I thought our midfield really lacked cohesion. As an elite player, Max has next to no influence in clearances anymore, except for the occasional flash (see the Langdon goal). 

Oliver constantly flies under the radar though. Thought his kicking was strong, two beautiful piercing 50m passes that I recall resulted in scores. 35 possessions, most contested possessions on the ground, at 80% efficiency. He completely runs our midfield. Without him we're stuffed.

Lever, May and Tomlinson, against pretty ordinary opposition, were excellent in tandem. I think it was the best 3 KPD effort I've seen at Melbourne. Big call, but all three were excellent at intercepting and May's kicking is becoming such a weapon out of defence.

I like our set play long kick to the centre square for Max and Jackson. It does something interesting. Because we used it so often, the opposition tried to predict it, which then left easy shorter exits, which we usually took.

That was Tom McDonald's best game since the 2019 flash in the pan performance against Carlton. Thought he led and presented strongly. He missed two he'd normally nail, but kicked the harder one. 

Was impressed with Spargo's game again. He needs to keep working on staying in the game longer, but just about everything he touches results in a score. That's partly system and partly his game smarts.

The young guys in Kozzie, Jordon and Sparrow provided some good tackling support with ANB, Harmes and even Spargo. 

Felt our forward pressure was really solid, we got the ball inside and got great looks at goal, but our goal kicking was woeful.

Our defensive structures strangled Freo, particularly as they had little to kick to in terms of tall targets, especially after Pearce went down.

The big issue for me is our midfield. I know we've had some issues with continuity and injuries in there across pre season and the early part of the year, but if Yze's having much influence there it isn't good so far. 

I'd love to see Rivers tried on a wing and Hibberd off half back, but I suspect Trent doesn't have the tank for it yet. Brayshaw and Jones on the wing signals to me that we don't really have a new plan for addressing our lack of run to support Langdon either.

I'll take the win, but most teams would have pantsed us for our poor set shot kicking and lack of accountability at stoppages. Our midfield set ups were truly horrendous for much of the game and we were clearly murdered in the middle. We were fortunate they rested Fyfe forward for so much of the second half, because we just let him run free in the middle. Andrew Brayshaw was allowed to roam similarly free too.

Hoping for a much better performance next week.

And even though he's only a few days old, my son has 1 win from 1 game. Let's hope he's a good luck charm. I'd be happy to celebrate a flag in 2021 for him, even if he won't remember it.

Edited March 20, 20214 yr by A F

Happy with the win but gee-wiz we looked pretty rusty out there today. We can't afford to be that sloppy against the Saints next week if we want to beat them. Clarry gets the chocolates for his 100th and Jordon impressed with his neat skills and classy goal. Hopefully we get Viney, Melksham and Hibberd next week. We'll need them.  

Just checking out some of the less well-used stats. 

Steven May 578m gained, 5 intercept marks, 2 score involvements and won seven defensive 1-1 contests. 

Lever 6 Intercept marks, 2 score involvements

Oliver 9 score involvements.  That's nuts. 

TMac topped our forward 50 tackles with four, then Pickett with 3. 

Spargo had 3 direct goal assists and 5 score involvements. 

Edited March 20, 20214 yr by RalphiusMaximus

3 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Precious. Supporters complain about the culture of the club - read this post and take a look in the mirror. Pert and Bartlett are pushing [censored] uphill

We have an incredible retention rate of members. We've played finals once in over a decade and still putting up consistent membership numbers.

Peter Jackson's aim for the club was to be a bespoke club that got a whole lot better at footy but didn't try to be bigger than it was. Pert's plan so far is to try to mcfranchise it like he and Eddie did at Collingwood.

It's disappointing to get such a low crowd but for many Melbourne supporters the MCG and the way they go to the MCG is a decades old tradition. It is after all our home ground and always has been, we aren't tenants.

 

56 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

We have an incredible retention rate of members. We've played finals once in over a decade and still putting up consistent membership numbers.

Peter Jackson's aim for the club was to be a bespoke club that got a whole lot better at footy but didn't try to be bigger than it was. Pert's plan so far is to try to mcfranchise it like he and Eddie did at Collingwood.

It's disappointing to get such a low crowd but for many Melbourne supporters the MCG and the way they go to the MCG is a decades old tradition. It is after all our home ground and always has been, we aren't tenants.

mostly agree, but don't know what makes you say that

from where i stand, pert has been all about putting together the best team in the football dept as possible to help strive for on-field success, to reduce debt, while at the same time fighting for a future home base

i have no qualms with his role as ceo whatsoever at this stage

13 hours ago, Vagg said:

Yes. good to get a win.

