I am confident we will learn and will have faith 

I may be wrong but I see last night as limited damage in that the Crows won't play finals, and are unlikely to beat many away from AO. Halving the North and Crows games I think gives the team and coaching group a mid-season chance to highlight deficiences instead of against top 4 contenders where we migth be lulled into a sense of, " ...oh well, just beaten by a better team.."

Nearly losing to Kangas, and then last night's loss has been timely to show where inprovement is needed in strategy, to counter new opposition plans against us, and in playing personnel. The talent is there fro all to see, not quite the execution.

Better now than mid- August.

This isn't about  having the eventual loss was predictable, but being against a lowly team should provide many improvement insights/opportunites (I didn't say Learnings on purpose, but the principle applies not matter what you call it.).

Little benefits along the way such as the Freo win last night knocking the swans out of top 4 contention and Sydeny finals at least softens the immediate blow. So go Pies this arvo against Port and GWS against Eagles. 

 

Well said. There has been some paper over the cracks lately. Gives us the best chance to learn the lessons now rather than later. 

I call last night a “circuit breaker.”

?❤️?

Late to this, but shows how important Salem is. When there’s no one reliably clearing the back line, so much easier for  the opposition to bring the ball back in. 

If Port Adelaide lose to Collingwood (Collingwood currently 28-2 second term), will that provide some much needed perspective around here? You would think we were 1-9 and still being coached by Mark Neeld, the way some carry on.

Adelaide played very well and we almost beat them despite being a little off. We are 9-1 having beaten Geelong, Richmond, Sydney and GWS. Life could be worse.

Looking forward to the Bulldogs and Brisbane games.

Go Dees.

21 hours ago, Webber said:

opportunities

Thought we played lazy football,  when the crows had it in our F50. They could walk it out, no pressure no running to cover space until it got past the wing, then we got serious. 
but it does highlight how much Salem means to a smooth defence, 

still we have not been playing well since we beat Sydney that was a tough game.

6 hours ago, Bay Riffin said:

Expecting perfection in our highest pressured game all year CHECK

No expectations of perfection here. Expectations to reproduce the simple things the team practices each week. And no, it was not the highest pressured game all year. Don't get me wrong, the Crows played very well. But a lot of our handling errors were unpressured.

9 & 1 sounds great but it gets a lot tougher from here on in.  We are indeed becoming the hunted

We need to win at least 1 of the next 2 (Dogs, Lions)

After that we're @Eagles,  @Port,  @Cats,  Doggies (again) with home games against the Pies,  GWS & Bombers.  None are easy assignments

We're also @GCS and are at home against Hawks & Crows

Last night's loss could end up being quite significant.  And as previously stated, if we were fair dinkum we should have banked a 6-8 goal win. 

But nearly 3/4 of the team were well down on their best ... that cannot happen again

Given I’ve had 24 hours to calm down…
We are going ok. I’m very interested to see the next 2 weeks. We’ve put ourselves in a great position but need to work hard before the bye to give ourselves some confidence. Good teams have down days. I’d rather them in May than September.

I really think as a supporter group we need to have some faith. The boys have done their job to date, and they deserve our continued support and encouragement.

1 hour ago, Macca said:

9 & 1 sounds great but it gets a lot tougher from here on in.  We are indeed becoming the hunted

We need to win at least 1 of the next 2 (Dogs, Lions)

After that we're @Eagles,  @Port,  @Cats,  Doggies (again) with home games against the Pies,  GWS & Bombers.  None are easy assignments

We're also @GCS and are at home against Hawks & Crows

Last night's loss could end up being quite significant.  And as previously stated, if we were fair dinkum we should have banked a 6-8 goal win. 

But nearly 3/4 of the team were well down on their best ... that cannot happen again

This x 1000

 

It was said last week that the lack of a big win could hurt us and the response was basically big wins unimportant 

ummmm no

One could see us losing quite a few from here and missing top 4

 

3 hours ago, bing181 said:

Late to this, but shows how important Salem is. When there’s no one reliably clearing the back line, so much easier for  the opposition to bring the ball back in. 

Will be nice to get Bowey into the team eventually,.  Imagine he and Salem launching from half back with their laser kicks?

Just now, Superunknown said:

This x 1000

 

It was said last week that the lack of a big win could hurt us and the response was basically big wins unimportant 

ummmm no

One could see us losing quite a few from here and missing top 4

 

That is what I'm concerned about with the 5th team currently sitting on 7 wins with 6th & 7th on 6 wins

To be top 4 you can't really drop much more than 1 game against a bottom 6 team or a bottom 8 team. 

Lose 2 or 3 against this type of opposition and then you can't lose any more than 2 or 3 against a top 8 or top 4 team

So we've used up our quota of losses against mediocre opposition (in my view) Maybe 1 more but not a total of 3

And as previously stated we've got 7 games coming up against top 8 teams

I know it's only 1 loss but it was against the wrong opposition 

You take your foot off the pedal in this league and there's trouble ahead

That was the old Melbourne yesterday but hopefully we won't see it again.

