Go Ds

Have we? I think we were closer to a flag come 2023 finals than in 2022 and then last year was a disaster. Today was dreadful after a solid effort last week. So currently a regression of ONE year?!!!

If a tactic has a team usually losing by small margins I'd agree with you. But if a tactic is 5 from 7 against the top sides who cares about the 2 losses, especially if previously the main tactic had them 4-6 or worse against the best ?

Do we, or other teams, change tactics during matches? Obviously with 30 seconds left before full time a half-goal ahead or behind they will? But other times too? Wet or windy conditions? But how about when Gawn (or even him and Tracc/Clarrie) are rested do we just try damage control and just make sure the oppo don't score? And when there's a minute till a quarter finishes? While teams would have general tactics surely many factors complicate things and simply just kicking it long or playing keepings off will sometimes be wrong (despite mainly being right.)

Who were the selections? I was hoping a quick check on YouTube would bring them up. EDIT: Looks like Long (Suns) and Miers (Cats) kicked quick snaps from the boundary and the 3rd was Crow Rachele doing a blind turn and snap in congestion 30m out. I'm really not too fussed. Watching Duke's goal and his wizardry setting up Jefferson with a mark 40 out almost guarantee he's improved this year and he'll help keep Melbourne among the good teams for years to come. Honestly he may kick a few better goals this year.

People don't like being told what to do. Children are no different. If they're swearing a lot of not using their cutlery you can keep guiding or disciplining them to change that. But it's not going to work for team choice. As a young tacker I chose North Melbourne because my favourite colour is blue. It was pretty superficial as probably the only time I ever saw them play 'live' was the 1978 Grand Final on colour telly and years later Carey's team's flags didn't thrill me at all. When Barassi moved from North to Melbourne Dad convinced me to move over with the coach and share the Dees with him and my brother and understood the only games where I'd see North was when North were playing Melbourne at the G. Force wouldn't have worked.

MAFS?! That's almost worse than being a Collingwood supporter! 🤣🤣🤣

There's just no point guilt tripping supporters into going to our games. By all means if Melbourne staff and volunteers can phone lapsed members and convince (but not coerce) some to join up again , or devoted fans can get their kids and maybe friends, such as ones who have moved from other countries, to come to some games and win them over fine. But while we can look longingly round the stands and wish more people were here I doubt most of us can do much. It's a pity but it's just the way it is. Even if I got one wish from a genie, even if the wish had to please a lot more people than just me, crowd sizes would not be a part of it.

Some supporters are pathetic. But telling them or confronting them really isn't gonna help. Sure, if supporters are calling out cruel comments at games or punching strangers even the MFC might step in , ban them, and probably lose them completely. But even the supporters who come to only a few games yearly yet still add voice to the crowd and put some money in the coffers deserve to do this and help us. Let's not scare (potential) supporters away.

Sorry, I can't quite agree here. It's impossible to know whether just my brother, i.e. less than 1/20000th of a crowd, or even more that the probable rain caused 1000 to not go (still less than 5%), would change much. The more I think about it's rarely important who people support or how. Of course all DL would love it if we were a bigger side with more guaranteed fans at each game. And personally I get annoyed with supporters tucking into players , and the coaches, at the ground or online. But overall football is meant to be fun - whether you support no team and just watch the GF or you even watch every Casey match and read any Demons-related book or webpage and listen to podcasts and know every DL track watcher from attending sessions or you only watch a few Melbourne games on TV and clap heartily whenever that number 5, 13 or 36 do something amazing it shouldn't matter. Barring the fact that oppositions will score and win a good portion of the time long-term the moment supporting a team feels like a chore is the moment some supporters give up. I'm sure some people have family members and friends that tried to get into footy who when pressed would say they couldn't when they stopped enjoying it. As for my brother, hopefully he's changed in recent years, ( I have refused to sit near him when Melbourne play for a long time now) but if he hasn't I think any fellow supporter or player who just happen to hear him whinge from the member's would probably be grateful he didn't dis-grace the GWS game with his presence. So, sorry, as much as I wish more Melbourne people would turn up to games, or that game, overall I can't agree with you.

Exactly! Despite his MCC membership my brother decided at the last minute to just stay home, not spend 50 minutes traveling to the G , and watch the game in a warm, dry house with all the creature comforts . It's bizarre anyone wants to pretend fans would never choose watching games on TV over suffering in lousy conditions. It wasn't exactly like this game was a final.

