Barrass, Hurn and McGovern - 21 marks between them.  Lever, May and OMc - 10.

Obviously this highlights how poor the delivery in to our Forward 50 was (not a newsflash there).  If we somehow halve the amount of marks these (Eagles) blokes took, then we have an additional 10 opportunities for our crumbers to do their thing.

Then I watch one of the biggest culprits, Langdon, and how many times he appeared to just bang the ball inside 50.  He's new to our team.  To me, that highlights that the directive in the game plan is to do just that, bang it in long.

Goodwin MUST revisit this during the break.  Regardless of if we play again this season or next, there has to be an immediate change to that part of the game plan.

I called before the game that if we were relying on TMc to do the relief ruck, Hurn et al would have a field day.  They did.  I also hoped that Melksham would've tagged McGovern, like he did when we beat them over there in 2018.  He didn't.  I just hope that Weid's ankle was not right, hence why he wasn't named.

I've been a Goodwin supporter, but he lost me yesterday.

it appears we have no control of ball movement when we have it,goodwins game plan is nonexistant players seem to have no direction.All down to the coach.He must be on thin ice,dont tell me wasnt invoved with Dank

  On 23/03/2020 at 01:36, TeamPlayedFine39 said:

Yep.

The OMac bashers aren’t big on specific examples this week.

Credit where credit’s due - he was very solid yesterday.

Agree.

As many of you would know I am not a fan of ANB and banned my self from bagging him on here.

However the above post is correct, credit where credit is due.

I thought ANB was one of few contributors for the Dees and worked hard to lay tackles and gain possession.

I thought it was one of his better games in adverse conditions, so well done son, make me eat my words and keep improving. 

  On 23/03/2020 at 03:11, DemonOX said:

Win he has had 6 months that’s SIX MONTHS over the off season to get it right and it ain’t happening based on what I saw yesterday. 
 

It really is pathetic. Imagine how much GWS would have smacked us by this week if it were going ahead. 

We would have had a new one torn for us im sure of it Dox.

Some have already mentioned it on here, Corona has literally saved his Job.

 

Given the late flight, change in hotel, suspension of the competition just before the game, rumours of difficulty getting home, more inside 50 entries, playing a WCE at home and at full strength, poor disposal and terrible form of most of the team and then only losing by 27 points, I am not too critical of the result.

  On 23/03/2020 at 04:45, Redleg said:

Given the late flight, change in hotel, suspension of the competition just before the game, rumours of difficulty getting home, more inside 50 entries, playing a WCE at home and at full strength, poor disposal and terrible form of most of the team and then only losing by 27 points, I am not too critical of the result.

Yes, but what have the Romans ever done for us?

  On 23/03/2020 at 04:47, ManDee said:

Yes, but what have the Romans ever done for us?

Please explain.

  On 23/03/2020 at 04:50, Redleg said:

Please explain.

Sorry Red,

 

 

Edited March 23, 20205 yr by ManDee
Your post reminded me of the Monty Python skit - sorry if too obtuse

  On 23/03/2020 at 04:51, ManDee said:

Sorry Red,

 

 

Thanks MD you made laugh. 

  On 23/03/2020 at 04:43, Win4theAges said:

We would have had a new one torn for us im sure of it Dox.

Some have already mentioned it on here, Corona has literally saved his Job.

 

Very frustrating Win. 
 

Im over feeling like this about the dees performances. I just want to enjoy watching our team rather than listen to all the excuses.  It’s doin my head in and I’m sure I’m not alone. 

  On 23/03/2020 at 00:29, binman said:

That may well be true but Hibberd's inside 50 kicks were ridiculous. Not only were the never to our advantage he helicopters the ball (unlike say may) and so they come in slow and high and make it dead easy to cover. 

You add his complete inability to kick on his right (which cost us a goal in the first q because when he should have switched, couldn't, had to turn back to the boundary and kick a floater down the line that of course got intercepted) and I'm sorry but Hibbo has lost me. 

