When looking at our list Baliey couldnt develop a player for shite. His softly, softly approach was crap. He mothered the players too much and we are paying for it now.

The players need to harden up. You dont need to be talented to chase, defend and be hard at the ball.

Regarding both of them it seems.......

Yep

But the players were exercised too hard before the season! You cant expect them to respond to hard training...

Edited April 14, 201213 yr by Norm Smith's Curse

Im sorry, I cant stop laughing. Surely this is all some belated April fools joke ???

Otherwise words fail. Think I might concentrate onmore important hiings... waxing the skis !!(and Im serious) why would anyone bother attending any more of this rubbish.

They can apply all the spin in the world, more than a Warney over but im still not buying it.

At this rate we might still cough up the Giants first points.. how would that be MFC ???

Im embarrassed.

Sometimes you lose , but youve played the game. Sometimes you just ought not bother turning up.

I just dont get it. Nor do any of my mates. We were supposed to take a littel step up this year, werent we. ?? This is snakes and ladders stuff and weve slipped all the way to the bottom.

What a rabble !!!

Whats the snow looking like this year ?? At least the pain suffered there is somewhat enjoyable

Very interesting game to watch.

I've noticed that a lot of people in various threads are praising our backline. I find this astounding. They were shocking today. Reiwoldt beat Frawley for the first time ever, Miller pantsed us and we leaked goals from the loose ball all day. There were a few moments where I seriously thought the whole unit should have offered to resign in shame. It was only Richmond's shocking set shot kicking that made the figures look a little better for them.

Looking past Richmond's poor set shots, we kept them in the game with some amazing judgement errors in the midfield. It could have been a very different story if only a few of those mistakes hadn't happened. Bail deciding that he should handball to Jones rather than kicking forward himself. Jamar passing behind the man and directly to an open Richmond player. Morton chucking a wobbly and letting D. Grimes have a free takeaway ball for the rebound. Clark playing on from a mark 10m from the goalmouth and getting nailed in the tackle. So many of these little moments could have gone our way with just a little more presence of mind and/or effort and turned the game so we were ahead at half time. IF that had happened, who knows how Q3 would have gone?

I did find a lot to be happy with, oddly enough.

Watts gave a good showing in the first half, although he faded. Took some good contested grabs and got involved.

Morton was good until the above little tantrum which seemed to flip the switch for him and shut down his football ability. Took a very good pressure mark early and got hit from behind for his trouble. If only he could do that all the time instead of the odd occasion.

Clark provided the highlight for the season thus far when he stoop like a colossus, throwing tacklers aside before breaking free, stepping another tackle and giving Sellar the easiest goal he will ever see.

Davey is improving and really seemed to get into the groove as the small defensive forward. I still saw a couple of nothing short kicks, but babysteps I guess.

Jones is a machine. The odd judgement error aside he was once again a pillar of strength in the middle.

Howe was brilliant.

Our midfield held it's own without Magner getting involved so much. For a half.

Whats the snow looking like this year ?? At least the pain suffered there is somewhat enjoyable

quite good i believe, might have to get the lib tech out and meet you up in the mountains! far away from this monstrosity

The Dees payed half descent footy in the first half and went home after half time. I dont know what happened at half time but whatever it was it needs to STOP.

Why is it so hard for the players to play a FULL game FFS. Its not that hard is it?

How about telling the players if you play half a game of footy you get half of your pay & if you play a full game you get all your pay.

Something needs to motivate these guys.

the panicky skill errors in the first quarter drove me to drink...

Jnrmac, you're a very angry, some would say too angry man. cale Morton is not responsible for all of Melbourne's woes. I thought he did ok today to be honest.

How many "players" that ran around like headless chooks will be in the starting 22 in 3 years?

Not many i believe, a Richmond supporter said we have a good list, i replied that it is a myth...

Just thinking .... Common denominator. Brian Royal, 2011 defensive coach our defense turned to [censored]. 2012 mid field coach our mid field turned to [censored] .....

He has at least maintained a consistent track record.

Sylvia and Beamer back soon please .

I was at the game today, it is painfully obvious that we lack:

• Pace
  
• Awareness
  
• Intensity
  
• Football smarts
  
• Fluidity
  
• Fitness
  
• Fight
  

And most importantly- Heart!

I've gone past being angry. I am upset and quite depressed.

How have we gone so far backwards? Fair dinkum have Gold Coast passed us? Seriously? A team in their second year is playing as a more cohesive unit then we are? This is a disgrace.

Our lack of pace is damning and quite evident. We always pass to a player who has an opponent on his tail- hospital handpasses if you will. We are looking for whoever is down the line on the boundry no matter how many opponents he may have to beat instead of lookig in-board (I remember Watts being almost dumbfounded at being over looked in a scenario that saw him being over looked for an option that was tagged boundry side)

We have no intensity, no one looks as if they are trying and willing to bust their guts. We drop our heads, we don't man up- and by that I mean we let players gather easy possessions (how many times I saw Nahas collect an easy get on the corner of the 50 metre arc dumbfounded me)- we aren't defensive side of ANYONE and once they get away our plodders get burnt!

I'm sick of these losers mascreading as AFL footballers: Morton, Davey, Batram, Rivers, McDonald- thanks for the efforts, you've had enough time to prove that you aren't up to it, now please find a future else where.

