heartbeatstrue

What makes you say North aren't going places?

I admit to some bias, but I think objectively it is plainly obvious that our young players have enormous talent and potential, hence significant room for improvement as they gain maturity, bigger bodies and experience.

I don't see that same potential in this North Melb side, they have probably exceeded expectations with the performances they've got from that team over the past few years and I can't see them taking the next step. But I may be wrong (I didn't see Hawthorn falling away as badly as they have).

(if I was a North supporter, I guess it's their young midfielders that I'd be excited about watching them develop)

It's not female commentators but rather Kelli Underwood. She's a shocker, especially her inane comments. Like, "it's the third quarter and Melbourne have got one more quarter to go"... duh!

Or, "he's kicked it out on the full" spoken in full gutteral cry, even as the picture shows the boundary ump tossing it back in.

How many times did Underwood shout "he's just squeezed it in" as the ball sailed through for a behind? If she was male she'd still be just as big a shocker.

No one's saying that today's poor umpiring cost us the game, not on this thread that I read that is. What is being said is that there was some poor umpiring today, and some of those questionable decisions cost us goals.

Umpires like players should not be above criticism. I know they're human but some are more human than others

What's wrong with McKenzie? Love that kid.

We will have learnt something very valuable today... whatever the opposition does to deny us space through the centre, take them on. Keep running and carrying (Scully's great, btw). Believe we're good enough (we were, in the 3rd qtr). And we'll play exciting footy and goals will flow.

Because we can't play against mediocore teams that play defensive flooding rubbish.

May North continue on their journey to nowhere and may somebody burn down Etihad.

Crap team, crap stadium, crap game.

Moving onto next week now...

Exactly. They're not that good.

We're going places and they're not.

And the last award for the day goes to... (drum roll), yellow maggot no.6 for those 3 frees to North in their forward line in space of 2 minutes, against Jamar and Macdonald (twice). Obviously barracked for them as a kid.

Overall, a good effort by the Dees in patches.

Davey - unusually poor disposal

Petterd - missed another mark infront

Macdonald - continuing his poor form

Kelli Underwood - even worse than usual

Harvey - hate him

We've got to come out after half time and take chances, play risky exciting straight down the middle football. No way our forwards can compete, unless we drill it quick and straight to leads into space DOWN THE CENTRE not out on the flanks.

Martin, Macdonald & Sylvia ordinary, Dunn too (except for his goal). In fact, where do you stop, Bate, Bennell, Jones, Petterd, so many to lift.

C'mon Dees, take it on and if we lose, do it in exciting style!

yellow maggots!

What a pathetic decision! Frawley's unpaid mark, really cost us. Why we hate 'em!

Interesting comments by Brad Scott on afl.com.au.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/93256/default.aspx

He says "The footy they (Melbourne) are playing is just reflective of their talent" and that "they should be in the position they are now because of their prominence in the NAB AFL Draft in the last three years."

However, is our recent improvement really due to the top-end draft talent we've brought onto our list in the last 3 years?!

...

Brad Scott analysis of our recent success is wrong. Thoughts?

Poor form not to mention Dean Bailey's input. He'd be getting plenty of knocking if we'd been losing. He may not be the most inspiring coach, but as a teaching coach for our young talent, I feel he's second to none. So at least some credit must go his way for what we saw last Saturday night.

Can anyone name any historic, famous or vital match we've played against North since a Prelim Final all those

years ago?

For starters, we kicked our highest score ever against North... TWICE:

28.14 (182) vs. North Melbourne 14.13 (97) at the MCG in round 21 1986, and 28.14 (182) vs. North Melbourne 17.10 (112) at the MCG in round 5 1991

Then there was the 1987 Elimination Final when we thrashed them by 118 points (6th September). 22.6 to 5.10 What a game that was! Actually a year I'll never ever forget.

http://www.stats.rleague.com/afl/seas/1987.html

I think we'll play Martin against North's talls. Anyone know how serious Bail's "quad" injury is? I'd like him back. Garland was a bit iffy I thought. What stage is Rivers at? Otherwise, no changes.

