POST MATCH DISCUSSION

[FC Melbourne 108]

How does David Misson have a job? I'm no sports scientist but I reckon I could have written a program that would have had one of Clark, Dawes, Hogan, Gawn and Jamar on the park.

Plus the fact the only players cramping were ours. 3 years.

[Robot Devil 1,895]

5th season mate.

He aint going to get quicker.

He cannot play in the midfield being that slow.

And he can't kick it 50 metres.

Where's the upside?

[Pates 9,690]

How does David Misson have a job? I'm no sports scientist but I reckon I could have written a program that would have had one of Clark, Dawes, Hogan, Gawn and Jamar on the park.

Get over yourself, he's a professional that's come from highly successful programs (including working with Roos at Sydney) and is widely recognized as one of the best in the game. Injuries happen, Clark is coming back from an incredibly difficult injury that doesn't just affect the foot but the entire body by association. Dawes clearly is injury prone and a poor decision to recruit in hindsight, he will struggle to strong more than two games together for the rest of his career and no medico will be able to change that. Gawn just got a standard injury, it happens. Hogans the interesting one, it started as a knock from the Geelong came and somehow evolved into a stress fracture, perhaps if he hadn't got the knock we would never have known about it and it would've gotten worse.

I love the comments by people who think they know more than the doctors and fitness staff.

[Chook 15,026]

How I feel when watching the Dees:

[Soidee 1,496]

Peter Jackson said pre game the cultural problems were very deep. SO WHAT WERE THEY?

What was so bad?

My take is a completely different view. We have recruited a total bunch of hacks who continue to sook and underperform.

If these guys are so mentally damaged, then they should give the game away. It is appalling to turn up to the MCG to watch such garbage. The list is totally uncompetitive and sub par at AFL level.

Poor Roosy has stuff all to work with.

Damm those bastards who were in charge of this club and recruiting. ( with exception to the late JS )

[jumbo returns 6,741]

Take Cox, Kennedy, Darling, Sinclair out if their side and see how the result is.

Jamar, Clark, Dawes, hogan

We held the ball well, just lacked confidence going forward, which is to be expected. The game was a lot worse on the score board than actually was during the game.

Fitzy is struggling as a lone target, max gawn is a certain inclusion for next week!

I'll tell you one thing....we'll never see Jamar, Clark, Dawes and Hogan in the same team this year, if not ever.

[reynolds46 1,297]

the worse it sounded the more the job appealed to Roos, he must be absolutely infatuated now

[Pipefitter 2,225]

I understand we have no forward line, but this game plan is not helping the few we have left. Is roosy just content to not kick any goals till we get some back?

[leucopogon 1,519]

When are any of the talls supposed to be back fit? Please let me know when I can turn on another game where at least we'll field a competitive side. Not blaming Misson for the injuries, just bad luck. Was ironic that they were blasting Daft Punk "Get lucky" at the 1/4 time break. Exactly what we haven't gotten this year so far.

[Nasher 33,617]

I understand we have no forward line, but this game plan is not helping the few we have left. Is roosy just content to not kick any goals till we get some back?

What game plan helps when Shannon Byrnes is your tall forward? Just about every time he appeared on camera, Glass was on him.

I thought Byrnes was alright today, just for the record.

[Pipefitter 2,225]

That's when there's actually someone in the 50. How bout putting Fitzy in the goal square instead of the shortest player on our list. That's just poor positioning IMO.

[leucopogon 1,519]

Looks like 2-3 weeks until the return of Dawes with Hogan looking indefinite and Clark....who knows. Long season ahead.

[Nasher 33,617]

That's when there's actually someone in the 50. How bout putting Fitzy in the goal square instead of the shortest player on our list. That's just poor positioning IMO.

Probably because Byrnes looked a bigger marking threat, and I say that with hand on heart. Fitz is a fairly decent sized worry at the moment.

[SaberFang 7,151]

Just gut the team. I don't care anymore. Turf out as many players as possible (maximum delistings is 11 I think?) and start over. Trade out as many as you can for draft picks and start fresh.

This might actually work with competent people in charge. Clearly the disastrous recruitment of the last 6 years has put us in an untenable position. We will not survive 3 more years of this. Mark my words.

[jackaub 1,402]

If Trengove doesn't improve and have a decent year even in losing results he should be up for trade I agree.

The guy doesn't cut it...captain or not. Slower than a sloth...this is AFL..NOT VFL..

Been saying for years Wrong pick too slow cant contest if he gets there he is becoming a serious liability

[Axis of Bob 11,912]

It started with getting smashed out of the centre in the first quarter and a half. By that stage we were 10 goals down and shot. West Coast were very good and were able to capitalise on the opportunities when they came, and they did it very well. Cox gave us a clinic in ruckwork today, although his stats don't show him as being that dominant.

But what was frustrating (and possibly a result of the 'mental scarring' that we keep hearing of) was our reluctance to move the ball quickly. I could understand why, since the leading targets down the line were small players (until we moved Dunn up there and started looking more dangerous). On the other hand, Kennedy (especially) and Darling were able to give a release kick for a player to move the ball quickly to advantage. Our lack of talls has taken away any confidence that the mids have to move the ball quickly. Unfortunately Fitz and Howe were unable to provide that lead up target.

I thought that Dunn really made us look more dangerous when he went forward, and I was pleasantly surprised by Pedersen's competitiveness when he went back. Byrnes was good (not just the goals, but seemed to get to good spots to crumb). JKH also looked dangerous, which was good, despite our mids/talls not giving the crumbers much to work with.

[Nasher 33,617]

This might actually work with competent people in charge. Clearly the disastrous recruitment of the last 6 years has put us in an untenable position. We will not survive 3 more years of this. Mark my words.

