The rollercoaster continues eh? Good-poor-good-poor.

STOP THE RIDE I'M GONNA CHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK

  On 14/05/2011 at 11:04, Nasher said:

The rollercoaster continues eh? Good-poor-good-poor.

STOP THE RIDE I'M GONNA CHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK

The consistency will come. I thought amongst today's capitulation there were some really good signs. I thought Stef Martin's ability to fight it out in the ruck was great. We had 12-13 free kicks from stoppages so hopefully he doesn't have to stay in there too long but his attitude in there was great. Jack Watts continues to get better and it's only a matter of time before he has a cracker.

Let's not jump on the club too early - there's great times ahead my friends.

  On 14/05/2011 at 11:11, WAClark said:

The consistency will come. I thought amongst today's capitulation there were some really good signs. I thought Stef Martin's ability to fight it out in the ruck was great. We had 12-13 free kicks from stoppages so hopefully he doesn't have to stay in there too long but his attitude in there was great. Jack Watts continues to get better and it's only a matter of time before he has a cracker.

Let's not jump on the club too early - there's great times ahead my friends.

FWIW I totally agree with you, but the up and down of emotions in the last few weeks has been nauseating. My expectations needed realignment after the massive downer against West Coast and the massive upper against Adelaide and I forgot to do it before this game.

  On 14/05/2011 at 10:13, drdrake said:

It was bad today, like the hawthorn game we showed that when we are on that we can play very very good football. The only problem is in both todays game and the game against Hawthorn we played 1 quarter of good football and 3 quarters of our bad football. I've posted this a couple of times this very our good is better than last year but our bad football is the same. We can't stop teams scoring against us when we go through our bad patch.

I've never been a Bailey basher as I understand what he had to do and is doing with our list, but the fact that he hasn't been able to stop teams high scoring against us in four years, I'm starting to jump off the fence. We can't keep putting up with these bad peformances, it's not about winning that will come but we are still not competitive enough when things aren't going our way. We have heard this for 4 years and as stated above with the talent on our list our good footy is better but our ability to stay in the game when we are challenged remains the same as 4 years ago.

He has Dr, but if you take Bartram out & plonk him in the middle to bolster that, and take Grimes out for the year, and put another newbie there, and take Garland out injured, and have Rivers out of the 2011starting defence, then that defence has no resemblance of our working defence. The Defence structure is shattered.

Next week back to the starting 2011 defence, as close as we can, + Tapscott. Bartram back, + Rivers or Mcdonald. Keep Warnock.

  On 14/05/2011 at 07:58, stuie said:

At least this week we'll get another rev up by the only thing that seems to work... The media.

Bailey just doesn't not have "it". He's solid, he's ok, but that's not enough is it.

To lose to North today, and in the way we did, just looked and felt like 3 years ago. We were a messy, unorganised, headless, directionless rabble.

NOT ACCEPTABLE ANYMORE.

Totally agree Stuie and something must be done NOW. But will probably wait until we lose the next 4 before something happens.

Here we go again.

You could almost cut and paste the comments from the WC game and insert here (apart for the 1st quarter). This was the Dees chance to show some consistency and look what happens. All talk during the week and come game day nothing.

DB clearly can not get this group to perform consistently. We all know we can play based on last week and I am just so sick and tired of the inept performances that this team CONSISTENTLY produces.

I had enough, DB should go NOW. (I havent seen the coaches press conference yet but I bet DB will say the usual and probably praise North).

BYE BYE DB dont know how much more of the shi# i can take.

  On 14/05/2011 at 10:44, RobbieF said:

You really do miss the point don't you?

Read your second paragraph and it may give you a clue. That's the problem, get it, the players you mention are the ones who continually let us down.

And who ever said that Bate and Dunn are hard nuts, as you say they are strong, but no one could ever accuse them of being "hard nuts".

I didn't say they were hard, what I meant was that they were drafted because they were more physically matured and their strengths were more associated with fitness and physicality than skill.

