Review Dees v Eagles & the Ghost of Murray Wrensted: Good, Bad & Fugly

[burnside5]

The last month or so has been a wild ride as a Melbourne supporter.

To not only break our finals drought, but win two finals against two sides that have taken the piss againts us in recent times, it's been the most exciting and satisfying time as supporter in over a decade.

Today sucked, but we're primed, and you couldn't say that in 2006. Stick fat, we'll get there.

Sorry for the intrusion but you guys should hold you heads very high.

Look where you've come from over just the last few years.

The emotion, the long flight and heat with a big West Coast crowd would certainly have been a big task. I reckon the result would have been a lot different if it were played at the MCG.

You kicked our arse the other week but if you said Hawks would have made the top four at the end of last year I would have run nude across the Nullabor. Not a pretty sight.

But seriously, I know it hurts now, but be proud you got there and in my opinion you have a very bright future ahead!

Good luck in 2019!

Cheers,

Burnside

 

[Proper Gander]

Good - I missed more than half of it because my sister decided to have her baby early.

Bad - hard to choose from that lot. I thought WC would probably win, but my Lordy we were almost unbelievably revolting.

Ugly - same as above really. Revolting. I’m going to have to get to work forgetting what I saw.

 

[Johnny Karate]

I thought we were going to be really up against it. I thought if they ground us down and got rolling the margin could get ugly. That said I wasn’t prepared for the complete shambles of a first half. Full credit to West Coast they deserve to be there based on their season as well as yesterday but * me did we s**t the bed?

We were fumbly from the outset but were never able to get the game on our terms because they were pumping us in CP and clearances. We couldn’t lay a glove on them in terms of tackling and seemed to fall over at the most ridiculous times. Our forward structure fell apart completely and we didn’t take a mark inside 50 until more than halfway through the third. We needed a lot to go right today to get the win but everything went wrong. Not one winner on the day.

This is a huge reality check. We had a good season but still a * tonne more to work on. This hurts because we had a chance at a flag and blew it. The only silver lining is that if you’re going to s**t the bed, it’s far better to do in a prelim than a granny.

 

[Dancing Potato]

Fugly: My hangover. Not even sure how I got home. Boy oh boy wowee.

 

[mrmonkey]

Pretty hard to give any goods or bads, or any kind of analysis at all really. That just wasn't a game of football. Completely shellshocked from the first minute and everyone went to water. I wasn't expecting to win today, and could have stomached a heavy loss if they'd just purely monstered us, but we failed to do even the easiest things correctly. I think that was our lowest tackle count for the entire year, for example, and it's just difficult for me to fathom how we could produce a performance like that on a big stage. That first half was the worst we've produced since Roos became coach.

The season as a whole has to be counted as a success, though, and I really hope the players can use this as motivation going forward rather than it leaving a psychological scar. The only saving grace is that we didn't wait until the grand final to turn in that kind of performance, because that really would be culture destroying. I think we have every right to be optimistic about the future, but today made it clear that we've still got a lot of work to do to be a genuine threat. I hope the players understand and believe that, and really put in the hard yards over the preseason. If the players can use what happened today to really spur them onto to greater things, then - for all the misery we're all feeling right now - it will have been worth it.

Pretty much my thoughts exactly. It's not the fact we lost by 11 goals it's the way it happened. We just didn't turn up it's not as if we were competitive and got overran we were shell shocked. I'm still optimistic about the future I don't think the loss will hurt our momentum going forward. Our draw will get harder next year you would think not sure if it's a good thing or bad thing good if we step up to the challenge bad if we can't. I think getting a look at Richmond twice actually helped the pies on Friday so I think it will be good to get those challenges.

Lewis' finals experience was useless today that's because he played in a Hawthorn side who never got assaulted like that, he could rely on the midfielders to complete so the backline was never under constant pressure.

We were a rable handball happy, fumbley slipping over rable. We were so embarrassing the football gods even had the ball bouncing poor for us while they were getting amazing leg breaks.

