22 minutes ago, Earl Hood said:

Weren't we stitched up by the umps in Hobart last year? Lost by 6 points after the umps gifted Goldy 2 or 3 of his 5 goal haul as I remember it. Big Max got pinged in the ruck duels from throw ins no matter if he was in front or behind. I remember Goldy getting a free in front of goal where Maxy was in front in the boundary throwing but somehow held Goldy unfairly. Shafted last year and somewhat the same today I thought. 

Was Nicholls last year as well.

Umpires are human and will make errors.

Umpires are human and will also have biases.

7 minutes ago, america de cali said:

What Garry Lyon said after the Hawthorn game is so on the money. We let this bottom feeder club sprint ahead, chase them down till nearly level, let them sprint ahead again, chase them down again to level and then let them sprint away again. Serious, serious attitude problem that won't go away.

 

3 minutes ago, rjay said:

No it wasn't.

I think the Adelaide win papered over a few cracks.

We're not good enough with Hoges and Max out to win consistently. Simple.

...and even with them in out list is not well balanced. It's getting there but still has a ways to go.

I'm sure the FD know this (we're not Richmond...please) and will address things over the next year or 2...

 

1 minute ago, america de cali said:

Disagree, same shyte we dished up last season also with Gawn and Hogan BTW.

So following this line of thinking...we have a great list, it's just between the ears that we have a problem.

I don't think so.

23 minutes ago, Earl Hood said:

Weren't we stitched up by the umps in Hobart last year? Lost by 6 points after the umps gifted Goldy 2 or 3 of his 5 goal haul as I remember it. Big Max got pinged in the ruck duels from throw ins no matter if he was in front or behind. I remember Goldy getting a free in front of goal where Maxy was in front in the boundary throwing but somehow held Goldy unfairly. Shafted last year and somewhat the same today I thought. 

Yes I believe you are correct, and would you believe umpire no. 15 was on duty that day also.

Things that annoyed me today.

Oliver is not playing under 18's and some of his handballs may have worked at that level but not AFL. He is a kid but today his handball was ordinary and of low percentage, he was much better when he kicked it.

Petracca, likewise is not playing under 15's where he can shrug opposition off and run and carry. He is still trying to do too much. His best is awesome his worst is school yard stuff and puts pressure on downfield. My old coach said do the first thing that presents.

Kent, lots but in the last quarter I am sure he stopped and waited instead of going for the ball (as in didn't go in hard enough). Not a patch on last years efforts.

Bugg, for leading for the ball in our forward line when we all know he cannot kick for goal. 4 behinds from gettable shots and the momentum changing miss after the 3/4 siren

Much as I love Jones, he burns us on those turnovers and it happens way too much.

Umpire Nicholls refusal to pay any free kicks especially to MFC. You could drop it, throw it, trip someone and manhandle someone with no penalty. His deliberate out of bounds in the last quarter that actually came off the body of Wood was laughable.

Ziebel punching Clarrie behind play and Cunnington punching Bernie on the umps blind side. Hope they both get a week off.

Other observations are that Norths goal to goal line dwarfed ours and took too many contested marks. We made too many skill errors and North kicked 11.9 from turnovers. I liked Hannan's game and Jetta is so under rated

 

Petracca has a long way to go to be even think about wanting to get into the hall of fame. If u saw the article today. 

1 hour ago, Abe said:

The non fifty to bugg got me, it was like 4 seconds after and thompson knew he market it he was right there. 

How was the deliberate trip on Petracca after he'd marked it and was about to take off? Textbook fifty metres if I ever saw one. But nothing.

I don't think we did ourselves any favours today, but had the umpiring been just a little bit more balanced, we may have snatched it. 

1 hour ago, McQueen said:

Watts back to the soft player that we used to loathe so badly. Lays half-arsed tackles, stages for frees, doesn't contest marks etc, etc.

A terrible game from him.

There was a lot of staging going on from our guys today. Bugg was tripped in the same spot that Petracca was, but Petracca got straight up and looked for options. Bugg threw his arms back like he was in a Shakespeare play. 

1 hour ago, ProDee said:

We really miss having a classy winger with speed, smarts and ball use. 

What I would give for Josh Kelly. 

Also, I have tremendous respect for Cunnington.  What a superb display under a massive injury cloud.  Poise, calm, and execution. 

Yeah, Josh Kelly would be nice, but on Cunnington, we just let him go about his business and Oliver on multiple occasions was poorly positioned to stop him. Smart move by that prat, Scott.

1 hour ago, Sigil said:

We can get into semantics I suppose. He was very good up until he took a kick at goal, and then he was pathetic. Unlikely as well that his set shots will be so bad week to week if he plays like he did today.

