At least we’re not Essendon… er… Carlton… ummm… Melbourne. – Fan wrap-up, AFL round 21

A weekend of disappointing efforts at the tail end of the season.

And a new record! The Bulldogs scored the highest winning margin with a goal-less quarter.

Friday, August 14

Sydney Swans 13.9.87 def Collingwood 10.16.76

“1. I learnt that it takes someone to have a bad injury/being KO’ed for Sydney to come to play
2. Lollingwood – feels good. EAD eddie.
3. Ugly win but we’ll take it, just keep on winning who knows what will happen.” – Silenthunter_

“I learnt nothing new.

Side is in trouble, game style is shit, barely held up to the 11th? ranked side.

Lost Parker who is a tough bugger.

Leaving Tom in the NEAFL was a stroke of genius, they never make a mistake in the box.

Heeney is a gem. Bit suicidal though.

Pies really screwed the pooch though, we got lucky in that one I reckon. But heh, I will take it.” – MarkP

“1. We’re on the precipice of falling into a hole we may not be able to get out of. Injuries, age, form, trade ban – take your pick its looking scary.

2. I’m in a members malaise. My enjoyment levels are so low this year taking everything into consideration. At the start it made me feel close to the club when all these external factors were attacking us, now I just feel increasingly estranged. The football team on-field reserving some of their worst work for home and the club admin off field for keeping us out of the loop and not fighting as hard as they should have against clear injustices.

3. Last week it was Jetta carrying us in the first half, this week it was Mitchell who dragged us over the line. Says it all.” – Mark In Time

“Pretty ugly game of football with the Swans flooding their backline in numbers as is typical of them. We did well when they were flooding back, putting pressure on them (21 tackles inside 50!), blocking space in their kick ins, but not so much when it was our backline under pressure as we didn’t have anyone from our back 6 + Reid step up on the rebound.

Overall it was a pretty even contest, they dominated the second half of the first quarter and part of the last, but we really dominated the 2nd and 3rd but failed to capitalise on it by kicking 12 behinds in that period plus a couple of OOF. All things considered, we didn’t do too badly because our very best player in Pendles was really down on the day and we missed some very easy shots in front at critical times (30 shots at goal overall, kicking 10.16 and 4 OOF).

I think we could have done a bit better defending their slingshot rebound, but realistically when a team plays a flood behind the ball these rebound situation are going to happen, we should have made sure we didn’t turn it over around the 50m arc as it really opens an easy corridor for the opposition to cut through. To me the two things that ‘tactically’ cost us yesterday were:

1. Lack of rebounding ability in the back 6. Really, who is a good rebounding defender in our team? Collectively they’re not good kicks but even without good kicking the pacey types like Williams and Sinclair didn’t provide anything meaningful to help us drive the ball forward quickly and prevent the Swans from having the time to flood their defensive 50.

2. Centre clearance set up. That truly cost us, as our opposition always seems to score right after we get a goal, because when we score one the ball goes back to the middle for a centre bounce and we get completely smashed in that area. We seem to struggle with manning the defensive side of the opposition. The opposition ruck manages to get the ball back (or our ruck somehow drives it there) and it’s an easy pick up for the opposition mids who can then drive the ball forward and put our defence immediately under pressure. This game Kennedy got 14 clearances which more than double any of our players, and last week is was Cripps with 11. This issue makes us lose the very little momentum we create by getting a goal and last night the 2 Rohan goals were identical in the fact that they got it directly after one of our goal and with the exact same setup.” – Vankri

“Thought this was De Goey’s best game of his short career so far. Looked fresh coming off the rest last week. Props to Marley Williams, had a shocking first half but was back to his usual best in the 2nd half. Loved his goal” – LukeH10

Saturday, August 15

Essendon 8.11.59 def by Adelaide Crows 27.9.171

“Pitiful.” – Harlequin

“Sack Hird.” – Marley10

-rumply

“Meh. Club is a basket case. What more can you say? Gotten to the point where as a member I’ve stopped caring. Essendon itself is a damaged product.” – Kakkle

“Good signs for the future with Laverde, Edwards and co. Bring back Watson and Hurley etc…. Given we sack the board and all the coaching staff over the off season and get a fresh start and the WADA stuff fizzles….. we are gonna be contenders next year.” – thaibomber

“We are the new Melbourne, in fact we are considerably worse, they didn’t drug their players. Absolutely gutted.” – Jobe

“Gutted that I didn’t chuck more on the crows, expected a loss but that was down right horrendous. How do we go from being in front at 1/4 time to be just being annihilated?

