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As usual, there are some wildly big statements in here. This game was so much more even than this thread or the 20-point margin suggest. But yet again we lose because we miss shots on goal. The impact of those misses cannot be understated. Doing all the hard work up the ground but failing to put any scoreboard pressure on our opponent keeps our opponent in the game and makes our job psychologically harder. Brown's two set shot misses plus a third out on the full, Pickett's missed snap in the first quarter, Viney missing from the goalsquare, Petracca failing to score from three different shots. Then after we'd kicked the two early goals in the third, Pickett gets the ball, has McDonald in a heap of space, but misses. Later, in the fourth, we're back to 4 points and a kick goes to the goalsquare but over Jordon's head. Small things but in a game that was largely even, those moments lost it for us. I'm sure ANB's pressure acts were up there but he is reverting to pre-2021 momentum-killing football. He fumbles and get smothered far too much. If Harmes isn't tagging someone out of a game he's useless right now. We can do better with his spot in the side. Jordon and Jackson both really struggled tonight too. A few headaches again at selection. May and Lever once again fantastic, Oliver's first half was incredible, Petraccca did a lot right outside of the missed shots, Pickett worked his way into it, and I thought Viney made a hell of a lot of Demonlanders look silly. A loss like this isn't anything to be too upset about. Our top 4 spot is in jeopardy not because of tonight, but because of the Adelaide, Collingwood, GWS and Hawthorn games. Still need two wins minimum from the last four to make the top 4, and possibly need a third. And a final note: the umpiring was unbelievably Dogs-biased. Tackles on the shoulder were called high for them but play on for us, they were throwing it out of tackles, and don't get me started on the HTB call on Brayshaw right before half time. Just could not get any momentum when 50/50 calls were going against us at every turn. Genuinely terrible and it's not sour grapes to note how bad it was.

Ok but totally biased against Viney. Hit up Brown for a goal. Hit up Kozzy for a goal. Kicked super goal in the third. Nine tackles. At the contest. 3 words. “Very good game”.

Both Bont goals came from being left unguarded goal side, also his deadly left side for kicking. It doesn't take rocket science for someone to man up his left side/jostle a bit instead of all dive for the ball. Terrible lapses in concentration by us.

Sure I'm disappointed but looking at the game in isolation there was very little between the two sides on the night. Had we been able to pick up the ball at the first attempt in the middle & inside fifty and hand it off cleanly, particularly in the first half, then we're probably looking at a different result. Again, when we're able to lock the ball in our forward half for long spells we have so little to show for it on the scoreboard and letting them out the back to score on the counter undoes it all. This result only looks bad when we bring our other losses into the equation and what it might mean for where we finish the home & away season. After eighteen games no side has been able to put us away and I'm still confident that we can go all the way if we can get the double chance. I'm also not keen to chop and change the side. If this is our best 23 for the game style we play then they need to find form as a collective in the next four weeks. Anyway try and enjoy your Sunday everyone. Living deep in doggie territory I've already snuck out to the shops and back before I see any red, white and blue on show.

Think we need to re-set our expectations. We had a blinding start to the season. Everyone playing well, sticking to their roles. Defensive shape and system working perfectly. We won games despite our poor skills and goal kicking Goal kicking is a perennial problem. We can’t win games consistently kicking more points than goals. BB showed some promising signs so maybe he will find form and make a difference for the rest of the season but the rest of team its just more of the same. TMac has gone off. Kozzie hit and miss. I don’t know what the coaches can do at this stage to make a difference for the rest of the year. Below the knees we fumble too much. Field kicking not up to the standard required Nibbler would sweat blood for the cause but ball in hand is a liability. Harmes has done some great things for us but is a poorly skilled footballer. I acknowledge their contribution, don’t want to bash them unfairly, but they are not good enough for a flag chasing side. Let’s put time into Sparrow and Bedford and see what they can do. Gotta freshen up the team. We’ve been stale for a few weeks now. Give Dogga a breather and bring in the Weid. Bedford for Nibbler and Sparrow for Harmes. We’re still good enough to make top 4 and secure the double chance. We are always in the game as we proved again last night so I’m hopeful. We have to keep grinding and hope our form turns. Gotta beat the Suns. It’s a non-negotiable and a critical test of our bottle. A loss next week will confirm all our worst fears Going forward we have a great crop of young players. Recruitment has been very good but we need to bring more skill onto the list to compliment the grunt. And we’re going to have to find a reliable goal kicker from somewhere.

