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Thought it was a gripping and entertaining game of footy. Props to the usual bunch of drawing long bows from short sample sizes - no, we don't yet know if we are "same old Melbourne". Besides, I thought we showed spirit after half time to get back in the game and nearly clinch it. Also an honourable mention to the usual "this is going to be a blowout" crew at half time in the match day thread. You guys seriously crack me up. You know who you are. The Lewis 50 was a disgraceful example of leadership. However I thought his assistance in the back half of the ground was significant in our second half improvement. I don't know how to weigh the two factors off against each other. The Gawn miss was a huge letdown, but the call above to drop him for it currently leads the race for the most absurd post in this thread. That would clearly be harmful to the team as he was on top all day, and there's no punitive/education benefit either: I suspect he may already realise he might have been better off kicking the goal and doesn't need to be dropped to get the point. Nobody misses on purpose. Wagner has copped some criticism but I thought he lifted significantly in the second half. His pressure was first rate. Petracca is going to be a star and Oliver already is. Overall, very disappointed to have lost, but it hasn't done much to dent my optimism for this season.

Geez Ablett is a sook. I lost count the amount of times he whinged to the umps.

if you want a scapegoat, Jordan Lewis is mine. Bought in for his experience, makes a mental decison to gob off at the ump and give up a goal. I can excuse skill errors, but that really pisses me off.

? Three out of those four were in everything.

What a game - great to see we finally can play against a genuinely big opponent on a big stage with so much at stake for both sides and not be found wanting - we will be competitive with all the top sides based on that. Ultimately we were smashed in the air - our outlet long kick down the line was picked off with ease by the Cats. They also were way smarter using the short kick out of defence than we were, particularly in the second term when it all came unstuck for a while. Quite a few players down, although first game of the season, things don't always go right. But what I loved was that we had two of the best midfielders of the past decade - Selwood and Ablett - trying their darndest and having to work for almost every kick. By contrast our two elite players of the future - Oliver and Trac - showed how good they are going to be with some amazing clearance work and plenty of almost results. The biggest worries to me, were our lack of marking power, our inability to invoke the switch of play for much of the game, our poor delivery forward to targets who invariably played behind looking for the cheap one over the back and our failure to stop Geelong's link play and lack of pace down back for their forays forward. But the Cats were up for it, it was Selwood's 250th and Ablett's return game after all.

We could be 10 goals up with 5 minutes to go and I'd still be [censored] myself. 40+ years of supporting this club will do that to you.

Let’s not forget that Menzel missed a couple of sitters down the other end. We blew some chances but it could’ve already been game over.

Good game of football. Could have went either way, but at least we given ourselves a chance to win it. Well done to the boys.

Well... at least the cricket’s on.

We lost it in the 2nd quarter when we let them kick 7.5 to our 2.4. No second efforts and no work to win the 50/50 ball so they just sailed off with it while we were caught flat footed. I had hoped that the days of the one quarter fade outs were behind us. Alas, not so. Petracca and Oliver had sensational games! But lots of players were hardly sighted. I guess that means there is lots of room for improvement. We had our chances in the last 5 minutes...how did Gawn miss that goal after Pedersen had set him up so beautifully!! Agonising!!

Its called Lifeline..

God almighty, Hawkins was kept goalless in a winning team where their mids had control for much of the day, and people here are bitching about O'Mac.

One behind that is. The kid was really impressive today, never let Hawkins out of his sight even when they were basically walking through our goals in the second quarter. Sitting behind the Punt Rd goals it was impressive to see OMac trying to settle our other defenders down and barking instructions at them during that crappy 2nd quarter lapse.

It really doesn't.

Tyson- very sorely missed

Vince showed Lewis a thing or two about leadership in the second half.

I’m sick of us learning lessons. We need to win these.

I wonder what it feels like to go to a match and feel totally confident that your team is going to win? I have never know that feeling. I am a 50 year + Demons supporter. Chronic MFCSS sufferer.

Missing all game

Out: Maynard, Wagner In: Tyson, Brayshaw Lewis and Garlett on very thin ice.

Geelong had 3 debutants and a bunch of kids making up most of their numbers. They were down a rotation early when Harry Taylor went down.. On paper, we should have won easily today, people need to wake up if they think we played well against a “top 4 side” today... Geelong proved today that it takes 22 players to win a game of footy.. We haven’t learnt anything from last year.. Relying on guys like Oliver & Trac to get us over the line.. No structure moving the footy, bombing the ball long, blokes completely misreading the flight of the footy, missed tackles, lost way too many 50/50 balls.. I’ll save the wrist slashing until next week if we don’t improve.. But seriously.. Horrible start to a new year when we’re supposed to be taking things to the next level..

