layzie

But don't you think it's a coincidence that after the ripping round 1 game his form started to dip after the finger issue first came to light? It's a massive part of Oliver's game being able to extract and use those quick hands to help clear from contest. Take it away from him and it's like telling Tiger Woods that he can't use the driver.

Couldn't agree more on Max. I don't know what more you could have wanted from a ruckman as one of our mids last night. And I won't put it totally on the effort of the mids, the lack of rotations and other 'looks' we were able to have in there like Kozzie, Salem etc hamstrung us. T-Mac was outstanding, I was really proud of his endeavour last night and he can hold his head up high. No panic buttons but a slight smack in the mouth reality check.

Yep it is nonsense. Get the guy healthy, that's all I ask.

You really only have to look at the goal they scored from the centre clearance straight after Brown kicked his to start the 4th quarter. The game wasn't in the balance at that point but these are the moments I care about when they are. Center bounce, 50-50, who's coming up with the clearance when it matters.

Something the Brisbane forwards did to perfection.

We all need this place as a venting board sometimes mate. You're not the first and you certainly won't be the last. You're all good 👍

Yeah, definitely more philosophical about it this morning. The excuse that I think is valid is the 3 games in 12 days or whatever it was. Everything compounds. Still very confident we'll play finals. 4-2 nothing to sneeze at.

@dee-toxbeat me to it but I was gonna say I'm looking forward to the Umland podcast. Um, is the excuse that oppo mids are sharking Max's taps overrated. How can anyone know his taps better than our mids?

I'm gonna say no but you still walk away with the tumble dryer and drill set!

Need to get selection right. Also feels like we've gone back to playing hurt players and pushing through the pain barrier. Hopefully the bye does us good.

See this is the slight problem I'm having with it all: The 2nd and 3rd quarter pur performance was literally at the pits of hell, we were not even marking lace-out balls. Then when the game had been buried with a shovel we kick a few junk time goals. And that's nice, don't get me wrong that's really nice and no-one would rather minimise the damage of a loss than me. However there have been many, many games in the last few years where this has happened: Rd 2 against them last year, Gather Round against Essendon last year, Geelong games at the cattery, I could pick out a number of games where we were heading for a 10 goal loss and escaped it. Which is great, all you want is a competitive team but it's starting to mask the cracks a bit and some people instantly forget about the glaring problems we were facing 30 minutes earlier. I'm not going to be happy about our midfielders waving the white flag for the key moments of the game just because they looked ok when the heat was off. It was no different tonight, while I was happy we fought back I just knew that there were going to be some who were ready to use it as a crutch. I do wonder about the kind of reality check our team and coaching staff would have if we actually did get belted one day.

Can never have too many mids that can't kick.

I honestly think Daniel needs to be tried as a forward. Got the weighted kick to be like a Grian Myers. He's lost in the back half now.

Thought he was outstanding.

Not a memorable one but Dirk will be back.

6. Gawn 5. Rivers 4. Chandler 3. Lever 2. McDonald 1. Viney

The putting words in people's mouths thing is getting out of hand. Most of us are NOT slitting the wrists but simply saying the performance was not good enough which it wasn't. I don't see an issue with doing this. Yes it was nice to have a little fightback at the end, yes it helps percentage but please don't mask the poor performance with the not giving up routine. The fact that we didn't show a whimper since from the first 5 mins of the first quarter and only did something when Brisbane's cue was in the rack has to tell you something. We aren't negative Nellie's for saying these things and we will be at the next game. No need to gaslight people.

It's our 3 on ballers job to get the footy. Did I win?

There's not a game in the current climate where I'd expect to lose to Brisbane by 70. Maybe when we're a bottom 4 team again like North sure, but some kind of fightback was very much expected in this game.

Come on man he battled hard tonight. Things didn't go his way but on another night with better midfield performance that game would be a decent one.

Of course I'd rather go down fighting. I was cheering every 4th quarter goal like a pathetic lunatic and telling my mate that I'd take a winning quarter. But for anyone to look at that and actually suggest our performance as a whole was not that bad is seriously deluded. There were moments in that game that were literally 2014 Melbourne. Let's not pat ourselves on the back too much about getting towelled up by a team that everyone thought was our bunny's not long ago on our home deck.

Just like in Round 2 last year, anyone trying to take anything seriously from the last quarter needs to go back to school. I'm actually a bit tired of these flattering scorelines when we lose. They mask a lot of problems.

Haha the old walk and type! Doing it right now and about to walk into a tree.

Lost at the coalface, lost on the outside, lost in the air, our forwards didn't do diddly poo, couldn't move the ball when they setup, no forward pressure, most times they went forward they scored, mids waved the white flag. We sucked.

A very poor Melbourne performance. That's all