An immediate bounce back win gets us back on track ... but it's the Doggies

Michael Gleeson in The Age wrote this today. I hope we haven’t flatlined. Next week a character defining day. 

“Between the arcs Melbourne were dominant in the first six weeks, top four in a range of statistics in this critical real estate on the ground: third for uncontested marks, second for contested possessions, fifth for tackles. In the last month they have fallen away between the arcs to be bottom four in the important categories”.

On 5/22/2021 at 12:29 PM, John Crow Batty said:

Weid touch free last quarter. Mistake in hindsight dropping BBB.

Did he even get on the field in the final quarter?  The AFL app player tracker has no heat map for him in the final quarter and suggests he was 100% in defensive half. Seems odd. See screenshots:

 

For Dees fans - supporting a good side is foreign territory so I will forgive those that lambast the honest critiques of our form.

We have been down for a few weeks and we paid for it on the weekend - it is not ‘the end of the world’. Of course it isn’t, and nor are Fritsch being dropped, Gawn being told to lift, and the forwards given some home truths - Armageddon style events. 

The team can take some criticism that isn’t simply [censored] ing on Melksham.

So take a deep breath everyone and stop being so bloody precious about everything you read on here.

1 hour ago, Nairobi_Demon said:

Did he even get on the field in the final quarter?  The AFL app player tracker has no heat map for him in the final quarter and suggests he was 100% in defensive half. Seems odd. See screenshots:

 

Doesn't the heat map measure where the player collects disposals? That's what I always thought, but not 100% on it. If so, would make sense why he has no heat spots given he had no touches.

The defensive half % wouldn't mean much with no possessions either.

 

Edited May 23, 20213 yr by Lord Nev

1 hour ago, Lord Nev said:

Doesn't the heat map measure where the player collects disposals? That's what I always thought, but not 100% on it. If so, would make sense why he has no heat spots given he had no touches.

The defensive half % wouldn't mean much with no possessions either.

 

Ah, that makes sense. I’d always thought the heat map tracked movement and the blue dots possessions, but now that I look carefully at someone with possessions it’s clear the map radiates out from the dots. 
 

Thanks for clarifying that, LN. 

8 hours ago, Nairobi_Demon said:

Ah, that makes sense. I’d always thought the heat map tracked movement and the blue dots possessions, but now that I look carefully at someone with possessions it’s clear the map radiates out from the dots. 
 

Thanks for clarifying that, LN. 

You might be right, I just assumed that it was about possessions so don't take it as gospel.

I feel sorry for Clayton ... could anyone have done more to get the team over the line?

Could somebody that knows footy tactics better than me comment if they think the crows cracked our defence on Sat? They played man on man and didn’t allow lever to be free that much. I assume other teams will do this. Should we have a plan B or stick to our game plan?

or is the issue not this and more a lack of intensity as evidenced by our contested possessions and tackles dropping recently?

54 minutes ago, bingers said:

I feel sorry for Clayton ... could anyone have done more to get the team over the line?

One of the best solo efforts in a losing game that I ever witnessed. He won’t be intimidated like some others.

. 

11 minutes ago, John Crow Batty said:

One of the best solo efforts in a losing game that I ever witnessed. He won’t be intimidated like some others.

. 

This comment sums up the game.  It was the solo efforts of Oliver and some cameos from others that kept this game to 1 point.  Saying that I though Oliver wasn't good in the first half but the second was the best we have seen from any Melbourne player.  We lost that team first ruthlessness that we have shown this season.  

The positive, usually by Round 10 we are cooked for the season and looking forward to the draft/Trade period, we are 9 and 1 couple of hard games followed by queens b'day, if we can win 2 of these head into the bye and reset for the last half of the year.

Edited May 23, 20213 yr by drdrake

21 hours ago, Jaded said:

Fritsch is probably the most selfish player in our side. He is a very very good forward who is hard to match up on and has a great goal sense. He’s also very lazy, insipid tackler and an awful set shot. He goes from sensational one week to a liability the next. 

A few stern words in his ear are required. He has almost stopped leading for the ball these days - the source of most of his previous goals - albeit to the flanks. He does know how to get by himself to receive and mark - or play on to line up the big sticks yet suffers (at present) from the Weed disease of static anticipation at the goalmouth.

He is an enormous talent heavily manned by opposition sides. More proactive play is definitely required.

 

55 minutes ago, DubDee said:

Could somebody that knows footy tactics better than me comment if they think the crows cracked our defence on Sat? They played man on man and didn’t allow lever to be free that much. I assume other teams will do this. Should we have a plan B or stick to our game plan?

or is the issue not this and more a lack of intensity as evidenced by our contested possessions and tackles dropping recently?

I'd reckon that our Defence is best when all of the backline supports one another - moving past, retreating to re-set, screening and clearing the emergence of opposition forwards. This did not happen enough against the Crows - it was our own indifference to such footy tenets that let us down, contributing to what appeared to be a solution for their players to our now regular rock-solid backline. To win, hard work is required - if we wish to be convincing.