btdemon

Petty will be good. Clearly picked long before he was ready. Hopefully this game won't totally destroy his confidence. We went in top-heavy and slow. Shocking selections. If TMac was doubtful, which it seems he was, then he shouldn't have played either. Pedo would have been better. Spargo should also have played. Fritsch was great but probably played to be the small forward. It seems that that FD thought that that could blood Petty because we were going to win the game easy. Yeeeeesh! Have we learnt nothing? New also wasn't up to his normal standard. I would have preferred to see Bernie and Stretch out there. Tyson still has value but not on the wing.

She is articulate, intelligent and insightful. Have a look back at her first address at a MFC awards night about two years ago. Her speech was far better than anyone else, including, Paul Roos, Peter Jackson, Glen Bartlett and Nathan Jones. She is a gem and we are lucky to have her in Melbourne colours.

I don't see his decision making as the problem. Yes, he hangs on to the ball too long sometimes but he is usually looking for the best option. When he is in heavy traffic this often works to our advantage. His biggest weakness imo, is his kicking. It's rare to see a left footer with such an inaccurate, floaty trajectory. When commentators say he is a good kick it drives me mad. We as supporters know that he isn't. If he could work on this it would take him from a good inside ball winner to a really potent mid. Most people know how difficult it is to correct your basic kicking technique. This is something you evolve from childhood, but there have been some who made major adjustments to their technique. These changes are usually made to set shot goal kicking approaches though, not field-kicking under pressure. Maybe he needs to do what Nev has done. Kick within his limits. Nev is a great user but doesn't try to kick more than about 40 metres. He rarely wastes a kick. The coaching staff should be hammering Tyson about this. He is potentially a great asset but will end up as a marginal player if he doesn't rectify this. Roos seemed to know what his strengths were and played him accordingly. He ain't no outside player. He does however, have the ability to be at the fall of the ball repeatedly.

I must admit Maldonboy, that yesterday's game made me more optimistic. The pressure we applied yesterday was pretty good. We can possibly snag a couple of those difficult away games if we play to the best of our ability. As every MFC supporter knows, its difficult to be confident

I was sceptical about the move of TMac up forward. I wasn't convinced that the defence could survive without him. IMO Lever is not a key back but an interceptor and would rely on having a CHB pillar for him to be able to do his thing. I thought we would end up with Tmac going back there to finalise the defensive structure. I'm pleased to be proved wrong. My doubts about TMac have always been about his disposal under pressure. He would show great judgement when marking, punching and spoiling but usually have a couple of kicking clangers each game. Now he is roaming from forward 50 through the wing and falling back when needed that pressure is somewhat alleviated. When kicking for goal he has time to balance and go through his routine. The ball drop is still too great but everything else is straight and in line. He is our most reliable shot for goal inside 40 metres. He is also able to use his considerable size to push people around. I'm loving this. he is bullying opponents to win the contested ball. It almost seems that he has grown bigger and stronger but I suspect that its just the different role he is playing. He doesn't have to time his interceptions but can place himself in contests and use his his body size. With Hogan and him up there we definitely look more formidable. I also love the flexibility. He has such a big tank that he can slip into defence during those pressure periods when the opposition are getting a run on. Keep it up TMac. BTW. what the hell is this "connection" that Simon Goodwin keeps talking about? Is it another cliche that I have somehow missed the meaning? Every time he says it I try to imagine what he means. I still don't get it. Even Nathan Jones used it yesterday. I sure there is a more direct expression they could use that would be clearer to us dumb punters.

It's not a "dive". Look this body jolt with the impact. He fell backwards. You can't fake that. Granted, he was more than happy to accept the free kick and let Carlisle know about it, but its not a dive.

Jeffy's poor games, (Hawthorn and Richmond) coincided with beltings where we couldn't get clean ball into the forward 50. I wouldn't have dropped him because he is so potent, but then Hannan, Spargo have been great. Fritsch is special and i'd like to see him on the wing. His delivery is beautiful.

Link?

Assuming we win the next three (no guarantees) we should be sitting somewhere in the lower end of the eight. From there on it is very difficult. We have have a couple of 'gimmees' and as you know, they are never gimmees with the Dees. We have many top 8 sides and teams like the Bulldogs, who are starting to find their mojo. Eagles in Perth, Port in Adelaide, the Crows twice, in Adelaide and NT, Freo in NT, Geelong at Geelong, Giants, Collingwood, Swans. We are going to have to be a better side than we are now to make the finals. We will have to knock off a few sides against the flow. I am not feeling that confident after our patchy and unconvincing start. If we make it I'll be pleased and surprised.

Even if we win the next 3 the second half of the season is extremely difficult. I willmore than happy to make the final eight but have grave doubts. We need a lot of things to go right.

