Right. I'm sick of all the end of the world predictions coming out. (Although if the Mayans are right, I'm going to be brutally [censored] off at my father for making me deal with THIS for the short span of my life).

There are positives to come out of Saturday.

The more cynical of you are probably wondering what the hell could be positive about getting done by 40-odd points by the team that finished 15th on the ladder in 2011.

Well then...

- Magner. Seriously. He goes like an Evo X. His disposal isn't great by foot (3-4 helicopters) but who cares when he drags it out so often?

- Watts. Had a good game. Was quiet in the second half, but who wasn't?

- Grimes. Good first half.

- Neeld and the list. Remember, this is Neeld's first game as coach. First. Game. He's going to learn from this. He's also going to be working out what went wrong and who is going wrong for the club. The board put faith in Neeld. A select group of individuals too, including a gentleman by the name of Jim Stynes.

- On that Neeld is going to pick guys who do what he wants and get rid of those who don't.

- Furthermore, the players will learn. Remember the video of Neeld with Pendlebury? I expect every single player will have their individual episode with Brown, with Royal, with Rawlings (or the line coaches) this week. Their own footage cut up. Not just of their play when they got the pill, but when they didn't - the flaws in our zone from the angle kick will be stamped out.

- Those that don't adapt will be shipped out.

- Those that do will be better players for the MFC.

Remember West Coast 2008-2010. Remember Hawthorn before them. It can all change very quickly.

Nice one Striker .

No point in dwelling in misery for too long .

"Keep calm and carry on" as they said in the blitz.

We are smashing the contested possession stats... highest of any team for the round. Surely that gives us something to build from.

http://m.news.com.au/AFL/fi994820.htm

Well said, one hot day does not make a summer

In the first half the Lions often looked up and had no where to go.

One advantage of being soundly beaten by the lions is that our expectations of the year will be more realistic than they were prior to Saturday

Optimism

No place in this forum. Ban him!

More positives: we have Petterd, Tapscott, Strauss, Morton, and Tom Mac warming up at Casey, with Liam and Col to return in the next month or two.

Building pressure to improve on the 22 every week...

...

... and Jack Viney next year

In the first half the Lions often looked up and had no where to go.

Agree, by the end of the first half, I had more confidence it our defensive capabilities and ability to apply pressure on the ball carrier that I had at any stage last year. Unfortunately, they couldn't sustain it, nor get much fluidity when attacking...

Agree its all part of the learning curve

Agree, by the end of the first half, I had more confidence it our defensive capabilities and ability to apply pressure on the ball carrier that I had at any stage last year. Unfortunately, they couldn't sustain it, nor get much fluidity when attacking...

Probably a combination of learning and a fitness thing.

One positive is that the Lions may not be that bad. The last two times(once in China) we have beaten them was purely because of some Jurrah magic. I thought they were the better team against us last year at the G, but we just edged them out. They were also very competetive in many games last season without the wins. I would say their season last year was actually better than ours due to the consistency of performance.

I know we all feel like we should be ahead of them in development, however they at least have two future hall of famers on their list(obviously Brown didn't play), whilst we have none. Also, they are into the third year with the same coach, and have been out of the finals for longer than us.

I've calmed down a little by now, and can see where you are coming from. We are using a vastly different game plan, which was working reasonably effectively in the 1st quarter. I have come to the conclusion that as frustrating as it is, we need to be patient and give this new game plan however long to mastered. Any comparison to other teams with new coaches are almost irrelevant as our game plan has changed far more vastly than any other.

It would seem Neeld is only releasing the game plan in iterations, with the first being to pretty much win some contested ball, run and spread from the contest, and as a last resort go long around the boundary to a contest. The spread from the contest was non-existent on Saturday and we relied far too heavily on the long bombing around the boundary. Hopefully we see improvement each week.

But there are still issues with the mindset within the player group, mainly around the senior members, but I'll keep that for other threads.

So agree, i read something today about one of the posters sons not wanting to be a demon supporter any more. A little harsh i thought.

