Yes the Demons have done it again! Played one hundred minutes of football and managed a lousy four goals for a whole game. At least at Geelong a couple of weeks ago there was the reasonable excuse of a river running through the ground.

We are truly setting the record books alight this year as this was our ninth game where we have kicked less than ten goals. And since this was round 18, thats ½ of the games played!

How we dream of the old days. Saturday afternoon at the footy. Playing against another Melbourne based side. The memories ... and if it were the old days, the season would be over by now. Although our season has in truth long been over.

Could it be that Mark Neeld really wasnt the problem? Darwin aftermath perhaps? Or is the truth much simpler:

We just have a team full of absolute lazy spuds!

The coach doesnt stop a player chasing, or contesting. Tropical heat doesnt mean you cant stand alongside your opponent, even more so if you didnt actually play in Darwin.

The sheer number of spectators on the ground should have been brought to the attention of security.

Sadly, even removing them wouldnt have made any difference to the score or the result. Fining them the $7K that was flashed up so often on the screen would have been a good starting point. Taking them to the Metropolitan Assessment Prison next door would have been an even better option.

Nine Melbourne players had 10 possessions or less. What hope do we have when half the team is simply bludgeing? And bludgeing off the backs of Nathan Jones and Max Gawn who once again showed what is required at AFL level football. Or a young Jack Viney who is prepared to put in 110% even in his first year of football.

Things were certainly not helped by our own ineptitude, with the grand total of 41 clangers for the team. No wonder North won by over twenty goals; they simply had a couple of extra players on the ground. Except they were wearing Red and Blue jumpers.

Seven years of this we have been watching now. Any more of this and there will be more spectators on the ground than in the seats in the stands.

Melbourne 1.0.6 3.2.20 4.4.28 4.4.28

North Melbourne 3.5.23 6.9.45 14.12.96 22.18.150

Goals

Melbourne Byrnes Dawes Fitzpatrick Tapscott

North Melbourne Bastinac Black 4 Adams Cunnington Goldstein Mullett Petrie Wells 2 Harvey Ziebell

Best

Melbourne Sylvia N Jones Frawley N Jones McDonald Dunn

North Melbourne Cunnington Harvey Hansen Bastinac Goldstein Gibson

Injuries

Melbourne James Frawley (hamstring strain)

North Melbourne Swallow (achilles)

Changes

Melbourne Dean Terlich replaced by Luke Tapscott

North Melbourne Nil

Reports

Melbourne Nil

North Melbourne Nil

Umpires Findlay Bannister Burgess

Official Attendance 16,959, at Etihad Stadium

You sound as tired and frustrated by all this as me. Who are these lazy players that continually fail to run both ways, don't man-up, don't spread, don't trust their teamates etc. Who are the serial offenders or are some of our players just not AFL standard.

Sadly, I believe Davey is lazy and should not be in the team, likewise Blease doesn't have a defensive bone in his body and doesen't care about anybody but himself. Tapscott does not do enough and may never reach AFL standard. Trengove would not get a game in most other teams. Grimes has little or no influence on any game he plays. Watts plays like a girl, Byrnes and Pederson are C Graders. Players that played VFL yesterday that also add nothing when in the side are McKenzie, Jetta, Strauss and Spencer.

I wouldn't care if we offloaded the lot of them and started again.

In their first year Terlich, Matt Jones and even Clisby have show more desire to win the ball and do something positive than this other lot.

You sound as tired and frustrated by all this as me. Who are these lazy players that continually fail to run both ways, don't man-up, don't spread, don't trust their teamates etc. Who are the serial offenders or are some of our players just not AFL standard.Sadly, I believe Davey is lazy and should not be in the team, likewise Blease doesn't have a defensive bone in his body and doesen't care about anybody but himself. Tapscott does not do enough and may never reach AFL standard. Trengove would not get a game in most other teams. Grimes has little or no influence on any game he plays. Watts plays like a girl, Byrnes and Pederson are C Graders. Players that played VFL yesterday that also add nothing when in the side are McKenzie, Jetta, Strauss and Spencer.I wouldn't care if we offloaded the lot of them and started again.In their first year Terlich, Matt Jones and even Clisby have show more desire to win the ball and do something positive than this other lot.

Davey has seduced so many for too long. His time is up.

But, there are so many, that to single him out would be unfair.

Our drafting has been rubbish.

Yesterday, Fitzroy played North Melbourne.

This could well be the end.

Put Watts on the trade table.

What we saw yesterday (and to some extent a fortnight earlier) was the result of what everybody applauded as being the culmination of "freeing up" the players and giving them licence to play their own games.

That might well have been necessary after the ongoing negativity of the first half of the current season and the resultant damage to player confidence but at the same time, we seem to have taken our eyes off the defensive side of our game. Time and time again, the Kangaroos streamed effortlessly out of our forward line without any pressure being imposed whatsoever and it was like that everywhere on the ground. We bemoan our lack of a midfield but really we were poor everywhere in terms of putting pressure on the opposition.

True, the players needed some freeing up but I wonder whether or not we've thrown out the baby with the bath water in our haste to dissociate ourselves from the Neeld legacy.

Whoever we eventually appoint as coach will need to restore the balance to ensure that we put the lazy culture of almost an entire decade behind us.

Too easy to align the blame on anything other than the fact that most of the players are devoid of fundamental skills.

In yesterday's team, I counted only 3 players who could be classified as having the required skill set to be regarded as of AFL standard: N.Jones, Watts, Sylvia.

These three, under normal circumstances find teammates by hand or foot the majority of the time, whilst the remainder are more than likely, most of the time to turn the ball over with a minimum of fuss.

What we saw yesterday (and to some extent a fortnight earlier) was the result of what everybody applauded as being the culmination of "freeing up" the players and giving them licence to play their own games.

That might well have been necessary after the ongoing negativity of the first half of the current season and the resultant damage to player confidence but at the same time, we seem to have taken our eyes off the defensive side of our game. Time and time again, the Kangaroos streamed effortlessly out of our forward line without any pressure being imposed whatsoever and it was like that everywhere on the ground. We bemoan our lack of a midfield but really we were poor everywhere in terms of putting pressure on the opposition.

True, the players needed some freeing up but I wonder whether or not we've thrown out the baby with the bath water in our haste to dissociate ourselves from the Neeld legacy.

Whoever we eventually appoint as coach will need to restore the balance to ensure that we put the lazy culture of almost an entire decade behind us.

Agree 100%. The freeing up was an illusion that made us look like we were playing better. In fact, it's no better overall, just different.

Craigy is a good football citizen, but he is not the answer. If that became apparent from the North game, then that's one positive.

Agree 100%. The freeing up was an illusion that made us look like we were playing better. In fact, it's no better overall, just different.

Craigy is a good football citizen, but he is not the answer. If that became apparent from the North game, then that's one positive.

Our players have serially underperformed under 4 coaches. When do we stop totally blaming, then switching coaches, and call those on the field to account. Seriously, has Clarkson, Roos, Malthouse or even TGNWS been there would the outcome have been much different?