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Last time we lost against the Dogs, I was shattered. This loss I felt like we deserved. We never should have been close. Maybe this will teach them not to play such a shitty first half.

I have just watched the Bail deliberate rushed behind clip - it is something that one sees several times every game of every round: why pick that one?? How many have been paid this year? Last year? Ever? It seems so unjust, but typifies the pathetic inconsistent state of umpiring at AFL. Not saying it cost us the game, but it certainly put more indecision into our deep defenders especially in the dying minutes, who may otherwise have rushed it through.

Yeah it was Toumpas's fault we lost today... Flogss

Things you'll find on Demonland after a loss: No matter how he plays Watts is potted. One possession out of his 15-20 will be a turnover or he doesn't win a one on one contest and we spend pages dumping on the bloke and focusing on that. Toumpas will be blamed, directly or indirectly, for the loss and for our horrid drafting, even when he isn't even in the side. Everyone will ask for 'Player A' to replace 'Player B', even though 'Player A' has been not been doing much in the reserves side and offers little in the seniors. But they will be 'the answer' to our pace or disposal problems. Our horrible drafting Still horrible drafting We could have had Wines etc etc If Frawley has even an average game everyone will tear him down, claim he is gone and that we can't wait to get MORE top end picks, even though 90% of the posters have whinged about how bad our drafting has been. Some of these aren't necessarily wrong, just terribly predictable. We lost because we still aren't that good of a side. Yes, the Roos factor has allowed us to double our win tally and be WAY more competitive than we would have hoped for this year. But games like today still highlight how far we have to go and that we still need to be awfully patient, even when we have a right to demanding some success from our team. Our time will come, even if it's still a few years from now.

People having a go at Frawley's game today obviously have bias given his contract status. Absolutely smashed his opponent and provided run. Made some poor decisions but the whole team's mindset was poor. Garland was much worse. Some comments on him have been pathetic. Likely from the same people who talk up loyalty. Spare me.

Barry showed enough 'team acts' in the small portion of the game he played to earn him another run, and I applaud him for it. He was unlucky not to be paid holding the ball on a couple of occasions, especially that one on Bob Murphy late in the last. The kid showed tenacity and urgency and while he didn't get much of the ball, his pressure was exactly the kind of stuff we need in our forwardline weekly. Well don Dom.

Out of all that you pick our Jack Watts that was probably his only blunder for the game. unbelieveble

I think I counted five Melbourne players around Bontempelli that were closer to him than any other Bulldog player when he kicked that final goal. Surrounded by 5 Melbourne players! The guy didn't even want it, he tried to dish it off but no one else was there to help him. And we couldn't even get off our flat feet to attack the ball or the man with the ball. Only at Melbourne...

Jetta was great today. Knows how to win the tough ball. Wish we had another one of him playing forward.

Wow, I just read some of the other posts on here. Some people forget that this time last year we would have gone done by 15 goals after giving away that start. Losing this game teaches our players about concentration and consistency. We are on the improve. Lose the battle and win the war folks.

Simply we lost the game because we lacked class. We turned the ball over when we shouldn't have, we didn't execute when we had chances and we couldn't win the ball cleanly in the middle for long periods of the game. We have the plan to win games (or stay close when we aren't playing well) but we lack the crispness to move the ball quickly and accurately to take advantage of our tall forward line.

At the end of the day the difference in the game was the free kick paid against Bail for running the ball over the line in the 2nd quarter. It then created absolute confusion amongst Melbourne's defenders on 2 other occasions that gifted them goals. If that rule was applied as it is in every other game then we rush behind 3, and win by 10. Also, anyone else but Bob Murphy gets caught in that way by Dom Barry with 2 minutes to go and it's a free kick. We were very very ordinary at times, but they were unbelievably lucky too.

Not saying the umpires cost us the game but fair dinkum. Does anyone know the rules anymore? Football is a joke.

