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Christ we have some weak-minded supporters who absolutely typify the stereotype that is bandied about. If we lose to Port at the G with the outs they have, it will be nothing short of embarrassing. This is the lack of ruthlessness that is consistently associated with the MFC. We should account for Port easily in round 1.

As far as opinion from Mick goes, this is about as good as it gets. I don't know about getting over ourselves but we do need to double down on our ruthless side if we want to win finals. I would have agreed with him more strongly but after watching us beat teams by 100+ points multiple times last year, I think we are capable of putting our foot on team's throats and choking the life out of them. I do agree though that we need to do this more consistently and not drop off. I think this is more a function of experience though and hopefully we have that critical mass of games now.

Dees are unbackable favorites at $1.3. Under Roos/Goody we have been strong against port. They have difficulty containing our contested style. We dominated them last year and narrowly lost at Port. Their top 6 contested possession winners from that game were wines, Polec, Rockcliff, Pittard, Jonas and Wingard of which 4 wont be playing. That same group also had 60 contested possessions. Who from port could possibly make up those number??? If we are on we will bury them.

Melbourne could be as good as anyone, but first and foremost it has to get over itself. Melbourne fails to know how to get the foot to the throat and press down hard. The Demons release the pressure too soon and play like millionaires. This needs to stop. Malthouse makes the leap that every other simple-minded shouty sports fan reaches for when a talented team performs below expectations, discounting maturity-levels, experience, etc: it must be arrogance. From every thing that I've ever read about or heard said from Goodwin, he continually imparts the need for humility. I think there is no other cliche than the bathwater one that gets my back up nowadays. That said, and moving past the 'millionaire's' swipe, Malthouse is correct that we've had an issue with putting the foot down in the past. There was the 'failure to crush' teams thread on here the year before last - and in that year, when we played Port after the bye, it was reported that their players were super-confident at the break despite us having completely smothered them in the first half. It shows that there's an issue, at least of perception. We made some in-roads last year against the weaker teams. But still, while my recollection remains that we completely destroyed Geelong and Hawthorn in each of our finals, two of the highlights from the season were us closing them out after tense moments late in both matches. They were both given a sniff despite our dominance. That will need to change, and is the important next step for the coming season. It's an issue of maturity. And we rely on intensity - rather than playing like millionaires, we get out in front and then don't know what to do when the intensity drops, playing less direct and dinking it around until the inevitable turn-over leads to easy goals out the back and the pressure comes back on. We need to learn more tricks in scoring from structured play, and how to control the tempo without losing our intent. That also comes with maturity.

Ladies and gents. Today I saw Sam Weideman in a hardware store and shook his hand, wishing him all the best for the season ahead. He seems like a really personable and pleasant young man. Despite being bailed up by a bogus looking bloke, he smiled and thanked me. The last Demon player whose hand I shook was Clayton Oliver ( and look how that's turning out ) Could be a big year for Sam !!

Old Mick is not wrong in his comments. We have the talent, but is the attitude right for 25 hard weeks i sure hope so This is the year that will tell us what we need to know From Bartlett to Goodwin to the Players, all have to refuse the easy option and hurt like never before

I agree. If we don't call it the ''Malthouse Theory''. Players missing from their 2018 best 22: Wingard, Polec, Wines, Hartlett (only played 5 games) and Dixon. With a big query over Ryder. This is a game we shouldn't be dropping at the G.

I see this as him predicting that we wont change those things he has said. He's saying that if we do, we can win the flag, but he's predicting that we wont. Given our record over the past 3+ decades, I dont blame him for thinking that way. We dont know what success is, and we often think we've done enough before the real hard work starts.

I'll call it - you are to harsh. I'd expect teams like Geelong & Hawthorn to hang on desperately in finals elimination games, so not surprised we weren't able to put them away earlier. Would have liked to of course to preserve the old ticker.

In one respect I’m just like the Carlton list. i don’t listen to him either.

Looks and sounds a bit like another small, tough Tasmanian...

Am I the only one who doesn't really like this? I mean, it's objectively a great photo…but we don't deserve to see Gawny hold it until he wins it. I mean, it's like taking a photo of yourself sitting inside someone else's sweet car. Sure it's cool…but it's not yours. Yet.

This is Mick covering himself all ways. If Melbourne make the top four he will look astute. If they play ruthlessly it will look as though his criticism spurred them into doing so. If they actually win the Premiership he will look like a great predictor. A win all round for himself. Me, I'm just looking forward to the first game!

Completely different type of player 'norm'.... The only similarity is they both play key forward, Weideman also has a run in the ruck. I don't see the Hogan type doing that.

And in the end, even if we do somehow lose that first game, it's not the end of the world. We did that to kick off last season and we ended up being fine. The AFL season is a marathon, not a sprint, which is how some supporters treat it. Even if we start a little slowly due to the new rules in place and our adjustment to it, there will be plenty of time to make it up in the wins column. We have the talent to beat anyone in the competition. Having said that, I'm backing us in to be 3-1 after the first 4 games, and us using this as a good springboard into the rest of the season ahead,

hope not, we got rid of Hogan for being a Hogan type.

