Some serious questions asked about Paul Roos ...

[jnrmac 19,364]

I'm interested to see what happens from here.

I don't think Roos is the problem... It's too easy to blame the coach.

Why put in and win at Geelong etc if it is the coach who is the problem?

I wanted stability at the club and to keep growing but I'd the playing group won't respond get a new playing group

Howe

Garland

Grimes

Dawes

Watts

The list goes on are just not good enough. They r good blokes and some.have beenngood servants but let's get tough. You can't get rid of them all but let's take a bloody stand

He is the problem if he doesn't what to do to fix this mess which is what he has all but admitted..

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

on TripleM yesterday they said that there is expected to be a big announcement in the offseason re: Melbournes coaching and that Goodwin will indeed take over as senior coach a year earlier than planned

Cant remember who said it , but I guess we will see soon if the mail was correct

A few people have mentioned that here over the past couple of months.

In a strange way it actually offers the players more continuity as Goodwin is the man going forward.

[Redleg 38,132]

I'm convinced it's the lack of onfield leadership. We have no one that sets the tone in matches, so everyone falls to pieces when the going gets tough. They've no one to look to and end up playing for themselves. We need to buy leaders. I'm not sure we can wait three years for our young stars to take over the leadership mantle. Next year is really when it has to start.

We got one in Cross and he played his worst game for us. We have a 3 time B & F Captain who had 5 possies at half time. Bernie who could win this year's, likewise 5 possies.

Also Our hardest young mid had 50% disposal efficiency on his 14 touches. Everyone misses goals from gettable shots.

Our goal sneak hasn't had a touch at half time.

5 tackles in the first quarter when the game is on the line.

Edited August 23, 2015 by Redleg

[Go the Biff 3,211]

Agree 100% with the bolded part. But I am sick of waiting for it to turn as you are.

There are plenty here with blinkers on when it has been obvious for at least 4months that Roos doesn't know what to do with this mob.

Our best performance for the year was when the players coached themselves for a week. What does that say about the coaching? He's given them a week off after a belting, taken them to the movies. I mean FFS its not a complicated game. You bring effort and focus on running and winning contested ball for a start, then you hit targets.

There are probably 5 players on our list that can safely beat their man on any given day,

leadership is non existent.

Garland and Lumumba are frankly pathetic footballers that shouldn't be there.

McDonald is a goer but whne he has the ball in hand is a worry.

Dunn has lost his ability to win a one on one.

Midfield is appalling. Viney tries hard but makes way too many basic errors.

Vince got thrashed against a first year player. We are robbing peter to pay Paul

Jones is courageous but unable to drag his players with him.

Cross is done. Way too many mistakes.

Watts just infuriates me the way he plays 5-10m off his man. Morton used to the same thing. You can see the play unfold and lay money on his man geting the ball.

Gawn can't ruck by himself all day and is not flexible enough. Kruezer beat him handsomely.

Howe should just fark off now. Most overated player on our list (by outsiders not necessarily melbourne supporters)

Dawes has to go. Adds zero to the team.

Garlett plays when he wants to.

Brayshaw was looking pretty spent,. Needs a rest

Grimes Mitchie and newton are triers but not the answer.

And none of these useless hacks can play a team game. They don't look out for each other shepherd, don't spread, can't read the play. Hopeless.

The coach is clueless as to how to fix this. Good luck trying to atract a decent midfielder to our team this year paul.

So you write a post outlining the deficiencies of 17 players and conclude that "it's the coach"

How do you think Beveridge would go about addressing those deficiencies ? Or Richardson or Hinkley ? Or maybe Clarkson or Lyon ?

[Gator 16,921]

I'm glad a few people have mentioned Garland. He often gets left alone on here and I know he's rated by the club, coaches, etc., but I find him utterly hopeless. He's either giving away frees with contemptibly stupid decisions, or turning it over with skill errors.

I shudder whenever he goes near it.

