Adam The God

That shirt front was in the last. If you're going to have a ping, at least know what you're talking about.

Nah, I've always hated them. They've always beaten up on us in my 31 year lifetime and half my family are Geelong. And on the bigscreen at the ground, they kept replaying Scott's carry on and all the Geelong supporters were cheering and laughing. They're all a bunch of muppets.

Dangerfield is an ugly looking gronkazoid. I hope his career takes a nosedive. ?? That felt good. What a muppet he is. How was his dive over the boundary line at one stage too?

He just should have kicked it. A simple snap on his wrong foot. He didn't even get close. We were right behind that and my recollection was he did actually have someone close to him. But maybe I'm simply failing to remember correctly?

I have a feeling JKH will get one final game next week to see if he makes it. Laid some tackles, got more involved and got more of the footy than he has in the past, but doesn't win 1v1s and [censored] himself in clutch moments. He's not good enough, but he'll get one more game to prove himself IMO. Tyson might make way for Hannan or VDB though, otherwise, I'd go the same team again. Make them repay the supporters and club for falling this week.

I did notice the lack of security there as well. Bizarre. Imagine if Geelong had lost? Probably more chaos.

Seems an incongruously defensive move from a coach who seemed to think Gawn needed to be saved during our momentum surge at the start of the last. We needed Gawn out there to kill the game. Have a rest when we're 7-8 goals up and Geelong have themselves, put the cue in the rack.

We were close to that. Got out just in time by the looks of it. I had a few usuals that wanted to knock my block off, but the 6 foot 6ness continues to help me.

Yeah there is. P Dangerfield. Oh, sorry. C Scott. Oh, sorry. G Ablett. I don't know how all three manage to fit in the same locker room with the size of their heads. 3 of the most arrogant footballers still playing the game, coached by one of the most arrogant coaches in league. When Tuohy marked it on the siren, my sister and I walked closer to the fence from the standing room area where we watched the rest of the match from. When we got closer, we were some 50 metres away from most of the MFC team on the mark. When the ball sailed through, Brayshaw and Oliver looked shattered. Gus looked like he wanted to punch someone and just walked off towards the pocket by himself. Meanwhile, Oliver stood there in disbelief, frustration completely etched across him. I'm sure others were the same, but those two stood out to me. But it shouldn't have got to this point. Wasn't Collingwood in Round 23 enough? Wasn't Geelong in Round 1 enough? What is it going to take, before this team realises what they must do in order to win proper games of footy? I've been there before multiple times, but winning tonight (given our disgusting record down there) would have been a famous win. I was angry after the game, but wasn't confident at three quarter time that we'd get the job done. My sister and I did say though that if we could kick 3 or 4 we'd win, because they were never going to kick enough. But, this was Melbourne. And so of course the worst happened. Great post btw. I agree. He did some nice things, but the bad far outweighed the good. And it did strike me as strange that Jones directed him back to play the goal keeper role, rather than taking it himself. But obviously they were instructions from the box.

Isn't that [censored] sickening? I'm so glad I was at the game and didn't have to listen to that [censored] Ling make out with Jesus.

He certainly didn't keep his feet enough tonight. Constantly went to ground. And does weekly, too often. This doesn't explain enough though. Midfield elements work because of the offence/defence. Adding extra numbers off the back of centre square for instance means we're a good chance of joining in at the clearance, but if the opposition win the ball, it goes straight back over these extras' heads. I must have missed this. I watched Harmes tag Selwood for at least the first half. I presumed, given Selwood's low possession count, that his tag continued in the second half. Whereas, Dangerfield had 30 and 2 goals.

Agree with all of those but 3. Fritsch was terrible. His first true stinker of a game. Re-watch the tape. Wow. I find that pretty offensive. I've been to just about every game in Victoria for 30 years and was there again tonight. I'd say I'm usually pretty balanced about how our team is going. But look at the fixture. We needed to win that game to make finals. It's very hard from here. We had them on toast. Smashed them all night really, but still managed to bungle it in offensive 50 and leak in our defensive 50. The only thing not good at withstanding pressure is our system, team and coaching. It's really that simple.

Hope you're okay, mate. Know that there are plenty of us hurting tonight and that you're not the only one. None of us would be on here if we didn't see the football club as a central part of our lives. I gave up another Saturday evening to head on down to Geelong, only to get kicked in the teeth again by our club. Let's hope it stops soon otherwise there won't be any supporters left to kick in the teeth.

They should try and fixture Melbourne v Geelong for every Friday night game, is what they should do. If you look at the night games we've played this year against Port and Geelong in the prime time, we are bankable for a good, hard, close game. We won't win any of them of course, but it'll be close.

