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Danger won't play. Spoke to snr Geelong person today. Said they would be mad to play him if there was the smallest chance he does it badly and misses 6.

Malthouse is 100%. Whether it's Petracca DJ'ing Skwosh parties and making coffees at spring carnival marquees, Harmes running around asking the Saints what they were doing in September, or Hogan looking questionable at dance festivals, you won't find a team as happy with their own work as Melbourne. It is why Goodwin talks ad nauseum about a humble and hard working playing group, and why they had to get rid of Watts. Could have made the finals in '16, should have made the finals in '17. Time for a lot of players to stop drinking their own bath water.

Had trouble getting s signal today, so had to wait till I got home. Casey 12 15 87 to Box Hill 4 8 32 Melbourne listed players participating were :- Frost - Solid in defence and in the air. Would love to see him in our best 22, but cannot see whose place he would take. Provides really good run and carry from defence. Jetta - Solid as usual, as we would expect. Provides plenty of attacking opportunities and blankets his opposition. Harmes - Played really well. Took some great marks and kicked at least one goal. Provided plenty of run. Tyson - Played a really good link up role and set up several attacking opportunities. Ready for round one. Tim Smith - Improved as the game went on and was more involved in the game than last week. Starting to find some form. Still a way off though. Garlett - Limited opportunities, but will be better for the run. Even spent some time in the midfield with Jetta. Kent - Played well, but missed out on kicking multiple goals. Using his body well in contests and starting to see his speed. Joel Smith - Did some good things in defence, but didn't see a great deal of him. Looking forward to him getting some more game time and recapturing the early season form he showed last year. Weideman - Kicked 2 goals and took some good marks. Had quite a bit of game time on the ball and I was impressed with his tap work. Competed well. Number 68 (for Whispering Jack) was Kieran Byers - a 203 com 20 or 21 years of age. I saw a team sheet that someone had and had to look him up. Really impressed me with his ruck work and follow up and uses his body quite well for one so young. One to watch I would have thought. None of our young players played today - Spargo, Balic, Petty. King, Filopovic, Keilty (injured ribs), JKH, Baker or Johnstone. Casey Demons dominated the game today in hot conditions.

Shite conditions Shite kicking Shite umpiring Shite result. Ultimately though - no one to blame but ourselves.

waited til his teammates were doing rehab, would go through their wallets tried to crack onto his teammates girlfriends, told them the teammate said it was okay told people he had cancer so they'd buy his anti cancer recipes cookbook ran a horse race betting syndicate which was actually a ponzi scheme stole millions in crypto currency after he hacked a japanese exchange fought for ISIS developed a new nerve agent poison for Putin he had to go

Try @theheraldsun: http://bit.ly/2pkIHxf

I recently dug up this photo of the players having a celebratory beer after the 1957 Grand Final.

OH FFS , ENOUGH ALREADY!!! BOUNCE THE FREAKIN BALL

Jeez I'm looking forward to when the opinions dry up and the football starts.

170 plus games played. Over 700 games coached. Premiership player. Premiership coach 3 times. All Australian coach. Knows nix compared to Demonland’s finest.

It is a non-solution to a non-problem. Very AFL.

We're getting talked about a lot aren't we? Beats the hell out of being irrelevant & uncompetitive. We're a long way from being hated but that would be good too. Great in fact.

Meh, I reckon we lost as many games from fear of failure and not taking the game on as we did from overconfidence. Not to mention the fatigue factor with a lot of young players getting tired, some older guys slowing down and a lot of players returning from injuries. I hope we've built physical and mental resilience. That would be my focus, not some outdated concept of drinking your own bathwater.

A good hit out for the boys. I was surprised by the small attendance, saw probably more Box Hill supporters than Melbourne/Casey. The wind was a big factor today and turned it into a tough and scrambly contest. Casey proved too good at clearing away from these clinches and never looked like being beaten. They scored a lot of behinds though.. It would have been a hard day at the office for the forwards and none of them really shone. Harmes showed he is now well and truly a class above at this level and Tyson got his share of possessions but, gee, he is a turnover king. I would have loved a dollar for every turnover, would have paid my petrol back to Box Hill. Jetta and Frost were fantastic down back, Jeffy always thereabouts, Kent was bullocking and won a lot of the ball, Joel Smith was good, King was a good ruckman, though I'd like to see him take a few grabs, and Weidemann did his best work in the ruck. Tim Smith looks a long way off the pace. The egg and bacon roll was A1.

Quite right Soup - moderation is to be avoided at all costs.

Talk is cheap action needed.