My argument was that we can whinge about the recruiting all we like, the fact is, our senior players, who have shown that they have both skill and courage, don't fire consistently, and that's killing us.

  On 14/05/2011 at 10:52, RobbieF said:

Do you ever actually attend a match?

Have you not seen the same players over the last 10 years doing the same thing every time the chips are down? If you go to a game soon have a long hard look at the players we have and see how many of them are soft and ask yourself the question; how did we end up with so many players that have no heart for the rough stuff? Ask yourself if you would be able to rely on these players to win a grand final or would they fold like a deck of cards like we did in 2000?

Then ask yourself how many of these soft players were recruited by our current recruiting department and how in god's name did this happen? Is it coincidence, bad luck or are they just hopeless and incapable of selecting the right players to take us all the way even tough they had a chance to select the best in the land.

I know you don't have high standards but even you must be a bit concerned about this.

Stop making this personal. It just goes to show you don't really have a lot of confidence in your argument.

It's a lot easier to walk tall when you've got some leadership in the side. Sure, some of our players are consistently 'weak' (I'm talking Morton, Bennell and Dunn), but last week 18 of the 22 that played today played tough, aggressive football, led from the front by Green, Sylvia, Moloney, Davey and Jamar. They didn't get that today.

FWIW, I go to as many games as I have time for, which so far this year has been all of them bar this one and the two interstate ones.

  On 14/05/2011 at 11:04, Nasher said:

The rollercoaster continues eh? Good-poor-good-poor.

STOP THE RIDE I'M GONNA CHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK

In my case it's too late...

Seriously though, by now we should be off the rollercoaster. Some poor weeks are acceptable and par for the course when you're trying to climb back from where we were, but we shouldn't be up and down like we have been in the space of 7 days.

  On 14/05/2011 at 08:37, watts04 said:

im glad dees suuporters are agreein today wasnt good engh

70 pt turnaround over 3 qtrs

bllsht

we need a new coach - attitude isnt good enough

sick of goin to the match and puttin up with one week win and another flogged

pss poor

Not only that, but it's the same story year after year. I've lost count the amount of times I heard the old cleche lines like: Our performance simply wasn't good enough, a week is a long time in football, we'll have to look each other in the eye and be honest with our effort, looking forward to getting out on the track on Monday and putting it all behind us! It's an absolute joke!! We have been saying this rubbish for years. David Schwarz got a pie in the face on the footy show because Sam Newman questioned his teams heart! I hate to tell you this but the time is now! MFC supporters have had a gutfull! Time for a massive change, MFC coaching department need a massive overhaul including the recruiting deptartment. We need to get more Melbounre people around the club, to help show these young blokes what it means to play for the Red and Blue!

  On 14/05/2011 at 11:04, Nasher said:

The rollercoaster continues eh? Good-poor-good-poor.

STOP THE RIDE I'M GONNA CHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK

Nar, last week was the top of the chain that they drag you up - it's all down from here for the next 5 weeks.

  On 14/05/2011 at 09:15, RalphiusMaximus said:

I find myself somewhat puzzled. I got home in time to watch the second half and made an interesting observation. Whenever we moved the ball forward we found ourselves kicking to nothing but North Melbourne players in our forward 50. Then, when they took the ball and bombed it long into their own forward 50, again there was nothing but North players there. WHERE WERE ALL OF OUR PLAYERS? How could it be that we were outnumbered so badly at both ends of the park at the same time?

You obviously don't understand our game plan Ralph. They were all following instructions and zoning off (and zoning off, and z......)

Actually they were all playing as though they don't have a football brain between them and this has been a problem (fooball brains) at the MFC for years. As well as being downhill skiers. No discipline whatsoever

Maybe the recruiting department could develop a footballing-IQ test for all future potential draftees

Aw whats the use, lets bottom out and start again... at least then losing will have some meaning

  On 14/05/2011 at 11:38, titan_uranus said:

Stop making this personal. It just goes to show you don't really have a lot of confidence in your argument.

