Marking the ball is one of the skills of playing footy. We were FLOGGED in the air.

I would love to see the handball efficiency stats. Our handball skills and decision making were atrocious tonight.

Weid, Brown, Melksham, Dunstan, Bowey,  Petracca & Rivers had absolute howlers. Bowey consistently made poor decisions which was strange to see.

Special mention to Lever. His playing on followed by decision making caused multiple turnovers or sent straight to the opposition.

And if I saw the Freo man  free at the back of the pack get a free handball one more time... aaaahhhggg!!!

Having ranted all that (I had to get it off my chest), I see our best 22 producing much better than that.

Edited May 28, 20223 yr by Maldonboy38

1 minute ago, Clint Bizkit said:

North showed last week how to pick apart our zone.

Yep, and it was very disappointing to have a certified spud in 2022 do that! That would have been watched by others, and clearly Freo. 

1 minute ago, adonski said:

Rivers played one of the all time [censored] games from a defensive standpoint 

You’re not even worth talking to, do you think that maybe he struggled a bit because the whole structure of the backline broke down with May subbed out before quarter time & Petty on one leg

Great support for our 20 year olds from you

Midfield need to hang their heads, their centre square work in the 2nd half was embarrassing. Ratten was 100% correct in his judgement of Dunstan. The definition of a plodder. Rivers had a really terrible game today and so did about 12 of his mates. Spargo ain't no winger. Brown and Weidman = giant fail.

Coaches should be held to account as well. Freoh had a loose player defensive side of every stoppage and they kept getting clean clearances. Why we didn't go even numbers boggles my mind.

All that optimism about the Melbourne system being unstoppable dissipated in a half of footy. Like all teams, it's clear that we are very reliant on our best players to be competitive. 

1 minute ago, Lord Nev said:

Just a flat day that has been coming for a while. The key stats show Freo had all the run and energy.

We had a flat period this time last year too, so no panic.

 

Rather unconvincing all game and many players down on-the-day; playing walking wounded, there was some spirit but little left in the tank and yes, LNev, it seems to have been coming, with too great a loss of some of our key drivers - particularly Salem, Harmes, Hibberd with May very unlucky to not be able to see the game out - and, of course, the brave circumstances of Petty across the game.

6 minutes ago, ucanchoose said:

I don't want to see Weideman in a Melbourne jumper ever again. 

Big need from us, big opportunity # 200 for him. Produced nothing - stayed out of danger - did not support with vigour. Does not deserve a jumper. Rather see Daw in the forward pocket, changing ruck duties and creating unpleasant moments for opposition defenders. Gawn is bashed and weary - but one wouldn't know it the way he pushes on like a true sportsman. 

Peter Jackson said something quite prophetic at the start of 2015 when we turned up to a pre season game against Essendon at Docklands composed of VFL top ups as they were still in the throes of the ASADA trial (WADA were yet to intervene and truly drop the hammer).

'We lost today. We will lose football games in the future'

I wrote in the game day thread that the players we had out, the players who were undercooked, and the players who just didn't turn up today is a good reason why we lost. Our lead in games were not great. Plus we ran into a team who played sensationally today and out Melbourned us. Pretty much everything clicked for them and they thoroughly deserved their win.

The final margin was somewhat worrying in that the biggest margin we lost by in 2021 was 20 points. I would have preferred if we kept it within 4 goals but it is what it is.

Time to regroup. Another top 4 contender waits in the wings and I would prefer another shif narrative to not emerge. Last year, it was 'Melbourne drop games to teams outside the 8'. Lose next week and it'll be 'Melbourne can't be anyone in the top 8'. Time to nip that one in the bud, lads!

 

 

12 minutes ago, adonski said:

Sell high on Jackson

Sparrow remains a myth

Jimmy Jordon keeps rising 

Bedford too good for VFL

Hope Rivers has his post-AFL career planned out

Jackson needs to sign his contract. It's become a distraction and is affecting his form

Sparrow not good today but he'll be right

Rivers having a poor season. He's a concern imv

5 minutes ago, Rod Grinter Riot Squad said:

He was much better than Ben Brown 

Not a lot better no.

