Leaderboard

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.

I must have completely lost my marbles, because yet again I thought the scoreboard made it look worse than it was. I accept that I have probably gone certifiably insane as an emotional response, so you need not comment as such.

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).

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.

Nathan Jones made a handball (may have been to Matt Jones?) that went right over his teammate's head and straight to a West Coast player, which about 7 seconds later became a West Coast goal. Dom Tyson, despite being excellent overrall, made a couple of shockers as well. Dunn (who has been our best player YTD for mine) took a good mark on the half back flank and kicked it out on the full under no pressure at all. It irritates me a little that people seem to only see Grimes' mistakes and none of the other dozens. Just proves to me that people just see what they want to see. Our players are *all* making mistakes, and a lot of them at the moment, and that includes our very best players. Give Grimes a bloody break.

what's more important is that the stats were almost even, and we beat them in some key areas. We clearly just don't have forwards. So believe it or not, there was vast improvement.

Happy with the improvement They beat us at the MCG last season by 96 points This time it was only 93 Great effort boys

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...

"Retaliate first" - Jack Dyer, instructing his players during a final series "I only have two words for you men - believe in yourselves" - Jack Dyer, instructing his players during a final series "If you are not in bed by 12 o'clock, go home" - Jack Dyer, instructing his players during a final series "Tell him he is John Coleman and send him back on" - Jack Dyer, when told by medical staff that a concussed player 'did not know who he is' "Any time Carlton scores more than 100 points and holds the other team below 100 points they almost always win." - Lou Richards "Strangely, in slow motion replay, the ball seemed to sail through the air for even longer." - Peter Landy "I think everybody gets caught up in superstitions. But I don't put much stock in them ... knock on wood." - Jason Akermanis, Brisbane "If you can't stand the heat in the dressing-room, get out of the kitchen" - Tony Shaw "Apart from their goals, St Kilda was scoreless in that opening quarter" - Eddie McGuire "It may have been going wide, but nevertheless it was a great shot on target" - Brian Taylor "They didn't change positions, they just moved the players around" - John (Sam) Newman "More football later, but first let's see the first half highlights from the Essendon v Collingwood game" - Peter Landy "Kicked wide of the goal with such precision" - Sandy Roberts "Wakelin conceded five, you don't get many of those to the dozen" - Rodney Eade "He's a guy who gets up at six o'clock in the morning regardless of what time it is." Kevin Sheedy on James Hird "It's basically the same, just darker." Jonathan Brown, on night Grand Finals vs Day Games "I told him, 'Son, what is it with you. Is it ignorance or apathy?' He said, Barass, I don't know and I don't care.' Ron Barassi talking about Gary Cowton "I want to kick 70 or 80 goals this season, whichever comes first." Barry Hall (Sydney) when asked about the upcoming season "Luke Hodge - the 21 year old, who turned 22 a few weeks ago" Dermott Brereton "Chad had done a bit of mental arithmetic with a calculator." Mark Williams "He scored that goal after only 22 seconds - totally against the run of play." Dermott Brereton "We actually got the winning goal three minutes from the end but then they scored." Ben Cousins, West Coast Eagles "I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body." Luke Darcy "That kick was absolutely unique, except for the one before it which was identical." Dermott Brereton "Sure there have been injuries and deaths in football - but none of them serious." Adrian Anderson "If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again." Andrew Demetriou "I never comment on umpires and I'm not going to break the habit of a lifetime for that prat." Terry Wallace "Well, either side could win it, or it could be a draw." Dermott Brereton

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

I don't know how Nathan Jones' teammates look him in the eye.

Im sad the pre-season is over.

I don't understand the reasons and I don't wish him any luck.

6. Tyson 5. N Jones 4. Dunn 3. Cross 2. Vince 1. Bennell

Its more than tiring, its soul destroying

Concerning fun fact of the half-century: last winless team was 1964.

and here's 3 more: [censored] [censored] [censored].

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.

you actually didn't put Tyson in your votes at all? 30 disposals, 12 marks, and most of our clearances not good enough for you? You must also do the votes for the brownlow. Spare me.

Take whatever we can get for Trengove at the end of this year. When a midfielder is being overtaken on the lead by Eric Mackenzie he's got no future at the top level.

we were beaten by a very very good team today, so the result isn't surprising.

Good to see everyone get around JKH for his goal.

It's staggering the blind faith I have put into the MFC. Is it possible that any other organisation could have abused that faith more?

Does anyone believe me yet that it's the players, not the coach? Dean Bailey, Mark Neeld, Neil Craid, Paul Roos...it's all the same until the players start to lead each other forward.

It's actually quite impressive how Trenners can move in slow motion like that. A mime would be jealous.

- said no one. Ever.

