Adam The God

You're probably right. If you don't bring 100% defensive intensity against the competition's top team, you won't win the contest many times.

I watched the game with a Bluebagger too. Even better. 'Ah well, mate. Bad luck. Next time.' Physically, I reckon. We were buggered after this game. I haven't seen a Melbourne team so tired in a long time. Out on their feet at the end. Backing this up against Collingwood, even with a nine day turn around is going to be a tough ask. And he knocked Brad Ebert off the ball, no less. No one is saying Gawn isn't the future. He simply doesn't have the fitness at the moment. He struggled to chase all day. He laid zero tackles. Zero. He was playing Dawes' role.

Personnel/list changes will further improve us.

I dislike this call. I've seen it a couple of times from a number of posters. I can certainly see the comparison in terms of movement, left-footedness and skill level, but he seems to have a bit more time than Yze (or perhaps it's just been a while). but is certainly a much tougher player. He'll play 200 games for this club if he continues to track as he is. Such an exciting prospect. Thought he made one error today, when he went back for a mark with one hand. It was lazy, but I'm sure the coaching team will eradicate this from his game. Really looking forward to see how he plays in front of a big crowd at the 'G. Tyson too for that matter.

I think the simple thing about the holding the ball rule is having consistency with the decision. If there's consistency within a game, at least we know what to expect within that game. The ruling on this so inconsistent that it's utterly incompetent. This has been his problem throughout his entire career. However, a lot of his work goes unnoticed, so I'm never confident of calling how much impact he's actually had. A lot of his best work is his chasing, providing an option, opening up space for other players to move into and playing a disciplined team role. I'd like to see him get more of the ball though. When we start to dominate games more, I think you'll see him getting ahead of the play a lot more. He always seems to be the one running inside 50, if we have a break on. He's clearly got a great tank. It won't happen, but it should. He's an embarrassing captain. Anything Grimes does that is positive is so severely and heavily outweighed by the bad, that being dropped should be a serious consideration. I think there will come a time though where Roos says enough is enough. I think that'll be at the end of the year though. Or the rest of the playing group will speak. He's clearly highly rated for his preparation and off field leadership, but he isn't worth Nathan Jones' shoelace. When it's your captain that is consistently making these costly mistakes, it has to take a toll on the psyche of his team mates. They have to wonder, jeez, I'm busting my gut here and our captain keeps making these junior blunders. These are consistent errors every week. I've no doubt they've pulled him up on these errors, but he continues to make the same stupid errors. When do we admit that this guy is just average footballer, who seems to be going backwards every year he plays? Really interesting post this, G. I felt like our forward pressure was pretty off today. Our midfielders worked their behinds off, but I didn't feel like every time Port got the ball we were on top of them. Against Adelaide, that's how I felt. I reckon we played at 85-90% intensity today. We certainly didn't start the game at full intensity. Our errors in the last were due to a lack of fitness (bear in mind, Mission said it would take three pre seasons to build up to a competitive AFL fitness base), I can tolerate those to an extent. It's the errors in the first three quarters that are tougher to swallow. Let's hope we bring 100% intensity to the QB game.

Dawes plays, he brings tackle pressure, lays four or five, pulls down three or four contested marks and kicks one or two and I reckon it's the difference. Gawn just needed to lay more tackles and not let Port skip out off half back. They didn't get out too many times due to his team mates busting a gut, but Gawn;s fitness is really poor. I've seen he has the desire, he just doesn't have the tank. Send him back to the 2's. Bring in Dawes.

I agree, but end of the season, I reckon. We've gotta do it consistently for the season. I dunno. This was just as tough to swallow as the Bulldogs game, IMO, because we had all those chances at the start of the last quarter to put scoreboard pressure on. Missing them deflates the team, kicking them gives you that little bit of extra energy to play out the last 10 mins. When we missed those shots though, I knew they'd come back to bite us and they did.

Roos is a genius, isn't he? Seriously, what a coach.

Oh and Pederson was amazing.

Jetta was fantastic. Tyson and Jones were solid. There were some really good signs from Salem and Toumpas. Watts had copious scoring assists, but needs to be stronger over the ball. Dunn was good one-on-one, but made some poor decisions when it counted in the last few moments. We still need to get fitter.

Gawn six disposals and zero tackles. Well, there's another reason. We clearly missed Dawes. Next week: Dawes in for Gawn for mine.

Well, we missed too many gettable shots at goal in the last quarter and that was the difference in the end.

Why would Jamar not tap it to the goalface and then he gives the 50 away. Dumb play.

There is no excuse for them to run over the top of us. We are coming off the bye, they've played a gruelling match against Hawthorn and they still over run us.

Why is Dunn kicking a torp?

Pathetic, McDonald. We lost the game at the top of the fourth. 4 points from very gettable shots.

Brilliant, Jetta. Absolutely pathetic from McDonald and Howe.

Pathetic Melbourne. And get off Grimes.

This is where we've lost the game, as we did against the Bulldogs. We keep wasting scoring opportunities. Just about game over.

Two hands Salem. That was bad.

Very ordinary from Gawn. Really letting us down today. He has no tank.

Another clanger from Grimes.

He's been brilliant. Again.

Salem - class and coolness under pressure. THe ability to hit up that kick and keep his cool, we have something special here.

Dermie giving no credit to Melbourne again. Port have played like millionaires.