Not having a go, hope you (kinda) get what I mean. I'm as frustrated as anyone, but, yeah.

He's a terrible kick as a rule. I almost fell out of my seat when he kicked that good set shot last week against Adelaide. What we got today from Bugg is what we'll get most weeks. He's not up to standard.

1 minute ago, america de cali said:

Disagree, same shyte we dished up last season also with Gawn and Hogan BTW.

Yeah a couple more years, and then a couple more! Convince me to be positive although we have some young talent.  Jones today for the second game at the G in the last 3 weeks butchered the ball.  No wonder Goodwin is grooming Viney.  Jones tough nut but garbage leader in a tight game.

6 minutes ago, america de cali said:

Disagree, same shyte we dished up last season against mediocres  also with Gawn and Hogan playing BTW.

We are a different side this year and we're hamstrung without two of our best 5 players.  Midfielders can be easier to cover, talls not so much.

I'd like to see how other sides go without these two players (eg. GWS without Cameron and Mumford).  They would be in the same boat.

If supporters can't see that we've improved then that's totally up to them, but they're wrong.

7 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

No Watts was rubbish.

He's got solid runs on the board over the passed 18 months - and he's missing structure around him that means he's also playing a different role.

Ill give him a break and trust him to work back into form. He's proven his worth.

Let's think about this rationally. 

We're 4-5 and *should* hit the halfway point at 6-5. That'll be a good record having played without a ruckman or KPF.

We have a tougher second half of the year and it'll test us but our percentage will help us. 

Our wins haven't been "ugly", they've been tough hard fought games where our deficiency has been exploited well by the opposition. Today was always going to be a tough game. There is a consistent theme in our Roos, Freo and Hawks losses, and that's that their talls absolutely destroyed our lack of aerial ability. We have been fighting an uphill battle since round 3 and to still be in the finals hunt halfway through is encouraging. Drop the next two, however, and it's lights out.

That said, we have been in winnable positions in every game, and in every loss, our leaders have been majorly disappointing.  Jones plays like a perennial loser. Lewis sometimes seem to be checking his retirement pay. Vince is close to pushing daisies.

We're not "weak" anymore.  We battled so hard. These losses hurt because they mean so much. Today [censored] me off because Norf is a nothing club and I just want to pound them for once. 

Will we turn the corner this year? We still have a lot of time to.

Just now, The heart beats true said:

He's got solid runs on the board over the passed 18 months - and he's missing structure around him that means he's also playing a different role.

Ill give him a break and trust him to work back into form. He's proven his worth.

I just wish he would hunt the footy like his life depended on it instead of waiting for things to happen. 

4 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

We are a different side this year and we're hamstrung without two of our best 5 players.  Midfielders can be easier to cover, talls not so much.

I'd like to see how other sides go without these two players (eg. GWS without Cameron and Mumford).  They would be in the same boat.

If supporters can't see that we've improved then that's totally up to them, but they're wrong.

We just keep on extending our losing record when clear favourites. 

Edited May 21, 20178 yr by america de cali

8 minutes ago, Diamond said:

We need to recruit several bigger, taller, faster, more skilled players. We have been recruiting skinny, slow, small players for 20 years.

We are also an undersized team.  Recruiting tall timber with big bodies might help.  By the way, Kent needs a spray, he is gutless.

I suggest you all watch the replay and watch how many times Jones bombs the ball without looking or handballs to the opposition. Turnover king. Lost us the game. Lower your eyes Jones, pick out a player on our side who is alone and transmit the ball to him by hand or foot. 

2 minutes ago, praha said:

Let's think about this rationally. 

We're 4-5 and *should* hit the halfway point at 6-5. That'll be a good record having played without a ruckman or KPF.

We have a tougher second half of the year and it'll test us but our percentage will help us. 

Our wins haven't been "ugly", they've been tough hard fought games where our deficiency has been exploited well by the opposition. Today was always going to be a tough game. There is a consistent theme in our Roos, Freo and Hawks losses, and that's that their talls absolutely destroyed our lack of aerial ability. We have been fighting an uphill battle since round 3 and to still be in the finals hunt halfway through is encouraging. Drop the next two, however, and it's lights out.

That said, we have been in winnable positions in every game, and in every loss, our leaders have been majorly disappointing.  Jones plays like a perennial loser. Lewis sometimes seem to be checking his retirement pay. Vince is close to pushing daisies.

We're not "weak" anymore.  We battled so hard. These losses hurt because they mean so much. Today [censored] me off because Norf is a nothing club and I just want to pound them for once. 

Will we turn the corner this year? We still have a lot of time to.

