deejammin'

This has already been pointed out but it bears remembering that the Bulldogs may well haved jumped us on the ladder if they had not had the bye this week. Also with the Bulldogs, Saints and Crows outside the Eight I wouldn't be too sure of staying there, with all the draws so far this season it may be a pretty tight one around the middle of the ladder. Nice to win by so much yesterday, yet not a totally convincing performance, hopefully it starts to really click against the Weagles.

I concur with Curry and Beer, Eagles game is huge. We have yet to meet a team that has been around our level, Swans game was a close call but I did expect them to be a good team this year, never expected to beat Hawthorn(although I was devastated with the 3rd quarter effort) and if we had lost to Brisbane or GC I would have been shocked and ver upset. Also although I love the way Scully and Mckensie go about it I think the influence they may have on our team is a little overstated. Yes Mckensie may add some grunt around the contests, and Scully some speed through the middle, but I think the main problems we have seen with the team so far are bad set plays, kick outs and kick out defence and fading out of games. Too many times yesterday was a team as ordinary as GC able to take the ball from our backline to our forwardline for an easy goal without any pressure or contest. Not good enough for any side, even a young one, as it is merely an issue of discipline and structure. Secondly the other problem is fading out in games, and I'm not sure that two players would change this overall team ethic. Thoroughly enjoyed the walloping yesterday but I hope to see a lot of improvement over the coming weeks as I think these structural deficiencies shouldn't be fundamentally impossible to improve upon. Go Dees!!!!!

I would like to have thought that Beamer would have agreed to do the press conference, even volunteered rather than being forced. He was supposed to do one that morning to talk about the game and obviously this would have been difficult with a huge hangover.. Anyway, I don't think anyone loves this club more than Brent Moloney and I reckon he would already have decided taht what he did was bad for the club and be furious at himself. I think this will push him to be more responsible and whether its a large problem or a once off issue, control himself in order to get his VC back.

I understand that patience is a virtue and that it is wise at this stage to remember that our side is still young and developing. However I feel too often on these boards fellow demons supporters are jumped on for what are emotional, passionate responses to bad performances. I find it frustrating that if our team loses and someone gets upset they are told off for being "stupid" or told to go "barrack for Collingwood". As i have already stated I understand the process element of football and I am aware of where we are at.... However, this is not why I have passionately followed footy, more particularly the MFC, my whole life. Last time I checked football is a sport, and I don't watch sport for development of process. If I wanted that I could get involved in mathematics, engineering, computer programming and have a far more enjoyable time watching developing plans come to fruition. Don't get me wrong I love footy stories and watching young players bloom into great footballers. But this is not the main reason I love the game. The main reason I watch football is I believe our sport is unpredictable, when two teams of 22 blokes trained to play this great game go out to do battle I believe anything can happen, for better or worse. So to make the sport enjoyable to me I like to believe MFC can win any time, and I go into every game believing this. Every season I hope against hope we will win a premiership, whether we are in a window or not, and the reality is funny things happen in sport, even at the highest level. Who would have predicted our win against Freo during the dark years, or the two point win over Brisbane? Who thought the Hawks would win in 2008 or the Dees make the GF in 2000? Yes often the favourite wins and pundits theories stand up and the predicted teams do well, but not always... And this is the thrill and joy of sport. In fact I think it is the point of sport. I do love to remain grounded with the theories and strategies we all believe the club is implementing for out future and I love the seemingly sane posts delivered when all seems lost pointing out statistics and experience factors I may not have considered. However, lets not be too quick to jump on those who get a bit overly passionate in the face of dissapointment, yes its awful when people bag the club or lose faith after a terrible loss, however aren't they merely getting burnt doing what all sports fans should do? Hoping against hope their team will win.

Chook, this is a great point, however as of now we have yet to see a direct link between these rules and player speed decreasing. In fact it has increased in spite of most of these rules. As the game has sped up so have players as more athletes capable of high speed running etc have come into the game and become a necessary part of team strategy. Also It seems a logical thing to assume that if we slow blokes down impact injuries will decrease. But I believe it may be the case that impact injuries tend to be unlucky, or the result of players being unable to protect themselves in awkward positions, hence hard (near impossible) to control or prevent. There are so many instances of high speed contact in our game which do not lead to injuries that it tends to be bad luck, or one or many players being out of position, rather than constant high speed that accounts for the worst of these injuries. The sub rule may be the one rule which has resulted in more fatigue and slowed the game down towards the end of quarters. However, I for one am not sure if the sub rule (or the other rules) will stop impact injuries as suggested as I would think that players being more tired would lead to them being more prone to get themselves in awkward positions where they can not fall as safely or protect themselves from negative impact. Finally it is worth mentioning that having one completely fresh player coming on in the final quarter and bashing into blokes is probably equally as likely to cause high speed incidents as having a few more rotations is... if not more so.

