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I have woken up with a mixture of emotions this morning - excitement, nervousness, wonderment (that we have got through this strange season and still might be finals contenders) and above all hope that the stars are aligning and the outcome is positive for us all. I am off to do some yoga now where today's intention will be not about world peace but for a Demons win.❤️? My Collingwood supporter husband is coming along with me to the game decked out in red and blue - he dislikes Carlton immensely so he wasn't hard to persuade. Go Dee's ❤️?❤️?

Well, that sucked. We didn't want it early and we couldn't peg them back. We had more of the ball in the end, more inside 50s and so forth, yet we played right in to their hands. It's not good enough and I'm positive, with another pre-season under our belts, we will get better at these situations. Hogan needs to fix his kicking, no doubt about it. But to suggest he has an 'attitude' problem is ridiculous and disrespectful. 19 touches and 14 marks in horrid conditions is a damn good day out. It's tainted, of course, with his kicking for goal, but that can be fixed. And if I see posters claiming our culture hasn't changed and so forth, then you need to take a good, hard look at yourself. You know it has changed. We need to eliminate these types of losses, but I suspect this will motivate the boys for a big pre-season and a crack at finals in 2017. Just noticed it was 20 free kicks to 5 today. I hate blaming something like this, but to suggest we only earned a total of 5 free kicks in a game of footy is ludicrous.

Ethan Tremblay is in Melbourne!

We should embrace this game and since it's at the MCG, it should be a home game for the Demons so that we can benefit from the massive crowd on hand to welcome the country's major contributor to the cause of drug cheating. In fact, while they're at it, the AFL could provide free entry to the families of all convicted drug dealers and invite the head of Russia's Olympic Committee to toss the coin at the start of the game. Australia Post could launch a new stamp with Stephen Dank's picture on it. Half time entertainment: Neil Young to sing, "The Needle and the Damage Done". Bring it on AFL - the concept would be in line with everything you've done in the past decade for the integrity of the game.

Selection was abysmal again. All three 'ins' were the wrong decision.

Pedersen out and our forward structure goes to shite once again. He's much more important than most realise.

That's actually true.

Just to confirm, our percentage went down.

Absolute and complete rubbish. Weideman was appallingly useless today. It's not for a lack of talent, it's fitness, and I'm a fan of his and look forward to him being a mainstay of our side in 2017 and beyond. But due to him being completely incapable of getting to contests, Carlton was able to sit on Hogan all afternoon. He was forced to run up the ground to give us an option bringing the ball out of the backline. He worked hard all day, and other than his goal-kicking his disposal was fine. The anti-Hogan crap on this board is getting out of control.

I admit it. Today, I had hopes - vain, foolish hopes - that I'd have a pleasant and rewarding day at the football. They were dashed. Oh my, how they were dashed. The glorious prospect of success became the bitterest of ashes in my mouth. The day was a ruin, to join the many, many ruins I've had in following this football club. Despair replaced delight, cheers became groans, despondency was a weight on my shoulders. Every slight hope, every moment of clever play was countered by hesitancy, misthought and instances that could only be called both slapdash and slipshod. To be honest, I gnashed my teeth more than once, and I was prepared to make offerings to the football gods if only we'd have a third quarter turnaround. Alas, it was not to be. Quarter three tantalised but did not deliver. I beat my chest with frustration and nearly rent my garments. By the end of the game, the cheers of the Carlton faithful were knives in my ears. I could bear it no longer. The siren was my release and I trudged, bereft, to Jolimont station, crushed and despairing. I'm beaten, I tell you, worn down and a shadow of the supporter I was only a few weeks ago. I consoled myself, though, with the knowledge that here on Demonland I'd be among those who share my pain. It helps, a little. To the draft!

For the future, can posters stop talking about players "banging the door down" at VFL level and understand the difference to AFL footy ? So next time a Michie, Neal-Bullen or Grimes is racking up 40+ disposals at the lower level can you contain your enthusiasm, remember this game and put some perspective on VFL performances ?

It wouldn't have been a deserved win but 2.9 from set shots really hurts. Very few of them were difficult.

Pathetic. That loss had nothing to do with Roos.

Dropping Pedo for Weeds was the worst decision of the year. How can Carltank lose 9 straight yet come out & beat us who have everything to play for? Just pathetic. Why Roos never put Vince on Gibbs is staggering.

How many 100 pt losses this year? How many 10 goal losses. It has improved. Maybe not as much as we would like, but to say Roos has failed at reducing the gap is just incorrect

Given what was on the line, this is worse than the Essendon debacle.