Goddard, Pig, Hooker, Laverde, Edwards, Heppell were all pretty good and others bobbed up here and there for patches but overall we are just a complete mess. Gutted for Myers if he’s out with another serious injury, you could see how much we need him.

Sadly, other than hopefully get some help for the backline there isn’t really anyone we can bring in for next week. Would love to know what the mood is in the rooms and how Hird is addressing the players” – mike14

“First quarter was horrid. Slowly improved and the smashes them. BOG for me was Sloane, he brought it all day.” – Jars458

“Good: Too many to name.
But will name Smith. When he is in AA form we are a very much better side – think us against Collingwood in the first 3 quarters
Putting the foot on the throat and keeping it there for once. Good sides smash bad teams in the last quarter. Great to see us do it

Bad: Henderson in the first quarter was slow and poor
Crouch – lot of the ball, but not his best.

Ugly: Umpiring and commentary – mystifying and laughable” – Redleg Crow

“Fox Footy’s obsession with continually zooming in on Hird’s depressed look, sorry who cares.” – WheresGroomGone

“Good
Danger super sharp. Others pretty good as well.
Crouch and Lyons made a lot of mistakes, but at least its in the process of trying to learn the right thing to do and this is one game when we could afford it.
VB doing a bit better than he was prior to the stint in the SANFL. Will be a good person to have next year when the rotations drop back.
Burying a side. As others said, we havent done that for a while.
Hopefully Brisbane already have doubts.
Atkins and Knight both showing good signs but each in their own way.
Cameron continues his good form as does jenkins.
Those kickouts from fullback to the person moving laterally. I think everyone we tried worked.
Having a few lefties around the place changes us up.
We could belt sides by more but I’m glad we stick with a finals style game. Makes me confident we’d sort out bulldogs and richmond if we caught them in finals.
Accuracy.

Bad
Cute dinky passes early.
Umpires put in some bad stints early and late. Couple of throwing/illegals that we got didnt get then matched when they did it.
Tex not getting amongst goals but who cares.
Some of our forward movements early on and regularly through the game not kicking to advantage.

Ugly
-”

North Melbourne 18.12.120 def St Kilda 11.17.83

“Positive: 2nd half

Negative: Everything else

Bank the points and prepare for next week’s massive game against Freo.” – Roo beauty

“Goldy only the 10 possessions but set us up in that 3 qtr. If ever theres proof of stats lying its with him.
Petrie was good hopefully he keeps this up

Neg- Idiocy from Ziebell will have a couple weeks off when we really need him
-Played a half of football the inconsistency continues” – Spitt09

“Not saying anything re: our finals chances.

But very pleased we stuck to it today. Once we stopped over handballing we had the experience to make the Saints pay for missing. We were 36 kicks 57 handballs at 1/4 time and just had so many clangers/turnovers. Very undisciplined too.

We ended the game 188 kicks 159 handballs, and were comfortable winners in the end. We also started playing the ball, being to the ball first – gave away less stupid free kicks, got more.

Footy is a simple game in the end. Our players are more seasoned, stronger and fitter than St Kilda – but it meant for naught when we were over-handballing and being undisciplined.

Once we corrected that, the experience, size and fitness came to the fore.” – HTPunter

“Positive: 4 points

Negatives: putrid performance by the midfield in the first half with a 37-15 inside 50 differential – against St Kilda – unbelievable. Thanks to the Saints poor kicking and a defence that kept them to just 6 goals from those 37 entries.” – arden station

“Most likely will be a repeated a million times.. But north must play 4 quarters and not just turn up for one. Disposal efficiency needs to improve greatly. Swallow needs to harden the **** up and act like a captain..