This happened on a weekend so I could only email them but jumped on the blower Monday morning after their generous bonus bet offer to say Thanks, please close my account now.

yes when we were rubbish.

Gee thats a pretty tinny response from the TAB in such a competitive market. I can only suggest you ring customer service next time and just be persistent and every time you get a no, just asked to speak to somebody higher up the tree. Always be polite and well mannered and point out its the systems fault not yours and its your money. Emails tend to get passed around the office i think. At least you got something i guess. good to know also.

Yeah i think thats the issue 20-30 mins prior. Ive never had an issue with the service before apart from some troubles with card verification cause i kept cancelling compromised cards. Its good to read your accounts also. Might pay to know this information on some of the bigger days, such as Cup Day. I like our multi. Glad you got a good price.

Some real Monkey Business happening here fellas. It’s also happened to me a few times with TAB online in the past. The worst one was when I was alive going into the last leg of an NBA multi. Needed Wizards to win and they were up by about 8-10 points with 5 mins or so to go. A cash out offer was available and it was more than a 3 quarter pay out so I decided to accept the offer. When I clicked accept it came back with cash out unavailable, I just assumed live betting had been suspended so I tried again a minute later as live markets were still up. Offer was the same and I got the same response, cash out unavailable. Well, this happened about 5-6 times and by that stage Wizards had given up the lead, game was lost and so was the bet. I emailed them asking why I couldn’t accept a cash out offer when they kept offering it. The got back to me with ‘ we experienced technical difficulties with our cash out offers in the system even when they were showing.” I replied cool, your fault, pay me the cash out amount at the time of request. Well, no cigar, their excuse was unforeseen circumstances and nothing can be done. I said whaaaattt?? A few emails later and I finally got them, they credited me with a $10 bonus bet for the inconvenience ?‍♂️?‍♂️?‍♂️. That was a lot less than what I wanted to cash out by a long long way. I guess there will always be issues online, I don’t mind doing the old walk to the local now for some paper tickets.

I usually put my bets on way in advance but the issue arose when I attempted to place a multi bet on close to the first leg being run. Might have been 20 - 30 minutes prior. I actually thought I was doing something wrong until I read your account ... previously, the Laddies site has crashed or has become treacle slow. And I ended up getting 21-1 for our multi ... Juve has drifted out to 2.88. Makes a big difference to the overall with just a .30-.40 percentage point swing.

Really? Gee.....yeah the thing is with the price flux. I did actually get an alert the second time, but it just said price change and something like will you accept, so i just presumed it takes the flux into account and posts the new price with the bet. Thats how it should work because i had no idea. Might just pay to put them on a few hours before i guess, till they sort it out. They didnt seem to be very aware of it, but said it was a very busy day for them particularly around that time. Im on for the soccer multi, no problems there.

Don't like Mick at the moment, but i reckon he's spot on and i also think the first game will tell us a lot about whether he is right or not. I therefore will stick to my prediction on Port/MFC Game as being a blowout 7goal plus win for us.

Furthermore, if we had have beaten Geelong and Hawthorn like we should have during the home and away season, then we probably wouldn't have even played them in finals. Geelong wouldn't have made the top 8 and Hawthorn wouldn't have made the top 4 and probably would have been bundled out in the fist week, whilst we would have benifited from having finished top 4. Our performances last year were quite understandable for a youngish side making it's way and establishing experience in big games and establishing beleif in themselves. Looking for us to be that next step further along in our development this year, to start off where we left off towards the end of last year, but to be solid as rock, ruthless, and professionally/mechanically asert our dominance on the competition. I think this is the Goodwin way and hoping it will become know as the Melbourne way sooner rather than later.

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My recollection was that the Hawthorn game they had the better of the play, just failed to convert in front of goal. Thus I wasn't surprised at all when a fresh West Coast did the job on us they did. Geelong and Hawthorn are both puss football sides these days. Dangerfield and Selwood are past it. Hawthorn have (had) one good onballer and a bunch of old geriatrics. Game against Geelong should have been over at half time with the gap we put on them in the first quarter, but then we choked up and barely kicked a goal for a quarter and a half and let them back in a game they should never have been in. Need to put sides to the sword in these situations.

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Last year we were generally very good at beating the sides below us that we should and stepping on the throat of them. I think we need to do it against good sides and consistently over the whole season. We simply must stand up and win the big games against good teams more consistently than not. Would like to see us beat Richmond, Collingwood and West Coast in our home and away games this year. Call me a harsh critic, but I was disappointed that we didn't totally put Geelong and Hawthorn to the sword in finals much earlier in those games. We did make some big statements with those games, but we also kept them in the game far longer than they deserved to be. I don't care if we loose a few in a upsets this year, so long as we have enough buffer on our ladder position and are able to flick the switch against the sides we really need to beat.

