Pates

No confidence from me, they’ve broken our hearts too many times for me to really and truly believe. I keep waiting for it all to click together, I honestly feel like we have the pieces of the puzzle there for us, but still waiting for it to actually all happen. I’m picturing another tight loss, WC will probably be gifted 3-4 goals from free kicks. I will say this, despite losing Hogan I feel we have a stronger line up than last week. Prove me wrong Dees!

If he gets his shot, which I feel like he will, he should be instructed to run all day. He can't just be a roaming stay at home forward, he needs to be mobile and try to run his defender into the ground. Hard work and application has seemed to be his biggest fault in the past, we can't afford laziness at this time.

Having the composure to finish off the midfields good work and kick under pressure is 100% a sign of mental toughness. Lewis is the only person at the club I would want having a shot after a siren for us, because he can kick them in the clutch moments. Everyone else I feel like would faint at the thought of kicking after the siren.

...probably cry a little.

I thought it was pretty much the same length as the G but slightly narrower.

There's a part of me that would prefer it be down to us having to win one of these two games. As much as I want us to play finals I'm not sure I want us in there limping in with no wins against anyone of note. That said I really desperately want us in the finals.

Hogan out is just another kick in the balls to what’s been a frustrating year. Sounds as though Weeds has been doing well at Casey in recent times, these are the moments that can make players if they have the guts to step up. I’m still of the opinion Spargo needs a rest or time at Casey, he’s young but he was awful last week and has been down in the second half of the year. In: Hibberd, Weeds, Kent, Melksham Out: Hunt (inj), Hogan (inj), Spargo, Pederson

Oh definitely not captain, co captain, or vice. But I’d have him in the leadership group next year.

Fair point, his comments regarding this game I think mainly centred around the fact that we were playing into Sydney’s hands and that when momentum went against you it was up to the leaders to wrestle that momentum back or at least into a stalemate. Hes truckloads better than the likes of Matthews and Walls. Matthews doesn’t get the modern game and it’s grating to here him try to rationalise it.

These last two rounds Hogan has to stand up and be counted, right now he's the epitome of a Melbourne player. A rock star vs lower teams, goes to water against the good teams.

I'd consider throwing Brayshaw in there as well.

Agreed, they said it on the commentary as well. Something along the lines of "surely they know there isn't much time left" we played that last minute as if we'd already lost. I'm not the biggest fan of Jimmy Bartel's special comments but the whole second half he sounded baffled as to what we were doing, and it wasn't like what he was saying was anything groundbreaking but it really seemed to show that when we are down we seem to become nothing more than headless chickens.

Same games total scoring shots for vs against. Melbourne Scoring shots: 132 Opposition Scoring shots: 118 Only one game the opposition had more scoring shots (Saints, 2 extra shots), and Port in rnd 14 we had the same number of shots. This has been the year of missed chances, and ultimate frustration for the fans.

What’s really grinding my gears is that we’ve come so far and yet we still manage to be the laughing stock of the competition. Now I think it’s partially because the media keeps building us up as contenders when very few actually following us never said anything like it. But I’m sick of us being laughed at.

Out: Hunt (Inj), Spargo, Pederson In: Hibberd, Kent, Melksham Despite the result we were accurate goal kicking away from winning. We played stupid football and the frustrating thing is that we only lost by 9 points. I don’t know if that says more about them or us. Spargo needs a rest or to be dropped, he put in a shocker and it’s time. Pederson goes for balance. I’m desperate for us to win next week, I really don’t want it to come down to the final round....again. ?

Ummm why the hell didn’t any of his teammates stick up for him???

Hunt goes after his injury, he was disappointing anyway but I feel he would’ve been given a go next week anyway. Spargo needs to be dropped IMO, his 2nd half of the year hasn’t been good and tonight was the final chance he gets. He’ll be back but he needs time at Casey. Melksham and Hibberd should be back which we desperately need. Hibberd’s class in the back line and Melksham’s delivery into 50 would’ve got us over the line vs Swans. I’m sure of it.

Is it someone's job to make sure EVERY PLAYER has a solid set shot routine? Spargo looks like a deer in headlights when he's about to have a set shot, I don't care if he has to go back 30 meters and do it on a run he needs a routine. He rushes everything, he looks like he's barely breathing. I get that he's a kid but this should go for everyone at the club.

There was a lot let go tonight, at times on both sides although the third quarter really felt in the Swans favour. There were some downright puzzling ones where we would lay perfect tackles and not be rewarded while our guys would get zero time to get rid of it or would have their heads taken off and get pinged for HTB. Not the worst I've seen but it wasn't great, and yes Nicholls was the worst of them.

Thinking more about it what struck me was when Sydney had the ball, even when we were coming for them in the final quarter, they didn't panic. Whereas save for a couple of players like Salem, Lewis, and Jetta we were always worried about turning it over so they reverted to the "well might as well kick it long" mantra. Sydney new how to use the wide expanses of the G, working angles and making multiple leads to create space and movement, particularly in the third quarter. But that was also evident when we got a look at goal, almost every shot looked hurried with no confidence. It was only until we were "out of the game" that we seemed to be released of that pressure, which immediately came back when we were in the game. What does that say about our players mindsets? Should we be bringing in some hypnotist to break them out of this self destructive attitude?

Couldn’t believe that when the game was there to be won we didn’t play accountable on him. Ridiculous. Swans actually laid out opportunities for us and we simply didn’t take them.

I was only able to watch the second half, we actually could’ve won that. We dominated the whole last quarter and it wasn’t until 6min left that we actually started using our chances. Stupid footy. Very stupid. I don’t know if it was the game plan to bomb it in but if you’re going to do that at least put it to the forwards advantage. Harmes played well from what I saw, Oliver did as he always does, Gawn dominant in the ruck but they were sharking his taps at times. But HFF and forward line is where things broke down, very getable chances gone begging. We must address this issue, for one we’re are letting good chances fall by the wayside, but we’re also allowing teams to set up from the defence and make us pay.

Our own worst enemies tonight. If we could’ve just taken a couple of our chances early this quarter we’d be within touching distance.

Pederson kicks the goal but Oliver being manhandled, what the hell do we have to do for a free kick?

That bald maggot in the middle is giving us nothing and giving the Swans everything.