It's a lot easier to walk tall when you've got some leadership in the side. Sure, some of our players are consistently 'weak' (I'm talking Morton, Bennell and Dunn), but last week 18 of the 22 that played today played tough, aggressive football, led from the front by Green, Sylvia, Moloney, Davey and Jamar. They didn't get that today.

FWIW, I go to as many games as I have time for, which so far this year has been all of them bar this one and the two interstate ones.

You made this personal when you srarted insulting me.

My argument is sound you just don't have the capacity to understand it. I'm sick of telling you why we are still a basket case despite having the pick of the crop over the last few years. We have so many soft players on our list that aren't even that talented. And why is that? Two reasons, we have made some exceptionally bad choices and we have failed to develop those that are potentially good players.

The simple fact is if you want to win a flag you have to recruit hard uncompromising players that don't know the meaning of defeat not downhill skiers that can look flashy and win games that don't mean anything. Last week we played a side that was in disarray and we walloped them, we do that it's part of the problem, we beat a [censored] side and then think we are on the right track and all's well again. Well it's not and we are once again in deep [censored], the quicker the club come to realize that the better. Bailey cannot get the players to compete and we are going to mentally scar any of those we have that are half decent if we continue to serve up [censored] rubbish.

I think even Jimmy, from his comments today is getting a bit concerned, all his good work may come to nought if we don't start to show consistency, pride and passion. We are going to have to accept the fact we may have to dip in to the draft well again and hopefully next time we will have someone that has a clue doing the selecting, not bigfooty or unnamed experts.

It's quite simple the problems start at the recruiting department and are compounded by the coaches.

You with me now?

I'm old enough to remember when Hawthorn were easy beats (back in the 60s). Kennedy transformed the club, with Scott and Crimmins - just tough, uncompromising men (Scott, a bit more than that). Followed up with Alan Jeans and one of the great teams of all time. Their long period of success owes much, I believe, to Kennedy, and the values he brought to the club. For the young:

Face it, like the Daniher days we are down hill skiers, when the chips are down we are pathetic, when we are up and about all are on board!

But when the tide turns mid game, we do not have a player to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and drag us back up.

Oh what I would give to have a fit Jnr out there.

  On 14/05/2011 at 12:58, condemned 84 said:

Face it, like the Daniher days we are down hill skiers, when the chips are down we are pathetic, when we are up and about all are on board!

But when the tide turns mid game, we do not have a player to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and drag us back up.

Oh what I would give to have a fit Jnr out there.

I'm a big fan of Green but how many times did he just wander back to the wing after North kicked a goal, no rev, no words, no inspiration, no grabbing the game by the scruff just a timid retreat to wait for the next goal.

I'm sick to death of the insipid Melbourne Football Club; someone step up for Christ's sake. No wonder no one wants to be traded to Melbourne and it won't be surprising to see any with talent leave.

Watts needs to grow a pair. I didn't see him stick a single tackle. He was brushed aside constantly. Guy needs to go to the twos and harden up with Morton. Dunn isn't just a spud. He's also a moron. If he doesn't get suspended then he should be dropped like a hot potato.

Outside of that, we were trashed by injuries.

Still, it makes me sick that that whining [censored] North Melbourne coach will be able to gloat.

Unless we're really lucky and get over the injuries for the second half of the season, it may wind up a lost year. Depressing.

IT'S ALL OVER PEOPLE, WE DON'T HAVE A PRAYER!

Just to break it up a bit. I'm gonna throw this out there. We'll win 3 of the next 6.

Our senior players are simply not consistent enough footballers. Green, Davey, Sylvia and Moloney are all far too prone to having very bad games. When they all do it at once, we have a performance like today.

When are things going to change? When our senior players are guys like Trengove, Scully, McKenzie, Frawley and Tapscott. I hate the up and down nature of this team as much as anyone, but I see good signs from those young blokes that make me (very) cautiously optimistic.

In the meantime, we are what we are.

  On 14/05/2011 at 13:47, bananas said:

Our senior players are simply not consistent enough footballers. Green, Davey, Sylvia and Moloney are all far too prone to having very bad games. When they all do it at once, we have a performance like today.

