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. 

Well, I was at the game, and there are certainly were a lot of mistakes. But it seemed to me that they are trying out a new game plan around the midfield: trying to hold the ball a bit longer and work really hard to get it outside. It’s not completely working yet and I think that’s why we got beaten up the clearances, but it might be a good plan in the long term.

 

Well, I was at the game, and there certainly were a lot of mistakes. But it seems to me that they are trying out a new game plan around the midfield: trying to hold the ball a bit longer and work really hard to get it outside. It’s not completely working yet and I think that’s why we got beaten up at the clearances, but it might be a good plan in the long term.

 

Absolutely great to see Jetta back in formed and as everyone has commented, May and Lever were unbelievable.

 

But so many whingers: do you actually barrack for this team or not?

I didn't log on once during pre-season. I thought I'd take a bit of a Demonland break.

I watched round one and saw us cruise to an easy win, that never at any stage looked remotely in doubt, that should have been bigger than it was. I saw Steven May and Jake Lever lead defensive team put on an absolute clinic. I saw an extremely exciting debut from James Jordon. I saw TMac and Nev Jetta back to close to their best.

I read the posts on here and the rate in which my mood sank was actually tangible. You guys have become so jaded, that you have actually become physically incapable of just enjoying good things when they happen. And when you do it, it rubs off on me. You make me feel shitty. I honestly did not feel one shred of anger and disappointment, until I logged on to Demonland.

I'm out. And you have no idea how sad that makes me.

  On 20/03/2021 at 06:13, faultydet said:

So are the players still angry?

Furious is what I’m hearing. 

Well, it was a clumsy, fumbly mess but fortunately we have May and Lever...and Freo could not have played any worse.

Composure and foot skills horrendous as per usual, a hell of a lot of dropped chest marks and double grabbing.  Weird stuff.

The majority of teams would have beaten us today from what I witnessed, but let's take the win and work on those areas.

Next week it steps up a notch.  Next 3 weeks could define our season.  3-1 would be amazing.

  On 20/03/2021 at 08:08, Nasher said:

I didn't log on once during pre-season. I thought I'd take a bit of a Demonland break.

I watched round one and saw us cruise to an easy win, that never at any stage looked remotely in doubt, that should have been bigger than it was. I saw Steven May and Jake Lever lead defensive team put on an absolute clinic. I saw an extremely exciting debut from James Jordon. I saw TMac and Nev Jetta back to close to their best.

I read the posts on here and the rate in which my mood sank was actually tangible. You guys have become so jaded, that you have actually become physically incapable of just enjoying good things when they happen. And when you do it, it rubs off on me. You make me feel ****ty. I honestly did not feel one shred of anger and disappointment, until I logged on to Demonland.

I'm out. And you have no idea how sad that makes me.

Grow up. No one is complaining about the scoreline but there wasn't much improvement from 2020

I just got home a few minutes ago.  I have to say that it was a great afternoon for football, not too hot or cold, slight breeze, overcast.  Basically as good a day out as you could get.  SO WHERE THE HELL WERE ALL THE DEMON SUPPORTERS?  This game should have been a sell-out.  The AFL backed us in and refused to let the Hawks and Bombers pinch our home game, and we get a pathetic 21000 on a perfect Saturday afternoon?  That's shameful. 

Now that that's off my chest...

How good were our backline today?  22 marks from our three tall(ish) defenders.  May BOG.  Lever was impassable, although there were some poor efforts when he pushed into attack.  Tomlinson hasn't had the love he deserves, although admittedly he didn't have much in the way of opponents.  He still dominated them.  That back six a gelling nicely. 

Also huge props to Spargo and Pickett.  They are both firmly in the best 22 at this point.  Spargo's creativity and play-making are becoming really important, and Picket's pressure play created opportunities for everyone around him.  Also love how Pickett upped his attack in the fourth and went looking to crash some bodies and land some hard tackles.  Someone fed him angry pills at 3/4 time. 

Jordan had a very solid debut.  Nailed a couple of beautiful passes and should have had two goals.  He's another one who needs to work on his set shots.  I'm not entirely sold on the midfield mix we had today though.  Our output was pretty low, with only Oliver really racking up the disposals. 

Very happy for TMac.  He's had a lot of pressure after last year, so to come out early and clunk a few contested marks on the wing was a great effort.  Could have used a better conversion rate, especially since his misses were pretty easy shots. 

Overall, pretty happy with the game.  They missed a lot of opportunities in attack, but the skills were much better than expected and our backline kicked their [censored]. 

