"At times, Melbourne went ultra-defensive, pushing back Jack Watts as a loose man in defence, but Bailey said the plan had to been to create more drive out of the defensive half. "

Yeah, we weren't pressing at all....

And when we did drive it out of the defensive half our players looked up and realised they were running into a wall of Blues across our half forward line with one of either Newton or Maric thrown in the mix to spice things up. Seriously the way we played in the first half you would have thought there was an offside rule in AFL.

There was no way to play the game tonight that would have resulted in a different outcome.

This point is what it all boils down to IMO and I agree with it.

Coached to save his career tonight and it didn't work. Horrible performance from Dean tonight. Will rightly be shown the door at years end.

Agree he has taken the easy option and played rookies. How easy is that?

This can't keep going on. I want at least respect for the footy club I'm passionate about. Headlines like in today's Age:

Blues overrun limp Demons

really [censored] me off. Bailey has to understand, supporters want wins and if we can't have them, at least respect. To lose and be written off as crap in the press and by our mates is just totally unacceptable.

Something has to change.

We're too far into it to consider wholesale changes to the playing group.

It only leaves one option.

After last night's pathetic game plan, the change is needed sooner rather than later.

If the Dees had played exciting, attacking footy and lost by 8 or 10, I could take that. To play the insipid style we did only reinforces the need for the obvious change SOON.

Damnnnnnnnnnnnn it is getting hot in the Kitchen. Fair bit of anger going on here.

Look, the season has been one of horror and hard luck. Bailey might not be Norm Smith, but he surely is not to blame for the lack of troops he has on the field. Bailey is in the hot seat no argument, and we seem to be falling short of where we should be at as a team in 2010. I just can't help thinking that we would have rolled North/Saints/Carlton if we were not decimated with injuries.

3 of our best backline out

4 of our best midfield out

Jurrah is clearly injured.

What the hell did you expect?

Actually, I expect a positive approach to the game, where the players take something out of it, players learn a few things (and coaching staff & supporters learn something about the players), and fans who pay to watch a competitive game of footy come away reasonably happy.

The negative "restrict the damage" style only reinforces the need for drastic change.

This group, players & coaches, are on a road to nowhere right now.

I challenge any AFL coach 2 make players out of:

Matthew Bate

Michael Newton

Matthew Warnock

Cale Morton

These guys would not be stand outs in suburban leagues

This is wrong.

These guys would not be in a squad if they didn't have the desirable skills/knowledge to be there. Coaching at this level is about finding where they fit in best. What valuable contribution they can make to the game plan. These guys (Warnock excepted) have been payed in different positions almost every week. For Kryste sake Newton popped up at FB last night. DB is doing the same to Watts as well.

As an 'elite' coach, look at what your players offer and either put them where they fit according to your game plan (get rid of them if you have nowhere to put them - although this is a bit of a cop out in football) OR change your game plan to adjust to the skills/personnel that you have. Don't have them playing different positions each week and expect them to learn it in 5 days at training.

Personally, I believe:

1) Morton is a winger and should stay there.

2) Bate should be in the FP. He's a pretty solid unit yet quite unathletic. Just have him run at the ball and try to bust open some packs. I'd be happy to see him just run through a pack without even jumping with his arms in the air to make it look like he's trying to mark the ball.

3) Warnock holds his ground weel and has useful height. I'd be tempted to play him on the slowest attacker and play the backline throw ins. Don't think I'd have him distributing the ball from the backlines but would be better suited being a target for kicks out of the backline.

4) Newton is a pinch hitter at best. His decision making isn't great so I'd keep him out of the backline. But I wouldn't put him at FF either (Green is better there). Maybe HFF so he can be another tall that is at the fall of the ball when opposition kick out of our forward line. Let's face it, not many teams can kick to an unopposed player out of a set back line.

But, I'm not Dean Bailey (thank Kryste)

Edited May 27, 201114 yr by mrtwister

This can't keep going on. I want at least respect for the footy club I'm passionate about. Headlines like in today's Age:

Blues overrun limp Demons

really [censored] me off. Bailey has to understand, supporters want wins and if we can't have them, at least respect. To lose and be written off as crap in the press and by our mates is just totally unacceptable.

Something has to change.

We're too far into it to consider wholesale changes to the playing group.

It only leaves one option.

