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Can't wait to see Heretier hit the G with the dees. Reckon he's gonna light up the joint.

a4a9d1cc25c19575b9ccebffbc13fe36 " data-width="466"> Post by Melbourne Football Club.

Strike me dead. We finally bloody win a game and we find out the other team took a dive! I give up. *pushes desk over, and walks out*

That's a lesson in how to lose a game of footy......some pathetic mistakes tonight, by a team that thinks it's better than it really is.....

I'm thinking that it wont even need to be Lumumba or the MFC who go after Barrett, the AFL Player's Association should be going after this in a big way. What is left of privacy if player's can't even ask questions confidentially without it becoming a beat-up scandal?

[censored] disgraceful. Who the [censored] breached his confidence? It would be a small circle of people whom he talked to, so I can't imagine it's going to be hard to work out. Maybe it's time C. Dawes, in his newly elected position on the AFLPA board, demand a few answers for such a gross breach of HL's rights? He was doing the right thing to insure he was in the clear but is painted as a stoner by this complete [censored] jockey. Meanwhile, a team of drug cheats remain happily anonymous at the AFL's discretion in the biggest team doping scandal in Australian sporting history. Sickening.

I havent looked at a single comment on DL before writing this, and will probably be brave enough to venture back shortly to witness the carnage. Instead I thought Id write my own report, call it catharthis. Tonight was clearly disappointing. An underwhelming performance at best, truly dispiriting at worst. I havent yet seen the press conference by Roos, but I have seen fleeting comments through twitter and one in particular stands out, the difference between our best and worst is pretty dramatic. Roosy, youre not wrong. Despite promising signs early, the Dees slumped in to old habits, seemingly brought on by pressure. One gets the feeling that the boys have built their confidence around slick ball movement while unopposed at training, yet forgot that in games there is an opposition thats trying to stop you. Decision making is a serious concern and when that is coupled with at times suspect skills, you have the makings of a train wreck. Unfortunately, tonight, like so many nights before it, thats exactly what happened. Those two factors defined the last 2.5 quarters, while the first 1.5 appeared to be tainted by an inability to put the ball through the sticks when it appeared the easiest option. Thankfully, I think this is rectifiable. Garlett is a god-send, he is so vital to this team now. However we need one other, and that is something we will have. Both Kent and JKH have shown an ability to sniff an opportunity, so come round 1, heres hoping some of those bouncing balls find their home off their feet. Tonight also highlighted something else we all hoped wasnt true, Hogan is young. He is inexperienced and will take time to develop. I dont think anyone doubts his talent, the bloke will be a star. But not yet. Its as if at the back of all our minds we secretly hoped hed kick 6 goals the day he walked in. Our very own Wayne Carey from day dot. Sadly, not. A few other players stood out for different reasons: · Frost is a very handy pick up. Personally, I liked the look of him down back but I understand what theyre trying to do. In the ruck however, he is super raw. He was beaten time and time again and it allowed the opposition to get on top in the clearances. · vandenBerg was a shrewd pick up, and is a lock for Rd 1. · Sadly, I think the man expendable when Vince comes back, is Toumpas. I still hold hope that he can fill a role, but when you look at the team and where Bernie slots in, its on the wing or HHF. Sorry Toump. · Viney is all heart, but he makes bad decisions and his foot skills are dubious. Talk of him as a future star is premature to me. A wonderful clubman he is, but future A grader mmm, I just dont know. · For the second game running, I was pleased with what Grimes put out there. Thought he was one player in our defensive 50 who showed a bit of poise and his disposal was much improved. He had 19 disposals tonight at 100%, bet you never thought youd hear that. · Watts looks ripe for a good season. He has definitely filled out and now looks a man, rather than a lanky boy. He did some really good things tonight, knows how to kick a goal and covered a hell of a lot of ground as well as making lead after lead. There are plenty of others we can speak of, but I fear its been heard. Our tackling was disappointing tonight, this is a little concerning and hopefully doesn't represent a backwards step from last year. its a major factor in a game. Without it, you dont get momentum and it can affect everything. So, Im hoping a lot of what happened tonight can be put down to psyche around it being NAB Cup and not wanting to get injured. Well see. My team for Round 1? FB: Jetta Dunn Garland/Howe (fitness dependent) B: Salem McDonald Grimes C: Vince N Jones Lamumba HF: Watts Frost Garlett FF: Gawn Hogan JKH Foll: Jamar Tyson Cross R: Viney, Kent, M Jones, vandenBerg Sub: Toumpas · Im not comfortable with Frost at CHF, but with Dawes there, what do you do. Im open minded about Pedersen on form. If he comes in I move Frost back to the resting ruckman, but Jamar takes the workload and Cross/Dawes provide the chopout until Frost works out what hes doing. · I persevere with Toumpas as the sub, he has to grow comfortable on this stage. Its like he gets stage fright. · I find Garland underwhelming at the moment. There were a few times tonight where we looked like we had a bit of class, but its baby steps. You look at the team above and its clear were a better side than last year, vastly better? Maybe not, at least not yet. Baby steps.

