14 minutes ago, Emerald said:

I just watched Goodwin's press conference, that was like listening to poetry.

He's a hard ar$e. 

When that nuff-nuff started telling him about "discipline", Goodwin tore strips off him.

Nice to see.

We are nowhere near 3 peat Hawthorn but....

I knew how a lot of their supporters felt during their peak.

I just knew in my guts we would roll those arrogant p****s.

Even when we were down.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

This is a place I have never been in in 28 years as a Melbourne supporter.

Isn't ANB becoming a handy little player?

I thought his mate Stretch was leaving him behind last year and now it is the opposite.

He runs to the right spots, works hard, has aggression and confidence and thinks he can do more than he can (which is healthy for a young player).

Looks like he is putting his hand up to stick around when the cavalry comes back to the line.

 

As above, that's an impressive presser. 

2 minutes ago, rpfc said:

Isn't ANB becoming a handy little player?

I thought his mate Stretch was leaving him behind last year and now it is the opposite.

He runs to the right spots, works hard, has aggression and confidence and thinks he can do more than he can (which is healthy for a young player).

Looks like he is putting his hand up to stick around when the cavalry comes back to the line.

 

If someone told me ANB would go past Billy this season I'd laugh upon them. 

He's clearly gone past him and getting better. 

3 minutes ago, Bates Mate said:

Loved beating that mob ,hands down worst supporters in the afl.

 

I'll see you...and raise you Richmond (or Essendon) supporters.

2 hours ago, DemonOX said:

How good was TMac. 

How good IS T Mac

2 hours ago, buck_nekkid said:

Wow.  Lewis, Vince and Stretch were all liabilities.

Severly missed Jones, Viney, Tyson and Watts.

Hogan - passenger for most if the day, but welcome back.

We need some poise - so we know when to play like crazy men, and when to set things up.  Lack of poise nearly cost us that game.

But, hey!  We are fricken 4th!  Go Dees!

Absolutely agree with the liabilities. Stretch has no confidence,  Lewis and Vince make so many bad decisions. For our senior players to play like that was doing my head in. Very glad of a tough win.

 

17 minutes ago, Rocknroll said:

Anyone at the game could tell me. Did Simpson had a full open forward line in that last lass contest? Or was there players streaming forward. I'm overseas but it look like nev was last man with frost to support

Wide open, I was city end but it looked like they could have almost ran into an open goal were it not for Nevs heroics 

58 minutes ago, Mdemonski3 said:

Tommy a rare beast in that his set shots more accurate than field kicks.

most players the other way around.

i would play forward for the same reason as jack watts. They won't need a large number of kicks to be effective goal kickers...

Pedos time is nearly up unfortunately. When watts is fit, he is out.

He has been outstanding filling in for Max but he has no position to play now. Tmac is a much better forward and can 2nd ruck. 

Tmac Hogan watts is pretty balanced. No need for watts ruck either.

Heart still thumping. Nev is a god. As is clarry and tmac. 

Footy has a funny way of balancing out. We lost a couple of games where injuries really took their toll (Geelong and Richmond). Today it's evened out in my opinion. Entire 2nd half with the blues 2 players down. I'll take it.

thought Kent struggled. A few time he just wasn't clean. Boy was Jesse rusty. Smith will be better for the run. He's a great find. 

Stretch I don't think will make it in the end (hope I'm wrong). Melksham needs to stop whinging when he feels there is a free kick. I saw maybe 2-3 times after a contest he just stopped and didn't chase. Not what we need.

55 minutes ago, Wadda We Sing said:

Which is totally amazing given some of his kicks out of the back line!!!

or shots at goal < 2017 !!

Very relieved to get that win. It certainly helped they were 2 down and cripps was out of that midfeild. 

Tom must practice his goal kicking at training. He just does not miss. He is super up forward and is a great contested mark to. 

Hogan will be better for the run. Yes still not sure how he stuffed up that first shot but he would feel happy to get that one out of the way. I htink he'd be happy singing the song again.

Vince worries me. He just turns over the ball far to easily lately and that stupid dive he took was just dumb and unnecessary. 

Jetta seriously how far has this guy come? Just having an awesome season and gets his job done. That last play was brilliant.

Yes Neal-Bullen played well and Im glad he listened to Lewis and passed him that ball in the ned. Smart thinking by Jordan to come up with that idea. 

So many more to mention, but love how Viney was out there at the end, although I hate seeing him on crutches and Goodwin there to, to congratulate them. 

Have to stop the over handballing though. 

1 hour ago, rjay said:

 

Great to win despite playing poorly. Best were obvious, TMac, Clayton, Nev et all.

There were some who could be forgiven for poor games. Hoges + Smith.But really. Kent + Stretch were terrible.

And some of the turnovers from experienced players were shocking. Lewis + Vince.

This was a match that MFC would have lost in previous years. That's the difference between this team, and MFC teams of previous years.

2 hours ago, binman said:

Fantastic.

