Melbourne V Western Bulldogs - 2021 Grand Final Thread

[whythelongface]

Enjoy the off season comrade. I'm looking forward to 2022.
Isn't that the game. Some of us love the Dog's by viewing things as being half empty, some feel half full.
I hope the club is feeling half full.. Cause jeez it's a shitty journey otherwise.
Maybe I'm a silly dreamer, but I think we've got a very good path forward from here.

Exactly. No point being down on what we have achieved this year. Tonight wasn’t great but the long term future is bright. Just thank god we aren’t Geelong, where there is no upside.

[Grantysghost]

We dominated the first 20 minutes after half time and had them on the rack for a short period.

They looked all at sea during that period too, I just cant work out how that changes so quickly unless it was output based.

[comrade]

I don’t care about glass half full, glass half empty. That’s meaningless. Just look at it objectively and honestly.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

ah - you lose a gf by the biggest second half margin in history...? There's no glass. Just shame. What is going on in here.

THAT WAS A GF!!!!

It’s rotten is what it is. Never seen anything like it and that’s the concerning aspect. How we respond to this capitulation next year will be important. We can’t let this start another 60yr drought.

Downright embarrassing. Nothing to be proud of tonight. Great effort to get here but you can’t hang your hat on that performance. We’ve shown 1 too many times how meekly and easily we can give in.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

ah - you lose a gf by the biggest second half margin in history...? There's no glass. Just shame. What is going on in here.

THAT WAS A GF!!!!

I hope this burns deep. I am choosing to say it will, and we'll respond. 2022 will reveal all.
Hey.. pretty good we've got JUH and Sam Darcy to look forward too.. That's sounds positive to me.
Aren't the Dee's gonna miss out of their NGA prospect because everyone got the sooks about us landing JUH??

[Grantysghost]

It’s rotten is what it is. Never seen anything like it and that’s the concerning aspect. How we respond to this capitulation next year will be important. We can’t let this start another 60yr drought.

Downright embarrassing. Nothing to be proud of tonight. Great effort to get here but you can’t hang your hat on that performance. We’ve shown 1 too many times how meekly and easily we can give in.

I'm devastated.

[Eastdog]

Disappointing losing the way we did after such a great comeback in the 2nd quarter and being on the verge of something special but the Demons were just way too good in that 2nd half and we had no answers.

Congratulated my Mum and Grandma who are Demons supporters so they are over the moon.

I hope this make us stronger and even more determined in 2022. We need to look at getting a reliable ruckman in this coming trade period.

Stay strong woofers and Go Dogs!

I'm hurting that's for sure.

[merantau]

I always thought that we had to find a way to limit the influence of Gawn, Fritsch, Petracca and Oliver in particular and we just didn't do that. It hurts to lose like that but it hurts a lot more to go down by a couple of goals especially when you gift them a couple and hit the post twice. No, we have to accept that we were totally outplayed and learn from it.

[comrade]

Tonight is surely the last straw for Wood as a first choice defender? Time to put our energy into Schache as that 3rd tall.

[Grantysghost]

I always thought that we had to find a way to limit the influence of Gawn, Fritsch, Petracca and Oliver in particular and we just didn't do that. It hurts to lose like that but it hurts a lot more to go down by a couple of goals especially when you gift them a couple and hit the post twice. No, we have to accept that we were totally outplayed and learn from it.

Erm - but we did for like a shit load of the game.

Whats happening on this forum (not you merantau) but where's the anger???

WE WERE IN CONTROL EARLY IN THE 3RD!

[Sedat]

For whatever reason, the worst of round 21-23 came to the fore in the last 45 minutes of the game. Pathetic capitulation that is at the feet of our key mids along with Bevo who couldn’t stem the tide. Just a pathetic capitulation to end the season.

It's not a one-off. Some pretty ordinary teams (hello Carlton) have occasionally destroyed our mids with far greater workrate in the last few years.

We needed to change things up at qtr time and Treloar into the middle was an inspired move. Then we dominate field position and general play for the first 15 mins of the 3rd qtr. And then we utterly collapse and concede the game in a disastrous 15 min patch of unaccountable midfield and centre clearance play.

One of the weirdest games I can recall. We are heading in the right direction but the last 45 mins leaves us in no doubt that we need to shore up areas of concern if we are to continue our improvement, which we will need to do.

[whythelongface]

Erm - but we did for like a shit load of the game.

Whats happening on this forum (not you merantau) but where's the anger???

WE WERE IN CONTROL EARLY IN THE 3RD!

Again who says we aren’t angry? Can’t supporters suffer in their own way? How do you want us to react? Throw the phone across the room, post expletives, shit on our coach and players? Really we all have different emotions and thoughts. Let us suffer how we each want to suffer. If that means trying to focus on positives so what…that is the way I want to process the loss.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Erm - but we did for like a shit load of the game.

Whats happening on this forum (not you merantau) but where's the anger???

WE WERE IN CONTROL EARLY IN THE 3RD!

Yep. We were.
So were Hawks 84, off the back of a massive win against the Bombers in 83.
Massive learning moments for coaches and players.

This sucks.. But I reckon it will ultimately catapult us to greatness.
The margin is irrelevant, we've got the long term capital to be able to respond and correct a shitty 15 minute spurt in the 3rd that lost us this game.
4TH Qtr was irrelevant.

[Sedat]

Erm - but we did for like a shit load of the game.

Whats happening on this forum (not you merantau) but where's the anger???

WE WERE IN CONTROL EARLY IN THE 3RD!

Their best players changed the course of the game when they were under the pump. That's what good teams do and they are a very good team.

[angelopetraglia]

Erm - but we did for like a shit load of the game.

Whats happening on this forum (not you merantau) but where's the anger???

WE WERE IN CONTROL EARLY IN THE 3RD!

We had control. Yes. We looked like we had their measure. They kick a goal from no where after we really should have kicked a few more goals in the first half of that third quarter. But they kicked some quick goals from centre clearances and they lifted. Everything they touched turned to gold. They didn’t miss. Their best was too good.

Don’t forget. They did this to Geelong in Round 23. Came from no where and steamrolled the Cats. They easily beat the Lions, they then smashed the Cats. These are the best teams in the competition. They then did the same to us in the last 45 minutes.

Does it hurt? Yes. It’s bloody painful. We nearly had our 3rd Premiership.

It’s an unorthodox year. We have been on the road for a month. Have not seen the Whitten oval. Surreal experience with a GF in Perth in a middle of a pandemic. We did amazing to get to the GF. A 45 minutes capitulation which also happened to the other best teams in the comp isn’t a sign you throw all your toys out of the cot. I’m confident we will learn and come again. Our best players are still young and in their prime. We have JUH and Darcy to look forward to. We also had a bad run with injury interruptions to some our prime movers like Dunks, Treloar, Bruce, Keath, Gards and others. Melbourne had a dream run all year with injury.

Bring on 2022.