Demons the early season stinkers - Peter Ryan

[Young Dee 1,303]

Thought this was a great article from the AFL website, nothing ground breaking but just a good summary/analysis.

Demons the early season stinkers

By Peter Ryan8:01am AEDT Thursday, April 4, 2013

The Demons haven't won any of their opening pair of games since 2005

We need 22 players to stand up and take responsibility for their own individual performance

Nathan Jones

THERE ARE three questions Melbourne fans are still asking themselves
after the weekend's debacle when Port Adelaide thrashed the Demons by 79
points:

• Why is Melbourne so bad?
• How does it fix the mess?
• Does it have the people or resources to achieve success again, ever?

In a football club all the answers have to be found under the triple spotlight applied by fans, the board, and the media.

The Demons' performance in round one was pathetic but it was nothing new.

Melbourne, amazingly, has not won in round one or two since 2005. In 15 games it has lost 14 and drawn one.

It finished 5th in 2006 and then 14th, 16th, 16th, 12th, 13th and
16th. It has never been higher than 12th going into round three in that
time.

ROUND 1-2 SUCCESS RATES: 2006-2013

Win% Club G W L D

87 Geelong 15 13 2 0

67 Collingwood 15 10 5 0

67 West Coast 15 10 5 0

67 Western Bulldogs 15 10 5 0

60 Carlton 15 9 6 0

60 Essendon 15 9 6 0

60 St Kilda 15 9 6 0

53 Sydney Swans 15 8 6 1

53 Port Adelaide 15 8 7 0

53 Brisbane Lions 15 8 7 0

50 Adelaide 15 7 8 0

47 Hawthorn 15 7 8 0

40 Fremantle 15 6 9 0

27 North Melbourne 15 4 11 0

25 Gold Coast Suns 4 1 3 0

13 Richmond 2 12 1

0 GWS 3 0 3 0

0 Melbourne 15 0 14 1

So to the key questions, with answers that might give the despairing Demons some hope:

Why is Melbourne so bad?

It has made poor list management decisions over a long period.

Since 2003 its top 10 draft picks have been Colin Sylvia, Brock
McLean, Cale Morton, Jack Watts, Tom Scully, Jack Trengove and now, the
first under a new regime, Jimmy Toumpas.

Sylvia has promised continually and not delivered often enough. He
has 21 rounds to match his efforts at training in a game and perform
consistently.

McLean left. Morton went backwards at a rate of knots and was traded to the Eagles.

Watts can't regularly win a contest but appears to be trying to develop a competitive instinct under Neil Craig's direction.

Scully left. Trengove struggled last season but works hard, has a
competitive attitude and is only 21. He's also one of Melbourne's
co-captains.

Toumpas could be among the club's top 15 players, already.

Jack Viney, a father-son pick, definitely IS among its top 10.

Melbourne also has Jesse Hogan waiting in the wings.

Consistently, in recent times, the club's best players in the opening round have been first-gamers.

Viney and Matt Jones were two of the team's best on Sunday. James
Magner earned two Brownlow votes on debut in 2012 and in 2010 it was Tom
Scully and Jack Trengove who were among the best in their first games.

Such evidence should be damning for the established players.

Nathan Jones has been good in that time and a few others, including
Jack Grimes, can hold their heads high, but Mark Jamar and Aaron Davey
(who did not play last Sunday but has been working hard) have not
performed consistently in the opening rounds and other players from
their generation rarely rarely have either.

James McDonald was an exception yet the club called time on his career too early. That was a previous regime's mistake.

Cameron Bruce left and Brad Miller found a new home. The departure of those three seemed to leave a leadership void.

Too often Melbourne has stood on the runway ready to launch but a
huge gust of wind (think the Brisbane Lions' demolition of them in round
one, 2012) has seen the mission aborted.

The fact is too many of Melbourne's senior players have been
conditional – good when the going is good, but quick to throw in the
towel when they start getting beaten.

The margins – both winning and losing over the past five years – are one indication of the truth of such a statement.

It means naming a consistently strong Melbourne player over 25 years of age in recent times is difficult.

Again the conditional approach was taken on Sunday, with last year's
best and fairest winner Nathan Jones admitting as much on Wednesday.

"Clearly our urgency and competitiveness wasn't up to the standard we expect, " Jones said.

Anyone who saw talented defender (and former All Australian) James
Frawley jogging along the MCG Members' wing trailing his opponent Justin
Westhoff in the first 10 minutes of the game would have been mortified
by his lack of urgency.

He probably left the MCG more quickly on Boxing Day.

Somehow the presumption that may have been made – that no player
would need firing up for round one of the season – proved erroneous.