Yep!  Jones does play like a perennial loser! I'm fed up with it.

I think we've performed remarkably well considering we have no ruckman and virtually no hogan most of the year. 

Wirh those two I think we'd have won four more games. 

Ultimately though premiership sides find a way to win even with key players our, we aren't there yet 

I thought Bugg was very effective today except when he crapped it when shooting for goal.

Edited May 21, 20178 yr by america de cali

2 hours ago, DSP said:

Worst part is ONCE AGAIN riding for an hour home on the train with the hundreds of other dejected demons supporters.

 

Same look, different week.

Only an hour.  Lucky you.

2 minutes ago, Soidee said:

We are also an undersized team.  Recruiting tall timber with big bodies might help.  By the way, Kent needs a spray, he is gutless.

I don't like to get stuck into the players but this I totally agree with. Kent shirked the issue more than once today especially  with a woeful effort up forward in the last when the game was in the balance. That disappoints me more than anything, whilst playing poorly, some players were putting their bodies on the line to at least have some impact and to see Kent pull out of contests, well, he might be the first player calling in sick for the review. 

1 minute ago, Gorgoroth said:

Only an hour.  Lucky you.

Try ridding the train with Nuff Melbourne supporters after they win AHHHHHHH. I need a new car and soon, before i face plant one of them into the train door

Jones is a conundrum.

At times i wondered which team he played for..lovely weighted kicks straight to a Kanga. Handpassing to their advantage.

I know there are percentages here but i really think he has to sometines choose better options. 

Its unfair to pick him out but his clunkers amounted to the losing margin. But in reality a number of players could be dealt the same acrimony.

It's hard enough to win games but we have to stop losing them by gifting scoreboard opportunity to teams.

 

 

As pleased as l was with the win last week, l wrote in the post match discussion that this week was a more difficult game given we were expected to win and thats exactly how it has turned out.

Even so our predictable inconsistency is still draining and tiring. Starting to lose interest but will persist as always

Essendon supporters talking the flag next year, give them any success and their inbred arrogance fills the airwaves.

cant stand them

1 hour ago, Dockett 32 said:

When you have been left vulnerable with a team of slow  midgets for the umpteenth time, result not really surprising. Particularly against North. Brown absolutely murders us every year!

We were lucky Danaher couldn't kick straight when we played Essendon. Both these blokes are over 200 cm.

So exactly who are our Gorilla minders? Who are our outside runners other than Hunt?

Recruiting staff and football dept recruiting strategy has been very  poor IMO.

Got  some mid selections right but we have far too many medium quality ( at best) trickless list cloggers.

 

 

Frost and... Frost.

And to be fair, Hibberd is another outside runner. If Wagner could improve his kicking, he'd be another.

1 hour ago, ding said:

Insipid against middle range oppo after a great game away against the ladder leader. Is anything more Melbourne than that?

GC next week just reeks of another loss. I hate supporting this club for so many decades. Angry doesnt even begin to describe how i feel after tipping a win AGAIN, only to lose.

You make me sick MFC.

 

It's very Liverpool too. Lose to the bottom sides, but play well against the top sides.

First the Ducks lose this morning. Second, Melbourne lost this afternoon. And thirdly, you can bet your house on Liverpool losing tonight and dropping out of the top 4. All my teams. I think I'm attracted to the perennial loser. Maybe I'm the loser. My wife thinks I'm a hopeless loser. Sorry about that. I kept typing what I was thinking.

1 hour ago, mrtwister said:

Sorry everybody. I think this loss was my fault. 

I laughed out loud at Richmond yesterday. 

Bad karma. 

Haha, I said the same thing to my old man and sister. Well, there's karma for laughing at Richmond yesterday.

1 hour ago, chook fowler said:

We lack height and speed

Disagree. It's a lot simpler than that. We didn't bring the required work rate. And whenever you do that, your system fails and anyone even a 17th placed North, can beat you.

Did we lack height and speed last week?

1 minute ago, beelzebub said:

Jones is a conundrum.

At times i wondered which team he played for..lovely weighted kicks straight to a Kanga. Handpassing to their advantage.

I know there are percentages here but i really think he has to sometines choose better options. 

Its unfair to pick him out but his clunkers amounted to the losing margin. But in reality a number of players could be dealt the same acrimony.

It's hard enough to win games but we have to stop losing them by gifting scoreboard opportunity to teams.

 

Sadly Jones is only a c grade player at the best. In his first two years at the club he would fellow Brent Maloney's idea of playing footy, which was put the ball under your arm and get caught or get the ball and bomb it not to a target just bomb it and i remember thinking he would be just that a c grader and i'm sorry not much else.