Thank goodness you're here, giving us more words to mark. Having WYL tell us that we're two years from extinction for the last 6 years has been nowhere near enough.

[Mad_Melbourne 877]

I'll tell you one thing....we'll never see Jamar, Clark, Dawes and Hogan in the same team this year, if not ever.

Even still I would feel better with a Dawes, hogan and fitzy forward line than what we have!

I think the performance is much better than what people think is my main point

[deeko 952]

We are clearly playing a lot better football than last year. If people can't see that you are blind. Yes we were smashed so would any team be if you took out there 3 key forwards, two best ruckmen, your ruck rover and best defender. Some people here need to get a fair dinkum grip.

We have to fart-ars about all the time as we have no 'get out of jail' kick at all. Spencer & Fitz play small, neither take pack parks and are useless in pack situations. As for our other key forward Pedo, well we all know he isn't good enough to play as a key forward. No more needs to be said. (although I didn't mind some of his efforts in the backline today).

[Earl Hood 6,153]

I must admit to being disappointed in Fitzpatricks start to the year. Was hoping he could be a danger up forward. No marks No goals Not much good in the ruck. I understand Spencer is OK as a tap ruck man but is there any chance he could take a grab every now and again?

I am not sure what to make of Fitzy's game today. It is tough for a 200 cm forward when the game plan was clearly not to kick it into the forward line! I think a lot of teams might struggle to hit the scoreboard with our game plan. Surely a couple of long bombs to the top of the square would be better than going sideways and then kicking short to 50/50 contest and seeing the ball swept down the other end time and time and time again. Same for Howe as well.

Different to last year I don't think the guys chucked it in but we still got smashed. I got the impression we were a gallant U18 side playing the seniors. WC are quite awesome physically, a great mix of big bodied talls and fast onballers at ground level. they will be contending at the pointy end of the season, no doubt.

WC has completed a rebuild in 5 or 6 years brilliantly. They won a flag in 2006 and through a combination of compensation for Judd and doing a great impression of tanking to get draft picks very similar to ourselves and on each occasion they got it right, Masten, Selwood, Shuey, Hurn, Gaff, Darling on and on. As for us......

[picket fence 18,078]

Jones, Tyson absolute beauties. One of these 2 will win our best and fairest this year.

Cross a good, old warrior.

Vince will be very good for us, but we already knew that.

JKH gets better and better as he gets game time. Needs to play a full game next week.

Toumpas is slow, yes but he is getting better, just ignore the Wines comparison and you'll see this as it clouds your view.

Dunn, good. I use to slag him big time but he has dropped some weight, got rid of that terrible mo' and has turned into an important player for us.

The rest…yikes...

"Toumpas is slow" Wow, just what the doctor ordered.. A slow outside mid, absolutely perfect for our needs. Like raining nipples and you come up sucking your own thumb!

[Moonshadow 17,678]

http://www.afl.com.au/ladder

Didn't take us long to resume our traditional ladder position

Which matches our traditional position which is on all fours copping it up the jacksie.

[Maldonboy38 6,420]

Wow - was really tough being a Dees man today. We forgot to turn up for the first quarter, and then couldn't get past half-forward for the rest of the match. But I come away fairly critical of Roos' coaching today.

Too many times Byrnes the only man inside 50, with one opponent standing beside him 10-15cm taller, and one spare WCE player always willing to fall back and make it two on one. This happened while Fitzy and Pedo led time and time again up through the 50m arc being generally ignored by our midfielders. This was never corrected and I did not see the runner come out to these players. Very bemusing.

For at least half the game, watching WCE midfielders run past our players, we set up in the centre after another WCE goal with Trengove on one wing, Toumpas on the other, Michie, Cross and Jones in the middle. Could Roos not see the pace of WCE?

And he chooses not to play Blease or Evans, two players with genuine outside pace.

I know the game wasn't lost only because of these things, but they were glaring mistakes rarely, if ever, corrected.

[Bitter but optimistic 22,289]

I am not sure what to make of Fitzy's game today. It is tough for a 200 cm forward when the game plan was clearly not to kick it into the forward line! I think a lot of teams might struggle to hit the scoreboard with our game plan. Surely a couple of long bombs to the top of the square would be better than going sideways and then kicking short to 50/50 contest and seeing the ball swept down the other end time and time and time again. Same for Howe as well.

Different to last year I don't think the guys chucked it in but we still got smashed. I got the impression we were a gallant U18 side playing the seniors. WC are quite awesome physically, a great mix of big bodied talls and fast onballers at ground level. they will be contending at the pointy end of the season, no doubt.

WC has completed a rebuild in 5 or 6 years brilliantly. They won a flag in 2006 and through a combination of compensation for Judd and doing a great impression of tanking to get draft picks very similar to ourselves and on each occasion they got it right, Masten, Selwood, Shuey, Hurn, Gaff, Darling on and on. As for us......

First of all allow me to congratulate you on receiving an honour Viscount.

Re Fitzy - i no longer think he is up to it.

Re Howe - Has totally lost confidence and has no idea what his role is.

[dees189227 12,464]

I knew we were going to get beaten today and thrashed. Im rapt by some miracle we didnt lose by well over 100 points. The reality is we were playing west coast who are a top 4 team. They had 4 forwards to kick to who were over 6ft and are big bodies, they have an awesome midfield, a superstar ruckman in Cox and a very very good backline.

We had Byrnes as a target who is our current leading goal kicker, our ruckman arent in the cox league and our poor backline looked short. Until we get any of our big talls in unfortunately we are going to struggle.

If we get thrashed by GWS next week then I will worry but today didnt surprise me.

Unfortunately Roos has a massive job to get the players belief back and i wonder how many players knew we would lose today.