Skuit

That was his 19th game. And he failed to put on any height in the off-season.

I'm not sure exactly your point - but mine is simply the more you run the more your efficiency and spread drops off. If you get beaten in the contest, you chase more and then look slower, exponentially. Shift/return will cut out some of your white space by the way. We were middle of the road in terms of efficiency last year - right in there with the teams that dominated space. It was the crap teams with a higher number of kicks across half back which had better efficiency stats%

I agree in terms of predictions. But as to your who is ready at Casey question, it feels like Keilty hasn't missed a beat in a long while. Behind Petty last year (when Petty proved to be far from ready) and behind Hore this year - but consistently delivers in the VFL when he doesn't have a head-cold and looked up to it the JLT. Not sure what the kid is supposed to do? He has to be getting close.

There are a million issues. When we lose. They all start in the centre - and then get amplified from there. You have Jack Viney completely underdone and not competing. Nathan Jones not much better. It means the other mids are running more minutes and running harder compared to their opposite numbers. It translates to greater exhaustion. It looks like we're slow. We suddenly can't kick straight. The opposition gets it on the outside. We chase more. We get more exhausted. We bomb it in more. Which makes our forward line look dysfunctional. So we can't trap it in as well. Because our structures are broken. Easy rebounds. Our defenders look horrible. Repeat and amplify. Do you think any supporters think they have a fast team? Seriously, have you ever thought or have you ever heard anyone say; 'Gee, we looked fast today, it's a shame about our foot-skills and effort though.'? The opposition makes you look slow when they dominate. Similar: have you ever heard someone compliment their team's superior foot-skills but lament their lack of pace? Every supporter when their team loses thinks their team looks slow and can't kick straight. Just the same as every fan thinks the umpires are against them. Pace isn't our problem. We made it to a prelim last year with the exact same level of pace.

You can throw in Brayshaw for consecutive 'mystery injury of the week' leading up to and around Christmas from memory. That makes: Clayton Oliver (double shoulder surgery) Brayshaw (back? - interrupted pre-season) James Harmes (shoulder surgery - plus finger) Jack Viney (ankle surgery - no match fitness) Nathan Jones (hamstring - no match fitness) And it showed. As it does in the stats - which are probably the worst ever recorded by any four of this group combined. Any coincidence that Salem was our stand-out yesterday?

Frost is a headless chock no doubt. But for those citing the holding the ball and subsequent 50m incident - the game was slipping away, no one was spreading, and Sam was trying to do something, anything, using his primary weapon which I'm sure the coaches would encourage him to use. The 50m penalty was frustration. Unfortunately, Sam isn't the brightest of footballers, but I don't see anywhere near that level of interest from Omac, who seems mostly like he just wants to go unnoticed. His inability or lack of nous to kill the ball in dangerous situations is astonishing. I'm no psychologist, but it's as if he lacks the competitiveness or confidence to feel shame when his opposition number scores. I think Frost will be better than Omac in the secondary role alongside May. Over to you Binman. Thus; OUT: Omac/Hoare (and Spargo) IN: May/Keilty (for another small forward option, whoever) Note: I'm not blaming the defenders for the loss. The output from our entire midfield brigade was down a mile. Simply can't win games when that's the case. In fact, we did well to stay so close.

Underdone. Plain and simple. For those who wish to say that's a cop-out: it was even mentioned during the broadcast that our lesser preparation had been a pre-game focal point for Port. Seems strange that an AFL coach would think it important. They knew they could out-run us. And they did.

I may be a little bit excitable right now.

This should really be re-posted here.

Please please come out and crunch these mother-[censored] with the same intent we showed in the early rounds of the finals. That is all I ask.

Can't believe this is really happening. 2019! I'll be comfortable with a 35 point win considering we're underdone. Otherwise I'm tearing up the joint. Also, can someone help me with the time difference - do I really have to wake up at/not go till bed till 4am to watch from Europe?

Also a shout out to Jack Watts and Jesse Hogan. Who once again demonstrated to the AFL that it doesn't need to manufacture off-season interest through one-month trade weeks and grand final time-slot speculation when it has twenty-something year-old blokes as its prime commodity.