If the AFL wants the game to be slower why don't they scrap some of the rules introduced to make the game faster in the last couple of years? Immediate kick ins. No dragging the ball in. Players decide advantage. The advantage rule. Suggested rules against kicking backwards, the rushed behind rule... the list goes on. The idea behind almost all of these rules is to keep play continuous and fast moving, avoiding congestion, stop plays, ball ups.. Yet the AFL says the sub rule needs to slow the game down to prevent injuries. I understand the logic however I think the AFL is reaping the effect of what they sow having made the game faster. Maybe if the AFL ever admitted they were wrong and reviewed most of the changes over the last decade the sub rule wouldn't be nescessary...

Neither Jordie nor Scully would have made nine goals of difference, that was very close to our best 22 out there and they played horribly

take em all out on the track and [censored] them! see who survives...

Not good at all, it was almost a carbon copy of the pre-season game except Hawthorn played even better... We fell away, had no grit or determination and showed some signs that should seriously worry even the most steadfast believers in Bailey's plan, straight kicking made us look better than we were for 2 quarters. No one expects the dees to win every week, but we want it to happen, and no team will ever win with so few scoring shots and inside 50s...

If Hawthorn had kicked straight it would have been at least 2 quarters that were pear shaped, also the last quarter is starting to look a little pear shaped too. Anyway, in many ways I think this is worse than 2008, we had a worse list, had less expectation and really weren't capable of winning or getting near the Hawks, today I expected better....

Bloody hell the dees are hard to support sometimes, love em, never give up on em, never wouldn't buy my membership, but this second half is one of the worst performances I've seen! Its hard to come up with a solution to whats gone wrong as everything seems to have gone wrong!!

So dissapointing, i expected a rally from Hawthorn but I certainly didn't think we would simply roll over and give them so many goals... Inside 50s and scoring shots a disgrace, lets face it had Hawthorn been kicking straighter this would be similar to last year!

Remind anyone else of the pre-season game? I guess they may not mean nothing after all....

If being 'killed' by an injury means you make the top four at the end of the home and away season, find enough form to make the GF when your star comes back then draw it I will be hoping Scully's injury "kills" us this year....

I love the draw, I think it adds an element to our game that not many other sports have, having winners and losers all the time simply isn't appropriate for some contests, leave it as it is...

I actually thought the Richmond - St Kilda Game was awful in terms of holding the ball decisions. It prompted me to write this topic. First of all I have no preference between the two teams and simply wanted to see a good game. So I think that the Tigers were given some holding the ball decisions that were totally ridiculous. There was one involving Sam Fisher where he took possession of the ball and had his right arm held and was pinned to the ground, it looked as though his arm was being held before he even got the ball, and he took posession via a handball, not diving on it, yet was penalised when there was a) no prior opportunity, if anything he was held, B) no conceivable way to get rid of it or to make a valid attempt as he had his arm held and was taken to ground preventing a kick, c) was in heavy congestion and had no other option but to catch his teammates handpass... In my opinion the only thing he could have done to avoid being called holding the ball was to not catch the pass, which could have resulted in a goal and may have been automatic. The decision against Maric last week was similar to this... If the only option is to not gain the ball from a bounce or a pass to prevent holding the ball I believe there is no way it should be holding the ball. I understand the diving on the ball rule, but I think this rule could be far better adjudicated.

