We came THIS close

[davey_magik]

Freo's gameplan threw us off guard completely in the first half. Nobody expected McPharlin to go up forward and their midfield clearly had the better of ours. I thought our best were White, Moloney, Neitz and Holland while Rivers had a good second half. Got in a bit of trouble up back though. Ferguson is still learning and Rivers was beaten for a half. Happy with Moloney though with his return to form immediately after the suspension. Must beat Adelaide next week though because if we lose we will drop a lot of confidence and need the win to stay up around the top 4.

 

[ExTasDeeMan]

i think that Freo played us at our own game - thats how they won.

 

[Deestroy]

We didn't want it, we made basic errors.

Pretty simple really.

 

[rgauci]

Despite the loss guys you have to admit it was an entertaining game to watch. Might of been a different story with Bruce in the side (I'm not suggesting your a one man team, but any team would miss one of its superstars)

I think both our teams will be in the mix come September. Both teams have quality players to return. Will be a good year.

 

[Moo]

Neitzy should lay off ex-team mates until the week after.

 

[melbournemartin]

besides some shocking umpiring decisions it was the best game ive been to this game (everygame but sydney game) in terms of competition wise

 

[Thrice3]

You guys must be ********ing filthy over that. Even we beat them!

 

[w00dy]

if they played like they did today against you blokes, they would've won by 10 goals...

we'll just have to get it back when we go over to subi later in the year...

 

[PJ-Rod]

Very dissapointing, to their credit Freo played great footy, matched it with our midfield. Backline struggled, need Nicholson. Great game of Footy.

 

[StingaArmstrong]

Neitzy should lay off ex-team mates until the week after.

I think you mean Schwarz, and yes it would have been nice for him to wait until AFTER we played them.

 

[Supermercado]

That's 3 of their 5 wins at the MCG against us... And when was the last time we scored that much and lost? There was a game against St. Kilda in '91 like that...

UPDATE - Rd 3, 1991
Melbourne 145, St. Kilda 154

I was there. I think some dud Irishman played for the Saints.

 

[HighRoller]

Just thought id remind u of the real bad fricken umpiring decisions im not saying we would have won but i was ropeable to say the least.

-Neitz' mark where he took it cleanly and they paid it to Freo in the 3rd qtr i think

-Neitz mark and free kick against him in the second qtr i think where he was taken high and then still managed to grab the ball and mark 30m out and they paid it against him

-Brock's Without the ball in the GS and getting pushed in the back also then Freo run the ball out to Farmer who kicks a goal

-Daveys Goal in the 2nd where he kicks a goal they pay a free against Motlop i think then it gets relayed into a 50m penalty and Freo goals

After that 2nd quarter people wanted the umpires throats they were that angry....ive never seen a qtr of football umpired so badly

Also one thing i should say im not trying to say we deserved to win or anything because Freo did want it more i was just upset with some of the calls they were terrible.

 

[Marns]

Just looking over the goalkickers - does not look like a side that lost.

Glad I didnt watch it.

 

[Slander]

My thoughts:
Our intensity was awful, the Sydney game may have taken it out of us.

We were exposed once again with a mismatch for loose man Bizzell early.

The umps were shyte in the 2nd quarter but they tried to square it up later on so we can't complain.

We need Matty Whelan back to play on the 'Farmer types', Whelan is far better on the last line of defense than Dog Brown who is more of a rebounding half back flanker.

Miller was the right match up for Pav, more often than not Millsy forced a contest, Pavlich's 2nd & 3rd efforts/reaction time after 1st contest was just too good.

Despite Freo having such a great win I don't think they can play much better or us much worse, in this context a 14 point loss is not the worst result and I am confident we can beat the Cows.

 

[Klyntonius]

My thoughts:
Our intensity was awful, the Sydney game may have taken it out of us.

We were exposed once again with a mismatch for loose man Bizzell early.

The umps were shyte in the 2nd quarter but they tried to square it up later on so we can't complain.

We need Matty Whelan back to play on the 'Farmer types', Whelan is far better on the last line of defense than Dog Brown who is more of a rebounding half back flanker.

Miller was the right match up for Pav, more often than not Millsy forced a contest, Pavlich's 2nd & 3rd efforts/reaction time after 1st contest was just too good.

Despite Freo having such a great win I don't think they can play much better or us much worse, in this context a 14 point loss is not the worst result and I am confident we can beat the Cows.

I agree.

The forawrd structure worked well but the midfield was slaughtered at the centre bounces and largely unaccountable which put too much pressure on the backline. We really missed Wrecker to match up on Farmer. The Wiz was far too classy for Brown but he'll bounce back next week. Pavlich was just too good regardless of who played on him. A good lesson for Miller I reckon.

We will bounce back this Friday. Add Read, (hopefully) Sylvia and perhaps Heffernan as a stopper for Godfrey, Rigger and Arma and we should have a bit more aggression and grunt against a strong Crows midfield.