The thing that got to me was that, every time the ball was bobbing around on the ground amongst a group of players, it was pretty much a for-gone conclusion that a Freo player would emerge with the ball and clear it out of the congested area!  Our ball handling in those tight areas just seems SO clumsy...

We are panic-stricken in close with the ball and ease off when we don't have the ball in close. We then wait for a possession when the ball clears. Each time, there are about 60m of distance lost that has to be re-gained and then re-utilised - indicating that nearly 50% of our possessions end up as turnovers. This just ain't good enough. We still need several tough-nuts in close.

 

12 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

It was the ‘connection’ that everyone has been wanting. 

It was - sensible, planned attack, deliberated, what we expect (no panic).

11 hours ago, Beetle said:

Have finally managed to watch the entire game after work.

While I understand some of the frustration on here, I don’t think there’s a need for panic stations just yet (perhaps because I watched the game knowing the result). While we were at times (very) rusty, we were in control all day and could easily have won by 7-8 goals with better kicking.

Things I took out of it:

- Gawn and Petracca had average games and will get much better.

- Brayshaw was hot and cold but had a massively interrupted pre-season. Plenty of rust.

- May and Lever have finally clicked and thank the lord for them.

- Our small forwards were good and applied good forward pressure which is something we’ve badly missed.

- Welcome back Tom Mac. I’ve missed you.
- We will improve immensely with the inclusions of Viney, Brown, Weid, Hibberd and dare I say it Melksham.

- Great first game from James Jordan.

- I love Kozzy.

Hoping for a more polished performance next week as we are going to need it. I’ll reserve judgement as to where we are at until post the Saints game.

Go Dees. 

What Kozzy produced today will hold him in good stead for games to come - what to do, what not to do with execution. A real star on our horizon, I'd reckon.

Staggered that we are momentarily top of the Ladder. It is undeserved but illustrates the evenness of the competition. The first quarter score of 4.4 to 0.4 was commendable, however we were then outscored over the next three quarters to eventually win by 3.4. When we start winning by 16 goals, then I will feel that we have truly made it!

8 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Precious. Supporters complain about the culture of the club - read this post and take a look in the mirror. Pert and Bartlett are pushing [censored] uphill

Being there it felt larger than 21k but agree I was so disappointed to see that number especially after hearing Pert on the Dland podcast saying they hoped for 27k. 

The other thing of note from Pert was saying they need members/fans to support the club even more now to help cover the losses to the balance sheet from last season. The money from the sale of the pokies was great and invested to provided ongoing returns, but they had to dip into that last year and he basically said they have no other income stream to cover it besides investing it and members signing up to get to 75k members. 

14 hours ago, MurDoc516 said:

We are missing Brown, Hibberd, Weid, Viney and Lockhart from this line up to be fair. Boy do we need another outside mid to take away Harmes spot though.

Rosman will be a suitable outside mid.

There is one word that as a Demons’s fan I would like to see mentioned in any win we have - “clinical”. I doubt I will ever see that word used to describe our team’s game performance.  The better teams can get the job done with precision without any attempted cute moves or OTT celebrations. Richmond, for example, seem to turn it on at will.

We have a lot of talented footballers at Melbourne but they need to up the psychological maturity and switch on. Some of the boys need to become men on the field. May and Lever are our only “clinicians” at the moment. 

The win was great to see but I worry for the immediate future. 
 

 

Edited March 20, 20214 yr by ProperDee

13 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

This thread is reaching new lows of Demonland pessmism.What's with the "it's only an injury ravaged Fremantle" stuff? It's not like we went in with a fresh first choice 22. AFAIK they were missing Walters, Lobb, Darcy, Acres and Hill (if he's best 22?)..

Titan, Blake Acres played yesterday. He had 6 kicks, 6 handballs and was on the ground 81% of the time.

15 hours ago, P-man said:

Pretty much what I expected. An uninspiring win against a severely undermanned Freo. May and Lever will keep us in many contests this year.

A Round 1 win is welcome but none of the other teams will be shaking in their boots watching that performance.

Stop being so negative, it was a perfectly executed game against the best team in modern history.

The biggest concern is still the clearances, we have the best ruckman in the game with some of the best clearance players yet opposition teams still walk the ball out.

All of our players seem to just go for the ball, no one is blocking or providing cover.

Thank god for Steven May.

Edited March 20, 20214 yr by Clint Bizkit

9 hours ago, whitito said:

Yes, the aim is to win a flag but the negativity on here is ridiculous. I am hardly satisfied as a supporter and no one on here who is under 60, is. 

Perhaps more support for the players and club will create more positivity, which will create more effort and passion which will create more positivity and so on.

