Melbourne v Hawthorn

[Hulett Packard III 166]

It's half time and we're leading by 16 points 7.6.48 to 4.8.32

Two goals each to Neita and Robbo. "Chip" Frawley came on and gave an assist goal straight away to Doggy.

Belly gave away a three pointer rushed behind that was an absolute shocker. I just hope we don't lose by a point.

If anything, they're overusing the ball but it's the first game of the season.

[dazzledavey36 54,113]

Frawley, hughes, jones and buckley are all impressing! Chris Johnson is playing a ripper of a game!

[Freak 100]

franklin is the most impressive youngster since chris judd i reckon.

[dazzledavey36 54,113]

Brad Miller is.. :angry:

[Jarka 767]

I'm not upset that we didn't win this game, we don't need to play any further in the pre-season comp, but we have some problems with a couple of players we've had on our list for awhile.

[Damo 3,334]

I'm not upset that we didn't win this game, we don't need to play any further in the pre-season comp, but we have some problems with a couple of players we've had on our list for awhile.

I agree.

Its not worth the grief to mention Bell and Miller.

[Hulett Packard III 166]

I agree.

Its not worth the grief to mention Bell and Miller.

The disappointing thing was the fact that we capitulated so easily from a 30 point lead late in the third quarter to be 30 points down late in the last.

[dazzledavey36 54,113]

i thought bell played a good game? but nar i dont really give a stuff that we lost, though i am impressed on how our young kids went! Frawley looks the goods and Hughes should atleast play a couple of games if they nominate him as they did to warnock.. Jones very good first half but sorta went in the 2nd.

[whelan45 202]

I agree.

Its not worth the grief to mention Bell and Miller.

BELL! Are you kidding! He was easily in our best! What game where you watching????? He looked so impressive! Hope you were meaning someone else!

[Damo 3,334]

BELL! Are you kidding! He was easily in our best! What game where you watching????? He looked so impressive! Hope you were meaning someone else!

Too often leaves his man to go to the contest. It cost us dearly.

I admit Im not on his bandwagon, but think it is silly to see him defended incessantly.

[mauriesy 7,230]

Too often leaves his man to go to the contest. It cost us dearly.

I admit Im not on his bandwagon, but think it is silly to see him defended incessantly.

But it is also silly to have bias beyond reason.

The top 5 on ranking points were:

Bruce (Melb) 126

Franklin (Haw) 126

Brown (Melb) 123

Bell (Melb) 117

Lewis (Haw) 100

[Madness 44]

Bell played a great game but hughes just doesn't make the standard for me...

[John Dee 445]

I just got back from the game. I am not that upset that we lost, but, I didn't particularly like the way that we did it.

I thought that Chris Johnston was our best player. Cam Bruce would have been if his disposals, particularly early, had been more effective. Green was good, too. Bell was Bell. If you are on his bandwagon, he plays well; if you are not, he doesn't.

I am on Miller's bandwagon. I wasn't impressed, enough said.

Frawley looked a bit lost, but, what else could you expect. Buckley looked the goods, but, ran out of puff, again understandable.

We missed Mclean, Johnstone and White in particular. We really lost our run through the midfield in the last quarter. There was no point in playing a forward line in the last quarter, we couldn't get it down there!

[Pates 9,655]

Yeah i thought Belly had a good game tonight, Miller's got to start taking the ball in front again, too often he went chest instead of in front.

Bruce showed he wants to make 2007 a big one, and Jones looks like he's fit and ready to take on a freight train. I'm not going to panick, and i'm sure that while everyone would've liked a win tonight, round 1 is what we're focused on.

[classy dees 42]

my thoughts from today.

1) PJ, jamar and miller all highly ineffective. couldn't see if miller improved his kicking because he couldn't mark a thing.

2) bell is great at 1-1's, but too often williams outsmarted him by making space after the contest often leaving bell exposed.

3) neita looking fit and well.

4) obviously haven't practiced kicking over the break because their sheer refusal to do so was painful

5) green and bruce were good. needed brock and TJ and white most importantly because the other two do not inspire any confidence in me at all.

6) bizz will struggle this year, ward was far more effective at the loose man role.

1 question, why do we always get sucked into moronic things against hawthorn??

couldn't care about losing but way not happy with the way we just lay down...

[mikeod 21]

We didn't lay down.

We had a midfield that was either not normally in the midfield (Bruce, Green), was aging (McDonald) or young (Jones) against three very good players in Hodge, Mitchell and Crawford.

We played very well for about 3 quarters, but our lack of experience certainly cost us in the end. Not much the defenders could do with so little resistance from the midfield.

[classy dees 42]

We didn't lay down.

