Official Round 1 Melbourne Game day thread

[ShockOfHair]

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.

I agree about White as ruckman. I thought he was pretty good as a forward, didn't do much in the ruck.

[Nich]

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.

ROK should always be in the team. He is just too good when he's on. And I agree he's had to come back from serious work on his groin and it's a great effort. I still think for the best part of half a season now he's made plenty of elementary turnover errors based on panicking with the ball. The great champs always have time on their hands and ROK used to play that way. Of late it seems as though if he's got it and there are people around he just gets rid of it anyway he can. He's better than that. Plenty of time this year to fix that up though!

[Bas]

I forgot ROK had 6 or 7 groins repaired in the off season. Explains why he looked so small. The long bombs to either nobody or demon player is another issue.

Where was Kennedy today? He must have been playing a tagger role on somebody to be so quiet.

[31 hard at it]

Rok had only 61% efficiency today.
That was the frustration - quick kick from the pack but too many times no one home for the good guys.

I think the players reading the situation will improve over the next 3 weeks... As stated we haven't started well for years and there were good signs from many today.

AFL seems to have even more speed this year ... except for St.Kilda games.

[Primmy]

Know what boys and girls? Our first game in yonks without Kirky steering the ship out of the centre, and it showed.

Direction in the midfield was not working, and I am sure they will isolate this problem. Also Jude spent a lot of time up forward, and not getting his head knocked off in and under as usual. Its been many years since this combo has not been prevelent.

We had a changing of the guard, and its a bit messy at present, but not throat cutting. But it showed.

Also I made a comment earlier that Gary Rohan played like a chook. I do not remember actually writing this. I apologise to Red, and shall put the white away. Me bad.

[msb]

I was a very relieved person up on level 3 of the ponsford stand when that siren went! We were gone in that last qtr, had nothing left in the tank. Maybe it's because it's round 1, need a few games to get going??...ill take a draw considering they were all over us but a few changes are needed for the team against the bombers next week thats for sure!

[sidswan]

It was certainly an improvement on some of our opening games V St Kilda......actually the half-time score in the Cats/Saints game brought back a lot of horrible memories....did anyone else feel the same?

[swansrule100]

a draw is better than a loss probably could of snagged the win, it was the sort of game we might of let go last year. I think there are plenty of positives to take out of this as a round 1 efforts. I think the team structure was a bit off, seaby as the sub didnt make sense to me, and reid is a better option than white. It as though bradshaw being out has taken them by surprise and they cant structure up right. White should of subbed off for seaby, seaby will give us more than white is right now.

Im not sure how Bevan goes from being trade bait to getting a game, hes past it.

I felt a few players like jack kennedy hannenberry were in and out of the game too much, not many consistent 4 quarter players today

Does anyone know why we wore the clash guernsey, is it just going to be worn for all away games?

Changes for me Out Sumner- though if he gets a second chance i wont be disapointed, Bevan, and one of the talls either reid seaby or white,

In LRT Bird dennis lane

[swansrule100]

the more i think about it i think shaw should go to the 2s if he doesnt lift soon. I forgot he was playing today most of the time

[Lucky Knickers]

Just back in the door in Sydney after attending the game. Firstly let me say that the MCG is totally awesome! What a glorious day for footy.
Our first half was very good. We got plenty of ball and our forward line was functioning really well. Goodes outstanding.
Dees did well to hold Jack, Kennedy and Hannebery who all struggled to impose themselves on the game.
Mumford look tired and if clearances are so important I think we should play two ruckman and one of those is not Jessie White.
Bevo had his usual - did some great things did some crap things. Unfortunately the crap things all seem to happen in our D50.
Ted is playing with real confidence and was good in defence. Reg wasn't his usual self.
Mattner was superb and saved our bacon several times.
Thought generally everyone on both sides (except for the Jettas) looked sluggish - was quite warm so maybe that influenced the game.
Did Shaw injure knee/leg?
Liked our forward line with Reid in it but he can't carry FF so not sure what we are going to do there.

[mcs]

a draw is better than a loss probably could of snagged the win, it was the sort of game we might of let go last year. I think there are plenty of positives to take out of this as a round 1 efforts. I think the team structure was a bit off, seaby as the sub didnt make sense to me, and reid is a better option than white. It as though bradshaw being out has taken them by surprise and they cant structure up right. White should of subbed off for seaby, seaby will give us more than white is right now.

Im not sure how Bevan goes from being trade bait to getting a game, hes past it.

I felt a few players like jack kennedy hannenberry were in and out of the game too much, not many consistent 4 quarter players today

Does anyone know why we wore the clash guernsey, is it just going to be worn for all away games?

Changes for me Out Sumner- though if he gets a second chance i wont be disapointed, Bevan, and one of the talls either reid seaby or white,

In LRT Bird dennis lane

Bevan did OK today, but I'm still far from convinced about him long term. He did make one absolutely brilliant spoil in the 2nd quarter however. Sumner was quiet, but will take time like Jetta (How good by the way were his couple of runs down the wing- he has scintillating pace.) I thought I heard LRT came off injured from the 2nds game so might be a few weeks away yet. Reid was better than White, and should stay in the team in front of him at the moment. Bird's in and under work would certainly have been useful as we got absolutely hammered in contested possessions.

Shaw had an off day, but I thought he did really well in the last quarter late- he was very good in the last few minutes of the game when we were well and truly under the pump.

[Auntie.Gerald]

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

Kick us a goal

that last one would have been nice !

just joking he played well at both ends of the field

PS - Nico you and I both know I didnt say that we needed to drop him.............I simply said if he gets stuck in the forward or back pocket and not in the midfield anymore then he is under pressure as there will be players who are genuine goal kickers Lamb, TDL etc who will come thru and slot goals and display serious pace that you just can buy unless you have it already

Serious pressure doesnt mean he should be dropped !

[AnnieH]

Good grief.
Bloody draw.
That's what happens when you take your foot of the pedal at the beginning of the 4th.

Where were the "young guns"?

I think every time our new captain touched the ball he handed it over.

Why was Goodesy's hand all bandaged up? (the one not in the Michael Jackson glove).

If they wanna turn up and play like that against the Bombers next week, someone from the club had better ring me and warn me now so I know not to turn up.

Not happy at all.

(Ok, two points might help at season's end ... it's better than not having two points ... but still, not very happy.)

[Primmy]

the more i think about it i think shaw should go to the 2s if he doesnt lift soon. I forgot he was playing today most of the time

SR, Shaw had a shut down job on Aaron Davey and did it; Davey was quite well held. Its not his usual position, and as with Smiffy the shutdowners kind of disappear on the stats sheet, just show up on the oppositions stats as being trouble.

And here's another thing about this draw. We were tipped to lose. And we didn't. Glass half full?

[Auntie.Gerald]

Im with you Primmy I thought we did very well all considering.

I was stoked that we were more then competitive today and as per my other thread.............Melb have some very very sharp young players..........credit where credit is due