The overwhelming comments on facebook on the herald sun article were "why would we celebrate drug cheats, give them 440 sunday in canberra"

Dropping Pedersen was the wrong decision.

And you bring in a clearance mid, ANB and play him in a pocket, while you are getting smashed in the clearances. You bring in a skinny kid, on a wet day, for his 2nd game and drop a bigstrong bloke, who can add some grunt in the contest. You bring in another bloke who has been found wanting numerous times. You get smashed in the clearances by Cripps and Gibbs and leave them unmanned. We got what we deserved.

The thing about our losses to poor sides or when we are favourites to win is that we never lose them in a thrilling, high-quality contest. We always, always, lose them because we aren't switched from the first bounce, we look slow, lazy and disinterested, and we are jumped by a lower-quality side who tries harder than we do. Every time. You could tell from the opening contest that we weren't switched on. Just like last year. And just the Essendon game, both St Kilda games. Similar to the second GC game too. Leadership was woeful today. We don't have many leaders but Vince and Jones were both horrendous today. Vince has a disgusting habit of lairising and taking the easy/quick option when we are playing lesser opposition. Viney and Gawn are leaders and neither player anywhere near their best. All three selection decisions were questionable at the time and with the benefit of hindsight were all wrong. Weideman should never have played, he wasn't fit enough when we played Hawthorn to get through a half, let alone the whole game. With a finals spot on the line this was not the game to be giving a friendly run to a kid with an eye on 2017. He wasn't up to it in any way today. His future looks bright but today was not the day to play him. Pedersen would have made a huge difference as he would have been able to compete where Weideman couldn't, and it would have in turn provided Hogan with a chop out. As it was, Hogan was forced up the ground and had no options closer to goal when he was making it at half-forward. I hope the embarrassment of this loss is some sort of motivation for 2017. Hogan took 14 marks, ran all day, and was forced by reason of Weideman's lack of fitness to play both CHF and FF. He played a good game in circumstances where he had no support and the majority of his teammates were playing woefully. Poorly directed criticism, IMO.

Hogan really should've signed whatever we offered to him earlier this year. He's got to stop drinking his own bathwater, as do many of his teammates.

I can't see the forest for the trees right now, despite our overall progress. I'm absolutely livid with that predictably awful display. All week long hearing about how much of a percentage booster this game needed to be, but deep down I knew we'd drop this match. Heartbroken.

Our attitude is disgusting. Pea hearted. We had everything to play for today and apart from 2 or 3 players we are getting nothing from our players. Not only do we not deserve to make finals we don't deserve to be considered a team on the rise until this mentally pissweak attitude and soft underbelly is rid of. Shameful performance.

I haven't wanted to question the selections this year, as while you get some wrong, you often get it right. We've seen that in the second half of the year. However, Michie and Neal-Bullen have been invisible and Weideman can't get near it. Right at the end of the half Michie did a little, dinky kick that went straight to a Carlton player and it was horrible to watch. All 3 haven't given us a 'boost' of energy so far and it is hurting us.

Get a kick Matt Jones. Only 27 touches to half time, the hack.

Happy 92nd birthday mate!

“We always seem to play an away game, or a game at Etihad Stadium in a secondary timeslot. Said Campbell. Maybe because shitihad is your home ground you Muppet!

Win. That's all there is to it. Win today and the Melbourne Football Club stays alive until the very last game of the season. That's all a supporter can ask of their club.

It's a good move for us until he takes up another clubs offer. Then he's the sort of player we didn't really need anyway.

Bugg and Vanders are not 'ordinary' players. Dean Terlich is an 'ordinary' player. Bugg and Vanders will be our foot soldiers in the years to come. Vanders is coming from along way back from a season wrecked by injury, while Buggy has taken time to settle in a new side. Both will be valuable contributors as the side improves.

Whether it's Roos or Goodwin our coaches aren't perfect, they make mistakes. Errors at selections and some strange in game decisions. I can live with it. Everyone's an expert in hindsight. Cartlon have played well more weeks than not this year. They aren't very young at all, far older than us, and well coaches by a coach schooled in the number 1 system that the league has right now. I'm not all that angry about lack of effort - after the first quarter there was plenty. Or even the lack of skills. Or game plan. When your teams best players don't play very well and the other teams best players do AFL footy is a hard game to win. Gawn's our best player right now and he was nullified. Viney and Jones couldn't lift the team early. Oliver and Tyson tried hard. The backs and forwards are super young an inexperienced. A champion player could've got us right back in it and take the game away from Carlton. Even Petracca tried in the last quarter with 3 shots on goal for 0.2 and an out on the full. A bad way to effectively end the season but I'm not going to go in to full melt down mode after it.