I am ebarrassed to wear my team's jumper! Ineed a change in the way this team goes about things because these efforts are ruining my weekends!

Ahh well, lets trot out the line that changes will be made for next week!

Yeah, the obligatory 2 or 3 changes.

This will quieten the masses for another week.

It would be nice for us all if we had a workable game plan.

It would please some of us if certain players stopped promising and started "doing".

Not gunna cop that "we didn't stick to our game plan" stuff from now on......bu115h1t.

And I would be thrilled if some obvious emotion was more noticable.....

a/ from the players and

b/ from the coaching staff!

I wish I had the cash to go to the snow this year, instead it's another bleak Demon winter for me.....

Great, now the Suns are showing signs of becoming a team that can keep up with the rest. Looks like we are only going to be beating GWS this year if we keep this up.

We have the worst midfield inthe comp bar none.

Its in the centre square thats the problem.

Our forward line and back line arent too bad.

If we can drop Green for form...then we should drop Grimes, Trengove and Tapscott too this week.

Ooh, a BIG positive for me. Did anyone else notice what started the little melee in our forward pocket? It was Magner, under the guise of trying to get the ball out when tackled, landing a couple of short rights on the head a Richmond player. Replay footage shows his frantic punching at the ball lift up and become a few good solid hits to the scone of the guy holding him. Beautifully done James.

Bartrams game on Nahas was terrible...he plays way too loose

Ooh, a BIG positive for me. Did anyone else notice what started the little melee in our forward pocket? It was Magner, under the guise of trying to get the ball out when tackled, landing a couple of short rights on the head a Richmond player. Replay footage shows his frantic punching at the ball lift up and become a few good solid hits to the scone of the guy holding him. Beautifully done James.

No it was MacKenzie and better still, he wound up with the free

I just don't understand how we stopped dead in the third quarter. The players would have received a major rev-up at half time based on previous third quarter efforts. Richmond stroll through with 9 goals and zero resistance. How does every player (excluding Jones from memory) stop dead like that. Soul-destroying stuff

LOLz...

lolz?

you mean lulz

and if you knew that you were typing, you'd apologise for being unable to understand the words you use and disappear.

Yes son, that's a hint

Time for the whole playing group to have a big heart to heart session, this list is not playing to any game plan and from what I have seen the first three weeks have not been lost by game plan. The game plan will work if players are willing to run, spread & chase.

It is the lack of run from the players and the lack of willing yourself to the contest to back your mate. Confidence is way down but that doesn't stop you running.

They may have trouble finding the heart to have the heart to heart. Once again totally out-thought, out ran, out smarted and out of heart.

Even in the dark depths of the 1970s and the 2007-10 era have I actually felt so absolutely sad about where our club is heading.

So very few to actually appear want to play for the club. Far too many seem to just want to run around and get a kick if it is easy, but to never lend a hand or offer an option.

I was at the game today, it is painfully obvious that we lack:

• Pace
  
• Awareness
  
• Intensity
  
• Football smarts
  
• Fluidity
  
• Fitness
  
• Fight
  

And most importantly- Heart!

I've gone past being angry. I am upset and quite depressed.

How have we gone so far backwards? Fair dinkum have Gold Coast passed us? Seriously? A team in their second year is playing as a more cohesive unit then we are? This is a disgrace.

Our lack of pace is damning and quite evident. We always pass to a player who has an opponent on his tail- hospital handpasses if you will. We are looking for whoever is down the line on the boundry no matter how many opponents he may have to beat instead of lookig in-board (I remember Watts being almost dumbfounded at being over looked in a scenario that saw him being over looked for an option that was tagged boundry side)

We have no intensity, no one looks as if they are trying and willing to bust their guts. We drop our heads, we don't man up- and by that I mean we let players gather easy possessions (how many times I saw Nahas collect an easy get on the corner of the 50 metre arc dumbfounded me)- we aren't defensive side of ANYONE and once they get away our plodders get burnt!

I'm sick of these losers mascreading as AFL footballers: Morton, Davey, Batram, Rivers, McDonald- thanks for the efforts, you've had enough time to prove that you aren't up to it, now please find a future else where.

I am ebarrassed to wear my team's jumper! Ineed a change in the way this team goes about things because these efforts are ruining my weekends!

You sum up my thoughts beautifully.

I wasn't going to go today but thought that we surely would at least have a red hot go v the Toiges.

The third quarter left me even more disillusioned than the recent weeks or recent seasons. There was just so little apparent effort, and no cohesion. The Toiges basically ran it out of the HB line and through the centre at will. I cringe to imagine what a team like Hawthorn, Carlton, Geelong would do to us if our defensive pressure remains so awful. Perish the thought.

And I just can't see anything happening in the immediate future to reverse this, which is even more depressing.

PS: Was Jack Grimes injured?

Watched from the top deck of the northern stand and from that angle it really exposes just how bad we are in every area of the game.

Clearances, spread, work rate, hardness, ability to tackle, no hard running, shocking skills, lack of heart, confidence and gameplan where most evident.

The players play without heart and soul and I won't be supporting them again until that changes. I have the feeling it won't change with this current group, which means a long road ahead.