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I prefer to berate the poster and question their worth as a Melbourne supporter than to simply click "disagree".

Was one of our cleanest all day. Rubbish comment.

Ridiculous comment about Watts. One of our cleanest, and definitely his best game in the wet.

Unlike most in the match day thread, I didn't hate the first three quarters. In a game where strength matters, I felt we were just hanging on in the contest, which is a decent effort given the age and experience gap. Obviously the last quarter was limp and disappointing. Easy to blame selecting talls, but there were plenty of littles who gave us nothing, and I think it's no coincidence that it was young, under strength players like Stretch who were the least effective in the conditions. Pretty hard to swallow the idea that Grimes or Michie would have made that much difference.

I know, thank God we smashed the Bombers.

I'm sorry to hear this, all the best.

It could be worse, we could be GWS who are losing to that rabble Essendon..

that's just silly. we're miles away from where we were three years ago. three years ago they belted us by around 100 in the wet.

Bang on as usual WYL. We're just as bad as we were in the 4 win 2014 season.

Surprised at how many are willing to just blow this game off. Seems like a few are happy to write off the games we should be winning if we're showing we're getting somewhere. We have yet to beat anyone we didn't beat last year. That would be more tangible proof of improvement than a higher average score, or simply beating who we normally do. Tackling today told the story of where our willingness and mindset is that, and is extremely disappointing.

We will announce ourselves today with a very good win. The loss against the Hawks will give the guys the belief that they can beat Sydney. Jones was ultra dirty that we lost that game and I reckon he'll give a BOG performance today. 30+ point victory on the way.

Went a 2011 Pepperjack Shiraz and it's taken the edge off. Yeah, the boys played pretty well now that I reflect upon it. Go Dees!

A 10 goal drubbing in the wet means a few put the cue in the rack. But when one remembers we're the youngest and most inexperienced running around it gives some reason to the performance. Young teams find it hard to run out games in the wet. That's not an excuse that's fact. I liked my boy Wattsy's game again. Twice now he's been good in the wet, which is exceedingly unlike Jack. He really has improved his contested footy. I can't believe some posters potting Hogan. It's BS that he gave no second efforts. Conditions couldn't be worse for a hulking key forward like Hogan, but he finished with 17 disposals and 5 marks while competing in the air all day. Any idea how tiring is to do that in the wet ?

Not unexpected, really. Move on.

Hunt has been excellent.

Tony Shaw calling players " smart" is like Stevie Wonder describing a sunset.

The notion of paying our primary key defender aged 23 a 'mere' $350k is laughable. On the open market his value is probably around $600k. I would expect we will sign him for around $500k over four, as per Bombay's post.

About time, I have been concentrating on the 1%'s.

Make sure it's the rough end.

another ringing endorsement for the usefulness of statistics.

It's not just about the player, it's about the team mix in the conditions. Grimes, Harmes, ANB and Michie are no match winners by any stretch, and no one can tell the future, but it's a fundamental of footy that tall players are not as good in the wet and their strengths are diminished. So surely bringing in two (at least) of them for say Frost and OMac would have been logical.

Watts was very clean & had a decent dip... Stupid comment.

You are a clown Picket, heard nothing from you last week about him when he played well, but here you are to stick the boots in, troll

About 30 of those were on blokes who didn't have the ball.

If Roos says that we were too tall and he picked the wrong team, i'm gonna loose it. I reckon after the bye, Goodwin should take over and Roos can be down on the bench.

MelbourneFC- making spuds look like triple cooked chips since 2007!

I've seen enough from Jack Watts this year to know that he really has turned a corner as a player. He has no right to be as clean as he was that quarter. I'm thrilled for him. He really tried to lift us. Cant think of another midfield more suited to these conditions than the swans. We are trying hard but just lack the hard bodies and composure around the ball.

Why do you post here?

watts showed real courage and desperation.shame some the so called harder players didnt have his heart

It feels like we're progressing slower than any other developing team. I guess when you need to rebuild the rebuild of the rebuild, you get that. Maybe I'm just sick of waiting, but we make such tiny incremental inroads only to reverse back 600km every other week.

What about a WGAF button? In think I would use it quite regularly.

I actually thought young omac was good today.

We attacked the ball and man hard for the first 15 minutes. Then it became all a bit too hard and we then were happy to try and hang in rather than try to win the game. We panicked in the packs which meant we pulled too many in at the ball so once they got it out it was easier for them to move it forward. Conditions like that need strong direction on the ground and our leaders appeared to be mute. Petracca will be a star (sooner than later). Hunt and Wagner coming along well. Frost might well be our best defender by end of year. Time for the bye. Our boys need it and so do I.