The snow that fell on the slopes of Victoria’s mountain districts in the winter of 1965 was not considered good enough to satisfy the enthusiasts. The really heavy snow that season came in two waves further north in July and August. The first descended on the national capital where “Pig Iron Bob” still held sway. Snow flurries touched the landscape all the way across the Blue Mountains. The next big snow extended further north up to the hills around Mackay in Queensland. Snowflakes fell inside the Tropic of Capricorn. I am unashamed to admit it but at the time and back in my home state, I took a bus ride with a group of fellow teens to pay the only visit I ever made to the snow. The sun shone brightly at Lake Mountain, less than 5,000 feet above sea level, where we spent our time wading through cold, mushy puddles of whiteness searching for the non-existent lake — I discovered much later that the place was named after a surveyor called “Lake”. We ate hot dogs and went home. I was unaware at the time but I had just fulfilled the requirement that legend dictated would make me a fully fledged Demon fan. A few weeks later, it rained so hard on a Saturday morning that I passed on traveling to the north of town to witness the first and only Melbourne game against North Melbourne at City Oval Coburg. It was Saturday 24th July 1965. Ten months earlier, the Demons had won their 12th premiership, the sixth in a decade since 1955, all of them under the coaching of Norm Smith. Today, the team was to be coached by Frank “Checker” Hughes who replaced Smith for this game after the club committee sensationally sacked their legendary coach two days before the game. The Demons were fighting for a finals place but in normal circumstances would have been expected to win against the Kangaroos with 14 of their premiership 20 in the side. North had not beaten Melbourne since 9 May, 1953. The latter had won 20 games on end against them in a streak that began on 1 August, 1953. This is how the Melbourne team lined up:- B: N. Crompton R “Tas” Johnson R. Miller HB: P. McLean K. Rowe F. Davis C: B. Dixon D. Williams F. Vearing HF: H “Hassa” Mann G. Jacobs B. Vagg F: J. Lord R. Groom K. Emselle Foll: G. Wise B. Kenneally J. Townsend 19/20: S. Alves H.Bromell The Shinboners had only won twice in the season to date and were second last on the ladder ahead of Hawthorn on percentage only. But they sensed blood against a shocked and disheveled Demons in front of a crowd of 8,312. Revelling in the wet conditions, they took a 15 point lead at quarter time 3.3.21 to 1.0.6 which Melbourne reduced to 11 points at the main break. However, the Kangaroos took complete control with five goals to two in the third and were untroubled to win by 21 points in the end. It was their first ever win in their brief history at their new ground. Norm Smith was reinstated as coach during the following week but Melbourne missed the finals and would not compete in a finals series for a further two decades. On the morning after that ill-fated game at the Coburg City, I received a phone call from a friend. “They’ve had some decent falls on the snowfields. Would you want to go up there today?” I declined and I never went to the snow again. Melbourne 1.0.6 3.3.21 5.3.33 9.6.60 North Melbourne 3.3.21 4.8.32 9.12.66 11.15.81 Goals Bryan Kenneally John Townsend Barrie Vagg 2 Ken Emselle Graeme Jacobs John Lord Best Bob Miller Tas Johnson John Townsend Ken Rowe Barrie Vagg Frank Davis

Random comment There’s a few on our list that don’t know their limits & opt for the fancy rather than the safe ANB, Harmes and Viney are my key offenders For a bloke who has no time, ANB cruises around like he’s Scott Pendlebury. Harmes is about the dumbest footballer alive And Viney, I respect his hardness for the contest, but he’s completely one sided and often tries to do too much. ANB & Harmes are role players and need to deliver consistency rather than one flashy contribution every 6 weeks.

No, it's football groupthink. Let's take the player who's fired up, who's got a rush of adrenalin, who's jumping out of his skin to do it again, who might actually do it if the ball goes near him .... let's take him off the ground. The same kind of genius that doesn't believe in practicing goal kicking.

