Dr. Gonzo

In the hard times vs good times ledger I'd say most Melbourne supporters have plenty in credit.

Who would bother? The club/team has broken the trust of the supporters, people have better things to do than waste time on a club that doesn't reward the supporters with the bare minimum effort required.

Test result - a big, fat "F"

Come on, take a look at the respective sides out their today. Only one reason that we lost and it is our fragile mentality. Lever is one player and Petracca played half the game where we had already shown we weren't up for it before he was injured.

Collect a cheque for years doing sweet [censored] all

Since our flag we've played the Pies 5 times and lost 4 times to them in exactly the same way every time! They started kicking some goals out their [censored] towards the end but when the game was still live they were waltzing it in off rebound from turnovers. Today we had no names like Harvey Harrison, some guy named Krueger and spuds like Hoskin-Elliott slotting them through. Effort was [censored] from first bounce, I'm not buying this "effort was ok" garbage.

Tell me again about how good the "effort" was 🤬 This club is not a serious footy club

Exactly layzie, you said it much better than I did. The supporters who think the "effort" today was acceptable are having a laugh.

They've won equal most flags and despite losing many GFs they had to win plenty of games to get there in the first place. In very few if those GF losses were the actually disgraced either, not like our efforts in 1988 and 2000.

Wow, you are easily pleased

The desire and hunt was not there. Broken tackles in the first 10 minutes led to Collingwood goals, our desire to work hard pushing forward to create options was not there. Same old [censored], this club still have no idea what it takes to succeed, they know all the right things to say, they know the buzzwords like culture, respect the game, respect the opposition blah blah blah but they actually have no idea what it means to put that into practice. It's not complex either, just takes guts and pride and we have neither.

We were completely outplayed by Brisbane, Carlton (Petracca's heroics almost dragged us over the line), West Coast, Freo and Collingwood. We are miles off.

Because, hate them as much as we do, one thing is undeniable - Collingwood is a club that has what we lack in spades, heart, pride and a winning culture. They have so many first choice players out yet they will always compete and play as a team. We would do well to look across the road and learn a thing or two from them. I am disgusted with the game today, absolutely disgusted.

Surely not

This club is pathetic

With a few notable exceptions this club is full of a bunch of peahearts

Sidebottom always kills us, shut down him and Nick Daicos and they won't have much more firepower.

Why do they persist with Laurie? Billings not much better. I would like to see Petty and TMac swap ends, TMac has been in good form and gives us a marking target up forward. Petty in the backline might find it easier to get some touches and work his way into form. No statements at selection, the usual revolving door of NQRs. Tomlinson stiff again.

Darcy Cameron has learnt from him and leads into ruck contests with his knee.

Yep also a very good "backs against the wall" side

Rookie mistake, I organised to catch-up with my Collingwood relos tomorrow so I can ignore them on Monday if I need to 😂

It's probably both, he is lacking conditioning and doesn't have the body strength to compete in the contest so ends up giving it up.

Yes and no. Some clubs like Geelong, Sydney, Collingwood seem to be perennial challengers and when they do drop, it's not for long. I was thinking about Pendlebury's career, drafted in 2005, flag in 2010, runners up 2011 & 2018 and flag in 2023 with a couple of Prelims thrown in as well. (2007, 2012, 2022). Its not all peaches, they've been down some years but to contend regularly across his almost 20 year career is astounding. Geelong and Sydney the same since the early 2000s. Now consider Petracca, drafted in 2014, prelim in 2018, flag in 2021 - is it likely we can rebuild to have another crack before he retires let alone do it twice?

What makes it seem stranger is last year on Kings Bday we dismantled the Collingwood gameplan by applying pressure on the ball carrier and putting on frontal pressure across the midfield/owning the corridor. Now we seem to have (partially?) adopted a style we already curtailed ourselves last year. Collingwood got out the back far too easily and too often in the QF but had we kicked straight (nailing shots we usually kick) we would've had a home Prelim. We need a reset to focus on our pressure and contest around the ground, become the hunter again. It is our DNA.

Mentally soft, they talk a lot about respecting the opposition and the game but they don't, not judging by their actions. If they did they wouldn't consistently struggle to get past mid-lower table sides over the last 2.5 years and wouldn't get belted by a bottom 4 side and absolute hammered by a mid-table side. It's back to the same old Melbourne, I thought and hoped the club had exorcised that soft underbelly but it's still there.