Leaderboard

I am shattered. I am not yet ready to look at any positives. I simply want to use lots of swear words. This is a season wasted.

I saw Clayton Oliver enjoying a coffee and a croissant earlier today. How dare he. I expected to see him eating weeds from his front lawn instead after yesterday.

I'm not worried at all. Not even a little bit. I was shattered after the second Roos loss cos that was the proof we're on a hiding to nothing this year. I would have preferred to get a final into the kids, but that's negligible. The big picture here is the core list. We need a KP defender in the off season, and we're getting one. Or at least doing everything we can to get one. Aside from that, the core is well and truly there. Our only pressing concerns in coming years will be replacing Vince, Jones and Jordie who will all age out. Aside from that we can only improve. It'll fall on deaf ears, but we can't possibly go backwards next year. We were smashed by injury all year. And we were never going to win one in 2017 anyway, so this sad time on demonland would have come at some point in the next few weeks anyway. All's well folks. We/re looking good.

Thank goodness for this forum. I don't feel so alone in my bloody disappointment

This hurts. More than any other year of watching other teams in the finals this hurts. I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to watch any of it. The idea that Essendrug are in there, West Coast who are the biggest flat track bullies, that had we actually beaten the bottom team properly when we were 32pts up, that had we actually done the job when everything was on the line this week, we could/should be in there instead. We've improved, but we're still a laughing stock.

The joke is we were 32 points ahead of the Lions late in the game and like the Saints game, frittered away a good lead and had we not, we would be ahead of the Bombers on percentage. We have absolutely stopped in the last couple of games like last year and shot ourselves in the foot. Then we don't show up, in a do or die game against another weakened team. Mentally weak.

I look at it differently. We are better than last year, we're an exciting team to watch when our game is on (which is more often than not) and we might play finals for the first time in the life of some of the miserable, over the top posters on this thread. Despite yesterday, our club is on the way up. Maybe a key back and an A grade outside mid away from being a chance. Max and Viney did not look to be in party mode, but I'd say they are entitled to smile every now and then.

My rage is more inflamed this morning especially about that first quarter. How dare they dish out such a pathetic, insipid effort given what was at stake. There should be some burning ears and sore backsides today. I can't remember demonland and supporters in general being this angry since the days of Neeld. Maybe this will be the lightbulb moment that brings about change.

The strange 2017 season for the Demons ended appropriately, in other words, almost there but not quite, reason being, we stuffed up when we didn't need to. No use now dwelling on what might have been, time to look towards 2018. What do we need? A back up ruckman who is reliable and can get a kick and take a mark. A backline that doesn't have as many holes as a rusty plastic sieve. To find a player or two who can and will deliver more than the sporadic contributions players like Harmes, Stretch, Hannan, Wagner, Vince and Tyson consistently deliver. A big, big improvement in our turnover ratio. An appetite to get the job done from the opening bounce, to stop relying on catch up footy. That's my 2 bob's worth. So near, yet so far. Rue the day, lads, that you allowed North to beat you twice, Freemantle once too often and Hawthorn when they were seriously down and out. So as you reap so shall you sew.

God help the first player who posts something on social media of them out and about having fun this September.

West Coast played today, like we should have played yesterday. They were prepared to go the extra yard, and we on the other hand ....................... oh forget it. Everyone knows what I mean.

This is a classic example of going out of one's way to find stuff to be upset about it. The "they were happy in the rooms" carp was another. It was hilarious in that thread how, when the whole thing proved to be fiction, the message went to "well I'm outraged that they WERE filthy in the rooms". Can't we just sook about the result without resorting to making up garbage? I will never understand the psyche of people who want to seek out an insult at every turn. It's not personal, people. The players and club aren't doing this to upset you. They just played like poo.

