51 minutes ago, Dee-monic said:

Petracca will never be another Dusty unless and until his goalkicking accuracy improves.

Trac has been the biggest disappointment for me this finals series. He has no composure. just blazes away. he's a much better player than that. I hope he can learn from this and come back stronger next year.

absolutely mind boggling not to use a sub when plugger mac looked like he was running in treacle

https://www.afl.com.au/video/1032553/woozy-weitering-spotted-stumbling-in-defence?videoId=1032553&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1694780100001
 

This should, and probably will, be a massive story. Didn’t Port get a 100k fine for this?

9.17

4 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Another moral of the story is that players who have lengthy periods out through injury never come back at anything like their peak. Oliver and Fritsch to name but two, and applies equally to Salem and McDonald.

McDonald should not be in the same conversation as those guys.

He's a VFL plodder who was only playing purely because of no Petty and Melksham.

Any-one bother with Goodwins post-game.
Was there learnings?

 

Just now, dazzledavey36 said:

McDonald should not be in the same conversation as those guys.

He's a VFL plodder who was only playing purely because of no Petty and Melksham.

Shouldn’t have been playing. He was immobile from the start. We must have known. I know Schache’s not that good but McDonald was so far off it that Grundy would have offered no less. 

1 minute ago, The heart beats true said:

https://www.afl.com.au/video/1032553/woozy-weitering-spotted-stumbling-in-defence?videoId=1032553&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1694780100001
 

This should, and probably will, be a massive story. Didn’t Port get a 100k fine for this?

He was in a lot of trouble could not believe he didn't go off but so was Cribbs at one point.

God I'm angry.

We have let a golden opportunity slip and I believe the reason is not as simplistic as poor kicking.

Just so angry 

Cannot write anymore.

Sleep well demonlanders if you can.

7 minutes ago, Gunna’s said:

We were in both finals up to our eyeballs. A few players had stage freight but then again a lot of best 22 were forced to watch from the sidelines through injury. Petty brayshaw melksham all improve the team. 
 
I know I hark on about umpiring but I couldn’t believe Max wasn’t (in the umpires eyes) impeded in the forward pocket late in the third. So many soft ones their way that actually impacted. Very frustrating. 
 

if any Melbourne fan was denied a ticket from the wonderful people at ticketek  then please request an inquiry because we were severely outnumbered. Not sure if was the injustice from tribunal, the pending straight sets or the cost of living crisis but we fans need to support the team better. 
 

Lastly our draft hand is impeccable this year. Do we get a gun midfielder for the next 10-15 years or do we look to bolster ruck, defence or forward line? Either way, a gun player will be walking through the door with a team prime for more finals. 
 

I’ll watch the replay and make a more informed decision on the performance. But from the pocket of the Olympic stand we so could have been the victors. Chin up. Come back hard next year. 

My view is we need to look seriously at our forward half and that includes a lot of first-line and second-line players that are just ordinary. Thought Sparrow did OK and in  Spargo surprised me with his effort considering what he has displayed in the 2's over the past month. Sad to say McDonald should retire as well as BBB. As for JJ I love the guy but "love" doesn't win games. 

But guess the Club will go for the long term benefit rather that cheap imports where they are another teams has beens... p.s. I won't mention Schache...

1 hour ago, YearOfTheDees said:

Whats everyones fav cost us the game moment. Kossies silly free in the first quarter, Gawns two misses or the goal he touched on the line. The ARC overturn that was not asked for. just to many to pick the one.

 

Toss up for me between Oliver giving away 50 and Lever kicking down the line when we just had to ice the clock. Lever is a complete liability with ball in hand and half the time without it as well.

13 minutes ago, Pennant St Dee said:

Grundy played the last game

Fair call. I forgot. Probably why he didn’t play this game 🤦🏻‍♂️😂

3 minutes ago, praha said:

You're not talking match winners here. And it's not like we didn't put ourselves in a position to win. We were clearly in positions to quite easily win without those players. We choked. You mean to tell me Collingwood playing without a ruck for half a season, missing Moore, Daicos, Sidebottom for large chunks... actually you don't mean to tell me anything. They still find a way to win.

We choked. Deal with it.

1. Of course we choked.

2. We probably would have choked less if they weren't missing, especially Brayshaw and Petty.

3. Injuries at the wrong end of the season are cruel. Carlton, Collingwood, GWS and Brisbane have hardly got any.

Just now, Fork 'em said:

Any-one bother with Goodwins post-game.
Was there learnings?

 

Just said we didn't take our chances. and Carlton did. Said the guys were upset but not much else.

1 minute ago, bing181 said:

Another moral of the story is that players who have lengthy periods out through injury never come back at anything like their peak. Oliver and Fritsch to name but two, and applies equally to Salem and McDonald.

