9 hours ago, CYB said:

No offence taken Beetle. It’s a fair question. Have you ever ran 15km at 10 pm? If not there is no point trying to explain. 

I have, yet I still have no idea what you’re talking about. Time and sleep = recovery. It’s that simple. Dees had more recovery than Hawks. This we know. 

8 hours ago, Demon Dynasty said:

As a fill in i thought he went "ok".

The effort was there but the best of Melk a la 2018 is most likely behind him in terms of intensity and finishing off the good work up the field or nearer the goals.

However, he's been a VG servant of this club.   Most of it through some very dark days.  So lets not forget he's played a significant part in our resurgence.

Does he have the penetrating finesse kick coming inside 50 like he once did?  Not tonight he didn't.  He's never been a contested beast so not like we were missing that from him.  Would he usually kick that relatively easy goal from 35 out?  Sure.

Having said that, it's no doubt a bloody tough gig playing at the top level and for Melk to step up a level after so long out and play a role in what is likely a one off against a decent middle of the rung team....i tips me hat.

I've seen plenty of worse games from Melk than tonight's performance!  Given the circumstances i suspect the coaches may have also given Melk a pass mark here.

His 20 metre off-direction bullseye handball to a sprinting Bedford was old-school Melksham….beautifully skilled. His goal as much as TB’s. 

7 hours ago, deejammin' said:

Our forward line needs to get back to separating and leading, the number of times Brown, Gawn, McDonald and Weideman all jumped into each other, or at least two did was very frustrating. Stop bombing to packs, lead!

Too true.   If we have two, or three, decent capable forwards, then please spread and at least one lead, drawing their opponent; preferably a split lead.  All flying together only feeds the defenders other than in the unusual case of one of ours clutching a big pack mark.

PS unless this is a tactic keeping the split leads up our sleeve for big September games?

Edited April 30, 20222 yr by monoccular

Sure Goodwin will get us through. Last year we saved our best for the end of the year. Looks similar to last year. But it's a competition and the difference between sides in not that large.

Early in the last quarter, we were up by 33 and one more would have killed off the game, but Tom McDonald burned half the forward line, kicked a point, and they ran up the other end and kicked a goal.

Lost me. 

29 minutes ago, Webber said:

We looked cooked, a bit crook even.

Agree! At the start of the game, with all the lethargy, I thought half the team looked like they had Covid or the flu (much to my horror). There wasn't a whole lot of pressure in the midfield, but they seemed to get rolling later in the quarter (phew)

I'll take that win any day.

Does Lever look like he’s lost about 4 m of pace? He really struggled to get moving yesterday. The fumbles and mistakes I can put down to lack of match practice, but to me his foot injury has slowed him down considerably. 

14 hours ago, DubDee said:

Luckily - Gunston and Breust did not have their usual shooting boots on. 1.6 between them.  only one was a tough shot so would usually be 6.1 and we would be in trouble

Yes. We've got to be careful we don't overrate wins in which the opposition miss chances or we will be ambushed when sides do take chances.

Still, Hawks are the best side we've played this year and as WJ said, we had an unsettling week.

Edited May 1, 20222 yr by Tony Tea

8 hours ago, Demon Dynasty said:

I reckon the former ... the only reason i can think of is he wasn't 110% sure it was the big sticks it was going through.... in the end only plugger knows why though eh.  He was lucky it wasn't given a point.  I reckon he only just managed to control that before the ball fully crossed the line by a bee's johnson

I definitely could have seen that going either way. If it made been played as a point I wouldn’t have protested 

6 minutes ago, Roger Mellie said:

Agree! At the start of the game, with all the lethargy, I thought half the team looked like they had Covid or the flu (much to my horror). There wasn't a whole lot of pressure in the midfield, but they seemed to get rolling later in the quarter (phew)

I'll take that win any day.

Yes I was there and thought the same.

I have not read any of the previous posts

so

i thought Smith missed a couple of interceptions he should have made. Behind a couple of times.  And I like Smith he brings a frost point of difference.

Spargo wastes nothing, Bedford played really well, he will make the grade.

Weid needs to move around more and impose his presence or absence on the game. Drag his opponent away.

Tmac offers heaps when he can bolster the backline like last night. 
 

now am I correct 35 games 4 losses 1 draw. 30 wins.  You MUST enjoy this time.  It might not happen for another half century. 
oliver big max and tracca    What needs to be said,  Never thought we would lose once we stared playing half way through the first.

While the guys that came in generally did ok and had some really nice moments, I think the team defence was way down. In particular, ANB and Pickett were massive outs in this regard. Can also throw in that ANB is also arguably our most important link up player forward of the ball as well as being ranked elite for score launches and ground ball gets - on paper the guy is one of the best in the league at what he does.

While our system and depth are strong, losing the players who are best at maintaining the structure and creating pressure is always going to hurt. While Hawthorn did very well to hurt us on the switch and cut into the middle, I think that with our better system players out there, their aggressiveness would've invited more turnovers and it would've been a more comfortable game. 

