INTO DARKNESS: THE BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS

[Elliott64 2]

Why when McDonald pull out before the game did the promote Davey? Davis was one of the emergencies and after 3 years they could not give him a game. Why do we have him on the list?

Go back to the Nab cup where we played all the kids at Renmark and we beat Port Adelaide.

FFS give the kids ago.......cannot be any worse

[P-man 13,366]

I'm watching the end of the match again. The Suns players don't even look that thrilled with their first ever win in Melbourne. They did it so easily from the first bounce it probably felt like they just beat a crappy QAFL side.

[Norm Smith's Curse 2,423]

Our culture is poisoned.

[Little Richard 6,216]

144 attempted tackles, 39 laid. Pathetic. What happened to our training sessions with the Storm?

[rolling fog 1,207]

Neeld press conference is being replayed in full on SEN right now!

[Robot Devil 1,895]

144 attempted tackles, 39 laid. Pathetic. What happened to our training sessions with the Storm?

I'm assuming we played the role of tackling dummies for the Storm.

[Soidee 1,496]

I was at the game. Not sure how many games I have seen over 45 years but one thing was very clear today.

This group do not play for the coach. This season is up there with the worst performed MFC teams in 50 years, and I can see more supporters giving up as every week passes.

[rolling fog 1,207]

Neeld: "We just couldn't match the body strength of Gold Coast"

If only a few months, someone had told me this is where we would be at - I would've eaten my hat!

[71 Molloy 266]

144 attempted tackles, 39 laid. Pathetic. What happened to our training sessions with the Storm?

We called 'touched' but the GC17 players kept running away......

[Curry & Beer 5,444]

i'm not happy, i'm not defending Neeld and I'm not making excuses.. BUT there are 2 things keeping me from jumping off the Westgate

a). 53.1 games average experience

b). swap 10 players: Jamar, Clark, Trengove, Grimes, Watts, T.MacDonald and perhaps one day Toumpas, Hogan, Barry and Blease.. with Nicholson, Sellar, Spencer, McKenzie, Byrnes, Bail, Davey etc

that's all the positivity I can muster

[Ted Lasso 18,787]

Neeld: "We just couldn't match the body strength of Gold Coast"

If only a few months, someone had told me this is where we would be at - I would've eaten my hat!

You have got to be joking?

[Jaded No More 67,822]

I am so sick of hearing Mark Neeld have no bloody idea. FFS his excuses are so pathetic. How dumb do you think we are?

Give us something. Give us hope. If you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel, how can we?

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

Neeld press conference is being replayed in full on SEN right now!

He just mentioned "experience" and "development phase" in the one sentence.

[Curry & Beer 5,444]

You sound surprised? We have been doing it for a year and a half six years now.

Neeld is a dead man walking.

surprised, no I haven't been in a cave on the moon

you acknowledge six years, four of those were Bailey's, before that Daniher had his sides play badly every second year... I still question to what extent it is Neeld's fault.. hard to say

[Curry & Beer 5,444]

24, Falling over after a marking attempt, just lay on the ground, effort over, this was apparent all day, early Robbo at his best.

26. Yep, tackling around the neck, do we have a tackling coach.

28,Howe owns the ball, whether he is best positioned or not, plays like a ten year old, and kicks like a five year old, and the crowd loves it.

did not appreciate him poleaxing tappy, if you are going to do that you had better mark the thing

[skills32 229]

A list of the basic errors Melbourne players make over and over again:

• Not watching the hips when tackling
• Not turning around quickly enough to face forward after taking a mark
• Not working back quickly enough to kick over the mark
• Not shepherding
• Not marking their opponent
• Kicking and handpassing to a stationary teammate
• Kicking and handpassing to a teammate under pressure
• Calling for the ball when stationary
• Calling for the ball when under pressure
• Kicking to where a teammate is, not where he will be
• Not talking to one and other
• Not being front-and-centre when ball kicked to a contested situation
• General poor kicking skills
• General poor handpassing skills
• General poor marking skills
• Not sprinting over first two to three metres with and without ball

Feel free to add your own.

In other words not playing footie but some thing else.

[Jaded No More 67,822]

He just mentioned "experience" and "development phase" in the one sentence.

I wish I could smack the back of his head every time he said these things.

It's worse than Bailey's "competitiveness".

Stop talking bullish!t cliches. It does nothing to make me think you have any idea how to coach.

Imagine if this is the sort of crap he feeds the players. No wonder we are defeated in the warm up.

[Jerry Lundergard 420]

24, Falling over after a marking attempt, just lay on the ground, effort over, this was apparent all day, early Robbo at his best.

26. Yep, tackling around the neck, do we have a tackling coach.

28,Howe owns the ball, whether he is best positioned or not, plays like a ten year old, and kicks like a five year old, and the crowd loves it.

29. Picking up the ball and not getting rid of it in the one action. Our guys like to pick it up.....what am I going to do with it now........[censored] I am tackled......opportunity to clear the ball out of congestion over.

[Curry & Beer 5,444]

I wish I could smack the back of his head every time he said these things.

It's worse than Bailey's "competitiveness".

Stop talking bullish!t cliches. It does nothing to make me think you have any idea how to coach.

Imagine if this is the sort of crap he feeds the players. No wonder we are defeated in the warm up.

I'm not defending him but I do not understand this attitude of yours - please tell us what you expect Neeld to sat at the microphone 'i'm clueless, our club is under-resourced, and the list is just plain shizen, we really are in a lot of trouble'

obviously he can't say that, so tell us please what you would like to hear

[Generation dee 1,336]

Won the clearances, rebound 50's.... And clangers....

