1 hour ago, layzie said:

A couple of days to process this and also time to grieve for Liverpool's defeat in the Champions League Final. Let’s get back to business.

Did Freo come up with the blueprint on how to beat Melbourne? I don’t believe so, they brought so much effort and work rate that they absolutely deserved this win but there were also a series of circumstances that allowed this to happen and to Justin Longmuir’s credit he pounced of them, great coaching.

I watched all the shows, I knew they were going to deep dive on this game and a story like this is like xmas day for footy analysts so I wanted to see what everyone had to say and graded their performances. First crack showed Freo bringing so much pressure and double or even triple teaming Melb ball carriers at centre clearances, although the footage was very well edited and impressive I could not help but think this would be tough to replicate and surprisingly David King agreed. Petracca banged up and Oliver being sat on by Aish allowed them to do this but on another day I can see Freo or another team for that matter bringing 2 or 3 to the ball carrier and us handballing over the top to the open man. Speaking of Aish, a brilliant job he did but Oliver still ended up with 36 possessions. Nullified him for sure and played his part in the big win but on more days than not a day like that from Clarry contributes to a Melb win.

I’m not trying to downplay Freo at all and what they did but I do believe sometimes when you’re down at half time in a game like that, you throw a few things into the mix that you wouldn’t usually do. I do wonder if Freo would have sacrificed in midfield had the game been level at half time. Sometimes it’s the unpredictable stuff that gets you, could Melbourne have done more to stem the bleeding? I’d have to watch again but it didn’t seem like we were prepared to match the running and defensive work rate of Freo once they got the head of steam up.

Individual brilliance from their small forwards Frederick and Shultz, if you’ve got some small forwards who can kick goals like these you’re in with a show. If there is one secret sauce it is moving the ball quick against us.

Injuries never an excuse but Ed Langdon’s ability to not only help with ball carrying attacks down his wing but his ability to track back almost like a sweeper when the backline pushes up. Missed it badly. Then there is May, losing him is equal to losing Virgil Van Dijk for Liverpool (apologies Soccer haters), the marshalling he does as the backline commander is underappreciated. A dozen times when there was a Freo kick to the point of the goal square you were just expecting that big fist but without him roles down back weren’t as defined.

I see this more as a pivot moment for us and the rest of the comp, a sliding doors moment if you will. Everyone takes stock and the road map changes slightly or dramatically, time will tell. Freo capitalised in the best possible fashion you could, they are an excellent unit and match up well on us, can’t wait for the return match at Optus that will be a ripper.

What does it mean for Melbourne? All things considered it is more likely to have a positive effect than negative. The winning streak to me was becoming a side show and frankly quite annoying. I said last week that I believed this team needed to lose as we were controlling games but also bringing a little too much Hollywood to the picture, honestly I don’t blame them. It’s hard to stay as motivated and hungry to improve when you are in this position, I’d even say it’s impossible to not get a little ahead of yourself. It also goes to show that no team is perfect and no team can run hard for 4 quarters, for 22 games a season. You do not need to be great for all of the season, you need to be great where it counts. I didn’t give a stuff about records, I care about what gives us the best chance for another shot at it all.

The magnifying glass will come out this week no doubt about it and these guys know what they need to do. Losing games is a part of following this sport and I know all of you will be confident we can get this back on track.

By keeping possession of the football, they were able to dictate the pace of the game, to one which suited them, and that blunted our momentum. We are largely a side that plays on momentum swings. Freo found a way to simply control the footy, the pace of the game, and were fortunate enough to convert their goal opportunities. We will need to make sure all our forwards are working hard on the defensive end next time around, so to prevent Freo having so much time and space down back. I’d also go back to having a defensive winger, and try and defend against the switch. I would be surprised if Fremantle’s game plan were conducive to finals like pressure. 

Edited May 31, 20222 yr by KingDingAling

On 5/29/2022 at 1:24 PM, Webber said:

Time to give the Weid a potential reinvention and resurrection down back I reckon. A la Liam Jones, Paddy McCartin, James Sicily, and too many others to mention. It would also fit nicely into my (admittedly only briefly tested) theory that Harry Petty, as good as he is defensively, is our next power forward! 😳 Thoughts? (I’m ducking my head already). 

I gave Weid a chance in a mention earlier and said it's about building confidence. I don't care if that happens forward, ruck, defence, Casey, as long as he is told to move constantly and use the motion to give him power.

Im happy with Petty in defence.

Another thought is that we were actually winning with a bit of a smashed up side until half time.

We don't want to give Freo, a likely finals opponent no credit but I hope they believe they can beat us with their game plan.

