34 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

Not only that, he put it down the throat of an Essendon player in the pocket.

Such a bad kick.

he saw the man on the mark turn his back and he took a chance

If he goaled we would be over the moon and the replay would have made great viewing on Sunday morning

I have no problem with Hunt taking a chance

6 hours ago, Antioch said:

No. The booing might have made you think so. Try watching the game with no sound. They were equally fair to both sides. A lot of potential MFC frees were missed. Essendon fans are sore losers. But they sure are losers!!!

I personally thought the Jordan and maybe one or two other frees were the only bad calls in our favour. Slight rub of the green to us but good umpiring isn’t a dead level free kick count. 

9 hours ago, Caligula's cohort said:

Our midfield needs a lot of work. We were beaten time and time again in centre clearances. We're meant to have one of the best midfields in the comp, and were well beaten IMV. Luckily our defence held strong, our back 7 all played brilliantly tonight and Brayshaw was sensational on the wing. Anyway bank the win Demons and move on to GWS. 

Also...can someone please show Pickett how to kick a bloody set shot on goal! he misses week in week out! 

Our midfield kicked 6 goals, theirs kicked none.

Reading some of the posters views on here (which clearly I disagree with) there is a consistent devaluing of oppositions ability to actually put pressure on our players when disposing of the ball. 

It's as though without fail, disposals should be perfect, when clear AND when being heavily pressured AND fatigued!

It's simply not realistic to execute deliveries to afl standard (tm)  consistently in a sport where you are pressured and heavily fatigued... I'm not sure why people forget that, and then bang on about it being disgraceful.

Seriously... to get a read on how difficult it is - go run 10km fartlek style and try to hit targets that are moving around, with pressure on them.

Anyway, the reality is we are a seriously [censored] good team.

The defence was great, but it was the two way running by the midfielders that alllowed it to be great as well - pressuring kicks into the forward line. No wonder they disposals were wonky at times.

For those that bemoan we are not smashing 'lower teams' on the ladder - those teams 'park the bus' so to speak, and try to stem our scoring, which they do and that is inevitable due to the amount of players in our F50 - thus they score lowly themselves as they rarely break through- hence the aesthetically unappealing matches (and hence supporters being upset that we're not playing 90's free flowing football). The aerobic capacity of athletes doesn't really allow for that anymore.

When teams try to take us on  - WB, Tigers, Geelong, Brisbane (our biggest threats) - we have smashed them in contests and around the ground and to be honest, they have been the least stressful games.

We are so adaptable to the varying opposition strengths - yep Goodwin and co has plenty of variance, and trust in the players - in the sense of bringing in/dropping relevant personnel vs the opposition and still getting the job done.

 

Edited June 26, 20214 yr by Engorged Onion

Make sure you tell all your Essendon mates that the umpiring was terrible and they wus robbed.  ?

7 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

One game from about the last 6.
All I'm saying is the comparisons with Rioli are abit ... Off.
Drops marks he shouldn't and misses goals he shouldn't.
Rioli would have gobbled those up when he was 19.

He's been well off the boil, the last 2 weeks.

13 minutes ago, layzie said:

I personally thought the Jordan and maybe one or two other frees were the only bad calls in our favour. Slight rub of the green to us but good umpiring isn’t a dead level free kick count. 

The Jordon 100m was Def there. The Essplayer was way too late too stand the mark and the ump clearly calls for him to stay clear.  He doesn’t, and is about 3M over the mark.  Gotta be 50. Then that gob Smith is into the ump and another 50.  

Big issue for me last night was how high our forwards were defending On many occasions we left the entire forward half vacant

After winning the ball through good defensive pressure there was no one forward

We must be smarter than this

8 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

After the game with Steven May.
God love 'im.

https://www.facebook.com/MELBOURNEfc/videos/204366084788887

Angry, telling someone named Matt to shut up during the interview wasn’t in jest I felt. Loved his honesty in that interview.

Winning ugly is perfectly OK by me. Especially as the ultimate assessment cannot be made until the last week of September. As far as the booing goes, I missed it after quarter time, simply because I turned the sound down on the TV - not so much for the booing, but more so to shut out the insufferable, unlistenable drivel from the Channel 7 team. McLauchlan is unbearable with his forced barracking for those young gutsy bombers and disrespectful attitude towards the Dees, (and I suspect other teams who do not fit in to the corporate media narrative). Dare I say it, but I suspect the AFL got the better brother! (PS: For what it is worth, the maggotry was appalling tonight - for both sides, but certainly our lads seemed to get the rub of the green at times. However, this is no different to every game every week. Interpretation and inconsistency are the key issues - and S Hocking has a lot to answer for). Go Dees, one week, one challenge at a time.

8 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Were sitting on top of the ladder, 12-2 and two ganes clear of second but we're not getting anywhere near the cup? Sure we can play better but come on, credit where it's due. We towelled up the Lions and Dogs less than a month ago, Port, Geelong, West Coast woukd he 50/50 games at worst.

Not based on the last 2 games. So much is fickle about this game, any team can be on the rollercoaster downslide at any moment. If we rediscover the form, and become more offensively dangerous, of course we can. No doubting we’re in the best position of any team currently to do it, and that’s a huge credit to the team, but past achievements count for nothing when it matters most. 