[poita 3,718]

What does Roos care? He is guaranteed a million bucks a year just for turning up to work each day. The club is such a basket case that his legacy will remain fairly much intact regardless of where we finish next year.

He'll continue to play his favourites each week, act concerned after each loss to appease the fans, play footsies will his media chums during the week, and bugger off to the US after the season finishes.

Until the coach starts holding the senior players accountable for their performances (or lack thereof), nothing will change. Oh, and some semblance of a game plan would be nice.

[jnrmac 19,364]

So you write a post outlining the deficiencies of 17 players and conclude that "it's the coach"

How do you think Beveridge would go about addressing those deficiencies ? Or Richardson or Hinkley ? Or maybe Clarkson or Lyon ?

Yep. The coach hasn't got a clue what to do with this mob.

In case you hadn't noticed its round 21 and he has been coaching them for 45 games. Oh, and they were coming out this week to p[lay like maniacs. 2 tackles in the 1st 20 mins? And Roos will take them off to the zoo this week to keep their mind off football. Next week it will be Luna Park.

[monoccular 16,466]

Tell your mate that after Daniher, we got an untried coach in Bailey who offered up 186. Then we got another untried coach in Neeld who was worse.

Another untried coach could have finished the club.

Hence the big-name coach. At that point it didn't really matter who. Someone who could lend some credibiilty, calm the jangled nerves, pat everyone on the tummy and generally steady the ship.

And the ship has been steadied. I just wish we hadn't dropped the anchor too.

But seriously Bob Hawke's (or was it Bill Hayden's) comment about the drover's dog could win that one may be true of Roos at Sydney.

Yep. The coach hasn't got a clue what to do with this mob.

In case you hadn't noticed its round 21 and he has been coaching them for 45 games. Oh, and they were coming out this week to p[lay like maniacs. 2 tackles in the 1st 20 mins? And Roos will take them off to the zoo this week to keep their mind off football. Next week it will be Luna Park.

45 games, 10 wins - 22%. How does that compare with Bailey or Neeld? Not much better. So many promises of "being more competitive" and "important to finish the season well" are turning out to be so much hot air.

[rjay 24,078]

Agree 100% with the bolded part. But I am sick of waiting for it to turn as you are.

There are plenty here with blinkers on when it has been obvious for at least 4months that Roos doesn't know what to do with this mob.

Our best performance for the year was when the players coached themselves for a week. What does that say about the coaching? He's given them a week off after a belting, taken them to the movies. I mean FFS its not a complicated game. You bring effort and focus on running and winning contested ball for a start, then you hit targets.

There are probably 5 players on our list that can safely beat their man on any given day,

leadership is non existent.

Garland and Lumumba are frankly pathetic footballers that shouldn't be there.

McDonald is a goer but whne he has the ball in hand is a worry.

Dunn has lost his ability to win a one on one.

Midfield is appalling. Viney tries hard but makes way too many basic errors.

Vince got thrashed against a first year player. We are robbing peter to pay Paul

Jones is courageous but unable to drag his players with him.

Cross is done. Way too many mistakes.

Watts just infuriates me the way he plays 5-10m off his man. Morton used to the same thing. You can see the play unfold and lay money on his man geting the ball.

Gawn can't ruck by himself all day and is not flexible enough. Kruezer beat him handsomely.

Howe should just fark off now. Most overated player on our list (by outsiders not necessarily melbourne supporters)

Dawes has to go. Adds zero to the team.

Garlett plays when he wants to.

Brayshaw was looking pretty spent,. Needs a rest

Grimes Mitchie and newton are triers but not the answer.

And none of these useless hacks can play a team game. They don't look out for each other shepherd, don't spread, can't read the play. Hopeless.

The coach is clueless as to how to fix this. Good luck trying to atract a decent midfielder to our team this year paul.

So you write a post outlining the deficiencies of 17 players and conclude that "it's the coach"

How do you think Beveridge would go about addressing those deficiencies ? Or Richardson or Hinkley ? Or maybe Clarkson or Lyon ?

