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I'm calling it now, we won't lose a game this season.

O-Mac had a great passage of play that could have set the scene for our comeback. Check out the lead-up play to Watts's goal. Hunt wins the ball at half back, turns around and kicks it to T-Mac in back pocket. O-Mac runs to the other pocket as soon as he sees Hunt turn, and gets the switch kick from T-Mac. There's nobody free, but instead of bombing it to a contest (this is right after quarter time, remember), he waits, is told to play on, but Lewis has made position on the boundary line and he hits him with a neat 20-30m pass. Lewis too has nobody to kick to initially. But instead of just ball-watching, O-Mac has actually run about 60m (past Riewoldt on the mark, who didn't chase him) and made position on the boundary line 30m downfield from Lewis, who hits him with the pass. O-Mac plays on immediately, and with a beautiful zone-splitting angled 40m pass he hits Petracca on the front corner of the square. Petracca plays on quickly and belts it over the back of the zone where Watts, who started running towards goal as soon as he realised it was Petracca, takes an unopposed mark & slots it. O-Mac's play here converted a back-pocket stalemate into a goal in the first minute of the second quarter. Sure, others played an important part, but it was O-Mac who set up the play. And it was at a crucial time in the game, when we had to make a statement after the first quarter. I'm saying that 9 out of 10 defenders wouldn't have bothered running to make position, and none of them would have attempted, let alone executed, such a brilliant attacking pass that split the defence. I'm not saying he doesn't make mistakes, or hesitate, or turn it over. But he does do some really good things too, which I'm sure the coaching staff would notice. He gets no credit on here for the good things he does.

o mac is not going to be dropped. he gets to and impacts the contest. he's tracking as well as his brother was at the same level of age and experience, if not better.

I'm still trying to figure out how to properly process the sensations experienced during the game. My 'emotional vocabulary' has a blind spot. I'm looking for something that is the opposite of 'dread' and 'disappointment'. I asked around at other clubs. Richmond suggested 'delusion'. Essendon and Carlton both nominated 'hubris'. West Coast said 'tabs'. GWS said 'inevitability'. Sydney didn't understand my original terms.

I am a Fijian Indian who has been a Melbourne supporter for 30 years. Last year I took my parents and my kids for their first AFL game. It was at Etihad against St Kilda. My son is now 4 years old and my daughter is 6 years old. This year I took my mother inlaw for her first game. Kids did my head in during the game. But after the game, the demon supporters were fantastic. Everyone was so friendly. People we didn't even know were talking to us. After the game they all stoped and talked to my son and gave him high fives!! Some talked to him like he played in the game. He now calls himself Jack Viney and his big sister is big Max! I am Jack watts, his mother is Nathon Jones. And his visiting grandmother is Jesse Hogan! Thank you to all the lovely Melbourne Supporters who made my kids feel special in their first win!

Oscar played the last 14 games of 2016 and impressed with his intercepting and work in the contest. McDonald was involved in 41 defensive one-on-one contests and lost just 17% (7) - ranked 2nd at the club behind his brother Tom and seventh in the league in players involved in 30 or more contests. Of his 14 games, he didnt concede a goal to his direct opponent in 6 games and cinceded more than two just once. He averaged 6.5 intercept possessions per game, rated above average for key defenders" AFL prospectus. All of those stats indicate he is clearly at the level, whilst he may have got caught out in the early stages of the game, his next three quarters apart from skill errors were pretty solid defensively. Often in the right spot and rarely beaten after that, of course he made some mistakes, so did alot of our players. But I cant see how anyone watches the 2nd-last quarter and says Oscar McDonald was a liability to the side. He was solid and showed great resilience to bounce back from a poorer start.

Had to slow down and enlarge to see properly. Smaller, speed of light version aka reality.

What a lot of nonsense. Omac was not the best defender, but he did a serviceable job. He is also still learning as his brother did. We will have a star in the future, but he does enough to close down key position forwards now and that is to our great advantage. our coaches know what they are doing....

What a pack of no confidence merchants. we will wipe the ground with Carlton next Sunday. This is not the playing group of 2005 - 2015. This a new lot with the talent to win a lot of games. lift your eyes guys the horizon is brilliant.

