1 hour ago, BAMF said:

He is an inside mid who has been pushed to the outside. I have said it before and will say it again. He is an inside mid or nothing.

We have a serious lack of outside mids which is why he gets away with less scrutiny.

Its the same with ANB really. They simply shouldnt be playing in the positions they do but we havent got the outside players to replace them. Its great that we have been recruiting so many 'competitive' type players over the years but we really need to address the outside mid/flanker issue we have.

We cannot simply keep recruiting VFL players to add depth. We see it every year at recruitment time. "Oh good! we have picked up {insert depth players name}, we will really have competition for spots now!" and this is true.... but its Corey Wagner vs Josh Wagner competing for that spot.

We now have Corey Wagner, Josh Wagner, Hore, Lockhart, Maynard,  and others competing for the same depth spots. 

Boom Boom BAMF! ??

10 minutes ago, Rusty Nails said:

The under done aspect is a little over done here!  

So is our lack of experience compared to the opposition when we lose. Someone has to mention it every time we lost since 2009. Drew 0 games, Duursma 0 , Rozee 0 and Butters 0 all say Hi. 

Edited March 23, 20196 yr by america de cali

1 minute ago, america de cali said:

So is our lack of experience compared to the opposition when we lose. Drew 0, Duursma 0 , Rozee 0 and Butters 0 all say Hi.

Like the look of Butters. Small, nimble, physical, tough, chases, bobs up for a goal or 2.

3 hours ago, McQueen said:

Any demonlanders going for a froff?

Im keen...

 

3 hours ago, america de cali said:

Time for Jones to captain Casey and help Viney rack up game time there.

home now but keen next week...after revenge at Kardinia Park...

Just back home from the game.

Great start had us up and about in the first 15, but the finish to the quarter from Port left me a bit flat. We never looked likely after that. Along with the 2 JLT games, we were flattered by the scoreboard tbh. I dont need to add much to what has already been said so i will just include my main takeaways.

First the bad.

*Captain #1 = Possibly the worst game ever by Jones. His efforts in the last qtr particularly, where cringeworthy. Monty-Pythonesque. He was rancid. The worst decision making i have ever seen by him. The upside is that he can only get better.

*Captain #2 = not as bad, but only because he didn't get as many opportunities to stink it up. Miles off the pace and clearly not ready for the big time.

*Trac = Looked fat and slow. No gilding the Lilley here, he just wasnt very good.

*Maxy = Soundly beaten by constant body smashing from his opponents. We might not have a choice but to play Preuss if other teams try the same tactics. Gawn will be cooked before mid season without some physical backup. 

*Oscar = Lucky that Frost was even worse than him, and that Lever isnt also ready to return next week. May can only replace one and that will be Frost. (God he was rank)

I have never witnessed first-hand a more face-palmy amount of poor decision making by an MFC team. It was just unfathomable how dumb we were.

The Good.

*Weids mark.

*Melksham was pretty good.

*Wagner was also not our worst, and had a real crack.

*Sparrow surprised me. I expected nothing and got a bit more than that. Not a bad debut other than a few panic disposals.

I expected a slow start to the season, but if we play like that next week Geelong will bone us by 10 goals. Lucky its round one and we have plenty of time to find our groove.

May cant come into the team fast enough. Bye Frosty the Blowman.

 

Edited March 23, 20196 yr by ding

1 hour ago, Jaded said:

I always feel so bad for young defenders. What a baptism of fire. He looked so overawed. And I mean why wouldn’t you be standing next to the defensive giants that are Frost and Omac. 

I think Oscar McDonald will be a good defender but he is also inexperienced and needs help. This is where Lewis is so valuable at half back. He ushers the troops. 

Our backline without Lever and May is horrible. Very few winners except Jetta. 

Hibbo looks to be on his last legs. 

Jaded I've been reading excuses about Oscar on here for so many years now and how "others" need to get in and assist him.  In his rookie years and pre 6/6/6 i understood this argument.  

But with the new 6/6/6 in play the ability of a defender to truly cover off his own opponent is now more crucial than ever and there will be less chances for other defenders to play "off" their direct opponent, as much as they  would have previously, to help out.  And Oscar is also into his 5th year...no longer a rookie.

This will be the year (and a few following this one) that will expose many of the pretender defenders.

Oscar really needs to step up from here if he is to justify his place in this line up, especially with Lever returning in the back half.

1 hour ago, picket fence said:

Also have to say 

As bad a loss as any under Mark Neelds Coaching!

