Just now, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Oh dear, that's not good news that we really want to hear.  Despite my tongue in cheek rant, T Mac is a pretty important player for us when he's up and about.  Even before this season when he has been a revolation up foward, he has been one of the best KP backs in the league for a number of years and I normally value his impact down there.

It was early in the game, seemed to play through it ok but it may have hampered his performance

I probably need to watch a replay before posting anything too specific but i thought it was a good win.

Luons are a decent side. You put some more experience in that side and they would be difficult to beat.

Lions mids smashed us at our game style. Lions won repeated clearnces and dictated the game.

Lions ball movement at times was elite.

While i don't dosagree with ithers who said we were poor i just think it was a good warm up game for finals rather then a soft win

We let them escape our forward 50 a little too easily at times. Our structure going forward relies a lot on our forwards locking the ball in our 50, but some weak/broken tackles allowed them to waltz out and hurt us on the scoreboard at times. I felt like flipping tables after that Lions goal at the end of the first half. Quite clearly, we didn't learn our lesson from that as it happened again in the last. I felt just as we got on top of them, we would do something silly and allow them back into the game.

The lapse in concentration in the last quarter was disappointing. We tried to slow the game down and wind down the clock, but ended up repeatedly turning over the ball too easily allowing Brisbane to get back into the game. Especially around that 2-3 minute to go mark we started chipping the ball around our back line trying to waste time. I felt it was playing with fire (and I was right) as we turned the ball over and allowed them to score an easy goal.

Otherwise, I thought the response in the 3rd quarter and start of the 4th was brilliant. If not for the brain fade, we would have easily won the game by 6-7 goals minimum. We seem to make a habit of letting our guard down for short periods, and thankfully we were good enough that it didn't come back to bite us in the last 2 games. I hope it's something the younger fellas can learn from and rectify in the future.

All in all, happy to get the 4 points which is the most important thing. The destiny was always in our hands and we've won 2/2 "elimination finals". Time to make it 3/3 next week and fulfill the destiny.

2 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

My memory is just fine

We lost games to Freo and North and Hawthorn this year at The MCG

Our Leaders are not consistent enough, until they are we will not challenge late in September

Jones is consistent you will find its not the leaders but the bottom 6 that are inconsistent, the team has been consistent in between the Sydney game and the port game we had, viney out Jones out Tyson mlssed the next 2 after sydney game, hogan out watts out until the port game, so viney, watts and Jones where missing and Tyson we did win 4 games in a row before everyone went down, before watts hammy he was having his most consistent and best year, has not come back well after hammy, he has never had one until this season, these are not  excuses they are just facts, so I hope you remained you, look at facts before judging, but you never admit that you're wrong. Don't bag Jones he is super consistent and I am sure most would agree.

51 minutes ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Oh dear, that's not good news that we really want to hear.  Despite my tongue in cheek rant, T Mac is a pretty important player for us when he's up and about.  Even before this season when he has been a revolation up foward, he has been one of the best KP backs in the league for a number of years and I normally value his impact down there.

 

1 hour ago, loges said:

We were sitting behind the players bench, he came off at least twice complaining of a problem around the knee area.

Explains a bit. Seemed unable to provide his usual rebound

We're talking about finals going into the last round of the year - how good is it?

I don't even know who the Top 20 draftees are this year and, frankly, couldn't give a stuff.  This is what it's all about!

1 minute ago, Wiseblood said:

We're talking about finals going into the last round of the year - how good is it?

I don't even know who the Top 20 draftees are this year and, frankly, couldn't give a stuff.  This is what it's all about!

About time hey!

3 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

My memory is just fine

We lost games to Freo and North and Hawthorn this year at The MCG

Our Leaders are not consistent enough, until they are we will not challenge late in September

Hard to be consistent when you are not on the park.

Been cruelled by injuries (and suspension) for a large part of the year, if we had a reasonable run we would be looking at top 4 and having a genuine tilt.