I'm there. It could go something like this: Hi, my name is .................... I am a recovering Demon supporter. It has now been .... days since my last Demon disappointment. With the support of those around me I have been able to avoid discussing football, watching replays, football analysis programs, reading the back of the newspaper, reading websites, listening to SEN and most of all, reading Demonland and venting. I have not anticipated the next game for more than a brief moment and have been able to quickly distract myself and shift my attention to more important things. I am fully aware of the perils of thinking about football and with the help of those who love me I will try to live a normal life and exorcise my Demons. Thank you

I agree that the Dees appear to have lost all confidence. Goodwin continually talks about building resilience in the team psyche. That is the ability to bounce back and regain confidence after a knock. They don't seem to have this. Yet at the same time they have a number of players who seem to "over celebrate" goals and run of the mill wins. This particularly worries me and has been part of the team culture throughout the bad times. I also get very annoyed with certain players who appear to exhibit a bravado which is not backed up by their ability or their actions. Confidence is what enables teams in their prime to believe that they can win even when they are behind. Geelong, hawthorn, Brisbane, Swans all had this. The Tigers have it in spades at the moment. We just don't. It will take a string of really good performances to acquire it. We seem to go from a couple of good performances to an unexpected loss. This pattern will take another couple of seasons of consistent performance to eradicate. I'm not sure that this particular list has that in them.

Yes it is very much a figurative comparison, which is not intended to trivialise the plight of people with substance addiction. It is based on the idea that we keep going back to be abused but somehow can't give it up. It's a very masochistic pastime with the promise that "one day, we'll be premiers", or at least regular finalists. I have supported the Dees since 1975. There has been very little joy, except to watch the form of Robbie, or later on the 'wiz', Schwartz, Aaron Davey or Liam Jurrah. I really enjoyed the years with John Northey at the helm because I knew that although they weren't blessed with enormous talent, they would fight like crazy to win. We have suffered years of incompetent and amateurish administration, near merging and public irrelevency. I am confident in the admin with PJ at the helm but have lost confidence in the coaching panel and the game plan and to a certain extent, the quality of the list. Over the summer i was like many Demon supporters, looking at the list and thinking what depth we had. Not so now. We have had a team over the past few years of players who seem to think they are better than they are. That's the impression anyway. I can't see into their individual psyches. I'm just so sick of it. I attempted to break the habit while in Europe in mid '87. I found myself at Australia House in London reading The Age about our most recent capitulation to Geelong at geelong. I vowed to give up my interest in football there and then. There I was on the other side of the world punishing myself again. Of course when I arrived home in July they had begun to string together the that great run that got them into the finals for the first time in 22 years. I was sucked back in. That was 31 years ago. I know we have made two grand finals since then but look how they panned out. I'm now 62. Yes, I'm alive and comfortable. Jeez I'm sick of the Dees though

I tried. I hate this team. And I made my kids barrack for them! Sheesh!

They give you the occasional high but mostly its just horrible. I want to kick it but can't.

Completely subjective of course, but mine in order of how exciting they were for me is: 1. LIAM JURRAH - Perhaps the most naturally gifted player i have seen 2. THE WIZ - Just loved it every time he got the ball 3. JAKO - Always stayed close to the ground but just super clever and strong. Capable of ridiculous goals on a regular basis 4. THE OX - Unbelievable before hampered by knee injuries 5. AARON DAVEY - Kept me going to the footy through the dark times 6. GARRY LYON - Silky smooth and skilful but too often injured 7. DAVID NIETZ - Not so much 'exciting' but just good and strong 8. JEREMY HOWE - Best hands and speccy I have seen. Incomplete footballer though 9. ROBBO - Cause he was ROBBO!!! Started as a lazy opportunist and turn his game into a much more allrounded one 10. JEFF WHITE - Played against much bigger opponents but a great judge of the flight of the ball. Excellent mobility and kicking skills.

