Rhetoric is the great folly of our era. We were told we would be the hardest team to play against and we all breathed in the air of excitement following the Bailey era of so called attack (although I question its effectiveness in comparison to the top teams).

I supported Neeld's renaissance of the football department and swalled the summer reports.

Bang! the season started - with a whimper

The attack was in disarray and apart from Mitch Clarks super hero efforts it was as bad as I could ever remember.Where was this defense. Very very modest. Yes two of the seasons positives for me have been Nicholson and Tom McDonald, but defensive mentality is not better than it ever was. Maybe different, but certainly not effective.

The statistic that measures the necessary balance between attack and defence is percentage. At this point I am not expecting a Hawthorn like percentage, but one has to be around the 100% , perhaps 90 to 110 as the minimum acceptable. But 60 % is a red flag that something is horribly wrong.

Percentage measures the differential between attack and defence in the context of the other clubs. With such an easy draw, even with only two winds, we should be be at least in the 80's which is abysmal in its own right, but that would reflect the few wins we have had.

I am not expecting finals at the moment, not even a few years but I can no longer appease my patience with the excuse that the players are adjusting to the new game plan.

I must entertain questions about the coaching staff. The basic philosophy of, 'we will be the hardest team to play against' is pure rhetoric and has not an ounce of evidence to suggest it is progressing in that direction or will improve significantly in time. It may but one has to find signs of progress to place trust in this coaching team. I would love to, but it is not wrong to ask questions, it would be irresponsible not to.

Can anyone find a Melbourne percentage that has ever been this bad.....RED FLAG

Its not good. Aside from the manufactured upstarts we are the worst team around. Even the Bulldogs are way ahead of us in wins and their percentage though low looks respectable against ours.

This club has been making blunder after blunder for years now. Their were clearly off field problems that appear to be still lingering from a year or two ago. Our CEO has been linked to these problems on the back of a disgraceful earlier stint at this club in the late 1990's and a later unhappy tenure at Fremantle. Not the kind of CEO that radiates success,

In the difficult situation of last year the club chose to go with a mostly untried coaching team along with a former senior coach that had clearly lost his previous team but who are now are tearing up the competition.

We are not much different to the dis-functional days when Barassi was coaching us. When he was appointed he had the same brief as Neeld. That was to toughen up a team of serial softies and mould them into like his Carlton and North premiership teams. Instead he alienated and angered the players so much that they wouldn't play for him or the club. Same indicators exist, extremely poor skills, zero confidence, confused game plan, but plenty of promises that success is just around the corner. Through the turbulent Barassi era and mirrored in the current era its the players that get the blame whilst the club leadership escapes scrutiny. Neeld should still be given every chance but no where near the wasted five years Barassi got. Those above him that are responsible for our continued mediocrity have to go or nothing will change. Along with the CEO, some of the Board, Schwab's "Old Boys" like CC, TV and external meddler's like Gary Lyon who backs these incompetent's must go too.

Humbug. The one and only most important statistic is games won. I don't give a damn what our percentage is as long as we are winning more games than anyone else. Do that and we know that we are the best side in the competition.

Can anyone find a Melbourne percentage that has ever been this bad.....RED FLAG

1903, 1906, 1910, 1914, 1919, 1981, 1997, 2008

http://stats.rleague.com/afl/teams/melbourne/season.html

Rare company.

At least in '81 we could watch Flower play.