Right, so now that I've had a decent night sleep and gotten past the smug texts and comments from some Geelong mates, I'm willing to look at a few of the positives last night.

I think Christian Salem is quietly have a very good season for us.  Had another 19 touches off half back last night and, generally, his ball use is first rate.  He isn't flashy but he's tough, courageous and could easily be a 200 game player for the club.  It's also good to see him staying fit.  I'd still like to see him further up the ground, but I think that will come in time.

While he tired in the second half, I think the first half showed us that Charlie Spargo can be a very, very good player for the club.  Played a crucial role in many of our scoring chances early, as well as kicking a fantastic goal in the second term.  Once he has another pre-season or two under his belt and builds his tank he'll be able to stay in games long, but he's a very smart footballer and a shrewd pick from our recruiting team.

While his stats won't show it tonight, James Harmes is another who I believe has taken the next step this season.  Shut down Selwood in the first half and Danger in the second, it adds another string to his bow.  When he's not tagging he's shown he can rack up the stats and hit the scoreboard.  

Lastly, and the most obvious one of the lot, is Oliver.  I don't think we can truly appreciate how good this kid is.  Another 40 disposals, 7 marks, 6 tackles and 20 contested possessions.  He has the chance of going down as one of the best players this club has ever had at the rate he is going.  Took it up to their experienced midfield all night and never looks like tiring.  He just goes and goes and goes.  What a star he is.

I'm still hurting from last night, and I won't forget this game any time soon, but I still think we are a big chance of making finals and taking destiny into our own hands.  It starts with the rolling the Crows on their home deck next weekend.

2 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

I'm still hurting from last night, and I won't forget this game any time soon, but I still think we are a big chance of making finals and taking destiny into our own hands.  It starts with the rolling the Crows on their home deck next weekend.

Some games you just can't walk away finding positives. The Saints game, Tigers and Hawks games earlier this season as well...

I had no problems finding positives from last night. Noone's saying we shouldn't be hurting, but I had as many texts from Cats supporters showing admiration as I did the smug ones. We'll take a HELL of a lot out of last night.

4 minutes ago, Dappa Dan said:

Some games you just can't walk away finding positives. The Saints game, Tigers and Hawks games earlier this season as well...

I had no problems finding positives from last night. Noone's saying we shouldn't be hurting, but I had as many texts from Cats supporters showing admiration as I did the smug ones. We'll take a HELL of a lot out of last night.

Absolutely, Dan.  I understand why it will be hard for some to see those positives at the moment, but no doubt there is plenty for us to take from that game.  We have the talent, the ability and the game plan to make some noise in September, but that's up to us now.  And I still firmly believe we can do it.

14 hours ago, Mondê said:

Vince [censored] spoiled Melksham who would have marked it. Absolute panic merchants in clutch moments. Soul destroying stuff, seriously gutted. Will stew on this all week. 

 

14 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

You're right. Can't believe I missed that.

Immediately following that, the ball spills to Brayshaw who is driven into the ground, via his back, by Ablett. No free. 

I don’t know why but I just watched the last minute and Vince definitely did not spoil Melksham.

Melksham completely missed the mark, if anything, Vince could have marked the ball himself. Pity because I thought Vince was good last night.

Edited July 22, 20186 yr by Dee Zephyr

3 minutes ago, Dappa Dan said:

Some games you just can't walk away finding positives. The Saints game, Tigers and Hawks games earlier this season as well...

I had no problems finding positives from last night. Noone's saying we shouldn't be hurting, but I had as many texts from Cats supporters showing admiration as I did the smug ones. We'll take a HELL of a lot out of last night.

I hope we take a lot out of last night and learn where we went wrong. That aside as long as the players are not down and can get up again I thing we can be a real nuisance come finals time. We showed last night we are as good as anyone in the comp when on. Just need to do more with our forward entries and play for the whole game. The skipper needs to take control when things are tight and I thought he went missing at the end. 

On a positive we should have and could have beaten Cats on their own ground. Lost by 2 points with Lever, Viney and Hibberd out. Not a bad effort in my opinion.

Just now, Wiseblood said:

Absolutely, Dan.  I understand why it will be hard for some to see those positives at the moment, but no doubt there is plenty for us to take from that game.  We have the talent, the ability and the game plan to make some noise in September, but that's up to us now.  And I still firmly believe we can do it.

Yeah. I had this game pencilled in as a loss anyway. I see us beating Crows, GC and Swans and making it in. So I was prepared for a loss, personally. I didn't think we'd even get close, let alone play the better game as we did. I'm very hopeful now that I've seen what we did.

1 hour ago, Lord Travis said:

INCOMING UMPIRE RANT

The Dangerfield ruck free cost us a goal. It was technically a free kick, though he definitely exaggerated it.

