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Where to begin with this one? Deflating. Frustrating. Vomit inducing. That's a really, really tough loss to take. One of the toughest we've had in years I think. In the past we may have commended the effort, but we know our list and our side IS better than this. We got on top in the second and then got ahead of ourselves. They got on top through the midfield and we couldn't stop the rot, which isn't good enough. I won't blame anyone for going right over the top on this board over the next 24 hours. This is a game we should never have lost and I was right to feel nervous about it going in. But, in the end, we also need to look at the positives (as everyone covered the negatives). Oliver - another 27 touches, 14 contested possessions, 10 clearances and 8 tackles. The kid is a freak. Jeff Garlett is playing his best footy for the club at the moment, while some of the kids like ANB and Harmes also put in good stints. Spencer was good in the ruck and got forward to jag a few goals which were terrific, while Watts again stood up to be counted. Without Hogan we still had 29 shots on goal which shows that whatever we are doing forward of the ball is working. That is something to be pleased about. The problem for us today was what happened in the midfield. Outside of Oliver and, to a lesser extent, Tyson, we allowed their mids to dominate AND hit the scoreboard. Mundy, Neale and Fyfe combined for half of their goals (8) and we simply cannot allow that to happen. We allowed McCarthy too much space as well and we paid dearly for it. You would have thought the days of letting teams kick 8 unanswered goals were behind us. The one thing I want the players to take out of today is for this to REALLY hurt. To cut them deep and to make a commitment to the club to make sure this doesn't happen again. I want them to come out next week against the Tigers and make a statement, and that statement is that this weekend was an aberration. We've got an opportunity to put it right and there are still 19 rounds of footy left, so we have time to make amends. Let's just hope we can do it. Happy wrist slashing everyone.

No leadership. Again. Senior players gave us nothing today except Watts who was pretty exceptional. It's a real shame when with 3 minutes to go, game in the balance, you have Hannan and Salem and Oliver in the square.

I'm as gutted as anyone, but just to keep some perspective, we have played some very good footy this year, with some very good players out of the side. We lost this game in one quarter today, we threw the win away last week against a top 4 side. Doesn't excuse it, but just a reminder that it is an even comp and we are right in the mix if we can keep it all together and get that consistency.

[censored] off idiot

Out: Weiderman

We did it once Steve - big time. I'll never forget that game.

What the hell is this ?

What do you do when a side gets a run on, you change what is happening. you go man on man, you lift tackling and pressure on the ball carrier, you have extra defenders, you make it a scrap, you hassle your opponent, you hurt the opposition in the tackle etc. .What did we do, answer, we watched it happen. Poor coaching, poor leadership, dumb football.

Hannan wasn't half as bad as Weideman, Vince or Melksham. What role is Melksham even playing right now? He's not providing run like Hunt does, he doesn't kick anywhere near as well as Salem, he's not strong, he doesn't defend like Jetta does. What is he?

You blokes make me laugh The last few years after being 22 points down at 3/4 time would have seen us blasted off the turf and endured a 50 pt loss. Yes we played a really bad quarter and hit the front again in the last 1/4 At least we fought back and nearly pinched it We are young but every game we improve and learn As for all the super coaches out there........Give me a break......

Poor decision to stop Smith and keep the Weeds in. He not only missed a sitter 15m out but he also did the turn over to give Freo there winning goal. We need to stop gifting games to under performing players. Even Trenners sitting in the goal square would've been more effective.

Yeah, what could possibly go wrong?

Feeling similar to pre-Carlscum game. Never seen a Dees victory over Freo live. Confident yet uncertain. Its going to be a long 6 hours. Shouldnt be an enormous crowd so going to drive and park at the G. How civilised. Cmon boys. It'll be a tussle in the first half, dees to break it open in the 3rd q and run away 6 goal winners. Who am I kidding, pure speculation, who bloody knows what's gonna happen?!

I'm starting to feel like Saty flying the flag for players, but bloody hell, there is some shite floating around tonight.

Gees I hope the club asks why Watts didn't get a 50 when Johnson dragged him down at the end of the 3rd after he took that mark. Was clearly a 50 and even Johnson knew it. Would have gifted us a goal, and, well, the rest is history.

Ex United Airlines security people, I believe.