  On 20/03/2021 at 08:08, Nasher said:

I'm out. And you have no idea how sad that makes me.

Nil illegitimi carborundum, Nasher.

All games i have seen so far tells me the umpires are just as rusty as the players and that's being nice..

  On 20/03/2021 at 07:45, Brownie said:

It's not just his creative game that I love it's also the brutality of his tackling that's beautiful to watch.

I'm sure he made his mum proud today.

Well said mate. 

A few ideas on the crowd size.

Lack of confidence by people in catching public transport. + Traffic was horrendous and did not match the crowd at the ground, so don't know where everyone else was going but it was a drainer being on the road.

The ticketing system is daunting at first look, especially for people who are not as computer savvy as others. The explanation video on the Melbourne website is inadequate and doesn't give all the details. Some people may just decide not to bother. It was so much easier to carry your membership card.

Paying for reserved seating as part of your membership and then being told you cannot sit there. You will sit where the computer allocates you. (You can only choose a section, if you are lucky.) Puts noses out of joint.

People still worried about Covid. 

People worried about being in crowds and being jostled because not everyone keeps a distance. 

In 2020 many signed up to Kayo or Foxtel because of the lockdowns and got used to staying home and watching TV. Now they can have friends and family over to watch together now restrictions have been lifted.

Local sports are returning to normal as well and people are playing their own sports.

  On 20/03/2021 at 06:10, praha said:

In other news, Ticketek finally sent me an SMS with my tickets, an hour after the game finished. 

Haha yep me too, got the SMS as I was leaving the car park ?‍♂️

  On 20/03/2021 at 07:23, picket fence said:

Ok I'll take a win anytime...

BUT let's not DEELUDE ourselves 

We are still quite a way of the pace,for example

1 Freo were absolutely injury riddled and played a good brand of footy!! Their ball movement was superior to ours on several occasions 2 resulted in goals!! Against Carlton and Pies on last two nights games and we would have lost I believe!

2 Our footskills are still a major concern, as are some of our handball options

3 Our Kicking for goal was a bad as Ive seen

4 Our connectivity from centre bounces is also a concern. I thought Max's center bounce work was shizzen

5 If we play like we did today Vs Saints we WILL lose bt 10 goals

Would you mind stating which of their players were missing through injury? And how that compared to our missing players?

Good to have McSizzle back 

Spargo just makes good decisions

jordon was great

kozzie tackling brutal

Trac doing trac things

i love Ed Langdon 

may lever is match made in heaven

  On 20/03/2021 at 07:23, picket fence said:

Ok I'll take a win anytime...

BUT let's not DEELUDE ourselves 

We are still quite a way of the pace,for example

1 Freo were absolutely injury riddled and played a good brand of footy!!

 

Quoting this post but have seen it mentioned multiple times in this thread

Freo were not injury riddled. They had a couple of key players out, same as us. They still had a top notch midfield in there in Fyfe, Mundy, Brayshaw, Cerra.

I haven’t watched the game so this comes with no idea of what happened today. 

We got the 4 points and sometimes it’s not about looking like the classiest outfit, it’s just about hearing the teams song after the final siren. 

I said as I went to bed last night I couldn’t care less about the quality of the game as long as we come away with the win. We’ve done that, round one ✔️.

Meanwhile last years Grand Final runners up have lost to the wooden spooners. Take the 4 points. 

  On 20/03/2021 at 05:46, boydie said:

I understand why a lot of people are dissapointed from todays showing. But the way to look at it, we won and there were probably about 16 or more players who played no where near their best.

Fix the connection between Max and the midfield group, fix the goal kicking, get back some key forwards, gradual improvement from the kids. Need to be playing well in the back half of the season not the first.

This sounds all too familiar

What a perfect day. Normality at last. 2020 was absolutely sh*thouse. These fken 4 walls have borne down on me. It’s not been easy for me and so many others.

I loved the smell, look, feel, touch, taste. Everything about today was so welcome and familiar.

Jeez I missed the footy.

And a win to top it off.

Go Dees.  

  On 20/03/2021 at 07:49, praha said:

Saw an old couple on the train today literally holding each other and moving away from anyone that got close.

There is genuine fear out there. And it's not just today. I see it every day on the train to work. People petrified and almost shaking to be near people. People need to calm the [censored] down and start living again. There ain't no COVID around.

People need to stop watching tv and reading the papers. Life is far less stressful that way.

Edited March 20, 20214 yr by Dr. Gonzo

  On 20/03/2021 at 08:44, Dame Gaga said:

A few ideas on the crowd size.