Yep. The coach hasn't got a clue what to do with this mob.

In case you hadn't noticed its round 21 and he has been coaching them for 45 games. Oh, and they were coming out this week to p[lay like maniacs. 2 tackles in the 1st 20 mins? And Roos will take them off to the zoo this week to keep their mind off football. Next week it will be Luna Park.

'jnrmac', what do you think the coach can and could do with what you are saying is a sub par list?

He could be the greatest match day coach in history but if he has the list that you say he has then he can only do so much with 5 decent players.

One thing he can do is turnover the list and he's been doing this, he can't do much more until the end of the season.

I don't think you have made your point well on Roos during the season.

I do however have a real problem with our inability to play 4 Q's of football and we could see exactly what we are seeing now in the preseason games.

The doggies one was a prime example and this should have sent alarm bells to the coaching group. They haven't been able to stop this problem and it is their responsibility. Some write off the pre season games but with us I don't, it's pretty much set up how we play for the season.

What they do I don't know but I'm not being paid the big bucks to sort it out. I do know that it can't keep going on.

[mo64 5,267]

Lack of consistency of effort by the players falls back on the coach. End of story.

[Slartibartfast 16,042]

I think Goodwin's comments last week about Roos coaching when he first came to MFC were insightful. I made the comment when Roos was appointed that I hoped the game hadn't passed him by.

For a coach who's signature characteristic is defence our lack of around the ground pressure is baffling.

I think Roos has been good for our club in many ways but it's hard to argue we've been acceptable on field.

Roos said that he hoped after 6 games MFC fans would see what we are trying to do on field. I can't. Can someone explain it to me. (this is a serious question, not a dig.)

[Binmans PA 26,565]

I could see it in the first six.games. Our brand was based around contested possession. Lots of mauling packs and us trying to close down space for the opposition to work in.

As the season wore on, our players tired and struggled to implement this game plan and lacked intensity around the contest, which is obviously fatal when basing your brand on contested possession.

The similar thing has occurred this year. It's the inconsistency of effort to play the game style that requires hard running and discipline that undoes us. IMO, what we are trying to do was very evident by round 6 last year. However, it's a whole team defence, so if even one player is down on output and fails to deliver, the entire team will be rendered useless.

[Scoop Junior 3,055]

I'm glad a few people have mentioned Garland. He often gets left alone on here and I know he's rated by the club, coaches, etc., but I find him utterly hopeless. He's either giving away frees with contemptibly stupid decisions, or turning it over with skill errors.

I shudder whenever he goes near it.

Agree - he has also perfected the reckless jump into the pack without noticing that a Melbourne player is about to take an uncontested mark. He did it to Gawn in the last quarter which led to Cripps' sealing goal. For a player who showed so much promise and has now been at the club for nearly 10 years, it's simply astonishing that he has gone backwards as a player.

Roos said that he hoped after 6 games MFC fans would see what we are trying to do on field. I can't. Can someone explain it to me. (this is a serious question, not a dig.)

I think the game plan is pretty clear. It has been evident in our good performances. It is heavily based on the contest and relies on intensity at the ball, winning the contested footy and putting pressure on / tackling the opposition. I don't mind this style of footy as that is how finals are played and won. The Richmond and Bulldogs games this year are good examples of us nailing our game style.

The problem is when we don't bring the right mindset we get exposed. Badly exposed. We don't have the class to compensate for a drop off in intensity. At these times the game style completely falls apart - there is not a coach in the world who can get his team to play well when the fundamentals of the game plan are so disgracefully neglected.

I don't think it's a fair criticism of Roos to say we don't have a game plan. However, it is fair to say that at this stage he has not been able to implement it consistently enough. I can understand a few bad games over the course of a season but we have had far too many and they're not just bad games, they're downright disgusting performances.

