Jones was expected to go to another level this year. He went through the motions even in big losses in past years. This year he has gone unsighted three weeks in a row. Well below his best and being found out as a decent footballer in a bad side.

People need to realize this.

We need more than Jones. He's just a soldier. He's the opposite extreme of Watts, but we have nothing in the middle. No balance.

Last year I said he was tradeable alongside a top pick for a powerful midfielder. Everyone laughed at me. He doesn't actually make us better.

I know it's harsh and I love Jones, but we need winners. He's a loser.

Very harsh on Jones... We accept he's not an absolute A grader but you can't question his commitment etc... All the senior places need to take responsibility of what happened today! We have acquired experienced players via free agency & like it or not they are just average to good players not A graders... Dawes, cross, Vince lamumbah need to lead as they have come from successful clubs!, Our midfield lacks A graders & young talent which will take another 3+ yrs to emerge as A graders! We need to somehow attract an A grader eg Dangefield ... Unfortunately Fred agency had resulted in big name players going to top clubs & resulting in let bottom clubs paying overs for players eg Dawes, clark....

Edited May 16, 201510 yr by Hogan2014

The turnover kings get their pants pulled down once again.

Team of plodders....apologies Garlett,McDonald and Pederson today.

Dawes just doesn't do anything, I'd rather Watts than him anyway and leave Pederson in.

Howe looks so disinterested it's not funny, he has to be gone end of year.

Toumpas, MJones, Michie,and the rest of our mids are just plodders really,no A grade talent in there which is our main problem.

Petracca and Brayshaw could be our future mids but we also need some speed on the outside, Garlett can't play everywhere.

All in all still a bottom 4 side.

We essentially had that but used them on players like Morton, Watts, Maric, Cook, Gysberts, Toumpas, Blease, Strauss, Tapscott and Trengove.

would like to point out that while we did have about 3 priority picks (nothing like expansion club concessions) we also managed to get them in average drafts.

Everyone was picking Watts, Morton, Scully, Trengove (maybe martin got a jumper instead of Trengove) and Toumpas.

Yeah we have stuffed some up but we haven't had the luck either.

We lacked leadeship. We lacked aggression at the stoppages. We lacked smarts and dare when we had the ball. We lacked the courage to run offensively and defensively.

The last three contests and injuries have hit our confidence and exposed our complete lack of depth. Its not surprising to anyone we cant match it with the top 3. We will learn more about where we're at between now and the bye.

Edited May 16, 201510 yr by big_red_fire_engine

Just remind me again how many 'line in the sand games' we have had in the last 8 years.

Dawes should never speak again,.

Once the season is over I'm hopeful more delistings will come and we can improve upon that depth. But we can't compete with the back to back premiers with the side we fielded today, no matter who was in charge.

Agree - but to add, there's a limit to how many players you can turn over. We made 12 changes at the end of 2013, and another 10 last year. That we still have NQR players on the list, shows how deep the problems lie, problems Roos inherited.

It's also easy to talk about delisting players, but who do we get in? There's no point signing up 10 Viv Mitchies or Aiden Rileys, we need genuine A-graders.

I actually feel that overall, the drafting etc. since Roos came on board has been very good. But it will take time to bear fruit, and we're in for some pain in the meantime.

The Hawks have been the BEST TEAM for the past 7 years (3 flags) we've been the WORST TEAM for the past 7 years (how many spoons?)

Just when I thought we were past Grimes,Bail,M. Jones,we bring them back in FFS!!!

Add Spencer,Toumpas,Dawes and a few others and we've fielded half a VFL team

Expect to compete with the Hawks?

While I love Crossy's endeavour,i can't see the point giving him the next 15 games with where the club's at,just give them to Newton,Riley,JKH

Edited May 16, 201510 yr by Jack7

So was GWS serious in its offer, or did they know something more about what makes Jeremy tick?

GWS made that offer late enough that we couldn't accept it. At the time, I thought that could be quite clever by them.

And it's really the midfield we need to improve and get games into the younger blokes that are already on board (Hogan, Salem, Tyson, Brayshaw, Stretch and Petracca).

Hard to get games into players who are out injured.

But I do get your gist.

Shouldn't have dropped Watts... who gets the blame now?

Yes we can. He did drop himself, did he?

Further, I hate to bag a new kid, but I hope Brayshaw learns to kick the effing thing. I Hope also he does not turn out to be another of our long list of disposal butchers.

