Today was to be a day where all the talk of the pre-season would show how much the Demons have improved... NOT in the slightest.

Now to everyone who wants to SACK Dean Bailey, watch the first half of todays match, WAY TO MANY errors. It is not the coaches fault the players have poor skills.

It was my 2 month olds first AFL game, poor little man

I left at half-time.

Few things I took note of:

- The backline is under fair too much pressure. Why are Hawthorn mids running so freely into their forward 50? It's clear that Hawthorn are playing an aggressive attack with the lack of Franklin, so they are throwing everyone in there. It's worked.

- 4-5 dropped marks without a Hawthorn player in sight.

- No leadership from Bruce, Miller.

- Scully has been OK

- Dunn is done (pun intended in every way possible)

- Handballing to players under pressure constantly, over and over again.

- Terrible around the stoppages. Bailey has probably said that is one of the main areas we've had to work on over the pre-season about a million times. Clearly didn't work well enough.

- Always a step behind.

Edited March 27, 201015 yr by calabreseboy

Jordie Mc is one of the few highlights in my book. Him, grimes, and our captain are the only ones that can hold their head up in my book.

Sorry Wonna, would have Jordie well down the list (And our skipper for that matter). Funny how different eyes see things differently!

That 3rd quarter of Scully's has really helped ease some of this pain, thought he was fabulous.

Now to everyone who wants to SACK Dean Bailey, watch the first half of todays match, WAY TO MANY errors. It is not the coaches fault the players have poor skills.

It's not?

Just curious then: who takes charge of training sessions? Who decides what areas to focus on during training? The players? Isn't it the coaches responsibility to ensure the skill level is high?

If we can't blame the coach for that, then what exactly is the purpose of having a coach? To look pretty?

Sorry Wonna, would have Jordie well down the list (And our skipper for that matter). Funny how different eyes see things differently!

That 3rd quarter of Scully's has really helped ease some of this pain, thought he was fabulous.

He is a our current top dreamteam points scorer! I'm yet to see anything to fault him...

He is a our current top dreamteam points scorer! I'm yet to see anything to fault him...

Far out - wouldn't have picked that! Any way, as I said, different eyes see different things. It's not a case of you or me being right or wrong, just our opinions. I have found him to be fairly slow - he is on the TV a fair bit which means he is near the ball, but he doesn't have it in his hands very often (although Dreamteam reads differently!!!).

Do Melbourne forwards know that they are allowed to sheppard (?) the ball through for a goal????

If franklin was to play we would be Farked!

It's not?

Just curious then: who takes charge of training sessions? Who decides what areas to focus on during training? The players? Isn't it the coaches responsibility to ensure the skill level is high?

If we can't blame the coach for that, then what exactly is the purpose of having a coach? To look pretty?

watching the game they could not kick or handball, it was... is a joke.

FFS Richmond will outscore the Demons.

Haha, too true Queen! Some get a little precious if you state the truth though!!!

Let's talk about the positive though - Scully will be a champ. He should be number 1 best player for us today. Great effort in this p!ss-poor team.

Positive is we havent dropped dwon the ladder

not sure why Martin wasn't playing. At least he provides an option down forward (even though a lot here don't like him down there).

Sorry to break it to you mate, but Bailey wont be sacked this year if that's the head you're after.

I would start by dropping some of our senior blokes who think they are "safe". They need to answer our questions, then we can work out if we need to look higher up.

Bailey being sacked: I think I was thinking more of footy department. Forward coach? Midfield coach? Bailey is going to be UNDER THE PUMP if this continues week in week out, but as for getting the arse... who knows? Who would want to coach this list?

As for the seniors, Green has been good, Bruce is Bruce. We have a lot of underdone players. Davey is too important to drop off one bad game. The list has zero information on how to do their jobs, and I think it starts at the top.

I'm not going to get into to blame game of coach vs players, as that's a tired old debate. But with an entire pre-season to work on getting some cohesion, there seems to be almost no evidence of it. I love this club and we've already sat through 3 years of this, so what's another year.. But there's no doubt that Bailey is now associated with a losing culture at the club, and frankly the time for excuses is over.

What's another year? It's a BIG year. 3 wooden spoons in a row? That's something that's VERY important to avoid.

I just reckon after this kind of crap, I'd have trouble believing in Bailey as a player. If he loses the players, then good coach or no, he'll never get the job done.

It's not?

Just curious then: who takes charge of training sessions? Who decides what areas to focus on during training? The players? Isn't it the coaches responsibility to ensure the skill level is high?

If we can't blame the coach for that, then what exactly is the purpose of having a coach? To look pretty?

Exactly. MFC under Bailey has taken a bunch of enormously skilled players in the draft, they arrive at the club, and they just fall to pieces skill wise. Morton was a laser as a junior, Maric likewise... It could be a simple thing like confidence... but that's up to Bailey.

Fair dinkum.

How man times did we do this last year? Embarrass the club for 3 quarters, then paper over a few cracks as the opposition goes to sleep.

I'm so sick of barracking for a <60 point loss... Instead of a win.

