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On my way to the dawn service I got a text from a Richmond tragic mate of mine (who is the most emotionally and financially invested supporter I know), who said “chin up mate, it can turnaround real quick, trust me, it does seem darkest before the dawn”. He’s really good mates with Peggy O’neil and also commented about how much pressure she, Brendan Gale and Dimmer were under 18 months ago. He says that their inner sanctum really rates the Demons in the mid to longer term and this is why. last night their experienced leaders, probably with the exception of Houli were not dominant - but still played at the minimum standard you expect each week. This includes the big 4 plus Grimes, Edwards, Grigg etc. Melbourne have no equivalent (yet), except for Jones and Hibberd They think melbourne players don’t trust their system (yet) - too many fly in the backline, too many sucked into the immediate contest. They implicitly trust each not to be beaten in the contest - so don’t all fly in the backline, don’t all get sucked to the ball or into a tackle but start to spread etc. its not such a leg speed issue but speed of ball movement - no fumbles, no hestitation to move (trust again) after telling him to go and gf, he said that with the complete confidence and trust they have a heap of guys that he thought were spuds (grigg, houli, mckintosh, lambert, Lloyd) who actually look good now their in a good team. As angry as i was last night I still think there is enough for us to work with. I’ve been a member for 35 years, and 6 weeks before the 1987 finals. Suddenly the young guys clicked and we played finals for 5 years (and missed a golden chance in 1990). I think this will happen again - hopefully starting this year. for all those who have said they are chucking it in, as I felt like last night, I hope you can hang in there

What a ridiculous thread. Jones is a driver of training standards and a great lead by example captain. He has a fierce loyalty to the Melbourne Football Club and is respected by opposition players and supporters alike. Perhaps you would prefer Trengove and Grimes to captain again.

Of all the over the top melt downs on here tonight, I have no idea why Weideman is in the firing line. Great game from a young key forward. Crashed packs, took a few grabs, showed some aggression. What's he played? 10-15 games? sheesh. He'll kick a bag if we stick with him this year. Some seem to make a decision on players and then ignore what they see in front of their eyes. Gutted with the loss. But the pressure we applied with some improved skills and efficiency inside 50 will be good enough to take care of most teams in the comp. The blowout was completely understandable for me. It wasn't that we couldn't keep up anymore, it was how much effort we'd put into getting back into the game for no reward. It's completely demoralising. My brain was ready to melt and I was exerting no physical energy. A few cleaner chains of possessions, Hogan kicks that goal and we're in front midway through the last. That makes all the difference to the mindset of our players when it comes to the effort at the end of the game. Our defence was very good. Oscar, Lever, Hibberd, Jetta finally clicked and you can see what the plan is here. More of this please. It's also worth noting that Richmond are very, very good. In particular their finishing around goal. They have about 5 players who barely touch the ball except for when they get a crumb in the forward 50. One step and they goal. So clean. They make half chances into goals. So many of their goals were from contests that we did well to even up only for a wet and slippery ball to somehow pop out to their advantage. The score at the end flattered them. The game was closer than that. In terms of the closeness of the game, it felt like a 20 point loss. Which I think is about right. The game plan has merit and issues. We dominate the ground balls so we play chaos footy. When the ball is on the deck we look intense and control the game. It's a strength of ours so we're wise to play this way. But the result is that our disposals are constantly rushed and we're completely stuffed by the end. We just need to grab say 20% of North Melbourne's game plan where they move the ball with a bit more control and take their time. There were moments in the game where we tried to do this, but Richmond just doesn't allow uncontested marks and we fumbled too much to execute it. The backline finally worked, but Richmond shut down our ball movement. The game plan will be OK I think. Our biggest issue is our players. We have some seriously out of form players who are failing to execute the game plan, or even footy fundamentals. We don't have obvious replacements for them in the twos either. Our small forwards were horrible. Players we expected to step up have gone backwards. ANB, Harmes, Jeff, Hunt, Stretch, Tyson, Vince, Wagner are all not performing to the level we expect. Positives are Hogan, Clarry, Gawn, Hibberd (huge tonight), Lever, Omac, Salem, Brayshaw, Petracca. I think Salem, who has only played maybe 8 games as a mid, is really growing into the role. Add in Viney & Tmac. Maybe Balic comes in for one of Harmes and ANB. Play a few games in dry conditions. We have winnable games the next 4 rounds. Let's see where we are then. I think a few wins and a bit of confidence will make a difference. 2018 is not going as well as we'd hoped, but it's not as bad as it feels yet.