Anyway we had a great season glad we made a preliminary final and did it by knocking off hawks and geelong. A part of me was glad to see Richmond out the other part of me can't handle a Collingwood premiership. What an awful grand final grand final but I guess I will get behind West Coast lesser of two evils I guess and I won't have to put up with their supporters.

 

[WCE Wizard]

I am unsure how you can call losing your best backman, best forward and your top 2 midfielder missing such large chunks a very good run? Not to mention McDonald missing 6 weeks too.

It’s not quantity of injuries it’s the quality and the importance of said players to their respective teams that makes a difference.

Pies/Giants were decimated but we definitely didn’t have a ‘very good’ run when you think about who we lost.

Losing Lever was huge given our specific weakness in that area and lack of real cover. I think only losing Gawn would have had more of an impact.

Hey guys not trolling. Trust me you’re team is young and will go a long way in the future. A fit lever, hogan, Viney and some more experience and a flag beckons for your squad. You have an A grade midfield squad. a grade forwards. The gun ruckman. All the very best for the future.

 

[ThePuppetMaster]

And yet still not near any sort of record

So we’ve established that one decent side in 30 years has been dominated in finals before succeeding

Didn't Collingwood lose by 15 or so goals in the 09 Prelim?

 

[Snake_Baker]

Bad luck Dees, you just couldn't get your game plan going early enough and the eagles had everything running their way.

It was just one of those days.

When the dust settles I think you can be happy with the 2018 return from this side with it's best bookends missing at the crucial part of the season.

I expect your club will be focusing on getting some more KPP talent in to the side during the trade period.

Your club is on the right path.

 

[ThePuppetMaster]

Perfect storm for us today, a lot of good players were down and a lot of our role players were shown up as probably not being quite up to the standard.

When the ball was bouncing the way it was for the Eagles' (two absolute leg breaks & LeCras back heel) - you knew that it wasn't our day.

This should be a good lesson for Viney, Oliver, Brayshaw, Gawn, Harmes, Petracca - we need them to stand up every final & it doesn't look like all of them were quite ready for that today (despite some okay numbers), now we've played three I think they & we will be better for it.

Lewis & Jones have missed their chance to be a part of this moving forward I think, Jones might have one more year but both have shown throughout the finals that they can't consistently deliver.

We definitely need to target a mid in free agency or at the draft, by trading a player or two out to get back into the top 20.

 

[Oscarman]

#1 and #2 free kick differential teams in the Grand Final. Must have my tinfoil hat on.

 

[Snake_Baker]

What was up with Gawn? Surely he wasn't fit.

 

[Capt_Concussion]

Overreaction.

If only i was a mod

What, so you can cleanse the board of any emotion? Just ignore posts like this and move on.

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Andy_Mac]

The 1994 Demons side containing a fit and able David Schwarz, Jacko, Gary Lyon, Neita, Sean White, stinga, Jimmy Stynes, etc was the best balanced Melbourne side that I can recall.
That side also went down by 10 goals in a prelim to the eagles in Perth. We didnt play finals for another 4 years after that. Thankfully the age profile of this current group shows a better scope for improvement. In terms of talent though 1994 v 2018 is a close call.

Agreed the ‘94 list was also pretty good, but i still think this list has significantly more scope and depth. Especially when you consider it’s missing Hogan and Lever.

 

[passmark]

Don't underestimate the effect the conditions had on your players .

I'm in Perth and It is ******* hot in that stadium and questions are already being asked as to how they could spend 1.8 billion on a stadium design that bakes competitors and 40% of the crowd. The People in that 40% of the ground in constant sunlight are saying they won't attend days games if it's likely to be sunny, which is 70% of the time in Perth.

Game had to be played at night but because the AFL ducked up the prelim dates they had to play during the day.

Unlucky. See u next year.

 

[kranky al]

Don't underestimate the effect the conditions had on your players .

I'm in Perth and It is ******* hot in that stadium and questions are already being asked as to how they could spend 1.8 billion on a stadium design that bakes competitors and 40% of the crowd. The People in that 40% of the ground in constant sunlight are saying they won't attend days games if it's likely to be sunny, which is 70% of the time in Perth.