The fact that we can have the outs that we had and still do enough to bank the points is awesome. I really think that while we didn't lose any of our "key players" (although I think the club would rate ANB in the same category of importance as the superstars) we were still greatly impacted and our ability to constrict and suffocate the opposition was heavily reduced - although was clearly good enough to get the job done!

I think the game will be great for the club from a learning perspective and was great to get another game into Bedford and Dunstan. While Bedford's pressure output was way down on what we usually get from Kozzie in the role, he still worked hard and kicked some vital goals. I think his pressure output would shoot up with regular experience although am not sure how he will get it.

Saints may be more trouble although I think Hawks style was perfectly placed to pick us off while we were down.

Hopefully no more covid outs and the boys that missed don't have it too bad, go dees!

And if Melksham.  Dunstan or Bedford lose their spot. They are just unlucky. They all played well at times

9 minutes ago, Neil Crompton said:

Does Lever look like he’s lost about 4 m of pace? He really struggled to get moving yesterday. The fumbles and mistakes I can put down to lack of match practice, but to me his foot injury has slowed him down considerably. 

He was certainly below his best Neil but I think we need to give him another week or two before making that call. 

RedBlueandTrue - nailed it.  System and structure was (unsurprisingly) way off. Looked very disorganized.  
Hopefully return of some key personnel will steady the ship.  

Watched St Kilda on  the tv at home.

they had a bloody hard game

 

we are premiers but on the early game next Sunday not free to air.  It is a disgrace!!   We should protest loudly

Maybe the biggest positive to come from seeing the team without its ‘regulars’, it’s so many people waking up to how important Nibbler is to that system. Not the perfect footballer, he is perilously close to the perfect all-ground, all-the-time competitor. The no. 30 isn’t going to adorn the jerseys of many little Dees, which is a shame, cos he’s unquestionably one of the first 10 picked every week. 

21 minutes ago, Neil Crompton said:

Does Lever look like he’s lost about 4 m of pace? He really struggled to get moving yesterday. The fumbles and mistakes I can put down to lack of match practice, but to me his foot injury has slowed him down considerably. 

Lever has always been the same it takes him two or three weeks to get back to his best. 

12 minutes ago, 640MD said:

Watched St Kilda on  the tv at home.

they had a bloody hard game

 

we are premiers but on the early game next Sunday not free to air.  It is a disgrace!!   We should protest loudly

Just go to the game.

7 minutes ago, Mr Steve said:

Lever has always been the same it takes him two or three weeks to get back to his best. 

Lever is sore still - right foot. Still think it is his plantar fascia issue from the way he was carrying himself.

10 minutes ago, rpfc said:

Lever is sore still - right foot. Still think it is his plantar fascia issue from the way he was carrying himself.

Sorry i have missed it and not sure if anyone has seen anything, but how serious was Smiths injury?

I am sure the Docs will get it right (for Lever) but we have the depth to not be taking any risks, IMO.

When opposition coaches come out and say they are reasonably happy the way they lose to us speaks volumes to how we are tracking.

11 hours ago, Hopeful Demon said:

Can you please calm down? We're not 'playing like trash' at all. I thought today's performance was actually very impressive given that five of our premership players were forced to isolate. The Melbourne of old never used to find ways to win in difficult circumstances like this.

By the way, you seem to be forgetting that we had many ugly wins during the 2021 H & A season but peaked at the right time. Why can't that happen again this year?

Just try to be grateful. We've won 14 in a row, for god's sake.

Totally agree.  There is absolutely no need to put the pedal to the metal at this time of the year, that will happen later.
Objective now is simple, try and win as many games as possible during the season proper.  It pleases me greatly that we have the ability to change up gears when required.

57 minutes ago, Cassiew said:

I definitely could have seen that going either way. If it made been played as a point I wouldn’t have protested 

There was no sign of a second grab as far as I could see so the only issue was where did he mark it. Mark or goal.

1 hour ago, picket fence said:

Clarry was cheated against by the unfair tag after the first quarter. I say cheat and unfair given that he was denied a fair run at the ball. When a tag puts his back to the ball and faces an opponent with no intent other than to stop a fair run, I call it cheating. More often than not this occured and also the propensity to grapple, hold was clear to me. The AFL should review this tactic and outlaw it immediately! I thought Clarry made some errors BUT he was still intrumental in setting up some overlap, run and carry to easily be in our best

Totally agree with everything you said. I just wonder what the other umpires are doing at times.  Clary aside, it just creates a blight on the game as a whole. 

It's a beautiful autumnal Sunday and our boys are 7-0. What's not to like. As has already been said Koz & Nibbler will make a big difference in how the opposition get to exit their D50 and assuming they and the other boys that missed have no lingering effects from the virus I'm expecting us to be laser focussed on strangling the Saints next week.