Lack of confidence by people in catching public transport. + Traffic was horrendous and did not match the crowd at the ground, so don't know where everyone else was going but it was a drainer being on the road.

The ticketing system is daunting at first look, especially for people who are not as computer savvy as others. The explanation video on the Melbourne website is inadequate and doesn't give all the details. Some people may just decide not to bother. It was so much easier to carry your membership card.

Paying for reserved seating as part of your membership and then being told you cannot sit there. You will sit where the computer allocates you. (You can only choose a section, if you are lucky.) Puts noses out of joint.

People still worried about Covid. 

People worried about being in crowds and being jostled because not everyone keeps a distance. 

In 2020 many signed up to Kayo or Foxtel because of the lockdowns and got used to staying home and watching TV. Now they can have friends and family over to watch together now restrictions have been lifted.

Local sports are returning to normal as well and people are playing their own sports.

Spot on, I would say all the above contributed. However if you look at numbers going to Freo games in the past then today attendance is not a lot lower than the average. Even when playing  a Vic. Team we struggle to get 30k to most games. There have not been many  regular season games against Vic teams where we out number the other side. 

Edited March 20, 20214 yr by old dee

  On 20/03/2021 at 08:44, Dame Gaga said:

A few ideas on the crowd size.

Lack of confidence by people in catching public transport. + Traffic was horrendous and did not match the crowd at the ground, so don't know where everyone else was going but it was a drainer being on the road.

The ticketing system is daunting at first look, especially for people who are not as computer savvy as others. The explanation video on the Melbourne website is inadequate and doesn't give all the details. Some people may just decide not to bother. It was so much easier to carry your membership card.

Paying for reserved seating as part of your membership and then being told you cannot sit there. You will sit where the computer allocates you. (You can only choose a section, if you are lucky.) Puts noses out of joint.

People still worried about Covid. 

People worried about being in crowds and being jostled because not everyone keeps a distance. 

In 2020 many signed up to Kayo or Foxtel because of the lockdowns and got used to staying home and watching TV. Now they can have friends and family over to watch together now restrictions have been lifted.

Local sports are returning to normal as well and people are playing their own sports.

Don’t all those explanations apply equally to the two matches on Thursday and Friday that were full capacity?   Those supporters face the same transport system, COVID risk, ticketing system, etc. 
 

Of course it was never going to be full capacity at our game with one inter-state team

  On 20/03/2021 at 08:44, Dame Gaga said:

The ticketing system is daunting at first look, especially for people who are not as computer savvy as others. The explanation video on the Melbourne website is inadequate and doesn't give all the details. Some people may just decide not to bother. It was so much easier to carry your membership card.

Paying for reserved seating as part of your membership and then being told you cannot sit there. You will sit where the computer allocates you. (You can only choose a section, if you are lucky.) Puts noses out of joint.

 

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.

  On 20/03/2021 at 09:26, Nairobi_Demon said:

Don’t all those explanations apply equally to the two matches on Thursday and Friday that were full capacity?   Those supporters face the same transport system, COVID risk, ticketing system, etc. 
 

Of course it was never going to be full capacity at our game with one inter-state team

Look at the 2 other games at the G. Tigers vs Carlton both have member numbers substantially bigger than us. Tigers are more than 100% more. Second game Pies and Dogs. Dogs are similar to us but pies more than double us. Both two local sides. While there was plenty of seats available I doubt there were any walk ups, just seen as two hard.

Edited March 20, 20214 yr by old dee

  On 20/03/2021 at 08:19, RalphiusMaximus said:

I'm not entirely sold on the midfield mix we had today though.  Our output was pretty low, with only Oliver really racking up the disposals. 

We had 22 more disposals, 30 more kicks, won the inside 50's and the centre clearances were pretty even with only 1 terrible stuff up that led to that late 3rd quarter goal.

We could easily revert to Petracca, Oliver and Harmes all getting 30 but instead Jordon, Sparrow, Pickett and ANB all have double digits and are far more engaged in the game.

Obviously we didn't get great value from Max, and the midfield skills are still ordinary but overall the depth of mids all getting a share is a great improvement over just 4 guys getting silly numbers and a quarter of the team not touching it.

I have to say, when I saw that I would have to pay extra to sit on level one I very nearly pulled the plug.  That's a disgrace.  I'm glad I did go, but I pay for my membership so I can go to the games.  Why am I being asked to pay twice to sit in the same place I normally would? 

Edited March 20, 20214 yr by RalphiusMaximus