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Really good game from our perspective. Got that solidity behind the ball back. Really good signs. Contested possession +29. inside 50s +20. clearances +9. Smashed them all over the ground. I don’t know what most people want from the team. Without looking, I assume it’s just groupthink from the Gameday thread.

Loved McVees game.

Didn't mind what I saw from Smith. Clearly needs to get more of the ball but played with more aggression than I thought he was capable of. Made Carlton earn a few hard balls.

Having the extra tall defender helped Lever and May tonight. Now can we get a key forward in please...

Salem was awesome tonight. Was great to see him in full flight running through the middle in the third quarter. Bowey was also great before he was concussed.

Before everyone goes Tomlinson there is nothing he can do when the ball comes in lace out. I thought he was ok ish

Look we all wake up tomorrow morning smiling because we won. Good way to start the weekend

BURN THE TAPES

Petracca, Sparrow, Bowey, May, Lever, Salem, McVee, Brayshaw and Spargo superb tonight.

I’m sure the mood in this thread will soon resemble a funeral but I’m personally happy enough to win ugly. Tomlinson was ordinary to poor tonight but Lever looked as good as he has in a long time. I’d keep Tommo in until Petty is good to go after the bye. We’ve survived the no-Oliver apocalypse and we just need to beat Collingwood to pump some adrenaline back in our season. Tough ask, but stranger things have happened.

Yeah, coz they were so ruthless last week against the second worst team in the afl when they got smashed in the last quarter, giving up 6 goals. And despite winning three more games prior to this match, they still had a lower percentage than us. So ruthless. Is this a bloody pies footy forum or a Demon's one? FMD.

In all honesty bar the average kicking for goal that second half is our game. Super tight defence, great at contest, multiple avenues to goal. I enjoyed it

Gawn: “It was a good game.” Petracca: “Carlton are a great side.” Gawn and Trac apparently made a bet for who could tell the most boldfaced lie in their post match.

Remember when we could hit a target and kick straight? What a time to be alive that was.

You beauty. Never looked like losing. Should have won by 7 or 8 goals easily, but fatigue hitting our guys hard. Happy with any win tonight. Bowser makes way for Hibbo, but would have loved Bowser to play KB as well. It is what it is though. Really need to get our ball movement going if we're going to beat Collingwood. Missed too many opportunities to slingshot and score tonight. Ground ball was way better though at both ends of the ground. You ripper, go Redlegs.

I hope we rip their still beating black heart out of their chest and shove it in their face as we kill off their season hopes once and for all. Too much?

Never fear, my husband is coming tonight in a last minute change of mind. 4 points are in the bag… or he will be banished from football and the house forever 😂

McKay is a very very good player. His goal kicking aside he’s a giant who marks the ball at the highest point. It’s so hard to defend in the air. Tomlinson was fine. He got lost on the lead once but the other contests were just McKay being far too strong in the air. Was hardly disgraced.

Agree we absolutely killed them everywhere except conversion. Yes McKay got the better of Tommo but that enabled May to murder Curnow and Lever to intercept. Joel Smith enabled JVR and Max to get clear up forward. All around it was a dominant performance. 27 shots from 59 i50s vs 16 from 39. That's a kill.

Can’t share the enthusiasm here, ‘wins’ like this paper up cracks - we are a bloody ordinary footy team and more often than not have been for a few years - we should be better than what we are, but we need to see that we are not, it’s not about the opposition, it’s about us and how we play and make decisions on the ground. Our coaching has been sub-standard for awhile against the best and we never want to deal with the hard truth. Anyone looking objectively at our performances knows we are nowhere near another premiership - who amongst the current coaches will challenge the club with this view and cause change? Who will speak up against the mantra that we ‘are learning’, we still ‘don’t know what our best forward set up is’ etc etc - it’s always glass half full stuff from our coaches, particularly Goody - we are always ‘trying to get better’ … but unsurprisingly, never do… my main point is we haven’t learnt, or developed any further than where we were mid way through last year, if anything we are worse. This to me comes back to our coaching which I believe is sub-standard and complacent. Our ‘window’ is closing, I’ve been following he demons for 50 years and time goes quickly and I just feel we are missing a golden opportunity with some ‘lazy’ management

Don't undersell that win, sure it was messy but Carlton were desperate. Disappointing to see them waste inside 50s but it will click.

The Blues season is on the line and their captain and coach have been in the firing line all week. If the Dees cough this one up the media's crosshairs will do a 180 and will surely be directed at the Demons who have only won 13 games from their last 25 outings. This is a must win game for the Melbourne Football Club too.

Let’s take the 4 points and never speak of this game again.

It wasn't great ! It wasn't pretty ! ..... but we did what we had to do - we put put away the pretenders! We may have given Voss a send off also !

