Official Round 1 Melbourne Game day thread

[satchmopugdog]

72 points better than last year..some great passages of play.....it was such a fast game the players were knackered. I could see Longmire's reasoning with the sub being Seaby as we needed as many mid-fielders as we could muster to combat their speed.
Jurrah is awesome to watch....just like I would go to the footy to watch Andrew McLeod and David Wirrapanda and Hird..he has that something extra.

Goodes was great in the first half..was thinking 3 Brownlow votes but then the ball didn't get to him as beautifully as it was in the first half. Wish we had Bradshaw so Goodes could go on the ball. Well done Jude. Love the way Reid marks the footy..we haven't had anyone with hands like that since Dunkley and Plugger. Well done Ted..well done Shaw on their defensive efforts. We played all right I thought. T

The Dees couldn't kick goals at the Punt road end either and it is their home ground

Our midfielders who were tagged hard never gave up trying and were able to work into the game in patches. Jetta's runs were exciting.

Yet another heart attack...sometimes I wished I barracked for another team that didn't make it so close..but never

[cowcar]

....................Grundy did well and Ted had the matchup from hell.........especially with their midfield bursting thru for passes on the lead left right and centre.................our backs overall did well

agree with this, particularly Ted, great game. However, i thought Grundy fumbled the ball too much, and made some bad decisions that cost us goals at times. I put it down to it being round 1, but was a bit worrying...

[satchmopugdog]

agree with this, particularly Ted, great game. However, i thought Grundy fumbled the ball too much, and made some bad decisions that cost us goals at times. I put it down to it being round 1, but was a bit worrying...

Agree as regards Grundy...found myself yelling at the teley using Grundy's name in the same manner I used to say dale Lewis's. He definitely didn't seem as assured as last year. Maybe it was the speed of the Dees but they didn't pressure like Collingwood will

[Nico]

Great game

Reid - very solid 2nd game..........Im excited !

It is more obvious then ever on a "big field" and against fast running team like Melbourne we will struggle to play ROK and Jude as they dont have the leg speed.........we tried to hide them at either end of the ground but Melb exposed those two by matchups............Melb won the centre fullstop..................Yep Jude got 3 very important goals and that helped in itself but I think brining thru Byron, Rohan, Jetta etc has been vital despite that they are not nearly as good as ROK and Jude...............Considering how the Dee's dominated the midfield I felt our backs did very well.

ROK had 31 possessions...what more does the man have to do? His second half was superb.

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Ok, I don't know the rules of the game and was looking for overtime or a shootout or something. lol.
Good Game. Australian football is a lot of fun to watch.

Sorry mate, thought you were being sarcastic.

[Bob Neil]

agree with this, particularly Ted, great game. However, i thought Grundy fumbled the ball too much, and made some bad decisions that cost us goals at times. I put it down to it being round 1, but was a bit worrying...

Apparently it was round 1 for Melbourne too. Shaw seemed quiet himself - did he run out of half back at all - but did a good job on his opponant. Oh for B2...

[Matty10]

Agree as regards Grundy...found myself yelling at the teley using Grundy's name in the same manner I used to say dale Lewis's. He definitely didn't seem as assured as last year. Maybe it was the speed of the Dees but they didn't pressure like Collingwood will

I agree also - Grundy was very frustrating at times today.

[Xie Shan]

Argh, a draw! Haven't fully digested the result, in reality there were a mixture of positives and negatives, thought Ted was outstanding in defence, midfield didn't get enough of the contested ball after half-time, Goodes and Reid looked like being a promising double act early on but Goodes was a lot quieter in the second half. I think the issue for us this year (like 2010) will be consistency (we seem to play in bursts, with periods where we look dangerous and others where you wonder where the next goal will come from). We almost need to learn how to play 'tempo' footy again. Hope we can put the Bombers back in their place next week!

[Nico]

On the sub, I think the reasoning on using Seaby was because Mumford had a short preseason and they may have thought he would be looking for petrol tickets by the second half. On the petrol tickets... ROK looked stuffed before half time and my thoughts were just plonk him in the pocket. As soon as I said it he started to turn it on.

I thought they should have subbed off Sumner and leave Reid up forward. He looked the most likely. Jessie kicked that long goal and backed himself for the couple of bounces and goal assist in the 3rd quarter, and would have been better used in 5 minute rick bursts. When we got that goal we were right on top and looked like we could have run away. The game changed when Jetta dropped that absolute sitter.

On Bevo I would need to watch the reply because at the game he looked to make some terrific saves, particularly that punch away in the 2nd Q. We were on the Southern Stand side and it looked like it was played on the members side most of the game, so it was easy to miss some plays.

On his performance today Reid should play every week. He plays in front, reads the ball coming in and has a good pair of hands. A couple of times he looked like he had a good grip the ball didn'y quite stick, mind you knocking the arms rule today was, to be kind to the umps, inconsistent. That mark that McGlynn was set to take in the 3rd quarter staggered all and sundry around us. If he didn't have his arms knocked he was certainly pushed front on.

