layzie

Still pretty down about that one but I would like to have a bit of a rant about my experience from Sunday morning: The Imperial is the venue of choice for Liverpool fans but the only chance of getting in there on nights like this is by getting there at 11pm on Sat night with no option to leave and come back during the night. I could have done this but with 6-7 hrs to pass in a pub the options are to either have a few frothies and chat which is the equivalent of getting on it at 7am on Grand Final Day or go easy and play checkers or something. Beer Deluxe was my next choice as I went there in 2019 and it was great but they were not open so settled on The Crafty Squire. Got in at about 3am with 2 hrs to kick off and found a good spot downstairs. With about 45 mins to kick off all Liverpool fans are told to go upstairs, essentially if you were wearing any kind of gear you needed to get the heck out of there and go upstairs and they were a bit authoritative and pushy about it. Little strange but ok fair enough. Went upstairs and somehow snagged a reasonable spot again which was good. The darl went to go and get an espresso martini and the guy at the bar gave a bunch of attitude. “I’m way too busy to make cocktails sorry” he replied while handing out cans and pulling the odd beer as the extent of his duties. Didn’t seem to be a problem downstairs but again, fair enough. But what got me was the next thing. For whatever reason they decided to absolutely blare the audio volume of the pre match and the game, this was serious loudness. I go to quite a few music gigs and this was literally giving me a headache, to the point where I didn’t even care about what was happening in the game. I’m someone who tries to protect my hearing whenever necessary and I would have given anything to have my ear plugs at that time. A lot of us asked if they could turn it down a notch, they said they didn’t know how. By half time we decided we just couldn’t take it anymore and headed off to watch the second half at Fed Square, it was freezing cold but anything was better than that debacle. Needless to say I won’t be going back there to watch football. I know hospitality has done it real tough but if the question every week is how to get people back out in the city you really don’t have to do a lot, the bare minimum will do. Rant is over!

It will essentially be like having two Superbowl mornings in one year, more than happy with that!

Watched it last night, well worth it. Good on Tayla for doing this.

So it's place of birth not place of pathway? Edit: Pathway.

Bangin match up, I'd be keen.

Essendon should be F-

Don't worry @Sydee just a joke. I like Sydney 😛

The system works, sort of..

I'm just gonna piggy back off this by saying I also has a dream two days ago where we were losing this week and on TV the graphic was coming up about the last time Melbourne lost 2 games in a row so it felt sort of real that we were about to be beaten. Although we were wearing Hawthorn coloured jumpers, so it was slightly less real.

The wing is always a difficult one to select for, players you think aren't suited for it can excel with a lot of training (Brayshaw) then there's guys you think could be good fits but don't end up quite right for it. It's definitely a spot that needs a lot of positional training through pre season in my view.

For sure, thanks for the tip RPFC.

It burns, it still burns, 3 days later. I'll come back when it isn't burning as much.

Not a huge fan of the facepalm but it's here now so just have to get used to it. I'd facepalm this post myself if I could..

I keep reading this thread as "What they are saying at Moron Park"

I just don't understand how the Swans feel they are a 50-50 chance for him to get off? He struck him to the head! Good on them for playing the system like a fiddle but gee wiz.

Thanks Action Jackson will give it a go. I like what Dylan is doing now but the name of his show sounds like some kind of playgroup thing.

Thanks for coming

"Melbourne are beatable, Melbourne are beatable, Melbourne are beatable" Rinse and repeat

Agree. Freo's performance was more than the sum of its parts and this was a small detail en-route to the bigger picture of winning on Sat. reasonable tag, but Clarry still had 36. If teams think their big chance is by simply sitting on Clarry, then go for it.

It is the reality of the draft sometimes I guess. You expect players taken high to have high ceilings and take games by the scruff of the neck when the truth is there are some that end up as bit-part players, so I do agree that we've been harsh at times. I would like to see just a bit more of the basics from him though. I'd love to see him crash a pack, use his strength and let defenders know he's there. I don't need him to be a 50 goal a year forward but I'd love to see a more physical presence across 4 quarters.

To look at it on paper that is exactly right, he is a depth forward and that is a fair assessment. But for where we took him in the draft and the resources we've put into him is it also fair to have expected a bit more at this stage from him Nev?

A couple of days to process this and also time to grieve for Liverpool's defeat in the Champions League Final. Let’s get back to business. Did Freo come up with the blueprint on how to beat Melbourne? I don’t believe so, they brought so much effort and work rate that they absolutely deserved this win but there were also a series of circumstances that allowed this to happen and to Justin Longmuir’s credit he pounced of them, great coaching. I watched all the shows, I knew they were going to deep dive on this game and a story like this is like xmas day for footy analysts so I wanted to see what everyone had to say and graded their performances. First crack showed Freo bringing so much pressure and double or even triple teaming Melb ball carriers at centre clearances, although the footage was very well edited and impressive I could not help but think this would be tough to replicate and surprisingly David King agreed. Petracca banged up and Oliver being sat on by Aish allowed them to do this but on another day I can see Freo or another team for that matter bringing 2 or 3 to the ball carrier and us handballing over the top to the open man. Speaking of Aish, a brilliant job he did but Oliver still ended up with 36 possessions. Nullified him for sure and played his part in the big win but on more days than not a day like that from Clarry contributes to a Melb win. I’m not trying to downplay Freo at all and what they did but I do believe sometimes when you’re down at half time in a game like that, you throw a few things into the mix that you wouldn’t usually do. I do wonder if Freo would have sacrificed in midfield had the game been level at half time. Sometimes it’s the unpredictable stuff that gets you, could Melbourne have done more to stem the bleeding? I’d have to watch again but it didn’t seem like we were prepared to match the running and defensive work rate of Freo once they got the head of steam up. Individual brilliance from their small forwards Frederick and Shultz, if you’ve got some small forwards who can kick goals like these you’re in with a show. If there is one secret sauce it is moving the ball quick against us. Injuries never an excuse but Ed Langdon’s ability to not only help with ball carrying attacks down his wing but his ability to track back almost like a sweeper when the backline pushes up. Missed it badly. Then there is May, losing him is equal to losing Virgil Van Dijk for Liverpool (apologies Soccer haters), the marshalling he does as the backline commander is underappreciated. A dozen times when there was a Freo kick to the point of the goal square you were just expecting that big fist but without him roles down back weren’t as defined. I see this more as a pivot moment for us and the rest of the comp, a sliding doors moment if you will. Everyone takes stock and the road map changes slightly or dramatically, time will tell. Freo capitalised in the best possible fashion you could, they are an excellent unit and match up well on us, can’t wait for the return match at Optus that will be a ripper. What does it mean for Melbourne? All things considered it is more likely to have a positive effect than negative. The winning streak to me was becoming a side show and frankly quite annoying. I said last week that I believed this team needed to lose as we were controlling games but also bringing a little too much Hollywood to the picture, honestly I don’t blame them. It’s hard to stay as motivated and hungry to improve when you are in this position, I’d even say it’s impossible to not get a little ahead of yourself. It also goes to show that no team is perfect and no team can run hard for 4 quarters, for 22 games a season. You do not need to be great for all of the season, you need to be great where it counts. I didn’t give a stuff about records, I care about what gives us the best chance for another shot at it all. The magnifying glass will come out this week no doubt about it and these guys know what they need to do. Losing games is a part of following this sport and I know all of you will be confident we can get this back on track.

Freddy got ....

It comes down

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