praha

What a stupid post. Money and business *shock horror* is what gives people a reason to come into the city. Businesses would rather close and make nothing than open and lose money. If you're not spending anything, you're not losing anything. You don't need to be a Liberal supporter to see how brain dead stupid this holiday is. A moron in my office said at the election, "I'm voting for the guy that's promising the GF holiday." These are the morons the policy is aimed at. Vote buyer trash aimed at the lowest common denominator. And who loses out? Hard working business owners who normally had a bonanza business day due to parade attendees plus normal people working the city. The city will be a ghost town. BOOKMARK IT. Do you need to be a Liberal supporter to care about how prosperous and exciting your city is? I'm sure Union Hall on Lygon St will be jammin' on GF Eve!

I have worked in the city for a decade. The parade, there is a buzz around the city. It's a normal work day, but it's Friday, it's a parade, it's a celebratory atmosphere. This will ruin the day. The city will be a ghost town. Why would a cafe that serves white collars open on that day?

You know, it's nice seeing another club in turmoil for once, but I'm willing to bet that Essendon will play finals again before Melbourne.

I suspect it'll be a lot closer than previous years. Hogan has been one of our most consistent. I'll say: 1. Vince 2. Hogan 3. McDonald 4. Jones 22. Lumumba

What I mean by normalisation is that, you need to be able to differentiate between "improvement" and what is to be expected. Yeah, we should *expect* a minimum of 6 wins. That's like, a bare minimum of where you'd think this club would be at considering what we have brought it. Our win/loss record merely reflects the natural progress of the team relative to the talent we have brought in. It's a stretch to suggest it's "improvement". I believe we're playing well, WELL below highest capacity capable of being reached by this squad, so yeah, everyone should be challenged and held to account for that. I don't know if that's Roos, the playing group, certain players. I mean, how many coaching careers can this playing group ruin? I said at one point last year that Roos' game day coaching and style is at odds with the branding exercise Jackson is implementing to get the club stronger off the field. Basically you have a coach that is trying to polish a turd, and sitting behind the desk is the manager trying to sell the turd on the promise it'll be the best and cleanest turd ever when Roos is done with it. Granted Jackson would be in the same situation had it been any other coach, but sometimes it's like Roos is playing with the turd and smearing it all over his body, then turning to the camera and saying, "IT WASN'T ME!" You have a pretty fragile club here that has stabilised in recent years but is still a far, far way off becoming sustainable. There must be a directive there to get the team playing attractive football. I can't believe that there isn't. I don't see how trying to instil ultra-defensive disciplines is worthwhile when you can't even string together more than 2 hours of good football. We saw how damaging Neeld was. Maybe we just need to accept that Jones, Dunn, Garland, McDonald, the Melbourne "veterans" that really tend to shape the narrative around the club, are attackers, not defenders, be it attacking midfielders, attacking defenders, whatever. I'm just starting to think that Roos' style here is futile. Our best football is when we actually playing attacking football. It's when we go into habits of becoming defeatist that we get super defensive and completely and utterly break down. I respect that defense wins flags, but I don't think Melbourne has the flexibility here to lose games by 100 points anymore. I mean, we're going into a round against the bottom-placed side, and it's a must win. Anyone saying it won't be disastrous if we lose is truly delusional. Pre-season is every club's prime time to sell their product and you can't do that when you close the year out losing by 10 goals. Roos needs a tangible product now. It's been 24 months now that he's been at the helm. I get that we're coming from a long way back, but it's not even that we lose. It's how we lose. Either a message isn't getting across, or the players just can't execute and are dumb. I REALLY hope it's the former because we can't afford to start ANOTHER rebuild.

#normalisation

So basically we went from competing for whole matches, to competing for 1 maybe 2 quarters, letting the opposition bang on 7-12 straight goals, and losing by 40-60 points.Right. Gotcha. Selective. The North game was won and lost in the first quarter. At the end of the season they started off flat. No excuse. Same against the Dogs. Their losses this year have been bigger hits to confidence than most losses last year. Our wins are better this year but our losses are worse. Consider we have lost two games by 100 and more games by more than 50 this year. The gap between best and worst is GREATER than last year because they have both grown. Only Melbourne somehow gets better while also getting worse.