I can't be bothered reading page after page of misery, so stopped after page 3. The negatives are obvious, so I'll make one point on the positives. I've read that Weideman was OK. He was far better than OK. He was my main positive for the night. He will make it. I wasn't sure he would, but I am now. For me that's huge.

Put aside the last 15 minutes. We ran out of juice, the Tigers are reigning premiers and they got some cheap goals. It wasn't similar at all to last weekend. But, there were some key moments tonight that contributed to the loss, and they were moments we are having too often to be a consistent side. The first one is our forward line and not taking our chances. In the third term especially we dominated for a large period and, while we did kick a few, it should have been more. We fluffed some chances, Hogan hits the post... we just couldn't put our domination on the scoreboard. They go down, get a cheap goal and it really hurts. The goal at the end of the third term was the one that hurt us the most - Lloyd getting a cheap goal out the back took their lead above 3 goals and we had nothing to show for our efforts. The second is the little things - too many people up in the contest, two players going for the same ground ball, fumbling in key areas, missing simple targets and so on. We do them too often. To be a top class side you need to pick the damn thing up, then spread and support. We CAN do it, we just don't do it often enough. It's our 'bottom six' that do it the most - ANB, Harmes, Wagner etc. They just don't do things first time. I don't think the scoreline reflects the effort we put in and the pressure we were able to apply. It's a shame, but switch off against a good side and that's what happens. On the positive side, I thought Gawn was immense, Hogan had another great night, Weideman showed some promising signs before fading (he did well in the ruck, too), Melksham kicked 4 and did a great defensive job on Rance, while guys like Salem, Oliver and Trac tried hard but didn't get enough support. I also thought O Mac and Lever played their best game together. I think Goodwin tried a few different things but, in the end, it wasn't enough and we fell back into the bad habits that are costing us games of footy. Until we eradicate those then we can't move forward. I think we can beat the Bombers at Etihad and I think we'll enjoy playing in conditions that aren't condusive to fumbling. We've played the Lions, Hawks and now Tigers in slippery conditions and struggled with it in two of them. I'll be interested to see how we go without it next week. Keep your chin up if you can, everyone. I think we can still improve from here and become the side we all want it to be. There is just lots of work ahead for the club to do.

Not only premium members, but ordinary members (and non member fans) are being totally dudded by yet another year of pumped up optimism but zero delivery by this heartless club.

We have many problems but Jones aint one of them. Let's start with a gameplan that doesn't work. Overpossess in the midfield and bomb long on the top of Garlett's head. Refusal to switch, etc. A defence where four of our six (Jetta, Hibberd, Lever and Hunt) are hopelessly out of form. No outside ball carriers of quality. A one paced midfield. NQR's making up bottom six. Harmes, ANB, Stretch, etc. A ruckman that dominates but doesn't benefit the team in clearances. No defensive crumbers. Everyone must fly simultaneously. Selection that sees Fritsch dropped but Harmes play...

Anyone who thinks Howe is as good as Lever needs a reality check.

Weid showed great signs mate.

Is Troy Chaplin, the Richmond supporting half arse, still our backline coach? It'd explain why our defence has been so poor this year. Hated the look of him at the Grand Final last year wearing a Tigers scarf and posting all over his social media, all while being a paid employee of MFC. I was lambasted by people here saying that he had the right to support another club..I was staggered at the response. I think what we are seeing is a coaching group who are only in it for themselves and to better their career prospects but have little talent and little passion for OUR club. It reflects in the way the players go about their football. It's the most noticeable difference since Roos left.