MFCSS: Obstructed vision = blinder.

I've called Billy out before for not having the aptitude for AFL - especially with respect our playing style - but his return last year in Darwin was impressive enough to make me reconsider my position. The emergency list of Preuss, Petty and Keilty suggests that we're not intending to bring another mid/small regardless of the circumstances, and I think Sparrow's inclusion can be considered in line with the rewards system we've used in the past. As such, and with other injuries, it's not clear how far down the pecking order Stretch truly is - and he may very well be the next-in-line mid, ahead of KK, JKH and Maynard (but presumably behind AVB). Too early to be calling it cross-roads.

Love how Demonland has turned the Melbourne fans' penchant for jumping at shadows into a literal art form.

But I wish they wouldn't mess around. Even just seeing Jordan Lewis's name in print next to Robbie Gray's in a forward pocket makes me break out in cold sweats.

A noted innovator, Hinkley takes the concept of chaos ball to a whole new level. All up, the Power will have 11 changes to the team that lost to Essendon in round 23 last year. "It makes it hard for Melbourne to predict what we're going to do, because we don't know what we're going to do."

Hawthorn does the Kokoda trail to build up leadership qualities. Collingwood just recruits those who survived the MFC pre-2014. Much smarter from a logistics perspective.

Firstly, how exactly do you conduct a fitness test on a fractured cheekbone? Secondly, I'm happy to volunteer my time if they need any help performing the test.

Fair enough. I suppose signing Jay on deadline day suggests he wasn't our first option, and as such there's a natural sense of disappointment that we missed out on something else. This of course might not be case.

The club hasn't done much to sell this pick. Last day of bidding: “The AFL introduced a Supplementary Selection Period for the first time this year. This allowed teams to add players to their rookie list up until todays date,” General Manager of Football Operations Josh Mahoney told Melbourne Media. And rather than having some wild untapped potential, we happened to know his name: “When we were considering how to use this position on our list, it made sense to add a player who knew our system and had played under our coaches.” Underwhelmed accordingly.

D'land just got juicy.

Please don't quote me for a little while DV8. Thanks.

Melbourne could be as good as anyone, but first and foremost it has to get over itself. Melbourne fails to know how to get the foot to the throat and press down hard. The Demons release the pressure too soon and play like millionaires. This needs to stop. Malthouse makes the leap that every other simple-minded shouty sports fan reaches for when a talented team performs below expectations, discounting maturity-levels, experience, etc: it must be arrogance. From every thing that I've ever read about or heard said from Goodwin, he continually imparts the need for humility. I think there is no other cliche than the bathwater one that gets my back up nowadays. That said, and moving past the 'millionaire's' swipe, Malthouse is correct that we've had an issue with putting the foot down in the past. There was the 'failure to crush' teams thread on here the year before last - and in that year, when we played Port after the bye, it was reported that their players were super-confident at the break despite us having completely smothered them in the first half. It shows that there's an issue, at least of perception. We made some in-roads last year against the weaker teams. But still, while my recollection remains that we completely destroyed Geelong and Hawthorn in each of our finals, two of the highlights from the season were us closing them out after tense moments late in both matches. They were both given a sniff despite our dominance. That will need to change, and is the important next step for the coming season. It's an issue of maturity. And we rely on intensity - rather than playing like millionaires, we get out in front and then don't know what to do when the intensity drops, playing less direct and dinking it around until the inevitable turn-over leads to easy goals out the back and the pressure comes back on. We need to learn more tricks in scoring from structured play, and how to control the tempo without losing our intent. That also comes with maturity.

Okay. While I can't tell how much of your post is intended as ironic, I'll speak as directly as possible. In what I personally consider could be an otherwise valuable thread - saving me and others from having to trawl through alternative news sources for information on Port's progress - I instead have to dig through post after post of people's anxieties in relation to Melbourne, their issues with our past performances, the supposed overconfidence of the Demons' players and supporters etc. to simply find out how Ryder might be tracking - when there are many other more appropriate threads for posters to repeat themselves in - literally, every other thread on Demonland. I hope this frank contribution will help save the lives of some small children somewhere.