Umpiring - I note there is a general email address on the AFL's website. Perhaps we should all express our objections through that channel? I'm serious. Game v Hawks was awfully one sided too. 

Game plan - I'm liking it! Defence first, open forward line when we can use the corridor. 

Forward line - players still mostly out of form bar Hunt, but improving. 

Our oppositions inside 50 efficiency is still way too high.

It was 51% for the Eagles so every second time they got in there, they had a shot.This needs to be around the 30% mark to be a good team.

I suspect this figure will drop significantly once May and Lever are back there. The majority of our defenders just aren’t good one-on-one players.

Thought Frost was quite good tonight - apart from that fumble. 

Also, I cant understand the media’s commentary around Gawn not having that good a year. He’s been excellent since round 2. If he continues this form and gives Grundy a bath on QB, just wait and see the tide turn for them to start calling him the AA ruckman for 2019.

 

 

The better  side lost.

I know bad kicking is bad football, but we did so well to get the ball to players dead in front.

I think  we missed 7 absolute sitters.

i reckon one of their goals was touched.

Another came from an obvious throw.

The umpiring error where Smith  nearly had his neck broken ...no free... 2 goal turn around.

 

Edited May 17, 20196 yr by Jumping Jack Clennett
Typo

Can i just ask...

 

Where the [censored] was this effort in last years prelim???!

Talk about typical Melbourne. Only Melbourne turns what should have been a 6 or 7 goal (minimum) victory into a loss.

Our kicking in front of goal was pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

I can't recall Petracca ever snapping a goal or kicking a goal around his body. He missed an absolute soda in the third to go with his under 12 miss in the first 5 minutes of the game. Great that he's getting it, but by missing shots, he's undermining all our hard work. Practice your set-shot kicking.

Tom McDonald needs to do the same. His snap from the pocket was not AFL standard.

Baker was okay in his debut, but struggled with the pace at times. But he's a better option than Stretch IMO. It's an indictment on our outside mid stocks that he's still getting a game. I don't want to be mean to Billy, because he seems like a real trier and I don't think the yo-yoing selection he's faced in the last 2-3 seasons has helped his development, but we can surely see he's not going to make it now.

And I'd love to be able to see what everyone sees in Fritsch, but I'm sorry, his lone asset of skill now alludes him too. Turnover merchant.

As for our leadership, it'd be easy to say that we have a lack of it, but I don't think it's as simple as that. Gawn was for the most part brilliant tonight and Viney tried hard, but needs to play to his limitations more often. But I want to point out something Jones did tonight that for mine, turned the momentum of the game.

It's nearing the end of the third quarter. We've dominated most of the game and are 19 points up. We fail to capitalise on a forward foray and it pings up the other end and there's a stoppage. Our almost 300 game co-captain stands Shuey at the stoppage in our defensive 50. The ball is about to be bounced and Shuey jogs to the other side of the contest. Jones fails to see this and is caught ball-watching. West Coast win it, Shuey is standing by himself as Jones is still ball-watching, and Shuey kicks a relatively easy goal from a defensive stoppage. A goal we should never concede. If it were a first or second year player, you might be able to cop it, but there are not many players with Jones' experience that would switch off like that or lack the game sense in that moment like he did.

This closed the gap to 13 points and the Eagles propelled forward again and managed to get another shot on the siren that Sheed missed. It's embarrassing to call Jones a champion of our club. He's no Flower. He's no Lyon. He's no Neitz. He's no Schwarz. Leadership-wise, James McDonald was a mile ahead of him. Nathan has been a loyal servant who we could say wore the jumper with care in very dark times for us. Constantly putting him up on a pedestal is lovely, but it's sentimental for sentimentality's sake.

On the positive side, our ball movement at times mirrored 2018 and we played with dare and a dash. It was terrific to see. Particularly, in the first three quarters.

We also set up defensively really well and we stopped West Coast from switching the ball too easily.

I thought Petty was quite impressive in 1v1s, despite occasionally getting caught in transition.

Salem was again a stand out. His tackling was a real feature. 

I'm liking what Hunt is bringing to our forward half, but he, like the rest of the forwards, needs to continue to work on his goal-kicking from set shots. That said, he's been pretty good from set shots this year.

Harmes has become a proper mid. He's on the cusp of A grade now IMO. He's almost as important to stoppage wins as Oliver. But WTF has happened to Brayshaw?!

Anyway, that was the inevitable nail in the coffin for our 2019 season. You watch us win 7 or 8 games now (GWS, Freo, Lions, Carlton, Dogs, St Kilda, Sydney and North) and finish 12th or so and miss out on a top 5 draft pick that we could really do with to strengthen our forwardline or midfield.

11 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

So the umpiring was more than satisfying for you?

If you are referring to my post, no it was despicable. The umpire's ineptitude in this passage of play caused Smith to hesitate and be tackled illegally and was concussed. The umpires often confuse the fans watching the games with their doubtful decisions. What must it be like for the players on the field? How often have I seen confused looks on their faces when the umpire blows his whistle and they find out the reason for him doing so. This year has been the worst display of umpiring I have ever seen, and that's saying something, because I have been following Melbourne for a long time.

Liam Ryan accidentally kicked Max in the face taking that huge mark.

Nathan Vardy showed his true character in one fleeting moment by pushing Max whilst he was down.

I pity Vardy, and I will make a point to mention that moment whenever his name comes up. 

Edited May 17, 20196 yr by Robot Devil

Luv Petracca, but seriously lift mofo

1 minute ago, Jumping Jack Clennett said:

Thevbetter side lost.

I know bad kicking is bad football, but we did so well to get the ball to players dead in front.

