Lord Travis

Sounds like a bad day for Casey with a big loss and Brayshaw concussion. Hope Brayshaw is ok and the players can pick themselves up for next week.

He kicked it more this week and he's usually damaging with his kicking. He obviously kicked a miracle goal, but he directly setup another goal by pulling the trigger and kicking long instead of hand balling it off like he usually does. Goodwin has started resting him forward too which is a good move as his hands are strong and he's setup a few goals now while resting down there (set one up for Petracca last week and two I can remember last night). This kid is already a great player, but he could be a star of the comp in the very near future. So excited to have such a talent playing for the Dees!

Well the Jack Viney we know and love is back. 30 touches, 12 tackles and a goal. Another great game by him. He appears to have his pace back and the aggression and intensity around the ball is fierce. He's returned to his 2016 form and that's a big bonus for us. Hopefully he can maintain this form for the remainder of the year and continue to build on his leadership skills.

Missed the first half tonight but got to see the second half streamed on my phone. What an incredible and unexpected win! Go you bloody Dees! Absolutely amazing!

They've earnt it. For the most part they have turned up to play and taken their opportunities. When they play a bottom team (e.g. Hawthorn) they make he most of that and make sure they win. We've done the opposite and it's why they're ahead of us again this year and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. We need leaders to help get the boys up so they don't drop games to bottom teams. We're going nowhere until we can turn that corner.

This one will get ugly I'm afraid

No Hogan is gonna make it tough tomorrow night. Reckon Crows will be breathing fire after an embarrassing loss last week and smash us by 10 goals. This year is pretty much a write off now I fear

In Kent Out JKH Great change that improves the team offensively and defensively. Good to see the team finally starting to settle. Hopefully they rebound from last week and pull off an upset win as payback for a pathetic showing against the Hawks (and Dockers).

Forgot about that. He deserves an extra million then.

I'm sick of losing to bottom teams every year. With Sydney winning, Hawthorn were bottom of the ladder. They were 1-5 with a % of 63. In terms of performance, they were on par with Melbourne during the Mark Neeld era. Sure they have some old champions in that team, but they have been horrendous this year, absolutely pathetic. They've had 3 80+ losses and an average losing margin of 70+ points. And we lost to them. That loss is an absolute embarrassment for the club. I hope the players really feel the sting of that loss but I doubt they will if history is anything to go by. If we don't make finals this year then it's a complete waste of a season. We've got older guys like Lewis, Vince, Jones who are only going to be around for another 2-3 years. We're already struggling with leadership, we'll be even worse when the guys retire. We need these kids getting all the experience they can get, and that includes finals experience. If we're not producing actual successful results instead of being competitive, we won't attract good players from other clubs, and guys like Hogan will get fed up and go home to WA. It's a vicious cycle and I'm not sure we're out of it yet.

I agree with most of this. Simple fact is 3-4 is failure. We've had a better fixture than this time last year, haven't left Melbourne for 7 games, yet have gone backwards in both wins and percentage. I've attended every game and we do appear to be a better team this year, but so are many others as evidenced by the matches over the weekend. It's a very even league and everyone is always improving. We are 3-4, which means we have lost more than we've won and we're currently outside of the top 8. Our draw starts to get harder from here so it's hard to see us improving and making finals now. This club needs to get serious and get ruthless. We have been losers for decades, and the soft mental attitude of the club doesn't appear to have changed. I was happy with being competitive a few years ago as we were an absolute joke of a football team and anything less than a 100 point less was a treat to watch. We are at a stage now where we cannot accept losing in any fashion. The club and players need to take responsibility. Whether it's extra training and education sessions or donating their match payments to charity every time they lose, it is now no longer acceptable in any form.

Our 'big fish' should be Steven May. One of the best key defenders in the league, leadership skills, competitive, aggressive. He should be our number 1 target. He would improve us so much structurally. Imagine him down back directing traffic while nullifying their best forward. It would free up guys like Hunt, Hibberd and Frost to run off half back more as they would have to get back less to help out. It would mean Tmac would not need to be number 1 defender, so he can then play more to his strengths and intercept more. It would mean we don't need Oscar out there costing us goals every week and his teammates needing to bust their ass to help cover whoever his man is at the time. I reckon getting a good key defender like May would improve us drastically.

4-3 with a higher % too. We had also already travelled interstate, so we've had an easier draw this year and gone backwards.