Positives: Good knowing we can play half a game each week and get 4 points when needed” – DuckYeah

“I know this isn’t going to be a popular post… but…

Just cos [Acres] can break tackles and get his arms free means that he will be ‘a player?’ In my opinion, in his 10 games of AFL, he hasn’t shown that he will be. He struggles to kick, and struggles to handball it 5-10 metres. And that’s the truth. That’s what he has shown us. I hope he becomes everything some of you are saying he will turn out to be. But from his first game, and his 10th game, he hasn’t shown much improvement in my opinion.” – AuntiBerrels

“Well that went to sh1t fast. But even with that putrid second half we still had nearly as many shots (bad finishing is unfortunately becoming a recurring theme). Should have been 10 goals in front before we faded

On the positive side:

Armo – Sensational

Newnes – Very good

Weller, Bruce & Goddard – Battled really hard

Wright & Minchi also showed some signs early. Acres had a couple of flashes of something special and I thought Saunders was serviceable as the sub. All should play the rest of the year.

Special mention to Tom Hickey. Of course he is a ruckman not a forward, but full credit to Richo for being patient and giving him this year of development. Anyone remember when our sole plan B was Dawson to FF?

Not going to turn too negative because we all know where we are at. But I simply have to mention how extraordinarily frustrating Geary and Gilbert are every single week. They provide leadership and protect the kids – so for now they remain valuable – but both absolutely need to be phased out long before we are playing finals.

Anyway onto the draft for mids, mids and more mids

One last thing, – L.Thomas is the biggest flog to wear a North Melbourne jumper since this bloke…

” – Enclosed_Animal

“Dempster – don’t get injured ever again.

Goddard – great effort for a big first year player.

Mav – enjoy your ten years with the Saints

Hickey – good signs. Held some marks

Minch – from my dodgy feed seemed to play most of the time forward – should have kicked 4. Keep

Joey – I know 33 possessions but sorry but I’m over him

Roo – injured

Saunders – No

Memo to List Managers

Rule 1 – don’t draft anyone who can’t kick

Rule 2 – see above” – pebblesofsand

Port Adelaide 16.15.111 def GWS GIANTS 13.12.90

“It wasn’t pretty, still plenty of problems, but it was great to have our best team win of the year. We played like a team, we backed each other like a team, we fought for each other like a team. Not many times this year we have been able to say that. Arguably the first!

Thought it was a bizarre game in terms of all the agro. It happened from before the first bounce so must have been a directive from Leon to try and rough us up and put us off our game. When your 4 goals down in 10 minutes, its generally looking like a mistake. However, I thought we did lose the plot at times. Overall though it was great to see us stand up to that sort of physical scrutiny. They were happy to throw punches behind the play, drop elbows in, push, shove and be complete muppets. Loved Trengove giving it to Rory Lobb. Also loved Matty White running 30 metres to get in Lobbs face after AhChees hip and shoulder on him. Was proud to see us stand up like this.

The umpiring certainly didnt help. From a pure control point of view, I think thats the worst game i’ve ever seen umpired. The players, the spectators didn’t know what was going on. It was so reactive. “oh, how bout we pay 7 50m penalties in the first quarter”, “oh i know, lets pull 2 deliberate out of bounds out of nowhere in the space of 30 seconds for things that happen 25 times a game and not pay it again for the rest of the game”. Ludicrous. All that can be said of Jordan Bannister is this – he was a shit footballer, and he’s a shit umpire.” – Macca19 (Full post including player reviews)

“Season may have been over, the game may not have had much meaning in it to us, but GWS came and were aggressive and physical and we responded to that! We didn’t take their shit, and to be a point down at 3QT and go and blow them away like that was 2014-like. Boak was quiet but then lifted in the last like the amazing captain he is and Wingard with those two goals really gave us control of the match.

Oh, and Ah Chee… he’s arrived!” – AusHorrorStory

“Could possibly be the best/most satisfying win of 2015. Finally, just FINALLY we saw the return of some mongrel and aggression from players. Angry Boak. Angry Trengove. Heck even Krak running in to join the party in his green vest was awesome.

Just pleased that Ah Chee and Sam Gray had awesome performances. If we can find a fringe player that can cement himself into the AFL spot then that will do wonders.

I’d like us to continue to rest Schulz to experiment with Butcher as the main target up forward. Was really really nice to have someone crashing packs and letting the ball spill to the feet of Wingard. If Dixon is a pack crasher then sign him up.