There have been a few desperate calls today, but I think this is an early and probably unbeatable contender for overreaction of the season.

They should wear black armbands around their heads next week. In honour of a dog vomit start to the year.

32 minutes ago, Buzzy said:

Our effort all over the ground was laughable today.  When you're seeing free Port players all over the ground, it just shows a complete lack of respect and intensity from a big chunk of players.

One piece of play summed it up for me:

- Gray was waiting to deliver it just outside his 50.  Salem loose, looked around and saw Westhoff ambing out of the goals square on his own and thought 'too big for me, I'm not taking him'.   

- Oscar then came over to take him, but that left Ryder on his own. 

- Gray kicks to Ryder, overcooks it, but Oscar decides he's going to have to take him now, Ryder just lets it go over his head but Oscar runs and jumps under the ball, completely missing it for his second embarrassing high ball misjudgement of the day.  

- Ball falls straight into unmarked Westhoff's hands, simple goal.

As good as Salem was today, that was a p*ssweak moment from him...  And Oscar... well if you're slow and non competitive when the ball hits the ground, you'd better be a bloody good spoiler and body on body player, but he's neither of those either.

This is the kind of rubbish effort that will get brought up on 'On The Couch' by Garry Lyon - and so it should.

Selfish and clumsy football, crap start to the year.  This better not be repeated or you'll see a lot of people drop off this bandwagon.

 

 

I was there and saw that play too. I think you read far too much into that play. Oscar was committed to Ryder, not sure on Salem’s instructions, but it may include not manning up on 6’7” ruckman. Haven’t dissected it on replay but where was Frost? He should have been manning Westhoff. 

18 minutes ago, ding said:

Just back home from the game.

Great start had us up and about in the first 15, but the finish to the quarter from Port left me a bit flat. We never looked likely after that. Along with the 2 JLT games, we were flattered by the scoreboard tbh. I dont need to add much to what has already been said so i will just include my main takeaways.

First the bad.

*Captain #1 = Possibly the worst game ever by Jones. His efforts in the last qtr particularly, where cringeworthy. Monty-Pythonesque. He was rancid. The worst decision making i have ever seen by him. The upside is that he can only get better.

*Captain #2 = not as bad, but only because he didn't get as many opportunities to stink it up. Miles off the pace and clearly not ready for the big time.

*Trac = Looked fat and slow. No gilding the Lilley here, he just wasnt very good.

*Maxy = Soundly beaten by constant body smashing from his opponents. We might not have a choice but to play Preuss is other teams try the same tactics. Gawn will be cooked before mid season without some physical backup. 

*Oscar = Lucky that Frost was even worse than him, and that Lever isnt also ready to return next week. May can only replace one and that will be Frost. (God he was rank)

I have never witnessed first-hand a more face-palmy amount of poor decision making by an MFC team. It was just unfathomable how dumb we were.

The Good.

*Weids mark.

*Melksham was pretty good.

*Wagner was also not our worst, and had a real crack.

*Sparrow surprised me. I expected nothing and got a bit more than that. Not a bad debut other than a few panic disposals.

I expected a slow start to the season, but if we play like that next week Geelong will bone us by 10 goals. Lucky its round one and we have plenty of time to find our groove.

May cant come into the team fast enough. Bye Frosty the Blowman.

 

Ding fair suck of the sav....it was damn hot out there!

4 hours ago, McQueen said:

I spent $600 to come and watch this [censored]. 

I spent over $2000 to watch the prelim final ...get over your self ...I don’t regret a cent ...first game ...always going to be up against after our preseason...21 more games to go !!!

How about that Oscar and Frost though. 

Wowwwwzeee. 

 

 

(can't be bothered going into actual analysis of the game). 

Edited March 23, 20196 yr by stevethemanjordan

28 minutes ago, Rusty Nails said:

Jaded I've been reading excuses about Oscar on here for so many years now and how "others" need to get in and assist him.  In his rookie years and pre 6/6/6 i understood this argument.  

But with the new 6/6/6 in play the ability of a defender to truly cover off his own opponent is now more crucial than ever and there will be less chances for other defenders to play "off" their direct opponent, as much as they  would have previously, to help out.  And Oscar is also into his 5th year...no longer a rookie.

This will be the year (and a few following this one) that will expose many of the pretender defenders.

Oscar really needs to step up from here if he is to justify his place in this line up, especially with Lever returning in the back half.

There's a reason we've been targeting key defenders the last couple of offseasons. The FD isn't blind.

I went today expecting to see "the Melbourne way".

