The heart beats true

Why is Wayne Carey still a thing? I vote no.

Laitham Vandermeer sounds like a Dutch logistics company.

Collingwood would have won that if their cheer squad made more noise.

The AFL has a problem with the players returning the ball back after a mark or free. The umpires are pedantic about players running within a 10 metre square that has no impact on the game, but the last few months players can just throw the ball in the general vicinity and run off. It’s weird.

One of the reasons Collingwood supporters are so loud is because they clearly don’t understand the rules.

100%. I think there might have been an over reliance on what has worked, when clearly a third of our best 22 are battling to stay out there. Will be interesting to see how we shape up next year.

I agree that it wasn’t a shock loss, but I wonder what the club makes of where we are at with our fitness. Our last halves have been horrible for 3 months (hence not a shock). Last night at 3/4 time I watched the players come in for the huddle and they looked absolutely cooked. I’ve felt that at all the games I’ve seen in Melbourne since Freo before the bye. It’s why I brought into the loading idea so heavily. I’d think the club is very unhappy with our ability to run out games. We look to have got it wrong.

This so interesting to watch. Ed was right. Collingwood’s game style is all duck and no dinner. They’ll take it on, but you get such good looks if they turn it over. I have serious doubts about its ability to be consistently competitive over seasons. They’ve been great this year and ridden the wave, but teams will get better at figuring it out. Its actually a massive credit to them that they’ve sustained it. It looks exhausting.

At least it’s not Fritta with a hairline fracture. That’d be a big injury. Sorry. It’s been a long week, and this place needs to lighten up.

Kills me to say it but without Hawkins Geelong would be a 6-8th ranked side. He’s been so good for so long. The minute he retires they’ll be 4 goals worse off.

Right?

Moore got the ball on super quickly from fullback. McRae is coaching against the idea of how teams like us play. Go and work it out on the fly. The worst thing you can do is stop and allow structure.

Umpires put the whistle away in this game. Let’s hope they don’t make it all about them like the second quarter last night.

I like the optimism. The issue for mine is that our games are trending painfully similarly. If we are matched for contest work and teams can stick with us until half way through the 3rd the pattern suggests we will be over run.

Yep, and our game plan is very reliant on them.

Nah. I think that’s fair enough. We are painfully quiet. 👍

Thanks for the info WCW. Cheer squad looked and sounded incredible last night - the huge flag was brilliant. Congrats to all involved for their efforts. I think I might join up next year. The passion is inspiring. Go Dees! ✊

I agree with this, and I think a lot of Melbourne supporters who follow the team closely and go to games have seen that game play out 5 times already this year. I think it’s in part why our supporter base was quieter last night. It all felt very familiar. We are a systems based team, but if the system is matched (and it has been this year by top 6 teams) we appear incapable of diverse thinking. Last night we were 4 goals down in the last and kept going long down the line. It’s too easy to coach against. We were getting killed at the fall of the ball because they knew where we were going - so got there quicker.

Regardless of what we have tried to do this year in terms of training loads it hasn’t worked. Our last half form has been atrocious since round 11 onwards. We’ve won 4 last halves in our last 14 games. I wouldn’t want to be the fitness department this week.

I dunno Gonz. I have been really frustrated with our supporters this year, either being too quite, or worse - not showing up at all, but last night I really felt like we didn’t have much to cheer about. Our game plan, at the G particularly, doesn’t have as much dynamic burst as the slingshot style played against our high press. Instead we win a stoppage, long down the line, punched over the boundary, go again. It’s painfully predictable (by design). I’d say last night there was almost 60,000 Melbourne supporters there. We showed up, but didn’t get much to cheer about aside from a burst in the 2nd and 3rd.

Your passion for the sport seems to be driven purely by complaining about us. ’Only at the MFC could the wheels fall off so completely so quickly’. Really? We finished top 4, and got rolled by a good team. Calm down, get some perspective, and have some respect for how hard the game is. It’s not a matching set. You don’t win one and then everyone rolls over and gives you another.

Salem was completely out of touch. I know he’s been such an important player for us but this year had been a compete write off. I can’t remember one game where he would have been in the best 15 players on the field. He needs a proper preseason and some consistent footy as currently he’s not able to play with the polish that’s made him so important.

I thought tonight, and I’ve thought this all year - and for every year Goodwin has coached us, that our game plan is so reliant on winning contest, overwhelming possession and contested marking forward of the ball. All our losses I felt like teams were kicking them from everywhere, but when I watched the replays I realised that aside from Fritsch and an occasional glimpse from Koz, we simply don’t value forward line skill and craft enough across our list. The balance of our play is so reliant on Gawn, Oliver, Petracca, Lever and May that if two of those blokes are down we struggle. I think our game plan in 2022 feels draining like it did circa 2017-18. It’s too reliant on incredible fitness and 110% contest work. We need to get some more polish and an extra dimension into our game style if we want to keep competing. Even in the last we kept kicking it long down the line to 2 ruckmen. It’s too easy to coach against once everyone got a good look at it.

We have looked unbelievably flat since the middle of the year. Take out the 2 Brisbane games and we’ve struggled in every other game. I think regardless of how the year plays out from here the club will be asking some touchy questions. It feels like we haven’t quite got it right.

78k I thought the cheer squad did an exceptional job all game, and the crowd lifted when we got going early in the 2nd and 3rd. The problem was if you take those bursts out we got comprehensively beaten. Not the crowds fault.