sue

Maybe true, but it doesn't answer the question I raised. What is the point of the umpire demanding X, if when you immediatley do X, you get pinged anyway. Either ping him instead of again shouting an instruction ( I presume he'd been asked earlier) or give him the chance to respond and then either ping or not depending on his response.

My 2 cents: Bad kicking for goal cost us the game. Lousy umpiring made it worse and without that we may Frisch 50m penalty. Maybe I need to see it again, but as I heard it, the umpire say give it back now and Frisch did immediately Now maybe he had ignored the umpire earlier, but what is the point of saying give it back now, if when the player does just that, you ping the player? Mark on the goal line. This is a knotty one and may have killed us (Does one at the match have an idea of how free we were on that flank?). The umps have to follow the rules and can't makes guesses like "a point or no point will not affect the result of the game, hence call it a mark and allow play on". On the other hand what if a full forward had taken that mark and turned around immediately and kicked a goal. If it was then reviewed and the mark paid, would he have to then kick at goal again? I bet , no and the goal would be allowed. If so, it is yet another inconsistency in the rules. If you are looking for arguments to do away with score reviews, this would add to the non-inconsiderable pile.

It’s more the interpretations by the umpires. If he walked it through they might have said he had 2 team mates he could have handballed to. There also seems to be a “prior opportunity “ factor not documented.

Far too sensible for the AFL LDvC

https://www.afl.com.au/news/474230/we-won-t-be-reckless-but-we-won-t-be-resting-dees-plan-hard-push and we still have to squeeze in the game against Essendon.

Private school culture - probably the same at most clubs these days Melbourne captain Max Gawn reveals how cigarettes and injuries nearly derailed his AFL career before it began

The AFL would argue with fewer matches to be played there was less opportunity to get fined and therefore the fines should be increased not decreased.

I don't see the need for a coach to show emotion in the box. Better to look calm in a crisis and not look like a whinger (you know which coach I mean). Goodwin has always shown emotion when we have had a good win, so to portray him as emotionless is bunkum. I haven't followed the 'battle' about who told whom what, but I doubt if anyone told him to "show more emotion, that will help the team because the players' eyes are peeled on the coaching box".

Yeah, and about 25000 different opinions.

Why the worry about giving the #1 pick to North. (We'd have more to worry about than that if we do). It's been said the 2020 draft was compromised before Covid. Now recruiters will have to a lot more guessing than usual. Pick quality will be more random than ever.

Interesting that the commentators didn’t say much negative about Essendon during that quarter. If it was us they’d put the boot in. I guess they don’t want to offend their large number of fans.

Normally we have a Non-MFC Round thread running while the match is in progress. What does the fact that this thread didn't appear until about 12 hours after the match finished last night say?

Rankine did touch it, but it's often a free if you hit your opponent on the head at the start of your 'realistic' attempt as Rankine did. Hands on shoulders however are often overlooked, but usually only if you do actually mark it. As you say, open to interpretation.

I wonder why the club thinks the words written on the whiteboard behind Goodwin's head around 2:15 are so top secret they need to be smeared in the video below. The pause button reveals all. If that is our top secret plan, then we are in trouble. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/743075/rd-6-game-film?videoId=743075&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1594711800001

Agree. But in D*9's defense, there are a few posters who seem to take more delight about things that go wrong with us and glee when they are proved right (and silent when wrong) than seems quite healthy.

Just re-viewed the first quarter. A lot of barracking for GCS by the commentators and stupid comments about McDonald's eye being injured, both the non-existant delay and the injury to the" retina". Now I'm no anatomist, but if someone scratched his retina they'd be little left of his eye at all. Re the kicking-out not varying, I guess if Max is dominating why would you do anything else but kick it to him? Must be highest probability of success. I'll be interested to see where it is kicked when he is not dominating. I don't think we are as regular with this as some have made out.

It's clear that players from all teams are moving to position to receive the ball after they handball to another player A, rather than providing a block to ensure the player A has time and space to dispose of it effectively. Leads to a lot of circular handballing and turnovers. But it must work or coaches wouldn't have players doing it. I'd have inexpertly thought it leads to players not bothering to block even when there would be no chance of them geting the ball back.

Umpiring! You know it is really bad when Melbourne gets a free and I shout 'that is ridculous'. Unfortunately most of the bad decisions/non-decisions went the Suns' way. This new 'interpretation' of holding the ball is absurd. Umpires may as well toss a coin. Seems if they can see the ball it is just no prior opportunity and a ball-up, but if they can't see the ball it is 'no attempt to dispose'. The AFL is run by idiots.

Maybe because the lack of numbers would make the artificial crowd noise seem laughable.

I agree about not wanting multiple changing angles. But there are far too many close-ups. Medium wide with occasional wide shots replacing the regular checks on the shaving skills of players who have marked the ball.

Agree about the commentary, but I'm surprised you are happy with the camera angles. I'm in total agreement with the criticisms listed in the article. Yesterday there was a few times when all we saw was a ball bouncing on a green(ish) background.

It seems so easy to fix. At least they should try it for a few matches involving clubs who have no chance of making the eight. I mean the camera angles. There is no way to fix the commentators.

A lot to like in this: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-11/what-if-broadcasters-are-the-source-of-afl-image-problem/12437678 (Mods: couldn't find an existing topic, merge please)

If the player kicking out could signal to other that he is kicking it down the middle and all the other backs who were trying to make space for a short/medium kick immediately ran to pick up the nearby forwards rather than avoid them, then even if the ball came back in you'd be prepared. Then the odds may favour the kick up the middle being done more often.

I presume the OP's title is asking how bad we are now compared to previous years or maybe to other clubs. IMO it is madness to assume either question can be sensibly answered yet (although it is clear we are not good).