For the doomsayers here have a read of chris judds excellent and realistic view of melbourne in todays Age.  He cuts through fugazi and lays out why there is upside still and the potential core of a good team still with a way to go.

Short term and week to week thinkers probably should avoid. It will only upset you.

 

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/why-the-loss-to-geelong-should-inspire-the-demons-20180723-p4zt3v.html

Who cares, honorable losses are nice but they have a use by date. 2016 had a chance at finals and blew it, failed pathetically last year, heat is already on again. I don’t care for nice stats and they mean jack crap if a side is mentally weak and can’t handle pressure. As Peter Jackson said himself, if we miss finals it’s a failure this year.

4 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/why-the-loss-to-geelong-should-inspire-the-demons-20180723-p4zt3v.html

 

Just now, MSFebey said:

Who cares, honorable losses are nice but they have a use by date. 2016 had a chance at finals and blew it, failed pathetically last year, heat is already on again. I don’t care for nice stats and they mean jack crap if a side is mentally weak and can’t handle pressure. As Peter Jackson said himself, if we miss finals it’s a failure this year.

Did you read the post and article?. I mentioned a warning . 

10 minutes ago, Demon17 said:

 

Did you read the post and article?. I mentioned a warning . 

The article itself is fugazi, it means jack [censored]. Wins and losses are the only thing that means anything, always has and always will. Our club is mentally fragile and everyone knows it. I agree with PJ. Oh and Nathan jones inspiring, biggest joke of the day!!! Good for a laugh though. It reminds me of an article in the Bailey era, and we know how that turned out. 

Edited July 23, 20186 yr by MSFebey

Nice article. Might mean something if I hadn't been hearing these "coulda wouldas" for fifty years. I'm over potential. 

Yes hope is alive. We need the finals this year to inspire true belief

41 minutes ago, MSFebey said:

The article itself is fugazi, it means jack [censored]. Wins and losses are the only thing that means anything, always has and always will. Our club is mentally fragile and everyone knows it. I agree with PJ. Oh and Nathan jones inspiring, biggest joke of the day!!! Good for a laugh though. It reminds me of an article in the Bailey era, and we know how that turned out. 

It really is no fun being you is it

19 minutes ago, Roost It said:

It really is no fun being you is it

Quite happy with my life thanks, just don't accept or inhale bull [censored]. Wins and losses are all that matters, rest is noise.

Edited July 23, 20186 yr by MSFebey

It’s not like we think that next year we will fail again and not make finals. 

My problem is with this year. We have failed due to the same reasons of the last few years and even this year. 

I have thought we won’t play finals this year since the port loss and nothing I’ve seen since convinces me thatI’m wrong thinking that. I truly hope this loss gels them and we go over belt the crows, beat the suns and swans and make finals.

I don’t care about next year. For 13 years I’ve been getting to July and thinking of next year.

I’m over next year.

It's a sensible article.  The pain of Saturday night is still pretty raw, but if you can put that aside then you can see that we are continuing to build a strong side that is playing together more often.  Gus, Oliver and Petracca have 150 games between them and they basically led our midfield on Saturday night against almost 1000 games of experience in Ablett, Selwood and Dangerfield.  That's a damn fine effort and proof that our kids are maturing right before our eyes.

It’s  a very simplistic article. It’s basically correct but my 11 year old son could write it

2 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

It's a sensible article.  The pain of Saturday night is still pretty raw, but if you can put that aside then you can see that we are continuing to build a strong side that is playing together more often.  Gus, Oliver and Petracca have 150 games between them and they basically led our midfield on Saturday night against almost 1000 games of experience in Ablett, Selwood and Dangerfield.  That's a damn fine effort and proof that our kids are maturing right before our eyes.

Yeah but those young mids are mentally week so it means fugazi.... apparently.

3 minutes ago, Gorgoroth said:

My problem is with this year. We have failed due to the same reasons of the last few years and even this year. 

I actually think we have failed for some different reasons, reasons that are quite the opposite.  Last year we lost games against the lesser sides and upset a few of the top ones.  This year it's changed, but I think that shows we are on the right track if that makes sense.  As we mature and continue to gain experience then we can knock off the sides above us more regularly.  Outside of the Saints, which was a blip on the radar, we have handled everyone else with ease.  I think that's a sign of improvement.

We just need to continue to build our experience and maturity so those sides above us that we struggle with quickly become the sides below us.

6 minutes ago, Yung Blood said:

Yeah but those young mids are mentally week so it means fugazi.... apparently.