We had a midfield that was either not normally in the midfield (Bruce, Green), was aging (McDonald) or young (Jones) against three very good players in Hodge, Mitchell and Crawford.

I dunno if i agree with that mick, bruce especially is often part of the starting 4, and last season macca was our B&F.

undoubtedly we had more players of class out (TJ, white, moloney, pickett, davey, whelan, et al)

couple other things, robbo looks fit again and godfrey is no longer in the best 25 as bate and jones CJ etc are now well ahead of him

[george_on_the_outer 7,554]

First time tonight that we saw the new "run and carry" game plan.......I hope that we still need time to perfect the execution, but it failed miserably tonight in my opinion.

Run and carry implies two things- running and carrying. Neither happened, apart from running into the opposition wall. The handpassing to static players was rampant.

I know the intent is to release a player, but like the "give and go" in basketball ( on which this seems to be based ) is that both players must be in motion. And unlike basketball you can be tackled, so you don't give to someone unless they are in a better position than you.

The other downside is that based on tonights effort, it absolutely crucifies the forwards. Instead of a kick to a leading forward, the back and forward handpassing means they cannot lead, because they never know when it is coming. Even a scrubby kick out of the centre is to the advantage of a forward who is in front of his man. That is one of the reasons that Miller hardly got a touch. Neitz despite 2 goals was in the same position. Fortunately, the NAB cup was the time to experiment, because we had a far superior forward line to their backs, and this tactic should not be used again when that is the case.

Happy with the performance of Buckley, who was the best of the new blood. Hughes showed nothing with the opportunities he had, and was a long way out of the game. Warnock got a bath, especially when on Franklin in the last ( he only kicks on his left son!). Frawley got a taste of the big time, and we will see him playing in 2008, not this year.

Not unexpectedly we got what we already know about Brown, Ward, Bizzell and Godfrey.

[DemonTux 97]

My thoughts on the game ...

Belly was pretty good, Miller is a worry, CJ great.

Hughes wasn't to bad? Buckley for mine showed a fair bit more than him.

Frawley for an 18 year old ran through 4 or 5 tackles which was impressive ...

The rucks... just not good enough

Bizz ... 1st game back after year, cant expect much but the writing is on the wall at these early stages

Eight players to come back into our team from tonight there wer atleast 5 i would drop with out a second thaught, how many do hawthorn have?

CJ's supper goal being dissalowed in the 3rd (to be over turned latter) really seemed to swing the momentum and hawthorn just had one of thoes quaters where everything seemed to bounce for them. After the 1st quarter burst from franklin (had a large dose of luck) we seemed to take a bit of control but couldnt convert.

Disapointing but the 3 quarter preformance from what in the most part our kids and depth players.

[Cameron the Bruce 1]

I'm not too annoyed, it's only the Nab cup, however I did get pretty worked up at the game as we were sitting amongst heaps of Hawthorn supporters. They outnumbered us by quite a few tonight, and they celebrated as if they won the premiership!

Firstly, I'd like to defend Bell, I thought he was definitely in our best tonight, he looked quick, handled the ball well, although his decision making wasn't fantastic. Jonesy looked great early on, but did fizzle out in the second half. That said, all of the boys looked very fatigued in the second half, so Jones can be excused.

Ward really frustrated me tonight, as did Godfrey. I know we've been through these two before, and I know we didn't have nearly our best team on the park tonight, but hopefully we don't play these two much this year. We need guys like Johnson and perhaps a Buckley to step up and take their spots. They are goer's, but under pressure they cough it up and cost us dearly. This happened on several occasions tonight. Godders also gave away a careless 50 tonight, giving them a supergoal, however he was a little stiff as the umpires didn't adjudicate on similar events earlier in the game.

Although the boys were definitely committed in the packs tonight, I was disappointed with the way we attacked the man and the football. It seemed we were content with lightly coralling the player with the ball rather than pressuring them and making them panic. That might just be the new style of running football. There were also many occasions when we didn't commit to getting the ball, however I would rather this to any injuries.

We didn't really have a dominant player tonight, although Bruce looks good on the stats sheet I thought he shirked a few contests. Green played well, and his kicking looks back to its old self which is hugely promising. I'm excited about Green this year.

As for the young brigade, I thought Frawley did some nice things, and his kicking was alright despite his very awkward action. No. 38, think he might be Daniel Hughes, looked to have a lot of pace. Someone who also impressed in spurts was Dunn. He looks great when he has the footy, he is one of those players who seems to have time. He just needs to get more of it. I thought Buckley looked ok, but his disposal let him down a bit, mostly because he was kicking the ball at pace, rather than balancing up. Chris Johnson played well. Robertson's grab was pretty awesome too. I thought he looked alot better than last year, he even did some chasing out of the backline. We really missed Davey's defensive pressure in the forward 50 tonight, it got out pretty easily and the Hawks did us on the overlap.

