Deecisive

I just dont understand May's stupid determination to kick it left side every time, 15 seconds to go someone open short and he kicks to a damn contest. really dumb football, hunter trying to run around players dumb football. Outscored that quarter a win for the gold coast. We have such a talented side that just goes missing at times. for a team that has perhaps the best ruck combination where are we benefiting from this at the throw ins and centre bounces.

allowing to many GC players to run free, we always have trouble with teams that do that. We are lucky their disposal rate is not higher or we would be behind. we just dont know how to handle sides the run with the ball. Collingwood, Essendon and even Brisbane do it and we just dont cover the player running past, free players ahead, etc. I expect we will win, but so far not a very impressive performance that could very easily turn into a loss. where is the skill and precision we saw a part of at least against north.

it wasnt just missing lever it was poor chasing, failure to tackle, not covering their players when they ran and carried and overall poor use of the ball. bad result, need to make a few changes, it would also be good if the coach could make a few changes early in the game if things are not working.

they beat us the same as always they run and carry and get the overlap going as we do not cover the opposition well. We are good if we can snag an intercept mark and then rebound but this is the same style of play that collingwood, brisbane and others have used against us. we do not chase, we do not cover our opponents. very disappointing effort by most of the team

I always worry about games we should win easily that we get to complacent and dont come out to play. today seems to be a bit like that, we lose to bottom sides too frequently. We need them to focus on beating this mob, playing our brand of good football not their wresting match which leaves many decisions in the umpires hands, either to ignore frees that are there or pay them. so far we seem to have gotten the short end of the stick. Given the heavy eagle crowd i dont see that changing in the second half. We need percentage and show that we can beat sides well.

i certainly found some of the umpiring confusing, i still dont understand how ruckman can grab the other ruckman and throw him out of the contest so that he can grab the ball. Brisbane does it Geelong does it an no free, why? The front on charge on Brayshaw was clearly a free at a critical time that was missed or overlooked. i dont recall seeing brisbane being called for holding the ball or dropping the ball at all when their players constantly lost the ball in tackles.

i am not so sure it was who was playing but how we were playing that counted in the end. We gave the ball up at the centre clearances far too easily. but we could have survived that. Lever was fantastic in the backline but our long kicks onto the wing of forward line were constantly either directly to the lions players or to our players who were out marked. we did not bring the ball to ground too often where our smalls could pick up the crumbs. we allowed the lions to chip kick the ball around and around always finding free players as one of our players runs to cover the player with the ball another free player opens up. We get creamed by running sides that chip it around, because our players are trying to stand away from opponents too often. some of our best play was running the ball into the forward line rather than kicking long to contests kicking long to the forward line may be great when gawn is there, but when it is not and the opposition has a lot of talls maybe, just maybe we should review our game plan.

absolutely terrible team performance. so few players stood up when the pressure was on, such poor tackling, poor marking, poor kicking, a true reflection of our inconsistency as a team.

you are 100% correct you can legally do a lot of harm to players without getting reported, crashing into their back while they are going up for a mark. running through players when they are not expecting it and probably the easiest to get away with marking contests. I don't know how many times Max gets whacked in the head each game going for marks, a couple of games last year it looked like it was a deliberate ploy to take him out that way, but there was no protection there no deterrent other than giving away a free (if caught). which is well worth it to the opposition if you can take him out or put him off his game. If the AFL is serious about potential to cause injury or harm then they also need to look at these other instances that are considered just a free kick.

a kind of pointless review, call fritta out for not kicking it, and call him out for not passing to someone in a better position. he is a forward and one of our best kicks for goal. i wonder how many times peter hudson, or Lockett passed the ball to players in a slightly better position when they knew they were in range. Fritta was one of the success stories of the year, not a reason we lost.

interesting because an umpire can perhaps give votes to a player that the bookies and others would typically not have backed which would increase the potential odds and returns.