Can you imagine a player from the Sydney Swans, Hawthorn, Geelong,
Collingwood, or the West Coast Eagles accepting such an effort?

Read Daniel Hannebery's explanation to AFL.com.au as to why he
backed back into a pack during last year's Grand Final: "The mark
wasn't really anything special," said Hannebery. "It is expected of us,
to consistently play in the side."

That sort of attitude has not been a mark of Melbourne teams in the past five or six years.

When no-one could win the ball early in the game on Sunday, most crumbled like a Weetbix hit with a hammer.

"[it's] one of the worst losses I've played in due to [the fact] I
was expecting us to perform to a level that I saw [equal] to the
improvement I saw in the pre-season," Jones said.

Mark Neeld understands such efforts have consequences.

"Some things happen that make players and make football clubs uneasy –
that’s the way it goes. It’s not nice, but that’s the industry we’re
in. It’s a fierce industry," Neeld told the Demons' website.

Unfortunately the principle Melbourne must adhere to is one most supporters are fed up with: cultural change takes time.

Last year Melbourne was outscored in the second half of games by
71.26. Last Sunday, it conceded 8.12 to 1.4 after half time, showing no
improvement in an area it must have targeted over the summer.

Viney addressed the group after the round one thrashing, a fair task for a first-gamer.

That action brought back memories of Joel Selwood's arrival at
Geelong in 2007 when he told the Cats' perennial under-performers he was
there to win a premiership.

His words made the talented senior players [censored] up their ears. But
it took until round 5, 2007 after the Cats lost three of its first five
games, for Geelong's Paul Chapman to tell everyone he was sick of
losing.

On that pivotal day when the team lost at home to North Melbourne, Chapman and Selwood were among the Cats' best.

The Cats have not looked back since that day.

You could argue Selwood embarrassed others into action.

Perhaps such a time arrives when enough is enough.

How does Melbourne fix this mess?

It needs to believe in the people in charge, back hard decisions and hold its nerve.

But it also needs to be hard on each other. And not give people outs or excuses.

As Neil Craig said on melbournefc.com.au, the club now has to earn
back the supporters' and members' trust. And it needs to understand what
led to a defeat of that nature.

Having belief in each other doesn't mean the people in charge don't
refine their behavior, improve in certain areas or ask difficult
questions.

Melbourne has backed a coaching group to orchestrate change and drive high standards.

It will continue down that path so the choice is for players to
embrace it or continue to accept mediocrity. If they don't like aspects
of the teaching they need to be mature enough to raise the issue and
improve, not sulk and rebel as some have in the past.

Some larrikin behavior can be tolerated as long as the job is being done.

Greater risk needs to be encouraged, as long as the basic competitiveness component is fulfilled.

Neeld needs to develop a poker face to use in trying circumstances. And still expose the care he has for his players.

Grimes said Neeld had told his players he knew they could be better
than they had showed on Sunday as their training sessions had
demonstrated the right level of commitment.

This is not bluff. Nowadays training efforts can be measured to assess how close they become to replicating a game.

"He's not trying to reinvent the wheel," Grimes said about Neeld's response to the loss.

Jones has no doubt as to the direction in which the Demons need to proceed.

"We need 22 players to stand up and take responsibility for their own individual performance," Jones said.

The successes must be highlighted, however small. Hope and optimism
can be found even in the darkest times. Viney, Jones and Hogan have
offered that already this pre-season.

Does it have the people or resources to achieve success again?

Neeld is in the toughest position imaginable. He is a person with
great experience, but no obvious successes at the highest level beyond
four years as an assistant under Mick Malthouse in a premiership era.

He can't point to results to quieten the more rabid voices.

That's why he needs all the voices of substance backing him. That
does not mean the president. It means Neil Craig taking a higher
profile, asserting confidence in the Demons' path and outlining the
challenges. Craig left the Crows in good enough shape to surge back up
the ladder. He knows what good coaching looks like.

David Misson has seen success at the Sydney Swans and St Kilda.
Melbourne is a big challenge but his experience must be remembered when
questions are raised about Neeld.

Collingwood skipper Nick Maxwell, who was coached by Neeld at the
Magpies, endorsed his former line coach again this week on radio.

Part of the reason Chris Dawes joined Melbourne was the coaching group.

Of course, the margin on Sundays was not the issue. There will be
wide margins again this year. It was the manner in which it got wider.

Without competitive spirit no game plan will work. With it, most game-plans are a chance.

"You can have all the game-plans in the world and all the systems in
the world and all the fitness in the world but if you don't go out with
that competitive spirit, it all means nothing," Grimes said.