Essenscum have stolen our game plan.

I was at the Qualifying Final last year and what you describe is almost an exact replica of that game. Seeing them live tonight drilled home for me actually how good the Tigers are. They aren't a team of champions but they are definitely well drilled. We kept going down the line because they had players set up perfectly to defend the switch into the middle. They read our centre work well. They had players in support so had the confidence to flick the ball around. They gang tackled us while our guys waited for the release but we couldn't get it to them. We have issues with the game plan at the moment, our inability to score is baffling considering this was a strength last year. Either Goodwin has been figured out and needs to go back to the drawing board or there are some things that aren't working that can be fixed with tweaking. Some of our players seem devoid of confidence at the moment and those "bottom 6" players who stepped last year are ALL struggling. ANB, Harmes, Stretch, Bugg etc all have gone backwards. Salem and Petracca need to find more of the footy in positions where they can use it and not just dish it out. I thought out pressure tonight was very good. We need to take our opportunities when they present, Hogan's miss in the 3rd was unforgiveable. 3 men up and letting them get easy uncontested goals in the goal square is unacceptable. They ran away at the end but for the most part we matched their pressure and stayed with them until the last 10 or 15 minutes. I don't think things are as bad as they seem but the last 2 games have been a step backwards. The crowd was also disappointing, 77k so 5-10k below expectation. Not sure how much that extra 5-10k cost us probably a couple hundred thousand

Weid was one of my highlights and his rucking was pretty good too. Gawn needs to calm his farm and stop smashing balls to the opposition goal side. Yes we know you are big and you win lots of hit outs, but just stop.

The main difference for me is confidence. Our players seem bereft of it at the moment and so are playing it safe, panicking and second guessing. The tigers have confidence in their teammates and structures and so have more flow to their game. I don't think we're that far off. We have to tweak a few things and play a bit "tighter" for lack of a better word, we're a bit sloppy going forward at the moment relying on frenetic attack when it needs to be a bit more measured. Our effort was there last night, out pressure was there. Those bemoaning our skills must've only watched one team because the Tigers players were equally as poor with the footy for a lot of the game and equally as under the pump due to our pressure. They were better drilled than us which caused us to play down the members wing for the whole game, as soon as we'd get the ball on the back flank they'd have 3 or 4 players zones off through the centre square cutting off our ability to switch. They also got 3 goals from the goal square due to our ridiculous all up defence. Weideman was good that gave me some confidence in him. OMac was very good, Hibberd, Jetta and Lever were a lot better. Hogan was good even if his touch was a little off and he should've kicked that goal in the 3rd with a drop punt, not attempt that around the corner kick. ANB, Harmes, Hunt, Stretch, Kent, Wagner and even Garlett were all poor. Garlett has runs on the board but the rest who knows if they'll make it. Salem, Petracca and Brayshaw all need to be getting more of the footy, <20 touches isn't good enough.

Thought Brayshaw was coming in to some form after 1/2 time Also Lever showed a bit Hibberd put his body on the line a few times and will be a sore boy tomorrow Oscar wasn't to bad either

Surprised that Weideman is getting the criticism. Was probably his best match for the club, and while that’s not saying heaps, he’s progressing while many of our other young players have seemingly gone backwards.

Look, Richmond are a good side. Until mid last quarter, I was accepting being outclassed by quality, the effort had been there. We all know we’re not premiership quality yet. But to roll over and wave the white flag in the last quarter a second game in a row? I’m fucking furious.