What a really bad assessment of Jack Watts. In weather conditions not suited to a big man he did all he could to keep us in the game. 'Brave and gutsy' might have a more accurate comment. Joeboy does tend to be negative in his thoughts when we lose.

After three years you still can't analyse a game.

One thing, i really loved Hunts run and carry......

I just have one request: If we lose one game by doing something stupid, can we please not repeat it? Ever? We NEVER AGAIN field an unchanged side on a 6-day break against a top team. We NEVER AGAIN go in too tall for the conditions. We NEVER AGAIN let a loose man in defence run free all day. These things have all hamstrung us in the recent past. The really frustrating thing this season is that, although we have a much better team, off-field stupidity has too often been a factor in not allowing us to give a good account of ourselves.

While selection and coaching isn't solely to blame, today was another example of both of these elements being very poor. We again went in unchanged instead of bringing in a couple of fresh legs. Sydney made a lot of changes, and actually some of their fresher legs had good games. From the get go they had McVeigh playing the sweeping role, and they put Kennedy on him which is a terrible match up! Why didn't they put Bugg up there to play a defensive forward role? Our setup in the centre bounces was atrocious, and did not make any use of having a serious advantage in the ruck with Gawn taking on a spud like Sinclair. Defensively again we tried that idiotic diamond defence, the worst possible day to stick with this structure as monsoonal rain calls for quick kicks up forward, putting our zoning defenders in bad positions. It wasn't under the third quarter that we smartened up, by which point it was too late. Our midfield had a stinker, we needed to tackle hard, and we didn't. We let too many Sydney players run free forward of the ball, and couldn't even win crucial centre clearances. I thought Dawes played good wet weather footy, but Hogan was atrocious. His second efforts were non existent. Only Vince, Petracca and Watts know how to play wet weather footy. The rest made mind boggling decisions with the ball, especially coming off half back. We tend to make dumb decisions even in the dry conditions, but in the wet those decisions were magnified and were super costly. Overall it's not disappointing to lose to Sydney, but it is disappointing to see us not learning from our Hawthorn game experience, and once again making easily rectifiable decisions at the selection table!

Shame about the last quarter. But anyone surprised about a young side running out of legs after a 6 day break playing the best contested team in the league in the wet at home and gunning for top spot needs to step away from the keyboard. We're not there yet.

Ten goal loss in the wet Double our scoring shots for almost the same inside 50's Almost no score between the 10 minute mark of third quarter and the 27 minute mark of the last Hard to see many positives

Boys look tired. Glad we've got the bye. Not throwing the baby out with the bathwater on that one. Game really suited the Swans bodies. Our boys will rebound when they are fresh.

Shame about the last quarter. But anyone surprised about a young side running out of legs after a 6 day break playing the best contested team in the league in the wet at home and gunning for top spot needs to step away from the keyboard. We're not there yet.

150 odd tackles,what does that tell you? We have got the ball, but fcku around with silly handballs to another team mate under pressure who then gets tackled and on it goes. Vince is the only one who tries to clear the ball forward.

Certainly a nostalgic reminder to the 2013/14 days when we would continuously kick only 4-5 goals every second week. Although I thought we were a sneaky chance during the week, it was always going to require a huge effort to topple the Swans, with or without rain. Plenty to like with Petracca, Wagner and Hunt and full credit to Watts and Gawn for trying their guts out, but no cigar today.

St kilda game all over again. Just add rain. Sucked into the contest then they clear and bang bang goal! Why do we all go up in the pack and leave no options on the ground. Very dumb football. Played better against hawthorn.

Wagner been good today

down from Northern nsw for this one. first time at scg. pumped!

We tend not to learn from those experiences. Sorry for the pessimism,but I think in the wet, on their dung heap, the Swans will be too good. Hope to hell I am wrong though. Pity that we hadn't learned when we took on the Bombers, as a win would have us in the 8 now. Also if North hadn't used their own umpires in Tassie, we would have won that as well and been entrenched in the 8 at this point of the season. Oh well if my Auntie had balls.

The only thing wetter than the SCG today is my work site (I am sitting on a ship in the middle of the pacific ocean watching the game!) Go dees!

Have you a source for this? Because I've heard it was the opposite. And I've also heard there has been a counter offer that is now in the club's hands. That deal, from what I've heard, was very likely to be filled in the next few weeks. My mail has been for over a month that it will be done and a dual announcement with both Macdonalds to be announced around or shortly after the bye.