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Don't post here a lot - long time reader. Reading some of the reactions to the game yesterday both on here and in particular the club's Facebook feed, I feel compelled to post as I'm just so sick of this club's supporters. And yes, I've been through it all so don't say I haven't done the hard time. Today was an entirely predictable result and the sky is not falling in. We came off a 4.5 day break and errors were made at the selection table for not refreshing the squad. Young teams struggle with short turnarounds. It was clear to all watching that from mid-way through the first quarter after the adrenaline had worn off that we were not covering the ground either in offence or defence. Lots of hands on hips/heads at the breaks. Our new game style is high risk, high reward, and extremely taxing. We played a team that had the speed to exploit this on their fast home track. Our short turnaround resulted in us looking sluggish and disinterested (I don't think this was actually the case and the effort was there). Our fortunes rise and fall with Max Gawn and he has often struggled against Hickey in the past. Mobile, tall tap ruckmen are his weakness, and Hickey is very much in this mould. Max is far more effective against the brutes/undersized rucks like Maric and Grundy (coincidentally when he starred). He's played 40 games and if he continues with his rate of improvement, it wont be long before he has no weaknesses at all. Our team is extremely young and one of the youngest in the league. Our half back line relied on two players who have played less than 5 games and they look to a 30-gamer (Salem) for leadership. We played 3 players with less than 5 games each which is a lot to carry when our 'experienced' players are 50 gamers. Petracca was overawed - hard for a first gamer to play in a team that was evidently tired. We don't match up well on the Saints in the same way we always match up very well against Richmond. Their midfield is quick (ours is not), their forwards are mobile and their backmen are experienced. To those who say that we should be able to play the same way against any team - an extremely simplistic view that fails to consider the variation of players/teams across the league. Anyone who has played any sport knows that there are always certain types of players/teams that you struggle against. Not to say we should just accept defeat - but needs to be understood. The saints only really scored on the counter/over the back - it isn't as if we were soundly beaten in every single area of the ground. We had one key deficiency they exploited, but we still kicked 100 odd points with about 10 passengers. This is progress and a simple fix. Until we have 100+ games into Trac, Brayshaw, Kent, Harmes, Viney, Tyson, Gawn, Kennedy, Oliver, ANB, VDB, Hunt, Wags, Frost, Salem etc. - we can expect to see this type of inconsistency. We will continue to have good weeks and bad weeks. The competition is very even and we saw today that a few passengers makes it hard to win. Our experienced players were poor, yes, and this is the most disappointing part. Don't forget that TMac and Lumumba were a big part of our good footy the last two weeks. The overreactions on here, and particularly Facebook are not warranted. We did NOT lose because the players spoke of confidence and finals. What do you expect? If we are ever going to improve, we will need to learn to deal with increased expectation and positive media. It is part of the journey and to those saying that we should never say these things again - you are effectively wishing for another 10 years of misery at the bottom. The reactions by our supporter base are a significant part of the problem with this club and believe it or not we do have an impact on each other and on the perception of the club. For us to be successful we need long periods of coaching stability and low player turnover, and the worst thing we can do as a supporter base is cry foul and force changes in this regard. There will be good weeks, there will be bad weeks, and we know there will be good media and a fair amount of bad media. I would think after 15 years of pain most would be pleased we are finally playing a reasonable brand and scoring. Apparently not. People need to understand that the majority of good sides never win a flag, and in all likelihood this side won't either. My hope is we become good enough for perhaps a 5 year period where we are top 4 and respected and I will enjoy this time if it comes. In the meantime I'm going to enjoy the ups and the downs and regardless of our performance, the moments and incidents that make the game and being an AFL supporter great (like Hogan's 7 today). We are improving. Shut out the noise, stay the course and keep calm.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/collingwood-magpies/collingwood-jumper-like-youve-never-seen-it-before-20160430-goiw5m.html Pies wanting to launch the Women's Comp with a blockbuster game between Collingwood and Richmond. Just take your 11th hour bid and eff orf.

Hope the players have a good shower when they leave. Would hate to see a positive swab come up just from sitting on the chair or touching the lockers in there.

