Review vs Melbourne & the Maggots review/rant megathread

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

Can we get Zaine Cordy on loan from the Geelong Falcons? Jayden Foster may also help. SOS.

 

[fronkalicious]

I've gotta be honest...I can kinda see where fronkalicious is coming from.

I think "no heart" may have been the wrong choice of words - we showed in the last that we genuinely want to win and will throw our bodies on the line and do anything possible to get across the line. But the question needs to be - why is there no desperation for the first three? For much of the preceding three quarters we didn't run hard enough, didn't throw our bodies on the line, had too many passengers and couldn't man up to save our lives. Why does it take almost losing to an average team to pump us up?

No heart may be the wrong term, depending on your definition. There just seems a lack of care and a lack of urgency. No leadership and no one wants to take responsibility. Whether that equates to a lack of heart or not is irrelevant. Either way, it's not good enough and so disappointing to see. At the moment we're a lazy, slow, small footy team that lacks skill, confidence and direction. That's a massive, massive drop off from the second half of last year.

 

[Rocketsurgery]

Terry Wallace was trying to explain on radio why the free kick discrepancy was fair tonight. Bulldogs being the aggressors and tackling hard leading to more frees against for loose tackles. But what about the flip side to that, where the team tackling hard and being aggressive are rewarded for their effort with holding and dropping the ball decisions. That's supposed to even up the frees and the umpires weren't paying them tonight. That's what pisses me off!!

 

[SuperMacPherson]

Yes I know the umpiring was terrible, Melbourne having at least 12 more free kicks, however, the worst one of the night cost Melbourne the game. The free Crameri got was the game breaker.

 

[VogonProsthetnic]

I reckon Melbourne despite their talls were also lacking on the forward line when it counted. I believe our work rate was fine, it is the polish that is probably missing at the moment, but as the game wore on, we got a bit of spit on the ball and we looked the goods. You put Roughy back in the team, and a few of our injured players return and I think you might see a different result. 4 POINTS yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The commentators would not shut up about how good Frawley and Dawes were but they did not seem to do too much when it counted. Stringer, Morris and Fletcher not exactly our no 1 defence did pretty well IMO. BTW are 2 tall forwards kicked 7 between them, not really mentioned by the Channel 7 geniuses.

 

[jamesDP]

Yes I know the umpiring was terrible, Melbourne having at least 12 more free kicks, however, the worst one of the night cost Melbourne the game. The free Crameri got was the game breaker.

Sure was, and boy oh boy....wowee....were the scarf brigade, and 4WD Mt Buller Skiers upset...........stiff!

 

[Unorth]

Thinking about it, the bye should hopefully do wonders for this team. It'll give Griffin and Minson a well deserved break, and help them get over their niggles. Macrae looks like he needs a rest, he looks spent. It gives Grant and Smith another week to get fit; and depending on how Dickson is, it could let him potentially let him retain his spot. The Bulldogs are just a banged up team overall, I guess. Oh, and let the battle for the KPF spot to begin, with Jones set to miss a few weeks. For whoever comes in (Redpath to debut, I hope), it certainly won't be hard to deliver a better output than what Jones has these last 4 weeks anyway.

 

[timtamWB]

No heart may be the wrong term, depending on your definition. There just seems a lack of care and a lack of urgency. No leadership and no one wants to take responsibility. Whether that equates to a lack of heart or not is irrelevant. Either way, it's not good enough and so disappointing to see. At the moment we're a lazy, slow, small footy team that lacks skill, confidence and direction. That's a massive, massive drop off from the second half of last year.

Hit the nail on the head. I don't agree that there's no leadership and no one wants to take responsibility, look at Morris or Boyd for example, and Roughead being out is a massive blow on both of those counts. But we seem to just be lazy, and don't seem to care or want to actually do the hard stuff for the most part. And this has been a problem for the past few weeks. We know we're capable of playing far better, we've seen it in bursts. But we have no consistency, and the players seem to all drop off and stop all cohesion for no reason whatsoever.