go with the 5 man bench, that effectively allows us to use our medical sub who for many times during the year was not used. if we could have used them without sacrificing taking another player off then maybe we would have found what some of our medical subs could really do. A lot of teams seemed to regularly use their medical sub, under somewhat dubious circumstances. lets keep it even for all 5 man bench. if you get injured your down a player.

if he came through the normal system/channels then he would be going into the draft and we would be unlikely to pick him up. we have room on our list, i like the fact that his family is one eye blues but he chose Melbourne. We dont have a lot of money invested in him as a rookie but he certainly has time to learn the craft from two of the best both of which are getting older. He knows how to jump for centre bounces, jumping to intercept shots, dunk the ball etc. so he certainly knows the basics of ruckwork but now needs to work on his body positioning and his general marking and kicking.

I think all of our draft trades provide us with an upgrade on the players we lost, we will be a better team next year for it. Schache and hunter could do very well with the new start and team to support them. Looking forward to next season, we are still within the premiership window all of our players, old and new need to give there best to help us to another premiership or two. hopefully our coach will also step up and not be afraid of making changes either to the side, or where players are on the field.

Geelong has gone and got a lot of new players which is going mean a lot of their other premiership players are going to be under the pump to get games. it will be interesting to see how many start to leave for other opportunities in the next few years.

a great replacement for whats his name....

Disappointing end to his career with the Dees, he is only getting the chance he has now and the $'s because he was part of this great melbourne team. I did not think he was overly effective for the back half of the season, i dont know if this was a mental thing, or he had just checked out and was going through the motions. I did expect more from him. sad that he could not recognise the contribution the melbourne football club has made to his playing career. life would have been very different had he been picked up by the eagles, or north melbourne.

how this plays our depends on Jackson and his relationship with the club. if he does not want to see us screwed then Freo needs to come to the party if they want him. If not then he either stays, or goes to WC. If he goes then i would be prefer he goes to the eagles, no point giving freo another good player, and Jackson can really standout player with the eagles, which will [censored] freo off even more about what they missed.

well i do hope we are entertaining pulling in some good players in this draft period, we seem to have all of our eggs in the one basket at the moment which collingwood can potentially pull out of if we cannot satisfy them with picks and $'s.

So, are freo prepared to pay him $1.5m per year, because if such a thing happened and they did not then that would be draft tampering and they should be kicked hard, even to ask something like that is a disgrace if it is true.

Ben Brown is a goal kicker and he can take a mark when one on one, and leading, and often draws free kicks doing so, we dont play to his strength, but rather to his weakness, thats like putting viney in the ruck then complaining that he is not getting enough tap outs. we play good football when we move the ball quickly and have strong marking options forward, our premiership run where we got the ball out of the centre quickly was just the sort of thing he can do well on. But we have not captured that fast break from the centre this year. And our movement down the wings has slowed considerably this year. bombing to the left hand pocket is very predictable, yet our small forwards are seldom in the right place or not applying pressure like we did either last year of the start of this year. Josh corbett looks pretty good, i think he is well worth a try, cause if anything happens to Fritch we are cooked.

I agree grundy does improve our list with Jackson going. The main issue i have at the moment is that i am not seeing any other conversations or rumors about melbourne chasing any other players, with a league of 17 other teams of maybe 40 players each we only have one target? really. you would think that someone would be hearing and talking if we were talking or interested in other players, maybe they only have eyes for the draft. but so far not impressed, other clubs are going out there making bids, and all i see is we are losing our players to them. What are we getting back in return, daft picks in the 30-60 range?

Just makes collingwood look silly, the fact that they have to have a different behavior clause just for DeGoey does not say much for their existing one. The fact that they have watered down his behavior clause a couple of times to the point that he would have to do something very very serious to trigger that clause just shows how quick they are backing away, but still trying to save face. Hope he keeps telling them no to the clause...

I just want to see the Saints keep pushing up the $'s collingwood has to pay him to stay. I am also keen to see if collingwood has the integrity to stand behind the behavioral clause requirement or they fold as they need him.

he was one of our best players, i for one would like to see him back in our backline and petty going forward, hopefully with another preseason he can recapture his form, or better it.