titan_uranus

No doubt Goodwin has to cop responsibility for us being flat from the first bounce for the 10293th time in his coaching career. But we cannot absolve the players. Half-hearted tackles, no defensive running, hollywood handballs, dropped marks, missed kicks, laziness. They have to pull their fingers out too.

You are such a dumb [censored] troll. Lever has been in our best about 8 times this year. Wagner's played one game! And was decent! It's not even possible for him to have got a game "on the back of poor games".

We were off, intensity wise, in the Port game. That was somewhat understandable: we had a four day break, they had either 5 or 6, and they're on top of the ladder. There is no excuse today. The Swans played the same day we did (so we're a few hours behind not a day or two), and they're in the bottom 4. They're also missing Franklin, Heeney, Mills and Rampe. To have players jogging around in the first half of a must-win game with finals on the line would be unfathomable if it wasn't something we've seen repeatedly before.

As bad a quarter as we've played all year, unforgivable given the opponent and what's at stake. All of the hallmarks of bad Melbourne are on display. Weak tackling efforts. Hollywood handpasses. Turnovers. No plan forward of centre. Outnumbered seemingly everywhere. Slow, being outrun. It's all there, and it's all terrible. OMac's made a mistake every time the ball's gone near him. Smith close to likewise. It's bad enough that Jones turned it over on his left once, but to do it again after taking a mark inside 50 is disgraceful. Melksham didn't touch it that quarter, Weideman can't get near it, ANB's struggling. We saw Essendon pull back a 36-point deficit after looking equally incompetent last week. Other than that, I can't think of any reason to think we have any chance in this game.

This is 2019 Melbourne. 6 inside 50s for one point. They've had 8 inside 50s for 4.1. This is the same side who had 9 scoring shots in an entire game against Fremantle two weeks ago, but has already had 8 scoring shots in a half today.

Does Jones NEVER learn lessons? I can't take this.

I'm happy to go early and say this game is done and so is our season.

0-4 in clearances this quarter. Inexcusable given our opponent is a poor clearance side. We are completely off.

That early OMac handball is why I struggle to accept he's best 22. He picks it up and just gets rid of it, panicking. Is that three crumbing goals we've conceded now?

Fox showing Sydney's won the clearance count 3 times in their last 20 matches. Yet beating us in that area today.

We're leading in CPs 35-31 but trailing 6-8 in clearances. Despite that, it's 14 inside 50s to 5.

Surely a 50 against Papley for being in Brayshaw's protected zone? He should have kicked that regardless, though. We played poorly but have a 3 point lead. Question is whether the breeze will cause us grief in the second quarter.

And we've now had the three Demons going up for the same ball and spoiling each other. It's all happening.

It looks to me like they're flooding back, cluttering up our space. A weakness we've had for years.

This is bad Melbourne. No plan forward of centre. 8 inside 50s for 0.2 compared to 4 inside 50s for 2.0. This has disappointing loss written all over it.

Shopping him around? After everything we did to rehab him and get him back to playing? Despite the obviously strong relationship he has with May and, it seems, with Goodwin (possibly/probably Burgess too)? No way. IMO Bennell's issue is intensity - he hasn't been sprinting or chasing hard enough when he's been in the side. If that's because he's fearful of injuring himself, that's something he has to work on. But I've seen enough to believe he still has the desire to make it, and the talent to be a best 22 player for us. After putting all this work in, I cannot imagine we'd be giving up now.

I will approach all four of our final four games the same way: with extreme nerves. Our form against the weaker sides this year has been solid (comfortable wins over Adelaide, North, Hawthorn and Gold Coast). But with the significance of each of these final games comes pressure, and we all know we've struggled with expectation before. We should have Sydney covered. They have been distinctly mediocre all year. Their win over GWS was exciting but IMO an outlier. Their only other wins have been vs Adelaide, North and Hawthorn (and each of those was by less than two goals). Since beating North in Round 3, all their losses have been by at least 26 points except two: Richmond (a well-publicised defensive slog) and Collingwood (Collingwood's inaccuracy kept the Swans in it but Collingwood dominated most stats). And they're missing a handful of key players.

Yeah nah I don't think that was a sign that Fremantle are that good. Richmond was off. Turnovers where they usually wouldn't make turnovers. Sloppiness. Didn't appear to be caused by Fremantle pressure, seemed very unforced to me. And despite Richmond clearly being off, Fremantle kicked 4 goals. None of this means we should take them lightly. We shouldn't take anyone lightly.

I assume then you look at West Coast's bench of O'Neill, Nelson, Hutchings and Rotham and think "premiership material"? He hasn't played defence for years. Like TMac, he's a forward and that's where he'll play. Otherwise he won't be playing seniors.

Maybe it is a fitness thing. Jetta's been named as an emergency, but Lockhart hasn't. So if it's not fitness, Lockhart's gone from best 22 to behind Jetta (and Rivers).

So does Smith play small on Papley (or Lewis Taylor, who they've brought in)? If he's playing tall, I don't understand why we've picked both him and OMac.

I completely forgot about Lockhart, which disappoints me. I agree with you. IMO he was more than good enough when he was playing to get a spot back in Hibberd's absence.

Harmes named at half forward. Could be Smith for Hibberd, Fritsch for Hannan, Harmes for vandenBerg and ANB for Pickett? In terms of keeping structure much the same? I will go early and say I am not a fan of Smith returning. Hope he proves me wrong.

B: Lever, May, Tomlinson HB: Salem, McDonald, Rivers C : Langdon, Viney, Jones HF: Harmes, Weideman, Petracca F: Fritsch, Brown, Melksham Foll: Gawn, Brayshaw, Oliver Int: Spargo, ANB, Wagner, Smith Emerg: Preuss, vandenBerg, Jetta, C Wagner In: Fritsch, ANB, Harmes, Smith Out: Hibberd, Hannan, Pickett, vandenBerg

Even if Essendon were at fault for the COVID test (and they weren't), the subsequent fixturing has nothing to do with them. There's no possible link between it and the venues we're being sent to and shuffled between, the four-day breaks, the lack of stability or other sides getting the opposite.