11-2 a great result.  It's a very tough competition.  The best sides  usually go around 17 or 18 wins in a season max, and that still doesn't guarantee a flag.  We are building towards something pretty special and there will be bumps in the road.  There are common themes to our two defeats so we have the opportunity to address those chinks in the armour over the break.

Most of our better players struggled a bit today, and we were definitely flat but Viney and Brown will be back and I really do think Melksham's creativity is important for us.  Well done to the team on a great first 13 rounds.  Enjoy the break and come back hard after the spell!

4 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

16-6 will be enough for top 2. Teams below will take games off each other.

18 will be top2 

Tmac plays better with Weeds out of the team.

4 minutes ago, bing181 said:

We're a game clear at the top of the ladder, we've beaten all the other contenders we've faced ... yet true to Demonland form, the sky is falling.

Pathetic.

Won’t be after the dogs play next week and we have the bye.

Drank their own bath water after wins against Dogs & lions???

Looked very flat and slow, forward marking non existent and ball come back with ease...

Hope its not the cliff MFC supporters are used to seeing.

Edited June 14, 20213 yr by Demonsone

I will start to worry once I see how the Dees respond. I think maybe the 10 day break is the thing that hurt us, after getting up and about for two big games we struggled to get into it.

Honestly, if we were told at the start of the season we would be going into the mid year break losing just two games to the Crows and Pies we would have taken it.

Still useless as set shots. Tmac, Pickett, Oliver all missing ones they should have kicked.

We play better with Melksham in the team.

Edited June 14, 20213 yr by Youngwilliam

11 minutes ago, david_neitz_is_my_dad said:

Also I never want us to play at the SCG again outside of away games vs Sydney.

Same no excuse as we didn't bring it but the shorter ground threw our spacing out

Well that was predictable.  A total failure of all involved from coaches to players.  We certainly know how to embarrass ourselves on the big day.  All we will hear for next week is Buckley Buckley Buckley !  

• Didn't look interested all afternoon.
• Work rate was down immensely on the rest of the season.
• Fumbled, looked uncharacteristically panicked, made very poor choices under pressure.
• Looked like we need the bye more than originally thought.

21 minutes ago, Die Hard Demon said:

Should we have seen this coming after 2 huge weeks in a row? 

Probably a good insight.  Smaller ground doesn't suit but primariliy the bye needs to be used to re-think forward sysetm a bit.  Weideman gone at 4 handballs and a tackle today.  Too much left to too few for scoring.

Rest is OK  and team can freshen up next couple of weeks.

'We'll learn from this'?

Have we not been 'learning' how to deliver inside 50 for about 10 years now?

SOME OF THE THINGS I HATED TODAY :

• 'Senior' players sh*tting themselves and serving up absolute TRIPE inside 50 all day.
• Sparrow looking like a scared little kid and not having the guts to go the torp.  Too terrified to fail.  Needs a spell until he can at least pretend to be confident footballer, because he looks incredibly nervous 
• Lack of pressure in the midfield at every centre clearance 
• We've gone back to panicked handballs to guys under even more pressure
• Millionaire football, holding on to the ball and thinking we're going to walk through tackles.  Arrogant as hell.
• Bayley Fritsch just coasting around all day after losing a contest and not getting involved again.  No 2nd efforts.
• Weideman. Have backed him from the start but that was just a flaccid soulless effort all day.  And Ben Brown ain't it.

Now every team can be confident they're in with a shot against us.

 

 

1 minute ago, Bates Mate said:

Same no excuse as we didn't bring it but the shorter ground threw our spacing out

We simply didn't work hard enough around the entire ground, the ground had a very minimal effect IMO. 

99% above the ears.

What worries me most is that teams are working out a way to beat us by using short sharp passes playing quickly and not bombing it in to Lever and Mays advantage.

Lots of pressure on the ball carrier meant we were often under pressure when going forward and bombing it in ourselves while their backs smashed us in the air.

