4 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

It has to be said Watts would have been handy.

As would Tmac. And a fit Weid.

1 minute ago, Dappa Dan said:

As would Tmac. And a fit Weid.

And Viney

56 minutes ago, Swampfox said:

So the off season was spent doing what ?

Thought a skill like Kicking would be helpful 

 

I thought this and cleaner ball use on the outside was the difference in the 2nd quarter Swamp.  Along with a few questionable decisions that went the Cats way with the game in the balance (in the 2nd).

@Moonshadow - you didnt even get your scarf! 

Same old, same old.  2 good, 1 fair and 1 pathetic quarter once again. Nothing has changed.

 

21 minutes ago, A F said:

We really lacked synergy today, which is kind of mindboggling, given our performances in the JLT.

We had no forward structure, our forwards were absolutely disgraceful as a group and their inability to lock the ball inside 50 and lay tackles in the area was one of the key reasons we lost the game.

How many times did we allow them to chip the short one from the goal square, only to be followed up by another uncontested short chip again? Hate to say it, because he's a fat, arrogant FIGJAM of a muppet, but Chris Scott and his team throughly outcoached our coaching team.

The first time I counted a tackle laid inside 50 was late in the third quarter. We may have had one before that, but I don't remember it. Melksham laid 0 tackles. Hannan laid 1 tackle. Hogan laid 1 tackle. Neal-Bullen laid 2 tackles. Garlett laid 2 tackles. Not bloody good enough.

I can't remember the last time Hibberd and Jetta had such terrible games. Particularly, Nev. He was beaten in every contest. Hibberd's last quarter and a bit was handy, but he was far too quiet for the rest of the game. Lever also didn't wrap himself in glory either. He did a couple of nice things, but was caught out and seemed to lack synergy with his co-defenders.

Maynard was horrible. He is not a footballer I'm afraid. Nice experiment, but he doesn't have the tools. He laid the second most tackles on the ground, but his decision making and kicking isn't up to AFL standard.

Harmes played exactly how he has in regular home and away season games for the entirety of his career. Looks like a footballer until he kicks it. His decision making was a staggering at times.

Wagner's kicking was not good. In fact, it wasn't AFL standard at times, but he wasn't our worst defender and with the lack of midfield pressure coming from our mids at times, our defenders were under the pump in quarters 2 and 3.

We still give up goals too easily from too few inside 50s. It's partly our game style, aggressive as it is, that means if teams get 'out the back', they score, but I also think we need to do a lot better in our one-on-one contests in the back half.

Today, Geelong's handball game absolutely tore us to shreds and coupled with our inability to tackle, meant that they made us look second-rate at times. You've got to remember that this is a team that had Selwood, Ablett, a limp Hawkins, an injured Harry Taylor and a cameo game from Menzel. That's pretty much it. They're so one dimensional and yet we still couldn't come away with the bikkies. They were down a man for 3.5 quarters. This loss was embarrassing.

I thought our performance on Etihad against them last year was far superior to today's showing. We really didn't look like it from quarter time onwards. The umpires did everything they could to get us over the line in the last quarter and we still fumbled the prize. Petracca missed a pretty basic snap shot for an AFL player. Gawn missed twice (once from the goal square and again 20 metres out on the siren). We kicked 1.7 in the last. Not good enough.

I'm not one to buy into MFCSS, but I walked away from today saying typical [censored] Melbourne, we seem to not know how to win. Is it part of our culture? Who the [censored] knows, but zen A F was given a real test today. We were just terrible and didn't play as a team.

Sorry, sorry, sorry. I missed another negative today. 

At the midway point of the second quarter we looked like we were about to run away with the game and then Lewis completely snapped our momentum and gave a bloody stupid 50 away. At the time, I knew it would come back to haunt us. Geelong dominated us for the rest of the term and won the game in that following 10 to 15 minute patch.

Lewis was brought in to provide leadership. That was another horrible moment for him in the red and blue. I sometimes wonder if he's simply happy to see if he can snag another flag, but doesn't particularly care either way. He has a lot to prove this year IMO. 

The negatives have been well discussed here. We should have won. No excuses there, too many passengers etc. 

The positive: 

When we tried and actually played football, we held a Geelong with an inspired Ablett and Selwood to 17 points in a half of football. They will be a top 6 team, and we had them close to scoreless for a half. That is not nothing. Let's just see how this year pans out. 

20 minutes ago, ProDee said:

Posters question Goodwin, who just coached a side with a game-plan that yielded 23 more inside 50s than the opposition, which nearly always results in a win. 

Never change, Demonland. 

How many of those were cut off by the Geelong loose man?

7 minutes ago, rjay said:

I question some of his judgement calls but that goes with the territory, he's still an immature coach.

The problem with those 23 more inside 50's was the positioning of forwards and the bombing of the ball.

The game plan fell well short when we moved forward, we need to provide and look for targets.

Some times we need to finesse the ball movement a bit more and not just go full tilt.

The Cats where waiting for it and it's what we gave them.

It became easy for them to repel our forward thrusts...

You never quite know what you're going to get in round 1.  And you're not exactly sure what the opposition will throw at you.

We lacked cohesion forward of centre, but there's much he and Jennings can work on.  Goodwin is a very astute coach and I have faith they'll improve the connections you refer to.