The 50 against Harmes for being within the 10 metre area of a player who marked also lead directly to a goal. That was an INCORRECT umpiring decision which cost us a goal. The opposition player marked it. Harmes put his hands up and ran attempted to get out of the area and the umpire blew the whistle. There was physically nothing more Harmes could've done in that scenario, and the umpire got it wrong.

Four of Geelongs goals in the first half came as a result of free kicks that were incorrect and shifted momentum. We let ourselves down by not defending better in the last quarter, so we have to suck up the loss. However, we lost by two points. 2. Geelong were gifted 3-4 goals from incorrect umpiring decisions. We were not. The umpires unarguably influenced the end result of the match. I hope the club lodges a formal complaint. 

I don't understand how umpires can categorically make mistakes in their job with no consequences. If I made repeated errors in my job, I'd be warned and then sacked. Yet we see umpires like Nicholls running round year after year despite making mistake after mistake. I understand it is hard to officiate a game of AFL with all the pathetic rules at this point, but if you can't do it without making mistakes, then you get demoted and trained until you can do your job properly.

Problem is umpiring this year is the worst I've seen for quite a few years.

4 hours ago, dees189227 said:

Who else has woken up this morning thinking what could have been. My thought was why didn't we have more players getting back in the backline so we could crowd it like they did to us in parts and have more at the touhy contest. Also was Jetta his opponent? 

Also I kind of wish Goodwin did a beveridge and give the boys a blast afterwards. He may of but he probably didn't. I hope the review tomorrow is harsh and they show what they stuffed up in the last 2 minutes. 

According to the afl site goodwin will seek clarification about the free kick that went to danger in the ruck contest. I thought there could be plenty more he could ask about. 

I just look at the ladder and think we could be in 4th today. We could ahve gone 2 games clear of nth and a game clear of geelong. But no, that would be to obvious and to easy to play finals. 

Pretty much. The whole thing has been so vivid for me. My dreams are usually completely unrelated to what happened throughout the course of the day but last night I had shocking dreams about the game over and over. I guess it was an experience so powerful it just burned into my sub-conscious. 

What if? Yes, what if, what if, what if? What if we actually had some situational training? What if we could take an opportunity when it presented to us? What if we could defend a back pocket player taking a contested mark in their forward line?

6 hours ago, Nasher said:

I know others have responded already, but this post really hit me.

Mate trust me, even those of us with lives jam packed full of other stuff feel the sting. Being able to rationalise it away with “it’s just footy” comes later after things settle down, but the initial emotion still cuts deep.

For me, the blame phase isn’t part of the package when we lose. I don’t need to blame OMac for having a poor game, or JKH for missing an easy shot, or Goodwin for whatever, like so many do. That gives me zero therapeutic value - in fact it just makes me feel worse. That’s why I will often come across here frustrated when I post on here after losses. I just want an outlet to share my disappointment with other Melbourne supporters because I don’t really know many others, and all I seem to come across is misplaced rage and mindless criticism. People mistake my attitude for nonchalance or that I’m just happy with effort. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Last night honestly felt up there with the most crushing feeling I’ve felt in my life. I turned the TV off immediately and just sat in the dark silence by myself for ages. I haven’t felt such a feeling of hopelessness for ages. The rational, intelligent man knows it’s stupid to react so strongly to football, but it still happens.

Anyway my point is, there are more people out there in your corner than you think.

I appreciate that Nasher. There’s been many times when I’ve wanted to share my personal cuircumstances but have just bitten my tongue. It got a bit much last night and I kind of just ‘uploaded’. 

It is the outlet where you can share the disappointment. We have seen many many disappointments but there was a new realm feeling about this one, breaking the barriers of what was possible in terms of disappointment. 

At the end of the day it is good to know others feel it just as much.

Somewhat recovered today. An analogy came to me today. Feel like I somehow landed a date with Scarlett Johansen and somehow managed to impress her enough to get into her into the bedroom...but then was tragically unable to get it up. Failed at the final hurdle. 

Deep down I feel proud of the boys...Geelong at Geelong in a match of the round and realistically bar their stupid accuracy its a game we should have won. I think thats now 3 times in a row I feel like they were lucky to win. But we are just soooo close to being  the genuine article. 

1 hour ago, Dappa Dan said:

Some games you just can't walk away finding positives. The Saints game, Tigers and Hawks games earlier this season as well...

I had no problems finding positives from last night. Noone's saying we shouldn't be hurting, but I had as many texts from Cats supporters showing admiration as I did the smug ones. We'll take a HELL of a lot out of last night.

 

1 hour ago, Wiseblood said:

Absolutely, Dan.  I understand why it will be hard for some to see those positives at the moment, but no doubt there is plenty for us to take from that game.  We have the talent, the ability and the game plan to make some noise in September, but that's up to us now.  And I still firmly believe we can do it.