Too much serial black gloom on this thread. It's obvious that the absence of T.Mac and Viney has seriously affected the balance of the mid field and the whole structure of the forward line. Once you have balance and structure in place the likes of Garlett, Harmes, Neal Bullen and Melksham are able to play their natural games. That semblance of balance resulted in Melbourne missing the 8 last year by .5 of a % point, despite the absence of Gawn, Hogan, Jones and Viney. It would seem, as well, that the coaches box is a wee bit behind the 8 ball with its instructions about long bombs and lowering of the eyes. Either that or the players just don't listen or they feel way too pressured to respond properly. I had a phone call today from a bloke whose wine I sell. He was on North's List during the Barassi era. He said the coach is not up to it. He says, by the way, the same about the current North coach. I bet a thousand dollars that Richmond fans - and the media - said for years Hardwick wasn't up to it. I bet another thousand that for the first couple of years Bomber Thomson wasn't up to it. I also know Kennett wanted to sack Clarkson in 2010. There are a lot of 'wise and foolish virgins' - as the Parable goes, on this site. Also, to those who feel that because they follow a footy club that it 'owes' them ultimate success have been reading too much Ayn Rand.

Glad to see nobody is dropping Weideman... he did well last night and is tracking fine. Just a reminder hes 20 years old.

Gotta love the warmth between The Tigers and the Umpires ( all smiles and maybe even mouthed thank you's) during and after the Game. No more pesky upsets were going to happen in this Round. We are going to fix that, and they did. No severe punch to the Rib area, with such ferocity, it would or could have killed a lesser mortal but Jones, was going to prevent Umpire number two from letting the game flow. No illegal disposals by Richmond, including hundreds of non handballs and droppings were going to interfere with this game's atmosphere where seventy thousand were against thirty thousand.

Fmd Fritsch had how many days from the Hawks ? If he needs a restbit ought to have been against Ess. He actually has some footy nous. He tries all game. Hes fairly clean of hands and can kick. Doesn't seem adverse to the wet etc. He's far from magnificent but would have been very handy last night when we desperately lacked finish. Who givesva flying fig about the Ess game in that context. No point protecting tomorrow when we're fvcklng useless today !!

Haha that is my boss walking past Bartlett, I’d already headed inside to drink free red wine.

Lol. I’m a pretty critical supporter. But this thread is just farkin ridiculous.

It was a 14 point margin 10 early in the fourth quarter. We ran out of puff one down on the bench and the best side in the comp got a run of goals on, but the issue isn't the last 15 minutes. The issue is that we have now played 5 straight games with the same problems each week. For the first 16 minutes of the third quarter, Richmond had one possession in their forward half. One. Inside 50s were 12-1. But we'd only kicked 2 goals when we should have kicked 5. We lifted our effort for those 16 minutes, we dominated general play, but we continue to stuff it up inside 50. Same problem in Q1 - the first 10 minutes was predominantly played in our forward half but we kicked 1.6 or something and didn't put any scoreboard pressure on. A few things are apparent. The first is that opposition sides know how to set up against us and it's the same every week - an extra defender behind the play. I'm embarrassed that we can't work out what to do to get around this tactic. Literally every side has used this against us to their advantage. What is also apparent is we have far too many NQR players who aren't good enough: ANB, Wagner, Stretch, Harmes, Vince, Hunt, Tyson. Our reliance on NQR players leads to too many going up and none staying down, momentum-killing turnovers, selfishness creeping into the better players (Gawn a prime example), wasted inside 50s. Too much is being left to too few. Oliver and Petracca are expected to be leading the club but they have no support. Gawn is dominating the ruck but we can't buy a clearance. There were positives: the back 6 was markedly better this week. Eventually the toll of our awful forward line/midfield was too much, but for much of the game our backline held its own. OMac and Lever are improving, Lever's best game. Hibberd and Jetta also played much better. But if the coaches can't work out how to get the side to score when the opposition drops an extra behind the ball, we're not going to get close to the finals. It's simply not good enough.

I thought that Weideman was quite serviceable last night and he will be ok.He competes in the air, his ruck work was much better than I expected and he can find the football, he's raw and needs a bit of development and a bit more size but I think we've got a player there.

Watts kicked 100 goals in his last 5 seasons. Big deal, he averages 1 a game. He is not the answer to our goalkicking woes.

