that last quarter was very average and i wonder under who (if any) instructions we were told to chip it backwards and play crap football after dominating the 3 earlier quarters by playing long direct football, the last quarter was very frustrating and we didnt need to play like that

yeah it was bad and ffrustarating , as well almost let them back into the game, neale didnt seem to happy wqith it,

i agree, we looked tired, can you tell me why neitz had a mark on fifty, and kicked backwards? the ball ended up going all the way back to the goalsquare down the other end. they talked about green getting 35+ possessions. he was great today, but how many were contested? his marks into backs were brilliant though.

What Neita did was fine. It didn't seem like he even looked forward which wasn't good, but it was late in the game, Adelaide were coming at us and if they don't have the ball they can't kick goals. If we were able to do that successfully last week, we would have won. It was intelligent play because Adelaide weren't manning up.

But our lack of positive play in the last (before the last 5 mins) was not impressive.

even if you are up by as much as we were 5 goals at the time i think... why would you just waste tym.. attack and you most likely wont lose wasting tym means you lose momentum and if the ball gets turned over which it usually does it hurts you on the scoreboard like it almost did again today...

he should have chipped it to wheatley

like earlier we stuffed around with it on the flank when jones was free in front of the MCC for an eternity

i waslked away happy but at the same time bloody angry that we ruined a great preformance

I didn't like the handpasses at the beginning of the last, but I enjoyed watching them kick the ball backwards 100m to keep possession. Win at all costs, even if it means kicking backwards for 120 minutes.

yea win at all costs but if you kick backwat\rds for 120 mins you cnt score so you cnt win... lol

Adelaide manned up after half-time and forced us to dink it around. They'll be kicking themselves for allowing us a free run in the second quarter.

  demon_davey said:

yea win at all costs but if you kick backwat\rds for 120 mins you cnt score so you cnt win... lol

Kick backwards & run forwards rugby style

We were stuffed in the last quarter, and it showed.

But no excuse for holding onto the ball with 20 minutes to go when you are up by 5 goals.

Probably mentally, the players (and all of us in the stands) were just terrified of losing this one, so they held onto the footy instead of continuing to attack. The problem is, the longer we held onto the ball, the better Adelaide were able to set-up their structure and the more they capitalised when we inevitably stuffed up.

I don't begrudge the players for feeling nervous and just wanting to get the win (especially after last week), but hopefully now that we've jumped over that hurdle, and that we won by KICKING instead of handballing to stationary players, the team might have more confidence to attack the game until the final siren.

As ABC radio said, we were like all number 11s in cricket, trying to survive the last overs in a game to force a draw.

That was bad, but it should not overshadow our great performance in the 2nd quarter, and it being our first win

I hear we have a new tactic next time we are nearly 8 goals up at the start of the last quarter. We rush it in for a behind. Then when rge umpir ecalls play on we run around the goal line and when we are about to be tackled we tush it in again (hopefully taking up about 45 secs). We do that for the whole quarter meaning that we win by one point.

Sorry to be sarcastic but the last quarter was pretty crappy. We looked tired I agree but we had more men on the bench and I am sure I read a few threads ago that we always run out games which is why we need to support our fitness coach. In my humble opinion we have a better chance of defending if it is in our forward line then in our backline.

To finish positively, we done Melbourne today. A well deserved victory.

To the guy sitting behind me who continually bagged Bruce, Green and Danners. I hope you are choking on your words.

bruce on the suday footy show was trying to explain the chipping in the last quarter, but certainly didn't mention it being an instruction.

definitely a combination of tiredness and fear of losing, something that i don't think will happen in coming weeks.

Daniher did not look happy in the box with it. Dunno if I appreciate Melb supporters booing though when it happened. Gary Lyon said it was nerves and and memories of last week was the reason. Cant say I blame em they lost in the last minute week before they just wanted to keep posession. Hopefully now confidence will go up and we wont see that anymore. If u have it on tape watch it again, it is actually not that bad, but lets just enjoy the win

wonder if the same fans who criticized the boys for not controlling the ball v dogs and roos were part of the booing brigade.

look what daniher has been able to do with most of the team back in? a few kicks away from winning 4 of the last 5.

I actually could imagine danners saying quite the opposite..well meaning to. "c'mon...lets build onthis.. lets not throw away this.. intelligent footy..... etc etc etc "

only ... half the team got a bit yippy.... a mold panic...and Adelaide smelt it..

wel done to those that stood firm.

remember this...you'll be doing it again next week :-)

Neitz kicking it backwards when Wheatley had run forward and was free inside 50 was hysterical.

Listening to the coverage on MMM post-match ND said a bit of a chuckle while saying something like 'big Neita had the big 'R' for reverse flashing in front of his eyes'.