Leaderboard

That’s really harsh. I know hating on Omac is flavour of the month but he honestly played well today. Was aggressive at the ball, and hit targets. Considering he’s never played forward or ruck, he did well. Needs a break. He’s hardly the core of our issues.

There’s a time and a place for your endless negativity; this ain’t it. Back under the bridge with you.

BOM is cheering for us. Any sign will do for today.

I see one hero has put the boot into young Dunkley. Gimme a break! Brought onto an AFL list half way through the season at 18 years of age and playing senior footy already. The same 2L also baked Petty. Lot of upside in that young fella.

On the bright side, congratulations on OMac for joining the exclusive 589th kick, first goal club.

We will all be at the G today, supporting the footy club and barracking as loud as usual. It will be bloody freezing and raining, but life is short, so suck it up and see the positives. GO DEES!

Not many players have the talent to play two professional sports. Unfortunately injury plagued his time in NBL and AFL. Hope his body is kind to him in his retirement.

We have had a season to forget and ain't that an understatement ? Yeh sure some older statesman in the side need to look at if they should continue on in 2020. However we can't get rid of them all as we have to keep some experience with older heads. My best passage of play today was the Hunt dribble to OMac where he collected the ball and side stepped an opponent and kicked a left foot snap from 30 metres. GOOOOAAAAL I screamed as l inhaled my chewy and literally choked I thought l was a goner. SERIOUSLY I live to tell the story. !

Brodie Grundy - a lock for AA for the second year in a row had 16 disposals at 38% efficency. He got three of those disposals when Gawn was off the ground. Gawn got 13 at 62% and kicked a goal, and had a lot more hitouts to advantage. Neither player was as influential as usual and I'm not saying Gawn was in out best players but I think to say he was flat or out of sorts is a stretch. It's AFL and you can't be BOG every week. These are the two best ruckmen in the league and it was a good battle which ended up even. Petracca showed great energy today, Fritsch is a forward if ever I've seen one - just a shame he couldn't finish off today. Once again, too many turnovers.

IMO they didn't beat us, we beat ourselves. When we limited turnovers we were on top (first and fourth quarters). When we turned it over we gave up score after score (second and third quarters). And we couldn't hang in there because we kept missing easy shots. We're clearly trying to move the ball differently, with far more kick-mark than playing on and handpassing. The problem is that too many of our players aren't good enough at this gameplan for it to work for four quarters. Hibberd, Viney and Jones are a massive part of our current problem. All three turn it over by foot far too much, Hibberd destructively so. Viney isn't adding enough as a midfielder and Jones is really lost out there position-wise. Hunt shouldn't be played in the backline again. He's either a forward or not in the side. Ditto Fritsch - what a waste of a season by playing him back/wing for so long. There's some really terrible commentary about some individual players in this thread though. JKH was one of our best, Lever was actually quite good, and although I don't like OMac at all he did a better job of a tall forward/second ruck than pretty much everyone else we've tried there recently. Gawn was down on his best but Grundy didn't dominate at all. They sort of nullified each other but that's not an unreasonable result when the two best ruckmen play each other.

Yeah how dare a former captain of the club and team of the century player whose job it is to commentate say things about the club he played for. Worst thread ever.

Has been pointed out by a few already, but the O Mac goal was a rare moment of joy for the game for me and an even better moment for the man himself. Yes in the context of the game, it was a pretty meaningless act and goal, but I just thought that it was great for a guy who has struggled all season and been kicked in the guts by the game itself, commentators and many of our own supporters to get a little moment in the sun like that. Where O Mac goes as a footballer from here is yet to be seen, but I think it's a great mark of his character the way he has fought on and persevered this season when he has looked so beaten at times it must be pretty hard to keep getting back up and presenting.

All spot on for me aside from mayyyyyybe this one being a little harsh. Not the most skilled, but on a day where we had no real intensity I thought he was the one player going full speed for the ball and full intent into tackles for the full 4 quarters. Not a player I rate very highly overall, but I've actually really liked the pressure and effort he's brought every time he's played. 7 tackles, 5 marks, 6 score involvements (despite playing all over the ground) and 24 pressure acts I reckon is not a bad return given where he sits on the list and how the rest of the team performed, including the co-captains leading him.

Two redeeming things for mine. Fritter looks god up forward and has such good hands. Petty also has good hands and loved the fact he supported fritter after he got knee dropped

Jones needs to retire and have a farewell game in the last round. He has given his all but his time is up imo.

Best junk time footy I have seen from us all season.

September would be far better. ?

I genuinely don't understand the Lever criticism, which I suppose might mean I'm on my own in thinking he was OK. He could be better, and we all want him to be an AA-defender week in and week out, but I thought he was pretty good today. There are so many other parts of our game today that stood out to me as problematic rather than Lever. As I said, maybe I'm on my own on this, but I really think too many have stupidly high expectations of him, the more so when the commentary around someone like Preuss is generally far more positive.

Well I have to say I haven't posted in quite some time, but I am totally and utterly sick of the same players, and the team generally, making the same mistakes week in week out. I don't want to name names for the players making the same errors week on week, but I have serious concerns about the coaching team's ability to influence and improve players' flaws. Too many players who choose the wrong options or can't execute basic skills. As for the team, we continue to be moths to a flame. We draw too many to the contest (at ground level and in the air) and don't defend on the outside. Every week. We half lead, not to advantage, then kick it to even less advantage. We fail to tackle well enough to stop the ball going out to the opposition's advantage. We cannot keep the ball in our forward line. Same every week

Well what a pack of miserable old sods you are, we get a 129 cms of fresh snow and all I hear is complaints. There is no pleasing some dees supporters. (Omac was alright today and looked like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.)