If he can pick up the ball. He is already miles ahead of Stretch.

Gutted after last night. Some say the effort was there. It was but it was the wrong effort. Most notably, in a contest we would have 3 or 4 players crowding around while Richmond had players scattered on the outside. When they won the pill the ball was flicked to the outside and they ran the ball very well with general precision. Sitting up high I could see Tiger players streaming fwd and our players bunched up back at where the contest was - not running and looking flat footed. That explained the massive outnumbering that occurred in their fwd line. When we won the pill in a contest we were immediately under pressure from the Richmond players stationed around the outside. And more often than not we would turn it over. When the game broke open in the last it was Richmond that was full of running and Melbourne that was stationary. I don't believe they gave up but after a game of chasing Richmond players streaming into their fwd line we were overwhelmed. This is fixable. Flying for the mark. As has been said here repeatedly we stupidly send 3 or 4 players up for the mark or spoil leaving no-one down. Again from viewing up high it is so obvious and amateurish it is hard to believe. This couple with spoils that go to the middle of the goal square (Lever) and fumbles within 10m of goal (OMac) mean that we are constantly against it because we are a poor contested marking side and we don't have any crumbers on the ground. This is fixable. Centre clearances. Gawn winning most of the taps is next to useless if our mids can't win his taps. We were smashed in the clearances. 5 to 0 in the second quarter. In the last it was 7 to 1 late in the quarter. Our set ups are atrocious and the number of times Richmond had players running from the back of the centre square to receive a handball and pump the ball into their fwd 50 was frustrating in the extreme. When we got the ball from a centre stoppage we often handballed to a stationary target, a man under pressure or we simply turned it over. Tyson has severe disposal flaws and decision making skills that will never be fixed. He gets the ball but if he turns it over every 2nd time what use is he? Not so easy to fix. Defence. We lack the ability to defend one on one and kill the ball when it close to goal. Basic stuff. We fumble badly and as said above we gave away several goals through bad errors. While Lever had a reasonable game, we are sadly lacking in quality backmen. I am on record as saying I don't think OMac will make it. To me he is like Zac Dawson. Yes he is improving and his disposal is OK but we give away at least 2 goals a week from his weak attack on the ball or his inability to withstand physical pressure. Jetta hasn't played to his usual standard this year, Hibberd similar but is slowly improving. Wagner is starting to do some good things but overall he is just a player and does no damage to the opposition and doesn't get the ball enough. Last year we were 18th in defending one on one contests. This year we will likely win that title again. Forward line. What has happened to Garlett? Has had one terrific game and 4 terrible games. We put up with his weak efforts because he is mercurial and can turn it one when you least expect it but overall he is now a liability and deserves time in the twos. Melksham had a pretty good game last night but needed to as his previous 4 were hopeless. Hogan is a quality player and I was impressed with Weideman last night, finally seeing something that makes me think he will make it as a player. A much better second ruck option than Harmes. Harmes, ANB, Hunt, Stretch, Salem, Brayshaw, Kent are all in that category that can do some good things but have not improved and have severe flaws. Brayshaw was probably the pick last night but still he was unsighted for much of the night. The coach. I don't rate him and he seems incapable of fixing basic problems like flying for the mark or crowding a contest or defending. We have no choice but to persevere with him but I see nothing from our coaching panel that makes me think we will get through this quickly. We are in a world of pain and many of us are furious that our club cannot resolve some of these basic football issues after so fricking long. It is demoralising to have three members of your family in the car on the way home from the footy crying and saying 'Why do we have to follow such a crap football team?' I can't answer that. The club is trashing its supporters resolve and doing long lasting and perhaps fatal damage to its future support base. I am almost over caring.