I remember a different Neale Daniher going back a lot further in time. Somewhere back in the days of yore, I think it was Channel 7 that used to replay telecasts of schoolboy games on a Saturday morning. I think the year was 1978 which made young Neale Daniher from Assumption College, Kilmore a mere 17 year old. I was interested in ACK because someone had alerted me about some potential Melbourne recruits in the team but, as has been customary over the ages, they never amounted to much. Neale Daniher was something else. Athletic, a smooth mover who had the ball on a string, it was clear from the very moment I saw him that he was a young champion in the making ... and it came to pass. He was VFL recruit of the year in 1979 and was on his way to becoming a great of the game when he was appointed captain of Essendon in 1982 but never led the side due to injury. A succession of knee injuries kept his games tally down to 82 in a dozen seasons till 1990. The choice of Daniher as coach of Melbourne was an inspired one and his reign brought much success but not the ultimate in those years and with the benefit of hindsight, I think he probably stayed a couple of years too long. He fought adversity with courage as a player and I'm sure he'll fight with the same purpose and determination now as he did in his playing and coaching career. Champions never give in. For all that, my abiding memory of him will remain that of the young colt running freely under lights on a windswept oval long ago.

You want cheerful? Excuse me while I dig out my jokebook. Merely pointing out the facts - it's been a long time since we've had the opportunity to rejoice over a victory and it's about time we did. Now, why did the chicken cross the road?

Trengove did the state screening that year because he was in the SANFL GF. From memory he had a 2.97 second (ish) 20m sprint and a 15+ beep test. His problem isn't his first few steps, it's his top end speed. That's why he looks slow in space. Trengove needs to play as an inside midfielder. The closer you get to each end of the ground the more important it is that you have pace.

Is there any point being negative? It's the same every week unfortunately. We all know where we stand. Can't wait Until we get some forwards to straighten us up. Looks like another yr of watching the good teams play and wishing it was Melbourne. It's very tiring being a Melbourne supporter.

Watts is not suited to playing a body contact sport. He frustrates the hell out me. He is so soft and continually gets bullyed off the ball.

I'll give you a three word team team analysis- inept and embarrassing

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.

The way I see it is we're looking at a generation of failure at this club (i.e. 10+ years in the bottom half) and if this doesn't see the club fold or merge I'll be very surprised. I'm not advocating tearing up memberships or not renewing if you haven't already as that will simply accelerate what is seemingly inevitable. Two games in and the season is shot for what is it now, the 8th year in a row!? I can't watch them play any more (living in Perth by the way), because I become angry, despondant, and finally depressed. My 6 year old son was barracking for the Dees at the start of the game but after the end of the first half had simply gone off to play in the other room as he wasn't at all interested in hanging around to see a team get blown apart. I don't blame him. I think we're looking at the end of the Demons supporter base with my generation X, maybe some in the 90s who witnessed the yo-yo Daniher years (sadly years and memories that I crave so badly now), but surely our support base from those born in the late 90s onwards must be close to nil. How is that sustainable? We're royally screwed.

Jack Darling.... Ollie Wines....

My mum says McAveney should just shut up - says too many stupid things.

Melbourne fans. Blowing things out of proportion since 1858.

We are deffinatley playing like there is no scoreboard

Go to the footy they say. It'll be fun they say.

Hear hear - go the mighty Melbourne Demons!

Clark played with Nathan Jones like passion. It is rare to see in the red and blue. If Clark doesn't get back, we'll all be disappointed, but as it stands he is a MFC player - so let's get behind him. If he does return and can play injury free, he will reward us ten fold. I don't know why people go on about money, we've had highly paid squibs on our list for a decade now, at least Clark plays with passion and courage.

We have a thread on Demonland that precisely resembles this.

Somebody asked me in another thread if I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning but actually, I was in good spirits until I read this piece of unmitigated propagandist garbage masquerading as comment from Matthew Lloyd - Let the healing begin as Hird takes up Essendon reins. Let the healing begin indeed! Starting with healing the players into whose veins were injected thousands of doses of unknown substances most likely described by numbers, some of which had their origin down south of the border Mexico way and others (if we believe one of esteemed posters) named after Roman generals in Julius Caesar's army. Lloydy, all I can say is - Beware the Ides of April.

I'm interested to see how far into the game people start wrist slashing...

We've had cadaver's grafted onto our team for years....

Terrible news. Rowdy has made an enormous contribution to the game, and especially to our club. His record as a coach was outstanding given the circumstances the club found itself in during his tenure (board upheavals, financial and facilities). He was also a magnificent player whose first knee injury in the second last game of 1981 almost certainly cost Essendon the flag. More than that he is great human being! All the best to Neale and his family.

Give Toumpass a bit of space you rsoles. If he's no good in 2 years I'll join the [censored] chorus.

if you are willing to write off a bloke after 1 season then you clearly have no idea about the sport, tell ya a couple of blokes who didn't set the world on fire in their first year? Jobe Watson, Gary Ablett, Marc Murphy, Dane Swan just because Wines is playing well doesn't mean Toumpas won't become every bit the player the club believes he will be.

we get it, you don't rate Toumpas.. but he plays for MFC, Wines does not..

Shouldn't that be in the Hogan thread?