The Holding the Ball rule has long been one of my absolute favourites in our great game as it rewards teams for good defence in a tangible way no other sports do. I love that if a team with the ball doesn't watch out that, given prior opportunity, they will be pinged if they get caught. However, what I have witnessed in the first two rounds of this season and last season to a lesser extent, is an increasing punishment of players for simply taking hold of the ball. Either by picking it up in congestion, or being hit with a handball and being tackled immediately then being pinged. I find this worrying as if takes the fairness out of the rule and also seems to have led to confusion amongst players as to when they have had prior, and not, and when they have been caught in a way that makes an attempt impossible, without prior, what they are supposed to do to avoid being pinged. I for one would prefer ball ups in the more iffy decisions in an attempt to give the benefit of the doubt to the player who has fought to gain the ball. Though I like the defensive team being rewarded for great pressure and tackling I believe there needs in be fairness in how this is applied. Also I believe players need to be rewarded for taking possesion of the ball in congestion rather than punished. Obviously several newer interpretations have come along recently to 'avoid conjestion' in games, however I would prefer congestion and fairness to iffy decisions that decide games.. Also it seems interesting we have a new sub rule to 'slow the game down to prevent injuries' yet slowing the game down the old fashioned way, with ball ups, is frowned upon. Whilst I love this rule I think its application is becoming far too harsh on players who take possesion and if it continues to become harsher it seems that players might as well avoid picking up the pill whenever someone else is around and simply waiting to tackle.. Thoughts???

I think this is a huge concern for all who play contact sports, I am glad the AFL have moved so quickly on it! I hope we are doing enough as I would hate to see this become more serious for Belly, or any other sportsman for that matter. Loved how Belly played, still remember a huge smother he laid in the goal square.. its a real shame that this may negatively impact his private life and his playing career. Good luck Belly!

Despite the swans connection to South Melbourne they are an interstate team and over 30k against an interstater is a good result. Will be more against Hawthorn despite the slot as they have so many members as do we...

Trengrove Moloney Bennell Jamar Martin Grimes Was hard to put Grimes there with some of those kicks, but he took some great, very important marks. Trenners was class all day. Hard to believe its only his 2nd year!

Overall, I'm not unhappy with the result. Half way through the 3rd quarter we could have been 7 goals down looking at a shellacking but we fought back to 14 points behind at the last change and then managed to almost win the thing. Not bad for a team that butchered the ball out of defence and made stupid errors for 2.5 quarters. Jamar never should have missed that one in the last though, my nan could kick that... and she's dead! Positives: 1. We ran out the game well. Did well in the clearances and had a better no. of inside 50s than usual. 2. Tapscott - Loved it! 3. Petterd, started where he left off last season 4. We didn't give up, there were several games last year where we looked like we were coming back and then fell off, this team wouldn't say die. Negatives: 1. Kicking out of Defence/Clangers in Defence/Stupid free kicks in Defence 2. Umpires, the holding the ball decision against Maric in the 1st quarter was a sign of the apocalypse 3. Goalkicking (yes both teams were shizen, but I like to think Sydney missed due to my frenetic "Chewy on your boot" so Melbourne had no excuse) 4. Kicking through the zone at kick ins, or at least maintaining possesion enough to not turn it over in or on the defensive 50 All in all we're still undefeated for 2011, there's some solace in that, now lets [censored] those Hawks! Edit/ spelling

Probably waited on the sub in case of injury, would be awful to sub then play a man down.. Good game, Jamar missed a sitter tho Go Dees, good result really

Aww damn! So close to me saying that we had come through the pre-season relatively well, at least in terms of no long term injuries then this happens! Jordie out for 6! Bugger! Scully is also a worry as the mid-field is not yet a strength.... we'd want all our guns on the park if we could have em... oh well... another year where we start the season proper with too many key players out... Frawley, Scully, Mckensie, Morton... Damn!

Its always difficult and frustrating to know what to make of the pre-season comp, however it may not be as meaningless as some on here assert. Since the infamous Carlton performance in the NAB cup in 2007, (going on to gain the spoon was most likely more the result of their late season tanking rather than them truly being the worst in the comp however) at least one or more of the finalists in the NAB cup have gone deep into the regular season finals to prelims and grand finals. Many including myself would believe that this will happen again this year with Collingwood. So although some match results can seem meaningless, certainly Essendon in a final seems laughable, I'm not so sure its as irrelevant as people think, as the great clubs tend to have great depth and desire to win the NAB cup, and seem to be putting some focus on winning pre-season games.. or at least put a few decent performances together. That being said .. I am not panicking at this stage, I think Melbourne seems to have shown a bit this preseason and should continue to improve on last year. However, it is a little worrying that we still exihibit some of our key negatives from last year, not winning enough clearances, not entering the forward 50 enough, giving up too many goals attempting to get the ball out of defence... I'm not in the business of chastisizing young players for their pre-season performance, however based on the aforementioned I would think a lot would have to improve for us to be challenging top sides this year. So bring on the season, bring on improvement and lets see what happens...

This game is still up for grabs, we have played one bad stretch, grab a couple in a row and we're a chance. Would be more encouraging to have the dees winning some clearances tho...