Yep. We did. Fritsch. Who was terrible all night and cost us 2+ goals and almost another on the stroke of half time. Problem was, the spare played the goalkeeper role. Probably the right move given its importance in the modern game, but it was never going to trouble Hawkins. I think Frost simply should have been moved to Hawkins earlier, but from memory, he didn't kick another goal once Frost went to him. 4 goal lead, but I agree. The bloke doesn't understand football, I'm afraid.

It does and we do remind me of Richmond last season and historically. For years they were a mentally soft club and even last year lost a string of games they should have buried. Eventually though, their leaders said enough is enough. I don't think it was leadership that lost it for us tonight though. Not true. I don't often stick up for Jones, but I was at the game and he was doing a lot of marshalling throughout the last quarter.

What I hate is our leaders scoffing when asked about not being able to beat a top 8 side. Well, you still haven't yet, boys and your pathetic choking continues to [censored] on our supporter base. Just say we haven't and cop those questions until you start to beat some top 8 teams. Get rid of the arrogance and realise you haven't achieved anything yet and deliver on game day.

So I type this as I make my way up the highway back to Melbourne. Yet another game where our efficiency going inside 50 and inside in general was insipid. Bottom 4 worthy. The game style does not hold up defensively. We have not fixed basic structural fundamentals in our game. Every time the ball went inside 50, we conceded against these [censored]. Is it a lack of two way running from our mids, or is it poor coaching that encourages and cajoles our players into high offensive positions, leaving us completely vulnerable on the rebound? It was so very Melbourne that an absolute gronk like Hawkins (who usually can't hit the side of a barn), was made to look like a superstar. For mine, it's the game style that's at fault. I'm not saying Goodwin is under pressure, but his stubbornness to change his defensive system is costing us games and will now see us miss finals for the same reason two years in a row. We certainly don't deserve to play finals on the back of the first 18 rounds of 2018 anyway. We haven't beaten a top 8 side and have lost to a bottom 2 side too. I don't want to talk about leadership tonight. I don't think that's necessarily why we lost this game. There are two major reasons why we lost. 1) our inefficinecy inside 50 and poor kicking at goal. 2) our game style that leads to us leaking goals. I'd love to know what Geelong's conversion per inside 50 was. It felt like (with the exception of a small period in the third quarter), every time they went inside, they scored. Their straight kicking invariably meant it was a goal against. I said last week that we'd miss finals if we lost tonight and what a gut wrenching way of meaning we'll miss. We lack such quality and consistency across half forward too. With the exception of Melksham, who IMO is arguably our most important player for the way he connects the midfield with the forwardline, we also lack speed and polish. JKH and ANB (the latter was pretty good tonight) just don't have the speed or polish for a top 8 team. And despite winning some crucial one v ones, I'm still waiting for Petracca to impact a game like Brayshaw or Degoey have. He just doesn't exhibit that matchbreaker quality that I hoped. He still has time, but it's frustrating that he is still yet to impact a game in the way those two aforementioned players have. Another thing, why was Gawn off the ground for such a crucial period in the last quarter? It beggars belief. How many goals did they kick when he was off? A rest is fine but he seemed to be off more than he was on in the last. I'll have to watch the replay if I can bare it, but despite getting a PB, I felt Clarry played a bit of a Tom Mitchell game. Lots of contested footy and touches, but didn't get it on the outside enough to use his kicking to set up play more. His first quarter was sublime though. Maybe I need to watch it again? Anyway, does anyone else feel they've seen enough of the game style now and feel it ultimately doesn't work? Or do people think it's merely a matter of tidying up the way we enter forward 50? Surely, we would have done this now if it were that simple...

Richmond lost 3% a couple of weeks ago when they lost to Port by 14 points and the scores were relatively low (72 to 58).

Can be big too. A few teams have lost 3% in losing by 2 and a bit goals. If you do that 2 or 3 times and you're back with the rest of the pack.

Yep, if we only win 2 more, our percentage will no longer be healthy. Even if we have close games. That's not how percentage works.

What's brilliant is that it no longer matters if our new draftees are tearing it up straight away and getting accolades like this. As long as they are playing their role, I'm sure all the accolades that matter are heralded within the club. There is also far less pressure on guys like Charlie to come in from Round 1 and perform. They're given a few weeks in the VFL and 'earn' it first and from there, as long as they are doing the team things, that will keep them in the team. This is a far more sustainable and better way of approaching development, than throwing kids in from Round 1 and heaping pressure on them to succeed in the high intensity of an AFL midfield role.

If only we could keep Viney out there, a midfield of Gawn, Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw is A grade if they can improve on their two-way defensive running.

Is that gronk Boomer Harvey in the media is he?

I've got to say even Viney (who'd probably be termed as B+ at the moment), has shown up Jones' leadership, as Jack really has the will to drag his team over the line and almost did it the last quarter against Port.