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Circumstances force me to take a circuitous route to the G today and, consequently, I shall be leaving one of The Manor's fleet at Wallan Railway Station. No doubt it will be stolen and I shall have to seek an alternative means of transportation in the pm. However, my mood will not be dampened as I will have witnessed a comprehensive Dees victory. Even with Clarrie MIA, I have no concerns about our ability to cover Freo in all respects. We have flag aspirations. We must finish top 4 or , better still, top 2. The second half of the season is near and dropping games to sides below you on the ladder simply cannot be allowed.

He needs another tall defender so he can play the floating third man up. We [censored] our defense when we took Petty out of there.

One thing that doesn't get mentioned enough: Lever has been [censored] rubbish this season.

I would like an apology from the poster on here who said I was being dramatic when I said post game last week that our season was tittering on the brink. Oliver is our most important player by a fair margin. Even with him in the side we can barely win the ground ball or get a meaningful clearance anymore. I don’t think we will win a game now until he’s back in the side, unless something very drastic changes. Blues are under the pump, Pies will have an easy kill and Geelong in Geelong will be a one sided affair. Losing him and Petty could not have come at a worse time, but a good team learns to overcome. We are obviously not a good team right now.

We are a 6-8 side. It’s that simple.

Have been out and was hoping to come home, see that we'd won, and put the replay on. Sigh. Amiss and Treacy 5 goals and 23 disposals. JVR and TMac 2 goals and 14 disposals. We can't keep doing this. Lever was in AA form at the start of the year when we had three tall defenders. Since moving Petty forward and not replacing him in defence, Lever's form has deteriorated. I doubt anyone on here thinks that's a coincidence. We don't need all of Salem, Bowey, McVee, Rivers and Brayshaw. We don't need all of Chandler, Spargo, ANB and Pickett, either. Our structure is out and it's time to see the FD step up and make the changes we need to revitalise our season. The season is not lost at 7-4 and 133.9%. That is a solid enough foundation to attack finals/the flag. But what we're doing right now isn't working and needs to change.

If Robbo is right we're asking the wrong question

i can’t help but think we are wasting a list

I think we might just be an average team. top 8 but not much more Fwd line is non existent general team connection just not there

I haven't been this angry after a loss for quite some time. Today was a [censored] joke, we never ever looked like getting to goal. There are players out there who look like downright garbage right now. The honeymoon period of the 2021 flag is finally coming to an end. No-one outside of us cares about that anymore. Are we actually a top 4 side? Really?

It’s one thing losing a game when you have a rubbish list. It’s another to keep losing games with a list capable of so so much more.

ANB 6 tackles in a quarter. brilliant

We have an important day today - my 6 year old nephew (Dad: Kangas, Mum: Carlton) has insisted to his parents that he barracks for the Dees like his cousins. Today will be his first game.

I wonder which Melbourne player will be reported today?

I suggest you duck for cover

I really only want to see three things selection-wise: Another tall defender alongside May and Lever. Our insistence of going with May and Lever on their own, stretching HIbberd, is not working. It's not a good strategy made even worse by seeing Lever's AA form in the first few weeks fall apart since we moved Petty. I don't care whether that's Tomlinson, Turner or someone else. A change to the two tall forwards. The JVR-TMac combo doesn't work. If JVR's tired, he should be rested. Either way, TMac isn't good enough. I don't know what the FD are waiting to see in Brown but he was averaging 4 goals a game at AFL level before his injury and perhaps we should try putting him back in. He can hardly do worse than what we're seeing. A rebalancing of our smalls. We have too many small defenders who are low possession getters. We have too many small forwards who are low possession getters. Too much is left to too few. We need to increase the number of midfielders in the side who can rotate through the middle at the expense of one of the smalls. I fear this will mean Chandler or McVee will be dropped, which saddens me because I like both of them and like the freshness they bring to the side, but something has to change.

Such poor connection through the middle and into the forward line. I now just assume that players such as ANB and even Brayshaw will more often than not cough it up. Here’s disposal efficiency for those moving through the middle Viney 37% ANB 44% Brayshaw 52% Grundy 53% Petracca 58% Harmes 64% Pickett 64% Langdon 74% Sparrow 78% Salem 79% Gawn 87% In contrast, I could only find 1 Walyalup player on 50% and almost all were 60-70% plus and they were facing just as much pressure as us. The decision making and skill errors behind those numbers are killing us.

Grateful for Goody coaching us to the 2021 flag, but he’s got to go. We’ve become way too easy to coach against, and have no plan B. Gotta clean out the assistants too.

What a joke. We won that flag in one of the most awe inspiring displays of football brilliance the AFL has ever seen. You can be as annoyed as you want to be about today, but don’t use it to rewrite our history.

Embarrassing. To let an average football team show you up on your home deck twice in 2 years is an absolute disgrace.

I need a new hobby. I’m thinking something like basket weaving.

Close that stupid death riding thread.

Want to see us play on the edge for the entire match, hard, fast, smart footy. Plenty of tackling pressure, hunting and creative handballing and kicks. They will not give the backline easy intercepts, as the Waly's are good at not kicking down the line of the goals. Hope to see our defence being more one on one and accountable. Small forwards need to kick a handful. Go Dees.