This has been a very difficult year for many of our players. We had a first-year coach who did a lot right but failed on several key occasions. Others will talk about the players, so I want to talk about Goodwin. I never talked about Neeld because his flaws were many and obvious. Goodwin has only a few things wrong with the way he does things. I'm going to name 2 in particular. The way he treated the Bugg social media stuff The self-professed approach of not talking about finals in the lead up to the game that would decide whether we were in or not. On the first point, I don't have much issue with his response; that we want to be respectful and professional. My problem is that he distanced himself from his players by saying "That's foreign to me." If it's foreign, fine; but as a senior coach its Goodwin's job to understand his players and what interests them. That's the only way to motivate people — by understanding what gets them going. By chastising our players after one of our best performances of the year against the Bulldogs while simultaneously saying he didn't understand social media, Goodwin undermined his credibility and badly damaged our players' confidence. On that note, Tomas Bugg is a very important player to the fabric of our football club. I hope he is given the credit he deserves for our strongest month of footy this year. On the lack of talk about finals, I think this was a terrible mistake to make with a team so young. Almost every player on our list has never played in a final before; we had to talk about it because they were all thinking about it. That we didn't talk about it meant that they all had to work it out for themselves what they were feeling and how they would approach Round 23. It wasn't until our match against Collingwood was almost over that we seemed to finally get on the same page and approach the game in a unified way. Failure to communicate is just not acceptable as a senior coach.

Where is the Max Gawn that gave away Gawn in 60 seconds and stated he wanted to be the best ruckman in the game? Looks like he ticked that box, re-joined the media comedy circuit and is comfortable to be seen as once All Australian.

Please dont give me that crap.The dees had their strongest side in for week Pies were missing 8 or 9 of their best 22 they included 2 first gamers If they ran out of gas they arent fit enough. We lost the game in then first 11 minutes Youth or tiredness was not a factor mental weakness was the main problem once again s

Thing is 7th and 8th WILL be filled by teams that have 12 wins. It will be % I was of similar thinking....you would need 13 wins. We needed 13 in all probability . We might sneak in on 12. Both will only be making up the numbers. So much discussion about making /not making finals when the truth of the matter was our first finals like test was today...and we lost. I seriously doubt we have sufficient of the right stuff to go much further this year. Goodwin failed dismally today imho. He had one job. Prepare a team to play to win. I saw no such thing in Red and Blue today. The required intensity only showed itself around the 12 min mark of the final qtr. A switch flicked on, we lifted, we played good footy and then Collingwood flicked it back off. Not good enough, not yet. Cant play in the wind, cant lift to the occasion. Major shortcomings. I think the publicity announcing our arrival has been a little premature. Today, so Melbourne. The weekend waiting on others , so Melbourne. We're doing a lot right, still doing a. lot wrong. Today was an epic fail all round.

Two things stand out for me. 1) We had a chance to beat our traditional rival to make finals for the first time in 11 years. 2) Essendon are playing finals

Melbourne the only club that can fark you twice in one weekend Way to go spuds.

Failed Season. Kick 3 pts more and allow 1 less goal we play finals. that simple. 3 tackles in the first 20 mins and 7 marks in Coll's fwd 50 in the first qtr broke our season. The players that represented the team yesterday have failed the club, themselves and the supporters. We need to get rid of players that continually fail to stand up when counted. I barrack for the club. Not the players. Fork em. The players will come and go but I will always barrack for our club.

I will be dissappointed if the boys celebrate Mad Monday! They should be having an honesty session and a swim in the yarra tomorrow...

Most disappointing thing is now I have to wait another year to see us turn up to a final with 50% intensity, get flogged and have everyone to say 'oh but it was their first final so they were overawed'. Was hoping to get that particular excuse out of the way this season. Oh well, those at the MFC get to keep that excuse up their sleeve for another year which will suit them quite nicely.

Fk off Melbourne you bunch of hopeless c#nts

Not entirely sure that Weeds would be into that.

As @Clint Bizkitwould say, classic Demonland. In the same page of a thread, we have the players being panned for being upbeat in the room, and the players being panned for looking dejected and shattered in the rooms. Well done everyone, give yourself a round of applause, followed by an uppercut.

I just finished watching Goodwin at his press conference. He consistently said we didn't talk about what was at stake, and yet the players came out nervous and didn't hit a tackle for 11 minutes to start the game. Most human beings can't just block things out; we need to talk about things. I wonder if the Goodwin-led unwillingness to talk about finals meant that the players couldn't get that out of their systems midweek and came in with baggage that stopped them playing hard aggressive footy. It wasn't until the game was almost gone that we seemed to put that stuff to bed and just play.