They won, so in a weird way, we won.  

Enjoy the win, train hard and smart, keep high standards this week and repeat. 

Who knows we may look back on round 1 2021 as the time the Dees won ugly cementing a new era?

I can assure you, no one over 60 is satisfied either.

7 hours ago, A F said:

And even though he's only a few days old, my son has 1 win from 1 game.

Congrats.

Say goodbye to uninterrupted sleep and weekend lie ins.

7 hours ago, Caligula's cohort said:

Happy with the win but gee-wiz we looked pretty rusty out there today. We can't afford to be that sloppy against the Saints next week if we want to beat them. Clarry gets the chocolates for his 100th and Jordon impressed with his neat skills and classy goal. Hopefully we get Viney, Melksham and Hibberd next week. We'll need them.  

St Kilda will cut us to shreds with their pace and skills on the fast deck of Marvel if we played anything like we did yesterday.

11 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

These are the 2 I think.

A lot of Melbourne supporters are not like other club supporters. They don't just go to the footy for the footy. They go to the footy for the social aspect and they like to sit where they like to sit - be that reserve seat or MCC.

The reserve seats clearly aren't the reserve seats. The MCC absolutely isn't anything like the MCC.

It's not a total excuse, we should've got 30k. But we're a different type of fans to other clubs.

And the Blazer bar ran out of Tap beer at 3/4 time

I was offered carlton cans

Who would have thought!! In the members thats not cricket!

20 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

The biggest concern is still the clearances, we have the best ruckman in the game with some of the best clearance players yet opposition teams still walk the ball out.

All of our players seem to just go for the ball, no one is blocking or providing cover.

Thank god for Steven May.

t would help if Max occasionely hit the ball somewhere near our on ballers or to their advantage

Very frustrating to watch

16 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

The biggest concern is still the clearances, we have the best ruckman in the game with some of the best clearance players yet opposition teams still walk the ball out.

All of our players seem to just go for the ball, no one is blocking or providing cover.

Agree, reminds me of the rolling mauls of junior footy or basketball where everyone ball hunts.

Hungry dogs going at a piece of meat.

I can’t believe Yze can’t see it and doesn’t give the feedback, and numerous commentators called out Melbourne getting pushed close into the contest by Freo.

Maybe there’s some subtle genius tactic of increasing predictability by allowing comprehensive clearance defeats... probably not. It does assist the intercept mark statistics.

7 hours ago, RalphiusMaximus said:

Just checking out some of the less well-used stats. 

Steven May 578m gained, 5 intercept marks, 2 score involvements and won seven defensive 1-1 contests. 

Lever 6 Intercept marks, 2 score involvements

Oliver 9 score involvements.  That's nuts. 

TMac topped our forward 50 tackles with four, then Pickett with 3. 

Spargo had 3 direct goal assists and 5 score involvements. 

And that for the naysayers is why "Spargypants" keeps getting selected each week Doing team acts silently and unselfishly.

15 minutes ago, Lampers said:

Agree, reminds me of the rolling mauls of junior footy or basketball where everyone ball hunts.

Hungry dogs going at a piece of meat.

I can’t believe Yze can’t see it and doesn’t give the feedback, and numerous commentators called out Melbourne getting pushed close into the contest by Freo.

Maybe there’s some subtle genius tactic of increasing predictability by allowing comprehensive clearance defeats... probably not. It does assist the intercept mark statistics.

Yeah it makes you wonder what they actually do at training all week. Just go through the motions?

Frustrating when you see other teams do what we can't, but should be able to

8 hours ago, A F said:

Oliver constantly flies under the radar though. Thought his kicking was strong, two beautiful piercing 50m passes that I recall resulted in scores. 35 possessions, most contested possessions on the ground, at 80% efficiency. He completely runs our midfield. Without him we're stuffed.

Agree he does seem to go under the radar as he just does it week after week, but I'm not sure I would be patting him on the back for his disposal too much for that game. 25 of those touches were handballs and pretty clearly not many of them were very productive for us. This is one of the reasons disposal efficiency is a useless stat. Handballing to someone 1 metre away who immediately gets tackled is still an 'effective disposal' stats wise, but it's really not useful at all for us.

Just simply needs to go the easy first option more often and kick more often. Then he'll not only be racking up the stats, but actually making us a much better team.

16 hours ago, P-man said:

Pretty much what I expected. An uninspiring win against a severely undermanned Freo. May and Lever will keep us in many contests this year.

A Round 1 win is welcome but none of the other teams will be shaking in their boots watching that performance.

You don’t think dees were undermanned??? Not having weid and brown is as bog of a lose that you can have. You do hole forward structures are compromised.