Lord Travis

Believe outside those Daniher years it’s only been 5 times? Whatever the number is, it’s pathetic and embarrassing. We Melbourne supporters are a resilient bunch to stick by supporting such a lowly club all this time.

We’re lucky that other teams around us also had surprise losses this weekend. It sort of nullifies our [censored] up today. Dropping an easy game like that makes the run home harder now though. We now probably need to take a scalp like Geelong in Geelong or Sydney to make it (assuming we don’t stuff up and win our expected matches).

Out - Hannan, Petty, Tyson, Smith, In - Garlett, Frost, Stretch, Vince We need speed and run.

Viney had 6 touches to half time and didn't give a yelp until the last quarter. I love his intensity when he's playing well, but he's not a very well rounded leader. He leads from the front like Jones, but you never see him barking orders and organising players like a Hodge or Selwood or Cotchin does. Lever was brought across to provide leadership, and once he settled in he was the general of the backline. Losing him to injury has not only ruined our defensive structure, but losing his onfield leadership is arguably the biggest loss we could suffer. We still don't have many good onfield leaders and it's the main reason we're struggling to improve IMO.

Just bumping my topic from a few months ago. Our inability to play at our home ground has killed our season. Our record at the MCG compared to everywhere else is abysmal. Until we learn to play our home ground, and the ground finals are played on, we will never be a threat. It's embarrassing to watch our defensive zone push up so high at the G compared to other grounds. Somehow the coaches and players have made zero change to a structure that is not working. The amount of space we give teams in their forward half is comical. Is it the players or the coaches to blame?

If we had Gaff instead of Tyson or ANB today we would’ve won. Must get.

Gawn is a one man team today. So disappointing from our midfield. No leadership shown by Jones and Viney. They’ve both been horrendous and while they try hard, they aren’t leaders who can direct and fire the boys up.

Should be playing instead of Hannan today.

We can’t play the MCG. It’s as simple as that. Our defensive zone is too high and our kids don’t work hard enough/aren’t quick enough to get back and help out. We don’t deserve to play finals this year. So disappointing.

All flying for the ball, no one staying down. Midfield not working hard both ways. Gonna be a long day.

Obviously a must win game today. This is one of the four games we can’t afford to lose (Saints, Freo, Dogs, Suns). It would be good to get another percentage boost, but at this stage I’ll just take the four points. Reckon Brayshaw will have a good game today, seems to play well against the Saints from memory.

Pies will likely jump to 2nd spot on the ladder tonight. How sickening!

37 disposals, 7 score involvements, 7 tackles, 1 goal. Probably BOG again. On 2018 form he'd be our best midfielder at present. If we can afford him, we'd be mental not to go hard for him. Exactly what we need!

Huge win by the Dogs and great for us! I've talked him up on here earlier in the year, but Ed Richards looks like a star in the making. He's just got footy smarts, pace, skill, intensity and is a joy to watch play. Great get by the Dogs pulling the trigger on him slightly earlier than expected last draft.

2004 Elimination final against Essendon. Whelan lays out Hird with a bump, dishes the ball off to big game player Travis Johnstone, who nails the goal from 50 out on the boundary. Shame we lost the match, but that few seconds was possibly my favourite few seconds of footy ever.

Would be worth less at the trade table than he is worth to our team. Until this year, he was the highest goal scorer at the club since coming across from the Blues. 40+ goals a year every year. Considering our recent scoring problems, lack of speed and lack of crumbers, it'd be stupid to trade him. If anything it's stupid he's not in the team at the moment. The coaches obviously don't like something about his game at the moment and want it to change, but I doubt he'll ever tear up a game at VFL level, so he's just rotting away there. We need his speed and goal scoring power. People saying Spargo has taken his spot aren't quite correct. Spargo, while small, has played more as a high flankers pushing up into the midfield and has yet to show he can play as a small combing forward. Not dissing the kid as I love him, but he doesn't play as a small crumbing forward. Jeffy is competing with Hannan for that spot and IMO should be in the team.

Great game tonight. Tigers deserved the win as they held their structures better than the Swans. Typical Rance game. Flopped around like a fish and lost every contest he went near. As usual the commentators didn't say a negative word about him though other than his losses and mistakes were "uncharacteristic". He's an overrated soft [censored]. Cotchin on the other hand has developed into a brilliant player. He was always more outside ball user, but the past 2 years he's really lifted his intensity and physicality and he just always leads his players from the front and sets the standard. Great to watch.

Best of luck to him, he’s a ripping positive person. He’s had a horrible run of luck with his footy career, and it’s admirable the resilience and hard work he’s shown the whole way through. Am surprised and glad he’s got the chance at AFL level again. Good luck Trenners!

The ladder predictor snow up on afl.com.au again. I just ran through and came up with the following at the end of round 23 (attached image). Had us finishing on 14 wins, which lands us 8th. This obviously won't be accurate, but the numbers at the half way point of the season don't lie. Teams are going to have to win more games than usual to make the 8 this year.

Still injured. Posted on his instagram today that he's out of the moon boot.

It really depends how much he'd cost. We could use his leadership and foot skills, he'd be a definite improvement on 6-7 players currently in our 22 for the next two years. If he came on a lower pay contract, then I'm all for it. If he's wanting coin, than it's a pass as he won't be around long and his body is struggling as it is. This is subject to medical checks obviously, as a player who can't get on the park is useless.

Oops, missed that one. Adelaide in Adelaide may be our best bet to lock away the win needed to make the 8.

6 Viney 5 Jetta 4 Brayshaw 3 Oliver 2 TMac 1 Lewis Hogan, ANB and Petracca for worst on ground honours.

I thought it best to start a central thread to discuss finals 2018, as a lot of this discussion is being lost in weekly game day/post match threads. The last two matches have put a significant dent in our campaign for finals. The Collingwood game was a write-off, but the Port game last night was a definite opportunity missed. We absolutely dominated that game and Port stole an undeserved victory. I'm absolutely f*cking fuming we lost, but what's done is done and we now have to look forward. We currently sit 5th on the ladder with a ledger of 8-5. We're lumped in with a number of teams fighting for a spot. Usually 12-13 wins is all that's required to make finals. This year however a higher number of teams have racked up wins than usual, and 14 wins will be required to guarantee a finals place. Barring an insane run of form, top 4 is now gone. What we do have in our favour at present is our percentage relative to competing teams around the mark. Our run home presents some challenges now. We play Saints, Freo, Dogs and Suns. That's 4 wins we should bank. That takes us to 12 wins, meaning to hold a spot in the 8 and play finals we'll need to win 2 more matches. The other matches are: Geelong in Geelong Adelaide in Adelaide Sydney at the MCG Eagles in Perth GWS at the MCG So the question is, which of these 2 matches are we going to win? Personally I think we'll account for GWS at the MCG, but I struggle to see us winning any of the others based on form. The Crows in Adelaide looks to be our best chance, but who knows if their form will turn around before then as they get some key players back. Obviously a lot can change over this time, but what are everyones thoughts? Will we still make finals? How much have we improved? Have we actually improved? How do you you our season playing out? Note: This thread is not intended to be a b*tch session, it's to have genuine discussion on the remainder of our season as we strive to play finals for the first time in over a decade.

Anything less than finals is an abject failure. Stop accepting mediocrity.