If we have a good 2016 I’ll be looking at this game and Ken’s presser after the Bulldogs game as the turning points. But any how thanks GWS, you guys are always looking out for us.” – Shaucob_Burjan

“Was it pretty?……no
Were the skills great?……no

Did we put in 4 quarters of Port Adelaide team based football?…….yes!!

Happy to see the guys actually play for each other.

Ah Chee has shown patches – this was his breakout game!!
Sam Gray will be around for a while still I think.
Butcher might have done just enough tonight, still frustrating to watch the kicking but he did provide a presence tonight. Hope that he gets a couple more games.
Mitchell – think he steps aside for Young or Hoon next week.

Thought Hartlett was good, R Gray and Chad played to their usual standard. Ryder with some good touches. Also thought Monfries played a useful game.” – glitch01

“Disappointing to lose that, but considering we were without Mumford, Shiel, Coniglio, Scully, Treloar, Buntine, and lost Davis during the match, we performed OK.” – Land of the Giants

“I tend to agree with the posters saying it was a good effort considering all our mids being out, and davis getting injured etc. This affected our rotations and was part of of the reason for the last quarter fade out. Griffin,Ward Palmer and Kelly were good. I still think Tomlinson should have played for Patton. He’s an elite endurance runner and would have suited our gameplan better as a hit up forward. Patton was always going to tire(they probably would have subbed him two weeks in a row but Scully and Davis got injured early. It’s about next year for the General or at least go back to NEAFL for a game or two” – Vic pokiesmon

“Dont get me wrong, I am a supporter not a critic, but we were outplayed in the last quarter, outs mean nothing the 22 named are supposed to do the job, that’s how you make and win finals. Davis going down early hurt our defensive stricture, but I thought for the last 20 minutes we were comprehensively beaten in the middle, nothing to do with the backs. I didn’t see the final count but at one pint it was 8 inside 50s to 1.
Wingard is a freak, and his goals were telling, but Davis wouldn’t have been his man, fact is the ball was in their half a lot more than it should have been,

Very interested to hear Leon’s take on it.

Also way more confident of beating the Swans than I was of winning this game.” – Determinant

Geelong Cats 12.13.85 def by Hawthorn 19.7.121

“Pathetic first quarter put us behind and it was just chasing tail from then on in. Weren’t too bad in the other three quarters to be truthful.” – STP18

“I know we lost the game but we were very much in this match for the first three quarters and a half. All without our champion fullback and an elite midfielder in Mitch Duncan as well as putting up with dirty umpires continually screwing us.

I honestly couldn’t be prouder than that effort because most expected a 10 goal plus loss. Sure we lost by 36 odd points but there are many positives to take out of the first three quarters for the future.

I’ll take a 6 goal loss to Hawthorn any day.” – CatSpur

“Look the negative is I hate losing to Hawthorn and that win gives them top 2 which means they are pretty likely to win the flag. But the positive is if we play like we did tonight for the next 3 weeks we will win them all which will probably get us into finals.

In terms of the game I thought the lack of a small defender really cost us. Enright was immense (boy I will miss him when he retires) but when we presed up hard and left space over the back we lacked someone with the footspeed to get to their smalls. Bews didnt play vfl today so I assume he was injured, but it would have been good to have him.

Save for goalkicking we played better than I expected, if we had nailed those 4 shots early in the last quarter we really could have had a chance. The good signs for me are that the younger players in Motlop, Guthrie, Murdoch et al are improving and playing much better than they were early in the year. Even Cockatoo really showed some glimpses tonight and I thought Horlin Smith was very good, showing why he shouldn’t be sub.

There is no margin for error now, we have to win the last 3 and hopefully we will. The reality is we are playing as well now as we can with what we have. We are short a decent contested midfielder to help Selwood (the gap from him to our next mid is immense, I know Duncan out magnified that but still) and a ruckman, the number of times tonight we didn’t even have a ruck compete at the stoppage was too many. This is why I am an advocate of getting even a decent ruck in this offseason, that and Dangerfield I think will give us a genuine chance against the best teams again. We are starting to improve our contested ball issues which shows both the players and coaches are realising the problem and rectifying it, but we cant go to the next level of beating the top teams until we improve the midfield and ruck area of the list. Big pity Stanley is injured as I genuinely think we could have made a tilt at a flag with him fit, and we still may win a final if we get in.” – Pure_Ownage

“What I learnt tonight was that when Geelong were winning premiership and Hawks didn’t even make finals, that Geelong just managing to scrap over the line for a win was some sort of ‘curse’.