Edited May 16, 201510 yr by america de cali

The Hawks have been the BEST TEAM for the past 7 years (3 flags) we've been the WORST TEAM for the past 7 years (how many spoons?)

Just when I thought we were past Grimes,Bail,M. Jones,we bring them back in FFS!!!

Add Spencer,Toumpas,Dawes and a few others and we've fielded half a VFL team

Expect to compete with the Hawks?

While I love Crossy's endeavour,i can't see the point giving him the next 15 games with where the club's at,just give them to Newton,Riley,JKH

True perspective.

Top vs bottom.

While I love Crossy's endeavour,i can't see the point giving him the next 15 games with where the club's at,just give them to Newton,Riley,JKH

Deck-chair swapping. And not very appealing deck chairs at that.

JKH and Newton were both poor against Sydney, and Riley hasn't exactly been carving it up, even at VFL level.

We'll have to lift a notch to make the finals now.

If Tyson isnt then he has competely fallen apart. Slow and cant kick. A shadow of last year.

He has a knee injury. Needs rest then will be fine.

Neeld won a couple of games too.

Our ball movement under Neeld was atrocious. In every game this year we've shown at least one passage (sometimes multiple passages) that have included some great ball movement. We went through two whole seasons where we didn't move the ball like that. Neeld was a disaster. With the exception of today, Roos has improved our defence markedly. It's really an incredibly simplistic and not particularly intelligent way of viewing things.

Jeff Kennet finding his voice again on Twitter:

"1/2 Good win to Hawks. Melbourne sadly at best a VFL side. Not Coach not players fault. Board an abject failure and should resign on mass. 2/2 Melbourne carries name of our great city Capital of great State. MFC has failed to b competitive for 20 yrs responsibility starts at top"

Jeff Kennet finding his voice again on Twitter:

"1/2 Good win to Hawks. Melbourne sadly at best a VFL side. Not Coach not players fault. Board an abject failure and should resign on mass. 2/2 Melbourne carries name of our great city Capital of great State. MFC has failed to b competitive for 20 yrs responsibility starts at top"

Maybe we should have bought him in as president after all

Sorry fell asleep due all this bad weather over here in the west, have we played yet?

Jeff Kennet finding his voice again on Twitter:

"1/2 Good win to Hawks. Melbourne sadly at best a VFL side. Not Coach not players fault. Board an abject failure and should resign on mass. 2/2 Melbourne carries name of our great city Capital of great State. MFC has failed to b competitive for 20 yrs responsibility starts at top"

It is extremely disgraceful and distasteful of a recent past president to write that about a club his have just thrashed by 100+ points.

It is beyond rubbing salt into the wound.

Gloating in a most disgusting manner.

Maybe we should have bought him in as president after all

Or maybe he should vanish like the irrelevant toolbag that he is.

After that load of rubbish I would tell the whole list, and I mean the whole list, to get out of their jumpers and out of the rooms as quick as possible. No showers no nothing. Just get out. Tell them to get out and not come back until Tuesday night for a training run. If they are going to play like amatuers then train them like amatures.

Make sure they understand that they only come back to training if they are willing to play for the club and the team and put in for four quarters.

The same goes for the coaches.

Maybe we should have bought him in as president after all

No he's a complete tool. If he'd stayed at the Hawks we would have got Clarko. Opinions are like A- holes. Everyones got one... including Jeff.

Jeff Kennet finding his voice again on Twitter:

"1/2 Good win to Hawks. Melbourne sadly at best a VFL side. Not Coach not players fault. Board an abject failure and should resign on mass. 2/2 Melbourne carries name of our great city Capital of great State. MFC has failed to b competitive for 20 yrs responsibility starts at top"

Maybe remind him how many different boards we've had in the last 20 years.

well im not shocked that we lost and the reigning premiers should thrash a team like us but today we just couldnt stick a tackle and hawthorn just waltzed through us like a training drill. We couldnt handball to a player 5 metres away and we were to slow kicking the ball.

Our forward line wasnt there expect fro Pedo and Gartlett

Chris Dawes back up your words with actions. Don't shoot your mouth off and then play a horrible horrible game.

Jeremy Howe what has happened to you?

By the way I think the criticism of Nathan Jones on this site is disappointing. This guy has carried us and the midfield for the past few years. He has been the heart and soul. Give him a break. His midfield counterparts struggled today.

I just want to see how we come out next week against the dogs and see what the response is. I expect a good one and would want to see a much much better improvement.

I used to think we were a chance to make the 8. Now I genuinely belive we are the worst team in the competition. Yes worse than Carlton...