RalphiusMaximus

WTF is Langdon doing? HE sees the turnover on our HF line and for some idiotic reason every single time he starts stalking forwards towards the ball carrier and leaves his man wide open on the wing. How many times have they gone over his head tonight?

So at the opening bounce Viney is held off the ball to the point of being dragged to the ground. Without a call, Sparrow comes in to try to get the ball Viney would have, is tackled and wrapped up and it's HTB to Port. WTF are these Umpires doing?

I really wish Jackson would just take the shot himself. He's so intent on passing it off that he's ignoring his opportunities. He was wide open there with all the time in the world to wheel and line up a shot, and he passed back out of the 50 to a teammate under more pressure than he was.

No HTB for Melbourne... And saying that we get one finally.

Lockhart is showing a lot of fight. We have a couple who are putting in and trying to lift the team.

FMD, Viney bombs to the Hoff in the goalsquare...

Got away with one there. Good contested work from Brayshaw.

It's not looking good. There's no spark there tonight. They're going through the motions but the tackles are half-hearted, they're not crashing in to get the ball and disposal is loose. We won't win this one.

I suggest giving them each a copy of the rules and telling them to adjudicate the game according to those rules.

Those last few minutes, the umpires did everything but kick the ball themselves to prevent us from scoring again. Inexcusable.

OK, I just have to vent on my one great complaint from this game. Bloody Max Gawn. He could have had GOTY sewn up and he passed it off. The guy roves his own hitout, breaks a tackle and runs the ball out of the square. All he had to do was take it to 55m or so and belt the hell out of it for a goal. Why did he do the team thing and look for a pass? Why? Interesting. I wonder if this contributed to the space our forwards were finding?

Quite happy about that. This was everything that we've been crying out for in our side. It seems like they're finally getting the balance right in the side. The addition of Langdon, Bennell and Pickett give us some pace and skill to compliment the raw grunt, Oscar down back frees up Lever and May to play their natural games and Weid plays a more traditional full-forward game than T-Mac which helps the forward structure and gives us a moving target. Some of the passes to the lead were sublime today, none better than the bullet from May that bounced of Jackson's chest. It was very interesting seeing the more senior players going out of their way to give goals to the first year players. Even the Weid declined a set shot directly in front of goal to give Jackson a freeby. I'm also thrilled with the vision Bennell is showing. I don't care if he's not enough of a contested beast for Goodwin. That's not what he was hired for and trying to turn him into another inside animal is pointless. He's in the side for the damage he can do with the ball, not for his tackling and contested ball-winning. His hand pass through a mob of Hawks to create a goal was sublime.

He looks good, but his pace isn't great. That will hurt him as a small forward. Tough as hell though.

Cody Weightman. Amazing mark and goal from a first-gamer.

It's also worth saying that OMac and the Weid made a big difference to the structure today. Oscar frees up May and Lever to play a more attacking brand and having Sam up front means we have someone contesting in the packs which means that the blind kick in hope isn't quite as disastrous for us as it normally is. Well worth persistingwith both of them. Is it just me or was Kozzie trying to set up Bennell all game?

He didn't run under it. That was just BS from the commentators because they weren't game to say he was pushed in the back and not given the free. There were three contests in a row where he was shoved out and they marked behind him. Not a peep from the Umps. And the random one outside the boundary against Oliver that nobody knows what it was for...

Seriously? The Umps were searching for frees to pay to GC all night. That free to Rankine on the boundary... WTF? And the two dodgy frees to give Ellis his second goal. Then there were all of the HTB decisions they paid to GC that they refused to pay to us... The umps were a disgrace all night.

I see what you did there. He doesn't though.

Thanks for that. I quite enjoyed it.

Think outside the box and play it in the USA. Try to nab some of those sports-starved supporters.

Put my tablet down and relax?

Honestly, I'm not sure. He seems to have produced a lot of great assistant coaches which suggests that hie methods work. On the other hand he might be a bit of a spent force by now. He's been a senior coach for a long time.

I was under the impression that the concern with Pert was that he would try to micromanage the FD (apparently he did that at Collingwood?) and mess with things he shouldn't. He doesn't seem to be doing anything like that. I don't mind him working behind the scenes to try to keep the club functioning.

At least they aren't showing us replay after replay of the injury. There have been a few where they took great delight in finding the best possible close-up angle to put on super slow-mo just to make us all nauseous.

Arms aren't meant to bend like that. Looks like a memorable debut for you Kelly.