Game had to be played at night but because the AFL ducked up the prelim dates they had to play during the day.

Unlucky. See u next year.

Lol try the waca in summer all day - ive sat there pouring suncream on my legs every 5 minutes and got burns that lasted weeks.

Its perth, its hot.

 

[mrmonkey]

Both teams had to play in those conditions and we beat them in similar conditions about 6 weeks ago. We simply just didn't play well from the start.

 

[passmark]

Lol try the waca in summer all day - ive sat there pouring suncream on my legs every 5 minutes and got burns that lasted weeks.

Its perth, its hot.

It is nothing like the WACA. At least there heat can escape and any breeze can get in and certainly not like Subi for footy.

Poor design and I can only hope it gets fixed.

 

[kranky al]

It is nothing like the WACA. At least there heat can escape and any breeze can get in and certainly not like Subi for footy.

Poor design and I can only hope it gets fixed.

There was no breeze yesterday.

 

[MiguelM]

Some random thoughts:

Just a horror day. Snake eyes.

West Coast fed off our skill errors and made us pay time and time again. It's one thing to commit numbers to the contest, but if all you end up doing is coughing up to the couple of eagles sitting off the pack then what's the point? Zero composure when the heat was on.

Also, what was with everyone slipping over? FFS. Felt like it cost us 3-4 goals.

Time for Tyson to go.

My mother in law is a Hawks supporter and her favourite player was Jordan Lewis. I've offered her him back. He had an absolute 'mare.

We won the I50 count by one. If we were any other team I wouldn't believe it. But, no, that's what we do.

Two old Melbourne supporters getting into a scuffle at the end of the game wasn't a great look. Then a lady threw her drink over them to try and break them up. Emblematic of the day, really.*

Anyway, despite all that, on balance it's been a great year. Bitterly disappointing that it has been stained by a piss poor prelim effort, but plenty to be excited about for 2019.





*Except the drink hit the target, and no one slipped over.

I hear you re the slipping over, happens in every game now. Even Friday night heaps slipped. Drives me nuts. Players slipping in situations they simply shouldn't.

Serious question, do boots even have stops in them these days?

Bad luck BTW, I really wanted Dees to win the flag.

 

[passmark]

Both teams had to play in those conditions and we beat them in similar conditions about 6 weeks ago. We simply just didn't play well from the start.

That's exactly the mind set you have to has as a team and they can possibly tweak their training on the basis it's going to be warm. So, fair call.

But it doesn't change the fact that it's a very poor design for a day time venue.

I've been going to Subi since the mid 70's and same for the WACA and I've had uncomfortable days, particularly as more stands went up over the years, but Optus is something else. Bloody awful on the southern side.

 

[demontim27]

Didn't Collingwood lose by 15 or so goals in the 09 Prelim?

11 from memory

So we have 2

Why are people so adamant that everyone must accept this loss and be positive about it?

 

[VL3OJ]

Please don't dwell on this game for too long. You have had a great season, inspired huge crowds and been ultra competitive until yesterday and been the talk of the town. I really think the current player list in any team needs to have some level of pain and hunger to get to the GF (or a lot of home games 4,000km from civilisation) and hopefully yesterday will spur you on to better things.

Thanks for making the 2018 season enjoyable.

 

[Proper Gander]

11 from memory

So we have 2

Why are people so adamant that everyone must accept this loss and be positive about it?

Not one person has said ‘everyone’ must accept anything. If people choose to be positive that’s up to them. Nobody is forcing you to feel that way.

 

[schmuttt]

11 from memory

So we have 2

Why are people so adamant that everyone must accept this loss and be positive about it?

Overwhelming sentiment is it is a bad loss but overall a good season so most of us are ok with it.

 

[demontim27]

Not one person has said ‘everyone’ must accept anything. If people choose to be positive that’s up to them. Nobody is forcing you to feel that way.

Hyperbole was fairly obvious.

But if you want to argue semantics I never said anything about force, I said people are adamant that this needs to be positive.