praha

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.

Gee our players get pushed off the ball, held, taken high, nothing. They get absolute gimmies.

We're as dominating now as they were in the first.

They get weak frees.

Get stuffed, Melbourne. After that first half you start the second half like this?

Jones running forward, had space, could have kicked a goal...handpasses.

Just left.

[censored]. You need to finish strongly. Finals or not. So much depends on it. So many variables. Free agents. Members. Sponsors. You can't just fold because the season means something. You're always playing for something.

12 months ago, Footscray looked destined for years in the wilderness. Lost experience and gained little in return. They play to win and don't look for excuses. Genuine flag threat the way they play. Body language of Dunn, Jones, Howe, Jetta is defeatist and disgraceful. Until they are all gone, we will be average.

Put him on ice.