And for all that we were within 4 points with less than 10 minutes to go. A 2 goal game where they kocked one out of their [censored] (English) gifted another that wasn't there (Hannan) and a we let a few through our fingers (Fritsch on the goal line, Brown x2, Viney and Kozzie early, Kozzie missing Tmac on his own, the ball not sitting up for TMac with fritsch free running into goal etc etc) Yeah we lost, not saying we deserved to win but the over reaction on here is ridiculous. It was a 50/50 game where they took a couple of chances and we missed a couple of ours. Not like the game earlier in the year where we completely outplayed them. Looking forward to playing them in September, I'm confident we'll have their number.

On the positive side Jayden Hunt has put together a great few weeks. Can't remember him losing a 1on1 and take the game on. Yes a few disposals are iffy but really liking what he is bringing

On Demonland. It’s starting to be used a lot to explain, dare I say excuse our late season form tumble. For every team looking finals likely, season load management would be very similar. Otherwise, it’s a phantom. Our form is not fitness and fatigue based, it’s a slump in pressure, execution, one-percenters, and team-centric football. Yes, the young guns are fading, because they’re young, but they’re not being rested because we have illusionary depth and no VFL to create form pressure. It shouldn’t be forgotten that we currently have the least injured list in the AFL, which should be an ENORMOUS advantage. Our form is making a lie of that fact. I keep hearing Simon Goodwin talk about internal belief remaining strong during this down-turn, but we all know it looks a country mile away from early season. It can turn of course, and quickly, but at the moment, our trajectory is southwards, and it’s got nothing to do with loading.

Yeah, but if Umpire 22 goes down with a hammy their season is in serious jeopardy. He’s their second most influential contributor after Bont.

25 disposals, 7 tackles (3 inside 50), 7 clearances. Don't reckon he's coming out mate.

People saying poor form now is the worst time are wrong. There are 4 rounds to right it with the luxury of knowing we cant miss finals but with the pressure that it could cost top 4. It’s actually a good position to be in if Goody has the courage to tweak the 22 and system over that period and get them back to selfless team footy. Dogs were hot last night and we were ok as shown by being within 4 points with 10 minutes to go. We lack run (1 of top 7 metres gained last night) and polish with ball from half, into 50 and converting. We need to fix our second possession at stoppage and defending their second possession at stoppage. We need to get our aggressive turnover game back in check and some run and bounce off half back that is non existent Hunt aside. Well played number 13, number 29 and number 8.

If there’s anything positive from tonight it’s the fact that we won’t have the weight of expectations now that we have dropped off top spot. I don’t think we are truly ready for that. I’m happy to let the Doggies or the Cats carry that burden for now whilst we regroup and replan for the finals. I think Brown is starting to find some connection and partnership with TMac and the mozzie squad.

Goodwin needs a kick in the rear for letting Daniel run amok. Our half forwards were loose and ineffectual.

3-1 from here guarantees top 4 as neither Brisbane nor Sydney could pass us. Two wins from here gets us to 15-1-6. If we do that: Brisbane has to go 4-0 to pass us. They have Hawthorn, Fremantle (away), Collingwood and West Coast. They could easily win that entire lot. Will really need to hope like [censored] the Fremantle match is actually played in Perth as that's their hardest game at this point; Port has to 3-1 to pass us. They have GWS, Adelaide, Carlton and the Dogs. I'd back them in to go 3-1 from that lot. Sydney has to go 5-0 to pass us. They have Fremantle, Essendon, St Kilda, North and Gold Coast. That's a harder draw than Brisbane or Port IMO. I can't see them winning all five. Of course, if we only go 1-3 from here we're in big trouble. That would mean Brisbane can drop a game and still pass us whilst Port would only need to go 2-2 to pass us. In all likelihood 1-3 means 5th (6th if Sydney do well), 2-2 means 4th and a final vs Geelong or the Dogs, and 3-1 puts us in contention for top 2 (particularly if we beat Geelong in the final round).

Going on about umpiring like Essendon fans ignores the fact that we still should have run over the top of them but froze and fell to bits against a side one player down on the bench.

They took some chances, we missed some sitters Not much between the two sides Umps gave them an armchair ride I'm looking forward to playing them in September

At last, some joy this weekend! Watching those whingeing cheats lose!

