Red But Mostly Blue

20 minutes ago, President Dee Trump said:

Wet blanket.

Don't get me wrong, it's great that we won - we didn't give up at the end, 4 points and all. I'm not normally a wet blanket, in fact quite a dry one (?), but even the way in which we won, the dropped mark etc was depressing, and totally reflective of how we have played all year (with no learnings in this space). We'd have been beaten by any other team, and I'm still at a loss as to how a team can fall so quickly. I don't mind losing, but I question the gameplan and the boys' fundamental inability to hit a target, take a mark or make even one smart decision going forward.

Lifetime Dee here, I go to many games (during the darker days, as well), never microwave my membership etc, but I'm entitled to a real world opinion. I still hope for the best, and maintain that every year will be our year, but in doing so we need to be honest with where we are, learn and move forward.

Go Dees.

I don't care that we won, our season is beyond over. I actually feel for the Suns, I liked what they were doing. We were Neeld/Bailey era bad. Dumb football, poor skills, nobody can take a mark, complete absence of a gameplan. Putrid. 

Did you see the coaching staff celebrate in the box? How embarrassing. It's like we won the Grand final when all we did is beat a candidate for the wooden spoon.

Ugh

We're making the Suns look like genuine threats this year. They mark around the ground (and out muscle us in contests, too!), tackle relentlessly, nail passes, use their opportunities. If I was from up north, this would be a pleasure to watch.

But I'm not, and this is hell.

How many years did we give Goody again? 

It just occurred to me that we are genuinely a bottom 4 team right now, it's just that we've beaten two other bottom 4 teams. I feel sick.

1 minute ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

I liked the argy bargy between Hunt and Sicily late in the 3rd.  There were a couple of other skirmishes around the ground.  They all seemed to really fire up the team because they ran faster and were desperate afterwards

After round 2 Goodwin said he wants the team 'to play grumpy'.  I guess he meant 'unsociable football'.  They did today and it was great to see a bit of aggro back in the team.

By the way, Goodwin looked quite emotional after the siren.  Big hug for Macca was good to see.

Absolutely, this is something we've desperately missed all year. I want us to be mean, firey, scary sometimes. We got to see some of that aggro today. Hopefully we see it more! We need to be feared, as well as improve our skills and execute the basics.

TMac looked like he found a little relief today. He got involved, and it clearly meant a lot to him and Goody. Great to see.

2019 Brownlow

Round 7, Melbourne v Hawthorn

Harmes, 3 votes

Lockhart, 2 votes (maybe contentious, as Gawn was solid, as were Hibbo and Salem, but I loved the kid's workrate and creativity)

Umpires, 1 vote.

3 minutes ago, Lord Travis said:

Agreed. Jeffry didn’t have big stats, but he created a load of opportunities and was directly responsible for 4 of our goals from his pressure. People can continue to hate him on, and he’s not perfect (see shot at goal instead of passing to TMac), but he’s comfortably the best small forward on our list and one of the Vestberg in the league when he’s in form. His crumbing and pressure today were exactly what we’ve been missing up forward all year.

Agree on all counts.

Much like pretty much everyone else, I hope he finds strength from this performance and gains even more confidence for next week. It doesn't matter (as he contributed to a number of goals) but his own goals will soon follow. He's great to watch when he's on song, and changes our dynamic I50 big time. 

2 minutes ago, The Swimming Dee said:

He is the small forward we need at the moment. Tackles hard, is confident enough to go up the ground and has footy smarts. I like his hard edge

Totally agree!

On the topic of small forwards, I like what Garlett was doing today. He doesn't have much to show for it, but he got himself into good positions, and generally looked dangerous. 

Seriously though, that spin from Frost up at half forward was delicious. I kind of wish Lockhart backed himself for the goal, but on balance it was the smarter move. Still, I reckon he would have kicked it.

3 minutes ago, The Swimming Dee said:

Lockhart was very good. He laid some good tackles also

Absolutely! He looks dangerous whenever he gets near the ball, and when he doesn't have it, he's working for it. Lots to like, big future.

Say what you want about Frosty, but he has heart - and he saved our bacon a few times in that final qtr. Really backed himself in.

Harmes had a ripper! More of that, please!

Welcome back, Hibbo! Much better!

Great to see TMac getting involved, he had some nice moments, hopefully he uses that to work himself back into form.

Love what I'm seeing from Lockhart! The kid has guts and backs himself, does interesting things. That diving mark was FANTASTIC.

Salem, awesome, smart, balanced stuff out on the wing. Even ANB did some nice things here and there. A lot of second efforts, and that's not something we can say has happened much this year.

In all, not always pretty, but there was some fire. Some ticker. Ferocity.  

Also, please no more OMac!

Harmes has been fantastic. I love Salem on the wing, it's great to have brains out there!

Much better from Hibbo, too.

It hasn't been pretty, and we're so low on confidence that you can see the jitters every time we get the ball, but geez if we can bring this home, it might give the boys something to think about.

Loved seeing a smile on TMacs face, too! 

Sloppy, slow and stupid...

3 quarters to go. Sigh.

5 hours ago, pinkshark said:

Same as me.  Completely f'ed up.  My 6 year old last night asked if he could barrack for Geelong. 9 year old daughter jumped ship two years ago against my will with the words 'they're just no good dad' (chose West Coast).  Another ten year old son is sticking fat but he is severely traumatised.

My daughters point was spot on. 

We are a [censored] football club.   Won 1 Lost 5.  Bottom of the ladder.  Melbourne Football Club.

 

 

 

Yikes! Going for Melbourne might be bad for your health, but at least it builds character.

There is literally nowhere for us to go but up from here, so there's that...

6 minutes ago, DV8 said:

We'll get there. at least he can cry. 

Thats a positive thing to keep him mentally healthy.

 

I'm just feeling numbified atmo.

Great way of looking at it. At 7 days old he doesn't have tear ducts yet, so it's about as effective as our gameplan right now haha

Same here mate

The great thing about this club is that I'm so broken by it that nothing else can hurt me. 

Need to look at positives. I'm indestructible.

In the rooms after the game, Maxxy said we played for 90 minutes? What game was he at? He said our defensive contests held up, as well. Yeah, we didn't get blown off the park (thanks, Tigers), but we lost by 43 points!

3 minutes ago, DV8 said:

It's in the genes mate.

Absolutely! Poor kid...

Ugh. We're terrible.

I got my 7-day-old son to watch this game. I told him when he was born that he's going to be a Dee. No joke, he started crying after the siren.

What have I done?

2 minutes ago, TeamPlayedFine39 said:

Something is rotten at the club.

 

 

 

This is the only viable explanation for the complete lack of run, fight and execution of basic skills. We're the worst team in the league. I am dreading playing the roos.

Where do we get our own Stack?

I wish our boys would play like their jobs depended on it. If I was this garbage at my job, there is no way I'd keep my job.

Goody can talk about connection all he wants, but we don't even have the basic skills in check.

Weid has copped a lot. I don't know why, that was a great point! Only 36 to go...

It's a pretty sad state of affairs that we're only 3 goals down, but I can't see how we could possibly kick 'that many' goals...

What Stack just did to Viney, I wish we would do to someone else. Anyone. What happened to our ferocity, and punishing attitude from 2018?

The tigers have been garbage, but at least they kick goals more than once in a million forward 50 entries. We're lucky that we are not 100 points down, we would be against a side playing well. TMac is so horribly out of form, he can't take a trick anywhere on the ground. That moment where he tried to run off his opponent was hard to watch.