I was on Level 4 on the wing, so that was the first time I’d seen Dusty from that vantage point. As previous posters have said, there are/have been very few players like him, who have the physical, core strength, speed and kick that he does. It was impressive to watch, but not BOG for mine. When we pressured him in close, he often coughed it up or fumbled. I actually thought we dealt with him pretty well - two crunchers from Oliver and Hunt were great to see. He’s also something of a protected species: he should have been pinged at least once for holding the ball and also got a couple of very soft frees close to goal in the 3Q, which killed our momentum. That said, I would love him on our team.

The defence finally stood up HB and the work ethic only dropped away in the last where our lack of running ability was exposed. The skinny boundaries at Etihad might actually assist our lack of run/speed on the outside and spread and might work in our favor. Apart from speed/spread/class on the outside, our other big issue is our inability to convert all the hard work. A team can only work so hard in a match before it runs out of puff if you aren't hitting the scoreboard. 45 possessions per goal and 59 against the Hawks the week before must be exhausting work and the lack of conversion can only act as a huge team deflator at some point. Which is why Pedders needs to come in for Weids this week. We need goals and i'm afraid Weids is not the man for that right now. He just continues to fail to impact here and that's what he is there for at the end of the day. Bring him in for the 3 weeks following if Pedders doesn't perform. I would also seriously consider Spargo for Jeffy who is horribly out of form although that's a huge roll of the die and not sure Spargo is ready yet. Then again we ran with the Weids play this week so go figure. We need some big trades at year's end to get some run/speed/spread as well as class finish around the ground and in front of the sticks if we are to make finals. Winners are grinners and we need to win to make finals. Goal scoring a must. Get it done Demons.

This is absolute rubbish. Jonesy has carried the team on his back and been a warrior through many years. He is an A grade mid with little if any support. We need Viney back and more mid power like Oliver. So many many issues but Jonesy is NOT one of them.

Overall I was not upset about the effort last night, the effort was there from most of the players and we had periods in the game where we were well on top. If we'd converted those opportunities it would have been a much closer game on the scoredboard. Who knows maybe it would have given us the confidence to roll them. The problem is that we don't capitalise on our effort and when we are winning the contest. I've been saying it for a long time the ball movement and attacking set up is inefficient. The other main issue with our game plan is that scoring heavily/easily now in the AFL is predominantly about finding space. To find space you need players willing to run hard and fast on the counter attack and take the game on. We don't have those type of players so we pose little threat to teams when they set up defensively against us. We are very easy to defend against because we can't exploit teams on the spread or run to get the ball past a congested area / zone. Where as the opponents find it easy to exploit us in transition, this is a double edged sword. We have too many players of the same type and probably too many players outside of our top 12 players whose skill and running ability or willingness to work hard just does not seem to be there. Maybe that is an over exaggeration about willingness to work but we don't have enough speed or hard runners. I'm amazed at the ease at which other teams are able to transition the ball against us. It is tiring to watch when it happens repeatedly each week. Meanwhile we can barely manage to move the ball out of our back 50 and consistently choose to kick to a contest down the line over and over again. It's dumb footy. The club has assembled a list with a good spine. Admittedly I think I was wrong about OMac, he has come good. He still has brain farts occasionally but overall he is developing well. The other parts of the spine are looking good with Lever, Gawn, Hogan & TMac. We have developing talls in Weid and Petty who I have high hopes for. The starting midfield of Viney, Oliver and Petracca will serve us well for a decade. What I am concerned about is the lack of genuine hard running wingers and flankers on the list at the moment. This is what we are lacking. But I have hope that we can get this right. We have built the list around contested footy which I think is the right thing, from the contest out. So next in my opinion is for the club to focus on finding some genuine hard running skilled players who are hard workers and will complement our inside grunt. For mine the difference last night was Richmond had a couple of better distributors, more pace and run on the outside as well as more efficiency in attack. Their efficiency in attack was probably partly to do with having a tried and true method to move the ball forward and confidence in that method. Richmonds attacking players were also willing to run hard/contest and they weren't relying on anyone in particular. They all filled their role and capitalised on the loose balls when present to them, overall their forward players are faster more skilled and hard working than ours. In comparison our structure forward of the ball is a bit of a shambles at the moment and it seems we don't have the forward players to play the game style Goodwin is attempting at the moment.

