Melbourne Match Thread

[Toots Hibbert]

BTW is everybody at the beach or something?

Half time. No Tredrea and White is effecting our forward setup quite noticeably. Motlop playing very well though, roaming between FF and half forward. Working hard, has taken some good grabs and been creative.

Chad appeared to start up forward and was well held and moved into the middle part way through the second quarter.

Pickett for them had a great first quarter. Obviously wanting to make a statement about his value.

Melbourne looked threatening to run away with it early in the second but a few missed goals and a continuation of a determined Port effort saw us draw level and be down by only five at the long break.

Melbourne do look the side most likely. However if we could find another marking forward we could snatch it

 

[u-hookin-me]

Nice half, very enjoyable.

If we get Chad into the game somehow I rekon we may be able to nick it. Just lacking someone up forward. However as said Motlop is playing his best game for the club.

Impressed with most of the young guns again. Chappy looks a bit out of it however.

Just got to keep working hard and if we can use it in the forward 50 a bit better im confident we can get the points.

 

[Steve Dore]

Very impressed with Motlop's effort so far. I hope he keeps it up in the second half.

Shaun Burgoyne continues with his great form from before the break.

I agree our forward setup short at least one tall looks very suspect so far. Chad needs to lift his game although the last ten minutes were a big improvement.

I get the impression that we are just hanging on and that at any moment Melbourne will change up a gear and blow us away.

 

[Total Power]

Too many loose players around, just not good enough

 

[Macca19]

We have noone to kick to up forward. Motlop has done as well as he could but theres just no target up there.

Too much stuffing around with the ball in defence. Our decision making has been almost at all time worst todaywith some seriously stupid handballs and kicks.

An enjoyable tough hard game to watch but our skills have been down as well. Did well in the first half but Melbourne have won it now. I expect they will probably kick away by another 3-4 goals this quarter.

Dunno who our bests have been so far. Shaun has had a heap of it but god his decision making has been horrid and hes tried to do far too much. Symes almost the same. Surjan has done well. Mahoneys been reasonable. Thats about it.

 

[u-hookin-me]

29 points down. I would say we are ****ed however I dont want to see us blown out the water. Been some good performers however a few players need to be a bit more accountable.

Missing Tredders ****loads. Cornes might have an injury maybe. I would think he would have been on if he didnt.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

Their midfield got right on top in the that quarter and we've paid the price. That and no key forward is hurting us badly. Motlop still working well. Haven't seen much from Ebert or Salopek. Neitz is killing Wakelin as usual. Good to see Choco put Chaplin onto him when he moved out to CHF. A vote of confidence. Thommo looked scratchy when he first came on but has worked his way into the game. Symes playing well although his opponents are being favoured by midfield dominance.

Just a comment on Junior. I think he's trying to do too much at times and getting caught. I wonder if it's a hangover from his great game against WC and he's trying to repeat the performance.

Two more controversies involving goal umpires. One particularly weird after a Kane Cornes shot on goal.

 

[u-hookin-me]

Noticed that with Junior as well. Had a very nice game so far but perhaps is trying to do to much. He will learn over time however.

 

[its just sporn mum]

where is chad cornes? injured? not getting a kick?

 

[u-hookin-me]

Injured. Not to badly however it seems. I dont think its serious.

Weve missed the big man precence today.

 

[Tredders66]

Will there ever be a ******* match when we can actually lose without getting smashed in every contest and atleast look like we have abit of spirit. Obviously not. Another disgracefull effort in Melbourne once again! Wouldn't be surprised if the margin blows out to 10 goals. Oh well our run was good while it lasted.

 

[Port01]

Will there ever be a ******* match when we can actually lose without getting smashed in every contest and atleast look like we have abit of spirit. Obviously not. Another disgracefull effort in Melbourne once again! Wouldn't be surprised if the margin blows out to 10 goals. Oh well our run was good while it lasted.

MElbourne got to the point where they knew they could cheat and run forward because we still have trouble winning the contested ball at ground level. We lost the game on turnovers after half time.