With those injuries it is our bottom 4 that have cost us, some variable application form a couple of important players and some variable performances from a couple of our young stars.

10 minutes ago, Stretch Johnson said:

Hard to be consistent when you are not on the park.

Been cruelled by injuries (and suspension) for a large part of the year, if we had a reasonable run we would be looking at top 4 and having a genuine tilt.

With those injuries it is our bottom 4 that have cost us, some variable application form a couple of important players and some variable performances from a couple of our young stars.

Agree,  swyl has been so negative for so long about the dees, that he does not know how to be positive, its time to be happy.

11 minutes ago, Stretch Johnson said:

Hard to be consistent when you are not on the park.

Been cruelled by injuries (and suspension) for a large part of the year, if we had a reasonable run we would be looking at top 4 and having a genuine tilt.

With those injuries it is our bottom 4 that have cost us, some variable application form a couple of important players and some variable performances from a couple of our young stars.

All clubs must get through injuries. We should never have lost those MCG games earlier in the year, take the game against Freo, we went to sleep for a whole Quarter. Had nothing to do with injuries. 

We have paid dearly for flat performances, all is not lost at this point but we are behind the 8 Ball

I know teams drop games but even 2 of the Norths, Freo, Hawthorn would have staved off some heart stress this week.

26 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

All clubs must get through injuries. We should never have lost those MCG games earlier in the year, take the game against Freo, we went to sleep for a whole Quarter. Had nothing to do with injuries. 

We have paid dearly for flat performances, all is not lost at this point but we are behind the 8 Ball

It's completely unrealistic to ask for any team, let alone one at our stage of development to not have a lapse.  Every team has had them in 2017.

Leadership is an area that I would give a tick to in 2017.  We have made big strides.  Unfortunately our most important young leader has been impacted by injury, even still Jones has been super consistent again, Lewis has been invaluable, Tmac at times has been crucial and at crunch times, Hibberd controls our backline, even players like ANB, now Brayshaw are looking like leaders of the future.

You are cherry-picking those close games we have lost, what about the close ones we have won?

You are looking for some football utopia that I think only exists in your mind.

The reality is the leadership situation at MFC could be as good it has been in my lfetime.

You're right, we have won in some close ones as well that shouldn't be forgotten. I think that myself and many others are looking at the ones we dropped as losses regardless. Whether they are close or not they are losses to bottom 4 sides and when you start getting 4 of them the excuse of it being a close game doesn't hold as much water. I do see what you're saying but the data doesn't lie.

2 minutes ago, Stretch Johnson said:

It's completely unrealistic to ask for any team, let alone one at our stage of development to not have a lapse.  Every team has had them in 2017.

Leadership is an area that I would give a tick to in 2017.  We have made big strides.  Unfortunately our most important young leader has been impacted by injury, even still Jones has been super consistent again, Lewis has been invaluable, Tmac at times has been crucial and at crunch times, Hibberd controls our backline, even players like ANB, now Brayshaw are looking like leaders of the future.

You are cherry-picking those close games we have lost, what about the close ones we have won?

You are looking for some football utopia that I think only exists in your mind.

The reality is the leadership situation at MFC could be as good it has been in my lfetime.

Anyway you look at it, The MFC should never have lost to Fremantle AT THE MCG or North TWICE this year. Both sides are so ordinary. Of course you can always find excuses if you look hard enough but i am over pizz weak excuses. 

People are calling my attitude negative. 

I say the MFC is still under achieving at critical moments, and that is the fault of leaders. That is why they were given the extra responsibility. 

Viney has shown great leadership this year twice, against Meth Coke and Port. 

and then we lose to Freo, throwing 4 points down the S bend

Top 4 at Seasons end or Sydney in Sydney...

we could still beat Sydney. If we are fit enough to apply pressure for 100 minutes, but we make it hard. 

The MFC has always played Elimination Finals since 1987, i don't think we had played a double chance final...

