That was an academy award performance by the Weagless.. an abomination of the game all but !! I'll not take too much away from the Dees as they genuinely tried..and thats the scarey thing..as they were the only team who were. Did it escape peopel the 'silly ' mistakes teh senior Eagles were making.. I mean.. who gives a way a basic free kick bu not steppig back..allowing Bruce to make ammends ..I ask you !! That swa gmaesmanship ..purely and utterly. West Coast all but left a paddock open for us half the day. Were there ANY second efforts by them?? How many times did they kick it backwards to an effective and needless contest

Yes we won.. but dont get too excited folks..

I have no doubt Worsfold for all his protests would have instructed his team to do what they need to do today.. the older and wiser of the team would have known exactly what that meant !!

Why is it that West Coast were 4 and 15 leading in to this game, but they lost their 16th match and it's tanking? Make no mistake. West Coast are utterly rubbish and I didn't see anything at all today that suggests the contrary.

I might be naive and I may be the only person in the footy world that thinks this, but I believe we beat them on genuine merit today. We were poor (but great in patches), they were worse.

Both teams today were a disgrace and believe me we did not play one bit of great football today, on todays performance i doubt any of those playing for melbourne today will get to hold the premiership cup

Yes i was there today and the worst game of footy i have ever seen

We do.

"Work ethic" and "play out of your skin" are not the same. A team can have a good work ethic and not do well due to the opposition. Playing out of your skin suggests playing well and WCE against the Hawks does not suggest that likely.

Diablo: on the subject of the atmosphere, there wasn't a whole lot happening anyway, but when the siren blew i can gaurantee you that the fans around me were plenty happy!

People were happy at the end, I concur, but I suspect that this was as much to do with some absurd sense of relief as genuine excitement at the win. Absurd, because it was abundantly clear at half-time that we were going to have a massive struggle on our hands if we planned on losing. At 3-quarter-time the thing was sewn up and locked away. If you needed any more assurance you got it about 5 minutes into the final term, when Cox sprayed one of the laziest snaps I've ever seen from 20m. I saw shades of Fat Lance missing 3 routine shots in the first quarter in the tank-O-rama match last year.

Seriously, how does a team that is, on paper, at least as good as us, kick a solitary goal in a half of football? Ask yourself that if you think WC put in more than the minimum effort required to avoid sanction by the AFL.

Make no mistake, this was half a win at best. As I, and others, have said elsewhere, there were some positives to arise from this game, but none of them involved a redundant win against a team that wholly failed to compete for 75% of the match.

You cannot tell me that West Coast were even remotely trying against a side so down on confidence from last week.

That was as soft as the Carlton game last year. They refused to man up, to tackle properly, to run, to do anything.

Pricks should have lost the priority pick 18, but now they will get it. We could never beat them in our finals race, and now I wanted to lose to them, we bloody well win.

My god they are cheats.

The umps certainly tried to help the Weagles. 26 to 8! Is this a record? Maybe we were trying to lose by giving away so many frees. I don't think so.

Who cares?

It was a nice win with good performance from some youngsters, albeit against a poor opposition.

But it thankfully didn't cost us our important priority pick, so I really don't see the issue.

Here we go again on this site. We win a game and once again get slagged at by so called supporters on this site.

It started early this year, dont do well in the NAB cup dont peak too early, in the season proper dont win games get priority picks but dont win games ourselves. Then slag off at carlton and the eagles for tanking.

I WILL TELL YOU SOMETHING IF WE GO OUT NOT TO WIN THAT IS TANKING, and we will be as bad as carlton and eagles.

The low crowd was because OUR members didnt care enough to go,nobody elses but our members didnt care enough. I was supprised by the number of eagle supporters there.

If you want to lose every week this will be a great year for you but i would rather sing the song again and again after the siren, but thats only me some of you lot seem to like losing.

Its great for the young players to get the winning feeling and want it more often, if you are not going to try to win WHY PLAY?

Winning is everything losing is for mugs!

As far as the percentage for Melb and Weagles goes, we have both kicked a similar total of points for (6 more to them) but points against are 114 more against us, giving us a 120 point buffer. They've got Hawks then Cats to make up that extra 120 points, which could be the Cats game alone

We could, if we win one more game, still not finish bottom.

I'm sure the Weagles are aware of this

.........

Winning is everything losing is for mugs!

Here, here. I for one would be happy to win the last 2 games. One draft pick (19/20?) will not be the making of this club.

A winning culture will be.

I was at the G yesterday and I have to say there were eerie similarities to the Kreuzer Cup game last year. In fact, I would go as far as saying it was only marginally more of a contest than that pathetic game last year. West Coast did not come to play yesterday. They refused to man up and chase. They kicked 1 goal 10 from the 4 minute mark of the 2nd quarter and should have kicked at least 4 or 5 of those if they really wanted to. The only positive we get from this game is that a few blokes found a bit of form and perhaps some confidence but these are easy to find when you have very little pressure applied against you. It`s nice for the boys to enjoy a win, but those of you that think our skill and efforts won us the game yesterday need to take the rose coloured glasses off.