Whether the coach or players are responsible for this can be debated, but for me it's a player issue and especially a senior leadership issue. For example, where was the intent at the start of the game yesterday? We were playing the bottom side and there wasn't a hint of aggression - it took until the third quarter for a player (Jones) to come off the line and take someone out in the centre, for Dunn to get aggressive with Watson, for the team to lay some crunching tackles. It should happen right at the start! What did Lumumba do to set a physical tone? What did Garland do?

To me it just showed pure disinterest on the part of the players and a complete lack of respect for the supporters.

PJ has spoken about winning trust back from the fans. I trust the club, but I've just about lost trust in our playing group (primarily the senior players as a whole as it's not the job of the younger ones to set the tone).

5 tackles in the first quarter. In my mind I'm actually starting to divorce many of the players from the club. They are not the MFC, they are just temporarily representing it. I love the club and always will - but I don't have to love many of the blokes who are disgracing the club with their insipid performances.

[Sir Why You Little 35,071]

PJ has spoken about winning trust back from the fans. I trust the club, but I've just about lost trust in our playing group (primarily the senior players as a whole as it's not the job of the younger ones to set the tone).

5 tackles in the first quarter. In my mind I'm actually starting to divorce many of the players from the club. They are not the MFC, they are just temporarily representing it. I love the club and always will - but I don't have to love many of the blokes who are disgracing the club with their insipid performances.

The Leadership group are not fit to represent the club

All of them

[rjay 24,078]

I could see it in the first six.games. Our brand was based around contested possession. Lots of mauling packs and us trying to close down space for the opposition to work in.

As the season wore on, our players tired and struggled to implement this game plan and lacked intensity around the contest, which is obviously fatal when basing your brand on contested possession.

The similar thing has occurred this year. It's the inconsistency of effort to play the game style that requires hard running and discipline that undoes us. IMO, what we are trying to do was very evident by round 6 last year. However, it's a whole team defence, so if even one player is down on output and fails to deliver, the entire team will be rendered useless.

Unfortunately our players seemed to tire in the preseason games and we had similar inconsistent results.

[whoszachunt 29]

What I hate is when a lot of supporters come up with " I love the boys", You have to stay loyal" stick with them" , "If you knock them and threaten not to renew your membership you are not loyal" etc., etc. Well I AM loyal and continuing to follow and support this team since 1958 proves I am probably too loyal and I need to see a shrink. I love this Club but I do not love the [censored] served up too often this year and many more before. Too many "pea" hearts and we are far too slow. We seem to be playing with no purpose , no game plan still, even under Roosy. Nobody seems to be able to get us out of this "casual" mentality. Unfortunately our culture changed many years ago and we seem to have developed a lot of less than acceptable attitudes and not much grit . I wonder what the great Ronald Dale Barassi is thinking as he sits and watches this once great and mighty Club disintegrate. From reading a lot of comments posted by the younger brigade on social media, I get the distinct impression they do not understand the great culture, pride and once respected position this club once held. Unfortunately they have never seen it and at this rate maybe never will. I have seen clubs have terrible years and fall behind us , only to rise again and leave us wallowing in our own destruction. My love for this club is sadly strained. Rant over.

[Curry & Beer 5,444]

I'm glad a few people have mentioned Garland. He often gets left alone on here and I know he's rated by the club, coaches, etc., but I find him utterly hopeless. He's either giving away frees with contemptibly stupid decisions, or turning it over with skill errors.

I shudder whenever he goes near it.

He doesn't give a stuff, expresses absolutely zero emotion and never even opens his mouth as one of the few senior players around - and his footy is just deplorable. I've come to hate his guts to be completely honest about it.

[old dee 23,081]

He doesn't give a stuff, expresses absolutely zero emotion and never even opens his mouth as one of the few senior players around - and his footy is just deplorable. I've come to hate his guts to be completely honest about it.

Ok C and B it is time to shut the computer, go for a walk and then have a nice long coffee.