And so there can be no confusion about what i mean by couching a comment in sarcasm. Pro Dee, I (and another poster, sorry i can't recall who) said we could keep Frost if we got Lever because TMac was a 'natural forward' and could play the swing man role. You argued that this was not the case and categorically said TMac was not 'a natural forward'. 

Played as a forward all his junior career. Leads to the right places. Beautiful and accurate kick for goal. Great forward pressure. Great mark. Kicks bags of goals. Twice in the last 3 weeks has been the reason we have won. Incredibly hard to match up on. Looks every inch a natural forward. 

The evidence of the last few weeks suggests this is another assessment you have got wrong. 

Binman I can not for the life of me remember saying that but will take ur word for it. 

Do u know in what post I said that?  

Btw I'm happy to be wrong. 

8 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

Vince worries me. He just turns over the ball far to easily lately and that stupid dive he took was just dumb and unnecessary. 

OK if you're referring to the turnover kick into the corridor (4 on 1), but I just re-watched the last 10minutes and Vince was instrumental in getting us over the line. 

Not worried!

2 hours ago, Gorgoroth said:

I was actually hoping a seagull would shite on ump22. 

 

Multiple times.

 

That free against for a block was the worst.

I could see why he paid that though it was as soft as marshmallows. A stupid rule. What really annoyed me though was him laughing and giggling with Bryce   Gibbs at quarter time like they were old mates. And Daisy  Thomas giving him a bit of advice. Probably something like " you haven't paid me a soft free kick yet. " To celebrate Rural round next week, umpire 22 should be sent to umpire at Nangiloc or some other God forsaken place.

Apart from the obvious good players I was really impressed with Nibbler and Wagner - they really stepped up and were keys to our win.

3 hours ago, Gorgoroth said:

How we won I don't know but let's take it and never speak of this game again.

 

I didn't see it that way at all.  No doubt the match was a grind and about as far away from aesthetically pleasing as we've seen, but there were some bloody epic moments in it, borne out of a game that was a genuine contest.  Lots of character and guts were required to win, and the team delivered.  

There's been a few of those "we were shit, they were worse" games in the last few years, but I don't rank this as one of them myself.  

2 hours ago, DemonOX said:

I know milkshake was pretty average but that goal he kick in the last to put us in front was terrific. 

Gee I thought Milkshake pretty good today! Going harder than he did at Injectiondon!

We're much too quick to write off kids. Only a few freaks have much impact before they have played 30-40 games such as Clarrie and Petracca.

stretch showed enough in his first 20 games to suggest he will be ok when his confidence is up. For example when he had the shot on goal (on the run) to put us in front versus the hawks last year his confidence was up and you knew it was a goal before he kicked it.

at moment he is second guessing himself and fumbling under pressure. He seemed much more composed last year when he probably felt more secure in the team:

ANB was the same earlier in the year - but now he has confidence he is much more composed, taking the instinctive option rather than second guessing himself, and seems to cut out the errors. Harmes is similar. Both these guys now look like good like long term told players who can supplement our potential stars.

i think our depth will be a real weapon for a serious tilt at a premiership in 2-3 years. Stretch definitely has a role to play in this regard 

 

 

Goody... really growing as a coach and leader. 

Sorry if it's been said on the forum already tonight, but Calscum were into Lewis from before the first bounce... look who had the last laugh in the game.

Many were calling for Lewis to stand up before today.  While I think he's proved his worth a few times before now, I think he well and truly did his job today.  Perhaps it's because it's because he's from Hawthorn that MFC supporters don't like him (to which I can empathise) but he is well and truly one of ours now, was one of our best players today and I'm very glad Lewey was singing "It's a Grand Old Flag" tonight, because without him I don't think we would have.

GO DEMONS

This season is giving me a bl***y heart attack! I wanted to be competitive in every game but the reality is almost killing me. 

Nev - you epitomise MFC football. 

I was a bit worried about having a team full of Melksham, ANB, Stretch, Harmes, Hannan, J Smith. Just too many B graders or less. But hat off to these blokes who may not have had great games but continue to crack in and give it everything. With all our injuries and having to rely on these blokes, we have won 5 out of 6. ANB in particular continues to improve game by game. 

Our 2nd, 3rd and 4th efforts late in games is becoming a bit of a signature, even if we play ugly. I love this, especially after the last decade. 

Our tackling is a huge concern. Very soft at times today. When we get it right it looks amazing but for patches we look lazy getting to contests, and weak trying to make a tackle stick.

And our kicking down the line is being mangled by opposition teams. They sit back and wait for us to kick blind, with constant turnovers. 

But we won, against a team whose game style would make Pia Miller look ugly. 

Not sure why everyone's so down about Lewis' performance too.  He made one notable cockup in the heat of the moment in the first quarter (the kick that fell short of Melksham at HF) but other than that, I thought he stepped up as support for Oliver in the way we needed him to.  He was a battering ram in the middle of the field and won his share of contested ball.  His play at the end, which had the double benefit of running down the clock and taking the heat off a junior player was a critical example of using experience to the betterment of the team.  I thought he was great and in our top couple.

I still think too many people see a player do one or two poor things and let it colour their view of the match as a whole.