I'm with @Drunkn167 a really good game of footy that could hsve gone either way Geelong were not as 'weak' as posters make out Positives for me We were in the game till the end Omac took on a monster and broke even We had a few blokes down on output and still only lost by a few points The forward structure needs a tweak but still 90 points I don't support the Bulldogs

53 years of valuable lessons.

I know we lost but what a god damn game. Unbelievable. Max is gonna feel like ****

Rightio then. Here we go. We are back on! Come on you DEES. FFS, return the love to us this year Melbourne. Return the God damn, mother %^&*$#@ love.

You know what, %#%# that! Various training attendees post reports to inform members on this site about training methods/standouts and they never make out that it’s about themselves. You do!!!! Many appreciate your training reports but for crying out loud stop making out that you’re the only one privy to information. Your antics are tiring. I quoted you a month ago about Wagner’s progress and you had no decency to reply. We are a resilient bunch and the discussion about round 1 selection has been fantastic. We won’t support the boys any less regardless of which 22 run out there!!!!

I went to the game. My summary... it was ours to lose! Great contest... so much better to watch than several other round 1 games. All of the critics here need to take a breath and think what they would be writing if Max kicked the goal. I didn't see a Demon player who didn't contribute in some way. There has been so much stupid stuff written here that I don't have time to make the corrections. Our 2018 campaign is off to a healthy start with a lot to look forward to. Fritsch proved he is more than a goalsneak... Lever had the same sort of influence that gained him a reputation at Adelaide...Max, Ollie & Trac were superb. Bernie showed why he is a favoured son on many occasions... none better than when he rode the bump that left a Cat sprawled in his wake... Hogan was creative and hit the scoreboard in his normal manner. Harmes, Hunt and Hannon lifted in the second half to bring us back into contention. Wagner is all bustle and bash... what he lacks in finesse and finish is made up for in fearless attack on opposition bodies. ANB continues to bob op with deft touches... Jones got us going in the first quarter (those that thought he was ordinary need to watch the replay)... Pederson continues to be a wonderful contributor who is now showing that he is a cool head in a crisis (that kick to Max instead of shooting for goal was centimetre perfect!... Mind you, I have seen Pedo score from that position). Neville was playing hurt and may miss next week. I would expect Brayshaw and Tyson to come in to contention... but I certainly wouldn't be making more than one or two changes. Congratulations to the coaching panel for preparing such a fit and motivated team for the beginning of 2018.

Frost has to play until Tom McDonald comes in. Lever is NOT a one on one defender.I said this on another post during the week. We basically took him away from his natural game. Awful selections. Tyson and Brayshaw for Maynard and Tyson for anyone , but probably Garlett. He could not have given and stuff about being out there today.

Went to the game today and left both shattered and optimistic. Weird feeling and one that's hard to describe. Obviously, we played rather poorly in patches. Poor defending, poor support for each other and our backline was left exposed by our inability to put some pressure on their midfield, especially during the second term. Our back line players didn't have a good day out either which hurt. At one stage they had something like 28 inside 50s and had 22 scoring shots from those. We had 10 more and a few scoring shots less. It was proof that we had no problem getting it forward, it was our decision making and execution that was letting us down. Also, our composure was a little disappointing as well. Melksham fluffed an easy chance, while I thought Trac rushed his shot at goal in the last and could have done better. Our high half forwards were poor in the first half and had little influence on the game. It hurt our usage going forward and we looked lost. And then the second half happened. While it's fair that they did miss some easy shots, they only kicked two goals in the second half. Our back line tightened up, we got back to supporting each other at the contest and our high half forwards started influencing the game. We looked terrific and, really, we should have stole the game at the end. Petracca was fantastic, Oliver looks set for another big year and Gawny was immense, miss aside. I thought Jones played well, Harmes had a great second half and our back line lifted. But then, I felt as though we didn't have a huge amount of influential players, yet here we were, a few metres away from winning this game of footy. This loss hasn't dampened my enthusiasm and optimism for the season ahead and I think we're well placed for a tilt at finals footy. We have things to work on, but they're fixable. Onwards and upwards.