The worst part is, I don't understand why or how it's happening. I have literally no clue as to why this is occurring, usually with problems you can see the cause or see a possible cause, not the case here. I also just don't see how to fix this apart from the coach trying to address it. Maybe my Dad's been rubbing off on me, but try old coaching tactics. If you don't perform, then you're getting hammered at training. I can't think of any other solution, and we've got to try something to wake them up!

 

[Leon]

Hardly a win for the ages....but yay.

We were up against it tonight - we're out of form, low on confidence, playing a side that loves to congest, players injured, wet weather, shocking umpiring.

So to come away with a win was very satisfying, and boy did we need it.

I can't believe Cooney is getting criticized on here??? He was immense I thought, and still one of our few players with that x factor and ability to provide a spark.

Boyd, Dahlhaus, Libba and Crameri were all terrific. Crameri did what we'd been crying out for - kicking the goals when we needed him to.

Libba's goal in the last was magnificent - a real leader's goal. Got pretty fired up when that went through, it was terrific.

Still far from convinced about Williams in the forward line, but he did well tonight, deserves a lot of credit. The one on the left in the last quarter...wow/

Tonight's umpiring was an absolute disgrace - we got absolutely screwed over by them. So much so that I do not give a flying one that Crameri's crucial goal in the last quarter, which was the turning point, was laughable. I scabbed a freebie ticket into AFL members tonight and was siting amongst a fair few neutrals - every one of them agreed that we were very harshly treated.

Anyway, win's a win, we needed it, we got it, and I am very relieved to have a week off from supporting this mob next week.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Yes I know the umpiring was terrible, Melbourne having at least 12 more free kicks, however, the worst one of the night cost Melbourne the game. The free Crameri got was the game breaker.

Whilst it's fair enough to say Crameti decision was a poor one, you could say the exact same thing about Kennedy-Harris. He got a free kick, inside 50, from an equally poor decision, in an equally tense moment in the game. Crameri slotted it and he didn't.

Those two cancel each other out and the rest of the umpiring was so biased against us.

 

[SuperMacPherson]

Again, Wood had a fairly good game. I'm glad to see he is putting in effort this season

That's understating it Mike, Wood blanketed Watts!

 

[SuperMacPherson]

Have to say Tutt was pass mark again, still a lot of improvement required,so mate grab this opportunity and make yourself a best 22 by years end.

That's interesting, because our outside players, Griff and Tutt did a lot of inside work tonight, tackling and winning hard ball. Tutt stays in for mine, hard at it all night and kicked another two goals!

 

[Leon]

LOL, Melbourne supporters having a cry on the main board about the umpiring.

"We were robbed!"

"We should have had more free kicks!"


You had an absolute dream ride all game, suck it up snookems

 

[Dav1d]

Is it just me or does Cooney run harder when attacking and not so hard when defending? Seen him a few times this year where he isn't running as hard as I know he can & a player slots it or puts it onto the chest of a team mate inside forward 50
Its why I am so glad we stopped persisting with using Cooney to run out of defense very quickly, I don't think he is very defensively accountable
where as a Brownlow medalist he should be setting the example

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

No heart may be the wrong term, depending on your definition. There just seems a lack of care and a lack of urgency. No leadership and no one wants to take responsibility. Whether that equates to a lack of heart or not is irrelevant. Either way, it's not good enough and so disappointing to see. At the moment we're a lazy, slow, small footy team that lacks skill, confidence and direction. That's a massive, massive drop off from the second half of last year.