Relax it is only a bloody football club.

[Bossdog 2,002]

The Leadership group are not fit to represent the club

All of them

Maybe you would like to go back to the two young captains? SWYL

Besides sacking everyone, which you seem to want to do, What is your solution to our problem?

[ManDee 7,093]

Maybe you would like to go back to the two young captains? SWYL

Besides sacking everyone, which you seem to want to do, What is your solution to our problem?

Start with getting all the ex MFC people back from Hawthorn.

[Cheap Seats 3,303]

He is the problem if he doesn't what to do to fix this mess which is what he has all but admitted..

True I don't disagree

I am more alluding that we can't keep sacking coaches every 2 years and not address the glaring issue that remains the same - the playing group

Plus to say he hasn't made significant changes and improvement to the club is wrong.

He hasn't been able to fix the on feild (which is what u are discussing) but I'm not sure he can be entirely to blame. He has produced 6 decent wins this year. Getting consistent performance us the issue and who is to say anyone could get that from this group ATM?

[Curry & Beer 5,444]

Ok C and B it is time to shut the computer, go for a walk and then have a nice long coffee.

Relax it is only a bloody football club.

obviously it's more than that, or you wouldnt be on this website every day like the rest of us

[rpfc 27,646]

obviously it's more than that, or you wouldnt be on this website every day like the rest of us

Yes, I think he is more concerned that you hate an individual for your perception that he does not have enough chat.

[monoccular 16,466]

Maybe you would like to go back to the two young captains? SWYLBesides sacking everyone, which you seem to want to do, What is your solution to our problem?

Start with getting all the ex MFC people back from Hawthorn.

And, follow up question, how do you propose doing that??

[TGR 1,367]

I think Goodwin's comments last week about Roos coaching when he first came to MFC were insightful. I made the comment when Roos was appointed that I hoped the game hadn't passed him by.

For a coach who's signature characteristic is defence our lack of around the ground pressure is baffling.

I think Roos has been good for our club in many ways but it's hard to argue we've been acceptable on field.

Roos said that he hoped after 6 games MFC fans would see what we are trying to do on field. I can't. Can someone explain it to me. (this is a serious question, not a dig.)

I am not all the way with Paul Roos, like I was a decade ago; but I love that he's is at our club; and will miss him when he goes.

Fan, I am sure you agree that we don't play bruise free footy anymore.

I have not looked at contested possessions, but I would guess on the inside, we are par; which is a huge tick for a club with this culture and past trading history.

We are super-slow, and get killed on the outside spread; which is why the bulldogs and Saints can toy with us.

I am rapt Roos has addressed the inside first, because if he didn't, we would have had Yze, Bruce, and Woey all over again.

We try to close games in and take pace out of the equation. In modern footy and hyper-rotations and fast ball-ups and a nervous AFL, it is becoming impossible.

We also try and make it hard for the opposition to score. But this is tough, when you don't have pace. Modern footy is about pressing up on your opposition and challenging them to get it out of their D50 in a relatively tight space. But when it gets out, we don't have the speed to beat them back to goal. So we hedge our bets. I can't work out how Billy Stretch doesn't get continuity at the highest level. We need speed, and we need to get games into these boys. When a Bail or a MJones gets picked instead, I wonder why. Siddle took wickets now, but will that help us in England in 4 years time?

Trading will be important again, but at least their is a foundation. We need young speed, overlap and courage at the trading table. That means selling in boom, as you well know.

We should have 4 new recruits in March 2016 anyway; which is Kent, Frost, Petracca plus/minus Trengove.

But the biggest commodity that this club lacks is swagger. We have introverts coming out of every orifice. Even our captain is an introvert. We need someone with a strut that can permeate the group. Jonno Brown said that even Hodge, as a 10 gamer, would sledge the likes of Voss, Lappin, Aker and Brown. This was Hawthorn when they were young and carp too.

Edited August 24, 2015 by TGR