Post Mortem: How about we do a bit a 'compliment sandwich'... Amazing wins against Crows, Bombers, WBs, and WCE all away from home. Unforgivable losses against Freo, Haw, and NM (x2) Goodwins exciting gameplan Goodwins baffling blunders in windy conditions (NM and GWS) Aggression all year at the ball and man Suspensions to key players that cost us wins (and percentage? Ooooh, too soon?) The greatness of Oliver, Jetta, and Hibberd The development of ANB and Oscar McD The patchiness of Tyson, Harmes, Pedersen, Hannan, Petracca, Melksham, Lewis, Bugg, Garlett, Tom McD, and Hunt The stalling of Salem, Watts, Gawn, Brayshaw, Stretch, Kent, Frost, Weideman and JKH The decline of Vince The injuries to Garland, VDB, Jones, Hogan, Viney The existence on the list of Wagner, White, Kennedy, Spencer, King, Hulett These are the things that come to mind to explain why we have failed once again; failed when we shouldn't have.

I hope they feel foolish. They blew it. Completely blew it. There is no excusing that first quarter effort yesterday.

September is just around the corner. After 11 years, we’re knocking on the door of finals with the chance to be a part of something special. For everyone in the Melbourne family – from the players, the coaches and the officials – we are excited to share this journey with you, our loyal fans and club members. This is as much your moment as it is ours. Months of hard work have brought us to this point and we now need your support more than ever. - Co-captains, Nathan Jones & Jack Viney As a Melbourne member, you have exclusive access to buy tickets before the general public. This priority period for week 1 matches will be from 9am-1pm Tuesday August 29 (venue local time). For weeks 2 & 3, the priority period will be from 9am-1pm the Monday before each Melbourne match. Match details for each week will be announced at the completion of the previous week's games. All up-to-date finals ticketing information and links to buy tickets for all matches will be available at afl.com.au/finals. Tickets from $35* *Subject to availability. Tickets from $35 at the gate. Online ticket purchases will attract additional ticket agent transaction fees. For weeks 1 and 2 of Toyota AFL Finals Series only. Conditions apply, seeafl.com.au for details. Git this email last Wednesday. Just wrote back to the club saying I dont need to worry about this info and hope the players are happy they let the club and themselves down again.

The club should ban mad Monday, any player caught drinking out tomorrow shall rot at Casey for the first 6 weeks of the season. They can drink at home all they want but going out in public after this weekends debacle would just be spitting in our faces.

Ade 11 points behind where we need them to be so only a couple of goals in it...

As i said earlier, don't give up the 32 point lead on the bottom team last week on the bloody G and we would be ahead of Bombers playing Port next week. Have a good holiday MFC, I will be waiting for Saty's training reports on how we are training the house down. I am nearly as angry as 87 and the Prelim loss. As JNRMC said a waste of a year.

I can't even muster the energy to be angry, I'm just in a state of shock right now. As an MFC supporter, this was the most predictable series of events imaginable. What in the hell have we done to deserve this torture? I don't know how much more I can actually take. Supporting this club is incredibly damaging to my mental health.

Have to give credit to eagles. Have come to play knowing exactly what's on the line. Unlike dees who choked

Predictable hellish torture watching this.

Almost every team gets overawed in its first final. Do you want that to be this year or next year?

It's alright mate. Believe me, I may be blue sky and in control of my mood, but that effong hurt yesterday. You couldn't be a Melbourne supporter and not have felt kicked in the guts. Don't despair though and definitely don't barrack for West Coast. The boys have a much better chance of redeeming themselves in our eyes if we actually make the finals, even if it is by default. I don't want this shitty feeling to be what I remember for the whole pre-season. Carn the Crows!!

blow the siren!

watching essendon find a way & now watching tigers throwing everything at the saints to sow up a top 4 spot makes me so god dam depressed. melbourne players should be absolutely ashamed of themselves

Essendon's final percentage 106.5, it we had put the Lions to the sword last week we wouldn't be in this incredibly stupid situation. I'm taking the pessimists approach, I think we're finishing 9th. But prove me wrong Adelaide!

