And by the way ..,ess being flogged by Freo....ess predicted to finish higher than us....an away game .,always harder to win ...celebrate our win ...,it is still 4 pts ...very important 

2 minutes ago, Cards13 said:

Did he come off after his last goal with a groin issue? 

No idea, Cards.  Sorry.  Someone else might be able to shed some light on it though.

North know the formula perfectly well. Phyiscal pressure for long enough, and high intensity around the ball in close and we break. I reckon they are better than even money for next week.

I think the club may have drunk a bit too much of the bathwater again (mystefies me how they could given the embarassing off season and finish to last season). Our upside looks to be bottom of the 8 and there's enough evidence now to suggest we aren't far ahead of teams like Brisbane and Collingwood (if at all).

Goodwin has done a good job with the midfield. The forward line is looking ordinary and the backline is just no. At what point do the line coaches take heat?

Let's hope the curve turns upward from here. I reckon there's enough in the list to be much better than we are, but who wants to drive the change? Will we just continue to be the same old MFC (i.e. the most gettable sports team going around)?

 

GO THE MIGHTY DEES!

We did it the hard way but we still got the points which is the main thing.

POSITIVES:

HOGAN: He's a superstar

GARLETT: Who were the clowns that wanted him dropped last week?

OLIVER: Brilliant what a find he has been.

JONES: Heart and soul of the club.

NEGATIVIES:

Mentally weak to give away a 6 goal lead.

LEVER: Pathetic the last 2 weeks, he needs Frost in the side.

JETTA: Hasn't started the year well at all.

9 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

It's the Demonland way. Never happy.

They’re complaining. I had to wear my mates sweaty work socks for three hours if we lost. How do they think I’d have felt?

Seriously I don’t know how they ever did jumper swapping. Yuck

26 point win in greasy conditions on their turf?

Ill take that any day of the week.

Hogan 5 and Jeffy 4?

In the 8?

Plenty of improvement to come with Viney , McDonald, Brayshaw, Hannan and Frost who could be possibly injected into the side, and a first class return by the forgotten Kent.

We will get better, just needed a win today.

This is the price to be paid because of our finish last season.

Round 22, had Brisbane on toast. They had given up. But we put the cue in the rack, gave them a sniff and they nearly toppled us.

Round 23, less said the better.

It sent a clear message to the entire comp. You're never out of it against MFC.

Then the boot camp fiasco reinforced the message. Mentally questionable.

This is going to be a long and bruising season. Every game will be bruising, every win hard fought.

Oscar is now our best defender lol.

Go Dees!

It will be interesting to read reports from the Demonlanders that were at the Gabba, enjoy the beers first.

13 minutes ago, Unleash Hell said:

I won't join the wrist slashing brigade, good teams find a way to win terrible games.

I dont think we are a great team though. Still have issues to sort out.

Hopefully Hogan is ok. Was very good tonight in a game that didn't suit big men.

How crazy are the results at the moment 

Not wrist slashing but.... “Good teams”?!

We played finals last time? Last year we did what? We’re currently 1-1 when we should be 2-0... we keep getting thrashed in 1 qtr that loses is games.. 

Come on. 

Just now, Skuit said:

Oscar is now our best defender lol.

Go Dees!

Why would that be funny?  I reckon it's bloody brilliant, Skuit.  He's kicked off the season with two ripper games.

This club is at a point where we can’t just be “happy we won”. If we are serious about taking the next step we can’t keep burying our head in the sand. 

This is not 2017, I don’t care about just grinding out a win against an average team, and neither should the club. We need to look at the issues we have with consistency in games, with a lack of plan B, with poor mental lapses and defensive efforts. 

Yes 4 points is great, but finals teams are ruthless. They know how to put their foot down and win these sorts of games by big margins. We simply collapse under pressure and it is nothing new. 

If we keep accepting mediocre wins we will continue to be a mediocre team. I want a flag, nothing else matters. If we play like this and win a flag so be it, but we won’t. 

34 minutes ago, big_red_fire_engine said:

One day I hope to see us play 4 quarters. We need to read the change in run of play earlier and show some leadership and control the play.  Great to see Jeffy and Hogan have blinders. Unsure where else we can hide Lewis aside from Casey. 

Yes, Lewis has made potentially game losing clangers at crucial times two weeks in a row now. He won’t make our best 22 come finals time...

Now up to 7th ? just keeps getting better 

4 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

This is the price to be paid because of our finish last season.

Round 22, had Brisbane on toast. They had given up. But we put the cue in the rack, gave them a sniff and they nearly toppled us.

Round 23, less said the better.

It sent a clear message to the entire comp. You're never out of it against MFC.

Then the boot camp fiasco reinforced the message. Mentally questionable.