Agreed.Dogs lost major experience and key parts of their Prelim runs. They have spent 3 years down the bottom, never bottomed out, and now look like Hawthorn did in 2007 and 2008. Last year we should have won 10 games considering the position we were in over 10 matches. Losing the final 10 games wouldn't have been as damning had we won 8 games prior to that (Port, Bulldogs, Saints, Suns, who we all led at one point in the last). Throw in Port again, Lions, Dogs again. That's 7 games we were in very winnable positions in. That hasn't been the case this year. Of 12 loses, we have only been in it 4 times: Adelaide, Collingwood, St Kilda and Essendon. The other 8 games, we were never a chance, and the loses against the Saints and Bombers were disappointing in the way that they should have been wins. We went from competing in 2014, to disappointing in 2015. 6 wins is merely normalisation. We added Hogan, Garlett, Lumumba, Brayshaw, VB, a good balance of experience, big bodies and young talent. To suggest we are only a 2-win better side than last year is comical. 8 wins is still the pass mark. Carlton is a must win. And it must be a strong win. Compete against Freo. And [censored] those runts from GWS. Otherwise yet another season is lost after a handful of bad loses to end the year. You can't undervalue the importance of closing the year strong if you aren't in the finals. Great clubs play to win. We're beyond merely passing off loses and matches as being worthless. Roos will earn his pay the next three weeks. It's integral for the team's development, sponsorship, memberships, free agency that we play a brand of football that showcases how far the club has come. If they can't do that, 2016 will just be another year. You can't get away with just passing off loses. It plays on the mind and opposing teams will take advantage. I'm surprised that after a decade, some here still undervalue a win, even wins against teams like Carlton.

Garlett returned to old habits at Carlton. He looked defeated and I don't feel like he wanted to be there. Like many others. Watts' game was solid, not bad, not good. Colossal brain fades leading directly to goals for them should be past him now. He is better than that. "Just another game".

Expendable: Dunn, Howe, Fitzpatrick, Riley, Toumpas, Garland, Watts Not AFL standard: Bail, McKenzie, Terlich, M Jones I'd keep Michie for depth. Simples.

Yeah but we need to field a side, Redleg

My favourites: "We didn't come to play" "We didn't see it coming" "We've been training really well" "We didn't compete" You say "propaganda" like as if what Burg's writing is in the public interest. He's not writing in the White House lol Granted, his opinion pieces are worthless. Hardly constructive, mostly just regurgitating quotes from players and coaches. It's all silly. I think Burg could take a leaf our of how some staffed writers work in the NBA. Genuine, honest writing from a fan's perspective, rather than PR from the club dressed up as opinion. It's like he's not allowed to be upfront and honest. He tows a line and it's pretty dull, and evidently very frustrating when he keeps amplifying the same quotes. I mean, seriously, it's the same [censored] every week. Figuratively and literally.

Was in Germany last week for work. Cigarettes are cheap. You can't smoke on the footpath between a restaurant and its outdoor eating area, but you can smoke at the table where you eat. Astonishing. Love their beer, too. Walked out of a conference and they gave a bottle of beer and a pretzel to every attendee.

Then we should [censored] them, no?

N.Jones - Not there mentally Dunn - Pressured yet reliable Hogan - Only bright light Watts - Just another game Dawes - VFL level pace Viney - Prolific and driving Lumumba - To the VFL! Brayshaw - Out of touch Gawn - Battled but beaten Cross - Old among young Garland - Did he play? Michie - Provided some drive Vince - Overwhelmed and beaten McDonald - Loose and unaccountable Neal-Bullen - Tried but limited Grimes - Impressive as sub Garlett - Zero defensive pressure Howe - Counting down days Jetta - Jetta of 2012 Bail - Last Melbourne game M.Jones - Battled but unpredictable Harmes - Must improve kicking

You're right. Losing by 100 points in Round 20, nothing to worry about. Really? *tilts head*

I'm also done. I'm in Seoul for work next weekend, and I'm not paying to watch it online. I'll be back for the Freo game but have a wedding on that day. For the GWS game, no chance in hell I'm going back to Etihad to see them get flogged again. I'm done for 2015. Here's to an entertaining Finals series!

