18 minutes ago, david_neitz_is_my_dad said:

Only positives I can find is that with Oliver and Petty in we win that, not convincingly but its 4 points

Therein lies the problem.

Other good clubs can win a game with a couple of their best 22 out. Collingwood won a game with 6 of their best 22 out.

Freo won despite Darcy going off mid game.

10 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

I would like an apology from the poster on here who said I was being dramatic when I said post game last week that our season was tittering on the brink.

Oliver is our most important player by a fair margin. Even with him in the side we can barely win the ground ball or get a meaningful clearance anymore. I don’t think we will win a game now until he’s back in the side, unless something very drastic changes. 
 
Blues are under the pump, Pies will have an easy kill and Geelong in Geelong will be a one sided affair. Losing him and Petty could not have come at a worse time, but a good team learns to overcome. We are obviously not a good team right now. 

Don't worry Jaded. I got lampooned for starting a thread how many wins needed to make finals. Apparently the title was short changing us.

But I guess I did say to wcw pregame there was no way a loss today would happen.

You were right. But now it has tipped over.

We stank from the coach down today. Especially the seasoned players. But the writing was on the wall against the suns.

 

Edited May 27, 20231 yr by leave it to deever

I'm sick of being on the back foot every single time the ball spills to the back of the contest. Either we aren't onto it quick enough or they are too quick for us. Either way it sucks 

4 minutes ago, wizardinoz said:

I would say his stats of 17 kicks, 2 hbs, 7 marks & 1 goal look pretty good to me.

That's at VFL, as I said last year the forward line is dysfunioenal so no matter who you put in we will get the same result, there is no system we are still playing 2021 football.

Just now, leave it to deever said:

Don't worry Jaded. I got lampooned for starting a thread how many wins needed to make finals. Apparently the title was short changing us.

But I guess I did say to wcw pregame there was no way a loss today would happen.

You were right. But now it has tipped over.

We stank from the coach down today. Especially the seasoned players. But the writing was on the wall against the sun's.

 

Well Deever, it's a funny old game. 2 weeks later it's become much more relevant.

2 minutes ago, Willmoy1947 said:

Everyone happy with the umpiring?

No, but we have to stop using the umpiring as an excuse. Every side cops [censored] umpiring. That’s life. 
A good side doesn’t make excuses. 

Considering we don’t win clearances why did we get Grundy, surely a tall forward would have been better??

Can we re-schedule the King's Birthday game? I don't want it right now.

1 minute ago, layzie said:

I'm sick of being on the back foot every single time the ball spills to the back of the contest. Either we aren't onto it quick enough or they are too quick for us. Either way it sucks 

This is what I mean - the average punter can see this. It happens every single week. The oppo coaches go to town on it. We need to roll more players into the stoppage and stop relying on dump kicks out.
We get torched on the wings during  general play, it boggles my mind why we don’t push up an extra into the contest - almost every other team do it.  

1 minute ago, Jaded No More said:

No, but we have to stop using the umpiring as an excuse. Every side cops [censored] umpiring. That’s life. 
A good side doesn’t make excuses. 

How true !!!!

2 minutes ago, Willmoy1947 said:

Everyone happy with the umpiring?

You know my thoughts. The standard is deliberately poor. This allows for home crowd influence and horrendous subjectivity to be passed off as honest mistakes. Get the desired result then admit errors afterwards. The 4 points won't ever be reversed.

1 minute ago, layzie said:

Can we re-schedule the King's Birthday game? I don't want it right now.

Apologies to all Dees fans who bought tickets. 

 

24 minutes ago, DubDee said:

I think we might just be an average team. top 8 but not much more

Fwd line is non existent 

general team connection just not there 

Hit it on the head Dub Dee. We appear to not be as good as most on here, myself included think. We are very slow in running and ball use. Harmes and TMac could not run out of sight in an English fog and we just panic when pressure is on. ANB, whilst he got the ball a few times could not hit up a team mate at all. Just turns it over and over again. As Jack Dyer said we have many ordinary players. In fact today most were ordinary at best. Where was our leaders in Gawn and Viney. Gawn and Grundy should have taken the game over after the best ruckman this season went out but no they did not step up. Viney was missing most of the game. Again like with Port 2 young mids destroyed us. 

1 minute ago, Jaded No More said:

No, but we have to stop using the umpiring as an excuse. Every side cops [censored] umpiring. That’s life. 
A good side doesn’t make excuses. 

We got 15-13 frees. Bar the gift goal in the first (which was balanced up in the 3rd) the umps were consistently bad for both.

t

Hey now, hey now, the dreeeam is over!

Points to ponder:

Is TMac the slowest player in the AFL?

Can we afford to play Pickett, Spargo and Chandler all in the same team?

Is repeatedly landing hopeful long bombs inside 50 really a smart tactic?

Did anyone keep count of our stream of clanger kicks?

Forget top four. On that performance we'll be struggling to make the top eight. 

Just now, Gawndy the Great said:

We got 15-13 frees. Bar the gift goal in the first (which was balanced up in the 3rd) the umps were consistently bad for both.

t

Correct. It was just stock standard poor umpiring. Nothing to see here. 

2 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

Considering we don’t win clearances why did we get Grundy, surely a tall forward would have been better??

Yea but that would require a decision from the coach though.

3 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

Considering we don’t win clearances why did we get Grundy, surely a tall forward would have been better??

Any forward would have been good.

We are 2023’s flat track bullies. 

6 minutes ago, praha said:

We are 14 wins 19 losses in games decided by 10 points or less under Goodwin.

Lack of mental fortitude in our players? Or is the coach not doing the right things when the going gets tough?

7 minutes ago, Bang Bang Bang said:

He was pivotal in our 2021 campaign. Outstanding. But he was ordinary before it, and has been ordinary since it. If we’re any chance of a flag, Lever getting back to his best is priority #1 IMO. 

that needs petty and may to take the contested marks, freeing lever up. we’re one tall short in the backline. opponents are playing through levers man. 

Comforting at least to feel back like a normal Melbourne supporter again now that we’re just making up the numbers again. 

I must be the only one who thinks just coz we’re lost a couple of close games it’s not season over….the boys can lift 

That loss hirt on so many levels.

1. Norf beat freo at Optus.

2. Captain and Co captain were ordinary again.

3. May and Lever were too.

4. So many previously good players like Langdon, Spargo and Anb having really poor seasons.

5. Our forward line a complete shambles again.

6. The main one. Confirms what we mostly suspected after the sun's game this year, that we are very ordinary and will make up the numbers. That our window has slammed shut.