I'm fine with it. It's good to have more strings to our bow and the elements of surprise can be handy. If the only difference last Sunday was May kicking two goals we win

I find it so hard to watch matches without choosing a side to barrack for. But the silly thing is by August each year a lot of results I cheered on meant Melbourne finished lower on the ladder, even if that's still 4th . But still I'll keep doing it

Umm , just looking at the fixture wasn't that loss in a practice match??

Interesting. This is too simplistic but I hope we don't follow the trends of those above. After these matches Collingwood took 15.5 years to win the flag, Richmond 24.5. As for teams debuts some still haven't won an elusive flag and the most successful was Port 7.5 years later and the 'state team' Adelaide 6.5.

Wow that's impressive! 🤣🤣🤣 If he can run that in about 30 minutes he could probably run (allowing for exhaustion slowing him down a bit) maybe 75km in 2 hours. If a 19yo can improve and the record for the 42.2km marathon is just above 2hours I think we've recruited the best marathon runner the world will never see!

Do you have stats for previous years? It is quite likely GWS were fitter than us. One of the ways that could show up is a drop-off late in quarters, yes? We should wait for a bigger sample than one.

That was a sample of one! We were probably rusty yesterday. Add to that that was Jefferson's first ever game, Roo had back problems recently and may be 100% soon, Fritta is having terrible patch of form and either recovers his mojo some time or gets replaced perhaps by someone like Disco, we get Kosi back, and if the likes of Rivers, Lindsay, Langford and Windsor can fill in well enough midfield Petracca can spend more time forward. Right now it's so easy to get stuck in the moment here basing all our expectations on one game/one and a bit rounds. Right now GWS look better than us and other sides had big wins and we're already one loss closer missing the top 2, the top 4 and the top 8. But it's so early! In so many years of following football Melbourne (as well as other teams) after round 1 end up nowhere near my original expectations (good or bad)

Is this really true?!

Despite everything they only conceded 11 goals, yes? I'd guess even a lot of premiership sides have more than that kicked against them per game. Melbourne were far from perfect today. But they can improve a fair bit I reckon.

God knows how much damage was done when Melbourne couldn't even make the finals in the years between 1964 and 1987. If a kid was like 8yo in 1968 and STILL 15 years later his/their Demons were still just also-rans it'd be pretty easy to lose interest and find other 'hobbies'. Not only are such fans lost but often their kids and now grandchildren. *Sigh*

No, no kids and maybe teenagers are different these days. I'm disappointed we lost today. If both sides had kicked 8 more goals each today I'd still be disappointed we lost today. You know what would have made me happier or excited? THAT WE WON! Honestly even if we had been 20%worse but won cos the 'Greens' and Taylor were badly injured in the first quarter I'd still be excited that we are 1-0. What do your young relatives say is why they've stopped following Melbourne? I'm scratching my head cos from being a young kid in a Melbourne jumper all the way up to now Melbourne wins mean joy and excitement and losses the opposite.

Yes and no. A recent AFL term is "defensive forward". Honestly if you're helping your team kick goals or you're stopping the opposition doing that you've had a good day. And if a forward's efforts mean a top defender or defence bring about way less opposition scoring chains or inside 50s as well as being excused for not scoring his day could be lauded.

Yep, as much as losses, especially closes ones or after being in front for so long, are infuriating sometimes they will just happen. I doubt our players tonight are casually shrugging off the loss. Honestly, after nearly every type of result a club will try and reset in a couple of day's time and get back to aiming at winning next week (and winning as many games as possible for the rest of the year.)

Exciting? What's exciting is winning lots of games, especially against the best teams, and especially premierships. Doing that gets more short-term supporters and hopefully more long-term ones too. I'm just not sure that that many footy fans choose their team based on recent exciting game plans or almost lose complete interest when their team is too defensive. (Ever wonder why club presidents talk about making finals or winning flags rather than their team being exciting or doing dances on TikTok?)

We benefited from it last year and now the opposite with this BS of pitching teams from the Opening Round against a team without that extra 'blowout'. If the AFL must have that hollow, interstate 'half-round' those participants must play only another of those participants in round 1. Stop adding more disadvantages to the fixture. This one probably was the difference today .