During the week and pre game on SEN I heard Dermy say that Melbourne's style of play is great to watch and makes other teams look good with their rebounding football as well but our game plan would not hold up against good teams. After the last two weeks from the Dees I thought Dermy was a [censored] but I hate to admit it he was spot on.

I wasn't at the game so I just want to know if we were even trying to hold the ball in the forward 50 and why we constantly kept bombing the ball into the goalsquare. I love Colin Sylvia and Watts but they aren't going to take 20 contested marks between them.

No, he was wrong.

The reason why we aren't beating the good teams, is because there are still a lot of teams that are better than us, more experiences than us and more physically mature than us. We are still 12-24 months away from having the sufficient experience and physical maturity to be a really good team, and until then we can expect better teams to beat us + some inconsistency of effort which comes with youth.

As our players become strong, more experienced and better, they will be better placed to implement our game plan, will be better players full stop, and we'll start to beat the top teams

I was at the game. three hour round trip, home at 2.00am so disgusted.

1. the win/loss dynamic. we are definitely better than this. atm a win is setting us up for a loss and a loss is setting us up for a win.

2. etihad is a totally different game. in the confined spaces it's like indoor soccer. we persist with our 'mcg game' where we whip handballs around and push through like a roman legion. meanwhile footscray are laser passing over distances and using angles to their advantage. meanwhile we are gridlocked into our heritage team syndrome whereby we are periodically unveiled at the mcg (like a classic 60's Vauxhall) and periodically win for the benefit of our nostalgic masses.

3. the scully thing is corrosive, i don't care what anyone says. at least callum ward has his cards on the table.

4. if one of carlton collingwood hawthorn geelong or essendon (or swans for that matter) had the cattle we have they would be scary.

5. we have the mentality that high draft choices are automatically going to push us up the ladder. imagine colin sylvia at geelong.

6. captaincy is messing with brad green's mind, last season is messing with liam jurrah's mind.

7. scully is vastly over-rated ATM, if gw futurama want to give him $1m per annum plus page 103 in the sunday telegraph we are better off pumping funds into a similarly over-priced coach.

8. DB is a hell of a good bloke and has had a good run, it may be time to give someone else a turn. the coaching position is a cruel and unforgiving world, no harder gig in football.

9. get off cale morton's back. it's no point flagellating our non performing players we are only revealing ourselves as embittered perennial losers.

10. Sean Wight would have turned that game round in the second half.

During the week and pre game on SEN I heard Dermy say that Melbourne's style of play is great to watch and makes other teams look good with their rebounding football as well but our game plan would not hold up against good teams. After the last two weeks from the Dees I thought Dermy was a [censored] but I hate to admit it he was spot on.

I wasn't at the game so I just want to know if we were even trying to hold the ball in the forward 50 and why we constantly kept bombing the ball into the goalsquare. I love Colin Sylvia and Watts but they aren't going to take 20 contested marks between them.

Many thanks to Dermott for telling us the bleeding obvious.

Sylvinator has a point, mind you. The more we develop, the more chance there is our gameplan will hold up better against a better side.

Speaking of which. How much development there is in our list? Rodney Eade just mentioned our "young list" on Crunchtime. But we need more grunt, bigger players, power. How much can our smaller players be developed into bigger & stronger players? Our list is unbalanced - too many slight players, not enough power players.

Guess I should have read the other thread first.

I was at the game. three hour round trip, home at 2.00am so disgusted.

1. the win/loss dynamic. we are definitely better than this. atm a win is setting us up for a loss and a loss is setting us up for a win.

2. etihad is a totally different game. in the confined spaces it's like indoor soccer. we persist with our 'mcg game' where we whip handballs around and push through like a roman legion. meanwhile footscray are laser passing over distances and using angles to their advantage. meanwhile we are gridlocked into our heritage team syndrome whereby we are periodically unveiled at the mcg (like a classic 60's Vauxhall) and periodically win for the benefit of our nostalgic masses.

3. the scully thing is corrosive, i don't care what anyone says. at least callum ward has his cards on the table.

4. if one of carlton collingwood hawthorn geelong or essendon (or swans for that matter) had the cattle we have they would be scary.

5. we have the mentality that high draft choices are automatically going to push us up the ladder. imagine colin sylvia at geelong.

6. captaincy is messing with brad green's mind, last season is messing with liam jurrah's mind.

7. scully is vastly over-rated ATM, if gw futurama want to give him $1m per annum plus page 103 in the sunday telegraph we are better off pumping funds into a similarly over-priced coach.

8. DB is a hell of a good bloke and has had a good run, it may be time to give someone else a turn. the coaching position is a cruel and unforgiving world, no harder gig in football.

9. get off cale morton's back. it's no point flagellating our non performing players we are only revealing ourselves as embittered perennial losers.

10. Sean Wight would have turned that game round in the second half.

Agree except with 8 and 9 .

I was at the game. three hour round trip, home at 2.00am so disgusted.

1. the win/loss dynamic. we are definitely better than this. atm a win is setting us up for a loss and a loss is setting us up for a win.

2. etihad is a totally different game. in the confined spaces it's like indoor soccer. we persist with our 'mcg game' where we whip handballs around and push through like a roman legion. meanwhile footscray are laser passing over distances and using angles to their advantage. meanwhile we are gridlocked into our heritage team syndrome whereby we are periodically unveiled at the mcg (like a classic 60's Vauxhall) and periodically win for the benefit of our nostalgic masses.

3. the scully thing is corrosive, i don't care what anyone says. at least callum ward has his cards on the table.

4. if one of carlton collingwood hawthorn geelong or essendon (or swans for that matter) had the cattle we have they would be scary.

5. we have the mentality that high draft choices are automatically going to push us up the ladder. imagine colin sylvia at geelong.

6. captaincy is messing with brad green's mind, last season is messing with liam jurrah's mind.

7. scully is vastly over-rated ATM, if gw futurama want to give him $1m per annum plus page 103 in the sunday telegraph we are better off pumping funds into a similarly over-priced coach.

8. DB is a hell of a good bloke and has had a good run, it may be time to give someone else a turn. the coaching position is a cruel and unforgiving world, no harder gig in football.

9. get off cale morton's back. it's no point flagellating our non performing players we are only revealing ourselves as embittered perennial losers.

10. Sean Wight would have turned that game round in the second half.

My neck is sore from nodding in agreement. Very well said, every point is correct!