47 minutes ago, Kent said:

he saw the man on the mark turn his back and he took a chance

If he goaled we would be over the moon and the replay would have made great viewing on Sunday morning

I have no problem with Hunt taking a chance

He’s a monster kick though and pretty good with set shots, was well in range, so playing on seemed a bit low percentage to me. Otherwise, you’re right of course. Dare I say the same for Dogga’s brain fade. 

27 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

Angry, telling someone named Matt to shut up during the interview wasn’t in jest I felt. Loved his honesty in that interview.

Matt Whelan?

1 hour ago, big_red_fire_engine said:

watching Essendon kick it to May and Lever continually was a thing of beauty. 

This never got old. Could’ve happened another 100 times and it’d still be a joy to behold. 

9 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

After the game with Steven May.
God love 'im.

https://www.facebook.com/MELBOURNEfc/videos/204366084788887

I love this bloke. Delighted we brought him to the club. Him and Lever easily the best defensive pair in the league. Both excellent defenders and always upfront and honest in interviews

 

1 hour ago, layzie said:

I personally thought the Jordan and maybe one or two other frees were the only bad calls in our favour. Slight rub of the green to us but good umpiring isn’t a dead level free kick count. 

Jordan was hit in the side of the head by Stringer, it wasn’t an arm chop. Stringer was crude it as they say clumsy, a few times in his tackling.

I can't stand supporters who continually abuse umpires. It has to be constructive....

a scrappy affair. Happy to bank the four points and move on

✅ May and Lever.  Though they shouldn’t have been needed  We rely too much on them 

✅ Viney back  Love his attack on the footy

✅ Trac giving to the bombers fans ?

❌ fumbles and turnovers  Not a quality performance 

❌goalkicking was poor Too many misses that could be costly in other games  

❌ a tall forward to go to when it gets tough  …a tall forward demanding the footy (Hawkins, Dixon, Lynch, Josh J Kennedy)  time to trial BBB no matter for minimum 3 weeks 

? The zone defence   It invites a skilled team to pick it apart.  The bombers were too slow and erratic  The pies play on game had us worried  the worry still exists  

? Kozzy. I love ya but I’d love to see him play inside the 50 arc more and be that dangerous forward.  
 

? Clarry. Overhandballing.  I loved the run and kicking game of 6-7 weeks ago. The little handballs to someone under pressure is starting to creep back in 

There is a clear pattern emerging this season. When we play equally good teams we are able to beat them one on one. When we play lower sides who come out clearly worried about beating us rather than winning the game, we struggle.
Remember when we were a poor side and we’d come up against a top team and your main worry was negating the opposition and keeping the scores low so you can stay in the game for long periods of time? Well this is what is happening to us now.

Opposition teams try to choke the game because they know that in a “shoot out” they lose. 
Luckily we have a strong defensive system in place that is very hard to penetrate which is why we won. Essendon were never going to win playing like they did and kicking such a low score, hoping we would kick a lower score. Our defense is 100 times better than theirs. Hence the marks inside 50 differential even without a single forward of ours having a good night. 
Games like we saw last night are not how our finals opponents will play. And I think it’s also human nature for players to be at their best against the best opponents. I’ve been super impressed with how we’ve played against top sides and that is what counts in finals. 
 

Having said that we need another tall forward target stat. 

9 hours ago, layzie said:

14 marks inside 50 doesn’t suggest a huge lack of connection between the mids and forwards. It suggests inaccuracy. 

I think this is the story of the game. We had periods of absolute dominance in the 1st and 3rd quarter. Had we nailed 2 extra goals each in those periods (which was very gettable) the game would have been over at 3/4 time.

Our goal kicking was poor. Our forward connection was ok.

9 minutes ago, Better days ahead said:

I love this bloke. Delighted we brought him to the club. Him and Lever easily the best defensive pair in the league. Both excellent defenders and always upfront and honest in interviews

 

Gotta say I was concerned how much coin the club had tied up in a couple of defenders but the move has proved genius.
They're both holding the joint together back there and are bonafide match winners.
Love the leadership they have brought to the club.

3 minutes ago, Fork 'em said:

Gotta say I was concerned how much coin the club had tied up in a couple of defenders but the move has proved genius.
They're both holding the joint together back there and are bonafide match winners.
Love the leadership they have brought to the club.

I’m not. Premierships are won in defense and May and Lever are as good as any premiership winning backline of the last decade. 

Edited June 27, 20214 yr by Jaded

1 hour ago, Jontee said:

Make sure you tell all your Essendon mates that the umpiring was terrible and they wus robbed.  ?

I'll be telling any Essendon fool who pops their heads up that between Parish, Merrett and Stringer they had about 100 possessions and still got forken done.
Hopeless plicks.

2 minutes ago, Jaded said:

I’m not. Premierships are won in defense and May and Lever are as good as any premiership winning backline of the last decade. 

I hear ya but what other club has targeted a pair of backmen on big money like that?
Most save their coin for forwards and mids.
As I said.
Genius.

Just now, Fork 'em said:

I'll be telling any Essendon fool who pops their heads up that between Parish, Merrett and Stringer they had about 100 possessions and still got forken done.
Hopeless plicks.

You can tell them there’s a reason we didn’t bother tagging Parish or Merrett. Their 1000 touches did half as much damage as Salem’s 26. Quality over quantity.