The umpiring was poor, seems like the result of a new ump (#24) and possibly speed of the game. They pretty much evened out - Bennell's disallowed mark, the Grimes tackle, free to Martin, Petterd's mark and a couple of times when Johnstone got tackled round his neck, plus some others. Johnstone kept pointing to his neck but the ump's seemed not to be able to see he had one.

The pleasing thing was how Melb went on with the job, there are things under our control and we attended to them without letting the bad umpiring affect us. That is the sign of some maturity, I thought.

When you trade for quality you have to give some quality to get it.....

And that, in a nutshell, is what is wrong with all the suggestions to get Scott Thompson at 28 back (very good footballer, btw).

Well, I guess Newton out is the obvious choice. It'll be interesting to see how Jamar goes by himself

He better not twist his ankle during the warm up...

It was even less funny last night, I thought.

Your conclusions doesn't logically follow from the facts (not even from those you've presented). After seeing the high number of MFC stickers why didn't you think 'gee, we might have a smaller Club but we have supporters keen show their support!'?

I'd say a better reading of the facts as you've presented them can bring us to a conclusion that's quite the opposite, and it's this:

While Melbourne may have a smaller supporter base they have a very committed supporter base.

For evidence supporting the idea that Melbourne has a smaller supporter base, you can refer to Roy Morgan Research surveys, historical crowd/membership numbers and even proclamations from the Club itself.

I don't think this is a highly contentious idea. You might argue that pooling MFC members and MCC-supporting MFC fans gives you quite a large base, but that MFC-supporting MCC base is continually decling ('dying off' might be an apt term).

I suspect part of what you say is correct, and there's maybe another part to the story.

I don't doubt that MFC has a relatively small but very committed band of supporters, most of whom are MFC members or MCC members (those numbers are available from MCC and it's not insignificant and I'm not sure there's support for your contention that it's continually declining, but the data would be available). You can observe a pleasingly large number of young MCC members who support the Dees, every game at the 'G. Then there's some supporters, still committed to going to games, but not members of either.

I agree with all that. The commitment is impressive.

Then there's the other side to the story that I think some of us observe. I guess I know close to 100 friends and work colleagues who would call themselves "Melbourne supporters". Maybe a handful of them are MFC or MCC members (5 or 6 come to mind). The rest might go to 1 or 2 games each year, or none.

How did Roy Morgan conduct their statistics, and where are they available? I know many of my contacts are not from traditional football-supporting groups within the community, even from groups who eshew an interest in football, so my observations may be atypical. Some new arrivals support us because we are the MELBOURNE football club, as they start to take their first interest in footy and our culture.

One thing that maybe supports your argument regarding the little stickers is if you've got one, you've had some involvement with the club or its merchandising. In which case, we're quite a force out here in the NE deep in enemy territory!

I agree with you, but at the time Demetrio said the statement he was almost right. We were going down the proverbial gurgler at that moment. In the bigger picture we didn't stand for much at all. But that Statement stirred the club into action, so i am actually glad it was said in hindsight

at the time i was gutted.

But we now stand for something-(How good was it to see the Grand old Melbourne Flag flying strongly on the scoreboard last sunday after the game) B)

Some observations re MFC (that don't apply to North).

I live in Pies territory. I see an enormous number of local cars with that little peel-off Melb sticker. Far more than show their Collingwood allegiance. We have a big supporter base who I suspect are not very committed, not enough to buy a membership. But they're Melb supporters (their little peel-off stickers say so). I rarely see any North stickers on cars. Our supporter base is there to be mobilised by success on field (coming) and by inspirational leadership (Jimmy).

Our name and what we stand for (MELBOURNE football club) are incredibly valuable. We have a new boss (Swedish). It should be easy for me to have him become a MELB FC supporter, much easier than say, North (unless maybe he thinks kangaroos are cuddly).

