praha

We're well on our way to our best ever underperforming season, that's for sure.

Been the story all week. Everyone is saying once we turn the corner and get a scalp, we'll be right up there. Believe it when I see it.

I think WC may struggle to contain the smalls give their tall defenders,hence why Spargo is still playing.

In Melksham,Weeds,Hibberd,Kent Out Hogan,Pederson,Hunt,Garlett

Well if we're going for a like for like with Hogan out, then yes. 20 metres behind the opposition at every opportunity.

Not if WC match the offer, which they likely would unless it's a North offer for $50 million and an island in the Caribbean.

Gen Y here with a 21st century maths education. Can you explain what the [censored] that means? lol

To be frank I think they're going to give us a good old fashion football lesson. I think the pressure and skepticism is too much for this team. They looked mentally drained after the weekend. Happy to be proven wrong.

We need to turn the corner. Worst thing for this team's development atm would be to lose both and miss finals. Missing finals last year is imo what puts us in this situation again. Without breaking through the pressure and playing finals, they don't know of the actual level required to reach there. It's a chicken egg scenario: you can't know what it takes to make finals without actually making it. But how can you make it if you don't know how? If we miss again I suspect Goodwin to go back to the drawing board and do a mini rebuild aka Richmond at the end of 2016. That may well mean hard decisions and a Deledio-type trade of a/some favourite sons. Stats are quantifiable and accurate. We are not a 100% chance to make finals. We are a 95% chance based on our performance and statistics. The 5% is an outlier and may be immeasurable in some capacity.

Weirdly, i saw two people going to work this morning wearing a Demons scarf AND beanie.

Not sure this is a reflection of gameplan but agree that under pressure we spray and our skills drop off considerably. I mentioned that earlier and two posters put words in my mouth by saying I was attacking the gameplan. All teams' skills drop under pressure but it is the capacity to be accountable defensively that is key. Sydney of 2005 were an awful kicking sider and not especially skilled, but they were accountable. 120 uncontested possession differential on the weekend against a team 2 down suggests we were shockingly unaccountable and lazy.

Good question. I didn't say it was the fault of the gameplay or coach

How do you know?

True but it's also a reflection of the better team. They couldn't miss. We did. Sydney matched and better us for intensity, pace and spacing all game. They were down 2 players and that is imo a better metric of how we played than our inaccuracy.

missing shots is part of the game. Saying "If we were more accurate we would have won" is the same as saying "If we'd scored more we would have won". You win and lose based on those metrics, and it may well be that our accuracy is more a reflection of the pressure being applied than it was simply us missing shots. I can't fathom how anyone that watched the second quarter could think we were the better side but simply missing shots. That was an abdolute pasting they gave us in the second quarter, and it won them the game.

OUT: Hogan, Garlett, Jones, Pederson IN: Melksham, Hibberd, Weeds, Hannan Would rather Spargo than Garlett. When is Jeff's contract up? No more downhill skiers please.

Hutchy isn't. The rest of the panel were still confident and talking us up. For them it's disappointing. Hutchy is simply stating he won't fall for the hype until we do something relevant.

Hutcho is right in that we shouldn't be talked up until we beat a decent team. I get the feeling some commentators are just sick of the same narrative presenting itself time and time again.

I'd argue that the losing and constant failures fuel the stereotypes but sure, blame the supporters who fork out $600 a year lol

I'm not saying any one thing in particular. And I don't buy into the Norm Smith [censored]. I'm talking about stereotypes that linger and have lingered *over* 50 years (not 50 years ago, you keep returning to that). I'm highlighting that for us to make finals we have to break the chains. These are chains the football public has had shackled to the club for 50 years. I'm not making this up. It's everywhere for you to see. They have to change the narrative to play finals from here. that would be doing something it hasn't done in a long time, and that'd consistently beat good teams. It's not a secret, or my opinion. You can deny that the narrative and stereotypes exist. I'm sorry though but they do. I never suggested that things that happened 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago influence today's team's outcome. I am simply saying that collectively as a club it continues to struggle to turn that corner, feeding into hysteria around stereotypes and an expectation of failure. The only way to prove "supporters like me" wrong is to win games like the weekend. That loss was distinctively Melbourne in how it transpired. It ticked all the boxes for the quintessential Melbourne loss, in line with those stereotypes.

did you read what I wrote? I said we have to break stereotypes. where did I say anything even remotely close to "we lost because of something that happened 50 years ago"?

"Thanks for putting up with our [censored], members! 12 years old of finals! Couldn't have done it without you. See you at the draft!"

between 150 and 160 we haven't played a single finals match lol What if we wear this after losing to WC, then lose to GWS? 160th anniversary guernsey, with members names written on, while we bundle out of contention and miss finals for the 12th (!) straight season. This should have been done earlier in the year. The timing really isn't ideal.

Hannbury would be an upgrade on Jones if we could pull it off.

You're confusing reality with faith. We know the Melbourne Football Club exists. All faith is blind because faith has a prerequisite that you don't know what, when, how or why something may happen. Proof of God is irrelevant. Faith in anything is blind and there is nothing wrong with having faith. It's not the existence of the club you have faith in. I dare say faith in a club is more futile than faith in God, because there's no potential of those expectations of God leading to disappointment. Having faith in a club like Melbourne sets you up for disappointment because there is a higher level of expectation and standards. No one is expecting God's existence to suddenly be proven.