Pates

What the hell is going on with our defence? It’s way too easy!

Well that wasn’t a free either so there’s the leveller I guess.

Top finish from stringer but that was never a free kick.

We can’t play two way footy.

Soft free, I’ll take it. Still feels like a fight for us to get a shot on goal. We’re not playing smart inside 50.

I thought he over ran it to be honest.

Well this is it isn’t it, both teams under the pump, both having played diabolical footy for the first two rounds. It’s time we bring it or we can kiss any chance of finals for my mind.

I hate saying this but the seasons on the line this weekend for us and the bombers, neither team is good enough to recover from such a horror start. It means both teams should be coming out all guns blazing and I’m not gonna lie I’m worried about whether we will bring the heat. The few positives from the weekend was that there was lots of balls going inside 50, but the manner in which it was going in and our forwards failure to lock it in was just pathetic. Add to that the fact our defence is totally inept right now made for a massively dirty night. Among many things that we are lacking, one is a genuine livewire small forward in the ilk of the Rioli’s. Our forward lack pressure on their defenders which gives them easy exits. IF we get our mojo we will beat Essendon, that I have no doubt. Whether we will and be able to resurrect this already fading season....

I knew when we weren’t converting at the start of the 3rd we were done. They’ve had 6 inside 50s for 5 goals, went way too tall for the conditions and our midfield is letting them get simple kicks in there. Absolutely disgusting efforts inside our forward 50 all night, TMac has been awful, Weiderman (who simply HAD to kick his) mostly unsighted, Melksham continues to look off the pace, and Petracca mostly useless. But ultimately our deficiencies in defence has made this an ugly night. There’s no logical set up, no one marshalling the troops into position, they look like headless chooks. I don’t think it’s possible for me to be more [censored] off with such a pathetic effort.

I was thinking we we might have a drop off this year, but right now we don’t look like a top 8 team at all.

Jones has been absolutely terrible tonight. Should seriously consider dropping him.

We’ve lost our constested ball dominance from last year, that was the main area that we were able to win games. So far this year we’ve been terrible, I don’t know if it’s teams being able to better read Max or our contested ball winners have dropped off the pace but we need to get that back. Also during the period in that quarter where we were in somewhat control we have reverted back to our long kick and hope into the forward line. A) it’s a slick night so we need to be smarter than that and B) lower the bloody eyes. May must be shaking his head thinking he’d gone to a team where there wouldn’t be the ball down his area for most of the game. Bloody terrible second half of the quarter, I hope Goodwin’s able to work some magic because right now we are bereft of it.

I stopped reading at the suggestion of dropping TMac. I think serious questions need to be asked about certain players (you named a few) but dropping a bloke that kicked 50 goals in just over half a season of footy last year? Based on one H&A game in which the midfield was soundly beaten? That said I do have this bad feeling in my gut that this year might not be all it’s cracked up to be. One of the reasons is one that you pointed to: we’ve been traveling in an upward trend for so long, most history has shown that it doesn’t keep going that way forever and most teams have a drop before they head towards a peak. I have a bad feeling that might be us this year. I feel hopeful that when we hit our straps it’ll be enough to make finals but we may find ourselves around the 6-8th mark by the end of the year with a quick exit. The main reason I feel this will happen is that we’ve had a very interrupted preseason for key players. A common comment being said during the game was that we had the most amount of off season surgeries of any of the clubs, that has to take its toll. Oliver had serious surgery done on both of his shoulders for example! Jones and Viney looked way underdone and were mostly unseen, although he contributed Melksham didn’t seem right passing the ball when in very clear shooting positions. We don’t have Lever (who will take time to find himself again), AvB is injured again, Lewis pulled out late, while we also got injuries to fringe players like Garlett and JKH. If we had an injury run that Richmond experienced in their premiership year we’d be in good shape, but so far luck is not on our side. We need May to be the dominant defensive force next week or we could find ourselves chasing the 8 for a while.