My dad has always told me that being a melbourne supporter was character building. we will do just fine in the future.

hen we put in a bad performance I agree it hurts but realistically there isnt much we can do and we just have to hope for the best. We'll get there.

Where are the Watts bashers this week?

Another positive is that in comparing Mark Neeld's coaching career with Dean Bailey's at the same point, we're 1.5 NAB cup wins and about 65 points ahead compared to where we were one game in to Bailey's tenure. Is that enough? Hardly, but it's optimism, which is what this thread's all about.

I will stick my neck out here and say that such an emotional build up to the game that went on all week would definelty take its toll on any human being and to tire after half time and drop away like that was in my opinion definetly related to the build up in the week .

Grief is a very real and strong emotion that takes time and affects people in different ways , 22 players some of them would have been affected in a negative way no matter how professional one might think he is nobody really knows how they would respond until put in the situation

We are smashing the contested possession stats... highest of any team for the round. Surely that gives us something to build from.

http://m.news.com.au/AFL/fi994820.htm

Is there a comparison stat for our ranking for so tested ball last year overall?

If sustained, surely getting the hard ball is a great starting point.

We are smashing the contested possession stats... highest of any team for the round. Surely that gives us something to build from.

http://m.news.com.au/AFL/fi994820.htm

Hopefully if we can learn some basic skills then this will result in us leading in uncontested possession as well. Just need to teach our players how to kick and hit a target instead of bombing it 40m up in the air with a helicopter.

Does anyone have a link to the quarter by quarter stats? I'd be curious to see what our possessions were like in the 3rd quarter. It seemed like we didn't have a kick for the first 10 minutes.

I do agree with the sentiment of this thread; the weekend gave us some reasons for optimism. Hopefully this week will see some more positives added to your list, Striker.

Nice one Striker .

No point in dwelling in misery for too long .

"Keep calm and carry on" as they said in the blitz.

Gold!

The coach's will have a lot of video footage to work with this week.

Some senior players may be able to book holidays soon.

We are smashing the contested possession stats... highest of any team for the round. Surely that gives us something to build from.

http://m.news.com.au/AFL/fi994820.htm

Not sure where those stats came from.....my reading of it is we came equal 4th (alongside 4 other clubs) for round one (still a fab effort) and yes, 2 rungs above Brissy (another plus).

However, to have a good chance of winning you also need to perform in the uncontested of course. And unfortunately we came stone motherless last in the comp on this one, Brissy smashing us in 2nd place with their run and spread. Brissy's effective disposal percentage cacked on us as well, coming in an amazing 2nd behind the Coasters, with us sitting in equal last alongside the Cats (maybe this is actually a positive ? )

http://www.afl.com.au/statistics/tabid/73/default.aspx#page=team&year=2012&roundid=1085&fixtureid=0&teamid=31

Nice effort Striker.

WIth no disrespect to Magner's first up effort, if he is our best player week in week out then its damning indictment of our supposed "potential" stars including recruitment, development and coaching.

There is certainly some allowance for Neeld as it was his first AFL game as Coach but its a terrible reflection of many of our senior players.

I hope the strain of Jurrah's arrest and the slow and inevitable passing of Stynes had an adverse impact that should hopefully wane as we move further into the season.

I can't comment on this thread before I look up the word optimism in the dictionary I'll get back to you on this one.

I am hope the strain of Jurrah's arrest and the slow and inevitable passing of Stynes had an adverse impact that should hopefully wane as we move further into the season.

This. The players don't live in a bubble, and the constant media pressure due to these events has to have taken its toll.

Due to limited supporter base of the MFC, surely these guys aren't as used to this amount of attention from the media! Better for them to experience this now, as opposed to when they make a Prelim (or similar), and are completely taken off-guard.

The Southern Stand has been given a nice facelift and they have extended the bar in the Hassett room, along with the addition of some new LCD screens

But seriously, this thread was needed Striker.