Bernie needs a rocket up his ass. [censored] weak and lazy efforts today that resulted in simple diect turnovers.

Well that wasn't suppose to happen.

Yes he takes good marks, but how good is Tyson getting 30 touches and turning 20 of them over? Hogan has one job. He needs to kick goals. He lets his teammates down over and over again, and honestly it's a massive concern. As for Watts, you can pot him for a lot of things but kicking isn't one of them. Yes he missed a sitter but I rather the ball in his hands from 50m on an angle then Hogan directly in front 20m out. Says something.

Surely Hogan isn't worth 1 mill? Surely not...

My Dad passed recently. A 75+ years Dees supporter.....He'd ring me after every win.....and most losses..We hoped we could do another finals series together, hope the boys can do it for him today. Cheers guys.

Don't worry guys, I dumped a Carlton supporer today, so some kind of revenge there I guess!

I decided to immediately occupy myself with my family after the game instead of hanging on here. It definitely took the edge off. Given the roller coaster this season has been, it seemed a fitting way for it to die: a bitterly disappointing performance against a garbage team and crushing our dreams one last time, for old times sake. It just sums up 2016 so perfectly. It had all the hallmarks our usual woeful performances this year have had: Tyson getting caught holding the ball, Kent being utterly horrible from start to finish (how about that kick in to nobody deep forward? That was the point I officially gave up), and our young mids barely touching the ball. The only thing missing was McDonald brothers terrible errors; for the record I thought both where among our better players today. Despite the fact that by the end I was actually counting on Hogan missing his shots, I thought he otherwise looked much better. For the first time since his injury he looked - and was - a marking threat. Please Jesse and MFC, hire the best goal kicking coach money can buy this off season, and treat it as if you're learning from scratch. We need you to be better than you currently are in this aspect. It was a disappointing way to snuff out the dream, and pretty embarrassing with most of the footy world paying attention. What a month of footy this has been. A disappointing way to finish (Geelong to come of course), but I already can't wait for 2017. Bring it on!

10 wins is not a good return, we should have beaten, at least, Carlton and Essendon and probably one of the Saints games. I'll excuse them for the North and Weagles games because we were crucified by the umpires but if we are to be taken seriously we must beat teams on our level and below. Don't fall for the Richmond mantra, "we finished 9th this year so it's finals bound next year", every year is different so we may not get the chance. Make no mistake we were absolute crap today and the players should be ashamed, particularly the leaders in the midfield. On Hogan, this was a low pressure game and his kicking was awful, how would we react if it was a final and he lost the game for us because of the yips?

A lot of things went wrong today. But to be outworked in the first half by a side that had nothing to play for is simply unforgivable. We've had a good season but wow, today was bitterly disappointing.

I'm usually the first to blame selection, even started a thread about it, but if you're blaming Michie, ANB and Weed for the loss today you are clueless. We were let down by our leadership.

Just said on the radio Goodwin addressed the players after the game, Roos didn't attend.

Despite loses against Essendon and Carlton, ten wins is still a successful season and a clear step in the right direction.

I agree with this. Normally I don't, but the Neal-Bullen decision still baffles me. We have Ben Kennedy, a bloke who knows how to play forward, languishing in the reserves and they ignore him for a pure mid. Bad decision and we paid for it, as Nibbler had little to no influence on the game. Weideman had no influence either, and while Michie had a better second half, he isn't a damaging player. Not much we can do about it but moan now, I guess.

Dumb players, dumb coaches and dumb selection committee.

Disagree, obviously. let them have the extra man in defence all day, that way we had an extra player for 'ball use'. Sorry, but on a wet day that makes no sense. Go man on man, get the ball and get it forward. Instead, all day, we had players look up and have Carlton numbers in front of them so they hand balled excessively. Yes there were were many other factors, but to me Roos could have changed things to stop the overuse of handball and didn't.

Whatever the opposite of a scapegoat is, Cam Pedersen may be that for me right now; but I'm going to keep harping on the fact that our forward structure has seriously suffered in his absence this week.

Because any decent sporting peak body would not applaud the return of players banned for drug cheating, but give it a low profile. What would it say to WADA and the world to be seen to be celebrating their return as if the club was a poor hard done by victim? I can only hope that other clean sporting bodies in Australia lean on the AFL to stop this madness. If you love this match to go down because it may put $ in the hands of the MFC or whatever, think again. There are more important considerations.