Frawley had his pants pulled down today....been very poor all year.

Cant get the ball out of the centre to save ourselves

Always playing one short with Mckenzie in the centre, as he doesnt get enough of the ball himself.

Your not going to win premierships with one dimensional players these days.

I'm right with you one this. Inconsequential possessions. Always on his knees

At least 25% of this list needs to be turned over by October.

A ridiculous comment. It cann't be done

We played on heart for the first half and then played like a bottom four side playing a top four side. Oh wait thats what it was.

Get a grip people.

Well said

Today was a clear demonstration of how we are under sized and not equipped to play the game as it is now played.

A real condemnation of Dean Bailey.

To their credit the boys showed some flair and skill early but could not compete all day against those big bodied forwards and midfielders.

As good a summary as anyone on here

P.S.- whoever the [censored] #11 umpire is, please go learn the rules you absolute hopeless cause. One of the worst umpires I have ever had the displeasure of seeing!

Whoever he is, he has absolutely no feel for the game....very poor performance but then again the same could be said for a lot of our players.

Barely passable either, especially when half of them go nowhere. Bail is in the same boat. Honest triers but C-graders with zero ability to hurt the opposition.

Until we get some real midfielders to replace guys like these we don't stand a hope in hades.

Spot on about Jordie and Bail. It pains me to say it because I think Jordie especially has a red hot dip but I don't think he would get a look in at a club like Geelong or Collingwood.

After last week's game against GWS, we are well and truly back to earth. Bring on the cleanout.

No excuse for the result, but can someone point me to where the rules of the game are written down. I need to go and re-learn them because I didn't understand half the decisions today.

Just ask Kevin Bartlett, he thinks he knows everything.

We were rubbish, and they did to us what they should have.

Too many list-cloggers getting games and doing nothing with them. Too many big Adelaide bodies shoving around pathetically weak Melbourne ones.

Sellar, Blease, Howe, Jones, Sylvia were good. No one else.

Edit: Jake Spencer was insipid.

Jake may be a modest player with 10 games under his belt, but insipid is crap, he busted his gut against against one of the competitions best

A ridiculous comment. It cann't be done

I wouldn't say that. They are not up to it.

Today was a clear demonstration of how we are under sized and not equipped to play the game as it is now played.

A real condemnation of Dean Bailey.

To their credit the boys showed some flair and skill early but could not compete all day against those big bodied forwards and midfielders.

Er Bails was coaching the opposition (he's their innovations coach) .Adelaide has 'innovated' an attacking free flowing game, or in other words has learnt a "new game plan" from the boring regimented rubbish that their previous coach (who now coaches at MFC) inflicted on them the last few years. Geez dont they seem to enjoy it

Bails will get to continue his innovating against Freo in the Finals....two teams with "new game plans" going at it hammer and tongs....unless of course they get knocked out by the Kangas, and their free flowing Bailesque game, before they meet.

Trust me on this one...Bails might have had flaws but this rubbish isnt his fault.

Er Bails was coaching the opposition (he's their innovations coach) .Adelaide has 'innovated' an attacking free flowing game, or in other words has learnt a "new game plan" from the boring regimented rubbish that their previous coach (who now coaches at MFC) inflicted on them the last few years. Geez dont they seem to enjoy it

Bails will get to continue his innovating against Freo in the Finals....two teams with "new game plans" going at it hammer and tongs....unless of course they get knocked out by the Kangas, and their free flowing Bailesque game, before they meet.

Trust me on this one...Bails might have had flaws but this rubbish isnt his fault.

Bailey had absolutely no idea of a defensive game. He's gone to a club that had an A1 defense. He's found a good fit. Now we need Neld to understand the game needs better attack. But he is a rookie coach and has a lot to learn. I think he lacks a lot of game sense, but unfortunately he's got to be given a couple of years to learn and we have got to suffer because of it.

Er Bails was coaching the opposition (he's their innovations coach) .Adelaide has 'innovated' an attacking free flowing game, or in other words has learnt a "new game plan" from the boring regimented rubbish that their previous coach (who now coaches at MFC) inflicted on them the last few years. Geez dont they seem to enjoy it

Bails will get to continue his innovating against Freo in the Finals....two teams with "new game plans" going at it hammer and tongs....unless of course they get knocked out by the Kangas, and their free flowing Bailesque game, before they meet.

Trust me on this one...Bails might have had flaws but this rubbish isnt his fault.

Of course the Adelaide players are enjoying adapting to a more attacking brand of footy. It works a treat once you've been thoroughly drilled in the defensive essentials. They can thank Neil Craig for that.

Meanwhile we've got years of catching up to do owing to the bruise-free pansies Bailey coddled in his largely wasted time at the helm.

