Kozzie4PM

4 hours ago, pitmaster said:

I often have a beer or wine pre-game because since I sit in the MCC members I have to arrive early to secure a seat in the area I want. So lunch or dinner with a drink follows. But I have begun sitting in one of the alcohol free bays during the game because of the ratbaggery of some. I also hate it when would-be drinkers head off to the bar during play, or arrive with an armful of beers (in plastic!).

I have written to the MCC urging them to increase the number of alcohol free areas but had no response. In the old - that is pre-Covid - days there was no drinking in areas like the Balcony on Level 2, but that changed when we weren't allowed to congregate in bars. I wish the MCC would revert to that. The memory of a rabid Collingwood supporter with a beer in each hand going out of his way to harangue Melbourne fans (we were playing Sydney at the time) convinces me the drinking rules have been a step backward, but try telling the MCC.

Disagree. The only good thing to come out of the pandemic was you're now allowed to drink in your seat in the members!!

4 hours ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

I sit with a mate in level 2 of the northern stand (tridents) and we were the only two people in a row of 22 seats on Friday night. Nobody trying to get past for a beer or a pee. It was great. 

Awesome view from there.

19 hours ago, Hellaintabadplacetobe said:

Agree we are mostly quiet compared to other fan bases but can get very loud occasionally.

I doubt many saw this but there was a time in the 2nd QTR after about our 4th horrible F50 entry in a row that went straight to a Carlton defender and the crowd were restless and negative.

As Carlton ran the ball out, Trac turned to the crowd and yelled " show some [censored] support" during play. I heard it from the 2nd level. At the next stoppage he was revving the crowd up lifting his arms repeatedly.

Our support and lack thereof is so important to our team. Some of the regulars around me are so damn negative and at times disgraceful with abuse hurled at our players it's embarrassing.

That's amazing. Can't believe I missed that and hasn't been mentioned in the media. Good on trak - sometimes that gets the crowd going nuts.

20 hours ago, A F said:

I agree. The quietness of Melbourne crowds do my head in.

They're not always quiet, but often they're quiet at the wrong times.

I remember going to a game against Port at the G in the early 2000s. There was something like 12k there. It sounded like 50k, so we can make noise (think Geelong and Hawthorn 2018 finals as well), but we don't do it consistently.

And I have to say, sitting in the MCC, there are so many Melbourne people that just simply don't understand the rules or have a decent feel for the game. But all clubs have nuffies.

We are louder when we are in the majority. Eg 25k melbourne fans in a 30k crowd against an interstate team will make more noise than 25k in 65k crowd against Essendon. It's human nature. People are less likely to ark up if the majority around them go for the other team.

I personally go off my tree as much as possible but understand not everyone is a big mouth like me.

14 minutes ago, JimmyGadson said:

Our crowd for Carlton was pathetic again. 

Under 50,000. Our home game. Carlton outnumbered us easily again even though they're a lost cause. 

We better show up on Monday. 

Were you at the game?

On 6/3/2023 at 12:21 AM, Chook said:

Gonna go on record here. This is the biggest game MFC has played in 50 years that actually doesn't really mean anything.

Pies by 25 but it doesn't, and I can't stress this enough, matter.

I think you're half right. If it's close it doesn't matter. If one team wins by 6 goals it matters.

41 minutes ago, A F said:

We were essentially playing 1v1 20m from stationary situations, and a zone behind that and then 1v1s. That's how you beat Collingwood.

You take territory like we did against Carlton and do against most sides, and their only response is to try and slingshot out of there. 

We're very good at slowing sides down and making them go wide or short. Once they do that, if we play 1v1 20m from the stationary ball user, there's no way their short chipping and handball receive game gets very far.

With the best contested player in the comp to come back into our midfield (Collingwood don't have a player in the top 10, we have 2), the evolution of our system is set up to beat Collingwood.

If we bring close to our A game, I expect us to win comfortably. 

This more or less what I reckon. Collingwood move the ball beautifully but we are a sublime defence and pressure team when we are at our best. I reckon we can put em out of business.