I think i must have missed the briefing?

I thought that the Melbourne way was contested possessions, pressure and work rate? I realise that it was hot and the wind was a bit swirly but there was no intensity or work rate.

I think that it's very simple to blame the defenders when there was little team defence around the ground. Today we seem to have had a complete mare across the board. I'm really concerned about next week against the cats.

8 minutes ago, defuture15 said:

I went today expecting to see "the Melbourne way".

I think i must have missed the briefing?

I thought that the Melbourne way was contested possessions, pressure and work rate? I realise that it was hot and the wind was a bit swirly but there was no intensity or work rate.

I think that it's very simple to blame the defenders when there was little team defence around the ground. Today we seem to have had a complete mare across the board. I'm really concerned about next week against the cats.

We will lose.

3 hours ago, Wiseblood said:

Jones and Viney, with interrupted pre-seasons, shouldn't be the focus of our ire today.  Not yet, anyway.

It should be on those that we expect to be fitter and ready to go.  Those that didn't have the interrupted pre-seasons that others had.  Petracca is the one that comes to mind.

Petracca had a (very) interrupted preseason with a knee arthroscopy, and didn't start full training till mid-January, after which he had to go back into rehab after a flair-up.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-01-24/track-off-track-but-demons-hold-no-fears-for-star

22 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

There's a reason we've been targeting key defenders the last couple of offseasons. The FD isn't blind.

 

23 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

There's a reason we've been targeting key defenders the last couple of offseasons. The FD isn't blind.

Traded away some very useful draft picks to get them. How did they go today?

So predictable.

I had put a few bucks on Port @ $3.37.

40 minutes ago, Deestar9 said:

I spent over $2000 to watch the prelim final ...get over your self ...I don’t regret a cent ...first game ...always going to be up against after our preseason...21 more games to go !!!

Umm.... how’s get [censored] sound. 

I spend thousands of dollars each year travelling from Perth to watch games like today’s. 

Think before you post. 

Edited March 23, 20196 yr by McQueen

18 minutes ago, defuture15 said:

I went today expecting to see "the Melbourne way".

I think i must have missed the briefing?

I thought that the Melbourne way was contested possessions, pressure and work rate? I realise that it was hot and the wind was a bit swirly but there was no intensity or work rate.

I think that it's very simple to blame the defenders when there was little team defence around the ground. Today we seem to have had a complete mare across the board. I'm really concerned about next week against the cats.

It’s easy to point to lack of work rate etc but I can assure you if there is one player who’s GPS and heart rate monitor numbers show they didn’t put in effort they won’t play again for the season, let alone next week.  Perhaps some are underdone but to me it just looked like our effort is good but we just have poor defensive setup around the ball.  Just need to play smarter.  Contested possessions are everything and too many players chased the ball rather than closing down the loose Port player.  Happens at stoppages all over the ground, in our forward 50, and sometimes but less often in our defensive 50.  I thought we had fixed this flaw after week 21 last year but it is back with a vengeance.  

On the narrower ground next week I have a feeling we will smash it.

  

13 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Petracca had a (very) interrupted preseason with a knee arthroscopy, and didn't start full training till mid-January, after which he had to go back into rehab after a flair-up.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-01-24/track-off-track-but-demons-hold-no-fears-for-star

Thought on nearly all one on ones today Petracca beat his opponent. Sparrow above expectations. Rest of forward line shitzen

17 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Petracca had a (very) interrupted preseason with a knee arthroscopy, and didn't start full training till mid-January, after which he had to go back into rehab after a flair-up.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-01-24/track-off-track-but-demons-hold-no-fears-for-star

Just goes to show that we've had so many players have off season surgery, that it's easy to forget who actually got it.

I stand corrected.

11 minutes ago, McQueen said:

Umm.... how’s get [censored] sound. 

Did you end up finding a pre game beer and chicken wings?

1 minute ago, Wadda We Sing said:

Did you end up finding a pre game beer and chicken wings?

Beers yes but held off for a pie at the ground mate. 

4 hours ago, Wiseblood said:

Six year old then.

It's more than just the midfield.  There were certain nuances and set ups that we can't do anymore, such as the two off the back of the square, that were extremely important to the way we played our brand of footy.  Taking a few of those things away will take time to adjust to.  Hopefully that's not too long.

Like everyone else we had 6 months to adjust to the 6/6/6 and not having players at the back of the square.  Richmond almost never played 6/6/6 but have adjusted ok.  So have other teams.  But we need more time.  Please.