The thing that has been carried over from mens to womens so well is the art of ducking into tackles. The rolling of shoulders to pull the contact high. Dropping to your knees when you know your going to get caught. I watched a bulldogs player fall on her arse and get paid a high contact free. Making an effort to dispose of the ball properly goes out the window if you can just drop to you knees. Worst result for the player is a ball up. It's a blight on our game. We get to watch the master next Sunday. Yep the umpiring was bad and we also blew it again.

I'll add another one. I rang the membership dept a week and a half ago to clarify whether I had purchased the additional "birthday club" pack for my kids so they would get a birthday card signed by their favourite. All confirmed and advised that the cards would get sent early in the week to ensure its received before my son's birthday which is tomorrow. Still hasnt arrived. It's not a big deal because he doesn't know about it but I thought I'd surprise him with it and it's just the fact they can't seem to get things right. I know it's a busy time of year etc and Australia Post is horrible these days but really if it was sent by Tuesday it should've come by Friday at the latest. I'm not gonna slam the club/membership dept as it's not that big a deal to me but it's just another example and if it happens to someone else who is not as rusted on it could be another dissatisfier that sees them decide to not renew.

Gil successfully predicted AFLX, updated club songs and scrapping the pre-game warm up, he could be on the money here as well.

He certainly has the touch doesn't he. Great article that you would not hear from almost any other player. Honesty and self reflection along with a heap of self mocking humour.

hard questions need to be asked about our team set-up and structure whilst we ostensibly have a very strong midfield, we regularly got smashed for contested ball all season our conversion was nothing short of appalling either aleisha newman kicked the goal of the season but the point she kicked from point blank range last night should haunt her all off season

Here's a replay of yesterday's Group 1 Coolmore Classic ...

Funnily enough, I see Brisbane in Round 2 as the bigger game. On our day, I know we can beat Geelong and we may or may not win Round 1, but the Brisbane game is the exact sort of game we would drop in the past. I did a thread a couple of years back with stats of games where we went in favourites and the numbers were undeniable.

If that happens we will lose to Brisbane the next week. Nothing surer.

No it’s not. I go for all Melbourne teams, except soccer because it sucks. Am very sick right now

Shattered. Had a dream last night that we actually won and had to reconcile such a gut wrenching loss again this morning. At least as MFC supporters we are well versed in such emotional battles. Agree with everything written so far re; umps, wind, our own worst enemies, poor defensive marking in that last play, etc so won’t re-hash. HOWEVER. One thing that made my blood boil last night was that scrunchy-wearing, J.Selwood wannabe, knee-dropping Carney for the dogs. And some of her mates. More than several important frees including a goal as a result of the old arm-lift/knee drop in the tackle that our girls could do nothing about whilst mid-tackle. Sure, the girls adjusted their tackling later in the game, but it is just so hard to alter whilst the frigging knee-buckling is happening. I even saw Daisy give a rare frustrated spray to Carney after one particularly cynical milking of a free. i nearly vomited when the female commentator (not sure who it was?) said “oh the dogs are just getting more frees because they’re going in harder and lower” when it was 14-3 frees or whatever it was. EXACTLY- drawing free kicks incessantly! At best, it’s not in the spirit of the game, at worst it’s CHEATING. J.Duckwood has a lot to answer for! GRRRRRRRRR ?

This club has always been 1 step forward and 2 steps back since 1965 Last year was a classic example of it

We are mentally weak as a team. Strong leadership led teams do not lose the games we do. We have gotten ahead of ourselves for years, I can’t remember the last time I went to a game when we were strong favourites and I felt comfortable.

K.....we might have to send a SWAT (Special We Attack Turf) team to Morphettville, and track him down.

So finally listened to the new version today. Are the people whinging serious? There's so little difference between the two recordings, it's barely even worth a mention.

Run into an open goal and miss from seven metres? There you have it.

We are really bad with the ball on the ground.

The game plan for all teams in the AFLW should be pretty simple, just get the ball forward, create pressure and opportunities. No point trying to be fancy with your skills because at this stage very few players are up to it. Also, Melbourne are terrible at getting the ball when it's on the ground, always half a second too late to react.

The good news is that it will soon be replaced by something horrific in the men's regular season.