Mate he is still finding his feet and place in the team. He will be a very astute pick up for us

And to emphasize your point Binman, just have a look at the Disposal Efficiency of the 4 top ranked players for both sides for the match: WB Disposals Disposal Efficiency % Macrae 38 71% Daniel 34 76% B. Smith 26 65% Bontempelli 31 61% Demons Petracca 31 35% Oliver 38 57% Gawn 18 38% ANB 25 45% WB's 4 top ranked platers had 129 disposals between them, of which 89 (69%) hit a target Demons 4 top ranked players had 112 disposals between them, of which 43 (38%) hit a target. Is it any wonder our forward line does not function, and we don't kick goals.

Viney’s second half kept us in it last night. Those who consistently question his role, don’t have much idea about the game.

If I was a defender at Melbourne, I would be getting totally fed up with defending hard only to see our forwards miss easy shots. It must be a real issue at times within a team.

Pickett kicks a goal. We win the following centre clearance and drive the ball deep to one on one marking contest. Marking contest brings the ball to ground and Pickett is not there to crumb. Makes perfect sense. .

Although I was [censored] off last night with the result, I’ve woken up feeling quite optimistic. We had our chances early. If we can start converting we’ll be hard to stop. With everything that went against us and some lapses of concentration around stoppages in our D50 which can easily be fixed, I think this was the first step to being back to where we were at the start of the year.

Top 2 was always going to be a stretch, and at one point this year we were definitely one of the top 2 teams, if not the best team. Sadly it looks like we will go down as one of those teams that peaks too early, it’s hard to control that sort of form because you just have to take advantage of it when it comes. The challenge for the FD, mainly Goody, Yze, and Williams, is to re-energise the players to capture that form back. That is going to be a super tricky thing to do because the players are nowhere near gelling to the same level they were early in the season. It seems as if we will play GC next, that is no easy task, but there can be zero doubt the we are both good enough and should win it. Rather than seeing this as a crisis the players and coaches should see this as the ultimate challenge to prove the doubters wrong. One of the few positives last night is that even though he missed some crucial kicks early, Brown looked dangerous and getting him into form could be the one of the most important things before the end of the season. Top 4 is a chance but dropping the stupid points against Adelaide, GWS, Collingwood, and Hawthorn now mean we will have to make them up elsewhere.

We were In it all night. Midfield matched the dogs, Gawn dominant. We were wasteful in attack, again, they were not. We missed several gettable shots, they did not. We failed to take our difficult chances, they did not. We got a rough ride from the umpires, they did not. Game over...

I really did feel the umps had a bee in their bonnet last night. Right from the very start. By half time in the most atrocious conditions the frees were 14 to four against. When the rain is pelting down that diffferential is much more amplified and we we were lucky to be only twenty odd down. The second half i guess the maggots realised the issue and gave us seven frees but just to be sure the dogs still got another ten. 25 frees to 11. On a dry night that would impact most games. On this shockjng wet event i beliveve it would seal any teams chances. Yes we missed too many shots but thats tge way we are. On a consistent and level with professionals adjudicating without obvious prejudice we would have at least been in it all the way. Watch tge replay and the frees paid and not paid ..where and when and it will show the umps were for whatever reason determined to see dogs get up. I wish the club would at least mention it. Dogs are the umps darlings without fail.

Hunt was good. Petty did his job.

Is it just me that can't stand Weightman? Looks like such a little smartarse, would love to seem him cleaned up (fairly) And how good was Kozzies tackle on Richards that put him out of the game? Reminded me of the one from his draft year, head down spear tackle

I think we have lost the fabric that made us a good side: 1. Selflessness 2. Few players competing for the same ball 3. Unpredictability going forward 4. Short efficient kicking going forward 5. Small mark/kicks forward keeping possession