Edited August 26, 201213 yr by Range Rover

We were dreadful today and there were very few who could walk in to the rooms after the game with their head held high.

It was bordering on shameful.

Cannot work out what Gysberts has to do when othersa get endless opportunities.

Needs a tank, no good playing if you can't run out games.

It's not unusual to turn over about 25% of a list in a year (including retirements, rookies etc), but I'm not convinced that 50% of our list is that bad that it should be completely changed. In all fairness, very little, if any, mention has been made of coaching in this thread - Brian Royal has been discussed in another thread - I think at least some responsibility has to be taken by the coaches (without getting into the familiar coaching debate).

Yep 'Hardnut' , in some ways you may be right but any club will nearly always turn over 5 or 6 players in any given year . If we turn over 10 this year and 5 or 6 next year that will be a total of 15 or 16 . Not far off 20 (which is about 50% of a list) . We've still got quite a number of players who are out of contract and ........there might be 1 or 2 contracted players who may be traded out .

For what it's worth I reckon the criticism of Royal is a bit odd . How do any of us know how much influence he has ? Same goes for focusing criticism at 1 or 2 players . We've only had 1 legitimate win this year because as a team we're clearly not good enough . Blaming one player or another achieves nothing . It's a team game .

It should be remembered that previously , our players have not been trained up to proper AFL fitness levels . This is according to Misson , Craig and Neeld . That's where it gets tricky when evaluating any given player . It can't be the players fault if the previous FD weren't getting them fit enough . Hopefully the current FD take this into account .

Also , our players have had to learn a whole new style of playing the game . We had a style which had very little defensive aspects and accountability . Our 2nd and 3rd efforts were poor and our contested ball and clearances were not up to scratch .................and now the focus has gone onto these areas with the new regime . Once again , the current FD need to take this into account when evaluating players .

As an example of re-building a list , Hardwick turned over about 28 players in 3 years . For proof , google up their 2009 list and see who's left . This , of course , was after Wallace's re-build . Let's face it , apart from a few glimpses in 2010 , we've been a poor side since 2006 .

However , on the flip side , if our club were to pick up 5 or 6 experienced players then everything changes . These players must be hungry for success , know how to play accountable footy and have a big attacking side to their game . Excellent kicking skills being a prerequisite ! Might be asking a bit too much in one trade period but that has got to be the club's goal . There's still enough free agents available and we should be in the market to trade vigorously for other experienced players who aren't free agents . We can get it done .

And that's not taking into account who we pick up in the National Draft . Although Viney and co might take a few years before they are consistently good very good great players

Edited August 26, 201213 yr by Macca

Er Bails was coaching the opposition (he's their innovations coach) .Adelaide has 'innovated' an attacking free flowing game, or in other words has learnt a "new game plan" from the boring regimented rubbish that their previous coach (who now coaches at MFC) inflicted on them the last few years. Geez dont they seem to enjoy it

Bails will get to continue his innovating against Freo in the Finals....two teams with "new game plans" going at it hammer and tongs....unless of course they get knocked out by the Kangas, and their free flowing Bailesque game, before they meet.

Trust me on this one...Bails might have had flaws but this rubbish isnt his fault.

Wrong on most counts.

Of course the Adelaide players are enjoying adapting to a more attacking brand of footy. It works a treat once you've been thoroughly drilled in the defensive essentials. They can thank Neil Craig for that.

Meanwhile we've got years of catching up to do owing to the bruise-free pansies Bailey coddled in his largely wasted time at the helm.

Correct.

Dean Bailey is the number 1 reason in a long list of reasons why we're pathetic. And it's the dominant one.

Turned it off in the 3rd quarter. Just more of the same rubbish witnessed all year.

I thought we looked alright on paper, that's probably the worst part. Might be time to start rethinking the actual ability attached to names like Grimes, Trengove, McKenzie, Garland..

Thant's good the club doeesn't need pessimists, especially demonland

Learn to spell hero

The club isnt getting my money any more without actually giving me some value for it.

Whats Demonland got to do with my membership renewal?

Stupid comment.

Your not concerned by the fact that players supposedly playing for their careers had their pants completely pulled down in every department from half time. Not even a whimper?

Not really, it makes the job much easier, if they had played their guts out and saved their careers our coaches may have been goaded into keeping on players who over a long period of time have proved they can't cut it and we would indure years of performances like this one... I'm hopeful we may finally get some people in who don't ever need to play to save their careers.

Our midfield... OMG our midfield.

SO SO SO bad, it was like watching a training drill.

I'm shocked that we can have a senior coach who was a premiership midfield coach, and yet we go through long periods in a match where we literally do not touch the ball at the centre bounce. How many times today did the Crows just pounce on the footy and go? Embarrassing stuff.