One thing I learned watching our dismal round one performance is that I have a new found respect the the Lions, Hawks, Cats, and Swans teams that were so dominant for so long. It’s a credit to their list, and fitness staff that they were able to hit the ground running every year. Now that I’ve swallowed that little bit of vomit that came up from praising the Hawks here’s my two cents. We are clearly suffering from having one of the most interrupted preseasons of any of the so called contenders. We looked off our feet walking into the rooms at half time and while we had that burst in the 3rd quarter it didn’t last very long. Ultimately it showed that most key players were underdone, particularly our captains who were terrible. Jones’s drop at the start of the third quarter was the game, it was inexcusable and the team looked shot from there. Salem is the only player who can hold his head up that he gave a complete performance. The good news, it’s only round one and there’s next week for redemption with May coming in.

May comes in for Frost and I hope that’s the last we see of him getting a game for the seniors. Lewis for Hore I think Pruest might get a game on the back of Gawn getting roughed up, it won’t surprise me if that becomes a theme for poor Maxy this year. Maybe Sparrow for Pruest? Salem is the only one I could honestly say played a complete game, his class was a cut above. Everyone else should be given a swift kick up the bum starting with Petracca, it’s time he delivered.

What was de goey thinking!?

He’s a fantastic player but the way the he plays for free kicks is disgusting. The only thing that makes it worse is the umpires pay them. That was a good tackle from Varcoe.

It was a strange cheap shot from Niall, given the club has been nothing but supportive over his time at Melbourne and there have been few incidents that have been picked up by the media to the negative of him as a Demon you would very easily argue that we had in fact been the ones helping him keep some of his demons at bay. Poor editorial comment and based on nothing.

I'm picturing this being a scrappy game that should we win (and I'm confident of that) it won't be the prettiest win. A good start in front of the game crowd will do us a world of good, hopefully they can get that form we had vs GWS in the final H&A match last year. I don't think I've seen us that clinical against a top 8 team for a long time.

I think you might be misunderstanding what some of the posters on here are saying, the mental health side of him would've been well known to them and it must have been a factor in making the decision to move him on/let him go. They may have weighed up the facts that the increasing scrutiny around him factored with his mental health would contribute to negative or distracting media attention that could bring additional issues on the club. They would also have weighed up the belief that getting him back to Perth would be the best thing for him and allow us to facilitate a trade. To think that we would dismiss it entirely is ridiculous. For Jesse I hope he's able to work through his issues, it's hard to think of another young player that's gone through so much emotional upheaval at such a young age, and at some stage that rollercoaster was always going to take its toll.

Silly act for JLT but soft decision when you look at others. That has to hold up for the rest of the year now as the standard. Is what it is.

My interest level for AFLX is extremely low BUT if the AFL were interested in it having interest the best way I could see it happening is to have it as a State of origin deal and it moves location every year so each state gets to host it. Would at least get some more interest from the random South Australian that hates Victoria. These teams names and they way they're marketing it is so incredibly cringe worthy. It's like a parent trying to hard to connect with their kids.

The zones at restarts I think could see a return of more resting ruckman, with tall timbre forward and no extra man you would think the ability for there to be direct scores from the restart will increase. I didn't know about the prior opportunity change from the ruck for me that's a huge error, what's to stop a player just grabbing it immediately to be tackled just to eat away the clock. Also feel like the nomination part should've been removed. If you have one from each team then why do they need to nominate?

I admit I was unsure about him prior to his return. A lot of people had him in their best 22 and I couldn't see why as I thought we had enough of his body type. I was definitely wrong, he's got a competitiveness that is immeasurable and was a huge part of our late surge. Given what he was able to achieve without much preparation and so much time out of the game last year, he could make a big difference to our team with a good pre-season.

He's one I'm really looking forward to watch progress, if he can get around the 30 goal mark and become a valuable link man whilst continuing the type of second efforts we saw in the Cats game he will be a great asset to the team. More than anything it sounds like he's got the confidence to step out and take this opportunity.