Edited June 14, 20213 yr by DeeZee

It's pretty rare that every player puts in a dreadful performance in the one week. That speaks to mindset. I'd like to say it speaks to mental fragility, but all past premiers failed to turn up at times too, so no need to read into that too much.

Our leaders were well beaten today or played Hollywood football. Petracca, Oliver, McDonald, May and Gawn all dreadful. Jackson possibly our only winner, but even he was caught ball watching in transition a few times too.

I don't think Rivers had an effective disposal until the second half. He certainly had 3 direct turn overs by foot in a row. Kozzy played hero, selfish footy. Sparrow was his untidy self. Our forwards barely sighted for the game. Another average performance for Weideman, but delivery to him for most of the day was average. Possibly Lever was our best, aside from that brainfade early.

In many ways it was a vintage Melbourne performance though. Expected to win, important game and then we go and let a very ordinary player like Cameron play his PB game.

It's extremely disappointing given they'd just won my trust, but I should have known when Ed threw up on his MFC gear earlier today (he'd done similar the day of the Adelaide game), we'd put in a stinker.

We'll welcome back Viney into the team, although winning the ball wasn't our problem today. It was taking the first option, not something Jack is renowned for.

Clearly, Viney for Sparrow and hopefully Brown for Weideman or McDonald. But McDonald has enough runs on the board to this stage.

In footy, things can change quickly and we could well look back on today's game and say that it cost us a top 4 spot.

Edited June 14, 20213 yr by A F

Fun reading the meltdowns on here.  

Two of our greatest strengths have been our structure covering wide open expanses and our running fitness levels in last quarters.  Scg takes both out of the equation.

Play that game again at the mcg and i'd say its not a scrap and clog fest it seemed to be on the telly.  Just an awful ground for AFL. 

 

2 minutes ago, olisik said:

Still useless as set shots. Tmac, Pickett, Oliver all missing ones they should have kicked.

Oliver is shocking in front of goal, has zero confidence.

Meh, we played badly and lost. It happens in a long season.

The SCG very much didn't help us. 

I didn’t watch the game but was concerned that a smaller ground would not suit our game plan, so expected it to be close. I’m comfortable writing this one off and still very content to be 11-2 heading into the bye. I also take some consolation in the fact that losing to bottom teams is actually better than top 8 teams because it not an 8 point game. But appreciate the frustrations of those who watched, especially those who made the long trek to see us live!

8 minutes ago, bing181 said:

We're a game clear at the top of the ladder, we've beaten all the other contenders we've faced ... yet true to Demonland form, the sky is falling.

Pathetic.

You must be new here. New supporter too?

You will develop your MFCSS in time.

Whilst not the reason for the loss but suburban footy should not be played on a ground as short as the SCG let alone AFL.

We struggled to hit a kick and could not stretch them with run. Please lets not play there again. 

Edited June 14, 20213 yr by big_red_fire_engine

10 minutes ago, BAMF said:

Anyone watch the pies v crows game last week? 

The way the pies played last week should have told us they were coming for us.

Exactly the same. Pressure, win the contest, quick hands or short kick and then a flat kick into a forward.

I thought the pies were great. Really disappointing that we didnt see it coming and have the boys fired up to respond early.

Its clear Goodwin didn't

Media people said oh you have to be wary about playing teams when there coach leaves. But Melbourne can be trusted this year and should still win because they are on top of the ladder. 

Well now we can't. We should have been prepared for that and today we were just awful. Jackson can be the only one that held his head high. 

I just cannot fathom how bad those players were today. Selfish at times and just did dumb things. 

Just now, big_red_fire_engine said:

Whilst not the reason for the loss but suburban footy should not played on a ground as short as the SCG let alone AFL.

We struggled to hit a kick and could not stretch them with run. Please lets not play there again. 

Yeah that ground is a dump. 
[censored] Covid can just go and get absolutely ducked