M@B'S Observations

[maroon and blue]

1.0 4 games a year in Melb is not enough, the wind the cold, the need for agressive bone on bone football is lacking. We won't win the big one unless we play more games in Melbourne. 2.0 Get rid of that insipid guernsey, we want power, strength and history, either our triple prem colours or the 8 cup lions jumper, you play for the colours.

[TheBrownDog]

1.0 4 games a year in Melb is not enough, the wind the cold, the need for agressive bone on bone football is lacking. We won't win the big one unless we play more games in Melbourne. 2.0 Get rid of that insipid guernsey, we want power, strength and history, either our triple prem colours or the 8 cup lions jumper, you play for the colours.

As much as I agree with some of your points, I'd have to ask where you have been for the past 10 rounds when we've been playing great footy? Barely seen you.

[maroon and blue]

Thanks for the negativity, but in the end the goal is to play for the cup. You can have all the wins at the Gabba but they dont mean two cents if we can't handle the ferment at the G. Who have starred today? Riska, and Lukey. The reason we won 3 is because we had Vic players and skillfull Qlder's. But by denying our opportunity at playing in Melb we have just become a skilfull warm weather top of the gound team. Hate to think what a top of a ladder Vic team would do. We have lost our agression, and the only way we will learn about wet weather football is to play at the MCG more often. The last day in September is not unlike the weather today.My Daughter is at the G today and she said Leigh is literally hitting his head in dismay. W'ere too soft.

[TheBrownDog]

Thanks for the negativity, but in the end the goal is to play for the cup. You can have all the wins at the Gabba but they dont mean two cents if we can't handle the ferment at the G. Who have starred today? Riska, and Lukey. The reason we won 3 is because we had Vic players and skillfull Qlder's. But by denying our opportunity at playing in Melb we have just become a skilfull warm weather top of the gound team. Hate to think what a top of a ladder Vic team would do. We have lost our agression, and the only way we will learn about wet weather football is to play at the MCG more often. The last day in September is not unlike the weather today.My Daughter is at the G today and she said Leigh is literally hitting his head in dismay. W'ere too soft.

Its a strange place to be in, around the bottom of the 8.

Once you are in the 8, you are automatically assumed to be a flag contender and anything less than a Grand Final win, and you get called a "pretender" or overrated.

I think our position on the ladder is a good indication of where we've been all year. A good building side that is capable of playing finals but is well out of flag contention.

It just does my head in when people come out after one game with a laundry list of complaints from that one game, and transpose it over the whole season.

[Fitzroyboy11]

Blame the ground/ fixture all you want but most of our players haven't been able to dispose of the ball properly all year, our players just aren't up to AFL standards when it comes to disposal efficiency, i no i keep saying it but we have everything else down except the important stuff, I know people from my high school team who can hit more targets than some of our players. it just sickens me to see our team wasted with crap kicks crap and crap hand balls.

[maroon and blue]

If you had been at the G the last two games you would have seen how woefull we have been. The team is playing zone defence and not man on man, guarding a patch of grass whilst the opposition simply leads and marks. We don't have the game plan for the G. But it's not up to me or the Vic supporters to be critical of players. I have read with interest the lack of vocal support at the Gabba. Are you afraid of being kicked out of the stadium? Down here it would be a badge of honour. Create an atmosphere, both critical and positive, otherwise the players get in a comfort zone. You do have a big part to play. If we can give the rough house support down here so should you.

[TheBrownDog]

I have read with interest the lack of vocal support at the Gabba. Are you afraid of being kicked out of the stadium? Down here it would be a badge of honour. Create an atmosphere, both critical and positive, otherwise the players get in a comfort zone. You do have a big part to play. If we can give the rough house support down here so should you.

I do my part, your beef isn't with me. Were you even at the game today?