But now Hawks are winning flags and smashing Geelong by several goals…. no such thing?” – Hedgehodgy

“Thought Shiels has really gone up another level this season. Just such a workhorse through the middle. Mitchell and Hodge were both brilliant in their own ways. Cyril was magical.

Now for West Coast to lose, and we’re all hunky dory.

On a sour note, Lewis and Hilly both seem below their standards from last year. Really need them to find good form heading into finals.” – Kuuz

“Aside from a few worrying moments in the second that was a fantastic win.

Geelong really took it up to us and made us work, but we responded really well. Shit yeah!

Can’t believe Stevie J sledged Mitch about the knees though. Pot-Kettle anyone?” = The A Team Van

Brisbane Lions 20.11.131 def Carlton 9.13.67

“**** tanking!” – alscotoz2

“The win means nothing in the grand scheme of things but that winning feeling is glorious.” – Bucking Beads

“Mitch Robinson – Honest as the day is long. Great to see him playing some excellent football. love watching him play. Good on ya Mitch!” – JB42

“Great win by Carlton tonight imo :(.

Seriously though I hope you guys get a PP now because there is something seriously wrong with a system that penalizes one team for winning and rewards the other for losing (especially when that other team has the history that it does)” – Schraderbrau

“It’s been so long since hearing the club song at the gabba it almost brings me to tears :cry:” – BizzyFan12

“What the **** is up with Fox footy’s coverage?

Not only did I not get to see the boys sing the song all the post match coverage has been dedicated to the Roos and Saints.

Why the **** do I pay for this?” – pulpdriver

“But we always win 5 or so games every year at the back end and it doesn’t translate to the start of next season. By the start of the season, l reckon all these little wins are forgotten as everyone starts afresh.” – a mayes ing

“Great game. It’s amazing what we look like when all of our players contribute. No passengers tonight.

ZOB played his best game for us.
Andrews was great again.
Freeman read the play and found space. How much better is our midfield when they have forwards leading hard into space!!

Rich’s second quarter was A grade supreme.
Christensen was awesome again.
Robbo….. Considering what he’s costing us and was free to pickup….., has to be one of the steals of the season.

Cutler showed us a glimpse of the future also. It was his goal that got us into gear.” – BrizzyBandit

“Well that sucked. I don’t even know where we go from here. Welcome to rock bottom all.” – Jatz

“Mitch genuinely hurt by Jamison refusing to acknowledge him after the game.

Really offended reaction by Jamo there. Pretty poor. Fine to be hurt by the loss but Robbo went through it with you for a while and didn’t leave by choice.” – The Old Dark Navy’s

“I think that Robbo’s punch to Jamo’s jaw might have something to do with the lack of a handshake at the end…” – Dramoth

“Can you sack a caretaker?” – Navy Cream

“I know I’ll get howled down by the anti-tankers but genuinely feel we are closer to a flag tonight than we were 3 hours ago.

We need talent. Tonight gives us talent and some bargaining power.

Couldn’t give a rats about a loss in a meaningless late season game by a team whose spirit and motivation departed about 6 weeks. Bring on the new coach, some new talent, the off-season and let’s start again

Sorry – I know it’s not what people want to hear.” – AndyLucimitis

“Cripps, Doc, Kreuz… we have some quality individuals… but as a unit, the CFC does not have a single shred of integrity.” – F the Rest

“If that wasn’t ‘tanking’, then I don’t know what is.
All I was hearing was out on the full and deliberate tap-outs.

NO JOKE; A week before the first round I tipped Carlton for the wooden spoon. How right I am becoming.

Murphy, Jamison, Henderson, Tuohy, Curnow and Everitt all had shockers tonight. I can’t believe we have lost to this mob, TWICE!!!” – NavyBlueTJ35

“The Carlton Football Club has turned itself into a complete and utter joke.

It has not learnt what proper drafting is, just throwing money at a reputation earnt elsewhere is the way to go.