I thought Richards played his best game for us today. He had a big task and did it well.

Kennedy, Jack and Hanneberry had average games but I thought Hanners came into the game in the 2nd half (superb mark). The plus with this is there is penty of improvement there. Then again I thought our centre clearance work was pretty good. Even Jude got a clean clearance. McVeigh's disposal may have been ok but he is geting the ball in a defence position too often. Just an average game from him for mine.

I thought Jetta was going to have a blinder early on but I didn't think he ran and spread anywhere near as much as he should have. Byron...well he was far too hesitant when he had the ball and stuffed up a few times and I thought he played way too far off his opponent. But he is only 19 and maybe he is best suited up forward.

We were in front all bar a couple of minutes of the game and I liked how we dug deep in the last couple of minutes to snatch a draw. At the game it appeared that the edge went off our speed at about the 20 minute mark of the third quarter and we allowed the Dees back in. Bevan, Goodes and Bolton all missed set shots that surely would have iced the game at that time.

ROK stunned me with his stamina and I think the whole team will be much better for the run.

We got out of gaol and I was quite satisfied with our overall game.

Mumford is an outstanding ruckman.

[Nich]

ROK had 31 possessions...what more does the man have to do? His second half was superb.

Superb? I wouldn't go that far. Half his possessions he turned and snapped to absolutely nobody. I would give 15 of those possessions to the Melbourne Stats. He's been playing without his head for awhile now. Unless his groin is attached to his brain though I don't think we can make excuses for his decision making anymore. He's lost all his cool. It's the first game so i'll forgive him but a player of that quality needs to start using those possessions and getting worth out of them, otherwise they are pointless and counter productive. He turned the ball over at least from my memory no less than 5 times with kicks straight to an unmarked opposing player by rashly kicking the ball. He's an experienced player, not a young kid. Repeat offender with this. Turnovers are one of the most crucial, crucial things in football. We need him to win us games, not lose them. Might sound harsh I know, but....he's better than this. Get back to your best Rhino!

[Nico]

Superb? I wouldn't go that far. Half his possessions he turned and snapped to absolutely nobody. I would give 15 of those possessions to the Melbourne Stats. He's been playing without his head for awhile now. Unless his groin is attached to his brain though I don't think we can make excuses for his decision making anymore. He's lost all his cool. It's the first game so i'll forgive him but a player of that quality needs to start using those possessions and getting worth out of them, otherwise they are pointless and counter productive. He turned the ball over at least from my memory no less than 5 times with kicks straight to an unmarked opposing player by rashly kicking the ball. He's an experienced player, not a young kid. Repeat offender with this. Turnovers are one of the most crucial, crucial things in football. We need him to win us games, not lose them. Might sound harsh I know, but....he's better than this. Get back to your best Rhino!

Given the fact that he had a fairly limited pre season and had a number of operations to boot, I thought 31 possessions was quite outstanding. When you get the ball that often in a very pressure, high tackling game you are bound make some mistakes. Strewth, some people on here had him struggling to hold his spot in the team earlier in the week. I think the sock might be firmly in their mouths right now.

[31 hard at it]

At the game - in the last quarter the Dee's seemed to have the run and when we had the ball we
(on several occasions) bombed it long - to nobody except a line of Dee's who set up again for a forward thrust unopposed - puting tremendous pressure on our backline.


Given the ferocity of the tackling in close over the last 5 minutes we did well to come back and snatch a draw.
The tall forward line of Reid, White and Goodes was replaced after a goal with both Reid and White taking a spell and McGlynn and Summner taking their places.

Bottom line the team that smashed us last year is better and we held them all day.
Frustrating but a million times better than a 12 goal defeat

[aardvark]

Great to see ROK back being fit again. Sumner is not ready yet and I hope White doesn't play as our back up ruckman all year. 1 hitout is a pretty ordinary return. Nothing special about todays game except maybe Reid. After the 20 min mark of the 3rd quarter we just looked unfit.

[ShockOfHair]

Surely one that got away. We missed at least four goals in the Q3 with hurried or just poor shots.

Entertaining game, though. Plenty of cobwebs but good performances from Reid, Richards, ROK, Jude, Jetta.

White played one of his better games too -great running goal, good assist for that Bolton goal, and a nice block that led to goal.

Six years since we've won in Rd 1.

Interesting match next week against Dons.

[Foreign Legion]

Couldn't get there to watch it live but these are my thoughts:

Bevo makes too many mistakes - but gee he tries hard - dont know the answer

Mumford OK - but seemed a bit short of a run - might take 2-3 to get back

Goodes - funny how a 31yo shows potential but he does

Reid - could be 'anything' - reads the ball very well, bit of bulk will help

Teddy - great game imho