[Fitzroyboy11]

i was at the G for the doggys game too, you CAN NOT blame the ground, don't try and find a scape goat for how shit we play, maybe it makes a difference but it isn't anywhere near making a scoreboard decision. if we hit our targets with handballs and kicks and made good mental decisions with the ball at the Gabba and we played like we do down here i might agree with you. but we do the same crap at home. it probably only accents the problem

[maroon and blue]

Perhaps you may be comfortable where we are at but I am not. Too many teams have achieved what we have this season and have been happy with it and then consigned to football oblivion. We have not a game plan witch will take us far into December. How could it? We smugly applaud are games at the Gabba whilst we hardly play any games in Melbourne. Unfortunately the chickens come home to roost. Of course in previous years we would have beaten the D"s because we bought there home game. But playing less games in Melb may help us financially? ,it does nothing for conditioning us for the rigors of finals football. To re- iterate, we have no idea of playing the G.

[TheBrownDog]

We have not a game plan witch will take us far into December. How could it? .

Few teams do. Even Geelong dropped off majorly after September last year.

[Chasing the Dream]

Perhaps you may be comfortable where we are at but I am not. Too many teams have achieved what we have this season and have been happy with it and then consigned to football oblivion. We have not a game plan witch will take us far into December. How could it? We smugly applaud are games at the Gabba whilst we hardly play any games in Melbourne. Unfortunately the chickens come home to roost. Of course in previous years we would have beaten the D"s because we bought there home game. But playing less games in Melb may help us financially? ,it does nothing for conditioning us for the rigors of finals football. To re- iterate, we have no idea of playing the G.

It has been a tough day, but I couldn't resist.

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

Coaching was poor today, Green killed us as loose man in defence, When we isolated Bradshaw and Brown in the last quarter we looked a lot more dangerous. Matthews basically let Green run free and tear us up, but why wouldn't you when you haven't got an opponent.

In saying that we really looked slow, maybe our legs were heavy from the gut buster against Adelaide, also Melbourne had nothing to lose and lifted a lot, must make their supporters angry to see their side play decent one week, and then serve up tripe for the next month.

[FFB1]

Rats fat clacker that it has anything to do with the ground. Said to TtT, BPL and Blynd F I wasnt going to get on here til Monday but what do I do, walk in the door and log on straight away. We sat behind the goals in the ponsford and alarm bells were ringing in the first quarter. The ground, the weather, the wind - nothing had anything to do with the way we played today. Our dispsal was shocking (again), our efficiency rate, I believe, was in the 40's to half time (again). We had no run, we had few leads, we pansied around with it in the backline. I was surprised we won clearances - to be honest, I thought Melbourne crapped all over us in that area. There were only two passages of play when we kicked long to the forward line and goaled - the rest of the time we either lobbed it up high or we kicked it leading forwards feet. It was a very frustrating day and even though I walked out of the G feeling down about the insipid, yes, insipid, efforts full credit to Melbourne - their pressure made us make woeful decisions with the ball.

There is no way in hell we can go deep into September playing that brand of football, let alone make the 8. Based on that, if we do make the 8, we're making up numbers..

Apologies for sounding harsh but I guess watching the last two ordinary performances in Melb gets you worked up a little..

[jaykippa]

i was at the G for the doggys game too, you CAN NOT blame the ground, don't try and find a scape goat for how shit we play, maybe it makes a difference but it isn't anywhere near making a scoreboard decision. if we hit our targets with handballs and kicks and made good mental decisions with the ball at the Gabba and we played like we do down here i might agree with you. but we do the same crap at home. it probably only accents the problem

i was at the game today also and the team that pulled on those pissed stained poor excuse for a jumper were terrible. i mean ffs we were playing the bottom team for a chance to have a real crack at the top four and we blew it big time. we just expected to few a players such as brown and lukey power to do everything. melbourne made us look second rate today. may be if we had actually tackled instead of bump lay sum sheperds give each other a chop out we would have done much better. it seemed that we thought we had it in the bag the minute we turned up. if we play like this in the next couple of weeks against the bombers and tigers we can kiss finals goodbye :mad::mad: Also why are we not wearing the fitzroy inspired jumper for our melbourne games as they were designed for ???????:thumbsd::thumbsd:

[jaykippa]

Rats fat clacker that it has anything to do with the ground. Said to TtT, BPL and Blynd F I wasnt going to get on here til Monday but what do I do, walk in the door and log on straight away. We sat behind the goals in the ponsford and alarm bells were ringing in the first quarter. The ground, the weather, the wind - nothing had anything to do with the way we played today. Our dispsal was shocking (again), our efficiency rate, I believe, was in the 40's to half time (again). We had no run, we had few leads, we pansied around with it in the backline. I was surprised we won clearances - to be honest, I thought Melbourne crapped all over us in that area. There were only two passages of play when we kicked long to the forward line and goaled - the rest of the time we either lobbed it up high or we kicked it leading forwards feet. It was a very frustrating day and even though I walked out of the G feeling down about the insipid, yes, insipid, efforts full credit to Melbourne - their pressure made us make woeful decisions with the ball.

There is no way in hell we can go deep into September playing that brand of football, let alone make the 8. Based on that, if we do make the 8, we're making up numbers..

Apologies for sounding harsh but I guess watching the last two ordinary performances in Melb gets you worked up a little..

i couldn't agree with you more mate

[notting18]

:mad::mad: Also why are we not wearing the fitzroy inspired jumper for our melbourne games as they were designed for ???????:thumbsd::thumbsd:

Because the AFL decide what jumpers the teams wear for each game. Not a Brisbane decision.

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

We always seem to play best when we lay tackle after tackle. That was non-existent today. Disappointing effort, we were in desperate need of some tactical changes during the game but unfortunately we couldn't find the key. The area most identified before the start of the season as being crucial to our chances was that of disposal.

Last several seasons time after time our players have been missing targets. This game today showed that we are still some years away from being a genuine shot at the flag, in saying that, the week off will serve us well. Hopefully we can come back and get on roll, in contrast to previous seasons when we have really faded away in the latter rounds.

[FFB1]

Maybe, just maybe, its because we're expecting too much too soon.

I'm guilty of that - a come from behind win against Port, a decent effort against Geelong, Hawthorn and Sydney and whaddya know, we're good enough for top 4.

Today was evidence that Top 4 is well beyond us.

Today showed that we are going to be one of those sides that 'helps shape the Top 8' - while we may be in it, unfortunately today's efforts means we'll allow clubs 9th - 11th to keep their foot in the door.

[dlanod]

I think our display against the Bulldogs confirmed lack of Top 4 ability. This loss just reaffirmed that. We'd still need to drop another two or three of our easier matches before it looks likely that we'd drop out of finals, so all the hand-wringing is a bit premature.

[kimp]

Maybe the handwringing is premature BUT if the last 2 games you'd seen were the Doggies then Melbourne you'd be feeling pretty average too. There is definately something about the G that is causing us issues.

[awesome_assassin]

Maybe, just maybe, its because we're expecting too much too soon.

I'm guilty of that - a come from behind win against Port, a decent effort against Geelong, Hawthorn and Sydney and whaddya know, we're good enough for top 4.

Today was evidence that Top 4 is well beyond us.

Today showed that we are going to be one of those sides that 'helps shape the Top 8' - while we may be in it, unfortunately today's efforts means we'll allow clubs 9th - 11th to keep their foot in the door.
Yep, pencil me in for being guilty of that too. I suppose having 3 years of missing finals does that to you though. We all love our team and the minute were in the top 8, we expect to be finals contenders once again.
The last few games have shown us that we are still miles off being a genuine threat. All is not lost though, we have 2 weeks to re-group. If we make the top 8, our younger guys who were not in the side during our glory years will get to play finals footy. Lets hope the boys can lift againsts the Dons.