Strangely enough, the kids are fine, it’s the older brigade who are mentally weak.

Perspective.  

Demonlanders won’t like that.

6 minutes ago, MSFebey said:

Strangely enough, the kids are fine, it’s the older brigade who are mentally weak.

Not sure why that's strange. It makes sense.

We lack the experience for those 'moments' in games as Judd mentions. The older players who know what to do with the ball in the right time and place when it matters most. Our older brigade aren't as influential as Geelong's, that's clear. Lewis, Jones and Vince all could have done more to try to calm a young side spinning out in the heat of the moment in that last quarter.

But I think its important to acknowledge that the majority and most important players we have are 22-24 yrs old and simply haven't developed the maturity and mental toughness as you say to win these sorts of games yet. It's annoying and I understand the impatience and wanting to win more now. But its going to take time I'm afraid.

2017 was meant to be our 2006. We're well above where Geelong was at any point in 2006. They could barely crack the 8.

If we miss finals it would be a massive choke and would prove not much has changed on last year. How much longer are we going to be "waiting on next year"?

5 minutes ago, Yung Blood said:

Not sure why that's strange. It makes sense.

We lack the experience for those 'moments' in games as Judd mentions. The older players who know what to do with the ball in the right time and place when it matters most. Our older brigade aren't as influential as Geelong's, that's clear. Lewis, Jones and Vince all could have done more to try to calm a young side spinning out in the heat of the moment in that last quarter.

But I think its important to acknowledge that the majority and most important players we have are 22-24 yrs old and simply haven't developed the maturity and mental toughness as you say to win these sorts of games yet. It's annoying and I understand the impatience and wanting to win more now. But its going to take time I'm afraid.

I agree with you mate, my reply was to your post not the situation, ie; you having a pot shot.

At the end of day, it's all about wins and losses, what happens if we win 1 of the next 5, that'd be 3 of the last 11 (currently 4 losses from last 6).

All I care about is the end result, I actually had more faith in this team last year, having said that I think we can win the damn thing also.

According to most on the forum last week they had the Cats pencilled in for a win, now we are meant to admire the nice loss. Not me.

As I've said for a while, our kids are young and our older players are cooked, that's why I think we need to bring in the next lot of experienced leaders from successful clubs to replace them. 

2 minutes ago, praha said:

2017 was meant to be our 2006. We're well above where Geelong was at any point in 2006. They could barely crack the 8.

If we miss finals it would be a massive choke and would prove not much has changed on last year. How much longer are we going to be "waiting on next year"?

I agree if we miss finals it would be a choke, however the Geelong side played in a prelim in 2005, so one could say they were actually further advanced in 06 than we are now. 

End of the day it isn't like for like but there are similarities. 

Puff piece ( if indeed it was even written by him) from Judd. 

Why wasn't the article about Carlton, who also have talented youngsters, experienced older players etc. like GWS or Brisbane as well as Melbourne?

Don't bring attention to the problems at Princes park. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Wiseblood said:

I actually think we have failed for some different reasons, reasons that are quite the opposite.  Last year we lost games against the lesser sides and upset a few of the top ones.  This year it's changed, but I think that shows we are on the right track if that makes sense.  As we mature and continue to gain experience then we can knock off the sides above us more regularly.  Outside of the Saints, which was a blip on the radar, we have handled everyone else with ease.  I think that's a sign of improvement.

We just need to continue to build our experience and maturity so those sides above us that we struggle with quickly become the sides below us.

Agree we are finally beating the sides we should but we have not beaten any above us yet. Adelaide and North are better wins than people give us credit for but it’s the not flooding back, not controlling tempo, etc. that is what worries me and why I can’t see us making finals this year and after being where we were at the half way mark it’s a failure in my eyes.

In 6 weeks we will look back at the Geelong as the turning point. Remains to be seen of that's a good our bad turning point.  We could fall as low as 11th/12th very quickly if things don't go our way in the next few weeks. Yet with the possible exception of WC in Perth, we a capable of winning any or all of the games in the run home

7 minutes ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

In 6 weeks we will look back at the Geelong as the turning point. Remains to be seen of that's a good our bad turning point.  We could fall as low as 11th/12th very quickly if things don't go our way in the next few weeks. Yet with the possible exception of WC in Perth, we a capable of winning any or all of the games in the run home

Pity. I was hoping the Port game would be our turning point.

1 minute ago, Redleg said:

Pity. I was hoping the Port game would be our turning point.

Or St Kilda, or Collingwood, or Geelong in round 1. We've had a few