praha

It's not though. We have to beat two top 4 teams to win a flag and we're 0-5 against the top 4 this season. Four of which have been at the MCG in high pressure, high interest contests. Our performance at the MCG is embarrassing for the club. This is our home and we've choked there on every big stage this season. Woopdidoo we're a good travelling team! Guess what? We don't travel for the rest of the year lol

Elephant in the room... We're still a small club that can't consistently perform in big games in the big smoke. We won it last year, a fantastic achievement, on the road in front of a handful of local supporters and rent-a-crowds. Sorry but it's true. Twice against Collingwood, Twice against Sydney, Geelong, and almost Carlton... every single time we've played "the big boys" in Melbourne in battles between contenders this year we have been comprehensively beaten in the contest with pressure. It's great if you're a good travelling team during the season but in finals it's irrelevant when all your games are at the MCG in front of 80k+... I don't want to understate the significance of last year's flag at all, but this year is legitimate "big boys" finals on the big stage and we've really buckled on almost every occasion. There was a shot of a Swans supporter doing the choking motion last night and it's pretty accurate. As soon as things returned to normal and perennial contenders Sydney, Collingwood, Geelong come back onto the scene, we've been deers in headlights. We're so close yet so far. To lose against Collingwood and Sydney TWICE on the MCG in the fashion we have is an indictment on the season in my view. Taking nothing away from those teams at all but we have been way off it on the REAL big stage this season. We turned it up on the other side of the country when most of us were locked up at home and couldn't even celebrate, away from the stress and scrutiny of Melbourne. Now the big boys are out to play and we're still a league below. Last night was just so typically Melbourne in outcome. I know I'm being harsh but it's been an obvious trend this year.

Can you lot just get over yourselves with these stupid crowd noise posts. Pies have a point to prove and are up and about. They also have 100k members. We got 80k against an interstate club of which had maybe 20k supporters there last night. We played poorly and had something to cheer about for maybe 20 minutes total. Turnover after turnover and Swans scoring on almost every single one. Fumbles. Missed sitters. 50 metre penalties. Momentum killers that sap energy from the crowd. It's happened all season. This isn't our fault.

It was pretty even across the board even in that stat. When I saw it at 3 qtr time I thought that eventually our pressure would overcome Sydney and we'd win. Their pressure in the last quarter wins flags. We turned to butter.

Brown is not it. Against week defence last year he did well. All contenders are super defensive sides this year and he isn't agile enough go be useful. Weid is an infinitely better option than Brown right now. Controversial but it's the truth.

The year is probably the reality check the team needed. We were far and away the best team last year. Teams have leapfrogged us this year. It's so hard to win flags.

78k. The crowd was fine. Sydney had way more to cheer about and outside of bursts we were sunk in our seats watching a pretty average outing. Swans silenced the crowd. Pretty simple really.

It might not be this year but we'll be thereabouts for a while yet. Just gotta ride it out.

78k. We outnumbered them 10:1. They just had more to yell about.

If anyone thinks we're a sure thing against Brisbane you're delusional. They will be primed and fierce.

I thought that was our worst game of the year. Sydney kicked 12 goals from turnovers. Teams our beating us playing our own style.

No shame in losing tonight. Swans just superbly drilled. Would be a huge surprise if we win this.

Gonna be tough to win this. They have bounced straight back up from everything they throw at us.

She slips, she slops, she flips and she flops. She's a slippity sloppity floop.

These will be sold to GA and club supporters, and walk-ups on the night.

Duke, Transport, Garden State, Arbory, Clocks. Can't go wrong.