22 hours ago, bing181 said:

People have got to stop running this film of "what might have happened" in their heads as if it's reality - and then arguing from that as if it did.

This is Gold- sage for the age!

This may have come up already but does anyone have the stats for number of games played melb v Brisbane from the weekends game, plus the average age etc?

I honestly do not understand the negativity in this thread.

We won. Brisbane never led in the second half. We have seen how bottom teams play and the reality is while Brisbane challenged us, you do actually have to get in front to win games of football. We saw it time and time again during the dark times, bottom teams challenge but don't actually win, good teams can win when not at their best. We have finally done that this year. 

Heres the facts:

We've won 12 games with a good positive percentage in the most even competition in decades with our ruckman, full forward and both captains having missed big chunks of the season.

in 18/21 games we have led or drawn even in the last quarter. That's super competitive even compared to last year where we only did it in 13/22 games.

Against bottom 4 teams we've won 4 lost two with a percentage we'll over 130. 

Against teams outside the 8 we've won 9 lost 4 again with a good percentage.

Against teams inside the 8 we've won 3 lost 5 including beating the top side at home and beating Port and Essendon convincingly.

Were above average against teams outside the 8 and as the youngest team inside the 8 have been very competitive against most with only our games against Adelaide, GWS and Sydney being uncompetitive. 

We are a 95% chance to make finals for the first time in over a decade. We've improved in every category despite immense adversity and we still have huge potential for improvement both with our youth and implementation of the game plan. 

Clearly people on this forum weren't going to be happy unless Melbourne won 16 games and beat every side outside the 8 by massive margins but the reality is that's totally unrealistic for any team, let alone a young inexperienced group like ours. They're playing some great footy and giving us something to be happy about for the first time in years! A wins a win!! Enjoy it!! Get on board!! Go Dees!!

 

3 hours ago, Jaded said:

I can't handle Vince kicking out. For this reason alone Salem must return!

 

Or Hibberd.

Seriously, why does Hibberd not take every kick. He should be personally taking the ball off Vince to take the kick.

55 minutes ago, Stretch Johnson said:

It's completely unrealistic to ask for any team, let alone one at our stage of development to not have a lapse.  Every team has had them in 2017.

Leadership is an area that I would give a tick to in 2017.  We have made big strides.  Unfortunately our most important young leader has been impacted by injury, even still Jones has been super consistent again, Lewis has been invaluable, Tmac at times has been crucial and at crunch times, Hibberd controls our backline, even players like ANB, now Brayshaw are looking like leaders of the future.

You are cherry-picking those close games we have lost, what about the close ones we have won?

You are looking for some football utopia that I think only exists in your mind.

The reality is the leadership situation at MFC could be as good it has been in my lfetime.

 

No way i can excuse TWO "lapses" against Norf. 

Thats a mindset thing that we need to eradicate.

I want to play those bastards 23 times next year. Need to win every one of them.

1 minute ago, ding said:

 

No way i can excuse TWO "lapses" against Norf. 

Thats a mindset thing that we need to eradicate.

I want to play those bastards 23 times next year. Need to win every one of them.

 

And if we make the finals and win one those "North" games will be erased from our memories. While not making excuses the Crows got touched up in Tassie by North as well, it happens. You need to put those results in context of our other achievements (knocking off the Saints x2, winning in WA and SA, etc)

This season was never going to be perfect. But if we make the finals we should be satisfied no matter what games we should/should not have won.

There will be those you expect your team to win but they do not and those you expect them to lose but they  do not. 

We look forward to a time when the latter will become more commonplace. 

1 hour ago, layzie said:

I know teams drop games but even 2 of the Norths, Freo, Hawthorn would have staved off some heart stress this week.

2 would have put us in the top four. 

Well yeah, that's right!

Jesses has no more problems with kicking accuracy.

I still cringe a little with his ball drop but if it works I don't care.