I can't see the AFL ever not having a Melb FC. But that's not something we can rest on our laurels over...

I'm actually disappointed Cousins isn't playing for the Toigs. I like watching players like him, it would be a great learning experience for our young midfielders, and I don't think he would have much influence on the result (I'm expecting it to be closer than many think).

I almost considered starting a petition amongst Dees supporters for Cousins to play...

It would be good sportsmanship for Junior to give Dangerfield a ring to see how he is.

I fully expect to be pilloried for this post, but it's what I believe.

I hope you're not.

I was relieved to read this in the Age today "Dangerfield cleared of neck fracture", and sent the link to my Adelaide Crows colleague (who was impressively quiet all day):

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/adelaide-crows/dangerfield-cleared-of-neck-fracture-20100412-s1a4.html

Fortunately there was nothing malicious in the Melb tackle, and like you say, Junior and others from MFC contacting Dangerfield would show decency and respect, which thankfully are values of our club.

We have to break a few more necks dont we to be successful dont we.

Any time a players head or neck is subject to injury there should be due concern and investigation. There was no malice or intent in the actions of MFC players but the head,neck and spine must be protected at all times regardless

Would you have been so tackless if he had ended up in a wheelchair?

Think about it. No truly this time think about it.

You're right, if someone got seriously (mean, seriously as in ending up in wheelchair) injured in a game of footy, most (likely all) of us would be sickened. I'm not sure what rule changes could be considered though to prevent what happened to Dangerfield. Actually, I'm amazed with some of those nasty 'accidents' on the field that we haven't had the serious situation you allude to. Any such incident with malice should obviously attract a severe penalty.

I remember being sickened when King broke White's face with his reckless (imo) kick. Think he got off scot free but there should never be any reason to have one's leg that high. But I'm not sure that the MFC tackle on Dangerfield was reckless.

My meaning wasn't that we have to break any necks to be successful (horror of horrors). Rather, we have to be physically strong to not be brushed aside like the Hawks constantly do to us, but able to tackle strongly and hold our own physically. Fortunately MFC doesn't have a reputation for thuggery and hopefully will keep it that way.

Ironic, they're obviously blind and yet their performance would be improved by being deaf as well.

Ha! good one

Does anyone care to explain the 50 metre penalty against Jamar early in the game? Appeared as though the guy took the mark and Jamr was on the spot, ump then twellls him to move back, he begins moving back off the mark and tehn the ump pays a fifty????At least that is how it looked from where i was sitting

It was fair. Jamar moved onto the mark by moving between the Crows player & the Melb player standing the mark. Instead of immediately jumping back onto the mark, he stayed a couple of yards too close and in my opinion, was flirting with danger by not immediately getting back. It was stuipid and he presumably was banking on the ump not realising or ignoring it.

Having said that, there were several times when Crows players got away with cribbing a similar distance. Guess they all try it sometimes, and sometimes the ump's ping them. In the circumstances (a nearly certain goal to the Crows if he was pinged), it was silly of Jamar.

Listening to SEN today, some fool was yapping on about the Dangerfield's injury from the Demons tackle, and how players should be fined or suspended for performing tackles that cause injury. He was going on and on about this for a while, just made me sick. However, I did not hear any of this 'talk' when Jurrah & Bell were taken down by and "Adelaide" player, or the bump on Sylvia that has had him out for about 6 weeks now.

The Dangerfield tackle was a fair and legal tackle, he was wrapped up by three demons and taken in a fair tackle. I do wish Dangerfield all the best and a speedy recovery.

Thoughts & Opinions...

Dangerfield's fine. Bit sore but otherwise no damage. You're a caring soul, Sturmann!

What do these idiots want, a sterile game with no contact? It's not a game for woosies. I think our tackling has been ferocious and great. Loving every one. Makes a big difference to how we've been brushed aside for years. We won't win a premiership until we're stronger and tougher than the next best team (think Hawks in 1988).

And remember we've been belted mercilessly by these stronger sides for years and now we're starting to give a bit back. As it should be!