praha

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2016-07-28/next-five-weeks-crucial-for-club Suns by 10. Goals.

We should run away with a 8-9 goal win never coming out of second gear.

Spot on. He went in and out of discussion points and rarely answered any of Mike's questions without diverting to a completely unrelated topic, but he brought up some very valid points. I was particularly fond of his points on personality and goal kicking. Seeing "pure" forwards like Jesse Hogan struggle to kick 40 meters...it's an indictment on the development process of young kids who come into the system. I remember going to the footy in the 90s and seeing players kick set shots post high from the center square at the MCG, and easily make the distance. Carey, Lyon, Salmon, Loewe used to slam them home with no hesitation, be it off one-step, or from a set-shot. You don't see that anymore. The system has failed guys like Cloke, who should have had his kicking issues addressed from a young age. Hogan I fear can head down the same path. With more pressure and closer games, can we rely on him, our only pure forward at the moment, to kick a clutch goal from 50 meters? I think few teams have players that can do that. Fevola was probably the last "pure" set-shot in the game. Franklin is the exception because he's a freak, one-of-a-kind who we may never see again. And his kicking style is hardly "by the book". Imagine a young kid trying to work in that curving run-in to their game? Seemed like a trivial discussion point but when you bundle it together with the deteriorating entertainment value of the sport, it's an important discussion point.

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

It's easy to be an outside player in a great team. Outsider players tend to struggle in poor sides because they don't get the ball enough. Watts being a good example. No surprise that his form has improved as the team's has. By definition, outside runners are downhill skiers. Every good team needs them, and every good team has them.

Almost 2 a game. Averaging about the same as last year. Been a tough 2 month period for not only him, but the team. I think we're like 2-5 or 1-6 in that period. Silly comment, anyway. He's been among our best on many occasions, but has had 2 poor games. http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/pg-melbourne-demons--jesse-hogan

I think this narrative comes from the fear of a repeat of 2008-2011, where we flushed out experience very quickly and were left with no experience that was partly the reason for that rebuild's demise. I think the situation currently is completely different. Guys like Dunn and Garland aren't winners. Trengove and Dawes are clubman and should be retained imo, Pederson might unfortunately be moved on. All of the experience on our team bar Vince, H, Dawes don't have deep finals experience, and as it stands most are list cloggers. We gain no benefit from having them on our list. The "experience" issue was present when we were getting rid of Neitz, Yze, White, McDonald, Bruce all within a 2 year period. That was significant. But our current "experienced" crop wouldn't be missed. Besides, we are far better placed with "leadership" as it stands. Viney, Tyson, Hogan, McDonald, Gawn, Watts are all already leaders of the club and contribute more on game day than guys with 150-200+ games. Dunn, Grimes, Garland and Trengove are all I fear on their last AFL contracts. And I think it's time to move them on.

We can't go in efficiently if their defense is tight. If their defense is tight we can't kick goals. We can't kick goals if we're not going in efficiently. And round it goes. It was always, ALWAYS going to be a battle of the defenses. Theirs simply got on top of us and did the work their midfielders didn't. We found no way around and kept going back to the well. They looked more dangerous going forward and the umpires didn't help, with our defenders walking on eggshells. Ultimately, their defense held up for longer, and ours buckled almost every time they went forward. I think it was less our entries, more their ability to just adapt more efficiently to quick entries.

It's fascinating that North weren't able to build a powerhouse from their 90s successes. Hawthorn's "success" was a little delayed because you had a lot of young kids in the 80s who grew up supporting them now latching onto an incredibly successful decade, and they have kids, who have kids, etc etc. North simply weren't good enough for long enough to build that generational support that a minnow club needs. Hawthorn have never been a heavily-supported club but now have the benefit of the "bandwagon" factor, the rise of social media, Tasmania, and its 80s success to rise up. That's ultimately what they've built their club out of. They've come good at the perfect time, in the same way Melbourne went bad at the worst time. They had a boring brand and simply didn't utilise their immense successes of the 90s like they should have. They played home games in Sydney, dropped "North" and lost a bit of their identity when they should have been looking to expand it. They've made inroads in that regard the last few years. If Melbourne had actually been half-decent between 2007 and 2016, we'd have easily crossed 40k members and would probably be a far more "stable" club. We had a solid 8-9 seasons were we made finals enough to build a fanbase, but as soon as people started to jump on, we hit the ground with a thunderous CLUNK. Had North or the Bulldogs gone through want we've as a club have gone through the past 10 season, I can assure you they simply wouldn't exist today. We've been on the brink a few times but the club's capacity to find a way out is pretty amazing.

We actually got progressively better and more attacking as the conditions dried up. Granted it was very heavy under foot the whole game, but the Eagles' self-proclaimed hard running and tackling was severely lacking throughout. We played better wet-weather and dry-weather footy all day. They just simply defended superbly. I actually think we'd have won had it been dry. For one, Watts and Hogan would have had far more efficient days out. The wet weather conditions seemed to suit there defense.

At the MCG that's a 4-5 goal win. Disappointing we don't win but it'll all be for nothing if we don't pound GC next Sunday. They have no centerline. Should be an easy win.

Our defense was good. Ultimately, their defense was better. Deplorable umpiring in the last that made it very difficult to build momentum. I never knew how blatant the bias was in Perth because we always get smashed there. It was clear the umps were looking for any reason to award a free.

This boundary umpire....

We deserve this.

Bernie. He may have just lost us the game.

This is heartbreaking.

Late in the third, we have the ball, Jones is bursting forward, could drive it deep, instead he handballs sideways. Fmd.

Each team's defense is letting them down. Ours has been better overall imo.

Tommy Mac! On cue! Close game? I better turn it over!

Just all round terrible umpiring there. When they're getting calls, they've been terrible.

Jeff's pressure has been great.

Dawes! Sign him up!

Lol OMAC

Stupid kick, Kent.

BOOM! MUH NAME IS JEFF