My nephew was a shy, chubby little guy who was being bullied at his school. A teacher at his school was somehow involved with the NMFC and Wayne Carey rocked up at my nephews school, talked to him about ignoring bullies and getting on with life, kicked the footy around with him for a bit and invited him to the rooms after the next North game. Wayne Carey wrote to my nephew for a number of years after that just to see how he was getting on. Whilst some of the things he has done over the years were not great, this small gesture changed my nephews life. My nephew is still a North supporter and now 6ft 4" and built like a tank. He is still a bit shy and on the sensitive side but didn't go off the rails like some poor kids who get bullied. I have always thought Wayne Carey like most people, has some good in him.

Bring in Riley and tell him to go to town. We need (amongst everything else) hard nuts and aggression.

Failed to clear the goal square, turned the ball over allowing Bonpemtelli to score. Earlier in the day the maggot umpire paid a deliberate rushed against Bail, this clearly rattled the backline, so they didn't rush a behind for the rest of the day, this "interpretation" cost us 3 goals during the day, the first against Bail to give Stringer a goal, the second was a turn over goal to Hunter (??) and then Frawley's effort. Umpiring was strange to say the least with several unusual decisions, but the rushed one was clearly in the defences heads, and they lacked composure in close for the rest of the day.

Demonland poster forecasts the worst possible case scenario after a loss. Groundbreaking first. Why do I still bother reading this forum? I already know what everyone's going to say before I even open most threads.

Frawley was actually one of our best. He kept Jones touchless in 3/4 of football and then shut down Stringer once Jones was subbed out. Plus he gave us some run out of the backline. If you only ever look at mistakes then you're going to have a really unpleasant life.

If one goes back to the start of the year, one of the things Roos said was not to expect a huge number of wins this year, but to expect a decent improvement in our percentage. So far we have won 2x the number of games as 2013, and, so far, certainly with a run of games vs some top teams ahead, our percentage is significantly better.It will be interesting and enlightening to see if we can avoid blowouts against these top teams, especially as our young list tires probably more than hardened teas late in the season. If we can avoid blowouts and perhaps sneak a surprise win I would give Roos and the team a definite "pass" mark. It certainly isn't where we all want to be, but it is a start......or I guess it could only be called a start if we progress again next year. Demon fans have become very very wary of false dawns.

No ffs you and your mates Os and the great bullstish artist HH need to get off that high horse. He is in yr 2, again the supposed senior and middle tier players are the ones who are the leaders. Look at the top clubs, hawks, cats, swans, pies etc very few 1st and 2nd year players come through and dominate from year 1. They give the young ones time. Give the likes of Toumpas, Salem and Barry time to grow. It is our need for the middle aged and older players who can kick and handball to a teammate that kills us, we will be trading for older players again this off season.

I could have picked any number of ridiculous posts to make my point that there is serious amount of rubbish in this thread and for that matter dl . So many stupid, illogical definitive statements that it makes my head spin. Cannot stay composed and pinch a win? Except for a game 2 weeks back where we did precisely that. And for gods sake what has toumpas got to do with anything. Those who seemingly acannot accept the fact that the toump is a demon rather than wines etc what point are you trying to make? Or have I missed something and you can go back in time? Is the critism for the toump, the recruiters or the club? What relevance does it have in a post math thread? I'm with nasher on this - such rubbish makes DL hard work

We know that Bail, Terlich, Nicholson & Matt Jones are taking us nowhere, they are not good enough. We are very certain that Salem & JKH have many years ahead of them and should be managed and played sparingly for the remainder of the season. Therefore, in my opinion the above 6 players should be rotated in and out of the side for the remainder of the season to allow Blease, Tapscott and Michie to all have the remaining games which in the case of Tapscott and Blease will make or break their careers at MFC. I would spew up if Blease & Tapscott were to end up succeeding at other Clubs when they haven't had anywhere near the chances that some others have had.

Roos summed it up in his presser: "I don't know the rules" - This coming from a legend of the game...

Am seriously looking forward to f'k'ng off our list cloggers for some actual decent talent.

You can't give even irrelevant bottom sides a 40 odd point head start...

How about you comment on the game, pal? Toumpas has probably got one of the best kicks on our list. You think we might want someone who knows how to kick?

