DemonDan83

2 minutes ago, Deespicable said:

What a game - great to see we finally can play against a genuinely big opponent on a big stage with so much at stake for both sides and not be found wanting - we will be competitive with all the top sides based on that.

Ultimately we were smashed in the air - our outlet long kick down the line was picked off with ease by the Cats. They also were way smarter using the short kick out of defence than we were, particularly in the second term when it all came unstuck for a while.

Quite a few players down, although first game of the season, things don't always go right. But what I loved was that we had two of the best midfielders of the past decade - Selwood and Ablett - trying their darndest and having to work for almost every kick.

By contrast our two elite players of the future - Oliver and Trac - showed how good they are going to be with some amazing clearance work and plenty of almost results. The biggest worries to me, were our lack of marking power, our inability to invoke the switch of play for much of the game, our poor delivery forward to targets who invariably played behind looking for the cheap one over the back and our failure to stop Geelong's link play and lack of pace down back for their forays forward.

But the Cats were up for it, it was Selwood's 250th and Ablett's return game after all.

 

 

 

This is a really well balanced look at the game! Nice one!

I don’t think one win or loss makes it that we deserve it more or less than another team. I also hate the situation we have put ourselves in. My mental health cannot take much more! Go Crows!

17 minutes ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

Disappointing that I wasn't the first!!

Bitter is on the high end of the alphabet also.

That old school rhyme, second the best!

Just got home and in the mailbox is my membership pack for 2017!! That is awesome! So quick and I am super excited for 2017. A good way to start December. Well done MFC membership team in being able to process all these memberships and get them sent out!

Tom McDonald's instagram is the one to watch. Just saw a very drunk Petracca singing something hahaha! 

Come on it's Melbourne, only this team knows how to play with their supporters emotions like this. They begin to win your heart back and then they squeeze it with a big f you performance against a bottom 4 side! So so disappointing! 

Let's see what the coaches can do with them at half time!

1 minute ago, Demon Jack said:

Neal-Bullen and Michie doing very little to excite me at the moment. 

I do not see why they have both been brought in!!

So the nerves have set in... Come on Dees!!

We are still in the fight!! That was stressful!

It's very exciting to be part of this and to see something coming together!! Looking forward to the pride match on Saturday.

Just watching a replay of last time we played them here! They run back into the forward line with no player on them, then they kick over the top to that player and goal! 

I'll take a ho hum 10 goal victory over us being the team who loses by 10 goals! Nothing ho hum about a 10 goal win! Man we are harsh supporters! We win by 10 goals, score over 100 points again, have a spread of goal kickers and a young midfield!! I will take this any day of the week! 

Our fumbles and turn overs hurt us today. A lot of easy marks dropped. This is what we really need to clean up. We had a dip but they were just to slick for us. That throwing manoeuvre they have perfected and get away with it constantly. 

Just now, olisik said:

Settle down guys, the guys are just tired. Being round 2 and not having to travel yet and all.

Yes this gave me great confidence when Roos said that as well as when he said he couldn't tell during the week which guys were tired... I mean did he watch them at training or anything? Talk to them? 

Nick Reiwoldt's 300th game and the bulldogs are not lying down! We would have known Essendon were going to come out pumped today and we couldn't cope with it! Good teams don't take that stuff on and just go out and play footy.

1 minute ago, boydie said:

It's not just the Bulldogs though, while Melbourne seem to make rebuilds be the hardest thing on earth... it's not actually that hard.

Port where at the bottom for a couple of years then shot up, Bulldogs as you mentioned were at the bottom and have shot up, both Brisbane and St Kilda have hit the bottom and in a rebuild but they remain competitive and cause a number of upsets each year.

Its just Melbourne that make a big song and dance over every little feat. Oh hey look we won the first game of the year, wow! Oh hey lets get two wins a row, wow! Jesus, I cant imagine what its going to be like when they aim for 3 wins a row, they'll probably get on a bender thinking they just wont back to back to back flags!

Yeah that's another point how we make such a big deal of winning two games in a row. I mean that should just be expected now! No talk about it, just play footy!! It seems we cotton wool our players and make these stupid milestones. Someone has to take a hard line at some point!

