On 04/09/2011 at 02:25, PaulRB said:

I think Morton's only issues are between his ears. By using his skinny body continue to be an excuse for his performance ignores better players with similar physiques. He seems to be unable to will himself into the contests or the right spot in motion, to add the value we all believed he could.

Next year will make or break him at Melb.

I reckon the new coach will allow alot of players remake and/or establish themselves as quality players post 2011.

This would be good given the tragically bad a year we've had from Brad Green and Arron Davey. These two...?

That's where a good coach should come in.

  On 04/09/2011 at 02:31, Jaded said:

Speak to Morton and you'll realise how badly he lacks confidence right now.

He needs a new coach to be committed enough to play him in one role so he can learn that role and get comfortable.

The ugly abuse of Morton here and at the footy is just pathetic and unwarranted. He is still a kid FFS!

Wholeheartedly agree.

A bit like Josh Fraser, in that respect.

OK - some cousins or family of Cale Morton posting above (they must be!) want us to support him for ANOTHER season in which he has under-achieved.

Cale was drafted with the following attributes: tall, quick, agile and clean skills. In many games this year and in each year he has played he has shown the following characteristics:

positioning : excellent

gut running : excellent

courage : OK at times but in too many contests he simply stops or shirks.

skills : absolutely horrible. He is one of about 8 Dees players who have major kicking problems, even when under no pressure. He takes very few overhead marks, and even less contested marks. His tackles rarely stick. Goal kicking is embarrassing.

I have no confidence in him when running free and even less when he is contresting. Trade him at season end IMO.

.

The Good

Development of our young/new brigade (Trengove, Watts, McKenzie, Tapscott,Blease, McDonald, Gawn )

Vast unexpected improvement from Martin, Howe, Bail

The Bad

Our kicking skills

Those 4 games late in the season against top 4 sides

The media frenzy after Bailey's sacking

The public revelations about conflict at Board level

The Ugly[/u]

Leadership

Our game plan that often leaves us with no forward line to kick to

Us versus the forward press

The Westcoast Game

The Geelong game

Jimmy's health

Actually... this part of the list could go on for a while. I'll stop now.

.

Ugly: Brad Green's set shots. What happened to the guy who used to be our best kick?

I think in the first, Morton made a mockery of the criticisms in this thread, but he then proceeded to disappear for the rest of the game.

I still think he can be a very good player.

He deserves time like anyone else.

Your thoughts on each of the following, now that the season's done and dusted.

Best game - Round 11 v Essendon. No real contest for this one I don't think

Worst game - Round 19 v Geelong. Not a lot of competition for that one either, although the early West Coast game, the North Melbourne game, the Richmond loss, and today's loss to Port aren't much better.

B&F winner - Brent Moloney

Most improved - Stefan Martin. If only because more people expected Watts to make a career for himself but Martin's future was far less certain.

Best first year player - Jeremy Howe. No contest here either.

Single most positive thing about 2011 - the continued development of young talent. Howe, McDonald, Tapscott, Blease, Strauss, Gawn, Nicholson, Evans all showed things here and there. The fact that we still were able to find young talent is obviously a good thing, and probably one of the few good things.

Single most negative thing about 2011 - our skill level being as poor as it was. By now I expected our skill level to be far higher.

2011 in one word - sub-standard

disappointing season, glad it's finally over. 5/10 striker, you can't be serious?

bunch of bloody fuschias.

  On 04/09/2011 at 08:42, Bailin Out said:

disappointing season, glad it's finally over. 5/10 striker, you can't be serious?

We have had some bright sparks. Admittedly this was written yesterday, very tempted to reduce it to a 4.

The Ugly - The Cale Morton Cliff Young Shuffle. Just show some urgency and flat out FFS!

  On 04/09/2011 at 09:16, Jerry Lundergard said:

The Ugly - The Cale Morton Cliff Young Shuffle. Just show some urgency and flat out FFS!