The worst thing about the team at present is the lack of leadership and organisation. I don't see anyone out there barking orders and trying to organise or fire up his teammates. Look at Hodge yesterday. As a player, he's pretty much shot, but he was still barking orders and organising his team. He was also picking fights with Melbourne players and getting his team mates involved. This bonded them and fired them up. We need better leaders who can organise us on-field. Shout out to Jeffy who continues his good form this year. And Jack Viney who played a great game. And Hogan for his return under challenging circumstances giving us decent output. The rest can go jump in the ice bath for all I care until they are ready to put in the effort, use some common sense and win some matches.

His loss hurts us more structurally than in the ruck. Gawn is our bail out kick when we come out the defensive 50 under pressure. He is parked at the half back flank, the players know to kick it there and he will either clunk the mark to relieve the pressure or bring the ball to ground and out of bounds. Without him there we have no-one capable of making that same contest so we are turning the ball over and opposition teams are getting repeat entries into their 50. We also miss him taking saving marks in defensive 50 and floating forward to help out too. Not having him means we take a tall player out of the forward or backline (Watts, Pederson, TMac) to cover is absence, which then also stuffs up the structure for that area of the ground. Until we can get a pure ruckman back in to help with our structure, we are going to struggle. Still the worse thing about the team at present is the lack of leadership and organisation. I don't see anyone out there barking orders and trying to organise or fire up his teammates. Look at Hodge yesterday. As a player, he's pretty much shot, but he was still barking orders and organising his team. He was also picking fights with Melbourne players and getting his team mates involved. This bonded them and fired them up. We need better leaders who can organise us on-field.

I agree with this. There was a moment in the 4th quarter, 10 mins to go still. 4 Hawks players (Hodge, Gibson and some other campaigners) started laying into Watts in our forward line, ball was 100 meters away. It was like watching his debut all over again where he got swarmed by Colllongwood player a and his teammates didn't have his back. Hannah and Hogan were both standing there and just ignored their mate getting mauled until Hunt ran over and actively raised his arms and yelled at them. Then they put in a token effort to stop the fight. It was symbolic. The Hawks players know each other and we're on the same page. They had fight in them. The Dees players haven't bonded properly yet and wanted to avoid conflict. They had no fight in them. As soon as I saw that mini fight I knew 100% we would not get back up and win. These guys still don't have the fire in them yet and don't know each other well enough. It's going to take time, and that sucks. Let's just hope they get there in the end or lots of Melbourne supporters will die without seeing a premiership.

Jack played a great game today and appears to be working back into form the past few weeks. 30+ touches, but it was the 15 tackles and 8 clearances that had an impact. I just wish some of his mates shared his work ethic and intensity out there today!

It's taken 10 years to get to this point, but being competitive is now no longer enough. We should be angry at any and every loss. Losing is now unacceptable for the club and its supporters. They had better fire up next week and pull of an upset win to pay us back for losing to the bottom of the ladder team at home today.

Today was a bad loss, lost that game purely from not turning up to play. How you can come up and get jumped by the team on the bottom of the ladder is behind me. They should've walked onto that ground ready to boost percentage and show the competition they are a serious football team. Instead they are losing from the opening bounce and you could see within a few minutes that lots of the players out there couldn't care less. Being competitive is no longer acceptable. This group is now behind where it was last year despite having an easier fixture without leaving Melbourne for two months. Really disappointing that 2017 seems to be another 'development' year without playing finals. This list is capable of playing top quality football. Why can't the coaches get them to do it for a full game. They are professional athletes who spend their lives training and preparing, why can't they do the job they're employed to do? Next week JKH has to go. Kent straight in. JKH gives no defensive pressure, another 0 tackle game. Difference between him and Kent is JKH doesn't hit the scoreboard, ever. At least Kent kicks a few goals even if his defensive pressure is inconsistent. Waste of a spot out there. Don't wanna see him in red and blue again.

Not many at the ground. It's cold but doesn't look like it will rain (touch wood). Hopefully the boys have the right mindset and turn up to win and win well. Cannot afford to lose today given other results this weekend. This is a good chance to solidify our spot in the 8 and build confidence and momentum.

Fire up Dees and get the job done!

100% agree with this. Happens time and time again. I wasn't sure if it was just me seeing him have off games whenever I've watched Richmond play, but I've seen enough now to confirm what you said. He's average one on one and cracks the sads when he loses one on one contests, which is often. He's also got a habit of hitting blokes in the head, because most of the time he can't beat them fairly. He's a real dirty overrated player for mine.

Good to see the Tigers lose. Suns beat Geelong! A round of upsets so far with the exception of the Doggies. Hopefully we get up tomorrow and win well.

Nah Dogs have this Wadda We Sing.

He just poked a guy in the eye as well. He's one of the dirtiest players of the modern era but no one ever says a bad word about him. Very frustrating! Doggies are all over them now and probably will win. Might finally get a tip right for the weekend!