We have to wear it, no doubt about it. We blew it 

I know as supporters we are all extremely disappointed with how the season ended with no finals, but looking at the big picture of ultimate success, I'd almost argue that making the finals and then getting bundled out week one would have just been short term satisfaction to players and supporters alike. 

BUT, by just missing and the disappointment that has followed, does this spur the players even further than a soft exit out of the finals with a pat on the back saying "well done at least you made finals"?

I'd like to hope so, as 2017 was never going to be our year anyway, so does 2018 look better for us?

having some finals experience would've been nice though...

9 minutes ago, Macca said:

Not sure any team has missed the finals by a smaller margin in terms of percentage - 10, 11 points?

Another forgettable record which we'll no doubt hold for yonks.

In a lot of ways this was the opposite of '87 ... back then we had to beat another contender to give ourselves a chance and we needed another result to go our way (Hawks defeating another contender (Geelong) to  pave the way)

This time around we needed only one of 3 things to go in our favour and not one of those 3 happenings occurred.  And you just knew it was going to happen that way too.

We're going to have to wear this one for a while ... but hope springs eternal.  A boom recruit or 2 will brighten things up.

Bring on the off-season!

 

9 [censored] points and we play finals

I am very disappointed and do not want to make comments about the future until it disappears. We need to use the disappoint of this finish to make 2018 a great year.

There is the worry that hunger would be satisfied after tasting the chocolate. Breaking the drought and getting that finals experience would have helped though 

If we miss in 2018 we are as good as done

I don't think I can sleep tonight 

28 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

9 [censored] points and we play finals

We would have had to have found our best form to beat Port at the Adelaide Oval and to be honest, that was a little unlikely. 

But of course we never really know and the experience at least would have been invaluable. 

It's not the be-all-and-end-all though.  If we do make the finals next year, the sting from this season will still linger.

4 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

I know as supporters we are all extremely disappointed with how the season ended with no finals, but looking at the big picture of ultimate success, I'd almost argue that making the finals and then getting bundled out week one would have just been short term satisfaction to players and supporters alike. 

We score 9 more points this year and we play Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval in a fortnight.

• We beat Port Adelaide by 23 points at the MCG 5 weeks ago.
• We beat Adelaide by 41 points at Adelaide Oval 2 months ago.
• We beat Port Adelaide by 40 points at Adelaide Oval in Round 21 last year.
• Port Adelaide have defeated 1 team inside the top 8 all season (Sydney in Round 1, when they were shite).

Oh and, after today, I guess we can count West Coast! What a resume! They've lost to every other finalist, like the pretenders they are. And yet they sit pretty at top 4 because, unlike us, they actually put lowly opposition to the sword.

Point is, we had every chance of playing week two of finals this year with a match against Port at AO. Typical of the MFC, we completely [censored] it up in glorious fashion.

45 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

In my moment of anger I emailed back to the club and said maybe wait until finals are confirmed before you send out this crap. Then wrote something along the lines I hope the players are happy they wasted another season. 

I know the  person who will probably read it isnt responsible but someone chose to email that out. Surely PJ wouldnt have approved it. It's something Schwab would have done. 

I suspect the club may get a few emails and phone calls tomorrow. 

It's one piece of paper that just sums up a complete lack of Maturity. 

I thought all this kind of rubbish was sorted in 2013-14

 

8 minutes ago, SaberFang said:

We score 9 more points this year and we play Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval in a fortnight.

• We beat Port Adelaide by 23 points at the MCG 5 weeks ago.
• We beat Adelaide by 41 points at Adelaide Oval 2 months ago.
• We beat Port Adelaide by 40 points at Adelaide Oval in Round 21 last year.
• Port Adelaide have defeated 1 team inside the top 8 all season (Sydney in Round 1, when they were shite).

Oh and, after today, I guess we can count West Coast! What a resume! They've lost to every other finalist, like the pretenders they are. And yet they sit pretty at top 4 because, unlike us, they actually put lowly opposition to the sword.

Point is, we had every chance of playing week two of finals this year with a match against Port at AO. Typical of the MFC, we completely [censored] it up in glorious fashion.

The way we played on Saturday, I wouldn't have given us much chance. 

I was just on twitter before, geez there's a lot of crap being thrown Melbourne's way. Especially by Collingwood supporters, even directly at players like Bugg, Watts, Gawn etc

Oh and then there's Warwick Capper tweet asking people to put out their cheese platters to commiserate the Dees missing finals. FFS

Might just deactivate my account for 6 months.

3 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

I would players and coaches to apologise to supporters!

Often when clubs put in shocking performances they apologise to their fans and supporters.  Has anyone heard an apology from our players/coaches in recent years?

As someone said in another thread, we buy memberships, merchandising, go to games stick with the club thru thick and thin and endure the humiliation directed at us. 

Well its time they new we existed and stop taking us for granted.

Unfortunately given Melbourne's past performance the apologies you expect would sound like a broken record.

Point is we beat both Ess & Wc...

We have played far  better footy than WC...

WTF are they playing finals????
 

one thing we need is.....

MONGREL!!!!!!!!!