Another one to the Demonland Groupthink response. Morton showed in the first half today why unless the offer is ridiculously good why you retain him. He also showed the exact reasons why he is frustrating to most. Again his game today was not one that deserves him being singled out for criticism.

  On 04/09/2011 at 08:17, titan_uranus said:

Single most negative thing about 2011 - DB finally convincing me that he didn't have a clue when it came to tactics.

Season rating: -2/10

Let's not candy coat it. It's been an absolutely nightmarish year considering where we thought we would be by now.

Crucial we get the best coach we can in 2012, though I have to say it's not a great look to be approaching all current AFL coaches in order of best to worst until someone says yes. Whole thing has an air of desperation about it.

Being a fan of this club sucks, but I have faith that there are better days ahead with some of our youngsters. Is this group good enough to win a flag? Probably not, but there is a foundation to build upon. Recruiting remains crucial over the next couple of years.

That's just idiotic.

  On 04/09/2011 at 10:14, Gareth Keenan said:

That's just idiotic.

Why is it? We've gone backwards and we are worse now that we were in 2010 by a long way. We finally found out that some of the so called young guns we have are nothing but fizzers and that we are way way off the pace of even the middle tier clubs.

Where's the improvement, company man?

  On 04/09/2011 at 09:26, big_red_fire_engine said:

Another one to the Demonland Groupthink response. Morton showed in the first half today why unless the offer is ridiculously good why you retain him. He also showed the exact reasons why he is frustrating to most. Again his game today was not one that deserves him being singled out for criticism.

Morton got his own ball in a contested situation once. He had a shocker but I dont want to knock the kid anymore .

Him and Bate cop too much from the experts here .( I'm pro Bater)

The Good-Bates -the penny has dropped

The Bad- Fitzys first game nerves

The Ugly-The whole game thanks to the officials

We thought we would start to climb the mountain but 2011 never saw us leave base camp. We tried to climb the mountain but we never had the leaders or plans to even get out of the tent. The good is we are still at base camp and we have some talented players in the tent. We added some more talent to our tent in 2011 and with the right leaders and some sort of plans/structure we have the ability to start the climb.

In 2011 we had to much reliance on a group of under 21 year olds to win matches. We have one match winner that is above 21 who is inconsistant. Our improvemnet will come from the development of our young players but we need to match the talent we have with a game plan that can take us forward.

  On 04/09/2011 at 10:24, RobbieF said:

Why is it? We've gone backwards and we are worse now that we were in 2010 by a long way. We finally found out that some of the so called young guns we have are nothing but fizzers and that we are way way off the pace of even the middle tier clubs.

Where's the improvement, company man?

Actually Robbie,

I would say that the season was horrible but it was primarily due to the terrible seasons had by the leaders. Green. Davey. Grimes gone early. Riv and Sylvia being up and down. Jamar injured/playing injured. Moloney going flat while Jamar out. Frawley injured.

Last year these blokes all had fantastic years.

This year, with even less mature players and physical strength they weren't at the same level which heaped more pressure on our very young, very inexperienced kids and we were slaughtered at times because of it.

That i feel (and the game plan) are the primary reasons we took a step backwards this year.

The absence of on-field leadership was the story of 2011.

The first job of the new coach will be to correct/create this.

Step 1 - Green will have to relinquish the captaincy or be pushed. No bones about it.

4/10 season for mine.

Our new coach WILL have a lot to do. Not good enough for me, expected far more this year than last year. Its time to stop the excuse of waiting for players to develop and put more emphises on actual performance. Too many going to be good players and not enough ARE good players. This is the turn around I want to see in the new coach whomever they may be.

5/10 is a fair assessment of the season.

As for Cale Morton he and many other players I would put in the same boat, Got the talent but just didn't show it. I need to see consistancy from week to week in all players not just a few otherwise coming midpack is all your going to get.

