Nice write up, I can see that I will enjoy some quality stuff on this board.
One thing though: "Melbourne was struck down in the end because its young group panicked under pressure". I am not sure that I can go along with this in absolution. Sure some youngsters panicked a bit but at the end of the day we only needed one lousy goal in the last quarter to seal the win. Hawthorn only played one real quarter, the three quarters leading up to that they were going through the motions which allowed us to play constructive football (credit to the youngsters who gelled well). However when the game had to be won (because it actually became a game in the last quarter) not only was our forward line dismal but our midfield once again was completely over-run. The midfield looked ok for 3 quarters and then all of a sudden it was faced by a polished team actually playing footy and we were (yet again) brushed aside. Where was the leadership? Compare this to the round 9 game we played againts Hawthorn last year, there are quite a few similarities in how they pulled their collective fingers out and killed us in the middle. The youngsters were fantastic (they battled all day) and they were let down by more experienced players who did not do their job or show the way in tough times. As much as I admire Miller's work and tenacity he just doesn't finish it off with goals which after all win matches - he just isn't penetrating with his kicks - 40m out no hope. Unfortunately atm we just don't have any forwards with a geniune kick at goal (Bate was good though), which means we have a bunch of forwards but no goal kickers. As for Newton, the less said the better. As stated in the OP though it is all about learning and hopefully we have a pretty smart footy department down there.