After last night's pathetic game plan, the change is needed sooner rather than later.

If the Dees had played exciting, attacking footy and lost by 8 or 10, I could take that. To play the insipid style we did only reinforces the need for the obvious change SOON.

Ridiculous post.

If we had played attacking footy, we would have lost by 100. Who exactly was going to deliver into the forward line? The midfield, without Jamar, Scully, Trengove, an underdone McKenzie, a second gamer and a 12 gamer? The half back line without Bartram, Garland, Grimes, Davey, Tapscott?

I thought our endeavour was very good, but the reality is, both sides full strength, Carlton wins 7/10. Us without 11 players, we win 1/20.

Daniher showed more than Bailey in his first four years at the club. . .

Bailey is gone..I think.. Its only a matter of when...

I think we cannot afford to carry Bailey until the end of the season if the plan is to get rid of him.

I cannot see why he deserves more time. If his basis for more time is to have more fit players. Then he hasn't done a very good job coaching.

Actually, I expect a positive approach to the game, where the players take something out of it, players learn a few things (and coaching staff & supporters learn something about the players), and fans who pay to watch a competitive game of footy come away reasonably happy.

The negative "restrict the damage" style only reinforces the need for drastic change.

This group, players & coaches, are on a road to nowhere right now.

Great call heartbeatstrue.You cant necessarily blame the result on the coach as there are so many factors that influence a game but you can certainly attribute the workrate,players arousal level and gamestyle to the coach. We play exactly like Bailey- with no passion or enthusiasm and its mighty boring to watch. This is panning out exactly the way the essendon situation did last year.Bailey is losing the supporters and members very quickly (not to mention the players) I spoke to a passionate Essendon supporter yesterday and asked him why he didnt go to the footy last year and he simply said i couldnt bring myself to pay money to watch a team coached by Matthew Knights.Unfortunately i think a lot of our supporters are going to start saying the same thing over the next month or so.Its getting increasingly painful to watch a side with absolutely no structure whatsoever go about it. Its just a rabble of 22 blokes out there that arent sure what to do when they get the bloody thing.

This is wrong.

These guys would not be in a squad if they didn't have the desirable skills/knowledge to be there. Coaching at this level is about finding where they fit in best. What valuable contribution they can make to the game plan. These guys (Warnock excepted) have been payed in different positions almost every week. For Kryste sake Newton popped up at FB last night. DB is doing the same to Watts as well.

As an 'elite' coach, look at what your players offer and either put them where they fit according to your game plan (get rid of them if you have nowhere to put them - although this is a bit of a cop out in football) OR change your game plan to adjust to the skills/personnel that you have. Don't have them playing different positions each week and expect them to learn it in 5 days at training.

Personally, I believe:

a) Morton is a winger and should stay there.

B) Bate should be in the FP. He's a pretty solid unit yet quite unathletic. Just have him run at the ball and try to bust open some packs. I'd be happy to see him just run through a pack without even jumping with his arms in the air to make it look like he's trying to mark the ball.

c) Warnock holds his ground weel and has useful height. I'd be tempted to play him on the slowest attacker and play the backline throw ins. Don't think I'd have him distributing the ball from the backlines but would be better suited being a target for kicks out of the backline.

d) Newton is a pinch hitter at best. His decision making isn't great so I'd keep him out of the backline. But I wouldn't put him at FF either (Green is better there). Maybe HFF so he can be another tall that is at the fall of the ball when opposition kick out of our forward line. Let's face it, not many teams can kick to an unopposed player out of a set back line.

But, I'm not Dean Bailey (thank Kryste)

I love these posts.

It's not that some of these players don't have ability, it's their relative ability. What defenders worth their salt in a side vying for top 4 aren't better than Newton? Especially with the lack of quality ball we supply. What other clubs would have Warnock in their 22? We wouldn't if we had a choice!

Great call heartbeatstrue.You cant necessarily blame the result on the coach as there are so many factors that influence a game but you can certainly attribute the workrate,players arousal level and gamestyle to the coach. We play exactly like Bailey- with no passion or enthusiasm and its mighty boring to watch. This is panning out exactly the way the essendon situation did last year.Bailey is losing the supporters and members very quickly (not to mention the players) I spoke to a passionate Essendon supporter yesterday and asked him why he didnt go to the footy last year and he simply said i couldnt bring myself to pay money to watch a team coached by Matthew Knights.Unfortunately i think a lot of our supporters are going to start saying the same thing over the next month or so.Its getting increasingly painful to watch a side with absolutely no structure whatsoever go about it. Its just a rabble of 22 blokes out there that arent sure what to do when they get the bloody thing.