Looking forward to the off-season.

Haven't you read The Lord of the Rings? Rohan is only fast on horseback. EDIT: Finally. I've been waiting to trot that one out for years.

How stupid are these Bulldogs players? Betting on Melbourne to win a game.

Did Tyson have the worst 27 touch game ever? The bloke's disposal has been D grade this pre season.

So sick of this line. Anyone who still has enough passion to comment here about a preseason match after the last 8 years is definitely a true supporter.

HL is everywhere, covers some ground

Salem is very good

destroy this thread

I don't care. At all. I'm stoked to have Lumumba at the club.

Club loyalty among players (and I accept it's a two way thing) has been severely tested with the introduction of free agency. We've already seen a few Demons change clubs through free agency in recent years and the James Frawley scenario from last year certainly left a bitter taste seeing him running around in the club colours but feeling fairly certain that he would jump ship as soon as the final siren sounded at the end of August. I don't think I was alone when all that mattered with respect to the player by that time was to say "good riddance" and hope the club gets adequately compensated. Whether people think it's good or bad for the sport, as far as I'm concerned, it's an unwelcome development when you go to a game and wonder whether a player's heart and his head are really with the club. In addition, the anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that its inflationary and will increase pressure on the less well heeled clubs at a time when the combined debt of AFL clubs is said to be soaring. There have been two offers reported this week for players coming out of contract at the end of the year: * $750k per annum from the Western Bulldogs for Carlton's Lachie Henderson and * $750k per annum from the Fremantle Dockers for Richmond's Alex Rance. I wonder what the supporters of these players' current clubs are going to be thinking if they strike a run of poor form? And how much worse can it get? Well ... we could become like the National Rugby League where players can announce they're switching clubs a year in advance and while still under contract to play out the season. Daly Cherry-Evans is a star player for in the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles. A Queensland State of Origin and Australia national representative halfback/five-eighth, he has played over 100 games with the club including the 2011 NRL Premiership in his debut season. Although committed to the Sea Eagles for this year, he recently revealed he had agreed to join the Gold Coast Titans in 2016 on a 4-year contract. I really think if that trend hit the AFL, I would have to re-examine my interest for the game. There comes a time when enough is enough.

This was exactly what we didn't need before the start of the season, a loss to the replacement bombers. It should however be noted that they still had quality out there, but what they had over us for pretty much the entire game after half way through the second quarter was intensity. They wanted the ball, they wanted to tackle and they wanted to win. Now all three of those last things you can actually put down as a product of it being pre-season, but if this was really about us preparing for round one and being up and about for it then that is very concerning. Decision making is still our biggest issue. It lost us the game in the end. Viney didn't sum the situation up well at all and gifted them the goal to win the match, that is one of many instances of us doing silly things that will hurt in the H&A season. Top that off with still plenty of suspect deliverers of the ball, we are still a long way off the pace. Positives: Garlett and Lumumba continue to be excellent pick ups. Frost keeps showing good signs, but are we going to play him as a defender or as a forward? Get him settled. Jones seems to be taking to the sole captaincy like a duck to water, shame he had very little support in the leadership department. Hogan keeps showing he's a footballer, he'll have a break out game this year that will leave the competition in fear. Salem's tackle on Chapman was awesome, and the look on his face was brilliant! I'm going to try to put this loss behind me quickly, it's pre-season and you take every result with a grain of salt. I can handle us doing stupid mistakes now and even losing to the (replacement) Bombers, but FFS we need to learn from these mistakes, and know who's going to progress with the side. A lot of players have question marks over their heads.