NFCSS

Harmes is gonna kill it today, can feel it.

i’m drunk go dees see y’all in the morn

Oh dear! we lose two games against good teams by a kick and the reaction of gloom and doom by some of our regular contributors including Joe Boy is so predictable. Win, we are the best. Lose. we are rabble and all is lost this year. Honestly, what mindset do they have? 7-4 and a great percentage and they complain. What do you think Geelong supporters are feeling right now? Do you think they have thrown in the towel? Sensible non Geelong supporters would never write them off as premiers 2023, me included. We will still give this flag a shake.

Yeah I don’t care how bad we ever get, nobody will ever take that flag away from us. We won it and we won it so comprehensively, it’s actually disrespectful to suggest we fluked it. We climbed over a lot of hurdles, including massive Covid restrictions, to get that flag. Let’s no rewrite history because we are mad at current events.

Agreed. That was so embarrassing. Don’t boo if you don’t want, but cheering a player who basically checked out mid year is a joke.

Lots of criticism directed towards the coaches. Some may be warranted but this year has 2020 vibes going on. At the end of 2020 going into 2021, something big happened. The players actually took ownership of their performances and did something about it. We are at the stage again now. The players need to fix this. Do better Ffs.

Look, I get you're upset with the game, I'm sure almost all of us are, but all of your posts are attacks at Demonlanders. Do we have to, after every loss, turn on each other? There's plenty to talk about, let's focus on the team. I'm sick of coming onto threads like this and seeing so many people going the "I told you so" route trying to put down anyone who dared during the week to try to see the good parts of what we've been doing and how we could win today.

No, but we have to stop using the umpiring as an excuse. Every side cops [censored] umpiring. That’s life. A good side doesn’t make excuses.

I'm sick of being on the back foot every single time the ball spills to the back of the contest. Either we aren't onto it quick enough or they are too quick for us. Either way it sucks

It’s not even that he misses most marks these days, it’s the way he consistently lets the ball go behind him when he misses the mark. Shadow of what he used to be. Can’t blame not having another tall back down there because hibbo has been brilliant all year as that 3rd tall

Maybe we should try using our best key forward for once? The team balance has been off since Petty was used as a forward which weakened the backline and prevented Ben Brown coming back in. Also, clearances are trash and we can’t win a scrap or the ball when it hits the ground. Voss and Goodwin in a Loser Leaves Town match. Carlton by 22.

No need to watch the post game interview. (Opponent) were excellent today, they brought the pressure we anticipated. We'll go away and learn from this. (Opponent) are a good side and we have to be better. Thanks.

I think we missed 5 gettable set shots in the second half Poor goalkicking is poor football

Love the new culture the MFC have built. Another ordinary interstate team doing us on the G. People wonder why our crowds are either small or just not into it...ourr players are a bit soft and don't offer much to inspire. What a squibby football club peeing away the best opportunity we will have in a lifetime to change into a ruthlessly competitive club.

How about we find our b#@_! And start sticking tackles

From the Age re last year. "Christian Petracca woke up sick on game day, not even 24 hours after Melbourne withdrew key forward Tom McDonald from the selected side with ankle soreness. McDonald did not play again for the rest of the season, eventually diagnosed with a dreaded Lisfranc injury, after being named then pulled out of the following week’s clash with the Sydney Swans, too. They also lost All-Australian defender Steven May to a concussion before quarter-time in a friendly fire incident with teammate Jake Lever, before a knee issue hobbled fellow key backman Harry Petty in the third term." Explains a lot.

Imo, you should treat the two years separately. It's easy to lump the second half of last year with this year and extrapolate an argument, but we're different this year. Different personnel, different rotations, tweaked game-plan, a fitter group, etc. I prefer to analyse 2023 in isolation. If we win today, which I expect, 8/3 with the game's best percentage will hold us in good stead for the back half of the year. We haven't been perfect, but nor were Geelong in 2022. It's easy to forget they were 5/4 after round 9. Today is a very important game.

That’s right, isnt it?! Viney steps up when required -a champion.

It’s a must win today. A top 5 to 10 pick is on the line plus a top 4 finish. Nuff said. Go Dees

Should win today. I would like to see McDonald really have a presence today. I just remember Brown and Weideman were non existent last time we played them at the G. I'm going to back him in for a big one today. Petracca and Viney to really stand up and show that no Oliver, no worries. Max had an absolute stinker. Rarely does this two weeks in a row. Kozzie to get back into form starting today. Won't be watching the footy as I'll be kicking the dew off at 2pm so hoping for some good news once I open my phone again at 4:45pm.

We’ve responded well after each loss this season. Keen to see the midfield dynamic without Oliver over the next couple of weeks. A great start time for a game, weather should be fine and hoping a lot of us turn up to support the boys.

Apparently expected scores were 80.3-63.5 in our favour. Our early season accuracy has faded. Not helping.

Tmac tries but injuries have killed him, good servant of the club but time to move on.

Our backs and mids played mostly OK. Our intensity, run and attack on the ball or player looked mostly OK. But our in-close handballing, fumbling, and bog ordinary kicking to inside F50 makes us look like a team placed about 8th, which is where we are heading. I cannot believe how bad our kicking into F50 is, probably best summed up by Trac's out on the full in the 1st quarter. Even our great kicks like Salem, Bowey and Picket looked terrible today. Make no mistake, Freo were not good enough to win that game, but we were error-riddled enough to lose it.

Who asked those questions? Prior to the Hawthorn game we’d beaten Geelong, Port, Brisbane, GWS, Sydney, the Dogs and Essendon. In other words, every single other top 8 side.