Yes discarding Hibberd. Not sure why he was delivering the ball inside so often anyway. Again our structures, set up and game plan were really flawed on the weekend. Outclassed if every aspect.

  On 23/03/2020 at 04:47, ManDee said:

Yes, but what have the Romans ever done for us?

Doesn't quite work. Sort of a reverse 'what have the romans done for us' 

Edited March 23, 20205 yr by binman

Firstly, let's be honest.  The result means little.  In fact, it might mean nothing at all.  There's a fair chance that the AFL season won't really get going and, if it does, it will be pretty compromised.  Getting rolled by the Eagles in Perth is, well, meaningless really.

However, if we want to take a critical eye to the game, then to me we got rolled in one area - our delivery inside 50.  We did exactly what we hoped we wouldn't do, and that's kick the ball to the hot spot inside 50.  They picked it off, hit us on transition and made us look silly in some instances.  When we lowered our eyes we looked better, but too often we would get the ball, take a few seconds and then just lob it into the air in the hope something would happen.  And what happened was guys like Shannon Hurn did as they pleased.  It was disappointing to see.

We have time to rectify this, and I am certain in time we would right ourselves, but against Top 6 sides we get cut to pieces.  They are a slick, well drilled side who hit targets and make you pay.  Playing them in Perth is probably the hardest task in football, so there is no shame in getting rolled, but it was a shame to see it happen the way it did.  Had we taken a few early chances things might have been different, but as it stands, we didn't take them and they did.  It's pretty simple.

As for the positives, there were still plenty.  Viney was sensational, while Langdon gave us exactly what we were after on the wings.  I thought our talls down back were excellent, and we won plenty of the footy and generated plenty of inside 50s.  We just botched it too many times.

Also, Pickett and Bedford did some good things in patches and will only get better with more senior footy.  It's a shame that may not happen for another 12 months, but they are going to play a big part of our future.  

Hopefully we see footy again this season but, if we don't, then we don't.  The health of the nation is the most important thing.  Get that right and then we can go back to enjoying our footy. 

It was a disgrace that this game was played.  The fact that a call on the suspension Of the season had already been made before the game, then they shouldn’t have played.  Like everyone else, especially those with kids and family at home there is no way they could have been focused and we’re anxious about what was about to come. 

  On 23/03/2020 at 03:53, Rednblueriseing said:

I'm now in the process of watching the replay, I always do no matter the result, but what I continue to see at Melbourne is too many players look to be labouring to get into defensive position and this is magnified against the better team's in the comp untill we have it ingrained in our DNA to run hard both ways we will be mid table at best

I mean this is the thing isn't it? Absolutely the difference between Collingwood finishing 13th however many seasons in a row and them leaping up the ladder the last three years.

And on this two way running, WTF was wrong with Clarry yesterday? He seemed to be labouring 5 minutes in and slowly jogging about. Petracca failed to impact in the H&A season again too. One game, but some worry mental signs for mine.

  On 23/03/2020 at 01:57, dimmy said:

BIG QUESTION :  Could someone tell me where I can get the Stats from yesterday. There does not appear to be section ofn the MFC Website and the Age is not really comprehensiv.  Thanks in advance.

Also, complain to the AFL, even if it's just on social media. One of the reasons they keep kuffing it up is because as a monopoly they can. Make them accountable.

our game plan has us with more players around the ball so we can get it forward more often. but we are kicking to a forward line where we are outnumbered and it shows. We expect our forwards to beat two or three opposition players for a start, Hibberds long kicking was an asset a couple of years ago when we have players down there able to mark and put pressure on opposition players. That is not the case now.

