The more one reads this thread and as others have said there has been some wonderful analysis it becomes blindingly obvious that whatever the game plan be it was not executed to the overall benefit of the team on Sunday.

It gives me a lot of hope for the season and moreover we now have two games in which to further hone the game plan before we hit a string of must win games in Hawthorn, Tiges Bombers and Saints.

Not belittling our opposition for the next two weeks but let's be honest if we cannot put Brisbane and North away easily our season is not going anywhere. Would also like to see some evidence that our coaching staff are thinking strategically. What was Goodwin thinking in placing a second gamer as a tagger on one of the games most elite players. It was a ten to one shot at best.

In 2017 we had 8 quarters of football where the opp'n kicked more than 30 points. It's not a stretch to say we should have won 7 of those games.

It happened again on Sunday. 2nd quarter killed our game.

When Roos arrived his mantra was to teach defence first. It seems like we still haven't learnt how to shut teams down.

Yes it matters how fast the ball is coming into defence but our defensive structure is the thing that needs work fast.... 

14 hours ago, Redleg said:

I just love the big bomb to Garlett on two 194 cm defenders each week.

And then the chorus of people calling for Garlett's head, because why is he not impacting games as a 2-on-1 full forward. I mean he is clearly a full forward! 

5 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Don't know how many times it needs to be said that there is no such thing as 'dropping the ball'.

It is called "incorrect disposal" if you drop it when tackled, but the free kick is still for dropping the ball.

It's just semantics.

6 hours ago, Deemania since 56 said:

As noted earlier in re-capping the match, I was right behind Lewis when this 'trip' occurred. The umpire, deaf as blazes due to the crowd protests for the exaggerated penalty, must have thought Lewis swore at him. Hence, the severity of the penalty. In other words, umpire error once again. No MFC player would ever swear on the field, anyway. It is noted as a general observation - even amongst some Geelong fans nearby - that these two umpires did everything that they possibly could to keep Geelong in the game from the start of the first quarter. This 'evening-up' of the game reached its first climax across the second quarter and then, in highly questionable decisions in the third quarter from which they did not score. It happened again in the final quarter and was represented by not recognising 'holding' and 'dropping the ball' decisions against some very desperate and rule-abiding MFC entries and defensive play. It left one wondering how could a brash new-comer like Melbourne do that to our beloved team of champions, Geelong? 

From what I've read the opposite appears to be true, consensus being we got some dubious decisions go our way particularly late in the game.

16 hours ago, rjay said:

The offence is also to remain in the area if you were there in the first place.

You can't enter or remain in the protected area...

Spoke to an AFL umpire mate and the offence is ENTER only now. Remaining has nothing to do with it. 

6 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

From what I've read the opposite appears to be true, consensus being we got some dubious decisions go our way particularly late in the game.

Correct.

8 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Spoke to an AFL umpire mate and the offence is ENTER only now. Remaining has nothing to do with it. 

That's not what the rules say. But its no surprise the umps make it up on the fly. 

Is the Hogan in the midfield experiment a bust? Worth a try but so far not much good? 

54 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Spoke to an AFL umpire mate and the offence is ENTER only now. Remaining has nothing to do with it. 

that can't be right or I must be misunderstanding something?  If as the mark was taken I was standing 1 yard diagonally from the East-West  line from where the mark was awarded and towards my oppo's goal, I'd be less than a yard away from the mark  and nearly between the player  who took the mark and my teammate on the mark.    Surely I have to move away?

 

Edited March 27, 20187 yr by sue

56 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Spoke to an AFL umpire mate and the offence is ENTER only now. Remaining has nothing to do with it. 

It may be how you phrased the question but there's no doubt you can't remain in the area once a free kick or mark has been paid to an opponent...

39 minutes ago, rjay said:

It may be how you phrased the question but there's no doubt you can't remain in the area once a free kick or mark has been paid to an opponent...

Well yes that must be right. Normally the umpire moves players away and sets the mark.

Maybe he means when the free or mark is set, you can't enter the area. 

On 26/03/2018 at 7:30 AM, rjay said:

Now 'Gonzo', you're better than that. That's not what I said.

To expand.

Our game plan is to move the ball quickly into the forward line and often it seems we do this at all cost hence bombing the ball.

Toohey said in a post match interview that they know we try to move the ball quickly into the forward  and they set up for it.

Our game plan seems to be limited and doesn't cope well against a team that sets up as Geelong did yesterday.

I'm not big in the "we don't have plan B" line of thinking but I do believe we need contingencies. We're a bit too one dimensional.

How can you see it doesn’t cope, we lost by 3 pts.  If it didn’t cope then we would lose by 6 goals.  

 

Edited March 27, 20187 yr by Demons11

9 hours ago, jnrmac said:

In 2017 we had 8 quarters of football where the opp'n kicked more than 30 points. It's not a stretch to say we should have won 7 of those games.

It happened again on Sunday. 2nd quarter killed our game.

When Roos arrived his mantra was to teach defence first. It seems like we still haven't learnt how to shut teams down.

Yes it matters how fast the ball is coming into defence but our defensive structure is the thing that needs work fast.... 

It's not just about speed. We regularly moved the ball fast into our forward line for our repeated inside 50s.

