DemonDoug

The light is starting to dawn, what a pity we did not pick one or two of those close games, we could really still be alive this year, watch out pies, the dee's are coming !

I hate Adelaide, will be great to crush them into the dirt of the MCG !

Great link, great speech, I wonder what the Melborune football club captain would say at a similar event "We are a great club, the oldest football club in the world, we accept mediocraty and we allow many excuses for not turning up to play on the day .....etc, etc "

I liked it when ND said they just played 'dumb footy', that just about sums up their year I think

Looks a strong team on paper, faster, more goal kicking options and backline looking stronger too. Time for a win, I'm getting sick of the close losses, we only have to win 12 / 13 !!

The style of game to be played is obvious, ND should just play them the last quarter of last sundays match before each game for the rest of the season and tell them - play like that, don't worry about losing, it no longer matters, just get the ball forward quickly and have forwards around the fall of the ball

Good post, however only one of those names makes me shudder if they go (Neita). I don't believe White is the force he used to be, but we clearly need another good ruckman ASAP. Where we finish on the ladder in the next 2-3 years is going to be very dependent on how smart the recruiting is. No more 'has beens' like Byron, we need good young guns who have no fear and can change the club culture

Although a big cleanout is tempting as a way to fix our woes, remember it usually consigns a team to 2 or 3 years of rebuilding before becoming a realistic chance again. Perhaps only a small cleanout and have a last crack next year. Our problems this year appear to be a combination of Injuries Lack of confidence A poor game plan Poor skills A club culture However in the last 2 years we were in finals and both years if we had not had major slumps would have been in the top 4. It cannot be our skills are as bad as they appear to be at present. However the slumps we have had our very concerning, as has been this year, it demonstrates an inability to reverse a form slide which really ties into a club culture sort of thing. You just don't see better clubs losing strings of games, losing just drives them to perform better, with MFC it seems to sap their confidence and drive them into negativity So I suspect a huge cleanout is not the best way to go. However for sake of argument, my list would be Definitely Ferguson - too injury prone Holland - past it Jamar - not good enough Pickett -past it Ward - not good enough Possibly Yze - because he will not get any better Moloney - reluctant but what use is a player who cannot be on the ground due to an obvious long term injury Brown - I like his run but his disposal is not good enough Miller - Would be very reluctant, I think with confidence again he will be a good player for us Godfrey - May keep him as a stopper, but I somehow can never see us making the top 4 with him in the side I would keep Bruce, Green etc, they have been great players and can be the basis of our re-surgence

Good suggestions, I agree, our defence has been a big weakness in recent years. But with Carrol, Rivers, Bizzell, Whelan and ? Wheatley does not sound too bad. Bell may be OK, still have doubts, he does some real clangers. Also agree some of the older players may as well be used less, not much point playing them now. If we can recruit another ruckman (not convinced PJ is the answer there yet) and another mid-fielder we may have the basis of good results next year. May be wishful thinking too, but we are not as bad as 0 - 9. I think we need a new game plan however

All ND has to do for the rest of this year as coach, is to replay the last quarter of yesterdays match to them, over & over & over again. That is how to play the game. Simple, stop stuffing around, Run, Take the first option, kick long, end of story

Agree with sentiments, although he has missed a few crucial goals in the last few weeks, at important stages of games. To win a flag for DN it would nearly have to be next year, what chance of that, .. although it is an even year !

Holland, Miller, Ward, Frawley out Holland, poor disposal and why bother, he will be gone at the end of the year Miller - has to learn to kick to a man Ward - again terrible disposal Frawley - out of depth, I guess may be worth another go Pretty sad, we could so easily have been 3-6 now and still a chance in the finals. Another lost year - sigh

Totally agree with you, we probably should have been 3 - 6 now. But we absolutely should be 1 - 8. TJ just had to know that his kick-in was the crucial factor in us winning the game. He had to retain possession to a Melbourne player. Must admit I had not thought of rushing a behind and wasting more time, obviously TJ did not either. But how on earth did some players not give short leads, it is the obvious thing in that situation. Why kick long which will turn it into a 50 - 50 contest. You kick it short, wste 20 seconds then short again, game over. We could till have been a finals chance if we were 3- 6