I have lived through the exit of many good quality players from the MFC - Stan Alves, Greg Wells, Ross Brewer, Gerard Healy, Earl Spalding, Alan Jakovich, Shane Woewodin, Jeff Farmer, Scott Thompson, Junior McDonald, Tom Scully, Jeremy Howe and now, possibly Jack Watts (I'm sure there are many I have forgotten to mention). Many of those players went on to be successful clubs and some got to play in Premiership teams. Most Demons supporters were sad, disappointed, angry and sometimes distraught (or a mixture of several emotions) at the loss of these players at the time they left. It is fascinating to see the emotional reaction to the possibility of Jack being moved on. It feels like it is more divisive than any of these others. If you look at the poll on this post it would seem pretty clear that a majority would like him to stay and that some of those who think it is best for him to move on are nonetheless, still sad about it. It seems that "there's something about Jack". We have all invested a great deal of hope and good wishes towards this young man. He just seems like a lovely young bloke who happens to have tremendous talent. On the one hand, we feel bad that he has had to suffer so much public scrutiny and derision but we are also frustrated that he has never been able to be the player that we wanted him to be. A friend of mine (a Geelong supporter), has been ranting at me for the past seven years about how "Melbourne will never be any good while they still have Jack Watts!" That he symbolises all that is soft and unprofessional about the club and that "he will not go when its his turn to go". (A Geelong mantra from their recent successful period). I have always replied with, "Yes that's true but I would rather the ball in his hands than any other player." I would staunchly defend him from the emotional part of my being as well as the tribal loyalty to the Dees. It's weird how these attacks on him have elicited this emotional response from so many of us. Now it looks like the club may be fed up with him and are questioning the same courage and resolve that my Geelong friend has. For many of us, this is really hard to take. It may be the right thing to do for the future of the club and building a winning culture but it may also be fracturing in the short term. We just don't know. The one thing most of us agree on is that we don't like seeing Jack being publicly rejected by a club that has been his home since 2008. It is very difficult to watch a person having their character and reputation denigrated in front of the whole community. I feel very sad about it but also acknowledge that, it may be, for the good of the club and the player. We just don't know yet. If he goes to Collingwood or Geelong it will be hard to watch him realise his potential at the new club. It will be even harder, and more heartbreaking, if he disappears in to obscurity and suffers as a person. For that reason I wish him all the success in the future.

It seems that despite his good skills, we are offloading Jack Watts because of his supposed poor training habits, unwillingness to defend hard and the influence that this has on on the team culture. Replacing him with another highly skilled and lazy player (Motlop), would be incredibly stupid. Motlop's last two games have been two of his best. Don't expect that to be the norm.

I like the way Goodwin manages the media. He doesn't hang players out to dry and is very measured in his responses. He gives the impression that he is in control of what appears in the public domain. What goes on at the club might be much more passionate. He is renowned for having good relationships with players and appears to have had a positive impact on the performance of individuals as well as the team. For those who can remember, Neale Daniher was widely criticised by Melbourne fans for not having a big enough public profile. As a response, and in an effort to boost the club profile, he began spruiking the club in the media and it was as a result of this he earned the nickname, "the Reverend". There is plenty of time for Goodwin to build his media profile and impact but I would assume that he would like to establish himself within the club first.

It is now such a midfielders' medal. Everyone raves about how good Jake Lever is and he received 1 vote. In the old days we had ruckmen, defenders, wingers, forwards all winning the medal. It's a shame.

He looks like a reasonably quick opportunist forward as well. If he could play the role of a small forward who is a great mark and kick then he'd be very hard to match up on

Yesterday was crap. Collingwood "came to play" (please excuse terrible cliche), we didn't. When the penny dropped at the quarter-time break we started to do the things required to get us back in the game. Unfortunately, Collingwood's pressure remained really good and forced lots of poor decisions and skill errors from us. We didn't have the right stuff to get us over the line. That's it. The positives are: That we are way better than we have been in the past ten years, we have some potential match winners, in Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Gawn and Hogan. They didn't all play well yesterday or play at all In the case of Viney). We have a pretty good list that still needs some tweaking - bringing in some talent and delisting/trading some NQRs. Statistically we are heading in the right direction. Goodwin is a good coach and will learn from this, as will the players. Our improvement is trending upwards all the time. The disasters are happening less often and the expectation of the players is higher. We have a club that is now properly structured to provide the football department with the best resources. Thank you PJ and Paul Roos. We are developing a much better club culture which will further improve as we build a history of success and finals experience. We are now a club that other players see as a viable destination because they can see that we are heading for a period of success built on sound foundations. Next year will be better again and we may be a genuine finals team rather than a inexperienced team that scrapes into the final eight. BUT YESTERDAY WAS HORRIBLE!

This is spot on. We are moving in the right direction and I expect us to play finals next year. It would have been great to have one or two finals matches this year for the experience. This could still happen but I am not overly optimistic. I think Goody is building a great team structure but the rebuild is not complete yet. I posted earlier this season that those who thought we were "the real deal" and could "go all the way" were media types cranking up stories to fill there columns or have something to say on various footy shows. It was never realistic and those on this forum who got sucked in are those who are now saying that the year has been a failure. Our game is built on pressure around the ball and frenetic play-on footy. It can fall apart under pressure and this has happened over the last couple of games. We still have some NQRs and have showed that our game requires a higher skill level when the pressure is on. GWS, Swans and Crows have shown us that. As well as TMac has played, he ain't no forward. We all know that. Hopefully next year our back six and forward six will be more settled and our young players won't be burnt out by round 18 or 19

All of the media people who are saying the Dees have been "getting ahead of themselves", "drinking their own bathwater", "have a serious internal discipline problem" are same ones who last week said, they can "go all the way", "they're the real deal" etc. etc. .................They are WANKERS!!!! Giving themselves a job by making up stories. Pathetic!

I agree, Bruce is ridiculous but the whole commentary team was appalling. BT is a complete fickwut. Why do we have to listen to moronic comments in such high profile games. I had to turn the sound down.