I was at the G yesterday and I have to say there were eerie similarities to the Kreuzer Cup game last year. In fact, I would go as far as saying it was only marginally more of a contest than that pathetic game last year. West Coast did not come to play yesterday. They refused to man up and chase. They kicked 1 goal 10 from the 4 minute mark of the 2nd quarter and should have kicked at least 4 or 5 of those if they really wanted to. The only positive we get from this game is that a few blokes found a bit of form and perhaps some confidence but these are easy to find when you have very little pressure applied against you. It`s nice for the boys to enjoy a win, but those of you that think our skill and efforts won us the game yesterday need to take the rose coloured glasses off.

Who gives a hoot about that? We won, and that's all that matters. Why ruin a victory by harping on about something that may or may not have happened.

I might be naive and I may be the only person in the footy world that thinks this, but I believe we beat them on genuine merit today.

You are.

You are.

No he's not.

Teams tank at the selection table, not on the field.

Two awful teams played at the G and we were hungrier, the end.

They were crap, they are crap. We won in a scrap because we are also crap.

And to the critiques of that performance from the Demons - wanting a polished win from a group that went in to this game 2 and 17, and on the back of a 20 goal thumping, are kidding themselves.

Teams tank at the selection table, not on the field.

Two awful teams played at the G and we were hungrier, the end.

They were crap, they are crap. We won in a scrap because we are also crap.

And to the critiques of that performance from the Demons - wanting a polished win from a group that went in to this game 2 and 17, and on the back of a 20 goal thumping, are kidding themselves.

Totally agree. Nothing more to add

Here, here. I for one would be happy to win the last 2 games. One draft pick (19/20?) will not be the making of this club.

A winning culture will be.

I don't see how stating the over-used archaic phrase "winning culture" provides an argument for winning the last two games. Perhaps if you could identify the link between winning three meaningless games at the end of the season and developing a "winning culture" as a direct result of these wins, that would help me out.

I'm quite sick of hearing this winning culture argument. Give me some detail as to how it works. I'm not expecting anything as the argument holds little merit.

Well put it this way - if, going into a pre-season, you'd come off the back of 20 or whatever losses in a row I'm not sure you'd be entirely motivated to work 100% considering you're probably of the belief that you'll lose the next 20 something games.

Compare that to winning 3 on the trot then hitting pre-season the team moral is up, confidence is up, there's a vibe that the team isn't too far off being competitive.

I remember last year my club's seniors won the last 3 games of the year, 2 of which were against top 4 sides whom we'd basically never beaten.

First training session in October we had 80+ players come down to train. Compare this with the year before where we lost the last half dozen on the trot then had hardly anyone show up to training and it's a stark contrast (finished in similar positions both years). Obviously not quite the same scenario but our seniors knocked off the top side y/day to finish on top leading into finals (which they haven't played in since 2000)

...I'm quite sick of hearing this winning culture argument. Give me some detail as to how it works. I'm not expecting anything as the argument holds little merit.

Winning culture:

A team/club that always expects to win, does win, and accepts no excuses for not winning. Respect and accountability start and finish IN the club.

Goes for players, officials, staff, members, sponsors & supporters.

Look over the past 10 years. Even when 'going well', there's always been that 'wonder if we'll win this week'. No certainty, no expectation. Bit of a hope and pray really.

And plenty of excuses when we lose. And the inevitable words about 'getting respect back'.

Now we can add 'just wait til we get a draft pick or 2'. [censored]. Cargo cult stuff.

Carlton haven't won a premiership.

I'd like to know whether any priority picks have ever played in a premiership. I believe Drew Banfield and Des Headland are the only 2 #1 picks to play in premierships.

Honestly though, if you think having one extra pick in any given draft is going to get you a premiership you're deluded

I agree. However, a PP can only help, and losing an extra game in a poor season won't hurt.

Winning as many games as is possible doesn't hurt either

Winning culture:

A team/club that always expects to win, does win, and accepts no excuses for not winning. Respect and accountability start and finish IN the club.

And do you reckon bringing in talented footballers would help this notion of winning culture?

Depends whether they have the mentality to go with it.

All the Damian Cupido's in the world wouldn't solve anyone's problems

Winning culture:

A team/club that always expects to win, does win, and accepts no excuses for not winning. Respect and accountability start and finish IN the club.

Goes for players, officials, staff, members, sponsors & supporters.

Look over the past 10 years. Even when 'going well', there's always been that 'wonder if we'll win this week'. No certainty, no expectation. Bit of a hope and pray really.

And plenty of excuses when we lose. And the inevitable words about 'getting respect back'.

Now we can add 'just wait til we get a draft pick or 2'. [censored]. Cargo cult stuff.

There were times I used to take the fixture to work and gloat "Whos going to beat us....who?"

How can you argue a team's winning culture can be linked to supporter's confidence (certainty) that they will win in any given week.

What club has this magical "winning culture" that you speak of?

Totally agree. Nothing more to add

The players don't tank. it's too risky with injury. The Clubs sure do though. But i Respect Bailey. After Q time he straightened them up & wanted a win. Next week against Port will give an even better indication of the "Dirty Word" Tanking. This Club should aim like Geelong. Win everything well regardless of opposition. Draft Picks 20 onwards are a total lottery anyhow-Worsfold Stinks anyway. He Knew about that Drug Culture & did nothing about it...His time will come.