The rage I'm feeling at this loss is a different kind of rage. We should be 4-0. In an even competition, where there aren't any obvious basket case teams, we need to be winning games where we are on top for longer than our opponents but, for the second week in a row, we failed to capitalise on the times we had the momentum whilst Fremantle got on top for one quarter and kicked 7 goals to 0. Did Fremantle even go inside their 50 in the first 10 minutes of the fourth? Yet we only kicked two goals. Clearly Hogan and Lewis would have helped but we clearly could, and should IMO, have won without them. Vince played a disgraceful game. It wasn't just the missed chip with two minutes left when trying to ice the clock to a player who didn't know it was coming to him (bad), nor was it the long bomb without lowering his eyes with 60 seconds left (also bad). It was the whole game. A whole game of turnovers, long bombs to Fremantle, being out-positioned, lazy in zoning/defending and lacking in leadership. I was really, really appalled with him today. Viney has had a terrible first month. Not sure if it's the captaincy or not, but whatever it is, we're playing one short in the midfield at the moment given what he is capable of and not producing. With Vince and Viney down, and with Lewis and Gawn out of the side, we lacked leadership again today and Jones was off (rolled his ankle I think). There was just no one to stand up and stop the flood in the third quarter, nor were there smarter heads out there to work out what to do with the ball with 2 minutes to go in the last. Thought Harmes and ANB did a lot right but both have disposal issues (Harmes' miss at the start of the third was quite pivotal, as it turned out). Hannan started well but faded. Garlett was great, as was Watts. Frost a huge improvement on OMac but he was rusty. This is 2014 or 2015 talk. We can't afford to be carrying players who need to "put some weight on" and we can't be dismissing poor performances based on the fact that it's a player's "second year". He's simply not impacting the game enough. He brings the ball to ground but he runs out of puff too early (today might have been an injury but it's no different when he's fully fit), he's not strong enough, he doesn't follow up when the ball comes to ground, and he doesn't get enough of the ball as a result. Hogan comes back next week and unless we want to add another tall, he should be dropped for Hogan. And even if we want another tall, I'd still drop him (whether that means Pedersen or Smith, I don't care).

Well, I hope Hogan, Lewis and Gawn's hamstring are happy.

Well I'm ready for anything. Just inhaled double bacon and eggs over pancakes and washed it down with a bucket size cappuchino. I'll have elevenses at Scumbury before joining the plebs on pubic transport. Feeling confident today.

Sorry but when we haven't made finals for 11 years i think most on here have every right to get really impatient and [censored] off when we just throw away games like today.

Kudos to Jake Spencer! He more than did his job today. Was competitive. Took important marks. Kicked 2 goals. One of our most consistent and best today. No Max was not the reason we lost. Loved the way the players got around Jake when he kicked his goal. That game would be a real confidence boost for him. If he does no more than today he will be an asset for us.

In 2014-2015? I would agree. But not now. We've got a far better list and we are pushing for finals - finals sides don't carry blokes like we are right now. Weideman will be alright in time, but right now he is a liability. He can't impact games in any way and we can't have that in a key forward at the moment.

Do we? Remember the Saints game last year. Lost in the last 10 seconds. Players didn't go back behind the ball. Hit the front today, 3 minutes to play, did you notice our structure? We haven't learned, not one bit. Poor leadership from the box and on field, dumb footballers, dumb leaders, dumb Coaches.. Secondly, we pick poorly skilled players who panic and turn it over. We haven't learned at all.

Hogan and Lewis would've been so bloody handy these last two weeks! I hope they realise that. Hogan is just so critical, one for the obvious reason of a target up forward, but also for those bailout kicks up the line. Some onfield leadership (Lewis) could've been the difference both weeks. I consider both those blokes highly culpable for our losses. Pretty keen to see Hibberd in the side. Eager to hear how he goes on Monday!

Viney is a bigger worry for me. What the hell has happened to him?

I am concerned about Simon goodwins coaching.

Cant beat a rebuilding Freo at the MCG.. forget finals, its not happening.

What a load of bullish!t. I hope the mods delete this pathetic effort of a thread. Blaming Bernie over one effort for today's loss is narrow-minded.

Not while Melksham is getting a game.

I have to say, Frost is a massive improvement over OMac.

We won last year.

No, he wouldn't. I love this place after a loss. It just gets more and more ridiculous. Here, I can do it too: Cale Morton is stiff....... He would offer more than Dean Kent.

I rarely read this thread but it was a gutting game and I wanted to get peoples take. Let's be clear. We didn't lose because one player made one mistake, we lost for macro reasons. Freo are much better than people have given them credit for, they've got back a wonderful ruckman and one of the game very elite players. Those players feed another strength which is their outside run and this is where we lost today. They ran harder and spread harder than us and could easily go from one end of the ground to the other. We couldn't. For those kicking Vince I'd guess most of you weren't at the ground. For almost all the game Freo had us covered both down the line and stopped us switching. Yes Bernie made some mistakes but it seems that people always want to pick on the mistake in a 25 disposal game and not balance that with the good he did. All day we had few if any easy options coming out of the backline and the final quarter was no different. Weed missed a simple goal but so did a number of others when there was much less pressure. He's not ready and I'm yet to see him play an AFL quality game other than his first which may have passed. He was very ordinary in the JLT and hasn't fired a shot in three games. But I doubt Smith would have done better particularly when you look at the way the ball was delivered. And of course there is the pretty obvious reason that while 22 were toiling away on the field two of our best players, one irreplaceable, were sitting in the stands watching. Lewis you can almost cover but we are awful up forward without Hogan particularly when Watts relieves in the ruck. We also desperately missed Hogan coming out of defence as a lead up target and to be honest I didn't realize how much until today. These two have cost the club big time, by the end of the season it may well be a finals spot. How they can look their teammates in the face I don't know. But forget the micro incidents, we lost for macro reasons. What is evident is we lack a player able to turn the game and if we've half a brain we should be chasing Fyfe or Martin (or both) with every effort we can muster.