The only players who have developed and done so in clear spite of the program in place.

The board is an arrogant, dim witted elitist conglomerate of self interest an faction. As long as they have stroke **** the rest of it.

No brain, no heart, no guts…thats most of our playing list outside of Murphy, Kreuzer, Cripps and a couple other kids.

We clearly have no coach or coaching structure, in fact top line candidates are flat out saying no.

We have no respect, for ourselves or from others. We have lost all dignity and integrity.

13 years removed from the salary cap saga we are still the single biggest joke in the AFL and its all our own doing.

But hey at least we can coddle ourselves we EARNED this number 1 pick……that is so totally worth the barren wasteland we made out of a paradise right?

I am done for the year…. can’t be bothered with this shit.” – Styxx

“This is what happens when your club thinks it’s a good idea to give a failed fringe forward from a club with no forward line a three year contract.

This is what happens when you give away your leading goal kicker for free two years in a row.

This is what happens when you make a player from another club your highest paid player when he hadn’t played footy for almost two years.

Thus is what happens when you ignore medical advice that the above player will never fully recover. And you do it again, and again, and again until some idiot tells you what you want to hear.

This is what happens when you recruit players (such as Levi) with deficiencies (a KP who can’t kick straight), and you can’t be bothered doing anything about those problem until they’ve been on your list for 6 or 7 years.

These problems, and many more, aren’t directly the reason we lost tonight. They’re just general indicators of a club that’s been incompetently run for a very long time.” – gandaal

Sunday, August 16

Richmond 22.6.138 def Gold Coast SUNS 8.7.55

“finally buried a side well done boys all played well. and lol at eade’s face” – Stevi_Tigers

“83 points and people were complaining about not boosting our percentage lol. Gained 5.6% in the end.

Martin, Cotchin and Lids all very good. Lids is just so important with his run and dash.

Lambert the big positive. He started the year slow but he’s become a very good player.

Good to see Tyrone snag a few. Was happy with Lloyd too.

Chappy was poor today, just can’t shut down an opponent. Thomas was generally good, put he still has those brain farts. Hopefully e makes way for Edwards pretty soon.

Congrats to Cotchin, Maric and hit out king Griggs on their milestones.” – Barry_Badrinath

“Started terribly but got the job done. Cotch is a beast. Just need our forward entries sorted out, it’s like pinball in there a lot of the time.” – Nostradumbass

“If I hear the no Deledio no Richmond comment again on Fox Footy I’ll go postal. Seriously mentioned about 10 times pre game then **** head Frawley brings it up in the second quarter. Maybe get some one other than David King to do your notes. He is a spud farmer after all I guess” – MJ_23

“Clinical win.
Some good signs of important players playing well at this time of season.
What do we make of our tackle count?
Extraordinarily low numbers but not sure what to make of it myself.” – RodneyDangerfield

“Yeah. Shake hands, but enough with the little smiley/laughy conversations. Go to Facebook if you want to like your opponent” – SandyToes

“There’s times to get stuck in and then there’s times to hold back. It sucks following this club right now. Bring on next season.

Real positive: the improvement in Aaron Hall is absolutely astounding. He is a completely different player. I don’t think I’ve seen such a turn around in a player at any level in all my life. My wholehearted congratulations mate – you absolutely proved me wrong. Good on ya!” – Darkwingduck

“I thought Matera was ordinary, he looks slow for a small forward and doesn’t impact the game enough, Dixon is over rated and injury prone and Malcheski, I don’t know about that guy?

Plenty to like despite the result, Hal was outstanding Garlett, Miller and Saad were all very good, Lonergan was servicable and Lynch gets better with every game.” – ColdWarWarrior

“What’s the record amount of players used in a season? Upgrade Downie for Nicholls and convince Sumner to un retire and play him as sub. Get Jaeger to play and we could still beat Essendon and break the record.” – The Human Meatball

Western Bulldogs 24.9.153 def Melbourne 8.7.55

“Highest score in VFL/AFL history with a goalless quarter!!!” – Bulldog Brent

“3rd quarter? What is a 3rd quarter? There was no 3rd quarter today.” – TimTamWB

“the only difference between Grants & Watts is that Grant has had to play for his career and earn his spot in the team. Watts is rewarded for being mediocre and constantly gifted games” – Testekill

