads to a handball over them to the now free man up the field.

Feels like players are just doing it on auto-pilot sometimes, when it's clear they would be better off sticking with their opponent or hedging their bets a bit.

4 minutes ago, Dante said:

We scrambled all night and they were so much cleaner than us, the final score flattered us. They had a line of players coming forward and we just chased them all night. It looked like a well drilled side playing a bunch of battlers, some of our better players were pretty ordinary tonight. 

I know it was only a practice match but our system just didn't work tonight and they played us like St Kilda did last year.

I don't think it did. We should have been up by a few goals by half time.

It's not the end I the world. Few blokes looking rusty as you'd expect. I don think any side plays 100% to their game plan in these matches. There are things they focus on. For example, I thought we were very good at holding up the kick ins against the dogs. Tonight it was as if we had no thought about how to set up. It's all experimental. Tyson had an awful game. But, we know he can play. Oscar is still a liability. Spencer and Gawn can work. Vince needs to improve. Hunt is a beauty and Oliver will be a star. Lots of changes before round 1 I hope. Our lack of a small forward was noticeable. I'd almost be inclined to play Ben Kennedy if none of Kent, Garlett or JKH are ready. Gotta have someone crumbing. ANB and Stretch looked like they will both play VFL at the start of the year. 

Will probably go to Etihad and the Saints   but the money will be on St.Kilda   we aere no chance in hell !!

 

Poor game.

Harmes and Oscar were horrible. Jones Vince Gawn and Viney were poor.

I actually thought Garland was our best defender tonight.

5 minutes ago, america de cali said:

The quickness of WC was likely a reason Trengove was kept on the bench.

They would haven known this before they took him u would of thought adc. 

What we know:

Our backline will open up badly if there's no forward pressure and/or there are bad turnovers from half back or even going forward.

But if we don't play with an aggressive backline then we struggle to score at all. 

I think our game plan is too risky for our skill level. However the counter argument to that is you don't design a game plan around battlers. You try to play to the best of your ability. 

The lack of footy smarts from some of our players genuinely worries me, but that's the kind of thing that will be a problem regardless of what game plan you play. Closing the game down or dropping more numbers back will still result in dumb footballers being dumb!

Second half wrap.

At least we kept trying and certainly the humid conditions meant it was very hard to be clean with disposal. We got back to 11 points I think before Oscar rushed a handball and with the slippery humidity-induced conditions made a howler of it and conceded a goal.

As stated at half time - Oliver was our best, although there's a case for Hunt whose run was unbelievable and he kicked a ripping 9-pointer in the last.

Garland knockers may have to eat a bit of humble pie tonight - I can't remember one poor disposal and he certainly is in contention for Rd 1 now, unless they decide to go back to Smith.

Spencer also did enough to warrant a game and at the pacy venue of Etihad, it surely has to be Weid that misses out.

Viney kept contesting after his first-half howler, so worst player on the night probably was a toss up between Tyson, who needs a game in the VFL next week, and Petracca, who quite obviously read all his press this week. Petracca did register one assist for the night - a delightful missed tap on to Hill in the goalsquare. He also still thinks he doesn't have to move more than 5 paces back when he marks it, which means his kicks get smothered or loses its distance. He is a work in progress and I'm sure on his night he will be sensational.

Lewis, Salem, Gawn were among our best. Hoges was good in patches, but also back to his petulant best at times and no match for McGovern when they had one-on-ones.

Did Watts do enough? No. But the same question and answer applies to Harmes, Bugg and Neal Bullen - the latter of whom had a superb first half and quiet second.

Ultimately we missed our small forwards. The one whom I really missed was Kent - we lacked a fast lead up player. Garlett and Vanders would also have helped and maybe even JKH.

I watched Kent at training the other day and thought he was still a bit underdone, but he must be a chance now if he gets through a VFL game next week. The same applies to Garlett. I'd also be playing Jetta, who looked good at training this week. Hard to believe Goody doesn't rate him, but it can take time for a coach to warm to some players.

The zone needs tweaking, but provided we can keep our intensity we should be fine. You have to remember that a midfield of two Brownlow Medallists as well as Shuey and Gaff is not going to be one in which we can maul like the game against Carlton.

 

 

 

1 minute ago, Leoncelli_36 said:

It's not the end I the world. Few blokes looking rusty as you'd expect. I don think any side plays 100% to their game plan in these matches. There are things they focus on. For example, I thought we were very good at holding up the kick ins against the dogs. Tonight it was as if we had no thought about how to set up. It's all experimental. Tyson had an awful game. But, we know he can play. Oscar is still a liability. Spencer and Gawn can work. Vince needs to improve. Hunt is a beauty and Oliver will be a star. Lots of changes before round 1 I hope. Our lack of a small forward was noticeable. I'd almost be inclined to play Ben Kennedy if none of Kent, Garlett or JKH are ready. Gotta have someone crumbing. ANB and Stretch looked like they will both play VFL at the start of the year. 

BenKen is still coming back from injury isnt he?

I actually thought ANB was alright. Had one or two howlers but so did most players. He was in the thick of it and without looking at the stats I would have thought he had a high amount of tackles.