Not sure about gloating but gee I loved him snagging his first goal. My only (positive) cheer for the day. I thought his effort was first class all day. His kicking was excellent, as it usually is and his attack on the ball and tackling put some other players to shame. Played like he cared. I really hope Burgess work on his speed over the first 10 meters because it is a big issue for him

A massive shout out to the lady in the front row of M52. Not only was she trying to voice us supporters up during the game but she did a great job telling Pie fans to remove themselves out of a Melbourne reserved area. Something the staff obviously couldn’t give two hoots about. I hope you read DL, you were stellar on a pretty bleak day. As for the game, why do we constantly ignore the first option? We actually have some guys that run hard to create but are often ignored. Sidebottom or Smellybottom more appropriately on his own all game has been mentioned a heap. From what I saw it looked a coaching directive to have Jones for most of the game and Lewis in the last on the corner of the square at bounces so they can instantly drop back as a 7th defender. Poor coaching to let him run loose all day. 23 uncontested possessions and nearly 500 metres gained. He’s a good player but faark, let him earn them.

Petty the only one prepared to stick up for Fritta there. Zero heart in this lot.

A win today and a Tigers win over Carlton will obliterate any remaining Collingwood top 4 chances. I'd love to see that smug club bundled out first week.

Hawthorn are an incredible club. Years of success and no top draft pick but never bottom out. Have let go some genuine stars yet are already beating the like of Geelong; GWS etc. Plus they do it without a Brownlow medal winner thereby ignoring injuries as an excuse for mediocrity. You just know Clarkson will have this team back competing for premiership whilst we will still be arguing over who to pick with our number one draft pick. If you ever want to understand why Melbourne is an average club compare us to Hawthorn over 50 years. Yet we get a coach from Essendon. Surely if you have half a brain you get a coach from the Clarkson production line of assistant coaches. Just look at Brisbane with Fagan it pretty damn obvious.

Jones - staggering into oblivion Viney - showed little leadership Oliver - prolific but irrelevant Brayshaw - better without helmet Fritsch - provided a target Salem - rarely took chances Gawn - probably broke even Harmes - played slow motion Petracca - always looked dangerous Wagner - little to enthuse Kennedy-Harris - showed some class Lewis - effective but limited Dunkley - far from ready May - brave and capable Lever - still finding way Hibberd - never appeared confident Melksham - one quarter game Frost - typical frosty game Petty - rarely looked likely McDonald - limited but tried Hunt - was hardly sighted Baker - lost in transit

Can I please watch a football game without Garry Lyon constantly putting a downer on the demons. Followed this awesome club for nearly 40 years now. Sick of hearing his sarcastic [censored] commentary and putrid comments. [censored] Him off from anything involving the demons annoys me so much. We know we aren’t playing well don’t need a constant reminder from this [censored]

111 point lead F Off Essendrug

My thoughts exactly. We got Lever on spec, so to speak. It was a gamble in so far as we were betting he based on one terrific season that he would be star of the competition. The comparison to rance was being made. I really hope this proves to be that case. May was a much better bet in terms of exposed form. I love how he has played for us thus far and assuming he can stay fit i am much more confident we have pulled the right lever (pardon the pun) with him

Im sorry but under a roof and you only kick 1 goal to 3/4 time is disgraceful, especially when you are in the top 8. Essenscum fans are going nuts on social media. It's great

I disagree. Pies needed to win by 10 goals. Considerable angst on their bench and coaching area

Ha! You are trying so hard to make this stick, aren't you? Despite everything, you just want it to happen so, so hard. You're wrong, of course, and Lever was excellent today, but it's just a bit sad watching you trying so hard to make this a thing. I feel like giving you a couple of little pats on the head while reminding that there are people in your life that still love you. Chin up, sport.

Gawn looked a bit flat at the end but so did Grundy. I think both of them were exhausted after battling each other all day. Clearly they are a step above the other rucks in the league.

Last of my optimism has dissipated. No matter what happens over the off season it feels like a long way from here for Melbourne to become a winning team.

I hear a fair bit of Garry around the place and he is one of the only media types who watches Melbourne close enough to have an accurate opinion. Almost everything he says about us, which is obviously mostly negative at the moment, I agree with.

It will be an indictment on this footy club if Jones or Viney are captain next year.

strangely nor will we

eat this fellas

With your eyes closed.

It took Roos 3 years to get the club to stop accepting losing as its default state, and now in 20 games we are right back there again. There’s no fight, no passion, no mongrel. Just continuing to a structure that gets exploited the same way every week. It’s the same game every round for us.

Petty is an angry man. This kid has something.

JKH 8 disposals that qtr. Playing really well also.

Lets just win and stuff up collingwoods top 4 chances

Professional athlete in 2 sports. It's a major achievement and something he should be extremely proud of!

Get them to watch Hawks game from last night! A club that finds away to reinvent itself & find players who can follow the game plan. A club that doesn’t sit on past glories & could be excused so as they won 3 flags in a row less than 5 years ago.

Absolute cracker from an attitude and work ethic point of view. Not many who transition from other sports have that real old school footy 'bull' intensity, but this bloke was as tough at the footy as it comes. Well done on what you achieved Corey.

Tbh i have been wanting the season to finish just after the bye round. Any enjoyment i had in footy has been sucked out of me due to the way the team has played which has been very frustrating and disappointing. On to 2020.

I remember Plapp's comments after, I think it was a VFL final in 2018, 'the most dominant display of football he's ever seen'. Shame it didn't work out, hope he sticks around the club.