Wow, what a change in 3yrs. Only TMac, Nathan Jones, Bernie Vince and Jack Watts from Roos' 1st game. That is a huge turnover of players. GOODWIN'S 1st GAME ROOS 1st Game Nathan Jones Bail, Rohan Clayton Oliver Byrnes, Shannon Jordan Lewis Cross, Daniel Jesse Hogan Dunn, Lynden Max Gawn Fitzpatrick, Jack Alex Neal-Bullen Frawley, James Tom McDonald Georgiou, Alex Bernie Vince Grimes, Jack Christian Petracca Howe, Jeremy Mitch Hannan Jones, Matt Jayden Hunt Jones, Nathan Jack Viney Kennedy-Harris, Jay Angus Brayshaw McDonald, Tom Christian Salem Michie, Viv Billy Stretch Pedersen, Cameron Neville Jetta Spencer, Jake Oscar McDonald Terlich, Dean Jeff Garlett Toumpas, Jimmy Jake Melksham Trengove, Jack Jack Watts Tyson, Dom Sam Weideman Vince, Bernie Joel Smith Watts, Jack

This concept of harmcaused being applicable to the punishment is stuffed. Bernie gave the bloke a low impact bicep to the head. Potential for damage from bicep = [censored] all. Varcoe runs through a guys jaw with his shoulder and gets the same. Varcoe could have knocked that guy into next week ffs

Too right. I believe that next week we will calmly, unemotionally and in a controlled fashion TOTALLY DESTROY THE BLUES!!!

I don't think we've gotten ahead of ourselves at all. We've thoroughly enjoyed the win, but nowhere have I seen supporters banging on about Top 4 or our chances of a flag. We've spent too long down the bottom of the ladder to get ahead ourselves. If anything, it's been pleasing to see most keep the lid on and mention that we need to back it up next week.

I'd rather try Keilty than Oscar. The experiment isn't working and Oscar needs a lot more games at casey, more KGs, better skills, greater composure and an injection of mongrel. Other than that he is a fine footballer.

And while Bernie is dumb for doing that it shows the MRP is far dumber. Ask the 3 victims of the Varcoe, Casboult and Vince hits, which they would rather receive. Varcoe and Casboult were dangerous hits with a shoulder to the face and Bernie is a forearm tap to the back of the head deemed low impact. Joke.

Just been released - 2 weeks for striking (intentional), low impact. Down to 1 week with an early plea Casboult got a fine for rough conduct (careless), low impact. Not sure how these muppets operate

OCTOBER 21 2015 "Melbourne have utilised both the new points-based draft system and the introduction of future pick trading to take a huge plunge into this year's national draft." And now we can see why.

Yes old Dee, we could happily retire or live in luxury for the rest of our single malt days. An obscene amount of money. but such is the way in this degraded society. However, without Roos we would be nowhere. His appointment was the essential foundation stone for the new footy department and the beginning of change. Sure there have been a lot of other reasons, but Roos appointment was a watershed moment. Just like Hogan's decision to remain at Melbourne, and, a little later, Jordyn Lewis coming across from the Hawks. Not only manifestly important but also symbolic of the change. And hopefully Goodwin will reap the benefits by adding his mark.

At some time in the coming weeks, every player in the AFL will drop a mark or fumble a ground ball. It's not only confined to the players you don't like.

I'm not getting ahead of myself, but I had a feeling on Saturday night that I haven't experienced before. It wasn't arrogance, nor cockiness. It took me hours to realise it was that feeling was. It was confidence. The feeling you feel when you beat a team that you should. It's a feeling that should be growing within this playing group, and is the feeling I have going in to this week (as opposed to a combination of fear and arrogance that I displayed going in to certain games last year).

Simply won't happen. He had his moments on the weekend, but for a bloke who hasn't played much footy in 18 months he wasn't all that bad. He'll be much better for the run.

Cant believe nobody has thought of that yet, its almost too perfect.

Because he makes mistakes that you wouldn't want to see in D Grade suburban football. Dropping simple chest marks under no pressure, missing basic spoils that lead to opposition goals, and panicking when he has the ball under pressure. The fact that he's a key position player is irrelevant. Every player makes mistakes, but they make it up for it with quality moments. I've yet to see that from O Mac.

I honestly can't understand why Omac cops so much crap on these forums? Does he make mistakes? Yes, but he's a key position player with only 18 games under his belt, mistakes are going to happen. If you look at Supercoach points, he was actually our highest ranked back 6 player. I agree that sometimes his mistakes are frustrating, but no more than Tmac, Vince or Petraaca.

Don't know what you were watching re: Jetta. He was a rock yesterday.

In Jason Taylor & Todd Viney we trust. Not a bad debut for Hannan. Mitch Hannan. 16 disposals, 7 marks, 4 tackles and 2 goals playing half forward. Only one game but I reckon we've found a player.

I almost spat out my chardonnay....

Still my favourite piece of play. One handed against a 3 time premiership player. Impressive

Stevie J raised his forearm immediately following a contest and collected an Adelaide player in the first qtr but this didn't even get assessed. There is zero continuity in the MRP's reasoning.

