Been a disappointment today, but I think this club has had a great year and while we had an opportunity it didn’t pan out our way.

welcome back Lever, Hogan, Tmac and Viney for full years and I think we go one step further next year.

Must Hunt top four and stay in Melbourne for all our finals.

 

GO DEES!

Terrible terrible way to end the season. But it’s been a very good season and a great building block for a bigger and better 2019. 

We made a [censored] prelim after not making finals for 12 years and being trash for years. Chins up [censored]. 

Edited September 22, 20187 yr by Ethan Tremblay

We did well but Goodwin's refusal to play Frost earlier probably cost us 3 wins & dropping Frisch for Smith was farcical. 

You don’t make it to a preliminary final without doing something right for the season. Well done boys. I’m so disappointed with today’s outcome but the future looks bright.?

Eerily similar to Roosy's final match. Anyway. I said all week I didn't mind losing so long as the boys put in. 

Today, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. However, 12 players didn't lay a tackle in the first half. We didn't kick a goal in the first half. We weren't just beaten, we weren't just embarrassed, we were made to look like complete amateurs. After such an impressive finals campaign I think that stings more than the loss itself. 

A very good season.

when we lost to the aints i didn't think we'd even make finals, let alone win two of em

exceeded my expectations in 2018; top four after home and away is the baseline expectation for 2019 

Edited September 22, 20187 yr by whatwhatsaywhat

Great year and proud of boys except for today which was terrible. 

Today really helps to solidify the argument that small moments in regular season matches matter. We win 1 more and finish top 4 and it’s a very different outcome.

I’m super proud of where the clubs at, and I love that we’ve got such highly competitive players that today will really sting. 

Go Dees!

Such a disappointing way to end the year, but another building block to becoming a sustainably great football team. Boys will be better for the run.

There are 2 ways of looking at it. Yes after 12 years making finals again is a tick. However I have seen melbourne play in plenty of finals and no flag. Make no mistake todays result was poor. Very poor. If they can raise the bar even higher in the next couple of years then fine but I have seen too many finals exits to get excited.

It was a good year. But the first half today put us back on the canvas. 

We will need a very solid pre-season to stand up again, clubs will know we still bleed very easily

Meth Coke had a training run today and got a spot in a GF. 

6 minutes ago, jane02 said:

You don’t make it to a preliminary final without doing something right for the season. Well done boys. I’m so disappointed with today’s outcome but the future looks bright.?

At least you can cancel next week's appointment with the divorce lawyer jane!

Just now, Bitter but optimistic said:

At least you can cancel next week's appointment with the divorce lawyer jane!

Yes - that will save me some $$$

It's been a good year on the whole, but I must admit it hurts to see Collingwood leapfrog us to a granny. But all in all, our progression has been steady and clear to see. 

1 minute ago, jane02 said:

Yes - that will save me some $$$

I’d still do it anyway... he is a filth supporter.

found a player in weideman this finals series, harmes has come on in leaps and bounds, oliver continues to astound, brayshaw finally had a no-concussion season, had no plugger mac for first 5 weeks, lever did his knee in round 11, viney only played 7 games for the year before finals, hogan broke his foot with two rounds to go in the year...there's straws to clutch at

Good year (not great refer saints)

absolutely unacceptable effort today

I'm in two minds here. Yes we made some terrific advances …… but when it really counted … we turned to shite.

1 minute ago, Forest Demon said:

It's been a good year on the whole, but I must admit it hurts to see Collingwood leapfrog us to a granny. But all in all, our progression has been steady and clear to see. 

Look at the age profile and experience of Collingwood. Their best player last night is what, 30? 

We are at the start of a long ride to the top. Enjoy it. 

We take good lessons from today, look to improve our list in the off season, and move on. Lever, a fit Stretch and Hunt, another year of development into Weids Oliver and Brayshaw and hopefully a full season from Viney and we should finish top 4 and ensure we play at the G heading into the grand final. 

Hell yeah to this thread @Gorgoroth

It's not the way we wanted to end the year, but we must not lose focus of what we achieved this year, and what we have set up for the future.

Bring on 2019!

Terrible first half and 33 tackles not good enough.  But I have full confidence this group will use this to drive a ferocious season in 2019.  The young guys are proud and they will be far more gutted than anyone and have a lot to prove next year after dishing up 33 tackles and losing contested possession by 15.  That is not what this group stands for.

The most exciting thing over the last 5 weeks was the team learnt how to defend the entire ground.  Doing that with Lever back and we are a 5 goal better team.  Lever is a great intercept player and his kicking can break lines.

Think we really need Preuss. Max has had a huge load this year and if he carries that load he’ll be 80% this time of year every year.  I wasn’t at the game today but was at the last 2 and even then I thought Max was tired.  We need max peaking in September from now on, not tired.

Perhaps some outside speed but that had nothing to do with today.  I think today our engine room is young, looked tired, and didn’t even bring the B standard game in the first half.  Losing contested possession was completely foreign and they panicked and lost composure.  They’ll learn from that.

Selection had nothing to do with it.  Smith had 10% of our tackles!! Fritsch wouldn’t have helped the tackle count.

I think this will drive us to top 2 at end of round 22 next year.  The sky isn’t falling in. Would have been unbelievable to pinch a flag this year.  Progress next year will be making a GF.  I reckon we’ll do it

Disappointing end to a great season. Was never going to be our year. Still a season away. Hold your heads high we now have a great club to follow. 

2020.

All of this is preparation.

Go dees.