3 minutes ago, Demon Dynasty said:

Would prefer two attempts at goal of the year

Kozzie is about 0/25 in his mark of the year attempts.

2 hours ago, Willmoy1947 said:

Would it be in the interests of the League to financially entice retired players to take up Umpiring?

I feel sure that if the necessary and generous benefits, along with special sponsored  publicity was directed this way, it would work. 

Maybe all these blokes might not like the ball being bounced by themselves instead so much....

I reckon the AFL should just double their pay across all levels. Heaps of people in their 30s and 40s struggling with a mortgage would give it a go if it was actually a decent earner at local level. I umpired when I was 15 cos the pay was great for a kid that age. Doesn't add up when you're a bit older.

12 hours ago, Watson11 said:

It’s hard to get to 10w after 11 rounds so full credit to Collingwood, but it’s not that uncommon. Has been done 15x over the last 20 seasons.  6 went on to be premiers. So more than likely pies won’t be premiers.

Interesting stats.

I'm usually at the more optimistic end of the spectrum so it feels weird to be coming in more negative than many of the above posters. But the facts are the facts folks. We are 13 and 12 over the last 25 and have rarely looked like a contender during that time. 

If we include the last two matches of 2020 we were 32-1-4 up to round 10 last year. An extraordinary record.

The fact is those are two very different sets of numbers. I think we can win the flag this year. But we aren't playing anywhere near well enough at the moment and haven't for a very long time. Fortunately, it doesn't really matter how we're playing at the moment and there's still ample time for improvement. But make no mistake, significant improvement is required.

12 hours ago, deanox said:

While it isn't super pretty, I'd add a couple of comments:

1. Despite only 13 wins putting us in 8th place during that time, we have the second highest percentage in the comp, indicating potential under performance.

2. If we win clinch only two close games that we've lost, we jump to 3rd on the ladder. Freo by 7, PA by 4, Collingwood by 7, Dogs by 10, Sydney by 12 were all close games. Technically Brisbane by 11 as well. That's 6 games lost under 2 goals. (Conversely we've only won 2 close ones: GC by 5, Carlton by 5.  With only another couple under 20 points)

3. Last year we all think we went to hard early and fell in a heap late. This year, we hope they have learnt from that, and are going through the motions now so that they are primed for finals. That means this ladder reflects the worst of last season and hopefully the worst of this season! If we won 10 straight to start this year we should have been asking "what have we learnt, are we going to fall over again?"

Point 2 is a really good point. I did not realise that. 

With point 3 I may not be in the majority but I don't think we "went too hard too early", I just think we had an easy draw. I don't buy the idea that winning games at the start of the year makes it harder to win games at the end.

It's good for track to hear we are 13 and 12 in the last 25. I liked his answers and think we will finish top 4 this year. But I don't consider us a top 4 team last year. We only made the second round of the finals - that's top 6.

14 hours ago, Kick_It_To_Pickett said:

 I think the GF win being played away from the MCG makes us all restless. 

Some really good and thoughtful posts on this thread. I think the above exacerbates the situation. Many of us feel like there is an element of unfinished business to our premiership success, that even though we broke the drought, we didn't quite break the drought. This makes the yearning for that second flag much stronger than it otherwise would be, along with the frustration when things don't go to plan.

I am so proud of this team and feel so grateful to get to watch them and call them mine. I reckon we're into this season up to our ears and can't wait for Friday and then bring on the maggots on KB! 