Agree that it's stupid, and agree that he needs to be taught a lesson (and what better a week than when we have carlton???). But Geez the MRP has no idea, if they were consistent i wouldn't have a problem, but if consistency was tattooed on their foreheads they still wouldn't have any idea.

Real time.

I have it on good authority that demonland is read at each selection committee meeting

I'm not going to pretend - I'm going accept we did walk all over them after the first quarter. We were playing at Etihad which has not been kind to us. We were playing a team that has had the wood on us. We were playing a team that before round one were rated higher than us. After quarter time we won ever stat that mattered and controlled the contest. We slammed the contest shut with our 2nd and 3rd quarters. Yup - we played well and pretty much walked over them. (way too much woulda coulda shoulda in your post - they didn't kick a couple of shots so they weren't close and the last quarter wasn't a contest - they never looked like it)

I can now attend a game and feel we are a 50/50 chance every week. I have not had that feeling for a very long time.

If we come out strong and beat Carlton as we should, I will take that as a sign of character improvement in the playing group. We have to take our chances at every opportunity. We can't be taken seriously if we slip this up again.

Wow, third year tall KP player not preferred over 8th year elite defender. Big call. Or were you talking about Michael in which case I think a few would.

This week's win was more important than last year's Round 1 against GWS. GWS was coming in onto a ground they rarely play at. We were coming off an undefeated pre-season and were relatively fit and injury free. This year we played a team we haven't beaten in 10 years on a ground we've won on once in the same period of time. We had one less on the bench for more than half the game, and came back from almost 5 goals down to utterly dominate a team that arguably players Etihad better than anyone. We certainly shouldn't get ahead of ourselves because we *do* have some tough losses ahead, but we should most definitely go into Carlton extremely confident. That doesn't mean we're taking the Blues for granted. We should just go in confident that we're better than them, and therefore should beat them.

While I understand the concern we showed two things against the saints that I haven't seen in years maturity and leadership, in the past we would have lost that game by 5 goals but Jones, Vince, Lewis, gawn, McDonald and Oliver stood up when the heat was on and Jesse hogan is just reaching the level of scary good very quickly

I would have to agree. And when we win the Premiership this year by a record margin, I'd like to think I will take a measured view of 2018, 2019 and 2020 which will surely represent a four-peat. So no, all good here.

Agreed. I look forward to the day when DL drops the need for a 'whipping boy', especially of kids in their first few years. While some posters enjoy potting players it gets tedious. And I can hear those posters say 'don't read it'. Its hard to avoid a sniping comment when it is slipped into the middle of an otherwise interesting post about the games.

Easy there, DemonAndrew, you risk letting sense and reality get in the way of a good old Demonland whipping boy frenzy.

It's a bit like giving a kid a new bike and saying, "Don't you go riding that." Of course we're going to ride the bike, and yes, we'll probably fall off a few times but we'll keep getting back on, because that's what human beings do. I am on the freakin' bike and pedaling for all I'm worth. I can't see a stop light or a corner in the immediate distance so I'm gonna keep on pedaling. GO DEES!

Asked and answered. TMac was roundly lambasted his first 50 games. So was Gawn in his first few. Glass half empty supporters saw both guys' mistakes only, and missed the positives. Glass half full supporters saw TMac take on the game, his pace and awesome spoiling 1 on 1. With Gawn his desperation, contested marking and surprisingly good work below his knees. Go forward a few years, and they're awesome players. Still with the same strengths and weaknesses. Doesn't stop the nay sayers whining about TMac of course. Just ignore them. Everyone else does.

Nonsense. Have a look at the replay...

They were horrible because we made them look horrible. Don't forget that. It was the same in the first quarter for about 10-15 minutes when their pressure and foot skills made us look 3 steps behind them.

Perhaps we should call him Clarence Olivier, as he is a class above most others at his craft (only old farts will get this!)

Was speaking to two fellow passionate, lifetime Melbourne supporters last night. We all agreed that we should keep the lid on so we are talking finals but not premierships yet

When did we last kick 10 straight on someone else's home ground? i am enjoying the moment. There will be more. Thanks PJ and Roosy

Thought this would be a thread about picking Oliver. I love that they've been able to find gems late in the draft like Hunt, Hannan etc, but it's nailing those early picks that the previous bunch muffed that will project us towards the top 4. It looks so far that all of Oliver, Brayshaw, Petracca and Salem will at least be very good, with Oliver almost certainly going to be in the top echelon if not already. There's always misses in the top 20 but we seem to have gone from one extreme to the other. It's just such a relief knowing our key picks are in such good hands.

Frost for Oscar when fit.