1 minute ago, Billy said:

You’re not even worth talking to, do you think that maybe he struggled a bit because the whole structure of the backline broke down with May subbed out before quarter time & Petty on one leg

Great support for our 20 year olds from you

He had a few opportunities to contest and chose not to unfortunately

Ohhhh, so this is what losing feels like! I'd forgotten!

Well it had to happen and there is some good news out of it. There are players who are not good enough. Not many but they exist. Let it be a lesson and remember sometimes it takes more than 1 loss for that kick up the pants to work. Be wary of Sydney next week.

Agree with others this loss has been coming. It was just lucky we had 2 bottom teams to beat the past 2 weeks.

Its a reality check. It gives Goody something to work on. It gives the players a wake up call & the review will be different this week.

We are still on top & now the media can stop talking about our streak.

Our last quarter was a worry though. 

See how we respond against Sydney

 

4 minutes ago, david_neitz_is_my_dad said:

The writing was on the wall. Struggled with momentum vs North and Eagles, made them look like the 2013 Hawks at times. As soon as a decent team shows up we get smacked, being inaccurate was no surprise.

 

Whilst getting wins on paper we have poor connection inside 50 and inconsistency.

 

Now with some decent teams coming up the MFC can no longer just show up, scratch a win and everyone on here act like 2 flags in a row is happening

How true our forward line is dysfunctional all we do bomb it in to pockets we don't have a pack mark forward BB is a lead up forward and a one on one player you cannot sustain doing the same thing.

Today some of them looked slow and I just wonder if they are doing a mini pre season seeing they had a two game lead on the ladder but this forward line needs sorting out quick.

 

14 minutes ago, adonski said:

Sell high on Jackson

Sparrow remains a myth

Jimmy Jordon keeps rising 

Bedford too good for VFL

Hope Rivers has his post-AFL career planned out

Really, I suppose you were abusing them all day as well.

4 minutes ago, Nasher said:

Yeah, we only lost to s*** sides. That’s much better!

It really is. Because losing to [censored] sides doesn’t matter come finals and is clearly a concentration lapse. Today wasn’t a “we didn’t come to play because we expected to win”. Today was a “we got beaten by a side that is very good and killed us fair and square”. 

Just now, drysdale demon said:

Really, I suppose you were abusing them all day as well.

And the night is still young

It smelt like the gws game last year in the first. Then we came good in the second. Then it was much worse than the gws game. We were flat. We had important players out in important spots. They were strong and clean. The ball fell their way, they got the rub. Concerning in part but I thought we’d lose one or two in the coming month. We will beat them in a final

It was a loss we could all see coming... Melbourne has been complacent albeit a few games, they've just been going through the motions week in week out and losing May today was the tipping point. We can look forward to getting Salem, Langdon and Hibberd back shortly, so that should spark Melbourne into the right mindset. 

Our bad kicking also finally caught up to us.

Oh I wonder how bowey feels after his 1st loss

Steven May played less than a quarter and finished with more possessions than Melksham and Weideman. 

I’ve long held the belief that this team is no good when 30 points up because we become complacent, sure enough we blew a 30 point lead.

But also, we really missed the ruthlessness of May who ripped into Petracca during Grand Final when it was well and truly in the bag.

2 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Steven May played less than a quarter and finished with more possessions than Melksham and Weideman. 

Melksham has played his last game. We got him to 200 and that’s enough. 
Weideman did more than Brown, which tells you how awful they both were. Brown has been putrid for 2 weeks now. 
 

Also our reliance on May is so evident. We fall apart with him. He is the glue that holds us together. 

Edited May 28, 20223 yr by Jaded No More

7 minutes ago, leucopogon said:

Like all teams, it's clear that we are very reliant on our best players to be competitive. 

And that is the way it always is.

Brown seemed to have forgotten to lead. He was consistently grappled with when the tried to get  to a pack to mark.