3 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Tomorrow morning in Fed Square a group of us DA members will be packing parcels of dry goods to be sent to disaster zones, namely Ukraine, Syria and Turkey. The aim is to have 100,000 boxes packed in one day. This has nothing to do with footy; the organisers contacted Sophie, one of our leaders, because it’s well known in ‘charity circles’ that when it comes to volunteering the DA will always help. This is not an indulgent trumpet-blowing sesh, just wanted y’all to know that you happen to barrack for a team whose cheer squad is THE BEST. Okay, a little bit of trumpet blowing there. 🤭

Good on ya WCW

4 hours ago, Demons11 said:

I love the narrative around football.  Melbourne haven’t beaten anyone, Freo have found form.  Freo have beat a completely wounded Swans and Cats 

Yeh, our 50 point belting of a full strength swans doesn't count 😂

Jacko was a key part of the greatest 15 mins in the club's history (and probably my life 😂). I don't really understand his decision to go home but I won't be booing him. I'd also point out that the system as is basically forces players to lie to clubs about what they're doing the following year.

3 hours ago, ManDee said:

The problem with that is people could still miss out. Sell outs are good financially but people can still miss out.

I reckon they should remove some seats on lvl 1 and make large standing areas at the back right around the ground. This would increase the capacity significantly.

Awesome that it's sold out. Will be a special event. So grateful to be a big team now that plays in these games.

I love that King did this. I have huge admiration for our team who have brought us all so much joy. But we were off the boil against Port. Hopefully the respond with fire next Sat.

2 hours ago, The heart beats true said:

I have been very optimistic about this side. For me it’s not the losses now, it’s the trend. We have less than a 30% win rate against top 8 sides over the last 12 months (and we’ve played a lot of games against them, so there is good data). Losses are understandable, but that stat says we can’t currently compete with the best. As a result my optimism has turned into pragmatism. The numbers tell the truth.

This is a logical way of looking at things, however, I retain a bit of optimism. Port have now beaten us, Brisbane and the dogs and got flogged by Collingwood. They played in a prelim in 21 and would feel like they missed an opportunity to win the flag in 2020. They should probably be regarded as contenders.

 
I don't think a 4 point loss to a fellow contender after playing really poorly for a half shows that we are massively off the pace. If Fritsch had kicked that goal at the end we would've won and no-one would be suggesting we can't contend this year. Whether we win by 2 points or lose by 4 points in May doesn't determine how far we can go this season. Had they rolled us by 6 goals I'd be ringing the alarm bells but I don't come away from that match thinking Port are way better than us. 

I take your point about our poor record against other top 8 sides but I'm inclined to park last year's results. Last year was last year. We're a different side. I thought our key issue last year was fitness and ball movement and it seems like we've addressed both of those. This year our record against the top 8 is we got flogged by the lions (I don't count the comeback after the lights went out), we flogged the dogs (who are now looking pretty handy) and lost narrowly last night. That's not great, but it's not game over...yet.

The other thing that allows me to retain a bit of optimism for this year is (and perhaps this is wishful thinking) we seem to be playing the G really well. In 2021 and 2022 (and 2018 for that matter) we were terrific on the road and actually weren't as strong at the G it seemed. This year we've looked much better on the G than elsewhere with our two best results - against Footscray and Sydney - coming there. I'm hoping we're becoming like those Richmond premiership sides that were the gettable on the road but unbeatable on the G where it matters.

 
So I still reckon we're in the premiership hunt, but with games against Collingwood, Geelong, Brissy and the rest coming up, I guess we're about to find out!

19 minutes ago, DistrACTION Jackson said:

I'm not opposed to a draft lottery, but I think it should be capped to the very lower end of the ladder, such as the bottom 4. 

Agree with this. 

3 minutes ago, A F said:

Interesting that King comes out with this article a week after we were discussing the lack of MFC coverage despite being in the top 4 scores from stoppages, scores from turnovers and scores from kick outs.

He's probably chosen the scores from kick outs as he can undertake a crude analysis of them and point to derpy derp May kick outs.

Can you tell I don't rate King's analysis? :P The Diamond Defence is about the only analysis of his I've liked.

From what I read he didn't account for the fact that teams like hawthorn are kicking out a lot more than us. But maybe that happened on the show.

Thanks for posting. Very interesting.

1 hour ago, YearOfTheDees said:

Best I can do.

 

Thanks for posting that. Footy journos have decided to put "sneaky" in front of everything this season. It's hardly a secret our recruiting has been terrific.