I think  we missed 7 absolute sitters.

i reckon one of their goals was touched.

Another came from an obvious throw.

The umpiring error where Smith  nearly had his neck broken ...no free... 2 goal turn around.

 

If the club doesn’t question the smith one we are offically fked in the head as a club 

We can’t blame the umps guys. A few bad calls in the last but for the first 3 Qs they were fine. 

We missed easy shots for three quarters 

48 minutes ago, leucopogon said:

Tom Mac needs a spell in the twos, he's in woeful form. 

Besides his 2 set shot misses, he looked good tonight. Best he’s looked this year IMO.

Great mark by Ryan, but I thought it was pathetic sportsmanship by the Cokeheads  the way they gave it to the punch drunk Gawn ,who had courageously stood his ground knowing the players behind him had the sit.

Jetta will be cited for that tackle surely

The silver lining to this miserable season is the experience going into our reserves, so many pressganged into battle earlier than expected and getting great learnings ( sorry about that cliche) Goodwin speak !

Please can we continue our sneaky tanking for a draft pick

brayshaw to Casey ? ?

Honest question. How often does a player that quite obviously didn't hear the call and stops, gets called for holding the ball?

Follow up question. How often does the opposition attempt to hurt that player that has clearly stopped?

Second follow up question: Why the absolute [censored] is that not a free kick for a dangerous tackle?

Ball goes up the other end for a 12 point play. Then the throw and goal. How much did we lose by?

Sure our skills cost us goals, but that's within our control. What isn't in our control is the rubbish umpire calls. These weren't the only bad crucial calls. Make no mistake where this game was lost.

7 minutes ago, Jumping Jack Clennett said:

Great mark by Ryan, but I thought it was pathetic sportsmanship by the Cokeheads  the way they gave it to the punch drunk Gawn ,who had courageously stood his ground knowing the players behind him had the sit.

@7AFL
"I hated Nathan Vardy doing that. Gawn has turned him inside out all night. He has destroyed him!" - Bruce McAvaney
10:45 PM · May 17, 2019 · SnappyTV.com
 

37 minutes ago, RalphiusMaximus said:

The AFL needs to introduce some form of appeal process to allow captains to have decisions reviewed on the ground.  That blatant throw in the goalsquare should never have been allowed to stand.  Beyond that, WC are masters of blocking players out of the marking contest.  One of the umps justified giving a goal to Kennedy by saying that if you block their run at the marking contest you need to contest the ball.  I lost count of the number of times a WC player ran diagonally through the contest to take out one of ours and give his teammate an uncontested mark.  Every one of them was a free according to the umpire's own words.  We need something like the NFL system to appeal bad calls on the spot. 

Good call. Would love to see something like this to make the umpires and the game honest. 

However cant see it happening without it slowing the game up and we all know the afl’s thoughts on slow play......

The last week has proven that they can’t/won’t own their failings, so we need the media to step up and take them on. The questioning of bias toward teams, star player, etc. needs to be done in the public forum, not behind closed doors or secret coffee meetings or letters to HQ as we the fans deserve answers and respect ✊? ✊? ✊?. 

41 minutes ago, chook fowler said:

Really like Marty Hore

A rock & a gemstone.

1 minute ago, DavidNeitz9 said:

@7AFL
"I hated Nathan Vardy doing that. Gawn has turned him inside out all night. He has destroyed him!" - Bruce McAvaney
10:45 PM · May 17, 2019 · SnappyTV.com
 

But it's a team game and Vardy's team won. I hated that nobody stood up for Gawn, AGAIN! The mark is in the goal square, give away the 50 to make the point and watch the team walk taller.

1 minute ago, FireInTheBelly said:

Honest question. How often does a player that quite obviously didn't hear the call and stops, gets called for holding the ball?

Follow up question. How often does the opposition attempt to hurt that player that has clearly stopped?

Second follow up question: Why the absolute [censored] is that not a free kick for a dangerous tackle?

Ball goes up the other end for a 12 point play. Then the throw and goal. How much did we lose by?

Sure our skills cost us goals, but that's within our control. What isn't in our control is the rubbish umpire calls. These weren't the only bad crucial calls. Make no mistake where this game was lost.

Still us. We control what we can control, we kick 15.9 (which isn’t ridiculous give the misses) and we win comfortably. The umps helped with the momentum and should be questioned on some big calls at the end but we were our own worst enemies. 

Here’s my big call for the year: right now Petracca is Tom Bugg 2.0

1 minute ago, Monocology said:

A rock & a gemstone.

I can't help but feel he's only going to get better. Great get.

28 minutes ago, deebug said:

you could also add Vanders

I think we are missing Mitch Hannan an awful lot to. 

1 minute ago, Pates said:

Still us. We control what we can control, we kick 15.9 (which isn’t ridiculous give the misses) and we win comfortably. The umps helped with the momentum and should be questioned on some big calls at the end but we were our own worst enemies. 

Here’s my big call for the year: right now Petracca is Tom Bugg 2.0

We can't control what we can't control. Yep we fluffed plenty of chances, but chances shouldn't be taken away. Chances shouldn't be gifted to the opposition incorrectly.

My big call: we'll make the 8 comfortably.

Petracca needs a kick in the ars.

What is wrong with the umpire giving a free kick to Lewis Jetta for tackling Tim Smith to the ground( holding the ball.) Umpire calls play on Tim stops Can't here the Maggot Jetta slams Tim to the ground  holding both arms hitting his head first to the ground a dangerous tackle and possibly reportable.    However paid to Jetta   WCE What a Farce and a Disgrace. 15 metre out in front of the goals.

Melbourne free every day of the week.    2 W A maggots  what do you say.  I am hurting.  STAY TUNED.