It's pressure. Our biggest issue is that, when we have these 30+ point quarter losses, we're not applying pressure on our opponent. It's almost inherent - a side under proper pressure might win a quarter, but they're not going to win it by 30+ points.

15 hours ago, dino rover said:

Is the Hogan in the midfield experiment a bust? Worth a try but so far not much good? 

as an inside mid, yes. if he has time, he definitely has the foot skills to be more on the outside.. but at the end of the day, he's a freaking forward. 

This is not me, but I suspect a lot of us felt this way when Maxy missed the goal last Sunday.

 

28948583_139285163571138_8818794892189761536_n.mp4

If anyone still has the replay of the game check out when Oliver plays on with a couple of minutes to go and misses the goal...

I know a few people have commented on it and wondered why (Including Taylor in commentary). I just had a look at the last few minutes to refresh my mind on what happened and as Oliver marks the ball an umpire calls play on (he did call it from the previous play but called again as it hit Claytons hands)and just as he does the whistle blows.

Not sure if the same umpire that called play on also blew the whistle.

Interested if anyone else hears the same thing and what their take on it was.

 

The ball that went to Oliver went 7 metres

On 3/27/2018 at 11:06 AM, sue said:

sure, but isn't it  just slang for illegal disposal.

Illegal disposal was play on when cats did it, particularly with god's son

1 hour ago, rjay said:

If anyone still has the replay of the game check out when Oliver plays on with a couple of minutes to go and misses the goal...

I know a few people have commented on it and wondered why (Including Taylor in commentary). I just had a look at the last few minutes to refresh my mind on what happened and as Oliver marks the ball an umpire calls play on (he did call it from the previous play but called again as it hit Claytons hands)and just as he does the whistle blows.

Not sure if the same umpire that called play on also blew the whistle.

Interested if anyone else hears the same thing and what their take on it was.

 

I only saw it live but at the time I assumed Oliver thought it was touched or going to be called play on so he quickly threw the ball on his boot. From memory it wasn’t called a mark by the umpire until the ball almost hit his boot. 

On 3/27/2018 at 1:23 PM, jnrmac said:

In 2017 we had 8 quarters of football where the opp'n kicked more than 30 points. It's not a stretch to say we should have won 7 of those games.

It happened again on Sunday. 2nd quarter killed our game.

When Roos arrived his mantra was to teach defence first. It seems like we still haven't learnt how to shut teams down.

Yes it matters how fast the ball is coming into defence but our defensive structure is the thing that needs work fast.... 

We re-tweaked at half time and saw the defensive results in the second half.

Let's at least give it until half time against Brisbane before saying we haven't learnt how to shut teams down. Because clearly, we shut Geelong down in the 3rd and for large parts of the 4th too.

On 3/27/2018 at 4:25 PM, dino rover said:

Is the Hogan in the midfield experiment a bust? Worth a try but so far not much good? 

No, I don't think so. I think it'll work. He just needs a little more time to get used to the pace in there. At times on Sunday, as he did last season, he appeared a little fumbly in there. But he'll get there. I like the move. His field kicking is beautiful, so another big bodied player that can kick out of midfield is certainly welcome.

Edited March 28, 20187 yr by A F

11 minutes ago, A F said:

We re-tweaked at half time and saw the defensive results in the second half.

Let's at least give it until half time against Brisbane before saying we haven't learnt how to shut teams down. Because clearly, we shut Geelong down in the 3rd and for large parts of the 4th too.

We shut everyone down in the 4th... except for Menzel, who had an absolute day out.  The bloke was plucking them from everywhere.  Outside of him there weren't many others who had much of an impact in the second half (and I also believe Menzel was their only goal kicker after half time).

On 3/26/2018 at 7:30 AM, rjay said:

Now 'Gonzo', you're better than that. That's not what I said.

To expand.

Our game plan is to move the ball quickly into the forward line and often it seems we do this at all cost hence bombing the ball.

Toohey said in a post match interview that they know we try to move the ball quickly into the forward  and they set up for it.

Our game plan seems to be limited and doesn't cope well against a team that sets up as Geelong did yesterday.

I'm not big in the "we don't have plan B" line of thinking but I do believe we need contingencies. We're a bit too one dimensional.

I think we did change things up. We clearly tried to lower the eyes at times in the third term and worked the ball around the wings and half forwards more, but we also bombed it long too often. 

I do wonder if we're a bit too one dimensional too, but I think we did try to change the tempo and the ball movement in the third term.

I feel our biggest problem with forward 50 entries against Geelong was poor decision making. This decision making may have been caused by uncertainty, due to the fact that our forwards rarely marked the ball (multiple times balls went through their hands). I suspect this uncertainty may have contributed (perhaps paradoxically) to a just bomb it long and hope attitude. I distinctly remember a moment where Fritsch did it in the fourth term, but I was more disappointed in Jones, who did it as well.

So I put it down to pressure and not having the composure to make the right decision.

23 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

We shut everyone down in the 4th... except for Menzel, who had an absolute day out.  The bloke was plucking them from everywhere.  Outside of him there weren't many others who had much of an impact in the second half (and I also believe Menzel was their only goal kicker after half time).

Indeed. He gives me the [censored] and I knew he'd have a good game against us, because he already had the wood over us from 2017 and that's often the way it goes.

Edited March 28, 20187 yr by A F