Also does anyone know why Rivers was subbed off? Injured I assume, because he was playing well.

I'd be disappointing if he wasn't with us next year. One of the few senior players this year who have been consistent and showed good leadership.

P.S.- whoever the [censored] #11 umpire is, please go learn the rules you absolute hopeless cause. One of the worst umpires I have ever had the displeasure of seeing!

I think you have answered the midfield question, we have a premiership midfield coach proving that you can't polish a turd, it doesn't matter how well drilled you are in positioning, ball movement and tagging if you are constantly pushed aside, butcher your disposal and can't stick a single tackle. Its the cattle, thats the fact, one more game and we can start analysing how well Neeld does in recitifying it with trades/drafting.

PS. Totally agree about the umpiring, how is it possible to have a free paid to a player, the opposition kick it 50 metres away preventing said player from moving the ball on to free players in the forward line without having a 50 metre penalty paid? This happened 3 times at pivotal times today!

We played on heart for the first half and then played like a bottom four side playing a top four side. Oh wait thats what it was.

Get a grip people.

Yeah that's right. We beat this mob by 96 points last year. Oh wait that's a 165 point turnaround. Somethings wrong ....hmmmm...

Get a grip yourself. We are a disgrace. Its demoralising and embarrassing to watch the crap they dish up. Thank F the season is over (well next week but as far as I am concerned it is)

Er Bails was coaching the opposition (he's their innovations coach) .Adelaide has 'innovated' an attacking free flowing game, or in other words has learnt a "new game plan" from the boring regimented rubbish that their previous coach (who now coaches at MFC) inflicted on them the last few years. Geez dont they seem to enjoy it

Bails will get to continue his innovating against Freo in the Finals....two teams with "new game plans" going at it hammer and tongs....unless of course they get knocked out by the Kangas, and their free flowing Bailesque game, before they meet.

Trust me on this one...Bails might have had flaws but this rubbish isnt his fault.

Amazing how a team can learn a new game plan in one season. Essendon did it in 2011, Adelaide did it in 2012, Wet Coke did it in 2010 but us - we are taking years and years to learn one. any one. We havent got a flipping clue and are a disgrace to the game.

Learn to spell hero

The club isnt getting my money any more without actually giving me some value for it.

Whats Demonland got to do with my membership renewal?

Stupid comment.

Actually a very valid comment, Ding Bat

Totally agree on the umpires today. We were always outclassed, but they gave the Crows five goals through dubious frees by my count. Shocking display.

On other fronts...

Jake Spencer is improving, but did anyone else notice that EVERY hitout went to the same spot at centre bounces? The crows were setting up to run into that spot and got there before our mids every time.

Luke Tapscott looked really good in the first half. He faded a bit, but he took some really good grabs and gave us good forward 50 entries.

Not only was Frawley pretty awful on Walker today, but he was constantly running off and leaving him unattended. Watts was left to drop back and try to out-wrestle the guy on a few occasions. Dude needs to go back to school and re-learn how to defend.

When someone has the ball on a tight angle in the forward line, our guys in the goalsquare set up a few meters behind their opponents. How the hell are you going to do anything useful from there? No wonder we hardly ever take marks close to goal.

I liked seeing Watts moved forward in the last, but I wish they would use him properly. Pretty sure he was only hit on the lead once. He can run rings around Rutten, so why were they bombing long and asking him to outmuscle an All Australian Gorilla?

Overall, it was a pretty annoying day at the footy. We started well and put up a fight for a quarter and a half, but when it went bad it went really bad. We saw some amazingly bad errors, often from players who should know better. Our forward structure and tactics continue to be a massive concern (why the hell do we keep looking to take set shots from the pockets?). We are desperate for some quality in the midfield to help out Jones. Even though we were up against a pretty bloody good side, I am not at all happy with the team today.

Actually a very valid comment, Ding Bat

Thats you best work im guessing?

So only paid up members are allowed to post here? I wont be donating any more to this pathetic excuse for a football club. You can continue wasting your money any way you see fit. DH

Get a grip yourself. We are a disgrace. Its demoralising and embarrassing to watch the crap they dish up. Thank F the season is over (well next week but as far as I am concerned it is)

You see what you want to see. We beat a top 4 side in uncontested possessions, were only down 19 on uncontested possessions, and for all the mistakes, turnovers, outgunned midfield, and lack of fitness, we equalled them for inside 50's and tackles. And this with a large chunk of our list out of action and 14 players with less than 50 games.

and ...

"Jay Clark ‏@ClarkyHeraldSun

Saw signs of life in Melbourne today. First half ball use and outside run impressive in parts. Just got smashed in ruck and down back."

But carry on.

Edited August 26, 201213 yr by bing181