  On 04/09/2011 at 11:13, Grandson of a gun said:

Actually Robbie,

I would say that the season was horrible but it was primarily due to the terrible seasons had by the leaders. Green. Davey. Grimes gone early. Riv and Sylvia being up and down. Jamar injured/playing injured. Moloney going flat while Jamar out. Frawley injured.

Last year these blokes all had fantastic years.

This year, with even less mature players and physical strength they weren't at the same level which heaped more pressure on our very young, very inexperienced kids and we were slaughtered at times because of it.

That i feel (and the game plan) are the primary reasons we took a step backwards this year.

God almighty i'm sick of excuses, we are crap just accept it and we can move on.

We have an excuse for every occasion, too windy, too wet, interstate, we can't handle Etihad, too many kids, leaders not playing well enough, no game plan, new coach, it goes on and on we are the club of excuses and that's the reason we are considered a joke by the football community. We didn't come to play we didn't bring our a game (do we in fact have one of those?) the boys were a bit flat today, these are some of the excuses handed out by the players and the coaches. Now we have the turmoil at the club excuse; as long as we allow the players and the club to roll this [censored] out every week and the supporters to blindly follow it we will remain a joke of a club.

We even [censored] in the face of our club Captain last year and made an excuse that we didn't think he would handle it that way, wow.

We didn't take a ""step backwards this year we fell in to an abyss and the thing is, how are we going to get out of it.

  On 04/09/2011 at 11:14, Range Rover said:

The absence of on-field leadership was the story of 2011.

The first job of the new coach will be to correct/create this.

Step 1 - Green will have to relinquish the captaincy or be pushed. No bones about it.

4/10 season for mine.

The problem is RR we don't have any leaders to replace the ""non leaders we have at present; to say we lacked leadership this year would imply we had some to begin with.

  On 04/09/2011 at 08:01, RalphiusMaximus said:

Ugly: Brad Green's set shots. What happened to the guy who used to be our best kick?

he looks tortured lining up the goals, like he is carrying the weight of the world.

  On 04/09/2011 at 11:55, RobbieF said:

God almighty i'm sick of excuses, we are crap just accept it and we can move on.

We have an excuse for every occasion, too windy, too wet, interstate, we can't handle Etihad, too many kids, leaders not playing well enough, no game plan, new coach, it goes on and on we are the club of excuses and that's the reason we are considered a joke by the football community. We didn't come to play we didn't bring our a game (do we in fact have one of those?) the boys were a bit flat today, these are some of the excuses handed out by the players and the coaches. Now we have the turmoil at the club excuse; as long as we allow the players and the club to roll this [censored] out every week and the supporters to blindly follow it we will remain a joke of a club.

We even [censored] in the face of our club Captain last year and made an excuse that we didn't think he would handle it that way, wow.

We didn't take a ""step backwards this year we fell in to an abyss and the thing is, how are we going to get out of it.

Wow Robbie. You have actually lost the plot.

The leaders go missing or are injured and you expect this club to be carried by 18 18-20 year olds and be able to match it.

If you are going to fly off the handle at least have some realistic expectation or idea of where we were this year.

Go have a drink and take a deep breath

  On 04/09/2011 at 12:03, Grandson of a gun said:

Wow Robbie. You have actually lost the plot.

The leaders go missing or are injured and you expect this club to be carried by 18 18-20 year olds and be able to match it.

If you are going to fly off the handle at least have some realistic expectation or idea of where we were this year.

Go have a drink and take a deep breath

Get it through your head, we don't have any leaders. None the older players are just a bunch of triers with little or no leadership quality.

Which of the older players would you consider a leader?

We have a team of individual players that go out there every week and perform their task (or not) but none of them are leaders. Which one would you want to get us over the line in a tight game or final?

Who do we have that will grab the game by the scruff of the neck and drag us back in to the contest? There is no one, as has been shown time and time again this year and the year before etc etc.

North have a better midfield than us and they didn't bottom out did they? Their kids in the middle are superior to ours and we had picks before them on every occasion.