As usual @Axis of Bob is right. The scoreline was ugly given our inaccuracy but we dominated general play all night. The stats showed it. +50 disposals but also +11 tackles. +29 CPs, +9 clearances, +20 inside 50s (they only had 39) and +7 scoring shots. On expected scores we should have won by 7-odd goals I believe. May kept Curnow silent. Tomlinson got beaten but allowed Lever to play well enough that Voss felt compelled to send Lewis Young forward to tag him. Gawn got his mojo back. McVee was superb. JVR was threatening all night. Yes they had mids out but we had Oliver, Petty and Hibberd out and lost Bowey mid-game. If you said during the week we’d lose, or if you said you couldn’t see anything good in our season, or that you thought we were cooked for the year, you should be celebrating this win (whether you do so openly or not).

It was an ugly game but not an ugly performance. Did plenty of things right just didn't execute well. I'm sure they will put it behind them.

We were on a hiding to nothing. Playing Carlton at the moment is a little tricky. We'll run Collingwood very close. Mark my words sunny Jim.

We played terribly. We won because Carlton were more terrible than us

Highlight is McVee. Quick, clean, sure handed. Kid is a star.

Gutsy win. Love it People expecting champagne footy each w week are kidding themselves

Surely a Rising Star nom for JVR tonight?

A win was all I wanted after the past two weeks. We were wasteful up forward but the reality is that we dominated general play and Carlton were lucky to be that close all game. Salem had his best game since 2021. Our backline looks so much better when he plays like that. It was good to see Langdon regain some form too.

I 100% disagree, a little out of it that quarter, but his attack on the ball is light years ahead of TMac

We are all dumber for having to watch this crud.

There is another thread on this. The reason there is so much of the language around 'learning opportunities' - is due to to the education of coaches and players - who often refer back to Carol Dweck https://www.mindsetworks.com/science/ - and 'Growth Mindset' - - it's endemic within the AFL industry. What I know from direct experience is that whilst the coaches and players talk it ie: 'learning opportunities' its not always the lived experience of athletes.. there is a lot of growth (or learning opportunities if you will) to still occur on how to implement it within a ecosystem such as an AFL club. Anyway... What we do know however is, that the hunger and disappointment that you talk about, is not a sustainable way to relate (as an athlete and coach) to the weekly wins and losses that occur to get the best out of ourselves. It's exhausting, and depletes us both physiologically and psychologically - so that'd be the cortisol and the adrenal responses... which actually take you away from being able to perform at your optimum. Don't confuse the language around learning opportunities as 'not caring'. The athletes care far more than you or I do as a supporter - as they are under exhausting scrutiny weekly. Hope that helps provide some clarity.

Setterfield can do what he likes tonight. Now plays for Essendon.

Smith is not a defender against the Charlie Cameron's of this world. He is better if we play him fwd.

Thought fritsch looked the best he has all year, moved well all over the ground and looked like he would make something happen whenever he had it. Could have had 4 goals and would normally kick those set shots. Hopefully he gets his eye in again for the back half of the year.

Tomlinson was just ok on a very good player, but he freed up Lever which made our backline look 9000 times better. We have to keep another tall down there to make sure he can play his natural intercept game. It’s so critical to how we play.

The dog just walked up in front of the tv and wiped his butt on the rug. [just wasn’t quick enough to get a photo]. Not pretty but effective. Important 4 points. Now the dog is scratching the blind to say it’s time for a wee and bed, so let’s shift focus to next week for a GF preview.

Judd McVee fantastic. JVR best game. Bowey playing his best game of the season when hurt. Very disappointing. Langdon best game also.

Fritsch should have handballed to Chandler. I know he scored, but dribbling it through from 20m when you've got a guy running in for a guaranteed goal isn't the play.

He will fit right in here then.

I don’t know how we managed to pick up McVee as a rookie but I’m glad we did.

Joel Smith has been very unlucky with injuries but I have liked what he has been doing up forward with Casey. Hopefully he can bring that the the G tonight.

i thought drinking pots instead of pints would help?

So 18 year old 95kg man-child Jonathan Brown and 18 year old 95kg man-child Jacob Van Rooyen had 'presence' at a in their first year but developing 80kg tall forward Matt Jefferson won't make it because he doesn't have presence. Cool insights. Interestingly, in his first 8 games Van Rooyen had 54 disposals (7.1 per game) which included one game where he had 22 possessions (in a game where we kicked 177 points in a 110 point win), and 3 games where he didn't even have 6 touches. In that time he kicked 15 goals 6 behinds. He also got the freedom of playing part time ruck to pad some of those numbers. In his first 8 games, Jefferson had 64 disposals (8 per game) and kicked 10 goals 8 behinds. It backs up my thoughts that generally people are terrible at remembering the past. Jefferson is basically performing as well as Roo at this point of his career despite being far less developed. What I think is really interesting is that prior to Ben Brown coming into the VFL team in round 5, Jefferson averaged 10.5 disposals, 3.8 marks and 3.3 shots at goal per game. When he plays with Brown those numbers drop to 5.2 disposals, 2.6 marks and 1.2 shots at goal per game. Also interestingly, when we only played 2 recognised tall forwards (in rounds 2, 3, and 4), he kicked 7 goals.

High hopes. Low confidence. The life of a Melbourne supporter.

Draw.