Didn't he predict us not to make the 8?

Here he picks us to be one of 4 teams capable of winning the flag but not before doing a hatchet job on us. 

Melbourne could be as good as anyone, but first and foremost it has to get over itself.

Melbourne fails to know how to get the foot to the throat and press down hard. The Demons release the pressure too soon and play like millionaires. This needs to stop.

These are the only four (also West Coast, Collingwood, Richmond) clubs I see capable of winning the flag this year.

Despite this he doesn't believe anyone will challenge West Coast or Collingwood. 

I see this as him predicting that we wont change those things he has said. He's saying that if we do, we can win the flag, but he's predicting that we wont.

Given our record over the past 3+ decades, I dont blame him for thinking that way. We dont know what success is, and we often think we've done enough before the real hard work starts.

Mick thinking we are top 4 is like the tongue kiss of death

But he didn’t even have us in his top 8, now we are 1 of 4 that can win it ?‍♀️

As far as opinion from Mick goes, this is about as good as it gets. I don't know about getting over ourselves but we do need to double down on our ruthless side if we want to win finals. I would have agreed with him more strongly but after watching us beat teams by 100+ points multiple times last year, I think we are capable of putting our foot on team's throats and choking the life out of them. I do agree though that we need to do this more consistently and not drop off. I think this is more a function of experience though and hopefully we have that critical mass of games now.

2 hours ago, Demonland said:

Collingwood fails to know how to get the foot to the throat and press down hard. The Pies release the pressure too soon and play like millionaires. This needs to stop.

^ define Collingwood's grand final in 5 seconds.

I don't think Mick is completely wrong but he always seems so selective with this evidence 

He saw how we played in JLT there for his top 4  prediction which is never right ?

His comments are in keeping with previous comments. 

He hasn't predicted we'll make the eight, because we drink our own bath water, but recognises the quality of the list. 

2 hours ago, The Chazz said:

I see this as him predicting that we wont change those things he has said. He's saying that if we do, we can win the flag, but he's predicting that we wont.

Given our record over the past 3+ decades, I dont blame him for thinking that way. We dont know what success is, and we often think we've done enough before the real hard work starts.

Yep, covering up past verbal/written transgressions so he had to admit a fact this time, begrudgingly, strongly suggesting a bias.

I think what he wrote was basically fair.

He said 5 minutes before the bounce off Queen's Birthday (despite tipping us to win rather begrudgingly) that we drank our own bathwater. I think we were probably due for a loss but the first quarter lacksadaical garbage we served up pretty much doomed us.

Why would he have changed his mind until he saw evidence?

I have no issues with what Malthouse said or with what he previously said. His reasoning is understandable. 

7 hours ago, Demonland said:

Didn't he predict us not to make the 8?

Here he picks us to be one of 4 teams capable of winning the flag but not before doing a hatchet job on us. 

Melbourne could be as good as anyone, but first and foremost it has to get over itself.

Melbourne fails to know how to get the foot to the throat and press down hard. The Demons release the pressure too soon and play like millionaires. This needs to stop.

These are the only four (also West Coast, Collingwood, Richmond) clubs I see capable of winning the flag this year.

Despite this he doesn't believe anyone will challenge West Coast or Collingwood. 

I see  Maltenhousen  going for two each-way bets, instead of the Quaddie.   Typical Malthead...   who wanted the 6 man interchange.

In one respect I’m just like the Carlton list.

i don’t listen to him either.

Old Mick is not wrong in his comments. 

We have the talent, but is the attitude right for 25 hard weeks  i sure hope so  

This is the year that will tell us what we need to know

From Bartlett to Goodwin to the Players, all have to refuse the easy option and hurt like never before  

 

6 hours ago, FlashInThePan said:

As far as opinion from Mick goes, this is about as good as it gets. I don't know about getting over ourselves but we do need to double down on our ruthless side if we want to win finals. I would have agreed with him more strongly but after watching us beat teams by 100+ points multiple times last year, I think we are capable of putting our foot on team's throats and choking the life out of them. I do agree though that we need to do this more consistently and not drop off. I think this is more a function of experience though and hopefully we have that critical mass of games now.

Last year we were generally very good at beating the sides below us that we should and stepping on the throat of them.  I think we need to do it against good sides and consistently over the whole season.  We simply must stand up and win the big games against good teams more consistently than not. 

Would like to see us beat Richmond, Collingwood and West Coast in our home and away games this year.  Call me a harsh critic, but I was disappointed that we didn't totally put Geelong and Hawthorn to the sword in finals much earlier in those games.  We did make some big statements with those games, but we also kept them in the game far longer than they deserved to be.

I don't care if we loose a few in a upsets this year, so long as we have enough buffer on our ladder position and are able to flick the switch against the sides we really need to beat.

 

7 minutes ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

...Call me a harsh critic, but I was disappointed that we didn't totally put Geelong and Hawthorn to the sword in finals much earlier in those games.  We did make some big statements with those games, but we also kept them in the game far longer than they deserved to be.

....