 

[PJ Power]

Howdy all.

I've been away for 10 days and have just heard the final score and stats from today's game.

It seems like a lack of tall forwards was a major problem for us today.

Does anyone know Chad's injury state, and what has the Adelaide media been reporting on Tredrea and White - are they likely to be out for long?

It seems like Pearce and Salopek were a bit quiet today.
Surjan did ok on Davey apparently.
Ladey beaten for the first time this year?

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Should have played Thurstans or even Willits. Once Chad went off we went from too short, to too bloody short.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

I thought it was going to turn into an absolute massacre early in that last quarter but a few players worked their arses off and when Neitz got taken off with about 5 minutes to go it was clear Melbourne had taken their foot off the pedal.

Buddy player considerations aside, I think Adam Thomson showed a hell of a lot in that last quarter. He laid some ripping tackles and was hard at it in the packs. Full marks to him. There were a few others working hard also (Mahoney, Dew! Kane, Pearce, Lade included) when the dam walls were threatening to burst and I think the rest of the side got their collective acts together and made some semblance of a genuine fightback to claw it back to less than seven goals at the finish.

Just on the commentary, I can't remember the last time I was subjected to Tony Shaw but IMO he must be close to the worst commentator going. Robert Walls leaves this idiot for dead!

Shaw said plenty of stupid things throughout but the bagging he gave Cornes when he went into the sheds was about the most moronic thing I've heard in a long time. The suggestion that he'd been dragged in the first half and forced to sit on the bench for the remainder as punishment and then sent off to get changed was outrageous. Wayne Schwass repeatedly told him Cornes must have been injured and referred to the physio attending him but Shaw was too dumb or pigheaded to take any notice. What a f*ckwit. It's no wonder he couldn't coach!

Edit:- Just had a look at my tape of the game and I misunderstood what Shaw was saying. Mixed in with the talk about Cornes was mention of Wakelin going off so what seemed at the time to be a complete bagging of Cornes was actually reasonable discussion of why he went off. I take my criticism of that back.

 

[Quadzilla]

Should have played Thurstans or even Willits. Once Chad went off we went from too short, to too bloody short.

I def agree - we went in much too short today even without any chad injury

 

[Tredders66]

Whats wrong with Chad???

 

[roostertalk]

not sure what williams was thinking putting salopek in the forward pocket today, hes been terrific in the midfield. He looked lost got caught a couple of times and was dragged twice. Worst game for the club, but due to being played out of position

 

[Sandola]

Radio after the game reported that Chad went to hospital with suspected broken ribs. Apparently from a tackle he laid at the first bounce!

As for "we should have played Thurstans", if you hurry over to the pafc.com game report, you can see that Thurstans was among our best today.

 

[portentous]

I had to leave the TV and my warm lounge half way through the third quarter-and honestly expected to hear that we'd been smashed. Given our injuries, lack of height and prevalence of youngsters, that's not a bad result. Even moreso given some of our insipid performances against the Dees at the MCG in the past few years (many of which I've had to suffer through)

BTW what was the crowd figure like? Can't imagine more than 20K would have been there and it looked pretty small on TV. They used to not open most of the MCG for these games but it looked all open today. Was it? Melbourne FC would have lost another truckload of $'s anyway.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

Twenty four thousand.

 

[portentous]

That'd probably be close to the highest ever for us vs Melbourne at the "G. Wasn't there any snow this weekend?

 

[dreamkillers]

That'd probably be close to the highest ever for us vs Melbourne at the "G. Wasn't there any snow this weekend?

21726  26-Apr-1998 MCG R5
24533  24-Apr-1999 MCG R5
19611  07-Apr-2002 MCG R2
12410  11-May-2003 MCG R7
20093  17-Apr-2004 MCG R3

 

[portentous]

Thanks DK-much as I thought. I was at that 2003 game-and it was shocking.Such a huge stadium to have ZERO atmosphere in. Not sure why we play Melbourne at the MCG, rather than Essendon, Collingwood etc who'd draw 40K+-well apart from that non-existent "home ground" thing.