I've watched all our games and I don't have any criticism for female umps.... but my God... male umps are atrocious!!!! Two goals from dubious free kicks in front of goal seals the deal! Free kick count was 11 to 3 in the first half, after that I knew who would win. I congratulate the Demon women for being able to score a couple into the wind. If we had received one dubious free in the forward 50 we would have won and we would be playing in the GF. It must be difficult for the players to accept

Very disappointing and in some ways not our night. Not our night with the umps, not our night with the bounce of the ball at times. Second half was excellent. First quarter had to be 2 or 3 up, burnt chances. But the problem with this side is the footy smarts are just below where they need to be due to so many athlete turn footballers. 2 soccer players, a life saver, a couple of netballers and a bunch of basketballers and they play an aggressive brand of footy but the Dogs had more players who do the things that make it easier for their team mates. So often the Melbourne girls go to certain spots on the ground and don't instinctively make space for each other which would then make it far easier to chip the ball down the field and use the space. Anyway, in some respects the difference was Newman - who gives her all - is a soccer player turned footballer and botched what was a simple run in goal because she got nervous. If she runs to the line it's a goal. If she slows up and balances up it's a goal. She did half of each. Then Conti - a basketballer turned footballer who had a bunch of junior development - goals from 5m out and sneaks it in by half a mm. The extra junior training makes that little difference. And even though regular posters know my contempt for Jordan Lewis and how I think leadership is overrated we saw tonight the Dees also lost because they didn't get their stoppage set up right. They had 2 loose in the back 50 which is fair with 90 seconds to go but left a loose Dog over the back of the throw in. Of course the wind blows it over the back (again, footy smarts lacking from several of the players not to read that), in to the loose dog who handballs to the goal kicker who fortunately for her is on her preferred left side and goals. Pick up the spare at the stoppage and we likely win the game. Here's a tweet that shows the stoppage set up and the loose dog. 2 loose dees inside 50 is fine but you have to keep bringing forwards in to the contest until you block it up. That's the ball game.

My understanding is we suffered a number of injuries pre season from that camp last year that impacted on early season results/form. The players were more than happy to do a camp....just not that one. As long as they're brought up to elite AFL match fitness levels i couldn't give a rats whether they went or not. That's what Misson is being paid a handsome sum for. They failed to run out a number of matches and went missing in quarters last year so the camp didn't work then and it wouldnt have been any better had they done it again this time. I would rather they spend the time working on forward 50 entries, set plays, goal kicking and forward pressure work etc.

You can rationalise why certain frees are paid in AFL - “head is sacrosanct” or “ must keep the ball moving”, however in AFLW I have no idea how the clowns pick the frees. The female umpires seem to have a feel for the game, but fair dinkum, where on earth do they get those male umpires from. No idea, inconsistent with absolutely no feel for the game.

Ah I forgot we missed an open goal from 10 meters out in the 3rd.... That also came back to haunt them

I hope that we win 3 or 4 flags with this group and become as hated and respected as the great Hawthorn, Geelong and Lions teams of this era Bring it, I say!

What does Hamish think? That's equally as important.

Cannot argue with Mick's assessment that we drink our own bathwater. He is 100% accurate. How many times did we lose to teams we should've beaten last year? I count at least 5 games. Roos x 2, Hawks, Freo & Filth in round 23. The only thing that will stop us from making finals is ourselves. I hope Goody has learned a thing or 2 from last year trying to stop players' getting ahead of themselves, otherwise it will be our downfall again this year. What makes me almost as angry as the round 23 loss is that during the win against the Aints in r21, there were several players' asking their opposition what they were doing in September. This coming from a team that has achieved nothing and had barely any relevance since 1964.

That is a good article. He is right about all those factors. A club that won games in Adelaide and Perth last year should have made the finals, there is no getting away from that. The whole club must toughen up

So true. It is not hard to digitize an old analog recording. Imagine if all the Beatles songs were rerecorded and “modernized” the AFL are just obsessed with tinkering every year. It is a disease

no......actually 405 up as of friday 35,485 16/3/2018 35,080 16/3/2017

How many more lessons in this "renewal and improvement" space need to be learned? Arnotts with their Shapes flavours, BIG M with their chocolate flavour, Coca Cola (repeat offenders), the bloody MCC with the MCG siren (the digital wizardry could never replicate the sound and it's now been lost to the annals of history) and so the list goes on. The new song is not the same. And it's inferior. DeeSpencer nailed it. Reflective of an obsession with tinkering. Symptomatic of an organisation with a bloated management team, out of control egos and an out of touch CEO who doesn't understand the fundamentals of the business. Lived through it at BHP. Please email the club if you're aggrieved as I am.

No one else wanted Watts, he had next to no currency. It makes it hard to negotiate a better deal.

Tom McDonald kick 5 goals in a game last year having trained as a defender for years. Sam Blease kicked 5 in a game. I couldn't care if he kicks 10 and wins their B&F. The MFC outgrew Watts.