Another rubbish post.

Essendon had the exact opposite problem. They attacked and couldn't defend. Hird called it dishonest. That attacking game is what you and others are actually calling for.

Our arousal level, workrate and appetite for the contest were not the problem last night. We basically matched them in hard ball gets, clearances, contested bll and tackles. So get your facts right.

Agree he has taken the easy option and played rookies. How easy is that?

Very easy when there are only rookies left to play.

This is the bottom line. The excuse that the players aren't applying the game plan comes back to Bailey's shortcomings as a coach in terms of communication and leadership.

Saying we were only down by 16 points at halftime completely overlooks Carlton's horrible finishing and disposal in their forwardline. It could've and should've been a 6 goal differential at halftime. We are being labelled as pea hearts by the football community and on the back of games like that, who can disagree with them? The lack of leadership being shown on the field has gone beyond alarming, and to think that the players missing would've changed the outcome is far too convenient and at this stage I think inaccurate. Excuses of injuries don't wash when you put forward efforts such as tonight. All this talk of us having the best young list in the country, and that's the best Bailey and co can produce?

In a game where we are undermanned to this extent, to just lie down and allow the opposition free reign to come at us and scramble to keep the defecit as low as possible.. Who wants to watch that style of football? Who wants to be associated with it? I'm sick to death of the insipid efforts, week after week, with the occasional blip on the radar to give us some hope only to return to the usual, deplorable, Melbourne. We've put up with this [censored] for YEARS.

Bailey's record doesn't lie and I've officialy had enough. He has to go, before his "style" does more damage to the club psyche and reputation. Bailey OUT.

I like this post too. I love my footy more than anyone and im an extremely passionate Melbourne fan but i was just dead bored at the game last night. Had nothing to get excited about even the Carlton supporters i was with werent rubbing it in because they realised they were playing a rabble with no game plan. Im so fed up with Bailey and his gameplan its so shithouse.

I like this post too. I love my footy more than anyone and im an extremely passionate Melbourne fan but i was just dead bored at the game last night. Had nothing to get excited about even the Carlton supporters i was with werent rubbing it in because they realised they were playing a rabble with no game plan. Im so fed up with Bailey and his gameplan its so shithouse.

For the last time, the game plan is only as good as the team who are asked to execute it. We are missing crucial players at all parts of the ground.

Very sad reading negative destructive threads like this on a so called Melbourne "supporters" forum about this topic.

He is our coach and until the day he is not will get 100% of my support. You simply dont get the best out of people by isolating and blaming them ... now more than ever they need our support.

Go Dean ... Go Dees!

Edited May 27, 201114 yr by hangon007

Dead set Choko you have no idea mate. How is this not like the Essendon situation? Its the story of a coach who is losing the players (i honestly dont think they want to play for him) and therefore the support of the fans and members who are becoming increasingly discontent with the brand of football their side is playing (whether its too attacking or too defensive or whatever is irrelevant) We are a serious laughing stock and the word that gets thrown around on here that sums it up best is a 'rabble'.We are supposed to be a team of professional athletes being coached by a professional coach. If youre happy to settle for mediocrity and insipidness why dont you go and follow junior netball or something?

Dead set Choko you have no idea mate. How is this not like the Essendon situation? Its the story of a coach who is losing the players (i honestly dont think they want to play for him) and therefore the support of the fans and members who are becoming increasingly discontent with the brand of football their side is playing (whether its too attacking or too defensive or whatever is irrelevant) We are a serious laughing stock and the word that gets thrown around on here that sums it up best is a 'rabble'.We are supposed to be a team of professional athletes being coached by a professional coach. If youre happy to settle for mediocrity and insipidness why dont you go and follow junior netball or something?

I've never watched netball but I would guess I understand it better than you do the plight of the MFC at the moment.

We are the second youngest side in the AFL. Fact.

We are missing 8 - 11 of our 22. Fact.

Our list development is not at the stage that we can cope with losing 11 players. Fact.