"On the weekend…we didn't have 22 players compete with the urgency required," Jones said.

If things are to change that must stop.

There are models to follow.

And it needs trusted people in positions of authority to carry them out.

[DeeZee 7,296]

The time is now......no more spiritless performances.

I expect nothing less.

[Satyriconhome 10,339]

Apart from a couple of cheap shots an excellent article, and it puts the Footy Dept rightly as the forward driver

[MH. 88]

Apart from a couple of cheap shots an excellent article, and it puts the Footy Dept rightly as the forward driver

What cheap shots?

[The heart beats true 17,808]

"Craig left the Crows in good enough shape to surge back up the ladder. He knows what good coaching looks like."

Or, he under performed so poorly with an experienced list that it only took a first year coach to see them rise to the Prelim. There is a touch of revisionist history to that line. But, this one was better....

"Brad Miller found a new home...seemed to leave a leadership void."

I think Richmond fans saw what it took Melbourne 8 years to figure out. He wasn't up to it. You can't lead if you can't get a game in a struggling side.

Aside from that some valid points, but really it's nothing new. Our anger and shame must sell newspapers though. New story everyday with essentially very little new info.

[DemonWA 3,884]

"Craig left the Crows in good enough shape to surge back up the ladder. He knows what good coaching looks like."

Or, he under performed so poorly with an experienced list that it only took a first year coach to see them rise to the Prelim. There is a touch of revisionist history to that line. But, this one was better....

"Brad Miller found a new home...seemed to leave a leadership void."

I think Richmond fans saw what it took Melbourne 8 years to figure out. He wasn't up to it. You can't lead if you can't get a game in a struggling side.

Aside from that some valid points, but really it's nothing new. Our anger and shame must sell newspapers though. New story everyday with essentially very little new info.

I totally agree with the comment about miller, McDonald and Bruce - loosing all of them at once was like the Australian Cricket team loosing Punter & Hussey. No wise heads left to carry the leadership load

[deanox 9,662]

Nothing like losing players of the calibre of Ponting and Hussey, it will be more like the current team losing Shane Watson, Ed Cowan and Mitchell Johnson.

Yeah the team will have a hole left by these "leaders" but the leaders are second rate, there by default and wouldn't have been leading, let alone got a game in previous era's.

[Pennant St Dee 12,669]

"Craig left the Crows in good enough shape to surge back up the ladder. He knows what good coaching looks like."

Or, he under performed so poorly with an experienced list that it only took a first year coach to see them rise to the Prelim. There is a touch of revisionist history to that line. But, this one was better....

"Brad Miller found a new home...seemed to leave a leadership void."

I think Richmond fans saw what it took Melbourne 8 years to figure out. He wasn't up to it. You can't lead if you can't get a game in a struggling side.

Aside from that some valid points, but really it's nothing new. Our anger and shame must sell newspapers though. New story everyday with essentially very little new info.

Or he took them from an underperformed team under Gary AYRES to destroy us in one of his first games as coach in 2004 when we were sitting pretty in the Top 4. Took his team to consecutive prelims in 2005/06 where they went down to a very strong Meth Coast side and followed up with consecutive finals appearances where they went out to late goals kicked against them by Buddy (vs Hawks) & Jack Anthony (vs Pies)

[jnrmac 19,895]

LOSING BRUCE was not losing a leader. He wasn't a leaders bootlace. We got hammered plenty of times with him in the side on not contributing. Miller off field maybe but not on

[stevethemanjordan 6,952]

Apart from a couple of cheap shots an excellent article, and it puts the Footy Dept rightly as the forward driver

You are sick.

Any sign of criticism toward anything to do with the MFC and you yell fire.

What cheap shots? Everything is spot on. Accept it. Stop being part of the [censored] problem.

[T-34 409]

Good article.

Well written making well thought out points.

A fair, considered journalist - we should have him stuffed and preserved as the last of his kind.

[Bobby McKenzie 2,322]

LOSING BRUCE was not losing a leader. He wasn't a leaders bootlace. We got hammered plenty of times with him in the side on not contributing. Miller off field maybe but not on

Never saw a game where Bruce didn't give 110%. Despite his supreme fitness he was absolutely spent after every game. Yes, you can criticise his kicking etc but not his endeavour. He was a leader off the field providing an excellent role model to the younger guys by his high training standards and general personal qualities. A bad move to let him go so easily. Losing Junior at the same time was such a mistake and we certainly paid for it in the ensuing seasons.

[Deecisive 1,709]

When you look at our win lose ratio for the first rounds, how the hell could the port demolition be such a surprise to everyone. with that record, winning should have been the surprise.