Pick 4 - Jimmy Toumpas Woodville-West Torrens SANFL Melbourne Pick 5 - Jake Stringer Bendigo Pioneers TAC Cup Western Bulldogs Pick 6 - Jackson Macrae Oakleigh Chargers TAC Cup Western Bulldogs

There are about half a dozen that are simply not up to AFL standard and at the moment Frawley is one of them. I'd rather have Blease in the side than Terlich and I'm not a big Blease fan, even Toumpass or Tapscott would be a better option.

Promises like that aren't usually honoured on Gameday threads.

Watts one on one is a serious liability. With time and space he's got great skills but in the heat he usually falls over! Spelling edit

Dees by 46

Machsy simply must be part of Rhino's offspring. An attack dog. Anyone who doesn't laugh long and hard at the 12th cd's man over the years is seriously lacking in large areas. But keep going Machsy. Or is it Ben Hur or Josè....

N.Jones - never found rhythm Grimes - excellent all game Salem - a schoolboy footballer Watts - classy but flawed Dawes - disappointingly little influence Viney - excellent tagging game Frawley - succumbed when pressured Tyson - few clear possessions Dunn - surprisingly poor disposal Kent - probably wasn't playing Garland - career worst game Pederson - great first half Vince - great second half Nicholson - crap , as expected Barry - had little impact Gawn - couldn't assert himself Howe - most effective defender Jamar - clearly our best Bail - couldn't justify selection M.Jones - was he playing? Terlich - poor before injury Jetta - useful both ends

Ok, so the whinging and hand ringing is getting dull so let me explain some positives: Viney - played a cracker. Added a string to his bow. Jamar - without his big body at the start of the year we got smashed. Going forward more makes him really hard to match up. Vince - got sticked early but worked hard to have an impact. As a coach you can use him to show that there is no such thing as a bad day. Grimes - one of his best games for us. And all this having a crack at young players is a joke. Tyson, Viney, Salem, Toumpas etc could all play together for 10 years. The future is bright there. Calm down.

Surely the umpire boss is answerable to somebody. The HTB rule is effectively gone. Dropping the ball, gone. [censored] hopeless. When will the rolling mauls and stacks on the mill stop. The game is not enjoyable to watch anymore.

Pathetic disgusting etc etc Dumb footballers everywhere. Can't kick, can't handball, can't win a damn clearance. Umpires can also go and get [censored]. That deliberate was the final margin. Hope whoever paid it is relegated to the VFL for life. Days like today remind me why being a Melbourne supporter is just so exhausting.

bring back skilled players Toumpass and Blease. Georgiou back in for Garland. outs..M. Jones and either Kent/Terlich

Didn't deserve to win it. But how f@cking infuriating is that loss. My biggest pet peeve in footy by far is when footballers don't know their limits, M Jones, Frawley, Garland and (I hate to say it) Tyson were caught trying to do way too much today on more than one occaision. Why do melbourne players always try and barge through 3 opposition players. They f@cking get pinned so often it's maddening!!!

If those mistakes cost several goals in a tight game where you lose by one then they do count. When you see an established player make so many fundamental errors you have to ask why would any club offer him a big contract. Oh, and run out of the back line only counts if you don't turn the ball over when you kick it.

Hats off to the big boys today - JAmar and Gawn And Grimes played a ripper Sadly we gave the game away early on... really need to work on the basics still.... Work in progress

Why can't we ever [censored] win a game by 50 points. Why must I feel like I'm on the verge of a heart attack every week?

Dom Barry on. Good luck son.

They just showed some highlights from the womens' game on Foxtel... wow!! Perhaps Roos should be showing the players that footage at the break; completely fearless attack on the ball.

Need to switch Dawes' concrete hands with human hands at halftime.

These players are wasting their careers, and I'm wasting my life watching this shite.

I agree with what Nasher said a few weeks ago. You are the worst poster on this site. And there are a lot of contenders.

I'm guessing I should be happy I can't see or listen to this game?

A must win today. No excuses.

Why is everyone so certain that ditching Casey would result in our players playing in a better side?

I don't think Chip is a leader at all. He is a shy country kid who can play football. I hope Roos coaches him for more than one year. But it lookes doubtful to me at this point.