The sad reality is that it IS our Grand Final. We have failed to turn a corner at every single opportunity this year. Win 2 in a row Win at Etihad Win games we are supposed to win Play consistently good football for more than two weeks Carlton is down and out. They have lost five in a row. If we have improved we will come out and smash them by 10 goals. It's very important that we beat them and beat them well. It would just be a normal game had we turned a corner in another regard this year, but we haven't. That leaves us to treating a match against the bottom-placed side as a gauge for what sort of team we support. This is like right down the bottom of the barrel of the stuff we turn to in order to define the year. We don't have a choice because every other gauge has suggested the club hasn't turned a corner. Winning one game and then playing crap for three weeks just suggest normalisation to me, not improvement: it's normal that with the players we have brought in that we would win 1 or 2 more matches this year. One gauge this year was that we won when we are supposed to, and consistently. We haven't really done that. It's not as important as playing consistently well over 2-3 weeks, or winning two in a row, but it's important nonetheless. How does the team respond after losing by 100 points? Earlier in the year they did it by beating the Dogs by 40 ponts. How does the team respond after consecutive poor starts in matches? How does the team respond to coming up against a struggling side when it's struggling itself? How does the team respond when it goes into a match as favourite after losing by 100 points? How does the team want to end the year? How does the team want 2015 to be remembered? How badly does the team want to win a match that has zero bearing on finals? This week is a Grand Final insofar as seeing what sort of mindset this team is in, what sort of influence the coaching staff has on the playing group, and how much the players actually care about the club. It's integral we finish the final 3 matches out strongly. They are pointless insofar as we can't make finals. But they are actually all 3 very winnable games. If we finish on 9 wins, this season turns from being a failure to a colossal success in the space of 3 weeks. This club can do it, but it probably won't. We need to finish strongly for the sake of membership, sponsorship and free agency. If we lose the remaining three matches, and lose them massively, the club will go through what will be its hardest pre-season yet in regards to marketing and branding. It'll be very hard to sell the product anymore. Even after 2012 and 2013. Finishing the year poorly would be disastrous for this club. You can't sell hope anymore. You need a tangible product. I highlighted those points because we can't undervalue how important it is to finish strongly, irrespective of what teams you're playing.

"But we trainnnnn hardddd" I'm starting to think that the club just isn't AFL quality. It's a VFL club and probably only deserves as much. You could bring in the best talent and coaches ever, but you're only ever going to create a great VFL club, which at AFL level is akin to a Championship team jumping into the Premier League and getting smashed and relegated after a single season. We just don't have what it takes as a football club.

Seriously though, how sad is it that this club has turned us against our most committed, hard working player? I hate this club.

H has zero defensive game, which is ironic as he's a defender. He's a line breaker but with such little movement forward of the ball, he struggles. I wonder how he'd go forward. He's a massive liability down back especially against quick teams, because he slams the ball forward and it comes back in. He's like a poor man's Brent Moloney.

He's an introvert playing the role of an extrovert. His body language yesterday and multiple times this year has been very poor. When I said at the end of last year he shouldn't be immune from being traded, I was hounded. When he wasn't traded (he was never going to be), I said he needed to take another step. Roos said the same thing. We have already seen peak Jones. He is to us what Vandenverg was to Hawthorn before the Hodge years Feel for the bloke and he tries his guts out but he is not captain material. At Melbourne he is our best choice, but so long as he's at the top ebb of our playing group, we will linger down the bottom. He would be third or fourth option mid in a good team, depth player. I know it's not his fault but he hasn't gone to the next level like we need him to. He was on the cusp of A-grade and now he's been found out. Remember he only barely cracks the top 100 in the league.

I don't see how them being ahead in development makes them a 100-point better side. I didn't expect a win based purely on the face that they're playing confident football, but I expected a good contest because despite them being "ahead of us", we have matched up well against them the last few years. We smashed them in 2013 excluding the last quarter and two losses last year could have easily been wins. Earlier this year we beat them by 40 points. They were always going to win yesterday but it wasn't that we lost, it's how we lost.It's always how we lose. We either put ourselves in winnable situations against similarly placed teams and then lose due to comical breakdowns, or simply play the defeatist and get pounded. Goodwin's comments at half-time summed it up. "I just want them to tackle." That's a directive an ubder-10s coach gives. But funnily enough, in Melbourne's case yesterday it was needed. Development has little to do with it. Our experienced players set the tone yesterday and we lost by 100 points. It has nothing to do with where the Bulldogs are on the ladder. We shouldn't be losing games by 100 points anymore.

Very lucky it was only 100 points. They were goalless in the third. It could very easily have been 120-140 point loss. They were that much better today. Body language from experienced players was pathetic. Jones, Dunn, Garland, Watts, Howe, Lumumba. Absolutely pathetic. Jones' body language at the coin toss shaped the day. He didn't want to be there. Also, Howe is a hack. He's gone. Late in the first quarter he had the ball in the back pocket. Was running it out casually and McDonald was behind him yelling, "you're hot, you're hot". I could hear it from the stands. Howe completely ignored him and got tackled. These blokes hate playing with one another, and it shows. Until every player from the Bailey and Daniher years are gone, we will linger. McDonald is probably the exception.