Mate, we choked with our best team on the park and everything to play for. I'm failing to see any positives from yesterday's debacle.

I will accept the hollow feeling gratefully.

Personally I hope their off season is Shyte! The bunch of dribbling wannabes keep serving up poo to the membership. They can all faaaaark offf

Not sure if any one watched league teams on Thursday night, but Ben Dixon predicted this would happen and was the only one who tipped the pies. He showed vision of how leaky our defence was against the Lions and said the Pies ball movement will cut through us and our defence will just resemble "Swiss cheese". Typically, some of the vision was of Max Gawn and how slow he was getting to man up their big men drifting forward.

All in all its a good lesson of sorts. You cant take all of this too seriously. They dont !! Lifes short,theres more than footy... there's wine. Melbourne does that to you. Enjoy

The best thing if we make finals is we are never going to go into a game as favourite. Thus we have a chance

Unbelievable....

Aside from Essendon who hasn't won a final for 13 years, those clubs have all fallen down, come back, rebuilt and made finals in the 10 years since we last played finals. We've been trying to break this funk since the last time all of those teams were last winning finals. It's one to be middle of the road, and you have to expect poor losses. But we lost to Freo and Hawthorn after being outright favourites. We lost to North. Twice. We barely got over Brisbane. Port may struggle against top 8 sides but they've absolutely smashed some teams this year. We may very well play finals this year but we're still a team of losers and pushovers. The performance today is a mirroring of the end to the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Only Melbourne could win two more games than the season before and put in a leas enjoyable yeah. I've felt genuinely angry like 5 times this year. It's tiring. Today was the kind of game loser clubs lose. We're the new Richmond. It made me cringe when I heard they were upbeat in the rooms. You just got pansied by a team with nothing to play with and you're upbeat? Get [censored]!

We turned what should have been a 14-16 win season to a measly 12 due to consistent losses to bottom of the ladder sides. Failure to build percentage by easing off when we win may cost us big time. If we don't shed this [censored] attitude we may also never make finals with this lot.

I disagree with this. Culture is a whole of club thing. Admittedly, we play a much smaller part than the players and coaches, but we play our part. Supporters talk to players all the time, players don't live in a bubble. I don't see how players wouldn't be effected by things they constantly hear, even if they claim they aren't. They are humans just like us. I remember the after game functions of yesteryear, I remember seeing people fawning over a young Col Sylvia, pumping up his tyres, telling him what a superstar he was destined to become. We are the backslappingest supporters going around after a good win, everyone's a star and the premiership is ours for the taking. A week later we're slashing wrists and wanting to trade half the list out. The arrogance of Melbourne fans is what truly baffles me though. All the talk about wanting Richmond in an Elim because we're a much better side and will smash them. How in hell do you come to that conclusion? Historically we are the biggest rabble of the last 50 years, My entire lifetime of following the "demons"has been one of repeated abject failure, some periods have been a bit less failure ridden but make no mistake it's all ended in misery. Recently we lost to North and scraped in against Brisbane, we are playing bog ordinary footy atm and have been ever since the Sydney game. except for a quarter here and a 10 minute burst there. Sadly that was the week after I first allowed myself to believe we'd make finals, lesson learnt again. Never have faith in Melbourne, never ever The "relax we've got this" attitude is clearly one the players buy into, but still every time we play a team below us some smartarz insists on posting it and more often than not the team proves they were thinking the exact same thing. That phrase should carry a ban from this site, lifetime would be my preference but I'd settle for 2 weeks. While I'm on this rant the constant harking back to The Northey days or even Daniher or Balme years is really really sad. We were soft during all this periods and never won anything that mattered, I'm guessing here but in all those years I bet we had a period of stinking it up, 3 consecutive losses at least and most likely drubbings has been a standard feature of every season I've seen. We should be done for misleading branding, we're not and in my lifetime have never been demons, perhaps marshmallows would be more accurate.

We are almost there, we have the best CEO (Peter jackson) in the league, he will not let this continue, we will again turn players over in the off season, our VFL side is humming along, we are not far off being a power house in the AFL,