Brown could be so great, he runs and gets lots of possessions, I admire him, he tries to create but he just cannot pinpoint his kicks to a man. But he deserves his spot. Ward does not. Miller is so frustrating, just kick the damn ball ! Is it confidence (lack of) or what, this team must have better skills than they are showing currently, what has gone wrong? Surely the last quarter has shown them that running hard, taking the first option quickly and kicking the ball long, is the best way for them to play. However I predict we will win a few games in the second half of the season, apart from last weeks abberation they are looking better. The law of averages would suggest that sooner or later we will win a game if we get so close !

Great last quarter Dee's, heroic really, I don't care that much that we lost - what does it really matter, but you played so well when you ran hard and kicked long and took the first option. Which begs me to say the first three quarters were pretty woeful (apart from the backline). The fumbling, poor decision making, poor disposals and clangers made me cringe. I was thinking we thoroughly deserve the wooden spoon. So which is the real MFC, would you pease stand up ? Can we possibly see an entire game like the last quarter !

Yze and Bate out !, not to mention Sylvia It seems just when a player gets some form they get injured ! Are we stiff or poorly managed ? Good point in the Sun today, St Kilda have had just as mnay injuries as we have and they are 4 /5

Sorry 45hotgod, you are wrong. I am not going to travel 3 hours to go to a game when I cannot be sure MFC will put in 100%. Thats the whole problem with this team, who I have supported since 1969. You can go to a game and see a weak performance like last week. I do not really care if they win or lose but I expect them to put in, as they did against Port & the Bulldogs. Maybe I am a 'true Melbourne supporter' but I am only that way, as are many others, because we have been burnt by this clubs sub standard efforts too many times. When they start putting in 100% week in, week out, I will start going to games again. The same goes for ND telling supporters to stick by the club.

We were very competitive yesterday until they blew the siren, that is the siren to start the game ! We were locked nil - all until then. From what I listened too Melbourne had only about 2 periods of 5 -10 minutes each when we outscored WC, presumably at those times they took their foot off the gas for a breather. I agree, ND has to cut the crap comments. Tell us they were woeful, outclassed and skills were shocking. Don't tell us they will bounce back next week. Only actions count now, words mean nothing. Anything short of a win this week is meaningless. The facts are that, if we had put in the effort we showed the last 2 weeks AND combined that with an AFL standard of skills -especially kicking to a team mate instead of opposition, then we would still be in the finals race, about 4 - 4 or better. Injuries may have stopped us from being 7 -1 or 6- 2 but poor skills, lack of a game plan and lack of endeavour in several games is what has got us to 0 -8

They are always biased over there, so are the umps. Look at the free kick counts in favour of West Coast. Still was a pathetic effort by Melbourne and they deserve whatever bagging they get.

Could scrape in against Richmond, but we could be 0 /16 just as easily. More optimistically (but why be optimistic?) we could win 3. Either way, who really cares

we suck, if West Coast had kicked straight, we would have had a result similar to Richmonds

I just don't know about swapping coaches at this stage. If we keep performing so poorly, with such poor skills, by the end of the year even the new coach would be tainted and we would be wondering if he was the right choice. However a few more performances like today and it will no longer be ND's to make

Until today I thought ND worth another year. But now I realise we have no future with the present players. Have to have a big clean out which means no hope of finals next year either, which means no point keeping ND. It back to square one, start a new 'five year plan'. Give up on a flag for the next few years Dee's fans, but hey, whats new ?

Have to agree, it will be better for the club in the long run now if we keep losing. We need a clean out, give up on making the finals even next year. Look to 2009 at the earliest, clean out the dead wood, they are never going to make it. Poor performance today, whatever lame excuses we come up with

Precisely, if we keep putting in and win more than we lose from here on in, how could you not give ND another go. But if we fall away and only win 2 -3 games, that will be curtains for him. CRUCIAL times ahead for ND (Assuming he wants to still coach us !)