“I see your 83 Richmond and raise 15.” – Bulldog Brent

“What just happened? How can you not score a goal in an entire quarter of football and still win by 98 points? That makes no sense at all.” – Chicago1

“I thought Talia was pretty good today apart from two mistakes in the 3rd. Made pretty solid decisions with the ball and was decent in the marking contests.” – Struggle

“The Dees are my second favorite team BUT your coach is crap! You continuously ask for priority picks instead of manning up and developing your own. It hurts me to see my mates get disappointed year after year by a club that refuses to take the hard option. Asks for help rather than developing their own. Today, you lost to a team made up of more rookie draft picks than your numerous first round picks. The Dees were older, more experienced, better paid and made up of higher draft picks, yet got spanked. You, the supporters deserve better.” – Gmod23

“Surely Melbourne have to give Paul Roos the arse sooner than later. Biggest fraud in the industry and he is milking us all for a million bucks a year (the AFL is paying ffs!)” – Mutt

“Burn it all.” – Striker475

“Conceded goals in Q1 and Q4.

Last week: 14 goals
This week: 18 goals

At least we’re learning our lessons” – youngbear

“We are a better side than last year. – Paul Roos

I’m starting to think other teams just got worse while we have simply maintained our same levels of shitness?” – A11dAtP0w3R

“Lumumba is a ******* hack fraud.” – Bluelegs

“Not going to bother with the bad and the fugly.

Good:

• Hogan, as per usual. Would have kicked 12 for the Dogs today
• Seriously good games from Harmes and Michie. Best for the club so far
• Probably Brayshaw’s best game when not playing entirely in the midfield, too
• Gawn’s ruckwork wasn’t his best, but looked good around the ground
• Grimes played a good half of footy
• Matt Jones wasn’t too much of a liability (other than missed shot at goal) – actually gave us some good run
• Viney is on the cusp of becoming an A-grade midfielder, I feel. ” – Gysberts2Bate

“Here’s an idea , we will lose etihad games regardless , so how about we don’t field a team for these games and give the players a week off? They’ll be fresher for the week after, the other side will get less money from gate takings and we never have to give any of our long suffering supporters any false hope about an etihad win.

Seriously, what’s the point in playing there?” – stabler

“My god if we lose to ******* Carlton.” – schmutt

“Against my own rationale I decided to attend today’s game at Etihad stadium.

What a dickhead. Every year, I head to that place and leave saying “never again”. What a dickhead.

I am the dumbest campaigner alive.” – wowlace

“We just don’t seem to be able to progress. Ever. Every time we seem to take a step forward we quickly take two steps back.

The first half we were deplorable but everything the Bulldogs touched turned into a goal. But our inability to stem the bleeding remains a huge concern and its not something Roos is adept to dealing with. His face at qtr time was of utter disbelief.

Credit to the Bulldogs – they play a brilliant brand of football I wish we could emulate. Unfortunately I don’t know what our game plan is. We seemingly pride ourselves on our “tackling pressure” and this is the only thing noticeably better under Roos. But apart from a few, we can’t get first use of the ball and when we do – our structures seldom allow us to clear it.

Our decision making on the other hand is tear your hair out stuff – handballing to players not even looking for example. And because our skill level is often so poor we don’t take risks – we play ordinary looking football which at its best is “accountable” and it at worst red and blue mannequins.

Others have mentioned Lumumba and while I don’t want to single him out he’s fairly indicative of our playing list. A bunch of honest toilers who simply don’t know how to read the play and are always panicked.

Umpires were a joke. Get sucked in every time. I actually hope one of their pathetic decision costs a team a final just so they come under the scrutiny they deserve.” – Keithy George

Fremantle 11.14.80 def by West Coast Eagles 15.14.104

“Positives-
The fourth quarter was entertaining.
Fyfe had a decent return game

Negatives-
Losing to Wet Toast
31 frees against, wtf!
Everything else” – Sir Deadly

“Hill great
Fyfe and Mundy worked into the game
Fyfe has a game under his belt to regain touch
Sonny good
Pav also worked into it well

Pulling Barlow out seemed a bit premature, I thought
Didn’t take our chances – we lost the game from Neale’s miss, I thought” – Sweetback

