8 hours ago, deva5610 said:

Ouch.

(Maybe) Out - Melks. Argument for Brown. In - TMac.

(Probably Should) Out - Salem. In - Bowey.

Again, ouch.

Salem was a high risk in 

a lot on here said so

Well that was incredibly frustrating and disappointing but not unexpected, we just find it tuff to beat the Swans and our form at the MCG is rubbish.  They have a great coach, a game plan that takes away one of our biggest strengths and they also have smart and skilful players that can execute that game plan. We were for the majority of the game average and so many players below average it wasn’t funny.  And despite all of this had we maximised our opportunities and not given away a few momentum killing free kicks and turnovers we could have won last night. 
 

Where not completely out of it this year although if I am honest I just can’t see it happening. 

There is so much doom and gloom in this thread, and I get it, we didn’t execute when we needed to last night.

The swans are so well damn coached that it was never going to be a walk over, and we just couldn’t wrestle back momentum when we needed to in the last.

To say that it’s the end of our own dynasty because we lost one final, when we have a double chance next week, is pathetic. Grow up.

Even if this year ends up being out in straight sets, we won the flag last year and ended up second this year…. How quickly we forget the years of 2014 when I was just happy for the dees to get an inside 50.

Look at our team now full of studs, it’s a bloody joy to just be up to our eyeballs in the pointy end of it all.

Have a look at yourselves.

Very disappointing night.

The boys did not bring their best. Can’t afford sub-par performance in a final. It’s as simple as that

Max out on the full early in the game. Missed Melks by about 10 meters. Set the tone for his night. He had one of his poorest games of the year. He’s a champion so I expect him to bounce back.

Trac injured, Brayshaw butchered, Viney was so so, the whole team fumbled all night

Nibbler would sweat blood for the cause but he had a shocker last night. And none of Spargs, Kossie or Nibbler are brining the intense forward heat like last year

We are crying out for a KPF2 to straighten up this team. TMac is sorely missed. Max is not the answer

Melks had to kick those goals. He stays in next week but he was uninspiring

We’re good enough if we get back to basics, manic intent and pressure, no fumbling.

The players need to perform better. And our leaders need to lead the way

Sudden death next week. I’ll be there cheering loudly.

As soon as Joel Smith was named sub I knew we were in trouble 

8 hours ago, 1964_2 said:

Haha face palm away pal…..read your last 10 posts. Not accepting reality clearly!!!

we had a final won, and buddy faking a 50 actually turned the game. Nothing more, nothing less. Accept reality. Not a dynasty team. Just a team that won 1 flag, and didn’t have what it takes to accept a tiny bit of adversity and back in a plan to get things back on track.

Truth hurts peeps! 

How did you wake up? Do you realise that we are not as good a ‘team’ right now as Sydney? 

I honestly don’t know what you are flagellating with me about. The fact I wouldn’t fire Goodwin? The fact that I don’t agree our galaxy of stars means we should automatically win? Teams win flags, not individuals.

Really disappointed with Nibbler. I thought he had resurrected his career but this year he is back fumbling, creating turnovers, getting caught and missing gettable goals. He is symptomatic of our year. 

24 minutes ago, adonski said:

As soon as Joel Smith was named sub I knew we were in trouble 

We were in trouble the moment you changed your avatar! 

1 minute ago, John Demonic said:

We were in trouble the moment you changed your avatar! 

It'll go back to JVR next week for his debut

@Clintosaurus what’s your take mate. All eyes on TVs around Australia? Freo to win? Melbourne to lose (next week), so we’ve then got Perth,Sydney,Brisbane and Melbourne audiences covered ?

8 hours ago, Redleg said:

That result may be a blessing in disguise.

Win tonight and no changes and same midset and we could easily lose a PF.

I think if we regroup and make a few changes, we beat the Lions and take a different side and mentality into a PF which might get us another GF.

All is not lost, YET.