What is beginning to annoy me is that if we take the Bulldogs as an example they appeared to get their act together in such a short amount of time. With Melbourne and our teams over the last 10 years or so it appears to be such hard work to get an ounce of good play out of us. We as supporters get excited when we see a quarter of good play which is no longer good enough. It was great to come back last week but let's be real last weeks game was pretty ordinary too. I just feel like so much effort has gone into making this a better team yet there is no reward. Whereas you can see almost instant improvement in the Bulldogs and Geelong have recruited well to get themselves back up there after a year out of finals. I just can't believe a football club can be this low, this bad and have the same culture after all the changes that have been made over the last 10 years! I am trying to take the view that this was one off day for the year and this will be our lowest point, however in the back of my head I know that this will just be another ho hum season with a handful of wins.

Dare I say we are becoming the 'come from behind' specialists! 4 times in a row we have come from behind to win. I think this can be attributed to our inproved fitness to run out games! 

I'm worried about next week, Adelaide are amazing!! They are so skilful, so much pressure on the opposition... We're screwed if we play the way we did today next week.

Very ordinary quarter, lost our intensity at the ball, and stopped running past the ball carrier. We can't defend this lead playing that way, so need to hunt and attack. Odds only slightly our way now, if at all.

Yes it was very ordinary but at least this years ordinary quarter we still won! Hopefully we can come back out after half time and get back into it!

edit: spelling

I am so nervous, it's so hard to know what to expect!!!

This post has been designed for one specific purpose: to congratulate the MFC for creating a great match day atmosphere. Those who have followed my posts (and to that I must say poor you), you will know that I have been critical of how we have handled pre match and post match entertainment. Let's not retread old ground but you all know what I am talking about.

Yesterday was bloody brilliant on that front.

1) The bells tolling before we came out was magnificent and in the future might sound foreboding for those who play us. They did segue into the 'Grand Old Flag' a bit quickly but I loved that.

2) The interview with Watts on the ground was great as well. The crowd was clearly on cloud nine and to hear from Jack over the PA was even better. How good must it have made him feel to receive the love and adoration of the masses rather than their hisses and catcalls?

3) The bugler was, and I can't believe I am typing this, used perfectly yesterday. He was sent back to the cheer squad to play the song on his trumpet when it was clear we were certainties.

4) The newly installed LED fences helped but I also loved the 'Game Over' on the fence when we won. It had a nice tinge of arrogance that we have lacked in previous years.

5) The air guitaring Demon on the scoreboard was amusing as well. It took me back to the days when channel 7 had those animations jump on to the screen when certain teams won. That was a cherished part of my childhood for sure.

PJ said we were going to rebrand the club and I would say they have kicked a fair few goals thus far. Along with the new ad, I am pretty bloody pleased!

Keep it up boys!

I can't help but agree with all that you have said! I turned to my friend before the start of the match yesterday and said to her this is the most pumped I have felt in years before the start of the match. The bells and the music as the boys ran onto the grand was awesome and the make some noise for the demons banners going around the ground as they ran out were great as well! I loved the whole thing, felt like our home game for the first time in years. Well Done Demons!!

I thought today was our best effort at atmosphere build up for a long time. I actually turned to my friend at the start and said I genuinely feel pumped up now. Agree it was a bit weird how the club song just came on but I loved the bells and the song as we ran out. The screens around the ground were awesome and well used! At the end I liked how the screens said Game Over! I thought overall today was the most "whole experience" I've felt at a MFC game for a long time.

Roos is 100% the man for the job today. His role is more than just coaching. He is setting the foundations for a whole new culture.

I totally agree with this. I see Roos job as being more than just a footy coach right now. Yes we all want immediate success no one more than myself but I feel that Roos is there to lay the foundations, set the culture and get the club back into a fighting position. It's almost unfair to judge Roos as a coach in terms of win/loss, we will all be thanking Roos for years to come because he was the person who came to our club to lay the foundation/change the culture. You can see that in the way he is ruthless when it comes to list turnover and I have no doubt more will leave at the end of the year. I for one think Roos is the only man in the AFL for this job right now! Goodwin will have a good team and culture to take over as senior coach!