SaberFang

I said before the match we went in with too many kids and stand by that. Too many were ineffective today, and while that's understandable, we were clearly short a few experienced consistent players.

But... but... teams that play lots of kids aren't meant to do well! They aren't meant to win games! Bulldogs and Saints are miles ahead of us and they're filled to the brim with players from the last 2 drafts.

Ultimately there is little pressure on Roos because he has the money in the bag and an end date in sight. He won't be sacked. There doesn't appear to be fire in his belly the way there was when he coached the Swans.

Deck chairs. Titanic.

And the Bulldogs come from 30 points down to take the lead in the 4th. [censored] I'm jealous of good young teams. And not only storm home but get goal after goal after goal after goal after goal without missing a [censored] thing. [censored] hell this club shits me!

Brisbane will definitely beat us. Repeat of last year's disaster.

We'll be 2nd or 3rd from the bottom this draft. Gold Coast are reinvigorated, looking set to beat Bulldogs right now.

Not having the run of Kent and skills of Salem are killing us.

Just heard the result. Absolutely filthy. We lost that game as only we could. 16 other teams in the league would've wiped their assholes with Essendon today, but Melbourne continue to find exciting new ways to [censored] on their supporters. The damage to the fabric of this club is becoming beyond repair.

Looks like we have pick 3 wrapped up.

In positive reflection, half time last night was relatively similar. Tigers broke away comfortably after that though.

This will end up an inverse of last year's result. Essendon dominate everything except the scoreboard but end up losing by a point. This year it's our turn.

They'll give it another quarter and see if we're still too tall in our forward line. Clearly what we're doing now isn't working in these conditions, so pull the sub trigger with Dawes for JKH at halftime. Howe, Dawes and Hogan all going up in the same marking contest is as dumb as it gets when they have a spare behind the ball.

You'd think we'd learned from the Collingwood game. Even before the match the 3AW commentators were reminding Roos about how easily Oxley cut us up. What the actual frack is going on?

Any idiot knew how Goddard would approach this game with his captain out and his poor performance last week. For crying out loud, get someone on him now!

5 years ago to the day, our two teams played against each other in the exact same ladder positions and we went on to win by 19 points. At the end of that year, Knights was sacked. Rather eerie.

All this talk of injuries for the Bombers gives me no comfort -- we beat Geelong with our worst injury list of the year.

What did we do to deserve this?

I don't rate Melksham at all; whinging, pathetic little [censored] who pretends to act tough. Waited all year to see Viney clean him up with a bone-crushing tackle. Was disappointed to see him out and replaced with an unknown.

So what does Hird have on the club? Presumably he'll implicate the entire board and executive committee as being complicit in the drugs program?

Yep, might go to the gym for this one and check the scores every half hour. Never been so nervous about a game. It's weird how indifferent I was about checking scores against Sydney/Freo/Hawks because I basically assumed a loss was imminent; different story today when everyone expects you to win and a defeat would be crushing.

Robbo asked if the club would re-sign Hird. He tried to avoid an answer saying it was too hypothetical, before Dermott interjected and flatly asked "if you are in this position in 2016, do you re-sign him?" The answer was yes.

Neil Craig gushing about Melbourne on 3AW, highly rates the job Viney is doing on recruitment, and the way our squad is finally coming together. Paul's influence and all the people he's brought in can't be denied, and "if you're a member of the Melbourne footy club, you can see a nice, steady improvement getting everything into place."

Post-Darwin results over the last 10 years... read into it what you will. The average losing margin after Darwin games is 42pts. 2014: Fremantle defeated GWS by 76 pts. 2014: Melbourne lost to Geelong by 66 pts. 2013: Melbourne lost to North by 122 pts. 2013: Lions lost to Port by 9 pts. 2012: Bulldogs lost to Geelong by 20 pts. 2012: Gold Coast lost to Port by 48 pts. 2012: Melbourne lost to North by 54 pts. 2012: Port lost to Freo by 27 pts. 2011: Port lost to Carlton by 62 pts. 2011: Melbourne lost to Hawthorn by 54 pts. 2010: Melbourne lost to Geelong by 54 pts. 2010: Port lost to Richmond by 47 pts. 2009: Port lost to Geelong by 34 pts. 2009: Bulldogs defeated North by 22 pts. 2008: Port lost to North by 2 pts. 2008: Bulldogs defeated Melbourne by 31 pts. 2007: Bulldogs lost to North by 26 pts. 2007: Fremantle defeated Carlton 77 pts. 2006: Bulldogs defeated Adelaide 7 pts. 2006: Port lost to Collingwood by 2 pts. 2005: Bulldogs lost to Saints by 18 pts. 2005: Carlton lost to West Coast by 77 pts. 2004: Bulldogs defeated North by 30 pts. 2004: Port defeated Collingwood by 37 pts. I'm inclined to think most of those results were more reflective of the ladder and quality of teams that year. Port, Melbourne and Bulldogs have all gone through periods of sustained mediocrity, with the Bulldogs coming off relative success between 2006-2009 (hence the wins).

Judging our post-Darwin performances is as folly as judging our post-Etihad wins. We've been garbage regardless of the venue. The correct stat to judge is indeed the post-Darwin results of our opponent.