“We won every relevant game statistic (including clearances and inside 50s convincingly) and lost the game. Reminds me of the Richmond game when we let them get off to a great start and couldn’t reel them back in. How much of the outcome relates to the fact that WC wanted to win more than Freo, we’ll never know.” – Spoken4

“Negs
-Silvagni had a shocker. 6 frees against and just didn’t win any contest. Will also get 4 weeks.
– inaccuracy hurt
– MDB & GU are terrible footballers. Continually make bad decisions.
– can’t send a B team to play north as top 2 still up for grabs.
– Barlow? What happened?
– Johnson looked stuffed early.
– lost the derby. Hate losing them

Pos
– Fyfe good return. Could be in the votes.
– fought back
– hill, mundy, Sheridan, spurr solid
– Johnson better for the run

I think this game proved we need Dawson, Johnson & McPharlin all in against Eagles & Hawks. Their talls killed us.” – Freoforever86

“+ **** yes
+ Nah seriously, **** yes

+ Backline was astonishingly good before Schoey went down, massive effort from the boys and I was sweating we were undersized. In Simmo we trust.
+ We won the game in the midfield. Nobody saw that coming, don’t lie.
+ Holding contested marks around the ground, Darling, Kennedy, SINCLAIR THE GOD. Allows us to move out of the backline when a guy with a couple of steps on his man can hold it on the wing.
+ Yeo’s back
+ Mark Clutchings and Patrick McWinnity came out to play today, effort guys who give their all can be useful. Still a conversation to be had but hard to bemoan these guys in our 22 at the moment.
+ JK Coleman creeps ever closer
+ Cripps is swole
+ Club’s snapchat is consistently quality

+ Sat in amongst the purple horde and made it out alive. Some of them are absolute ferals, people jeering Cripps as they walked him down the race. I was trying to be polite but that was ridiculous, got stuck in after that. I dunno what happened, assumed they all had something pretty important on tonight because they were making sure they beat traffic.

– Sandi tore us up in the middle despite the efforts of Sinkers and Slyce. Wasn’t effective early but was winning the taps, then worked himself into it.
– Fyfe put the game on his back and we struggled to contain him in the second half
– Schoey, will wait for news but who did our KPD’s piss off?

Probably more of both but I don’t have time, too busy double checking that 22>20. Have at it.” – HoneyBadger35

– DarkSharks

“I’m still involuntarily fistpumping every 30 seconds or so, so forgive the typos:

Positives:
– I bemoaned Shuey in the last derby for a lack of big-game influence. He proved me wrong today in spades.
– Darling, JK, Sinclair all clunked massive marks.
– I’m an unapologetic Simmo fanboy, but I dare say we had an effective game plan re: Sandilands dominance. Fyfe was getting silver service, but despite that we kept very good pressure around him. He got off the leash a little, but he didn’t get much oxygen at all to do effective things with the ball.
– More on the game plan: first time in a long time I can’t remember being carved up by Freo’s small forwards.
– McGinnity and Hill: two more unloved players (and indeed, I was less than chipper when Hill missed that goal) – but you can’t fault their effort today one iota.
– I feel like Fremantle threw the kitchen sink at us in Q3 and most of Q4, and we held up very well. Wobbled when Schofield went down, but we’re really learning from these clutch games.
– Most of all: around-the-ground contributors. This wasn’t a Fyfe-like win where one inexplicably talented bloke who looks like he’s a can short of a six pack lifts the team off the canvas. We had a bunch of toilers in the 22 this week, and they held up magnificently. Really ponder who is out for a minute, really consider it: McGovern (AA squad surely?), Mackenzie (see last year), Nicnat (AA squad), LeCras (ultra productive year imho), Schofield for the second half (massive year). That’s a real credit to the whole squad, and to Simmo.

Negatives:
– We still go into our shell when the heat goes on. It’s like being five goals in front is worse for our team than being three goals in front.
– Note to club: hire witchdoctor and settle the cosmic grudge held against our KPDs. Cheers.
– Thought Ellis was a bit jittery down back. Not a massive criticism, but struggled to find too many negatives.
– Silvagni: you’re a cheap hack on the downward slope of your beshitted AFL career champ. Cheap.” – bombard