Reality is that the league (and clubs, albeit quietly) want to maximise competing club attendance. The only way to actually do this is to allow members to purchase multiple tickets. This maximises attendance and also ensures high density of club support in sections around the ground. Without doing so, you actually limit attendance, and non-members have to compete for a small selection of GA tickets. You might think that is that is the "fairer" option and it might be but it would actually divide the crowd and limit attendance. So the outcome is either: 1. Allow members to buy multiple tickets thus maximising attendance of supporters of competing clubs in club support-designated areas of the ground, or; 2. Allow GA ticketing in club member areas, meaning there is no guarantee you'll be sitting amongst Melbourne supporters. There's a reason why finals always have high density of supporters in "blocks" around the stadium. You don't really think we could have gotten 90k at our 2018 finals simply off the back of members buying single tickets, do you? You might not like it but being able to buy multiple tickets actually improves the amount of competing club *supporters* able to attend in weeks 1 and 2.

Still shocked at those crowds. 90k two weeks in a row for an elim and semi is a fantastic achievement.

Geelong still play like this. They haven't changed. Unless they surprise us and bring a very high contested and high pressure contest forward of the ball, it's still between one of Melbourne, Sydney and Collingwood to win it. No disrespect against Geelong but they flex too infrequently against top opposition and their fixture gifts them an easy run home every year because it's stacked with GMHBA games in the second half, and "big" and successful teams rarely travel down there (Melbourne the exception). They are a low pressure and low tackle team in the F50 when the ball hits the ground: they are highly efficient with good entry which is unsurprising given their targets down there. Realistically though, Melbourne, Collingwood and Sydney should ALL trouble Geelong *if* they defend to the peak. Each posses a strong interception games and players and on the MCG I'm sceptical of Geelong. The Cats are going to have to compromise high scoring and bags from Hawkins and Cameron. Both are going to have to perform higher up the ground as the flag this year will be won off the back of defensive transition, and centre break goals. No chance Sydney and Melbourne gift Geelong forwards easy reign in the air.

You are quite the linguist, db.

MCC expecting 70k. Good result if we can crack it.

The problem isn't so much the government. It's local councils and community groups in particular Yarra Council which is made up of Trots who have spent much of their life in the Richmond/Abbotsford/East Melbourne area and very much live in a bubble. Checkout Stephen Jolly on Twitter for insight into the clowns that run the joint, it's basically him vs the clown college. I lived in East Melbourne when both the Apple Store at Fed Square plan AND development over Jolimont Station were being floated, and there was vocal opposition to both to a psychotic degree that I have never experienced before. Honestly I felt like I was in an episode in the Twilight Zone. Locals were BEGGING for the council to do something about the injection houses and overdoses and drug dealing, and instead all resources were dedicated to opposing the Jolimont Station plan and a [censored] Apple store. Evidently I don't live in the area anymore but follow Jolly still and see he is in a new battle with Yarra counsellors who are now blocking locals from debating and contesting at meetings. No doubt the government has power over these councils but Yarra Council and those community groups are heavily influential on Spring Street particularly in left and socialist factions across Labor and the Greens. This makes any sort of development over park land or any "sacred" area in Yarra very difficult. The MCC itself is even often in a battle.

It'll dry up eventually. They're like the Utah Jazz in the 80s 90s and 2000s. Just kept topping up. Eventually players stopped going there because their brand was just "boring" and the club realised they hadn't drafted anyone decent for decades. Geelong's time will come eventually.

There's still tickets available in GA. Albeit level 4 at the back. Just did a test and seems ticket allocation is slowly but surely filling up. You'd certainly hope for a crowd of at least 70k. Sydney has a sizeable Melbourne supporter base which last I heard was around 15k Melbourne-based members. Throw in around 10k supporters coming from Sydney, and then hopefully 35k-40k (at least) Melbourne supporters and members, and then neutrals, plus corporates... 70k not outside the realm of possibility at all. 60k+ a bonus but anything below that would be a huge disappointment.

The two games we weren't leading in were Freo and Geelong. Meaning we were leading against Sydney (19 point turnaround), Collingwood (28 point turnaround), Bulldogs (23 point turnaround), and Collingwood (14 point turnaround) at 3qtr time. Not THAT damning. You can't win them all. Good news being we are in it to win in essentially every game we play.