Yep. Lewis said in his post match with Burgs, “there aren’t too many positive thoughts rolling through my head right now”, which is a feeling we would all have related to last night. They’ll come out in time, although in this case I don’t really feel like exploring them. I just want to move on.

By the way I thought Lewis was a good choice for the one post match conversation. The younger players would have been gutted. Lewis was too, but is probably better equipped to deal with it and still do a decent interview, given both his footy and media experience. His message seemed sensible to me, “this will hurt today and tomorrow, but as professionals we have to get on with it after that.” 

15 hours ago, dworship said:

The plan is to be good enough to beat 2 teams in each round, we are very close to doing that and while it is painful, we are building to it.

Strangely enough Im starting to see this. We didnt deliberately lose those close games but i can see the steady build in momentum and intensity.

It would not surprise me if this loss isnt the antidote for round 23 last year.

It may well galvanise this group for the finals charge.

im over it. this is our finals charge. and we should have been a top 4 team this year. not 8-12th

Injuries to key players, Lever, Viney, T Mac & Hibbo have killed any top 4 aspirations we were going to have this season. I fear we will struggle to make the 8 now.

17 hours ago, number 27 said:

feels like the Port game, had em, and choked, are we the Greg Norman of footy? 

 

I feel like it will come down to the final game at the G.

so no eight you're saying?

 

8 hours ago, pitmaster said:

Unfair. His brother was the same until he had more games under his belt. Oscar is improving. Either a fit Lever or a fit Hibberd alongside O and we win. (Ditto a fit Viney elsewhere.)

T.Mac was never as bad as his brother.

Another little stat. In this game a 50 against us which commentators agreed was wrong cost a goal and we lose by 2 points. Against Saints 3x 50’s and 3 goals and 2 point loss and Port a few more cost goals and 10 point loss and none to us in all 3 games. How does that happen?

We must be the number 1 team for giving away free kicks and 50m penalties that result in goals.  I can't remember a game where by we have not given goals away for doing something stupid or dumb. Same last year!

It's killing us!

Just watched this game on  replay

....if you couldn’t see that Hogan was impeded by that knee in the back in the first quarter you would be blind ...he could scarcely jump 

Three losses by under a goal is just brutal.

I bet no other team has had more than one.

5 minutes ago, Petraccattack said:

Three losses by under a goal is just brutal.

I bet no other team has had more than one.

Brisbane's had three (plus another 7 point loss).

Adelaide and Geelong have had two, as well.

Bleeding cheap goals really kills us even with us having a relative strong score. In 4 of our losses we have scored over 90 points and 3 of those the losses have been by a combined 7 points. 

Edited July 22, 20186 yr by america de cali

3 hours ago, Wiseblood said:

Right, so now that I've had a decent night sleep and gotten past the smug texts and comments from some Geelong mates, I'm willing to look at a few of the positives last night.

I think Christian Salem is quietly have a very good season for us.  Had another 19 touches off half back last night and, generally, his ball use is first rate.  He isn't flashy but he's tough, courageous and could easily be a 200 game player for the club.  It's also good to see him staying fit.  I'd still like to see him further up the ground, but I think that will come in time.

While he tired in the second half, I think the first half showed us that Charlie Spargo can be a very, very good player for the club.  Played a crucial role in many of our scoring chances early, as well as kicking a fantastic goal in the second term.  Once he has another pre-season or two under his belt and builds his tank he'll be able to stay in games long, but he's a very smart footballer and a shrewd pick from our recruiting team.

While his stats won't show it tonight, James Harmes is another who I believe has taken the next step this season.  Shut down Selwood in the first half and Danger in the second, it adds another string to his bow.  When he's not tagging he's shown he can rack up the stats and hit the scoreboard.  

Lastly, and the most obvious one of the lot, is Oliver.  I don't think we can truly appreciate how good this kid is.  Another 40 disposals, 7 marks, 6 tackles and 20 contested possessions.  He has the chance of going down as one of the best players this club has ever had at the rate he is going.  Took it up to their experienced midfield all night and never looks like tiring.  He just goes and goes and goes.  What a star he is.

I'm still hurting from last night, and I won't forget this game any time soon, but I still think we are a big chance of making finals and taking destiny into our own hands.  It starts with the rolling the Crows on their home deck next weekend.

you're a fine fellow WB.

1 hour ago, Redleg said:

Another little stat. In this game a 50 against us which commentators agreed was wrong cost a goal and we lose by 2 points. Against Saints 3x 50’s and 3 goals and 2 point loss and Port a few more cost goals and 10 point loss and none to us in all 3 games. How does that happen?

It is an entertainment based industry and while we play attractive football we don't generate the $$$$$$$ Collingwood, Richmond or West Coast do. So we get what we get.

Did they not think of putting Tom McDonald behind the ball when there was 40 seconds to go?

Yet another late-game coaching error that just occurred to me