praha

Adelaide giving away Melbourne-esque free kicks.

If ever you thought there was a conspiracy against Melbourne, that holding the ball aginst Eddie proves it. Awful call

Unfortunately the schedule just didnt work in our favour because of last week's games. Richmond was alway going to get 7 days because of the late Perth game last week. However given the ladder position of Freo and Collingwood, it would have made more sense to swap the Essendon and Melbourne games. End of the day it was a flip of the coin. It was a tougher turnaround for us because we played a co-tenant. The only game that could have been swapped was these two games. Essendon has an 8 day break. It's an astonishing oversight by the league.

*cracks knuckles* The Melbourne Football Club acts as an interesting basis for the critique on the transition from amateur to professional athleticism in the modern game. Is the club's recent failures a byproduct of cultural vulnerability, or is it merely part of the long, rebuilding grind? A question that has plagued Melbourne supporters and the broader football community for years, the answer is perhaps a combination of both. The notion that Melbourne's current playstyle is too demanding of a young side may be true, but that still raises questions about the club's habits and cultural behaviours. Inconsistentcy is perhaps a better gauge of team youth and inexperience -- inexperience may make it difficult to play consistent football -- and a tough play style that relies on the sport's fundamental non-negotiables shouldnt be part of the problem. Let's say it is part of the problem: it would then pave way for questions of cultural influence on the playing group, and the so called "soft underbelly" that continues to plague it. A player may ask, "Why go the extra mile if the Melbourne way always leads to failure regardless?" It might not be as direct a question but it would subconsciously affect approach and urgency to demanding play styles. Ultimately, professional sport is a team game, and so good individual performances tend to get smothered by poor team efforts. The "3 word play analysis" gauge tends to paint an interesting albeit inaccurate representation of the big picture, as 22 average performancrs can still get a team over the line if the team structure and style is upheld. There's no definitive answer to either question, but it is perhaps easier and more relatable for the fan to say the "losing culture" is the major drive of the problem. We can't possible know if the cultural issues of past years have gone, because the club is still in flux. Yesterday was a step forward and back, because it once again opened discussion about the club's purpose. The End (?) No idea of word count.

Tackling isn't a habit. It's a fundamental component of the game itself. If 22 games in you're still talking about turning non negotiable into habits, i feel sorry for Goodwin. We've been developing for years and we've failed miserably at a critical time. Momentum and incentive and those little things that fuel passion and urgency seem to work for every other team except Melbourne. I think a lot of people are understating the significance of yesterday. We didn't lose yesterday because the competition is hard. We lost because we're Melbourne. When will things go our way? We should have been walking away knowing we'd be playing finals. Instead we walked away wondering how an Afl team on the verge of its first final series in 10 years didnt lay a tacke in the first 10 minutes. Bruise. Free.

From the AFL website: "Despite blowing a golden chance to put an exclamation point on a thoroughly encouraging season and seal a finals berth – the first since 2006 – the mood was light and, well, kind of positive after the 16-point loss to Collingwood. " "...some club insiders dared to believe a loss could turn out to be a positive, as it would increase the chances of a Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval fixture, rather than having to face the finals-hardened Swans in Sydney. "

Aside from Essendon who hasn't won a final for 13 years, those clubs have all fallen down, come back, rebuilt and made finals in the 10 years since we last played finals. We've been trying to break this funk since the last time all of those teams were last winning finals. It's one to be middle of the road, and you have to expect poor losses. But we lost to Freo and Hawthorn after being outright favourites. We lost to North. Twice. We barely got over Brisbane. Port may struggle against top 8 sides but they've absolutely smashed some teams this year. We may very well play finals this year but we're still a team of losers and pushovers. The performance today is a mirroring of the end to the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Only Melbourne could win two more games than the season before and put in a leas enjoyable yeah. I've felt genuinely angry like 5 times this year. It's tiring. Today was the kind of game loser clubs lose. We're the new Richmond. It made me cringe when I heard they were upbeat in the rooms. You just got pansied by a team with nothing to play with and you're upbeat? Get [censored]!

That's season.

I might be overrated WC but they'll win by 5-6 goals imo.

Petracca had 23 touches kicked 2 goals and had 8 score involvements. ANB kicked 2 goals and similar game to Trac. They both arguably kept us in it. Way too lenient on Jones and Hunt. They were both awful.

The year is on the edge of being a failure. We're 4 years into another rebuild. West Coast will blitz Adelaide by 6-7 goals tomorrow. This will be a colassal failure. Jones, Watts, Tommy Mac, Tyson, Harmes, all need to be used as trade bait. I'm sick of perennial losers stinking it up and costing us when a big game is on the line. I could handle a mid season loss. Today was the final straw. Get rid of these [censored] hacks.

What a major disappointment.

Time left?

Strangely, we outnumber Collingwood supporters today. By a fair margin.

Aaaaand that's season. Jones' body language says it all. Hands on hips. Head down.

Can't see us winning.

Grundy was alone for 30 seconds.

That first quarter may way cost us a place in the finals.

I called it 4 weeks ago when we lost to North. When push comes to shove our leaders are losers. Jones should be offered to the highest bidder.

Anyone that says Jones Tyson and T Mcdonald aren't trade bait are kidding themselves.

They look like scoring every time they go forward.

Hogan's out there.

Jones proving he's a perennial loser. Lewis and Vince cashing their paycheck. Gawn taking the [censored]. Hunt, Hibberd and Brayshaw haven't hit a target between them. Garlett missing sitters. Entry forward deplorable. Importantly, Pies have numbers around the ball and win the important contests. It's less about how we're playing and more about how Collingwood is playing, which is quite good. They trust one another, back each other. This is a colassal choke by Melbourne, and is a massive indictment on out leaders. There's still too many losers in red and blue.

Why would you want to watch it?

Our defensive efforts having been mothing short of awful. Jones is playing like perennial loser. Lewis and Vince getting destroyed.