Sorry for my earlier posting. "Don't worry we will win this" was auto corrected on my iPhone. What I meant to say was "good to see some rainfall in western Victoria, hope it passes through with good snow coverage for falls creek and mt hotham."

Alright I've gotta admit though, as an overly optimistic, trusting supporter, the positive's I can draw from today were "when our playing group see Clark, grimes, trengove, hogan, Dawes, toumpas and potentially Dion prestia and/or daisy Thomas in the team, we will all walk taller" well pessimistic me found the voice to say "well Jordy Mckenzie will probably be grey headed by then, sellar could pull in a mark and nicho/macca could kick a drop punt to position."

Then the "well I told you so" voice in my head reminded me that I used to follow Geelong as a wee 9 year old, but after gazza snr retired, jumped on board a wooden spoon demon outfit. I still remember the fight the dees put up against nth Melbourne on The Friday night prelim in 98 after smashing Adelaide who later won it, I still remember dismantling every team in 2000 with our run, dare and risk taking, (bar the scum), our 2002 semi final loss to the crows where I honestly think we had the group to go all the way, and lets not forget losing to freo when we were undermanned in 2006.

I fit in well with all (both) of the fans who still think we will turn the corner quickly and go on a 8-0 run and get in the 8. I still buy my red leg membership even though I rarely get to games because I play on Saturdays and Sundays I get the frozen beans out and lay on the couch.

I've always loved the dees, always will. Will always hate Carlton, will always hate essendon. I'll never like another team in the same way I Like Melbourne. But(for lack of better/censored word) GOSH, I genuinely feel worried for the welfare of some players, long term supporters, all of our sponsors, demonland regulars and the statisticians for our tackles/uncontested possessions.

The bad thing for our playing group, is we have played all of gws, GC, pa, Brisbane, last years bottom teams bar us, and we are 1-6 with 50%.

Sacking mark need has never crossed my mind as I genuinely have thought he could be the bridge to our clubs gap, he could be the leader to throw enough challenges down that cleared the dead wood and got the best out of players.

What I watched tonight was Lyndon Dunn, James frawley and Jordy Mckenzie do nothing to increase their trade value, James sellar, Shannon Byrnes and Rohan bail do nothing to to stay on the list, and our coaching department do very little to get the best out of pickles Evans, Matt jones, Strauss tapscott and terlich's run, nor did they look after the endeavour of jones (dirty night) Sylvia (the guy genuinely wants to do the best and stay at Melbourne). The biggest disappointment is how played with deficiencies still haven't been coached stronger techniques to eliminate these errors. Jeremy Howe still can't kick for goal, players like Dunn, Mckenzie still turn short handballs over, or when they kick it, it's a bomb down the line. Is it hard to find a 25-35m option across the ground and keep the ball but open up the ground??!? What about our delivery 15m over the top of gawn/Dawes/tapscott after they had lead so hard to get 2m in front position? These are mistakes that haven't changed since Matthew bate, Daniel bell and brad millar used to do weekly. Back in 2007...

Where to from here? Do we teach viney, m.jones and toumpas to keep making these underage mistakes? The errors they keep making are not acceptable. Sure all of us would wear a holding the ball or a in the back, but it's so frustrating watching a 30m kick miss it's target by 5 m, generally to a 1 on 3 contest 70 from goal. Can mark neeld tape Geelong, or hawthorn or freo, and show our players how much reward you get from running hard to every contest, wether that contest is 1.5m away, or 150. We always seem to be jogging. With no/low intensity.

Last point- 4 or 5 years ago Jordy Mckenzie used to have 5+ tackles a game. Today he had zero and half his teammates had less than 2. How can you stop knowing how to tackle????

Rant/essay done.

But please just show some intensity. Some care, some enthusiasm.

This guts me every day, not just weekends.

[Little Richard 6,216]

I'm not defending him but I do not understand this attitude of yours - please tell us what you expect Neeld to sat at the microphone 'i'm clueless, our club is under-resourced, and the list is just plain shizen, we really are in a lot of trouble'

obviously he can't say that, so tell us please what you would like to hear

Some honesty would be refreshing but yes, obviously he can't say that. The cliches are a big part of every footy presser that you will hear.

[drdrake 3,124]

The better news, we get to play some good teams over the four weeks, Richmond, Freo at Subi, hawthorn and collingwood, we could have an average losing margin of 186 over the next 4 weeks, if the hawks want to they can beat us by 200. What coach would want to take over facing this.

[DeeSpencer 24,792]

Colin Garland (the new vc) sums up this lot. Towelled by c brown early. No attack at all. Hospital handballs or receives stationary handballs.

Surprisingly I wouldn't drop him because Nicholson must go and we need to keep players who can play but Garland stink up the first half every week before getting remotely interested in playing.

[Jaded No More 67,822]

I'm not defending him but I do not understand this attitude of yours - please tell us what you expect Neeld to sat at the microphone 'i'm clueless, our club is under-resourced, and the list is just plain shizen, we really are in a lot of trouble'

obviously he can't say that, so tell us please what you would like to hear

I would like for him to explain why players under his command are not playing "good enough". I want to know what he is doing to change things. I want him to admit that he's stuffed up and that at least he's learning from them.

I want him to tell me why I should hold on in the face of epic failure. It's his [censored] job to fix this, to make us competitive and capable.

Since he's come on board we've gotten worse, and he didn't see it coming. HE DID NOT SEE IT COMING! How the hell can a coach survive that?

[Dr. Mubutu 778]

I'm not defending him but I do not understand this attitude of yours - please tell us what you expect Neeld to sat at the microphone 'i'm clueless, our club is under-resourced, and the list is just plain shizen, we really are in a lot of trouble'

obviously he can't say that, so tell us please what you would like to hear

I would actually like him to say that.

Finally treat the members with some respect.