i've been to every game this year. it's the most in a row i've seen us for some time - i think the most games i saw in a row last year was three.

that third quarter was the worst for the year, without doubt.

however, i actually only tipped us in one of these games; the win against carlton. and i actually had freo finishing 9th when i did a ladder predictor thing at the start of this year; with their experience and an actual forward set up, they were always going to be significantly better this year.

on the whole i'm okay with our start to the year - if you told me that hibberd would not have played a game, frost would've played 1 (i thought both were clear best 22), gawn effectively two and a quarter, and hogan and lewis 2 a piece, i think on the balance of things i'd be 'okay' with a 2-2 start to the year. 

i had us down as a 10-12 record this year, and i wonder whether we can get to 10 wins if the big man misses the minimum of the next 11. gawn is going to be a massive loss for the vast majority of the season.

i really do worry that we're going to amount to nothing better than ordinary over the next 5-7 years, sort of like we were under daniher, where we were good enough to make finals six times in nine years but never really truly threaten to be a premiership chance.

really amazed by the start to the year for oliver, petracca, very impressed by anb, stretch, and super excited by hunt. watts has been really good after the bizarre preseason shenanigans, and the same goes for jetta and garlett - the latter's hard work up the ground has been exemplary. 

really disappointed by the start to the year for weideman and hannan after a reasonable first game, neither have been anywhere near it in the last two games in particular, i didn't agree with making viney co-captain and something clearly ain't right with the boy, brayshaw, tyson, and melksham have some of the worst disposal imaginable, and hogan, vince, and particularly lewis owe the team big time after getting rubbed out for extended periods of time.

we're a game and a half off the quarter mark of the season. it's a super even year this year, and i'm still actually reasonably excited about how the rest of the year could pan out, but also utterly terrified it could all fall in a hole too.

The issue is that we have a real tough stretch now in the next 6-7 games. I think we'll struggle to be +5 wins after 10. Pressure on next 2-3 games massive - however, would love to stop the Tigers bandwagon ongoing currently to get our momentum back

Have been waiting for a post/thread like this. I agree with the premise.

Most of Dland voted that we'd lose to stkilda round one, the whole planet tipped us to beat Carlton and in round 3 the Cats were warm favourites to win.  Essentially we have been favourites to win two of our first four matches and that is what we have done; just not in the order that many had predicted.

Despite this, having seen the position we've put ourselves in, I am not happy with a 2-2 start as we are already seeing how even this year could turn out to be.  We've had a chance to put some distance between ourselves and the chasing back and it hasn't gone our way.

Two losses can be the diffence between finishing second and finishing fifth, finishing seventh and finishing ninth.  While before the season started 2-2 might have sounded appealing- its difficult to be pleased about it having seen these matches play out.

Also, I do agree that I do think the list is short a genuine superstar to have a chance for a premiership over nxt few yrs. looking at Fyfe today, he's the sort of A grader we need.

love Jones and Viney as individuals  - but they are B+ not A class and not elite

You gotta take your chances when they come and we should be 4-0 so not happy with 2-2.

We have let slip a golden chance to be 4 and zip. 2 and 2 is not a disaster though.

I said it in the post match thread, but it is so even this year. The supposed worst teams can still get you on their day, and the best sides are definitely beatable.

My expectation was that we'd lose to Geelong and be 3-1 and even despite injuries should have been able to beat freo at the g so I am disappointed. 

Hopefully it fires the boys up to roll the tigers next week 

The problem is that yesterday's third quarter was season killing, because it revealed an absolute inability to maintain a defensive game plan under pressure. We are arguably the most brittle and easily exposed team in the AFL, and the good teams will exploit it mercilessly. No real advance on last year as I see it. 

I can't work out if this is the bargaining or the acceptance stage . . .

35 minutes ago, Webber said:

The problem is that yesterday's third quarter was season killing, because it revealed an absolute inability to maintain a defensive game plan under pressure. We are arguably the most brittle and easily exposed team in the AFL, and the good teams will exploit it mercilessly. No real advance on last year as I see it. 

Our defensive game plan relies on pressure and a lot of our players drop off and stop applying it when the opposition has momentum because they go into self preservation mode and worry about themselves 

i'm just absolutely shattered because 3-1 would have looked so much better than 2-2. What works in our favour is that there are a lot of other teams underperforming who we thought would be in our position.

1 hour ago, Webber said:

The problem is that yesterday's third quarter was season killing, because it revealed an absolute inability to maintain a defensive game plan under pressure. We are arguably the most brittle and easily exposed team in the AFL, and the good teams will exploit it mercilessly. No real advance on last year as I see it. 

It's an issue that has persisted since the Bailey years unfortunately. That they scored 7 goals in a row at one stage yet only won by 2 points suggests the game was lost rather than being won. It's tough to digest. It's very difficult to gauge if we've improved on last year because the start to the season is similar. We're 1 game ahead of where we were yet it's debatable if we've played better football. 3 games in a row have been very ugly and if we beat Richmond...well, the season starts will have been identical barring win loss record. 

My primary concern now is that the wheels fall off. Being such a young team, slumps are to be expected. I can see us going on a rampage and winning a lot of games in a row but I suspect it'll be too late.