Jones as a player is from a problem. Jones as captain is ok, he is a captain, but he is not a leader, he does not inspire nor influence a game with a few great acts when the tide is against.

I was happy with the effort for about half the match. But this is not little league. We are an AFL team who methodically and frequently put in half an effort. I can understand running out of steam with 10 minutes left because we were a man down. But FML our second quarter was pathetic, our skills from the get to were woeful and our game plan is as bewildering as it is dumb. So no, I was not happy with the overall effort and neither should our coach be! We are not in development mode anymore ffs. If after so many damn years we are still happy with “effort” that results in a 7 goal loss then I give up.

You nailed it. I don't have time or the patience for another rebuild.

If you lip read the missus it looks like shes says "Oh F*#k".

Lucky we trained for that last week ?

I actually resent the club, it’s getting ugly now. The football is not enjoyable anymore. I feel so bloody sorry for my kids for dragging them into this mess of a club. sick of these soft pretenders

One of the problems with our NQR players is each is good at just one thing. Harmes tackles. ANB runs. Hunt is fast. Stretch spreads. Tyson can get a clearance. But outside of these things they're good at, they're not good at anything else. So people will inevitably say the FD won't drop Harmes because he laid 9 tackles, but he is useless in all other aspects of the game. ANB breaks running records but can't make a good decision. Stretch gets into the right spots but then fumbles every time he goes near it. Compare these players to someone like Higgins. Higgins has Hunt's pace, but also Harmes' tackles, Garlett's goal-kicking nous, etc.

Fritsch must come in surely. Kent will be out injured. Garlett and Harmes have to be dropped. I think we need to persist with Weed and Brayshaw - both showed good signs I thought. Would love to see Spago play.

Exposed for clearance ability and exposed for outside run by Richmond's bevy of small hard-running forwards. It's the first game I've seen this year where we've really missed Viney's influence and hardness around the contest and with Oliver and Petracca unable to win clean clearances it was good night Dees because our advantage was in the ruck and we again got no benefit from it and frustratingly for Gawny, the umps rarely look after him like they used to with Jimmy. Apart from Viney, the one player we really miss is an outside run type - no wonder there are already rumours that we are after Gaff for next season. Stretch came in to try and play that role tonight and sadly he wasn't able to get clean ball - it was slippery and Richmond are the night experts - they pick hardworking, quick players to go with their handful of genuine stars and it's working. It's easy to say in hindsight that in those conditions the last player you want on the field is Jeffy, but his no-show tonight makes it tricky for next week because Etihad will clearly suit him better and he is the first player that should be dropped on tonight's game. You could also easily make a case for rejigging our midfield set up - getting Vince back in there for instance - but Essendon isn't noted for their hardball players - it is more of an outside run team. Despite the loss there were plenty of positives IMO. Hibberd returned to his 2017 form and his courageous fly back into Riewoldt was unbelievable. Hoges showed that he can kick more than 50m on at least two occasions (this has been my main criticism of him) and his second half was brilliant. Lever was impressive, in fact most of our defenders were. It was only in the last term that under siege, the damwall broke. OMac second term was phenomenal and Wagner was great in first half before losing his way a little. Hunt's rabid attack on players was great, although his disposal again let him down. Jetta did a great job on a resting Dusty for much of the night and was another worthy of a pass mark. But he must play again next week. What we learnt tonight is that we are a fair way off the pace of the Tigers and probably a couple of other teams. The pessimists will say we won't make the finals, but there's very little difference between teams 4 and 13 - we just have to bring our best to the table regularly enough and ultimately the return of Jack Viney in Round 8 (hopefully) will determine how far we go.

Weid made me feel he has a future tonight. There were bad points but some glimmers of the future in a bleak night.

If you can’t handle a 2 day camp how can you tough out 4 quarters of football?

Out: Goodwin In: McCartney (even Paul will do)