Now stop talking about winning it in front of family and friends. Ban interviews this week. Rejig the forward line, by bringing in another key forward Weid/Tom/JVR, get Bowey in and drop Melk and ANB.

 

Agree entirely.

We have seen that performance too often

8 hours ago, Spaghetti said:

People commenting on crowd noise need to include a disclaimer if they were not there. Comments like “Sydney crowd seemed louder” just sounds like you were not there and have NFI. 

Must disagree. I was there and the Sydney noise second half amazed me. Even Robbo had to try to gee uo our mob at 3/4 time.

29 minutes ago, chook fowler said:

Really disappointed with Nibbler. I thought he had resurrected his career but this year he is back fumbling, creating turnovers, getting caught and missing gettable goals. He is symptomatic of our year. 

Totally agree. Last season I was so impressed with him and thought great he's finally switched on. But he's gone backwards. 

some fresh footage of Buddy from last night 
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSRfeDuuF/

still feeling very flat.

17 minutes ago, pitmaster said:

Must disagree. I was there and the Sydney noise second half amazed me. Even Robbo had to try to gee uo our mob at 3/4 time.

I bough tickets in a Swans designated area M15. Reckon it was about 50/50 Swans/Dees fans

No way were the Swans fans in that section louder than us

9 hours ago, DemonDan11 said:

Was at the G tonight,  siting around a lot of Dees supporters who were very very quiet. Even the supporters were flat, sounded like a lot more Sydney supporters there. The whole game had a weird vibe, every possession was under pressure and the connection to the forward line was not there. Simply beaten by a better team, not even angry or upset, it is what it is.

Had similar experience. Upper deck, predominently dees supporters. I was really frustrated with how quite dees supporters were, like they were out bird watching. I like dee supporters aren't aholes but they give nothing to actively support tge team.

Club knows it too - see Nazeem's video on 'how to cheer at the game'.

The crowd along with Melb's insipid game plan made if feel like a non-final. 

9 hours ago, Melb16 said:

Why can’t we run out games? It’s going to cost us a flag 

Yeah! I thought it was supposed to be the backbone of our game plan, at least it was last year. Grind teams away and out run them in the 4th. 

6 hours ago, 1964_2 said:

Agree with all of this, and would take comfort from it if it was a H&A game. But it WASN’T. It was the first chance the players had to play a final in front of supporters (after winning the flag)

Kills me more than anything to admit it, but Dermott is correct. We are missing the killer instinct ingredient. 
 

I’m not taking comfort from it. If that’s what we are, it’s too late this year. I’ve reserved judgement on us this year till I saw a final and the biggest issues were we were out worked, out coached and mentally weak, and I think the mentally weak tag is generally a useless one in understanding a teams performance but I don’t know what else to call last night. They dug in and we refused to go with them. The upside for me is beyond this year in that we are likely a contender for a while and we can improve a few areas to go again. Even though a lot has gone wrong this year and it never felt like we got it together we are likely a prelim side. 

Jackson playing so much time in the ruck really hurt us.  Hickey just rag dolled him.  Gawn needs to be in there about 80-20. Hickey had next to no impact when opposed to Gawn. Oliver was magnificent, May was brilliant but had one or two "moments" he'd like back.  We won't be making many if any changes.  Perhaps Harmes the only (forced) omission.

We'll beat the Lions - not easily but we'll get it done.  Plenty of teams have come from the semi finals (either QF losers or EF winners) to make GF's and win flags - Both Sydney and the Bulldogs in 2016, Collingwood in 2018, GWS in 2019, Geelong and Richomond in 2020.  That's just the last handful of years.  The Hawks won the flag in 2015 after losing week 1 of finals.

We didn't play a terrible game last night.  We made too many errors, some under a lot of pressure and some under not much.  Some of our star players were very down - Petracca and Brayshaw haven't played that poorly in some time.  Jackson had a season worst game. And despite that we had opportunities to win and were in a good position half way through the third quarter.

It's far from over but this the greatest test for this team. I think they can do it.