Casey Scorpions run out 17 point winners Casey Scorpions 4.8.32 4.8.32 9.11.65 10.11.71 Essendon VFL 2.0.12 4.4.28 5.5.35 7.12.54 Goals Casey Scorpions Newton K Wilson 2 Garland Hulett Max King Michie Neal-Bullen Spencer Essendon VFL J Langford 2 Kommer McKernan McNiece J Merrett Thompson Best Casey Scorpions Michie Trengove Hulett Garland Spencer T Smith Essendon VFL Grima Coghlan Jamar Ambrose McNiece Redman

ANB really wants to make the seniors

I hate being told to "keep calm".

O Mac also very good. Stretch a stand out with quick hands inside and good decision making. Best game I've seen him play. Garland very solid. Michie better than Trengove and Grimes IMO.

he didn't get smashed by riewoldt, he just never went anywhere near him

They interviewed Plapp after the match on Casey Radio. He said that he was surprised that Trengove was tagged all day. He said that tagging doesn't happen very often in the VFL. I would think that this makes Trengove's stats look a bit better.

Great to see Viv dominating, sometimes I think I am his only fan

No-one loves Brayshaw more than me, but he needs a few very good performances at Casey before he's considered. Let's get him back in when he's confident and in form.

Joe Daniher looks like a total spud, until he plays us and he looks like a superstar.

Saty, I do have a membership and have since I first set foot in this country in 2005. I don't appreciate the insuation that I am a fat, unorganised, lazy and cheap individual because I have routinely had bad experiences with ticketing and/or leaving the venue after a game. Not once have I called you a liar and said that your experiences are false. You may not have had poor experiences with Etihad/Telstra Dome, but a number of people clearly have. Can't you accept that without saying it is all their fault? Clearly if that many people have routinely had unpleasant experiences, there is some room for improvement.

It is pretty blatant and revolting arrogance. Disappointing that it isn't getting slapped down by the media. But remember, Collingwood have recently declared an Pies-Swans 'Goodes medal', and Eddie has been coming out with some other random gibberish 'big ideas' that people just kind of smirk off. If it annoys you that the Pies are elbowing in with their cash and 'weight', then the only good response is to help push our own way in. We've got to fight hard, alongside the Bulldogs, to be the highest profile women's team. Yes, we led the way, but now we're in real-politik football land and we have to go hard. Dollars for the Demon women, turning up for the games, taking up player sponsorships, and everything right down to talking them up at work - that is the answer.

Assuming Oliver is trying to read the words. It's ok buddy, you wont need them again...

Ouch! Big loosers are the AFL! 4 of there so called 'power clubs' are in the bottom 6! What's more can't see Ess, Pies, Blues or Tigers getting out of that 6. It gives me great joy to look down the ladder at them?

It fn annoys me at times as to the ideas of self entitlement some have. In this instance Eddie and his flogs. The opening game belongs to two clubs and two clubs only. The ones that have pioneered the ladies format. That would be our good selves and the Pups. I'd like to hear Jackson come out with that viewpoint and shove McGuire and his delinquents back where they belong. Bloody upstarts !!!

The great thing about his game is that he is playing half back flank yet is stacking up the possessions, must have had 10 inside 50s and 5 score assists as well as one of his own.

Ran out of batteries with 10 minutes to go and just got home. Stretch, Michie and Oliver were the stand outs. Saw Garland against Collingwood and he looked disinterested, was on his game today and has given himself a look in. ANB was serviceable but would not say he banged the door down. Trengove is getting to the right spots but is not up to speed yet with his execution. Being he spent most of the game playing inside could not get a feel for how much better his movement was.

Clearly, not only does ANB want to get into the Seniors next week, but he wants to make sure Gus doesn't get there instead of him...!!

I'm not sure where fr_ap has been spending his time to see the need for this post, but I've not seen anywhere near the reaction that there was after the Essendon game. No one is panicking, no one is baying for blood, the worst I've seen is people question a few things and being a bit disappointed, hardly any need to "calm down". But I appreciate the long winded apologetic post. Maybe fr_ap needs to understand that with increased performances comes increased expectations.

Nope, not true. Collingwood has two home games at Etihad this year, and has done for awhile. IMO the problem is twofold: the AFL has a contractual requirement to have a certain number of games at Etihad this year and two of its tenants, Carlton and Essendon, get to host too many of their home games at the G. Why is Essendon hosting Geelong at the MCG? Why does Carlton have home games against interstate sides at the MCG? These are the clubs who signed up to Etihad at the start, they should be the ones wearing the minimum games requirement, not MCG clubs like Melbourne (and Richmond, and Collingwood). The location is fine. The design is appalling. The service is poor. The facilities are worse than the G's. The seating arrangements are complicated. Ticketing is difficult.