Does anyone remember the episode of The Simpsons where Homer experiences the 5 stages of grief (Elizabeth Kubler Ross) - denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Well, with enough alcohol - I think I experienced all of them in that in the last 24 hours.

Denial - West Coast will lose and we will make the finals.

Anger - the loss to Collingwood. Freo falling short.

Bargaining - barracking for Adelaide and continuing to believe.

Depression - we missed the finals - and my U12's domestic basketball team lost to the bottom side in the last 20 seconds!!! Shitty weekend all round, to be honest.

Acceptance - Truth of the matter, we aren't ready. We've improved. Our contested ball was outstanding at times, as too was our scoring. But our defense and concentration levels needs work. 

The belief that we could do a "Bulldogs 2016" dissipated after we reached the top 4. Maybe it's a result of being young side in a long year or a young side who drank too much of their own bath water.

Having the best 22 on the park means nothing if they aren't a cohesive unit. Our best work and wins were without our best 22 on the park. Maybe we jagged a couple wins we shouldn't have (Adelaide and West Coast) and that flattered us - regardless, it wasn't a sustainable and repetitive practice with the team we have - and that showed as the year went on. The result, we aren't ready for finals.

I would say that swimming against the tide all year took it's toll - physically and mentally - Gawn's hammy, Jesse's whole year, Jack's foot, Jone's quad, Bugg's suspension in a pivotal game, friggin umpires,  Tyson's kicking, Jeffy's set shots, Tmac's kicking (in defense) , being beaten by Collingwood seconds and WCE beating Adelaide by just enough to keep us out . More proof we aren't ready - or maybe fate.

Let's hope that the experiences of 2017 and missing by an iota is all for the greater good. Bring on 2018.

Over and out!

I'm shattered. This is the worst I have felt in years. 

We had it all to play for Saturday. Win and you're in. And once again the players crap the bed. Some stood up. Most didn't. They just didn't want it or thought they could crap it in. And when they realised it was slipping, they panicked.

Two goals. Closest miss in VFL/AFL history.

Only Melbourne.

This one will take me a while I think. This is worse than 186.

All I wanted was another final.

4 hours ago, Mel Bourne said:

Jack Watts must go. He is a failed experiment. People say he was "solid" yesterday. Well f&*k "solid". He needed to be outstanding, and the reason he wasn't is because he is an average player who never puts his head over the ball and who looks like he's playing his first nervous game of AFL every time he plays. In his early days I got sick of defending him, then I became sick of keeping my mouth shut about how much he pisses me off. No more. He pisses me off. And he won't get better.

But the biggest issue we have is a very deep, somewhat mysterious but very real and damaging psychology within the club. There is no heart or soul to be found anywhere. When Jim Stynes passed, we lost more than a great footballer and human being. We lost our sense of our history. Tell me who are the past stars of the club who still rally around the players? Garry Lyon is too busy being a media [censored]. David Neitz or David Schwarz? Ever see them around? The list really does go on. So many of the other clubs have benefitted from it's sense of history and worth. But Melbourne to me seems to be a cold and quiet club in this regard. This is just one aspect of a club that perpetually disappoints on the big stages. That makes it's supporters eternally frustrated, nervous,  doubtful and ultimately faithless. To unpack the other reasons why Melbourne are such a mentally weak outfit would take way too long.

I don't say any of this lightly. I have been a supporter all of my 42 years and a member for many, many years now. And today I can honestly say that I've never been more disillusioned by the club and the game in general. I might regret venting like this later, but today the feeling is very real.

i couldn't agree more. Watts is soft and we have the lowest expectations of him now. his great games are good games, his good games are average games and his average games are worse than your average suburban footballer.

You need guys that put their head over the footy and he doesnt have it in him. we need to take a hard line on soft players and goodwin should have never let him back in the team. People on thos forum give weeds a tough time but he has already shown far more appetite for the balk than watts has ever shown

5 hours ago, Pates said:

This hurts. More than any other year of watching other teams in the finals this hurts. I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to watch any of it. 

The idea that Essendrug are in there, West Coast who are the biggest flat track bullies, that had we actually beaten the bottom team properly when we were 32pts up, that had we actually done the job when everything was on the line this week, we could/should be in there instead. 

We've improved, but we're still a laughing stock. 

 Why are we a laughing stock Pates? If we are a laughing stock there are nine other teams behind us who are more of your so called laughing Stock.

1 hour ago, jnrmac said:

9 [censored] points and we play finals

Wonder what would have happened if % was exactly the same? Anyone know?

17 minutes ago, Bobby McKenzie said:

Wonder what would have happened if % was exactly the same? Anyone know?

Ironically, we would've gotten in based on head-to-head results (because we beat West Coast at Subiaco).

Honestly who gives a [censored] anymore. Our players don't.

I had totally forgotten we lost to Freo on the MCG.

What a joke this club is.

6 hours ago, jnrmac said:

9 [censored] points and we play finals

And to think we took our foot of the gas last week vs the Lions when we were 30 points up.

What the [censored] is wrong with this footy club.

Need to harness the anger