Which is precisely the reason Brisbane and Collingwood will contest the GF. They’ve simply had more of their list available across the season than any of the other finalists (along with GWS, who are a good shot against Port). Injury totals across the season determine ladder position. We were never going to get there with our ‘availability’ losses. Doesn’t change the fact that we choked the last 2 games, but either way, the injury factor will claim its victims. 

3 minutes ago, BDA said:

Trac has been the biggest disappointment for me this finals series. He has no composure. just blazes away. he's a much better player than that. I hope he can learn from this and come back stronger next year.

Also gets the fumbles way more than other elite players in the comp.

I think he's a great club man and shows great passion for the club, but he's overrated in general and also can be very poor defensively. 

1 minute ago, leucopogon said:

Toss up for me between Oliver giving away 50 and Lever kicking down the line when we just had to ice the clock. Lever is a complete liability with ball in hand and half the time without it as well.

100%. They need some serious coaching on how to ice the game.

1 minute ago, leucopogon said:

Toss up for me between Oliver giving away 50 and Lever kicking down the line when we just had to ice the clock. Lever is a complete liability with ball in hand and half the time without it as well.

That's a bit tough on Lever.. We lost the game for other reasons, like ... 17 behinds.

3 minutes ago, Optimus D said:

God I'm angry.

We have let a golden opportunity slip and I believe the reason is not as simplistic as poor kicking.

Just so angry 

Cannot write anymore.

Sleep well demonlanders if you can.

And then remember 1st thing when ya open yer eyes that "Yeah, that really happened .... Again."
And then drag ya sorry arze outta bed and find somewhere to hide for a week.

 

Edited September 15, 20231 yr by Fork 'em

7 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Ive  never seen a goal overtired like that.  The review was inconclusive

 

That's 4 goals in 2 weeks that the AFL pets have got from crooked score  reviews. Add in onefrom Petracca in rd 22 and its simply corruption at the highest level

The ball didn’t deviate. The fingers didn’t move. It wasn’t touched.

It wasn’t even referred.

The worst is the media silence. Would be a huge talking point if it were not Melbourne.

When everything thing seems to go against you………….including too many of our own mistakes I might add😳, well that happens!

 

Well done Max and the lads, not what we wanted but that premiership is hard too come by. The commitment and never give up was there every game and that’s what I love about the boys. Respect too all our players. Car’n the mighty Demons, and 🖕🏻all the rest of you. 

I need therapy 

6 minutes ago, rufus said:

Agreed. The club in general was arrogant coming out of 2021 including proclamations of the 'changed culture'.

Did the stuff about aiming to be at peak fitness on preliminary final weekend come from the club or from Demonland? How about just winning a single final before worrying about preliminary final weekend.

We’re we saving Hibberd for Charlie Cameron, that smacks of arrogance 

x

Edited September 15, 20231 yr by Queanbeyan Demon

10 minutes ago, JimmyGadson said:

 

 

I've been posting about it for the last two full seasons. Just because I don't come in here to gush over every win, doesn't mean I don't celebrate them. 

It's been clear since last year that we need significant personnel changes across the field and we need a more significantly altered game-plan. 

Goodwin is a master of staying true to what he 'believes in'. And he's been believing for too long, ignoring all warning signs and trends that we've all witnessed for so long. 

Struggling to score, struggling to hit targets, struggling to kill games when they should be killed. We are a bottom four side when going inside 50. Do people realise how broken that is? And don't give me this 'repeat entry' bulltish. We have more than enough opportunity for players to hit targets. We just don't take them both because of instruction and limitations across our players who all share the same weakness. 

This is both personnel and gameplan and Goodwin hasn't done anywhere near enough to fix it. 

The coaching group needs to be reshuffled, Goodwin again needs to be challenged by some outside thinking. We need to refresh this list, move on some players who are simply not cutting it for us in certain positions, bring in youth and bring in a better blend of players so that we can actually use the ball going forward. 

 

 

Bringing in Hunter (shame he was cooked, should’ve stuck with our poor kick plan and gone for Acres, the most Melbourne player to never play for melbourne).

Drafting: Rivers, Bowey, Laurie, Howes, McVee.

Attempting to move Harmes. Seemingly not been all that keen to keep JJ.

Training 3 second or less ball movement all summer.

Switching a lot more this year and even attempting more corridor kicks.

I think they know exactly what’s wrong but there’s no point throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Contested footy still dominates finals and neither side had more than moments with a fraction of space tonight.

Last week was our big chance and we made too many errors when we had options to open space and convert. 

Tonight we gave absolutely everything and had a disgraceful amount go against us and did everything but win. 

Healthy key forwards, a sprinkling of class and some fresh legs in the running players and the balance of the game style will correct itself a lot, whilst keeping our strengths.