Sure, they had Keath out and then Richards down, but we dominated them for 4 quarters and failed to capitalise in front of goal. I just don't rate the Bulldogs. I thought we were, with the exception of Oliver, and a few moments from Viney forward of centre, woeful, but with 10 minutes to go we were 4 points down. JJ takes the mark in the goalsquare and we're in front. But goalkicking has now cost us 4 wins (Adelaide, GWS, Hawthorn and tonight). Brown kicks those gimmes and I think we comfortably overrun them. I was pleased to see Gus back to the wing and Viney forward. Two good moves. Gus started okay, but faded I felt. Whereas, Viney was brilliant inside 50 and his attack on the ball carrier was exactly what we needed there, but it's time to shelve his midfield minutes. It's never been more obvious than tonight. He was a deadset liability at stoppages. He is the key reason our mids are bees to the honeypot. He just mindlessly hunts the ball carrier and completely exposes us on the outside. You certainly can't afford that against the Bulldogs. That's their entire game. Burn you on the outside as they flick it (and I mean flick it) to their receivers. But back to the bees to the honeypot, it wasn't just in the midfield that we failed to trust team mates to get the job done. I thought repeatedly we were done on the outside between the arcs and inside attacking 50, when multiple players swarmed the one Bulldog player, only for them to flick it out to a free Bulldog. We also seemed to take too long to adjust to the wet weather and played too fancy with the handball. We weren't clean either, particularly in the first half. I thought Salem was terrible, not just fumbly, but poor in the contest. Hunt tried hard but his kicking is a real worry. No drive or cleanness from Rivers or Hibberd. As for Brown, you have to wonder whether playing under a roof a lot of the time for North shaded his true accuracy in the midst of inclement weather. He just couldn't handle the conditions. I don't think I can remember seeing him kick so poorly. It's a conundrum because he actually takes marks and gets to the right spots, but if he's not kicking them, is he much better than Weideman? The answer is yes, but it will cost us games and potential finals. We didn't really have any winners forward of centre in the first half, perhaps Fritsch, but our lack of potency in the forward half has become an Achilles heel in the second half of the season, and much of this is down to accuracy. JJ, Jackson and Rivers all really struggled and Kozzy continued to make the easy look difficult, but I did love his pressure and attack on the ball. Tonight though is the first time I've felt we are relying on too many young guys to play important roles. I think it'd be worth resting JJ for Sparrow, Jackson for Weideman and Bowey for Rivers. Maybe not all in the same week but over the next two weeks. I'd much prefer to have some concerns now than come finals, but this evening was bitterly disappointing. Our defensive game was off (leaving Daniel free and then Bontempelli twice is not good enough), but so was our offence. The fact we only went down by what we did says a bit about our system and a bit about the Bulldogs.

We play a ballistic demanding style. Our younger players (Jackson, Rivers, Pickett, Jordan) have tired somewhat. No criticism. They need a freshen-up and preseasons. I don't think the commentators recognise how important these young players were to our early season form. All is not lost! We are loading. We can get that form back. If not, imagine 1-2 years time when we have the sweet-spot of preseasons into the youngsters and the core are at their prime. I have followed Melbourne for 40 years. This team is the best constructed with the greatest chance of success over the next few years. We just need to rack up Preliminary Final appearances. Anything can happen from there.

We can still win it but we must fix our structure around stoppages. Bulldogs are very good in this area, and backed one or two on the inside to get it to the players waiting outside. We were like flies to the proverbial you know what, and had far too many on the inside. Also letting match winners like Bontempelli go unmanned with no body pressure whatsoever in stoppages is asking for trouble. What happened to our forward pressure from ANB , Pickett and Spargo to allow Bailey Dale and Caleb Daniel so much space all night?

Really disappointed with last night on two levels: 1. Same issues as previous weeks. Poor goal kicking, leaving the corridor empty for dogs players to run into at ball ups inside forward 50, repeated high bombs out of contests, not kicking to our forwards advantage, poor forward 50 structure of our talls (always in the same area) 2. For what was actually a pretty cracking game, the enjoyment was completely taken away by one of the worst umpiring displays I can recall. Even my wife who follows the dogs, could see it was poor (she never admits anything). For what was turned out to be a 20 point win to them, I don’t think we were a 30% (20 divided by 65) worse side than them. Felt like it should have been less than a goal win to me. To be honest, if we played then in finals I would be pretty confident of winning the game provided the umpiring was fair and even and we could convert a reasonable percentage of easy set shots. Our biggest issue I think is that they have so many players that can easily and effectively swap in and out of the side to suit the conditions and opposition while our next best players are a significant step down. We are one dimensional is a number of aspects of the game, which makes it easy for opposition coaches to work out a way to beat us. Examples include the long bomb inside forward 50 to all our talls standing within 5m of each other and the kick out from behinds to exactly the same spot on the ground over and over again. Anyway, while these lockdowns drag on and on and foolish people march for “freedom” (only to potentially risk freedom by spreading virus), hopefully our boys go back to the same farm they visited early in the year which lead to a new found sense of team and the great start to the season and our coaches watch a few episodes of Ted Lasso for some tips on how to cure Dani Rojas (aka Ben Brown) goal kicking “yips” (we don’t say that word here. See latest episode of Ted Lasso). Have a great week good people.