[Guest crannypete]

dude is it too late to book that seasons ticket for buller

[mikeod 21]

dude is it too late to book that seasons ticket for buller

Is it too late to book into some sort of educational pre-school for this year?

[Sleeve 67]

Is it too late to book into some sort of educational pre-school for this year?

Or a drug rehabilitation facility.

The funniest thing FannyPete will be your absence when we inflict another heavy defeat circa 2006.

[ickey_11 145]

I thought the two ruckman gave the Hawks big guys a bath; pity the midfield didn't come to the party as they got first hands on the ball at nearly every stoppage only to be pressured out of it. It is going to be a long year for Hawthorn if that is the best rucks they can come up with.

I don't think Melbourne would have lost if they had given away those two stupid super goal 50 metres; but they didn't deserve to win, they we clearly the better team in skill level (at Melbourne were ordinary at skills at times) buy Hawthorn struggled to hit targets by foot.

And what is this game plan of handballing to stationary team-mates in worse positions?

For a change Bell didn't catch napping, was with with Williams on EVERY lead. Recover needs to improve but was no slouch as Bell led Williams to the ball.

Brad Miller and Bizzel both are looking at a season at Sandringham on that form. Miller did present well but failed to take a grab. I also thought the "must rotate midfield regardless" mentality also cost Melbourne the game. Did not have a ball winner in the centre at the start of the last quarter. Was impressed with Bates as well, seemed to be the only Demon to run the line to goal.

Also I think that Davey is going to get a huge benefit from the no hand in the back rule. Players are so focused in leaving the man, screening off to stop the marks that there looks like there will be heaps of crumbs for him.

Also thought the 9 umpires was very messy, everyone was confused at times. Also if the AFL want to speed up the game, the umpires need to look at the way Hawthorn held the ball up. Crawford tackled a guy on the wing at least 15 seconds after the whistle to stop him giving it back to his team mate. The Hawthorn forward (Barker?) took the ball to his stand on the mark position and stopped Carroll playing a second ball.

[Jaded No More 68,855]

The most exciting part of the evening was hearing the final siren and not having any injured players on the ground.

It was obvious that we were not playing to win. The emphasis was on the 'run and carry', and Neale obviously wanted the players to implement a game-plan that involved a lot of handballs. What we've learnt from this experiment is that we are no good at the 'run and carry', at least not yet. We handballed for the sake of handballing, often straight into trouble. It cost us dearly, but better now than Round 1.

We have 4 weeks to either vastly improve this game-plan, or drop it completely.

Other things that we could learn from tonight:

- PJ is no ruckman. He was very poor in the centre bounces. Jamar was good in the contests, but disappeared completely when the ruck-contest was not on. For such big guys, these two do a mean disappearance act. I wish they played Neaves. He is raw, but IMO he is the best ruck prospect we've got.

- Jones is going to be McLean's best friend this year. He was doing beautifully in the first half in the clearances. Very impressed with his work, but he faded out in the second. Looks noticeably slimmer too.

- CJ finally showed what a class act he is. His disposal is first rate, and he looked far more interested than in previous matches. The forward line/ wing suit him far more than the backline.

- Bell was very good, and people who criticise him are just doing so because it's fashionable. He made one stupid mistake when he tried to take on 3 Hawks players, but he was excellent otherwise, and went mostly for the first option, so he's obviously learning.

The rest of the backline was average. Rivers looked disinterested, especially late in the game, while I thought Warnock fought admirably but was outclassed by a very good Franklin. Carroll was Carroll.

- Bizzell, Godfrey and Ward are still lacking. Ward is only getting a game because he can run fast. His infatuation with bombing the ball in whichever direction is a disaster. Godfrey still can't tag or kick. Bizzell did nothing to suggest that he deserves a spot in the backline. Of the veterans fighting for a spot, only Brown impressed me. He worked hard and his disposal was relatively good.

- Speaking of disposal, Brad Green's footskills are back! Pity Bruce still enjoys kicking ugly floaters. For such a talented players, his kicking is pathetic.

- Thought Bate and Dunn did very little, and Miller was not even noticable. I'm a fan, everyone knows that, but he needs to do a lot more that he did tonight.

- Frawley looked ok. Stuffed up early but went again, which is good to see. Buckley has a bit of 'Davey' about the way he moves, so I'm keen to see him play in the real stuff.

- One final word, a Melbourne forward line without Davey is an over-crowded mess, while a midfield minus McLean is sadly lacking. Lets hope we can keep these two boys nice and healthy (White, TJ, Whelan and Pickett would also really help our cause).

I love that football is back. Pity that we have to wait a month before we see the real Melbourne play.