Can't argue with any of this mate. Things have to change and things have to improve. I can see things that have improved from last year though - our spread, our forward line, our foot skills and our ability to dig our heels in and grit through adversity and injury to come out on top - which is what's getting me through. Regrettably, other areas have dropped off and it's shielding our development. I know you may disagree, and that's fine, but I personally believe that we have now seen, over the past 12 months, EVERY aspect of the game played very well by this side, just in different games. Every single aspect. We now need to link it up, get some continuity and be capable of bringing it all together for four quarters on a consistent basis. This, I agree, is a huge challenge, and something that isn't going to come easily. It's giving me great confidence to know, though, that I believe we have the pieces there and we've seen them in action. I'm bullish on our progress, even if it isn't genuinely showing in games yet.

 

[Dogs Rule]

We are playing some ugly footy right now.

Yes, we got the win, but I wouldn't watch a replay if you paid me.

We make supposedly simple things look so incredibly difficult.

 

[NBates]

Yes I know the umpiring was terrible, Melbourne having at least 12 more free kicks, however, the worst one of the night cost Melbourne the game. The free Crameri got was the game breaker.

That's called Justice.

 

[Super Hans]

Wood has had an unreal past month, good to see him finally showing his potential.

 

[Trent85]

B-Mac presser http://www.afl.com.au/video?guid=642040

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

Wood has had an unreal past month, good to see him finally showing his potential.

Yep - more than ready to say I was wrong on this one. Well done Easton, you've been a real shining light in a disappointing season thus far. Kudos to him.

 

[Leon]

Yes I know the umpiring was terrible, Melbourne having at least 12 more free kicks, however, the worst one of the night cost Melbourne the game. The free Crameri got was the game breaker.

Care factor = zero.

Any of our fans that feel guilty about the Crameri free and any Melbourne fan having a cry about it should look at the armchair ride Melbourne got tonight.

Make absolutely no mistake, we were screwed over by the umpiring tonight.

 

[GetDimmaBack]

Can't argue with any of this mate. Things have to change and things have to improve. I can see things that have improved from last year though - our spread, our forward line, our foot skills and our ability to dig our heels in and grit through adversity and injury to come out on top - which is what's getting me through. Regrettably, other areas have dropped off and it's shielding our development. I know you may disagree, and that's fine, but I personally believe that we have now seen, over the past 12 months, EVERY aspect of the game played very well by this side, just in different games. Every single aspect. We now need to link it up, get some continuity and be capable of bringing it all together for four quarters on a consistent basis. This, I agree, is a huge challenge, and something that isn't going to come easily. It's giving me great confidence to know, though, that I believe we have the pieces there and we've seen them in action. I'm bullish on our progress, even if it isn't genuinely showing in games yet.

Agreed, Dan+. We do it all well at times...

Hopefully the players are maturing, and as they do we will see it all come together - as it did for Geelong in 2007.

Be a great day when it does!

 

[Trent85]

Care factor = zero.

Any of our fans that feel guilty about the Crameri free and any Melbourne fan having a cry about it should look at the armchair ride Melbourne got tonight.

Make absolutely no mistake, we were screwed over by the umpiring tonight.

B-Mac when asked about Crameri's free in the presser said (paraphrasing) I asked my stats guy what the free count was and it was 22 - 10 so no I didn't feel sorry for them.

 

[Next Waiting]

It was wet weather slog. Very competitive and a physically sapping contest. Melbourne deserve some acknowledgement for the competitive way they played. They were up for the game. We were always in the game and so were Melbourne but we were better in the last few minutes when we had to be and when it counted.
The conditions didn't allow for too many silky skills to be displayed but it is what is and you play the conditions and what's in front of you. I went to the game and enjoyed it. Edge of seat for 120 minutes.
Plenty will comment on the umpiring but it's not just this game. They're not paying holding the ball or incorrect disposal any more and that's contributing to the mauls/rucks. If they actually paid the frees when they're there (consistently) the game(s) would be better.
Only going to single out one player. Libba. I'm glad he plays for us.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

Macca's response about the Crameri free kick is one of the funniest moments in a BMac press conference ever. Seriously, check it out. ~6 minutes into the presser.