When are things going to change? When our senior players are guys like Trengove, Scully, McKenzie, Frawley and Tapscott. I hate the up and down nature of this team as much as anyone, but I see good signs from those young blokes that make me (very) cautiously optimistic.

In the meantime, we are what we are.

Get a coach who can get consistency out of the senior players.

What I have been told from someone that worked with Bailey in the past, is that what you see is what you get. The monotone straight bat that he plays to the media is not some smart way of not giving away the master plan, it is him, and it is what the players are getting behind closed doors. He can not inspire the players, and is not getting the best out of them. Last week showed what the players can do when fully motivated; unfortunately it was not Bailey that provided them with the motivation.

This season can still be salvaged, why waste it with the wrong coach in charge?

  On 14/05/2011 at 12:58, condemned 84 said:

Face it, like the Daniher days we are down hill skiers, when the chips are down we are pathetic, when we are up and about all are on board!

But when the tide turns mid game, we do not have a player to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and drag us back up.

Oh what I would give to have a fit Jnr out there.

cd-84, the downhill skiers of danners are still here. They have to rejig their attitudes into real leadership. The kids can't do it for them.

  On 14/05/2011 at 14:08, Thomo said:

Last week showed what the players can do when fully motivated; unfortunately it was not Bailey that provided them with the motivation.

Good point.

Brilliant start, Juice is playing the game of his life at FF but its decided he's the man to relieve Martin rather than say, Dunn. Suspect our attitude would have fallen away anyway but the move defied common sense.

  On 14/05/2011 at 13:47, bananas said:

Our senior players are simply not consistent enough footballers. Green, Davey, Sylvia and Moloney are all far too prone to having very bad games. When they all do it at once, we have a performance like today.

When are things going to change? When our senior players are guys like Trengove, Scully, McKenzie, Frawley and Tapscott. I hate the up and down nature of this team as much as anyone, but I see good signs from those young blokes that make me (very) cautiously optimistic.

In the meantime, we are what we are.

I'm a big critic of Sylvia but I thought he battled his guts out today. I ask no more than that. If you're going your hardest even when things aren't quite going your way then you don't deserve criticism.

I had tipped north purely as the big man was out. It really showed where we are at yesterday and our lack of depth. Every club gets injuries it just seems to effect us more due to no depth. Taking Robbie Campbell may well be recruiting cuop of the year. There will continue to be poor games after great games but dont take too much out of beating the crows. As we saw against the Suns, they are not much chop. All i want to see is a bit more fight not just from the skipper and leadership group but the bennels and jettas and other young guys who really are playing for their future in what should be a successful period for the club. We shall wait and see. But am getting sick of waiting!!!!

The MOST disappointing thing from today is that it shows where we sit by comparison to other clubs on the same/similar arc of renewal or rebuild. West Coast, North Melbourne, Richmond and Essendon would have been our points of comparison based on last year. We WILL be beaten WELL by all of them this year, and they will all finish ahead of us on the ladder at year's end. This is because they are better teams, and are developing in line with expectations or better. Clearly, it should be argued that the MFC are not even holding ground.

We ARE on an arc......it's an arc of perpetual sub-mediocrity. There can be no argument about this, suspensions, injuries or all manner of whinge-worthy misfortunes taken into account. Being completely objective for a moment, there is no possibility that Dean Bailey will survive. Putting aside any feelings about his performance either way, the law of the AFL jungle will see him depart the MFC, simply because there is no justification for him remaining. Would that it were not so, but that's life.

  On 14/05/2011 at 11:38, titan_uranus said:

Seriously though, by now we should be off the rollercoaster. Some poor weeks are acceptable and par for the course when you're trying to climb back from where we were, but we shouldn't be up and down like we have been in the space of 7 days.

Should we though? It's well documented at what stage teams should be in flag contention in terms of games and age experience, but at what point should a team start expecting consistency? Yes it feels like this rebuild has been going forever, no I don't think we should accept poor efforts, but really I'm not convinced it's reasonable to expect consistency yet.