Thought Hunty was pretty good

We are building a team to play finals for hopefully the next 10years. A whole host of 19yr olds may not win us a flag this year (although I believe we are right in the mix )however all we lacked tonight was a little polish & finishing. Don’t care who the Bulldogs or any other team had missing …you play who you play. Appalling umpiring but again we can only blame ourselves for losing. I believe Brown had one of his better games even though conditions didn’t suit ..I’ll change my opinion if he doesn’t incrementally improve against the Suns. I’m actually happy we will slip from top 2..remove supporter expectations & let them roll on through the next few games. We’re ok…

For those who have been scoffing at everyone who dared to bemoan our garbage recent form, saying all was good because we always beat the top sides, what do you have to cling to now? Losing to bottom 4 teams is a klaxon that we do not have our mental side sorted, and this loss was the manifestation of that crap form. We can't play below our best and keep beating the real contenders. Our skills generally under pressure are laughable Our inside 50 entries are abysmal Our kicking for goal is under 15 level We are being exposed as pretenders. The writing has been on the wall for almost 2 months now.

Gave it a good hour cool off. Can sum it up with two good sides, one didn’t convert their chances, other one did, team that didn’t certainly didn’t lose through lack of effort, better team won. Tried our best, didn’t get over the line. Probably need 3 wins of 4 to get top 4 and need to run the table for top 2. It’s fickle stuff this football caper,near enough isn’t good enough. Letting Bont roam free at the back of the contest twice for 2 goals didn’t help. Dogs were much the better side tonight but my word they had some great help from the umpires. Never usually one to look at that stuff but 25-11 was absurd and hurt us in crucial areas. Smashed the hit outs, not the clearances. Plenty of inside 50s for not enough scoring shots. It was like the worst of our problems in the last 4 years in one at times. Thats pretty much it from me, it’s up for grabs now. Season could end in glory, could fall out of the 4, the season could get canned altogether, who the hell knows. I’m not quite as annoyed about it though as other ones this year. I still want to live a good life. Good evening all.

Where to start.. Dogs had Treloar, Dunkley, Keith, Martin and Wood missing tonight. We had no one. 100% they are the better side. Say what you want, they've been consistent this year and have won the games we've lost. They deserve the flag this year. Another game where we are exposed carryig passengers. For goodness bloody give Luke Jackson a spell! Once again had zero influence alongside the likes of Rivers, Hibberd, Langdon, ANB who have all been down on form the past couple of weeks. We've got the likes of Melksham, Lockhart, Daw, Weideman and Bowey all set and ready to fill a role. Harmes got taught a lesson by Libba. When his tagging goes to [censored], Harmes really adds nothing tonight. It was honest a disappointment game. Also why is he a try hard Dusty? ANB was back to his usual brain fades/spudding it up. Thought I saw a much Improved player at the start of year but nope, same [censored] different week. Can we recruit another Kozzie next year that can keep him out? The difference between Bont and Petracca is light years apart. If I see another cringe comparison by supporters on here and also the media then I'll spew up. Don't get me wrong, Petracca is good. But he is so sloppy and half the time think he's gotta be the [censored] match winner by always wanting to shoot for goal. The way that Bont just cruises around, but yet keeps his game simple is seriously a marvellous to watch. Brayshaw and Salem are both incredibly soft. I saw one piece of play where Brayshaw completely squibbed a contest. It was not s good look at all and I think it stifled him because he was ****house for the rest of the game. Salem is too scared to either pick up the ball or provide a 50-50 contest. I'm honestly losing patience with Brayshaw. Defence was a bit sloppy tonight. Lever got exposed for not being a good one on one defender. Gawn 57 hitouts to English 14 and yet we lost the clearance count.. how on [censored] earth does this happen?? The ruck to midfield connection is an absolute mess. Throw that next two our goal kicking issues and there is some genuine concerns heading into finals Not sure what to make of us now. Have voiced concerns for over a month now, and we are 18 rounds in yet we still don't know what our best forward structure is. Hate to be negative, but we've seen all this before and unfortunately this year isn't much different to 2018.