I can run around dropping marks and clogging space for Hogan also. For half a mill I'll play every week too. Even with a broken leg. Dawes is finished until he can take marks. We were beaten by the Saints in the air and in run.

Bugg ? Don't rate him at all. Not sure why some think Trengove won't be ready. He played a Casey intra, which was his first hitout and did well. He next played a Casey practice match and had 18 possessions to half-time before fading in the second half. And today will be his third game for Casey (knocked out early in the other). This will be his 5th game in the last 6-7 weeks. Maybe he needs one more after today, but he certainly can't be far away, especially on the back of being best afield last week.

We lack key defenders, Frost is a key defender but for some reason we are trying to make him into a forward pocket.

Laughable.

“We need to make sure that these things (grounds) are discussed going into games – that might be Subiaco or it might be the SCG, because it’s a small deck,” he said. “Overall, we’re trying to play a game style that doesn’t matter where you play, but this is a different venue and we need to educate ourselves as coaches. http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2016-04-30/venues-to-play-bigger-part-in-selection It staggers me that Roos talked in the presser about the coaches needing to look at picking teams for certain grounds in the future. How did he not already know this? It seemed like he had caught on to Etihad last year after a massive selection failure against the Dogs and then a selection win with the smaller, quicker team v GWS. Many here talked about dropping talls during the week, yet there was Pedersen, Frost and Dunn absolutely stinking it up while the Saints used the ground to perfection running all day. This on top of another admitted failure by the selection committee in round 2. How are they getting it so wrong after all this time? How is it rank amateurs like us here on 'Land can get it right, but the actual paid professionals keep getting it wrong? I'm obviously not saying we know better, or we know more about footy, but it's seemingly the one area our coaching staff are still struggling in, and three years in Roos is still talking about "educating" the coaches in selection. WTF?

16 possessions 6 inside 50's - 3rd most for Melbourne 3 goal assists - 1st for Melbourne 5 tackles - 3rd most for Melbourne Underrated debut. I guess when theres a lot of hype a first gamer doesn't get credit unless they have a day out.

The Dees do so much for women's footy we'd have to get the inaugural game. I'm the runner for my partner's VWFL team and my runner's vest, as does every other of the dozens of runner's in all the divisions, has a big MFC logo on the back. Can't say I've seen the pies logo out there

2nd head knock in a month means he will be resting for at least a week no?

They need to put him on ice. He's already had a concussion a few weeks ago and not looked the same since. Time to give him a week or two off to get right.

I think there's a lot about this that is simply Roos and the FD taking the heat for our players' lack of work rate yesterday and against Essendon. He refused to drop them in it after both games. Gave them easy outs and took the heat. I think this is partly because the coaching team try to let the players work through game day situations (making minimal moves), so they're just as responsible for poor results as the players. But also, Roos has talked about the mental fragility still present in some members of this group. I don't think there's much more in this than that. There's absolutely no way selectors don't take the venue into consideration.

Telling someone to calm down has the opposite effect. Anyway, we're a relatively young team and we're going to have some stinkers thrown in amongst the good games. We'll have a win or two against the top teams this season and all will be forgotten.

Maybe they should have played an interstate team at Etihad SO WE COULD AT LEAST PLAY ST KILDA ONCE AT OUR HOME GROUND THIS YEAR. I know, I know, build a bridge. Just needed to whinge about it one more time.

We both had short breaks between games and the Saints brought in 3 fresh players. We brought in one, a first gamer. How did the 3 Saints go? As with the Bombers game, we started stuffing up at selection, followed it with poor match day coaching, then poor skill and disposal and ended with a lack of effort, from most of the side.

Does Hulett pinch hit in the ruck?

