2 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

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

Did they include kick outs

BB way out of form past 2 weeks, Weideman, sorry but just no point picking him, brings nothing to the side. Too many just been going the past few weeks winning papers over the cracks. Last few weeks question marks on Rivers , Jackson, Trac will come good but really quiet today. Side seemed really unbalanced once May went off, 11 weeks to sort it out.

May a big in game loss but lets not forget Lingers. Badly missed today

For weeks we have dump kicked into f50 and teams have waltzed it out, but our defence held strong. 
With May down that didn’t occur. 
Our game plan out of defence requires wingers pushing hard, with langers out and Gus at half back we had nothing. 
 

Trac is injured, no doubt, so either rest him or he needs to play more forward and actually kick goals, he has the major yips. 
Gawn doesn’t look Right, Jackson is losing money each game he plays, Bowey fumbled, Rivs hasn’t looked decent nearly all year. 
Melksham should retire. 
Brown, fritta  and Weid/Tmac will never flourish with long dump kicks. Harmes has been missed. We rely on a good rotation of pressure forwards, Bedford and Melksham do not give that.

1 minute ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Did they include kick outs

May had 3 possessions, but 6 disposals including kick ins.

Well I certainly picked a good game to go to for the first one of the year 🤮. That second half was horrible, not many positives out of the game for sure. 

Agreed about the dysfunctional tall forwards. JVR is surely a big chance of a debut if the poor form of Brown continues.  Can't wait to see how he goes when his chance comes. 

2 minutes ago, Gorgoroth said:

For weeks we have dump kicked into f50 and teams have waltzed it out, but our defence held strong. 
With May down that didn’t occur. 
Our game plan out of defence requires wingers pushing hard, with langers out and Gus at half back we had nothing. 
 

Trac is injured, no doubt, so either rest him or he needs to play more forward and actually kick goals, he has the major yips. 
Gawn doesn’t look Right, Jackson is losing money each game he plays, Bowey fumbled, Rivs hasn’t looked decent nearly all year. 
Melksham should retire. 
Brown, fritta  and Weid/Tmac will never flourish with long dump kicks. Harmes has been missed. We rely on a good rotation of pressure forwards, Bedford and Melksham do not give that.

That pretty much covers everything, spot on.

Sydney will be a huge test next week.

Forgot what it feels like to lose. I don’t like it.

Langdon, Salem, Harmes, McDonald and effectively May out was a step too far. You start bleeding in one area and it spreads throughout the team.

e.g. Biggest failing tonight for me was our inability to lock it in the forward line. Presumably McDonald would help that but even there, under normal circumstances Langdon is one of the prime movers in getting it back in when it does come out. Also missed Spargo in the forward line.

(Not to ignore BBB's inability to have any impact at all ... but that hasn't stopped us in the past.)

Despite all the players out we still had kept Freo to 19 points in a half and were 25 up. To go 1 goal to 12 after half time was like watching the Melbourne of old.

I don’t expect us to win every week but the manner of this loss hurts. We dropped our heads (all except Gawn) after half time and got touched up. 

It just matters how we turn up next week against the Swans. Will be huge. Lose that and the Pies will be smelling blood in the water.

Genuinely thought we’d never lose again.

I'd still rather be a Melbourne supporter tonight than a nth or West coast one.

2 years ago if you said 2021 we'd be premiers & 2022 we'd be 10-1 you'd take it.

Interesting Freo & Brisbane play each other next week

 

First was concerned last quarter against Port, should have won that game by 10 goals running away but wasted forward entry after entry, those problems still bother us. But hey we just try and manage the game when ahead, no need to score. Not so sure about that any more.

2 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Langdon, Salem, Harmes, McDonald and effectively May out was a step too far. You start bleeding in one area and it spreads throughout the team.

e.g. Biggest failing tonight for me was our inability to lock it in the forward line. Presumably McDonald would help that but even there, under normal circumstances Langdon is one of the prime movers in getting it back in when it does come out. Also missed Spargo in the forward line.

(Not to ignore BBB's inability to have any impact at all ... but that hasn't stopped us in the past.)

Completely strange line up we had at some point. Trac Full Forward, Weidman FullBack. Spargo in the wing.

Still pretty poor coaching today, what they dished out on the third quarter is inexcusable

Someone at Jolimont station said that Trac was throwing up in the last quarter and it looked like Vines had a shoulder problem. 

Smashed at clearance, in the air, on the spread and their defensive system. 12 of the last 13 goals...Ouch!  I don't think May's absence would have changed the result. Freo are a really good team

9 minutes ago, sue said:

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

Both of our key forwards in Brown and Weideman seem very happy to trot rather than  seek out more positive opportunities at reasonable pace. Yes, they can both kick - but neither of them can mark with consistency in a huddle and thus, don't get the kicks they should as players - and certainly, as well-paid employees. Both actually seem a little too 'gentle' for what is collectively anticipated from them. Drop 'em both and import some 'spirited' go-getters. Majak Daw alone would give us a more 'serviceable' forward line and be very useful in the ruck exchanges. 

Kudos to Freo. Their last half was a masterclass.

One thing this game shows is the impact the likes of Langdon, May and others have. Take them out and we struggle. Add to that Petracca doing nothing...

Also, plenty of people rave about our depth. When we have Melk, Weed, Dunstan, etc we aint that good. Thought Bedford was the exception. Played a great first half. He will only improve.

What I would like to see if Bowey continue his one on one defensive skills. Was shown up a few times today.

Jackson has struggled since the Gold Coast game. We need him, Gawn and others taking contested marks on the wing

 

 

 

Our 18 wheeler had punctures galore. Definitely out of character and hopefully just a blip. 

Petraca playing as Hal forward and Sparrow tales Tracs place?

I can deal with losing to Freo but we better have things fixed before Sydney & definitely Collingwood

Not to worried, until petty went off we were winning handily, maybe our mids and fwds were a bit down but still had it in control. 
 

More concerning is if this happened in a final and we don’t have a plan b to fall back to, with the talent on our list we should be able to overcome and adapt 

Edited May 28, 20223 yr by Garbo

Our premiership defence and team overall was outscored 1 goal to 12 after half time.

Absolute outlier of a result even missing may and salem.

Freo are kidding Themselves if they think this will happen again. As are we from our side.

25 % of premiership team missing. Have faith for when the cavalry arrive. But we learned a bit more about weid(prior to his compulsory shift to defence) and dunstan.

And play BBB Like the suns did to naughton and He's in a bit of trouble unless We can fix it also.

 

Freo applied more pressure for longer than any team we’ve played this year and we couldn’t absorb it. Credit to them for that.

We didn’t apply the kind of pressure or effort that we’re known for to gain momentum back either. We couldn’t lock it in our forward 50 as we usually do to strangle teams. 
 

Tom Mac plays this game, he takes Mays spot…. Big difference him not being available to fill in. Not the sole reason, but he is so valuable as a back up defender if needed.

The forward connection (because our defence was compromised) is an issue we really need to fix. Teams have figured us out, so we need to make our forward entries count even more.