Fully agree, this is the key to this game.

and we also lost the practice match at Casey Fields to North...

His comments are in keeping with previous comments. He hasn't predicted we'll make the eight, because we drink our own bath water, but recognises the quality of the list.

I fail to see how my post influences the performance of the team.

It's probably a month early but confirmation that Ollie Wines will be missing for the Round 1 clash.

That loss to Port was heavily assisted by the umpires - it is something that won't necessarily go away until we are consistently in the top 4 across a season.

My point which you seem not too get DV8 is that we have moved on from these soft efforts and therefore we don't keep bringing up about it. You seem to want to keep bringing it up to somehow believe it will ensure we don't go back. Forget the old past (as Roosy found was hard for some) but it's irrelevant completely from 2016 as we started our real development as a serious team.

Round 1 is a massive test. With port having some players out it will be interesting to see the mindset of our players. In the past when the opposition has players out we seem to think we will win without working hard. To me this is between the ears. We need to play 4 quarters at 100% and not stop until the final siren which is something we haven’t been able to do consistently. Time will tell.

https://www.afl.com.au/match-centre/2016/2/ess-v-melb Nuff' said.

Simply out-played, out-classed and maybe, out-coached. A very disappointing end given that our best can be terrific. Unfortunately, we were so far off that today and the Crows were comprehensively on top in every facet. They should go all the way. From slim pickings, the efforts of Mithen, plus Downie and Cordner under siege, were our best. And of course Emonson for kicking truly ? Despite a poor effort and result, I have every respect for our players, playing for the love of the game and often making sacrifices to do so - some we hear about and others we don't. They'll be disappointed to say the least. At some point this week before we're all consumed by the men's game, I'll try to put a thread together where we can reflect on the good, bad and the ugly from this season - there's lots to celebrate and this last game will probably overshadow those aspects so it would be good to do that while the season's still fresh.

I like it... making Melbourne great again !!!

Well spoken individual Simon Goodwin and very articulated he is invested heavily to seeing our club become great again. I can see him being with the us for quite some time as Melbourne on and off the ground evolve into becoming a major player in the AFL . We are certainly on on our way. Looking promising.

There is a danger in thinking life is a journey; some sort of a pilgrimage with a purpose at the end. Life is to be lived along the way, in the same way that music is to be enjoyed. ... Life is music all along. - Alan Watts.

why... that is motivation to do better. Don't sweep things under the carpet... that IS the way to NOT move at all... let alone forward. .

Good photo, but looks like Maxy stole it. He's not wearing a Premiership Medal.

I've said it before but in terms of the leadership group it must have come down to Nev or Tmac. Could have easily gone either way but agree Tmac oozes leadership, especially in front of the media.

Listen to all the interviews above & I found very refreshing the transparency of Tom McDonald. Very articulate & to me anyway, it was obvious he handles the questions & pressure much better than all the others......surprised hes not in the leadership group TBH. The Dees not going as well as most supporters think too, which again I think was clearly evident in the 2 JTL games, but hopefully their best form isn't too far away.....

Listened to all interviews Pert was again clear and visioned for the future on the admin training social complex. He realises his role in that he has been chosen to lead and deliver as his mission for the Club and he has a great sense of our history and what a legacy it will leave us. Yarra Park now looks way off but dont rule it out but whatever and whenever in the next half decade in our immediate window of opportunity I have no doubt we will be able to charge our glasses in a social location of our own. Is it any wonder his Experience with the Pies leads him to state that the Facility will be achieved, along by that time 70,000 members will also. He can't absolutely guarantee delivery of that long awaited 13th flag and that will be The real legacy of Jackson Roos and Goodwin. Its obvious he was the perfect CEO for us and despite the mischief and some blame that the Woods created about him he had run his race there. We also are now moving in to an era that we have committed concerned and extra passionate old and new fans ready for the spoils hopefully achieved that since 2014 have most meticulously been planned.

One of the best rules ever to be introduced was announced earlier this week with no fanfare. I can't even find the story on the AFL's website. But the AFL has announced a zero tolerance approach to punching. A free kick will be paid against the puncher every time. Hopefully the rule will be clear that it also includes elbows (which obviously will immediately replace fists by miscreants intent on niggling). It's a good change for many reasons. It stops taggers from impeding ball players the way they have been doing; it should reduce the "need" for retaliation and most importantly, it sends a message that violence in any form is unacceptable. If anyone can find a link to the official announcement it would be useful to include it in this thread.

All I remember from Round 1s of the last few years is the ‘that’s SO Melbourne’ of my daughter exclaiming as Gawn missed the monty goal, Wines debut destroying us, and Rockliff booting a bag as his then Lions mauled us Of course there was also Clayton’s glorious debut but that is somehow not nearly as strong in the memory banks I approach every season with a mix of complete joy and utter dread

Nah, Wingard and Polec will save them...