 

7 minutes ago, BDA said:

I bough tickets in a Swans designated area M15. Reckon it was about 50/50 Swans/Dees fans

No way were the Swans fans in that section louder than us

I thought the Sydney supporters were relatively tame in their celebrations as if they expected to win and have their eyes firmly on the big prize.

Compare that to Collingwood supporters who would’ve celebrated last night as if they’d won their 5th flag in a row.

Ugh you wake up and think of key moments that hurt us.

May getting sucked in by buddy. Yes it was soft but we had momentum at the time and again Mays aggression cost us a goal.

Melksham missing crucial shots that he was not missing 2 weeks ago

Max's disposal and that last shot for goal I can't even fathom what that kick was

Harmes just having a brain fade & costing us a goal

Luke Jackson was just really disappointing. I'm not sure what he even contributed.

Lever dropped marks, fumbled and was not clean.

Anyway we'll be written off now. But that's ok. Next week will tell us whereas the players heads are at

If you look at Richmonds 3 flags, Richmond won one of them after losing a QF and another from outside top 4 

dogs in 2016 from outside top 4

2019 Giants made the grand final from outside top 4 

2021 dogs

we play a team we're all over at the G next weekend and then if we win that we play either Geelong or the Pies, we're capable of beating both

this season is so far from over, all the great dynasties in recent memories have involved qualifying finals losses and not having it all go your way. we will be fine

Just now, dees189227 said:

Ugh you wake up and think of key moments that hurt us.

May getting sucked in by buddy. Yes it was soft but we had momentum at the time and again Mays aggression cost us a goal.

Melksham missing crucial shots that he was not missing 2 weeks ago

Max's disposal and that last shot for goal I can't even fathom what that kick was

Harmes just having a brain fade & costing us a goal

Luke Jackson was just really disappointing. I'm not sure what he even contributed.

Lever dropped marks, fumbled and was not clean.

Anyway we'll be written off now. But that's ok. Next week will tell us whereas the players heads are at

the umpires got sucked into buddy diving because it's buddy - that killed momentum. 

Petraccas injury and the move of tagging brayshaw that followed 

3 goals from 50's 

not sending Harmes to luke parker i think was a missed trick. 

missed shot opportunities, we had our chances in the 3rd and 4th but some bad skill errors cost us

Our core midfielders aren't consistently skilful enough to carry guys like Hunt, ANB & Sparrow on the flanks who are all reasonably poor decision makers & kicks

Addressing this will be just as significant as going after a messiah key forward to address our efficiency issues

 

1 hour ago, rufus said:

Having had a chance to calm down and really think about, there's just no escaping the feeling that this has been a pathetic premiership defence from us. A few months ago you had multiple respected football people (including David Parkin) saying they may have never before seen a team so good and committed to each and to winning the contest.

Honestly, only at the MFC could the wheels fall off so completely so quickly. Despite our 'changed culture', we're getting beaten every time an opponent brings high pressure on us. And we seem to have no will to dial up the pressure in response. Just like 'old Melbourne', this season is going to return a result that is less than what it should have been. Although our opponents are stronger this year than last, this is still a weak period in terms of really high quality dominant teams. A massive  opportunity wasted by these guys.

So grateful for the flag in 2021. Had we not got over the line last year, this capitulation would be soul crushing. It's looking like 2021 was an absolute heist where everything went our way. We are looking like real flat track bullies right now.

And now we have massive pressure on us next week, against a side to whom we've given huge ammo to want to roll us. Brisbane are ordinary and we should beat them, but a win of any magnitude now tells us nothing about who Melb are. All it would do is again confirm that we are quite ok when playing on our terms (against a side that lacks physicality at a ground they don't play well).

Your passion for the sport seems to be driven purely by complaining about us.

’Only at the MFC could the wheels fall off so completely so quickly’. Really? We finished top 4, and got rolled by a good team. Calm down, get some perspective, and have some respect for how hard the game is. It’s not a matching set. You don’t win one and then everyone rolls over and gives you another.