Using Watts in the ruck is like using your Rolls Royce to take your rubbish to the dump on the back seat when you have a perfectly good ute sitting in the carport, you just shouldn't do it, particularly when you have practically no other key forwards on the park.

So disappointed. It's the little things that always stick in my mind. -The bounce of the ball from Kent's handpass to Watts in the goal square. 9/10 times the ball won't do that. -The bounce of the ball that led to fremantles last goal. Perfectly weighted bounce for McCarthy to run onto. 9/10 times that ball dribble through for a point. Then he gets onto the kick by millimetres. These little things sum up what it's like to be a melbourne supporter. obviously there were other moments that were in our control that cost us.

That was pathetic. There's any number of things wrong with today's effort but the fact that we'd dragged ourselves in front only to let it go - that kills me. All they had to do was not be [censored] for 120 seconds and they weren't capable of that.

100% agree. Even if you just flood back and stop the momentum, it's inexcusable to give up 8 goals in a row to any team ever.

Vince's rushed, wobbly torp into the forward 50 with less than a min to go shows he can be a dumb footballer at critical times. Made no attempt to lower his eyes and spot up a teammate. Would've sealed the game. Dumb football by a seasoned veteran.

That back 6 looks a lot better if you replace Melksham and Vince, with Hibberd and Lewis. I like Vince and he played some great footy in the guts, but we have younger options there now. He is in a bit of limbo at the moment.

Oh [censored] off. [censored].

Weideman has to be dropped off the back of 2 poor weeks in a row. Needs to spend the rest of the year at Casey unless he's absolutely banging the door down Bernie Vince needs to have a good look at himself too. Too many rubbish efforts, trying to be too cute and just bombing away without looking.

Can't win when we play football for two quarters and circular handball practice for the other two.

Is it unrealistic of my to look forward to the day when I can witness Melbourne playing the perfect game, overrunning the opposition from the start and finishing with a big victory of 10 goals plus? I really would like to see a ripping start where we pile on the goals early and not what we've seen in the three games so far this season. Round 1 - Saints lead by 24 points after Riewoldt goals at about 5 minutes into the second quarter. Round 2 - we dominate the first quarter and a half against Carlton but fail to translate that dominance on the scoreboard allowing the Blues to reel us in and lead at one stage of the third quarter by 9 points. Round 3 - a poor start concedes the first three goals to the Cats and we trail by 16 points at the first break. We catch up and overtake them with a 31 point turnaround kicking 10.13 to seven straight by the 30 minute mark of the third quarter, then relax to give them back the momentum with 2 goals in the final minute of the term and capitulate in the last. We lose what should have been an unlosable game if only we were better in front of goals. The loss of Max didn't help. Time for a ripping start and time to blow an opponent out of the water in front of a hostile crowd.

Dees by 65. Beating a dogs side that doesn't take them seriously is one thing. Beating the dees on the mcg when we are hungry and desperate to prove we are a one man team is something else entirely i expect us to be far to clean, intense and well drilled over four quarters and to convert much better from a similar amoung of shots on goal. Dom Tyson to bounce back and be BOG with 30 plus touches and a couple of goals

Cost us the game with him trying to be too cute when the obvious was to go down the line. Tried to bomb it away at all cost and just turned it over far too often. Has been servant but enjoy retirement next year.

100 metre penalty for a gift that he misses on a dry clear day. Sorry but unforgivable.

SEN apparently saying Walters is out

I think the last quarter fadeout against Geelong was mainly mental in that we weren't rewarded for effort in quarters 2 and 3. When you're not getting those rewards for effort a group can drop away. They may have been getting tired, but that was compounded by not hitting the scoreboard.

It's all well and good to froth over Sydney, but they've had ridiculous access to talent with their northern academy. Heeney and Mills would both be Demons if they weren't tied to those zones as we nominated both players in each draft. Personally, I hold very little admiration for them. As we all know, the AFL can't afford them to slip down the table for too long, so they're granted every wish. This doesn't guarantee success (as we've seen with GCS), but it does give them a bloody good head start on the rest of the competition.

No different to Brayshaw.