We have a team that has learnt to be lazy, dont chase dont tackle just sort of fence the opposition players in.  We have difficulty in kicking the ball in when the opposition scores a point. We are underpressure all day long. Yet we constantly left west coast players alone so they can kick it in to two or more open players with no melbourne player near them. Why, where is the pressure, why are we giving any easy kicks to the opposition. If we close them down on the flanks they may go up the middle , if we win the ball back then we in a better position to go forward, instead we allow them to go to flanks with no pressure. They switch and where the hell are our guys, no where near their players. I saw players ignore the opposition player with the ball and turn to chase their man. and I love oliver but his woeful trotting behind a west coast players was an absolute disgrace and sums up who many seemed to play. i did not expect to win, many of us didnt, but we expected our players to deliver a better standard of football than what they showed. Quite frankly if the quarters had not been so short and the eagles did not fiddling around playing keepings off instead of going for the kill then we would have lost by more than 50 points.  the way the team played I felt like we had lost by 60 or more points it was that disappointing. quite frankly Goody could do with a read of George's assessment of the game on the front page of demonland. i think it sums things up nicely, shame we dont have a coach or assistant coach who can see the obvious.

  On 23/03/2020 at 04:51, ManDee said:

Sorry Red,

 

 

Yeah, but apart from chaos ball, bad disposal, one-way running, lack of player development, and co-captaincy .... WHAT HAS GOODWIN EVER DONE FOR US????

Thanks to those people who put me onto Footywire stats.

Conclusion Rebound 50s . We were -16.  Think that says it all.

Langdon and Hibberd had a lot of possessions and they rate as effective . Question is to Whom ?????

Maybe im going blind, but i thought Viney and Oliver combined to make plenty of fumbles and errant handballs that led to turnovers that cost us in the first quarter and put us on the backfoot. Viney played very well for the next 3 quarters, but i swore i cursed a few times at Viney in the first, hunting the ball but undoing the good work by disposal. Any one with a replay can confirm or not?

I think ive just lost all enthusiasm and excitement for the bullish chaotic ball winning in the contest, when i know our collective skills will botch the end result moving it forward.  Excitement just invites frustration, over and over. Numb to it all really now.

Edited March 23, 20205 yr by John Demonic

  On 23/03/2020 at 11:22, dimmy said:

Thanks to those people who put me onto Footywire stats.

Conclusion Rebound 50s . We were -16.  Think that says it all.

Langdon and Hibberd had a lot of possessions and they rate as effective . Question is to Whom ?????

I kind of got the impression the WC players weren't all that concerned when either one of them got the ball. I think Langdon will be good, his outside run looks like it could be quite valuable. Hibberd on the other hand could be in trouble, his kicking was an absolute liability. Got plenty of it, a few years ago if you said he got 20+ possies you would've said he'd be in Brownlow votes, but yesterday he might as well have been wearing a blue and yellow top it was that damaging to us.

 

  On 23/03/2020 at 20:42, Demonland said:

 

I can't stand Lyon, but have to agree with him.

  On 23/03/2020 at 00:22, binman said:

Nailed it. 

And so many of those missed targets were easy kicks under little pressure, with some only 20 metres kicks - May, Lever Spargo, Trac, Viney, Langdon, Tomlinson etc etc.

As WJ or redleg noted at some point in modern footy if you can't execute your kick you lose. Simple. And missing targets by foot renders any game plan or structure dysfunctional. And yesterday we doubled down by also missing any number of handballs (Jettss what were you doing?)

We are a terrible kicking side and Salem and Jones not in that side hurt our massively as they are two of of our three most reliable kicks

Sams as last year? I'll ask again. Were our short and misdirected disposals caused by our players being unbalanced and under pressure.

i noted this last year and believed that shepherding and creating space was as important as getting the ball.

we also leave our opponents with space and time to get balanced before they dispose.

Was there any evidence of improvement in intensity..

i understand the message from Max that players enthusiasm was dulled by events but an inspiring coach would use all the features of travel, last game, frustrations, uncertainty as a lever to get the absolute best performance from players.

What’s the point in getting heaps of the ball if you lack basic skills and turn it over. Then players are out of position and scoring on the transition is easy.
Skills are king.