This is going to be a long and bruising season. Every game will be bruising, every win hard fought.

That last line. Bulldogs were a lot like that in 2016. Hmmm

Edited March 31, 20187 yr by Cassiew

4 minutes ago, Jaded said:

This club is at a point where we can’t just be “happy we won”. If we are serious about taking the next step we can’t keep burying our head in the sand. 

This is not 2017, I don’t care about just grinding out a win against an average team, and neither should the club. We need to look at the issues we have with consistency in games, with a lack of plan B, with poor mental lapses and defensive efforts. 

Yes 4 points is great, but finals teams are ruthless. They know how to put their foot down and win these sorts of games by big margins. We simply collapse under pressure and it is nothing new. 

If we keep accepting mediocre wins we will continue to be a mediocre team. I want a flag, nothing else matters. If we play like this and win a flag so be it, but we won’t. 

Mods how does one gold star, stamp this as the first thing read on any new topic, green light this until we win a final?!?!

5 minutes ago, Dees2014 said:

Yes, Lewis has made potentially game losing clangers at crucial times two weeks in a row now. He won’t make our best 22 come finals time...

That is for sure.

Just now, Wiseblood said:

Why would that be funny?  I reckon it's bloody brilliant, Skuit.  He's kicked off the season with two ripper games.

He's basically done a Bradbury to skip past three AA-level backmen in the space of two games. I won't deny that I'm easily amused Wiseblood. 

5 minutes ago, Dees2014 said:

Yes, Lewis has made potentially game losing clangers at crucial times two weeks in a row now. He won’t make our best 22 come finals time...

He was horrible tonight but if we do make finals I don’t believe the coaches will be leaving out just about the only player with finals experience.

25 minutes ago, Chook said:

If Goodwin doesn't bring in Frost to man Ben Brown and let Lever play his normal game I give up. Lever is atrocious 1-on-1 but I've been led to believe he's handy if he can be a 3rd defender. So let him do it.

Imagine our other big defender trying to match up on Brown. It is almost unthinkable. 

Frost is no match winner but he us a courageous competitor with height and speed and the only player we have capable of even looking Brown in the eyes. 

Christ, should the team have given up and let BrisVegas had the lollies, so the MFC Syndrome could have the jollies?

"It's so like Melbourne to roll over and lose against a team like this". We didn't.

"We screwed up our draft picks again". We didn't.

"X Team would have beaten them by eleven billionty goals". They don't exist.

It's bloody frustrating but some of the hyperbole in the game day threads and post discussion are silly. Critical analysis... sure... Critical always about everything MFC... not so much.

 

9 minutes ago, Jaded said:

This club is at a point where we can’t just be “happy we won”. If we are serious about taking the next step we can’t keep burying our head in the sand. 

This is not 2017, I don’t care about just grinding out a win against an average team, and neither should the club. We need to look at the issues we have with consistency in games, with a lack of plan B, with poor mental lapses and defensive efforts. 

Yes 4 points is great, but finals teams are ruthless. They know how to put their foot down and win these sorts of games by big margins. We simply collapse under pressure and it is nothing new. 

If we keep accepting mediocre wins we will continue to be a mediocre team. I want a flag, nothing else matters. If we play like this and win a flag so be it, but we won’t. 

100% Correct

4 points should be expected, but to give up a 42 point lead is the real story

it happens way too often. 

34 minutes ago, iv'a worn smith said:

For God's sake. We came off just over a 6 day break, had to travel after playing a tough game last week. We won ffs. Enjoy and think of next week. Geez there's some plonkers on here

I'm sure that had an effect the short week for us & the humidity.  May have made a us a tad lazy once we had the solid lead.

But this is still really unacceptable, to allow ourselves to drop intensity like it sounded.

I know the lions lifted, but that's not easy to do If we had of kept our intensity up on them.

 

This is still the old melbourne trait.  s.o.f.t.  Winning is not a strong enough enough motivation to keep the pedal to the metal. I don't know why that is, but it is.

 

35 minutes ago, Earl Hood said:

Not great. Now who wanted Garlett dropped after last week? He saved our bacon. Not a lot has changed, our midfield goes missing at crucial times. Bugg? One more chance, you have to kick them when you get the chance. I still think our game plan is deficient, as soon as we start to lose the contested possessions in the midfield we have no system to absorb pressure, use up time, deny possession etc.

Again we played a lowly side into form in the second half and made a tight game of it, why do we do that? I think we will struggle over the length of the season until we get Viney, TMac back and tweak our game plan to be more defensive. 

- genuine 'A' graders... where are they.

2 minutes ago, Sigil said:

"We screwed up our draft picks again". We didn't.

 

2 first rounders and $800k a year for Lever?

Lewis was absolutely rubbish! Wont happen, but I hope he gets dropped.