You said you wanted us to play an attacking brand of footy last night. You mean like Essendon did? They were very exciting to watch. They would kick 16.... and their opponents 26. No-one got their hands dirty.

The players are clearly playing for the coach, contrary to your belief. They tried to execute a game plan, they competed, they lost.

Rabble is the word that emotional keyboard heroes use to deal with their bad childhoods.

I love these posts.

It's not that some of these players don't have ability, it's their relative ability. What defenders worth their salt in a side vying for top 4 aren't better than Newton? Especially with the lack of quality ball we supply. What other clubs would have Warnock in their 22? We wouldn't if we had a choice!

I'm not saying these players would be in other teams. I'm saying if you drafted them, find their niche. They were drafted for a reason. Were they drafted to be hole pluggers? To play positions that yoou have noone else to play. You can't expect players to successfully play in a different position each week.

I've never watched netball but I would guess I understand it better than you do the plight of the MFC at the moment.

We are the second youngest side in the AFL. Fact.

We are missing 8 - 11 of our 22. Fact.

Our list development is not at the stage that we can cope with losing 11 players. Fact.

You said you wanted us to play an attacking brand of footy last night. You mean like Essendon did? They were very exciting to watch. They would kick 16.... and their opponents 26. No-one got their hands dirty.

The players are clearly playing for the coach, contrary to your belief. They tried to execute a game plan, they competed, they lost.

Rabble is the word that emotional keyboard heroes use to deal with their bad childhoods.

I never said i wanted us to play an attacking brand of footy last night like the 2010 essendon but i would have liked to have seen us actually play to win the game somewhat rather than trying to make it a respectable loss. You cant blame what happened last night on injuries or the age of our list. It was a bunch of blokes who didnt have any idea what to do out there, no one had a role or an objective and they werent prepared to get their hands dirty.You cant necessarily control a result but you can control the way you go about it and no one would be content with the way we rocked up to play last night. Seriously man whats with all your excuses and shutting down of anyone that puts the acid on us a bit??Weve been rebuilding now since 2007... are you like delusional or something?? Do you accept mediocrity and rationalise in your line of work whatever that may be?? Sometimes the truth hurts mate

I'm not saying these players would be in other teams. I'm saying if you drafted them, find their niche. They were drafted for a reason. Were they drafted to be hole pluggers? To play positions that yoou have noone else to play. You can't expect players to successfully play in a different position each week.

I can tell you Newton's niche.

And the game has changed since Bate was drafted. Just ask Brock McLean about that.

I never said i wanted us to play an attacking brand of footy last night like the 2010 essendon but i would have liked to have seen us actually play to win the game somewhat rather than trying to make it a respectable loss. You cant blame what happened last night on injuries or the age of our list. It was a bunch of blokes who didnt have any idea what to do out there, no one had a role or an objective and they werent prepared to get their hands dirty.You cant necessarily control a result but you can control the way you go about it and no one would be content with the way we rocked up to play last night. Seriously man whats with all your excuses and shutting down of anyone that puts the acid on us a bit??Weve been rebuilding now since 2007... are you like delusional or something?? Do you accept mediocrity and rationalise in your line of work whatever that may be?? Sometimes the truth hurts mate

Haha. Nah, but you have to see it for what it is.

If we had played an attacking brand last night, Blind Freddy could see it would have been worse, not better.

I was much more critical of our form against the Swans, Hawks and other early than last night.

We definitely did get our hands dirty last night, we were just undermanned against a very good side.

Isn't it obvious? He's made some poor decisions recruiting and delisting and simply can't get the squad of current players up.

besides morton who?

besides morton who?

Strauss, Bennell, Jetta

Could have got one of McKernan, Trengove, Hannebury, Ballantyne, Zaharakis, Suban, Shiels instead of Bennell.

Rory Sloane or Taylor Hunt or Rockliff for Jetta

We stuffed up in 2008. Too many soft lazy players.

besides morton who?

Not even sure if Bailey and prendergast were responsible for drafting Morton. I was under the impression it was Craig Cameron's last draft as there was a bit of an overlap.

That being said Craig Camerons drafting is dubious at best. True we were unfortunate to lose Scott Thompson but these picks are currently killing us:

Bate, Dunn who are complete and utter shizen and to a lesser extent Nathan Jones. All first round picks