I'll call it - you are to harsh.   I'd expect teams like Geelong & Hawthorn to hang on desperately in finals elimination games, so not surprised we weren't able to put them away earlier.  Would have liked to of course to preserve the old ticker.

24 minutes ago, sue said:

I'll call it - you are to harsh.   I'd expect teams like Geelong & Hawthorn to hang on desperately in finals elimination games, so not surprised we weren't able to put them away earlier.  Would have liked to of course to preserve the old ticker.

won't they also both the biggest winning margins of each weekend of their finals?

obviously we were involved in the biggest margin in the third weekend too, sigh

i don't disagree with mick, although i think it's less about drinking own bathwater and more that we seem to go into 'coasting' mode when we're on top, which allows good teams to come back at us, and then when we do get beaten we have a tendency (hawthorn, richmond, pies on qb etc.) to turn up our toes and just look like we aren't interested

i also would hazard a guess that the only games mick watched us in last year was queen's birthday walloping and then three finals

36 minutes ago, sue said:

I'll call it - you are to harsh.   I'd expect teams like Geelong & Hawthorn to hang on desperately in finals elimination games, so not surprised we weren't able to put them away earlier.  Would have liked to of course to preserve the old ticker.

My recollection was that the Hawthorn game they had the better of the play, just failed to convert in front of goal.  Thus I wasn't surprised at all when a fresh West Coast did the job on us they did.

Geelong and Hawthorn are both puss football sides these days.  Dangerfield and Selwood are past it.  Hawthorn have (had) one good onballer and a bunch of old geriatrics.  Game against Geelong should have been over at half time with the gap we put on them in the first quarter, but then we choked up and barely kicked a goal for a quarter and a half and let them back in a game they should never have been in.  Need to put sides to the sword in these situations.

3 minutes ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

My recollection was that the Hawthorn game they had the better of the play, just failed to convert in front of goal.  Thus I wasn't surprised at all when a fresh West Coast did the job on us they did.

Geelong and Hawthorn are both puss football sides these days.  Dangerfield and Selwood are past it.  Hawthorn have (had) one good onballer and a bunch of old geriatrics.  Game against Geelong should have been over at half time with the gap we put on them in the first quarter, but then we choked up and barely kicked a goal for a quarter and a half and let them back in a game they should never have been in.  Need to put sides to the sword in these situations.

I agree that the danger signs were there in the Hawthorn match that we'd be clobbered against WCE.

Furthermore, if we had have beaten Geelong and Hawthorn like we should have during the home and away season, then we probably wouldn't have even played them in finals.  Geelong wouldn't have made the top 8 and Hawthorn wouldn't have made the top 4 and probably would have been bundled out in the fist week, whilst we would have benifited from having finished top 4.

Our performances last year were quite understandable for a youngish side making it's way and establishing experience in big games and establishing beleif in themselves.

Looking for us to be that next step further along in our development this year, to start off where we left off towards the end of last year, but to be solid as rock, ruthless, and professionally/mechanically asert our dominance on the competition.  I think this is the Goodwin way and hoping it will become know as the Melbourne way sooner rather than later.

2 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

My recollection was that the Hawthorn game they had the better of the play, just failed to convert in front of goal.  Thus I wasn't surprised at all when a fresh West Coast did the job on us they did.

Geelong and Hawthorn are both puss football sides these days.  Dangerfield and Selwood are past it.  Hawthorn have (had) one good onballer and a bunch of old geriatrics.  Game against Geelong should have been over at half time with the gap we put on them in the first quarter, but then we choked up and barely kicked a goal for a quarter and a half and let them back in a game they should never have been in.  Need to put sides to the sword in these situations.

Dangerfield past it? Its only my opinion and it don't count for much but the guy might be a donkey but he's an afL jet still.

Don't like Mick at the moment, but i reckon he's spot on and i also think the first game will tell us a lot about whether he is right or not. I therefore will stick to my prediction on Port/MFC Game as being a blowout 7goal plus win for us.

45 minutes ago, 4_Kent_Watts said:

Dangerfield past it? Its only my opinion and it don't count for much but the guy might be a donkey but he's an afL jet still.

He's overrated sooky la la and we have got his measure.

Probably the key thing about Geelong is that they don't have many the quality players around to support him any more.  Too many frount runners and they aren't a frount running team any more.

11 hours ago, brendan said:

But he didn’t even have us in his top 8, now we are 1 of 4 that can win it ?‍♀️

I was travelling back from Perth today, and the Sunday Times has the same article as above, but 2 pages later had all the writers predictions and Mick still had us missing the 8.  Only other pundit that had us missing the 8 was our now good friend Karl Langdon.

5 hours ago, sue said:

I'll call it - you are to harsh.   I'd expect teams like Geelong & Hawthorn to hang on desperately in finals elimination games, so not surprised we weren't able to put them away earlier.  Would have liked to of course to preserve the old ticker.

yes its is harsh. I wanted to put them away, but Hawthorn took it to Richmond as well in the finals. They played better than the quality of their list and have some old warriors. they also top up all the time which helps them be competitive.