Scully 20 touches, Trengove 22... So far.

Let the positive threads begin.

Edited March 27, 201015 yr by Dappa Dan

Scully 20 touches, Trengove 22... So far.

Let the positive threads begin.

Scully & Trengove are definitely positives, McKenzie has also shown a bit.

61-117 final score.

Couldn't be bothered with bests.

We are the worst side in the comp based on that. Tiges will smash us.

Worst day being a demons supporter of my life. No [censored].

We are now approx 1 percentage point below Richmond on the ladder. We'll likely end up 16th, and based on that I can't see us getting off the canvas.

61-117 final score.

Couldn't be bothered with bests.

We are the worst side in the comp based on that. Tiges will smash us.

Worst day being a demons supporter of my life. No [censored].

We are now approx 1 percentage point below Richmond on the ladder. We'll likely end up 16th, and based on that I can't see us getting off the canvas.

It's not anyway near as bad as GF 2000 for me (it being the first year I'd seen Melbourne being real successful), but today has to be one of, if not the, most disappointing days.

We all had the optimism and excitement for the future, but today was just a shot in the gut. Not angry, just disappointed. They let a lot of people down today. This was not what any of us had expected.

Hawthorn are still a good side, they're very good at dismantling poor young side via their anti-social style. At this stage we're no match for a team like this.

But, there were some good signs, namely our young mids.

We'll get better as the year goes on, I have no doubt about that, but as our better players are all young we'll still have poor games.

LEt's judge the side once we've played half a dozen games

^^ bit pessimistic? 1 game vs a possible top 4 team with many injuries and 3 debutants, cant expect that much.

Watching the game on Tv. It's bad. It's Sad.

We have no spark. We are on a 3 second time delay. Hawthorn are a team. They know where to go and where there team mates are going to be. We do not. We are not a team. We don't gel, we can't play any sort of fast counter offence because of this fact. It's like nobody knows anyone out there. We play like a bunch of footy players all just thrown onto a footy field and told to play. Period.

I don't know if this is the players making or the coaches. If we are not teaching the right things at training or playing players out of position (will continue to have a bugabear about our forward line) bailey needs to be looked at. If the players aren't in the right mindset gametime, they need to be looked at.

Miller- Link player ONLY. Has no presence whatsoever. Granted, he has courage, and he is a workhorse- these are comendable traits, but he just isn't good enough. Plain and simple.. he never stands up, never provides any kind of spark or inspiration to those around him and those who laud his "leadership" qualities, well, I just don't see it! The fact that Miller is 1 out of the 2 of our full time "forwards" currently playing and he has only kicked 2 says alot. He is 1 lucky guy. Good luck and circumstance has kept Brad Miller in a job.

Bate. Can only run in a straight line. Might start calling him train. As in Bate train. Also as in he has visibly sluggish acceleration, which can build up to an acceptable pace, and is strong and hard to stop- but also, unfortunately like a train, cannot be evasive, light footed or tipy toey.. he runs in straight lines baby!

Dunn. Dunno about Dunn. Actually Do know- he doesnt belong in the forward line. Experiment tried, experiment failed. Definition of "out of his depth". Dunn in the forward line- not for me. To anyone who was at the game today, did Dunn actually do anything? He gets paid to do this right?

Could go on, but won't. I know we are a team of youngsters. I know this is round 1, but how frustrating?!?

- Could blame the coach; Is he teaching the right style for our players or anything at all? He is an untried head coach. When your players look like they are playing a different game and are 5 steps behind do you look to the one who suposedly teaches them, or;

- The players; Old heads buying the "this is a young team" slogan and therefore slacking off because a loss is accepted, as long as its competitive? Is it that our players aren't as good as we think they are? Who do we blame? I wanna blame someone.

Edited March 27, 201015 yr by nostradeemus

We'll get better as the year goes on, I have no doubt about that, but as our better players are all young we'll still have poor games.

LEt's judge the side once we've played half a dozen games

Brave man!

B

Brave man!

B

As previously mentioned our current forwardline is terrible, it's the worst I've ever seen. We had no targets in that team today, but it will get better, we just have to be patient. This year was always going to be another development year because we have to somehow get games into all of our kids. Scully, trengove, Blease, Strauss, Gysberts, McKenzie etc

Give it time, soon we'll be playing some great, exciting football. (in patches this year)

With no forward why did Bailey play SPencer and Dunn over MArtin, Newton and Hughes? Because he has little idea!

I just want to stress that emotions are going to be running high. Please be constructive in your criticism. If you post just to say a player was crap your post will be deleted.

Also want to add that if you disagree with another poster then debate the issue don't attack the poster. Any post saying a Poster is an idiot etc will be deleted too. Keep it civil.

The only positive i can take out of the game was Scully and Trengove. Boy are they going to be great players once they get stronger. Easily our best players. Strauss was also ok although he had some massive clangers.

As for everyone else it was same old same old. Lots of downhill skiers and guys with huge limitations eg. Bates lack of mobility and jones' lack of footy smarts.