Did Goody and the players secure in the knowledge of how to beat them put away the structure and play with a restricted unit not comprising our likely premiership team, structure or patterns.

Lets see how we go against the Swans who will also be without Buddy (I think) another finalist.

On 5/30/2022 at 12:25 PM, roy11 said:

I still think our depth is reasonable standard, we just had an off day (and had some key personnel out) against a good team. Unfortunately missed a few players which caused flow on impact on other positions (especially after May/Petty injuries).

Yes there were some tactical issues but hopefully these are resolved with the returning players and the game plan/effort return this week. 

Depth at the selection table is one thing, but losing one and having the other tall defender lame within a game, would leave any team struggling, especially against a team with plenty of big marking options up forward.  

Sure, in hindsight having Tomlinson instead of Dunstan as medisub would have helped, but nobody can predict these things and a mid / medium or small forward is, generally, the preferred option.

Disappointing second half but I for one am not cutting my wrists of microwaving my membership.

Let's hope the guys can be hurt by this and come out fighting Saturday.

12 hours ago, KingDingAling said:

Sitting Oliver on the bench for 10 minutes after he started the game on fire, was pushing the play, and was benched twice during the game for longer periods than usual. Both times costing us momentum. Fremantle have no inside mid, and prior to coming off they had no answer for Oliver. Probably the worst move I’ve seen Goodwin make. Cost us the game. 

I don't even know where to start with this post.

"Fremantle have no inside mid" is just horrendously inaccurate. Brayshaw, Serong, Brodie and Mundy are in the top handful of inside midfields in the competition.

They answered Oliver by tagging him with Aish. It's not like putting Oliver on the bench meant he all of a sudden lost all of his form.

Oliver played 90% of the game (more than his season average). And at least one time he (and others) were on the bench, the game was on the outer wing and we couldn't get the rotations through when we probably wanted.

But at its core, your post in insane because you genuinely seem to think Goodwin made a "move" to "bench" Oliver. Like, you genuinely seem to think that our coach saw Oliver dominating, knew Petracca was sick and we were missing Langdon and Harmes, and thought "I should "bench" Oliver like it's 1995".

Just an utterly ridiculous thing to think.

It doesn't relate to this thread, but it's hardly worth a new thread. Arguably it doesn't warrant a post at all!

Had a terrible dream last night. I was watching the GF ... it was the Demons' third GF since 1964, and we were expected to win easily. We didn't ... got thrashed!! So relieved to wake up !! 

Can anyone guess who we were playing in that nightmare?  Clue.. It wasn't the Dogs, nor the filth.

3 hours ago, Winners at last said:

It doesn't relate to this thread, but it's hardly worth a new thread. Arguably it doesn't warrant a post at all!

Had a terrible dream last night. I was watching the GF ... it was the Demons' third GF since 1964, and we were expected to win easily. We didn't ... got thrashed!! So relieved to wake up !! 

Can anyone guess who we were playing in that nightmare?  Clue.. It wasn't the Dogs, nor the filth.

St Kilda?

6 hours ago, Winners at last said:

It doesn't relate to this thread, but it's hardly worth a new thread. Arguably it doesn't warrant a post at all!

Had a terrible dream last night. I was watching the GF ... it was the Demons' third GF since 1964, and we were expected to win easily. We didn't ... got thrashed!! So relieved to wake up !! 

Can anyone guess who we were playing in that nightmare?  Clue.. It wasn't the Dogs, nor the filth.

 

2 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

St Kilda?

Nope .... guess again

6 hours ago, Winners at last said:

It doesn't relate to this thread, but it's hardly worth a new thread. Arguably it doesn't warrant a post at all!

Had a terrible dream last night. I was watching the GF ... it was the Demons' third GF since 1964, and we were expected to win easily. We didn't ... got thrashed!! So relieved to wake up !! 

Can anyone guess who we were playing in that nightmare?  Clue.. It wasn't the Dogs, nor the filth.

The Mighty Blue Baggers????

6 hours ago, Winners at last said:

It doesn't relate to this thread, but it's hardly worth a new thread. Arguably it doesn't warrant a post at all!

Had a terrible dream last night. I was watching the GF ... it was the Demons' third GF since 1964, and we were expected to win easily. We didn't ... got thrashed!! So relieved to wake up !! 

Can anyone guess who we were playing in that nightmare?  Clue.. It wasn't the Dogs, nor the filth.

I'm just gonna piggy back off this by saying I also has a dream two days ago where we were losing this week and on TV the graphic was coming up about the last time Melbourne lost 2 games in a row so it felt sort of real that we were about to be beaten.

Although we were wearing Hawthorn coloured jumpers, so it was slightly less real. 

Edited June 1, 20222 yr by layzie