I just get annoyed with the plethora of nuffies who target him.  

10 minutes ago, rjay said:

I question some of his judgement calls but that goes with the territory, he's still an immature coach.

The problem with those 23 more inside 50's was the positioning of forwards and the bombing of the ball.

The game plan fell well short when we moved forward, we need to provide and look for targets.

Some times we need to finesse the ball movement a bit more and not just go full tilt.

The Cats where waiting for it and it's what we gave them.

It became easy for them to repel our forward thrusts...

immature COACH FMD we need results not excuses for inept performance

IMV 

Poor selections and not having the gonads to force players to go on this camp 

Norm Smith would be turning in his grave!

1 minute ago, picket fence said:

immature COACH FMD we need results not excuses for inept performance

IMV 

Poor selections and not having the gonads to force players to go on this camp 

Norm Smith would be turning in his grave!

He is ...

8 minutes ago, Chris said:

And Viney

I was going for moreso the KP problem. Also, you can't say we could have used Viney when Dangerfield was also an out.

1 minute ago, ProDee said:

You never quite know what you're going to get in round 1.  And you're not exactly sure what the opposition will throw at you.

We lacked cohesion forward of centre, but there's much he and Jennings can work on.  Goodwin is a very astute coach and I have faith they'll improve the connections you refer to.

I just get annoyed with the plethora of nuffies who target him.  

Goodwin is not often challenged on this board but questions have been asked.

So far he seems to be repeating his errors which for a coach is not good.

We lost today first because of Geelong scoring easy goals on the rebound. Nothing new but that's a coaching error.

Secondly our forward delivery was haphazard... okay to be quick but just banging it in so it can be rebounded is again bad coaching.

Let's face it there haven't been too many games won by Goodwin's tactical genius.

Is John Northey Free??

We lost for the same old 2 reasons. We are soft up top and 1 bad quarter a game. I thaught Wagners 2nd half was okay.

1 hour ago, Swampfox said:

So the off season was spent doing what ?

 

We were out on our feet and cramping in the 4th qtr. We should be able to run out the first game of the year

2 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Let's face it there haven't been too many games won by Goodwin's tactical genius.

You wouldn't know.

39 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Salem was very good until he was smashed in to next week by the cheat.

Shouldn't have played after that really.

Garlett never should've been picked. Terrible game. Completely unwilling or unable to get to the front of the pack and put some pressure on.

Agreed, Garlett gave us nothing front & square.  Part of a small forward's role and he didn't bring it....not even once.  Could have been the difference on the day if he contributed.

1 hour ago, KingDingAling said:

Good game of football. Could have went either way, but at least we given ourselves a chance to win it. Well done to the boys.

Agreed it's the one that got away for me - Gawn simply HAS to kick that goal. We pressed for the whole last quarter, just couldn't get in prime goal scoring position. The one that was touched off the boot, the one that bounced on its end in the goal square, the several misses from difficult set shots. A shame because we really should be beat that mob. There was another where Melksham should've handbalked over to Fritsch (that may have been 2nd quarter?) plus Petraccas missed set [censored] in the 3rd.

The second quarter is concerning, last year we had way too many quarters where we were outscored by 5+ goals and it cost us several games. That is the one concern I take out of the game. The good sign is we came back, the bad sign is we shouldn't have been that far done.

I'd have been interested to see what the general theme of this thread would have been, had Gawn nailed his shot. 

One kick has seemingly turned the analysis of an entire game from what would have been reasonably positive (2nd quarter aside), to overwhelming negative.

According to Channel 7 , we did not arrive on the ground, because they only showed Geelong ( sorry, Ablett and Selwood). Then when the game finished the throw was straight to the news or in the case of Foxtel to their "playpen" show.

Surely we can request a proper media coverage of MFC games. Last year at the 3 p.m. Sunday game Foxtel at least stayed on air for a post game summary.

Apart from that 2nd Quarter we were very competitive. Both sides made mistakes (i.e. Menzel's miss) but at least we did not get blown away when we were down. Players like Harmes and Wagner improved massively in the 2nd half.  Omac held the beast well today , but Lever seemed to lack the strength to compete against the bigger opponents. I thought Hibberd was a very good interceptor last year.

Hurry back TMac, Jack and Gus.

Oliver & Petracca are maturing ( Remember they were up against Selwood, Ablett ( a pretty handy combination . How come Kelly got under the radar of our WA Scout !!! Not once, but many times.

1 minute ago, JTR said:

I'd have been interested to see what the general theme of this thread would have been, had Gawn nailed his shot. 

One kick has seemingly turned the analysis of an entire game from what would have been reasonably positive (2nd quarter aside), to overwhelming negative.

Goal or no goal the players were cooked in the 4th. Many struggled to run out the game

Same old rubbish as other years

 

Cant hold marks

Far to many handballs ( especially to no one)

Too many turnovers

No forward presence

We got carved up 

And a glaring lack of ruthlessness 

Goodwin seems to get outcoached a lot

Have a huge concern about Garlett his cameos seem to be coming less and less. If he doesn't get a goal or a few touches early he struggles to get into the game. Don't think his output has been enough for a while now.

1 goal 7 in that final quarter. Just devastating and should have done better.