I think another year for the likes of Petracca, Oliver and Co to develop wouldn't be the end of the world.  It would make it rough for the club and PJ to do their job effectively,  but I've always thought finals was just that little bit too high an objective for this squad. Yesterday showed me we're probably 30-40 games as a team away from winning games like that and last week.

The spotlight must be on Goodwin. 

The game collapsed during the 3rd q and we still only lost by 2 points

should have won by 6 goals

what happened to allow 7 goals through us?

This was always going to be the most even season in years, possibly ever.

As a result teams will make or miss out on the top eight on the back of results like yesterday.

Composure is certainly not one of our strengths

We still lack leadership and an A grade mid who will grab the game by the scruff 

We have an A grade mid. His name is Clayton Oliver. He's played less than 20 games, gets tagged every week and is still our best player. In another 20 games he'll be elite.

We are very young and are learning it's an even competition. I think the players are learning the hard way, and in the long run that may be very, very good for us.

I would have loved to pinch yesterday but it might be the making of us yet. 3-1 better reflects our effort, but if 2-2 teaches us we have to take our chances and work smarter and harder than I'll take it.

2 minutes ago, The heart beats true said:

We have an A grade mid. His name is Clayton Oliver. He's played less than 20 games, gets tagged every week and is still our best player. In another 20 games he'll be elite.

We are very young and are learning it's an even competition. I think the players are learning the hard way, and in the long run that may be very, very good for us.

I would have loved to pinch yesterday but it might be the making of us yet. 3-1 better reflects our effort, but if 2-2 teaches us we have to take our chances and work smarter and harder than I'll take it.

Fair assessment. Not a good look on the 2 Captains though...

I think we have far more talent on the list than the thread starter, although I agree with some of his sentiments.

You get multiple threads like this when you lose. 

If we beat Richmond and get on a roll the bounce will be back in the step of most. 

22 rounds is a lot of footy.  I'm not going to react like a roller coaster to every loss or missed opportunity.

1 minute ago, ProDee said:

I'm not going to react like a roller coaster to every loss or missed opportunity.

Then you've come to the wrong place ?

I reckon I could pick out so many missed opportunities yesterday that cost us the game. The late goals in the 2nd qtr, the missed goals of Harmes and Watts (although I 'don't consider that Watt''s fault) in the 3rd and the complete lack of composure at critical times in the last.. Harmes and Weeds misses in the last put additional pressure on, and this one was a real heartbreaker which we Demons aren't used to because we are just used to losing.

You blokes and gals have the right to be disappointed no one is denying that, but the reality is we really missed Gawn, Freos big bodies smashed us in the middle in that 3rd quarter.

The MFC just needs games - I know a lot of you will consider this a cop out. But our list is young, our forward line yesterday I rekon was incredible we kicked 100 pts. I was more disappointed with how we leaked goals

We need a lot of things to go our way to make finals, this year is going to be so close and competitive, and just like the club you just need to cop it on the chin and move on.

 

Some important statistics:

We're 5th for points for, but 14th for points conceded.

We started bleeding the moment Gawn went off vs Geelong.

Given the situation, the fact we can still score is encouraging. 

Look at the team stats we're not doing too badly.

• 2nd for disposals
• 1st for marks
• 7th for tackles
• 5th for disposal efficiency

We are being let down in other areas but we are statistically a very solid mid-to-top side. We make rookie mistakes in games and get outmuscled by experienced players, but we'll bounce back from that.

I don't think it's acceptable given we were in a winning position in both of those losses, but it's to be expected.

Our ability to find the ball has been very encouraging. We get so much of it. Then there is a 5-10 minute period in which the opposition absolutely dominates and goes on a tear. Happened vs Geelong and vs Freo.

We are still very well placed, and are a very good chance to beat Richmond.

If we've learnt anything the past 2 years, it's that this team shows up on the big stage. We'll bring our A-game next week. I'm fairly confident of that.

To answer the tag question, is 2-2 acceptable? A resounding NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Two-two is very disappointing because but for lousy kicking last week, and an unaccountably poor third term this week it could be four-nil.

 

One quarter.  It's one quarter at the moment that is hurting us.  In our wins we were able to cover it - we had a poor first term against the Saints and a shocker in the third against Carlton.  Against Geelong we had a poor last quarter and we all know what happened yesterday.

We are doing most things right - our attacking intent and ability to hit the scoreboard has been good.  We are winning more than our share of the football and getting plenty of inside 50s.  You could argue that our zone defence is still taking a little time, but it's seemingly these lapses in concentration for a quarter that are hurting us.  I could handle 3-1, but we shouldn't have allowed ourselves to get rolled yesterday.

When we look at our side we can see further improvement - Neal-Bullen and Salem have flourished, Hunt has taken the next step, Garlett is playing his best footy for the club, Oliver has had an amazing month and so on.  When others catch up or get themselves back into form then we'll add further consistency.

2 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

The spotlight must be on Goodwin. 

The game collapsed during the 3rd q and we still only lost by 2 points

should have won by 6 goals

what happened to allow 7 goals through us?

Rubbish, and you know it.  Stop trying to drum up some negativity towards a coach who has been in the job for 4 games.