But according to some on here who do training reports, well one person anyway, our skills have improved enormously. His reports are erroneous. If you can't consistently hit targets on the training track under little to no pressure, how the f#ck are you going to do it when you have opposition. In all 3 NAB Cup games, as soon as the opposition have marginally increased their intensity level, we've crumbled. And for those who say, "It's only a NAB Cup match", I've been reading that sh#t every year for the past 8 years. Our sh#t NAB Cup form has continued into the real season every year. Only consolation was that I watched the game at work with a Melbourne supporting customer. Both of us backed Essendon at the line 34.5 points, and we were both tempted to back Essendon to win. We are still a mentally weak team.

Not quite true. Lamumba and Garlett are very much the real deal too. Thought both were great tonight.

I was at work for the duration of the game but just looking at the final score makes me want to take up smoking again.

Charged me and my mate $7.50 a beer and it was only a mid strength in a crappy plastic cup and $10.50 for a so called chicken burger wrapped in bread that tasted like plastic. Southern cross didn't have trains running for nearly 30 mins from the station post game. Our team lost to a team of seconds and fill ins. I could have chosen to see a great band with friends. I have never seen a win at Etihiad nor a grand final win and I'm in my 40s. Other than that it was a great night.

The game is measured on the scoreboard, nothing else. We were NOT on top in the first quarter because we CAN'T KICK GOALS!!!! Having three times the possession and doing SWEET F*** ALL with it is NOT being on top.

You're an idiot.

Not sure whether to laugh or cry. So I choose drink.

Perfect thing for us. A huge wake up call before the season has begun. Roos will go bananas and it will give the team a huge reality check.

Garlett has kicked 4. No Dee player kicked 4 goals in a game last year. He will be a great asset for us!

Get Jones OFF. If he gets injured in this circus I will call this season off.

and thats why Watts should be playing in the forward 50 all season and the rest of his career

Said to myself when I logged on: "I thought that was below expectation but not that bad. I bet I log on to find slashed wrists everywhere."

I am lead to believe that such an activity is traditionally shared between friends. It is quite likely that Barrett has never had the opportunity.

Dr Ried is doing what most guilty persons do. Trying to mitigate the blame. Everybody else was doing it etc.The fact is ASADA investigated the MFC not the AFL ,and found nothing of interest. This has been an on going strategy of the EFC from the start. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard Bombers supporters bleating about how Hawthorn, Geelong and Collingwood were all doing the same thing. It has also been inferred that the Workcover investigations into various clubs was instigated by people close to Essendon. Again nothing of interest was discovered. I am quite confident that both Workcover and ASADA are quite independent of the AFL.

The AFL is not corrupt. A lot of posters are confusing Incompetence with Corruption.

Please keep that to yourself in future, I really don't wanna know what posters are 'up' to while they're on here thanks.

Remember when we beat a full strength Essendon team last year? Oh yeah, and that was in the real season when we were playing for points.

It's just a sick joke following this club. We put our best side on the park minus 2 or 3 players and can't beat a bunch of delists, rejects and kids that have been training together for only a couple of months. Matt Jones and Rohan Bail are not even at 'top up' player standard. Constantly overrunning the ball, fumbling, missing targets and giving away careless free kicks. Jamar and Gawn are ineffective. Gawn has 6 inches on his opponent, comes on fresh and can't get first hands to the ball. Toumpas is scared and slow. Just a pathetic bunch of losers.

Imagine how Demonalnd would have self combusted if it was Grimes or McKenzie who kicked that ball that lost us the lead!

We just became the laughing stock of the AFL, only we could lose that game, how we can beat essendon at full strength yet lose to that side is a disgrace, it's all mental we are weak above the shoulders, If they can come out and win round 1 then all is forgiven but it's gonna take me a while to get over this 1 we are a joke of a football club, Roos and Goodwin must be thinking why the hell did we sign up for this

Beaten by a team of hasbeens that aren't even told what their gameplan is. Of ALL the teams to lose to, this was the one you DON'T [censored] UP!

Ok..I'll say it.. well done Watts...keep going son Someone who CAN use the ball at least !!!

I'm liking having Gartlett on our forward line.

Very lucky we have HL and Garlett.

Absolute lock. We will make him available, he is ahead of half our list - at least.

Beginning to wonder which side is topped up with vfl players ?

Great work Watts. Has been good.

Upgrade Vanders NOW

I think we look pretty awful.

im working like a mad man trying to get done, drop the kid home and get back into city by 5. gotta have a beer before the game but i still manage to get on here and post a fairly pointless remark Gonna see the Dees play! should get a seat on the fence and just watch Hogan all game. (not in a creepy way)

Err we were accused of tanking in a game where we were ahead at the final siren.... Just saying...

And the footy show call this breaking news..!