It amazes me how me, the novice supporter in me can see Geelong's game plan to always pass, kick, tap (throw!) out to space to allow a runner come through to carry the ball. We continue with this handballing in tight - which Geelong never do - and we get caught. I thought last year we would've learnt to keep a man down (not go up for the marking contest) and always have someone at the front of the pack for the crumb - but no, we still don't do this and that is a real frustration that teams continue to have a player at the ball drop in front to carry the ball. And our crap kicking skills to position too - too many high floaters. Disappointing that we haven't fixed this in the off season. Will be disappointed for another hour or so, and then move on. Ugh!

Sorry, sorry, sorry. I missed another negative today. At the midway point of the second quarter we looked like we were about to run away with the game and then Lewis completely snapped our momentum and gave a bloody stupid 50 away. At the time, I knew it would come back to haunt us. Geelong dominated us for the rest of the term and won the game in that following 10 to 15 minute patch. Lewis was brought in to provide leadership. That was another horrible moment for him in the red and blue. I sometimes wonder if he's simply happy to see if he can snag another flag, but doesn't particularly care either way. He has a lot to prove this year IMO.

Watts wouldn't have taken the mark.

I reckon OMac won easily Great contest by the boys - some changes will help

Well done to Petracca and Gawn on talking an incredibly big game all pre-season, going down media street and pumping themselves up and failing when it counts. Well done to all the players that talked up how the hurt would spur them on this season, and then they fold when Geelong are without Danger, Henderson, have three debutants and lose Harry Taylor 5 minutes in. That was a game a decent side wins well. Some serious question marks about Goodwin after today. Maynard and Harmes in the same midfield is reminiscent of the Magner and Couch days. Absolute butchers of the footy. What was the gameplan today? Don't look, just kick it high. Pathetic. A terrible, terrible loss.

I thought Wagner’s third quarter was significant in our comeback.

A quintessentially Melbourne performance to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory Once again falling in a quarter of football cost us

Brayshaw and Tyson would have given us more zip

Frustrating watching us bomb it continually in where we are always outnumbered. Its such a simple adjustment, why wasn’t it made earlier in the third/fourth when we were playing catch up? so upset at that loss!

Josh Wagner looking like Josh Wagner. Jake Lever....also looking like Josh Wagner.

I could watch it again and again. The guy thinks you can keep coming back with the same plan and similar style players and expect a different result. I love the arrogance. The only player he focusses on in his presser is the performance of Cox and why he wasn't clunking them and kicking bags. I don't know maybe because it was a soaking wet and he is a 7ft american learning a role he is not made for. I maybe would have focussed on the two must have star recruits of his coaching years in Adams and Treloar who went at 60% and 42% efficiency or his inability to stop a guy who had 50 possession against you last year have another half ton this time. The only thing that makes this better is the arrogance of Eddie that he wont be able to bring himself to sack him (again).

Can see th mighty G from our place. Dry as a bone this morning.

I’m disappointed if there’s been any spreading of incorrect information about players even if it’s supposed to be in the interests of spreading “the party line”. Always happy to pass on news for the benefit of the club but not so if that news is inaccurate. I know it happens all the time on social media but It’s still wrong to knowingly impart information that’s not true and it doesn’t do one’s credibility much good if that happens. With the new season starting today, let’s all keep that in mind.

The two oldest clubs in the game do battle today but Geelong has regularly held the upper hand for well over a decade in our own heartland. Time to take the MCG back.

I can’t see us losing today so I’ll leave at 3/4 time

I hate Geelong. We are due to smash the [censored] out of them. Time to cash it in today, rain, hail or shine. Go Dees!

I shall be availing myself of Vline's ever reliable services today so am just about to head off.. I have my member lanyard (with Daisy's pic of course) nestled proudly between my bosoms and am confident of a successful day. So much so that I have made a modest investment for the Dees to win by 40+ The Lads are disappointed they can't accompany me but I have given them a bag of coca leaves to munch on while viewing from The Manor. Onward and upward!!

pretty sure if oliver got over 54 possessions then he'd be BOG lol

pies with fasolo and elliott are a different beast they had no forward structure tonight whatsoever

The opposite of love isn't hate - its apathy - and I can see there is still so so soooo much love for Jack on this forum... keep kicking goals Jack, for you are the gift that keeps on giving! And my own personal view is - 10 years into his career - Jack needed a change of team (environment, culture, coach, teammates) for him to give himself the opportunity to be more consistent. It was never to happen within the team of Melbourne - the factors that drive the inconsistent behaviours are well spoken about, from development and support, but its not MELBOURNE as an entity that did this, its a range of individuals over a decade, including Jack himself .

There are some plonkers on here but some really stand out from the pack...