Viney to defensive forward for Spargo, rest. Brayshaw into the midfield. Sparrow to the wing. Jackson rest for Weideman to play same role. JJ rest for AVB.

I agree with most of what has been written. The free kick difference was inexplicable but I was more annoyed with the ones they didn't pay. Especially the throws . Endeavour and tackling will only get you so far, as Hawthorn showed us up last week. I think the Dogs had a bit more class on the park and around the midfield. Bailey Smith on the wing dominated whoever he was on (Gus or Langers). Dale, Daniel and Duryea all deliver the ball better than we do as Salem and May are our best kicks out of defence. Hunter, Bont, Macrae & Libba bat deeper than our midfield guns in Trac and Oliver. Despite this we had the same scoring shots, identical disposals with even kicks and handballs, more contested football, the same number of tackles, kicked 2 out of bounds on the full and 1 that didn't make the distance. With 9 minutes to go we trailed by 4 points. They took their chances, English kicks a miracle goal from a stoppage that somehow makes it over the line. bailey Smith gets the ball on the flank and kicks one on the run from way out There wasn't much difference between these 2 teams. I think Keath getting injured assisted them as they replaced a tall with a small and gave them better balance. Schache did well at full back when the opportunity arose We aren't that bad! We lack some class in some areas but we are trying to build a team and culture that plays finals and is in the top 4 for the next 5 years.

The way I see it, we bolted too early, showed all our (limited) cards to the rest of the comp too early, and flew too close to the sun. We did it with a low-key arrogance that assumed we'd be contesting for the premiership and just needed to pass the time until September. Clearly, the good coaches have figured out that if you pressure us hard around the ball and man-up on our defenders we crumble. Clarko did it to us last week, and reflecting on how the Bulldogs misjudged us in Round 11 there was no chance we'd see a repeat of that. Salem rarely gets space and doesn't have the gut-busting drive to break through. Hunt has the confidence, but not the finesse (though he was OK tonight). Hibbo has forgotten how to create. And to highlight our inability to adjust our game to the conditions and situation, Goody started Harmes on Libba again, who fresh from a week of rest laughed in his face and got his hands dirty. In the first 10 minutes Daniel and Dale ran around on the half back line with freedom and cut us to pieces despite the slippery conditions. And just like in all previous years we couldn't address a critical need. Even when they lost Keath early and Richards in the last we were still unable to exploit that! It feels as if we are incredibly reactive and scramble our way around searching for scores. Kicking efficiency is just not to a professional standard. Other observations: - At the start of the game they were comparing Bont and Trac as the two best in the league. Bont gave us all the finger - that's how a leader leads and adjusts to pressure - Viney needs to be remade as a defensive forward (eg. shut down Daniel and put his body in to create when we're on the move). - Jackson is giving us nothing. His time will come but it's not 2021. Bring back Mitch Brown - I still feel like he can become a no frills Cam Pederson type - It's time to blood Bowey, Harmes back to VFL, and start rotating Salem between mid and halfback (like Crisp of Collingwood) to become a little less predictable. We've been SO lucky with injuries that it's masked the poor state of our best 22. Unfortunately I don't think we'll be gifted such a clean bill on health in future campaigns. So take action NOW!

It's difficult for me to watch that game and think, this wasn't umpire bias? they were hot on the trigger to give the Dogs free's but loathed to pay them the other way. I know others won't agree with me but i genuinely do doubt the integrity of the game at times.

There are two wildly unbalanced stats from that game, and all the others are remarkably tight. We won hit outs 68-18. They won free kicks 25-11. Every sport at the top level should aspire to the best possible quality of adjudication. This was not that. Doesn’t matter how you spin it, that was not a level playing field out there. Season free kick stats equally confirm the Bulldogs are getting a free ride through the season. The big question is why, but nobody’s asking it.

Thought we were pretty good tonight. They were just a little better and they had Bontempelli who made our mids look silly in the last quarter. The umpiring - meh . Our inability to convert pretty straightforward opportunities was more of an issue. Well done to Oliver and Gawn who had good connection tonight. Lever was really solid. If we can make top 4 we are still a real shot. Our challenge is to win three out of the last four to make sure of it.