Good post fr_ap, pity you are being trivially criticised for the title and not the content. We could match up against the Saints at Etihad if we had much better defensive organisation. We were far too loose, and lacked another tall player to counter the marking of Reiwoldt and Bruce. Conversely we were too tall and lacked run in other parts of the ground. Plus our normal good runners such as Kent and Garlett were non-existent. I think at Etihad you've got to make defence a lot more of a priority, rather than all-out attack. It's a shorter, narrower ground than the MCG, and hard to counter a quick transition when the whole side zones so far up towards the forward line. We were killed by turnovers and the fast transition. We stopped it to some extent in the last quarter by not pushing up as far, and playing a loose man in defence, something we should have done in the 2nd quarter to (at least temporarily) stop the rot. Sometimes zoning just doesn't work.

i doubt i will ever set foot in that arena again

After all the hype "come to watch us at Etihad" by the club, then they put on a shithouse performance like that again! It will take a lot more trust building to get a decent crowd there again, IMO.

Really? If there is a crowd after a game, it isn't pleasant. And I am a smaller female, thanks.

his run up is fine cos - on the whole - his last five steps, his head positioning and his ball drop are very steady. it's only when there's a slight deviation from these key last vital ingredients that it goes awry. he's a bona fide superstar in the making. 26 games...it's freaky just how good he could potentially be.

There's stuff you don't pick up unless you're at the game, but their team defence was miles better than ours. We played way too far off our opponents. Forward of centre we couldn't spot up a target, because there were always Saints players right on their ginger, but at the other end we were not only metres off our opponents we were outnumbered. Riewoldt was left on his own all day. In the second and third quarters they were also far better around the stoppages, while we over possessed when we did get it due to their pressure. Hogan was constantly double and triple teamed and when we pressed hard up to their forward-line he was constantly complaining to McCartney on the bench that he had no support, so when a ball did come back he'd be picked off. At one stage they had a spare in defence in front of Hogan, which should mean we had a spare, but we were still getting outnumbered at contests. The fumbles and mistakes were extraordinary. Vince kicking 10 metres to contests ! We had a dominant forward and when we should have gone long we didn't. Hogan and Viney are the only two who can hold their heads high. Maybe Jones. Certainly not the coaching staff. At least we can stop worrying about finding positions for Brayshaw (when he's ready), Oliver, vandenBerg and Trengove. Pick any one of Harmes, Kent, Bugg, Frost and friends.

Saints had the same break as us and brought in 3 fresh players - Membrey (5 goals), Acres (28 touches, 2 goals) & Gresham (didn't do much). We swapped out an underdone young player for an underdone young player.

But we had guys like ANB, Stretch, M.Jones, Oliver all able to come in. Saints brought in fresh players after a 5 day break, we didn't. Have a look at the lineup that beat GWS at Etihad last year, that's when I thought Roos had worked out Etihad, but clearly not given the team selected this week and the same "got it wrong" speech that we heard after round 2.

We ran out of legs, we were in the game until we couldn't keep up any more. They were running away from us at stoppages and it looked like we were stuck in the mud. We are a very young team playing fast paced footy, the 5 and a half day turnaround did us no favours. I lost some faith in the selection/fitness staff for failing to see or properly gauge our fitness/stamina levels properly through the the week. I'd be gauging the energy levels very closely this week, and not wedding myself to the notion that wholesale changes are necessary a bad thing- if fresher bodies are available. The sun's will come out hard next week and we are going to expend a lot of energy to keep up. Anyone under a fitness cloud must make way for a fresher body. I'd be seriously looking at resting players like Salem, Kent and Harmes and looking to bring in pace in M Jones, and stamina in ANB and even Grimes. The door is open for anyone who's banging loudly enough, I'd hate to see minimal changes for the sake of status quo and end up with the same result next weekend

No way Petracca should be dropped after one week, he needs to build into it and learn how to play AFL footy. Someone else needs to make way for Oliver though, he just gets it.

Ah, the old "we are slow" again. Name a team who didn't look "slow" when they played like crap. We aren't slow. We haven't looked remotely slow in the last three weeks. We just failed to work hard enough today.

Jetta would be in the first five players I'd put on my team sheet every week. He's a solid, solid player. Love him. He went alright today too. I agree. Didn't think it was his fault. When the landslide started happening in the second and third I felt he stood up when it was his turn. Tried to create from half back as well. Did so on a couple of occasions.

For the love of Barassi, if Tom McDonald isn't attached to Tom Lynch like [censored] glue from the opening bounce next week, I will actually lose my [censored].